Season 4 as a whole has been a really good ride for me so far; I really enjoyed the Frozen arc - with the notable exception of the Snow Queen as a villain -, and the “villains arc” - is it called that? -, is really pitching some really interesting ideas.
OUAT is a very creative show, and I like how it is pulling out some very interesting directions as it goes on.
This episode heavily focus on Ursula backstory, and though it was honestly a bit cheesy, I liked what I saw. Coming from The Little Mermaid singing had to have a prominent role on the story, but tying Ursula’s singing voice as a memento from her mother is a choice that allows for a believable development on the story.
I like that Hook and Ursula got along well, and that he didn’t go for Poseidon’s offer right away and tried to help Ursula, and as he asked her for the squid ink I smiled, as it was a very good moment of quid pro bono moment. It was a little moment, but the relationship of Ursula and Hook felt natural and organic, as much as it was meddled in something that was a bit cheesy.
The flashback ends with Poseidon coming at Hook and Ursula, and as he takes away the ink, a pissed Hook gets back at him by stealing Ursula’s singing. And as Ursula feels betrayed by both his father and Hook, she takes her father’s trident and uses to become the Ursula we all know. Oh, and she mentions there is an Ursula which is a sea goddess of old, so there’s a chance we’ll get to meet that version in the future, that would be fun!
Ginnifer Goodwin managed to make all the Regina facial expressions perfectly as Regina’s voice over explains what is going on.
I’m glad Rumple’s return wasn’t kept from Belle for long, the sooner she knew the better, and she is now even more disappointed at him than before as she was tricked once again. However, not everything is lost, as Hook thinks they can get Ursula in their side if he can give her what she wants, her singing voice, which would be her happy ending.
Turning Ursula around was a pretty interesting idea, and as the one who felt the most sidelined of the evil queens, it was a witty and smart development. Though for a moment it seemed that she was going to keep her alliance with Rumple when Hook gave her the shell and she couldn’t get her singing voice back.
I do think that the show is making Hook look rather weak as he wasn’t able to last even a couple of seconds against Ursula; he looks cool and all pointing that gun at Ursula, but lately it seems like he can’t hold his own. However, I am happy to see that Ariel is back and Hook being thrown overboard allowed for her to make her reappearance.
That on itself ties back with the action as Emma and company rescue August, and while Ursula has Snow’s neck on her tentacles, Poseidon comes and restores her voice, giving back Ursula the most treasured thing for her. It was an easy resolution, and just a bit too cheesy for my taste, but it did came in a way that felt at least a bit earned, since the episode was already pointing for that direction.
So that makes for one of the queens of darkness down, as she steps down. I honestly hope we see her on the heroes side now.
And also, she keeps her end of the bargain with Hook, telling him that the only way Rumple can get the villains happy endings is not only by getting to the author, but actually filling Emma’s heart with darkness, which we all know is coming.
As a whole the episode lacked at some times, but it gets me really excited as to where we are headed; there is plenty of great character interactions, lines and development that made me truly enjoy the episode, and keeps me convinced that the writers are pulling a great job here, and that they have struck gold story wise; should they exploit this well, this could be very well the best OUAT arc yet.
Grade: B+
Stray Observations:
-I wasn’t really impressed by Ernie Hudson’s take on Poseidon, then again the writers didn’t give him much to work on.
-Maleficent looks so much like Zelena with her outfit that I do wonder how it’s going to look like when Zelena actually comes back.
-Will was a bit more useful this week as he gave Hook a way to get the Jolly Roger back to the way it was, but I still don’t know what the writers want to do with him. They better tie him down to a storyline soon.
-Regina’s dream tells us that something is coming and that she will have to be on her prime form to face it, even as the evil queen. Start fearing.
-Maleficent: “Are you having troubles sleeping? I have something for that.”
-Showing the fairy tale roots: having August’s noise grow when he lied to make us remember he is still the Pinocchio we all know, kid or not, wood or not.
-Rumple: “Cruella will be our guard dog.”
That has to be intentional.
-Snow hitting Cruella with a frying pan reminded me of Tangled. I honestly laughed quite a bit at that.
-Snow: “First thing you learn as bandit, back door is usually unlocked.”
-Emma asked Hook if he found his happy ending. Seriously, girl! How clueless are you? It really bothers me that she didn’t see right through it.
-Oh, and Emma is getting better and better at magic. That oughts to give the episode some extra points.
-So next week we’ll learn how Snow and David ruined Maleficent’s life. That ought to be interesting!
The show is making non magical characters rather weak in general. I would like a villain or an arc when magic people are more vulnerable and non magical characters have to help them with what they have. One reason why I'm glad the Jolly Roger is back. She may not be used but that's what Hook knew for centuries, now on land outside of Emma he doesn't do a lot in my opinion (I like the character).
ReplyDeleteI agree; non magical characters need to have something to level the play field, in that department the writers have not been doing a good job
ReplyDelete"Ginnifer Goodwin managed to make all the Regina facial expressions perfectly as Regina’s voice over explains what is going on."
ReplyDeleteThat deserves an Emmy!
It's just uncanny and incredible. Great work on display there
ReplyDeleteI really liked this episode! I just loved when Regina "possessed" Snow, and everyone's faces :) I am so happy that August is back and the twist at the end was great, I do hope they won't form a love triangle with August-Emma-Hook because at the moment I can't really see him in the next episodes unless he joins Operation Mongoose?! I don't know. Another thing I loved was, that Hook's Hook was a key :) Really smart, kudos to the producers :) I do have to admit I liked the Ursula backstory but it was very cheesy and quiet short but I am satisfied :) I don't know, I really liked this episode and I am looking forward to the next :)
ReplyDeleteWhen you say "I really enjoyed the Frozen arc - with the notable exception of the Snow Queen as a villain", do you mean that Ingrid was an exception to the cast of "Frozen" characters, or that you didn't like her character? Cos... wasn't she the best part of S4A? Elsa and Anna weren't that interesting to me. I still like them, but, come on, Elizabeth Mitchell made the first half.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I really loved this episode, virtually everything about it worked for me. Two weeks ago I detested 4.13 with a passion, which really turned me off of the show, so thank God they turned it around since.
Everything I loved:
*Regina using MM to transmit her message;
*Ariel's inclusion - poses a few questions but I don't care, like I said before, if I enjoy the episode, I am far more willing to suspend my disbelief;
*The fact that people know Will is from Wonderland - first time it was made clear they were aware;
*Ursula's happy ending and possible redemption;
*The fact that there was SINGING! OUaT should have more of that, maybe a musical episode with Disney songs;
*August's growing nose, something I wish had been covered on the show before this episode - it was honestly the best thing, such a small payoff that worked wonderfully, since Pinocchio's built-in lie detector is one of the most iconic aspects of the original story;
*Belle quickly realizing she'd been duped by Rumple again, I thought that was gonna drag - also, how everyone already knows he's back in town, good;
*Cruella - despite being misused, she's still entertaining and gets good lines;
*The final twist, with the author being inside the book - excited to learn what happened there.
However, next week is a Snowing episode again... sigh. I don't even hate Snowing, mind you, but 4.13 was so awful and 4.16 will be a direct continuation of that, so I'm not holding my breath and hoping for it to be great. Maybe this way it'll be positively surprising. Guess I'll see. But yeah, I figured at least that Snow and Charming were only responsible for Maleficent losing her baby due to some mishap or accident or neglect, but, um, no, the promo shows them grabbing the damn baby and making a run for it, leaving Maleficent heartbroken. What. The. F*ck? I know I don't know the circumstances, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna hate Snowing by the end of 4.16.
I meant I didn't like Ingrid as a character; I love Elizabeth Mitchel, but I felt Ingrid as a character fell flat. I mean, my main problem was the way she reasoned, it was incredibly stupid! Causing havoc on Storybrooke just to prove a point to Elsa, saying her sisters never truly loved her when one of them died for her, being so convinced that Elsa was just like her when she proved her wrong so many times. I mean, seriously, I felt she was greatly miss written.
ReplyDeleteAs for next week's episode, with OUAT I always have a wait and see policy: episodes I've been excited for have turned out to be terrible and episodes I had zero expectations have turned out to be wonderfull. So you never now
This is just a hunch, but with all these talk of darkness and villainy, I won't be surprised if Killian actually kills Gold with the dagger and becomes the Dark One himself.
ReplyDeleteAnd for that, I suddenly got Charmed vibes with Captain Swan becoming the next Cole and Phoebe.
That would be an interesting turn, though I really doubt the show would get rid of Robert Carlyle
ReplyDeleteThere are so many brilliant actors on OUAT. Of course there are a few that lack skill but still it is one of the shows with the best actors on TV (besides HBO productions).
ReplyDelete"which Blackbeard used to terrorize Arendelle"
ReplyDeleteOr just Anna and Kristoff, as we saw.
Tha For A Great Review! :)
ReplyDeleteI too am very much enjoying seeing where things are headed, especially the Author and Sourcerer story lines!
"Regina’s dream tells us that something is coming and that she will have to be on her prime form to face it, even as the evil queen. Start fearing."
IMO her dream wasn't about her facing herself at all, but rather I have had a theory for a while now, that Zelena never died and could possibly be masquerading as Marian. If that were true, then "good Regina" in the dream is actually bad Zelena pretending to be something "good" and Evil Regina, who has been pretending to be something bad as of late, is really good and wanting to save him from Zelena. It's also possible though that Zelena will just come back some other way and pretend to Regina, like Rumple just pretended to be Hook. I know some people think it could be Cora, but I think that the Zelena story line was no where near finished and that she "disappeared" too easily.
Oh I felt the opposite! I thought she represented Elsa's worst fear at what Elsa could easily become and I liked the fact that Ingrid back story juxtaposed both Elsa's and Anna's, but also Emma's, & Rumple's. I think it wasn't just about proving a point to Elsa about her sister/mother, as it was also about having "sisters" again and being like a "mother", -one's she thought would better understand her, than her own biological sisters and possibly their parents, which IMO is one of the bigger themes of the series about finding 'family' that isn't always fully biological (Queens of Darkness, Emma & Regina, Henry & Regina, Emma & Lily, Cora & Anastasia, Bae & Killian, Robin Hood & Merry Men).
ReplyDeleteIt might be stupid to you, but I do think some people who feel that bad about themselves do reason differently, because it's the fear of not being able to change that is literally holding them back and I think Elizabeth Mitchell's Bad Robot characters are "stubborn" (Juliet Burke, Rachel Matheson) And really when you factor Emma back into it all, you can see that they used Elizabeth Mitchell as a "mirror" and potential foreshadowing to where Emma is headed....DarthSwan!
Thanks for the review. I would probably have given it an A- only because there were some good CS scenes- yes surprise surprise I am a huge CS shipper-! Glad to see that Will was used a bit more and yes I too would like to see the real reason for his being in StoryBrooke, I like Will as a character and I sincerely hope that he is not being used the same way Marian was and that is to further the path of Teue love for Regina and
ReplyDelete