I personally adored this episode. Mostly because it showed a different take on the Jiminy Cricket story. And because he was human first. If I didn't love his character, this would have done it.
I generally enjoyed the episode, as well. I do tend to analyze episodes to death - a side effect of writing fanfiction, I think; I don't really do it for shows I don't contemplate writing fanfic for. But when I go to write a story, I try to get into the characters' heads, so I really focus on episodes on a level that probably does "ruin" certain aspects of them for me. Sad to say. So, there were some things I wasn't as fond of with this episode. It probably wasn't my favorite of the season. That said, I went into it thinking it MIGHT be the season low for me since I couldn't really see getting invested in a cricket's story. And I walked away from it having really quite enjoyed the hour. It didn't end up being my least favorite episode at all (that dubious distinction goes to Cinderella's episode, because I think they really dropped the ball with her character, and it left a bad taste in my mouth). I found Archie to be sympathetic, I felt bad for Jiminy. I LOVED Archie telling off Regina, and that he used the future custody battle to do it...? Gotta say, that was all kinds of awesome for me. I was even sad for those few seconds I thought they might kill off Archie.
Yeah, I wondered if that means, "I can guarantee you that you'll live at least that long, and once he dies, the clock will run for you and then you'll die a natural death of your own at some point in the future." Or if that means, "The second he dies, you'll keel over as well."
I think it's intriguing, but I'm a little leery of it. Perhaps I'm gunshy from other shows? But I don't want it to become the crutch they lean on, a deus ex machina to get each character into a predicament and to make Rumple the Biggest Bad of All Big Bads Who Have Ever Been Either Big or Bad.
I do hope that at some point, we see some characters who DON'T fall prey to Rumple. Who are tempted but resist - not because they are presented as Champions of All That Is Good but because the reason temptation is "temptation" is because it is POSSIBLE to resist. I do hope we'll see a few characters who refuse him because they think the price is (or is likely to be) just too high. And then it could be intriguing, because then they're torn by the thought of "what might have been."
Sorry to bring out my Superman geek, but it actually reminds me of an old Superman comic I read once. Lex Luthor charms a waitress after realizing she's engaged but poor. Says he's taken by her and wants her to run off with him and he can give her the life she's always wanted. She's torn, so he says he'll wait in the car out front for five minutes; he won't pressure her. If she doesn't come out in those five minutes, he'll accept that her answer is no and leave her alone.
You see the waitress DEEPLY conflicted as her presumed love for her fiance wars with temptation for a better life than just scraping by. Finally, Lex drives away and his chauffeur comments that he waited almost the full five minutes that time. He sits back and laughs and gloats over the fact that, for the rest of her life, the waitress will wonder what her life would have been like - if she should have gone out to his car sooner, and she'll hate herself for being tempted to go out to the car at all.
Anyway, I get that it's Rumple's schtick, but since he has SO much power - he seems to know the future about quite a bit - I do think they need to be wary of making him a bit over the top, by making him have something on absolutely everybody, being a little one-up on everyone else, and so on. We're only a few episodes in, so I'm not saying he's there yet. But at some point, they have to watch that they make sure to even things out a bit.
I mean, a villain is no fun if he wins ALL the time. And - to my mind - he has pretty much won every single time thus far. Even with Cinderella capturing him, I daresay. I still stand by my speculation that he went into that second bargain because, knowing they were about to go into this other world (and seeming to know what was going to happen there), he already knew he was going to use THAT deal to get one over on Emma.
But, I REALLY like Robert Carlyle. So while I have a mild reservation about the future with his character, I can't wait to find out more about him and piecing together his master plan.
Anyway, I thought this was a solid episode, and it really made me wonder about the message the show's sending (intentionally or not, it's too early to tell) about the concept of "Happily Ever After." Like I said before, I don't think Jiminy taking that deal to become a cricket was really from a place of strength. Yes, it was his search for "freedom" - but he didn't lack the capacity to leave his parents before he made that deal. I think he just lacked the strength to do it, and even at that moment, I think he knew he would never have the strength to do it on his own. He needed help. He needed to become a cricket. And, in FTL, that was his concept of "HEA" - to become his symbol of freedom and thus be free of his parents and that life.
But then he's brought into the real world. And here, he finds the strength to stand up to Regina and break the ties she has on him. He finds the strength in himself that he wasn't able to find in FTL. And perhaps in the end, that's his REAL HEA.
Same thing with Cinderella. In FTL, while I'm not going to say that she didn't love her baby, her first (second, and third) thought when Rumple called his marker due was that she'd lose the life she'd found. No more prince, no more castle. The reality that there would be "no more baby" - that she'd sold her baby to an imp with dubious (at best) intentions seemed a lesser concern. Almost an afterthought, to my mind. She was sad to lose the baby because it meant losing the rest.
But in the real world, she has to fight FOR THE BABY. She has nothing else worth fighting for. She's not fighting to preserve her style of living (which seems non-existant) or her lover (who'd abandoned her because his daddy didn't like her much). Her baby was all she had, and she was faced with the choice: fight for your baby or give him up. And in the real world, there was nothing indicating that the baby would be going to a terrible home, abused, or whatever. For all she knew, he could be going off to the Waltons or something. But it came down to - do you want to fight to keep the baby; is it worth more to you than EVERYTHING else, such that you'd do whatever it takes to keep it. Or will you improve your style of living by taking this money, giving up the baby, and moving on with your life?
She chose to keep the baby, and so - it can be argued - she may have found her TRUE HEA here. That her TRUE HEA had to do with having her family, not life in a palace.
In which case, is it possible that the FTL characters could only find their real HEAs here in the real world? That they HAD to come to this world to find it at all? The way things seem to be shaping up, I think it can be argued that the Queen's curse will not end up being a curse at all. In the end, it can - unintentionally - become the thing that causes everyone to find their TRUE happy endings. I don't know. It's just been something I've been pondering.
Oh, there I go. Another long post.