Well now.<\/p>\n
That<\/i><\/b> was an episode to consider.<\/p>\n
What I find the most amazing thing about this week’s show is that this is only the 16th episode of a 22 episode season.\u00a0 For almost any<\/i> other show I can think of, this episode could have been a season finale. Yet we still have roughly a third of a season remaining.\u00a0 Further, this last third of the season is going to have a completely changed dynamic to anything the show has had up to this point.<\/p>\n
This was an episode of the women of Once, so that will be my main focus this time.\u00a0 However, I will have some comments on the other characters at the end.<\/p>\n
I’m going to start out with an opinion which I suspect will be a strong minority position and that may actually ruffle more than a few feathers.\u00a0 I have absolutely zero<\/span><\/i><\/b> … nada … zilch … not one iota of sympathy for Cora.\u00a0 I have immense<\/i> and deep sympathy for Snow.\u00a0 The former was a matter of truly<\/i> earned poetic – and literal – justice.\u00a0 The latter was a heart breaking loss of\u00a0innocence.<\/p>\n Let’s take Cora first.\u00a0 Frankly, I don’t think she started out that particularly good.\u00a0 True the king was<\/b> a jerk and Eva was<\/b> a young *explicative deleted*, but for that to set you on a goal of such total revenge?\u00a0 Hard life or not, there’s just not<\/i> much goodness in her to start if this is the case.\u00a0 Her love of Rumple was certainly not<\/i><\/b> True Love.\u00a0 Their kiss had no effect on the Dark One’s power at all.\u00a0 Despite her words, was it really<\/i> Rumple that she loved?\u00a0 Or was it the Dark One and his dark power?\u00a0 Understand, I’m not questioning that she had feelings for him, but it clearly wasn’t the unconditional, self-sacrificing, agape True Love.\u00a0 Her love was for Darkness, and yet she loved power more.\u00a0 As for her ending?\u00a0 It was entirely the result of her own choices and actions.\u00a0 She gave Snow the candle.\u00a0 She went to the extreme and sustained effort to drive Snow to do the unspeakable.\u00a0 She created her own demise<\/i>.\u00a0 And yet, though she hurt Snow terribly and lastingly, she still failed in her revenge.\u00a0 Snow didn’t stay<\/b> in the dark place Cora drove her to.<\/p>\n So let’s look at Snow next and in contrast to Cora.\u00a0 Unlike Cora, she does<\/i><\/b> love what is good.\u00a0 She was tempted and this time fell into darkness, but repentance was close behind. \u00a0Though she failed, she tried to stop the events she put into motion.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it’s not hard to say that she did the right thing though for the wrong reasons.\u00a0 And yes, the reasons do matter.\u00a0 Even though her enemies would have gladly\u00a0done\u00a0as bad or worse – and were actively trying to do the same, she will have to carry the price of sinking to their level.\u00a0 The power of her words in tricking Regina – the wrapping of the lie with the truth; of disguising something evil with something good – will haunt her.\u00a0 And that is the true<\/i><\/b> price of the this act of magic; Snow’s loss of innocence.\u00a0 For all she’s been through and done, she had managed to keep her innocence.\u00a0 That now is gone.\u00a0 That doesn’t mean that she is now bad or evil, just that like every other human since Adam she is fallen.<\/p>\n Emma provides another contrast to Cora.\u00a0 This was in the nature of magic and especially the training from Rumple.\u00a0 Rumple taught Cora to focus on her hatred and anger; to never let it go.\u00a0 That’s from where she drew her power.\u00a0 Emma on the other had was taught to focus on what she was protecting; who she was trying to save.\u00a0 In other words, her power came from her capacity for love.\u00a0 Emma’s first protection spell was defeated fairly quickly by the double blast from Cora and Regina.\u00a0 The second spell was able to hold Cora at bay for an extended time.\u00a0 Not bad for your first attempt actually, and that raises the question of just how powerful is Emma really?\u00a0 Cora claimed that love was weakness.\u00a0 Emma responded that, no, it’s strength.\u00a0 I’d say the evindence is on Emma’s side.\u00a0 I’m looking forward to seeing just what has been unlocked and also how Emma is going to respond to the temptation that invariably accompanies power.<\/p>\n The final arm of this quadrangle is Regina.\u00a0 In almost every way, I’m finding her the most disappointing of all.\u00a0 Snow’s action, although streaked with evil, were still based on necessity and defense.\u00a0 Cora’s actions were based on a quest for dark power and Regina not only knew it in her heart, she followed along.\u00a0 Her grief is understandable, but her rage and (presumably) coming attempts at\u00a0vengeance\u00a0are really quite hypocritical considering both the circumstances and her and her mother’s role in bringing them about.\u00a0 Let’s be honest, when you’re plotting mass murder, you shouldn’t be surprised if your side suffers casualties when you are stopped.\u00a0 From a storytelling perspective, of course, this provides a mechanism for Regina to backslide into the Evil Queen.\u00a0 However, that raises the question for me of whether all the character development in\u00a0the\u00a0first part of the season has been undone and\/or wasted?\u00a0 I certainly hope not.\u00a0 While having her fall back does maintain a needed antagonist, the story of her struggle for redemption is, I think, the more interesting.\u00a0 Remember, her starting point was one of deep capacity for love.\u00a0 That’s what gives this struggle within her such a connection with us.\u00a0 I said before in an earlier article that I would expect her steps forward to be followed by steps back.\u00a0 I think this is what we are seeing here.<\/p>\n As long as were talking about the ladies of Once Upon A Time, let’s think about some of the other women of season two.<\/p>\n The most obvious is Belle.\u00a0 Gold’s goodbye to her was one of the most powerful performances I’ve seen from Robert Carlyle.\u00a0 What Gold left Belle while he thought he was dying was an example of True Love.\u00a0 He wasn’t thinking of himself at all, just trying to leave her something of who she was.\u00a0 Clearly his words had an impact on her.\u00a0 But was this just an emotional response or was it also an awakening of remembrance?\u00a0 Will he finally walk away from the Darkness?\u00a0 Just like Regina, that kind of repentance is not an easy thing; especially when you’re steeped in the centuries of darkness as Rumple is.\u00a0 However, his motives started out of a desire for good, not revenge (as was Cora’s), so I still hold hope for his “happy ending.”\u00a0 It may cost him his life in the end, perhaps; the price of his deeds is certainly high, but I still think it will come.<\/p>\n The other ladies, I’ve wondered about have been Ruby and Granny.\u00a0 Unlike Cinderella or Kathrine, they’ve continued on in season 2, though they’ve been conspicuously absent of late.\u00a0 Of all the characters in Once Upon A Time, Ruby\/Red has become one of my favorites.\u00a0 I would hate to see her and Granny dropped by the wayside.\u00a0 Actually, much of the ensemble of characters have been missing lately.\u00a0 While this focused story has been interesting, I do hope they aren’t going to let the richness of their characters fade off.<\/p>\n Also, what has happened with Mulan and Aurora?\u00a0 So much development went into them in the first third of season.\u00a0 They manage to take the very\u00a0unlikable\u00a0Aurora get the audience to actually connect with her.\u00a0 In one respect, they closed their part of the story in such a way that they could end it where it was, but I hope that doesn’t prove the case.\u00a0 These are very good characters I hope we will see again in the future.\u00a0 I wish the\u00a0show-runners\u00a0would give some sort of hint that that they haven’t forgotten them.<\/p>\n Lastly, I do need to mention some of the guys.\u00a0 Rumple has already been discussed to some degree, but what about the gulf between he and Neal?\u00a0 Neal’s “I’m still angry with you” comment may have been somewhat petulant, but it was also the first step towards healing that relationship.\u00a0 A bit of an olive branch, as it were.\u00a0 I think Gold’s addiction to magic will still be a stumbling block along the way, but I remain a sucker for a happy ending.\u00a0 At what point is he going to finally give up the power of the Dark One?\u00a0 He’s seen the price the lust for power extracts in Cora.\u00a0 Henry as his undoing will, I believe, be the key to that.\u00a0 I do not believe that this prophecy has been fulfilled.\u00a0 And speaking of Henry<\/i>, how is he going to handle all these events?\u00a0 Both<\/b> mother roles now powerful magic users.\u00a0 His grandfather the most powerful of all.\u00a0 Is Henry going to borrow an idea from his father and say goodbye to all of them?\u00a0 Perhaps in a trip to Neverland?\u00a0 The writers have been hinting at the Peter Pan story for a very long time.\u00a0 This could be the springboard into that.<\/p>\n To close, I had expressed some doubts and concerns in my last article regarding the direction of the story.\u00a0 While I consider those fear justified at that time, I have to say The Miller’s Daughter went a very long way towards addressing those concerns.\u00a0 More than anything else, it makes very clear<\/i> that the creative talent have a direction in the path they are taking this story.\u00a0 In that I can be content.\u00a0 Keep up the good work!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well now. That was an episode to consider. What I find the most amazing thing about this week’s show is that this is only the 16th episode of a 22 episode season.\u00a0 For almost any other show I can think of, this episode could have been a season finale. Yet we still have roughly a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[12,9],"tags":[25,39,46],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5ymfK-5h","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thechristiangeek.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thechristiangeek.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thechristiangeek.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thechristiangeek.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thechristiangeek.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thechristiangeek.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thechristiangeek.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thechristiangeek.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thechristiangeek.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}