For a season and a half, I have avoided writing commentary for Once Upon A Time.\u00a0 Well, the show has reached a level of commitment and story progress that I just can\u2019t keep silent any longer.\u00a0 For those unfamiliar with my reviews of Fringe, you should know that I write commentary, not recap.\u00a0 That means I\u2019m assuming\u00a0you’ve\u00a0seen the episode and can remember what has happened.\u00a0 That also means that anything in these pages will not be spoiler safe.\u00a0 This is the first and only warning.<\/p>\n
The first half of the season did an admirable job with Mary Margaret and Emma\u2019s journey through the Enchanted Forest and subsequent return to Storybrooke.\u00a0 Now they are back home and unbeknownst to them, Cora and Hook are there as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m going to start out with a big \u201cI told you so!\u201d\u00a0 I know many were crying foul thinking the story was ruined by revealing Dr. Hopper\u2019s murder in the trailer.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry but that was an obvious setup as I warned at the time.\u00a0 Do not<\/i> trust these people with their trailers or sneak peeks \u2013 they are setting you up.\u00a0 Frankly, they are brilliant in my opinion and I tip my hat to them.<\/p>\n
A few small details to note before addressing the Big Story\u2026 \u00a0First, Hook continues to be a puzzle.\u00a0 After the portmaster is turned into a fish, he still has the compassion of kicking him into the water.\u00a0 Or is he just hiding the evidence?\u00a0 Also I like the running gag with Ruby.\u00a0 \u201cNever mind\u2026 Wolf thing,\u201d or my favorite, \u201cGo take yourself for a walk.\u201d\u00a0 Priceless!\u00a0 Next, Cora shows up and people start going missing.\u00a0 Will nobody miss the portmaster or whoever was Hopper\u2019s\u00a0doppelganger?\u00a0 Finally, what is the price Emma will pay for using magic and how is Henry going to deal with two<\/i><\/b> magic using moms?<\/p>\n
Now to the Big Story.\u00a0 Or perhaps I should say Big Stories?\u00a0 There appear to be 5 major story-lines up in the air right now:<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t even try to untangle all the given and potential cross-over\u2019s between these arc.\u00a0 That\u2019s a lot of balls to keep in the air at once.\u00a0 Early in the season I had concerns, but they have handled the story so impressively that I\u2019m willing to trust that they have their story well planned.\u00a0 In fact, in the writers’ eyes I’m betting they only see two interconnected stories and the others are just subplots.<\/p>\n
This episode focused on the Emma\/Regina\/Henry triangle and Regina\u2019s redemption – if they are<\/i> even separate stories at the end of the day.\u00a0 First, in seeing more of the\u00a0back-story\u00a0behind the war between Snow and Regina, that while I have immense sympathy for Regina now, I can\u2019t say that I actually feel sorry<\/em> for her.\u00a0 Everyone\u2019s reaction to her in Storybrooke is understandable. Considering the number of times and ways she\u2019s tried to kill them it would be foolish<\/i> not to be concerned.\u00a0 She has a lot<\/i><\/b> to prove.<\/p>\n That said, Regina\u2019s story does have some parallels with the Christian salvation processes.\u00a0 I.e. conviction, repentance, justification and sanctification. \u00a0We’ve\u00a0seen the conviction and repentance \u2013 seeing what you are and turning away from that old self \u2013 during the first half of the season.\u00a0 This happened in two steps; when Regina finally let Daniel go and when she lifted the spell at the well.\u00a0 And both done on faith, as well.\u00a0 Neat, eh?<\/p>\n The justification is seen in Emma\u2019s forgiveness of her past on Henry’s intervention and mirrored with Snow\/James for Emma’s sake.\u00a0 That somewhat fits in with Emma\u2019s \u201csavior\u201d role.\u00a0 Now we have the rest of the season to work through the sanctification process.<\/p>\n For those unfamiliar with Christian theology, sanctification<\/i> is the lifelong journey and process of putting your evil self behind and embracing God.\u00a0 It\u2019s a slow process, footnoted with the step backwards that typically comes with every two steps forward.\u00a0 I think that is where Regina is now.\u00a0 While\u00a0we’ve\u00a0seen several steps forward, I do think we are about to see a step backwards with a lot of help from Cora.<\/p>\n Yes, I do think Regina\u2019s repentance is real.\u00a0 The entreaty by Daniel and her subsequent letting him go.\u00a0 Her fleeing rather than fighting; something totally out of nature with the old Regina who readily killed both<\/i><\/b> her parent for revenge.\u00a0 Then there is the emphasis through the flashbacks to the Enchanted Forest on how Regina\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0change.\u00a0 There\u2019s simply no point in showing us that\u00a0back-story\u00a0unless she was<\/em> going to be redeemed.<\/p>\n So, where is the show going from here.\u00a0 I’m going to focus primarily on the Regina\/Emma\/Cora arc and save my thoughts on Rumple for my next post with one exception that relates to the former.\u00a0 Rumple is going to call in his favor from Emma.\u00a0 I think it’s pretty obvious it will be to help him find Baelfire.\u00a0 Her regular gig, after all, is<\/i> finding people.\u00a0 I mention this, because I think the writers are going to need Emma out of the way a bit for the initial part of the interactions between Regina and Cora.<\/p>\n First, a few thoughts on Cora.\u00a0 It’s obvious that she is far<\/i> more powerful than Regina and nearly, perhaps<\/i>, as strong as Gold.\u00a0 She has also gone where neither God nor Regina would go.\u00a0 She has taken out her own heart.\u00a0 I think that is going to be very significant.\u00a0 We’ve already seen the result, I believe, in her total lack of feeling about killing.\u00a0 In Cora’s case she kills simply as a matter of convenience.\u00a0 There’s no righteous anger, revenge or any other emotion whether justified or not.\u00a0 There is no conscience.\u00a0 I hope they don’t take this into yet another<\/i> redemption story.\u00a0 At some point there is a place that you go that is beyond redemption and I think Cora has gone there.\u00a0 The fact is, there is<\/i><\/b> unrepentant evil and it must<\/i><\/b> be defeated.\u00a0 Otherwise you have cheapened the journey that Regina is on.<\/p>\n Since sanctification is a back-and-forth process, I fully expect Regina to initially fall right into Cora’s plan.\u00a0 The fear she has backslidden fully into evil is part of the drama of the story.\u00a0 Yet, as some point she is going to have to face a choice.\u00a0 In her case, I suspect it will be when Cora wants her to remove her own heart.\u00a0 The irrevocable step, as it were.\u00a0 Regina will have to decide if she truly does think Love is a weakness.\u00a0 Will she give up her love for Henry or the love and pain from the loss of Daniel?\u00a0 I fully expect to see a flashback of Daniel telling Regina to “Love again” at this point.<\/p>\n I also suspect – though I’m far from certain – that we will see Regina and Emma working together defeat Cora or perhaps something even worse.\u00a0 I’ll get to the something worse later.\u00a0 But where Cora is concerned, I can see the story coming to a quest for Cora’s heart.\u00a0 We could see Emma and friends finding it first but Regina stopping her.\u00a0 Remember magic always has a price?\u00a0 Regina won’t let Emma pay that price.\u00a0 In a very dramatic moment of choice between saving Storybrooke – if not our entire land – or her mother, Regina will pay the price and kill Cora.<\/p>\n The juxtaposition would be immensely powerful.\u00a0 Regina killed her beloved father out of selfish greed for revenge.\u00a0 Regina later kills her evil – but still beloved – mother out of selfless need to save others.\u00a0 Now Regina is embracing Good not for her own self-interest, but for the service of others regardless the price to herself.\u00a0 I don’t think that will lessen the grief of her action or remorse for her past.\u00a0 Even with forgiveness, deeds still have consequences.\u00a0 I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Regina thanking Mary Margaret for believing in her so long ago – just before they foreshadow returning to Mulan and Aurora’s story.<\/p>\n There are still two things in this season that seem to have been forgotten – at least by the fans.\u00a0 First, there is the Book of Spells.\u00a0 We’ve been given little reminders of it, of course, but it has largely dropped out of the story.\u00a0 However, a lot of emphasis – indeed an entire episode – was placed on it\u00a0 early in the season, so you know it’s going to play an important part later.\u00a0 Oh, and don’t forget… there’s still “Emma ink” on the scroll from Rumple’s cell.\u00a0 I don’t think we’re done with that yet, either.<\/p>\n Second, and equally obvious, is the wraith.\u00a0 Clearly it is going to have to be confronted and defeated.\u00a0 Assuming Aurora and Mulan are successful in their quest to find Philip (which I bet leads to this land), I doubt that the wraith is going to ignore its prize being taken.\u00a0 Sure it was sent somewhere, but those supposedly imprisoned forever “somewhere’s” rarely prove to be either.\u00a0 Regina was marked, too.\u00a0 Is she still?\u00a0 Will that play into the story?<\/p>\n This analysis has gone on quite long, but I’m trying to squeeze ten episodes of thinking into only a couple thousand words.\u00a0 I do hope you will add your thoughts to the comments.\u00a0 Next up?\u00a0 My thoughts on where story of\u00a0Rumpelstiltskin\u00a0will go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For a season and a half, I have avoided writing commentary for Once Upon A Time.\u00a0 Well, the show has reached a level of commitment and story progress that I just can\u2019t keep silent any longer.\u00a0 For those unfamiliar with my reviews of Fringe, you should know that I write commentary, not recap.\u00a0 That means 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