Once Upon a Time - That Still Small Voice - Review by Karen

"What are conscience! I'll tell ya! A conscience is that still small voice that people won't listen to. That's just the trouble with the world today..."- Jiminy Cricket, Disney's Pinocchio

Shed Some Light on It
Conscience is known as the "voice within" you, but is also known as the "inner light". We all have both, yet most of us become puppets on strings and just go through the redundant motions of life without really learning how to live in our own "happy place". We are products of our upbringing, environment and circumstances, and sometimes one can lose their clear decision making skills between what is right and wrong, or just lose ourselves while not wanting to disappoint others and their expectations of you. And although we adapt to surviving with some of those learned behaviors or habits there is still someone and something else deep inside of us that desires to be free. We all want to be free to be who we really want to be.
It is true we should always let our conscience be our guide, to find our true north, but sadly somewhere along our lives some lose touch and drown out their own small voice.

Everything's Going to Change
Emma's presence in Storybrooke is changing things; she's weakening the curse. We seem to be witnessing the transformation of Emma and the residents of Storybrooke.

As life goes on many people lock up things, feeling and emotions or bury them deep down inside, causing them to lose their happy place. But at some point one desires to get back to where they know they are supposed to be. They can get so lost that they wonder "How did I get to 'this place'?" and desperately try to remember their happy place. One must slay the fearsome dragon or monster or try turning the wheel- each of these types of actions lead to progress and eventual victory.

People end up wearing a mask. Jiminy knows he's an honest man, but alas is an inadvertent victim of his loyalty to his unmoral parents. Even though he was adamant about going down into the mine with Henry, it is the challenge he faces with Henry in the mine that enables him to realize the thing he is missing and where his issue and insecurity may stem from. He isn't the man he wants to be, but now remembers and realizes he does indeed have the power to become the man he knows he should and can be.
Jiminy/Archie are inching their way to being free. But this may not have happened without the help of little Henry.

Real- Not Real
A few times during this episode we're given a hint to people wondering the "realness" of where they are in their lives. Everyone feels Henry is delusional, yet in a way...they all are.
At this moment David/Prince Charming likes the unreal environment better than reality. That is true escapism! Is this really a world constructed by Henry's imagination or by someone else?
Something feels familiar to me here- I asked the following question while watching LOST over the years...Are these people in some sort of therapy/rehabilitation situation?

Things Don't Stay Buried For Long
Pave over the mine to cover it up, never to reveal what may be deep down inside. To LOST fans- This reminds me when Sayid and Jack explore under the Swan station in Everybody Hates Hugo and when Locke says it to Paulo in Expose.
Archie has to uncover the person he wants to be. Regina is hiding something that she has hidden away; Buried deep underground- Snow White's glass coffin.

We know the residents have forgotten- but who among them is remembering?

Things to note...Questions to ask...
- Jiminy Cricket is the Walt Disney version of "The Talking Cricket"- a fictional character created by Carlo Collodi for his children's book Pinocchio
- Crickets are not grasshoppers. Crickets are nocturnal, cold blooded and only male crickets chirp. Both crickets and grasshoppers have antenna
- Who is Graham? The Big Bad Wolf? The Queen's Huntsmen? The damn Sheriff of Nottingham? Who?!
- There are children living in stuck Storybrooke
- They have rotary phones in Storybrooke
- The Sheriff badge illustrates a tree in the center of the star
- Jiminy's con artist parents conned him and pulled the ol' switch-a-roo- Some parents, huh?!
- Plague could require quarantine
- In Storybrooke it is Regina who suggests the idea of being a tiny shrunken little creature (to Archie) - Yet in The Enchanted Forest it's a spell brought by Rumpelstiltskin and Martin and Myrna.
- I feel that the LOST quote/line "Whatever you think I am, I'm not" fits very well with this episode.
- Wake up
- Test
- Wheel
- Cobra {Which is mentioned in LOST- Expose}
- They sure do love their sweets in Storybrooke!
- I see some affinity for imbibing in this story as well
- Rumpelstiltskin seems to holding/collecting the "treasures" of the residents; maybe the items that can trigger memory

By the way, on a personal note- I cried the entire time while watching this episode.

Continue Reading Review Here: Karen's Adventure in Storybrooke