S1E9 "True North"

[shalimarfox80]

So, I see that there is no discussion thread for this one. It's okay for me to start one, right?

I liked this episode. More than the previous two. I mean, there was loads and loads of cheese and oh-so-predictable ending but I still enjoyed it. Henry didn't get on my nerves. The scenes between Emma and Mary were the sweetest.

And Regina is getting on my nerves. She's becoming really one-dimensional and repetitive.

So what does everyone else think?

[Jade]

Jan 20, 2012 9:47:09 GMT -5 shalimarfox80 said:

So, I see that there is no discussion thread for this one. It's okay for me to start one, right?

I liked this episode. More than the previous two. I mean, there was loads and loads of cheese and oh-so-predictable ending but I still enjoyed it. Henry didn't get on my nerves. The scenes between Emma and Mary were the sweetest.

And Regina is getting on my nerves. She's becoming really one-dimensional and repetitive.

So what does everyone else think?

Yeah, I gotta say...Regina is being sorely misused in my opinion. I think they'd be better to use her character to focus on the big picture and use other means to muck up the individual episodes.

As I said in tonight's episode's thread, it's a little ridiculous that she apparently has NOTHING better to do with her time but to make sure Hansel and Gretel are miserable. Besides which...she cast the spell. She of anyone should know they can't leave Storybrooke. So why would she even arrange it to make it that they would have to? Was she just hoping that they would get in a car accident and die on the way? Isn't that a little too passive for her? A gun would make her more diabolical at this point.

Strangely, while I was intrigued by the villains at the beginning, I think that's where the show needs the most work at this point. Rumple's a GREAT villain, IMO, but the fact that he's made deals with absolutely EVERYBODY in Storybrooke is getting a little thin. And Regina muddling in EVERYBODY'S lives is getting a little trite, as well.

Yeah, she started the curse so she wants it go forward as much as possible. That said, I've gotta think the woman's got a triage system. Snow possibly getting her happy ending? CODE RED. The Blue Fairy and a peddler from the market where Belle's always buying her bread? You gotta figure she'd, like, let that slide or delegate or something.

Sana pointed out once - and I had to agree, watching this episode - that they do make an error in the Regina/Evil Queen characterization. Rumple WORKS as this insanely over-the-top villain because a) it's a fairy tale land, and b) Mr. Gold is so much more understated. No less creepy. Certainly no less evil. But he doesn't chew every piece of scenery he comes across.

They've really erred in making BOTH the Evil Queen AND Regina over-the-top. I think Regina would work SO much better if her evil was more understated, as well. So you'd sit there and wonder what she was going to do next, how she was going to mess with Emma's life...without Emma even realizing it, perhaps. That sort of cold, detached, calculating evil. Like a spider in her web.

But at this point, she's a little overdone. I mean, when she showed up and tried to muck with Hansel and Gretel, I just had to roll my eyes. I even asked my mom, "She doesn't have ANYTHING better to do right now?" By meddling in the lives of even lower-tier characters like Hansel and Gretel (really? Is it her life's ambition to make sure that THEY, PERSONALLY are miserable?), it really makes her character a little bit of a joke to me. I think they should really use her to focus on the big picture. Maybe even letting Emma think she'd "won" one or two, while she secretly lays a trap that's going to be Emma's downfall. A trap she wouldn't expect because she's of the impression she's "won" one or two. Or something.

I will say that Emma kiiiiiinda annoyed me in this episode. She was just a little too judgmental about the dad not wanting his kids back. Okay, so SHE made that choice, to get back into Henry's life. But, let's face it, she wasn't eager to do so at first. And, if it hadn't been for Regina pissing her off, she wouldn't have stayed, I think. She gave up Henry because she wanted to give him his best chance, and if Regina hadn't come off as coocoo for cocoa puffs, she'd have stayed away from him so he could have his best chance. Yeah, Hansel and Gretel were facing the orphanage, and she knew that the foster system wasn't great. And they'd be likely separated. But, still...she really came off as the last person who should be getting on a high horse about thinking that their kids might be better off with someone else.

It was an okay episode, over all. But really not the best, in my opinion.

[Jade]

Also, why did she take the father to begin with? Did she plan to run into H&G on the road and get them to do her bidding? And then just decided to mess with them for kicks?

The part where she offered H&G a chance to stay with her worked for me, actually. I saw it as the EF equivalent of why she got Henry in Storybrooke. She was hoping to get a family and fill that void. That's the one thing that made sense to me. But, I gotta figure, in the EF, the second H&G and their father left her castle, she shrugged her shoulders and forgot all about them. I can't imagine she'd hold a grudge to the point where she'd get involved in their lives in this episode.