What the hell just happened? Seriously, anyone else have trouble piecing together the last few episodes? You might think you have it puzzled out but I’m not so sure that it will be particularly easy to do. Now, I will say that several of my hunches have turned out to be true, so either I am developing ESP or I’ve been learning to think like the writers of the show. Going by the fact that I haven’t foreseen winning lottery numbers, I’ll go with the latter. It’s certainly challenging to think of all the different ways the lives of these characters could go. But what really makes it fun is seeing where your own imagination takes you. Sometimes you reach those moments where you say to yourself, “Whoa, where’d that idea come from? That’d never happen,” and you shake your head thinking that you’re crazy. Then you watch the next show and voila, that idea came to life and you have to pick your jaw up off the floor. What, none of you have that problem? Well darn, you guys are weird.

The Outsider

Belle, can I take a peek inside your closet and then distract you while I smuggle some of your awesome clothes in my purse? I love her outfits and once again I am envious of her gorgeous hair. Top that all off with her quirky accent and her pretty face and it’s no wonder Rumpel is smitten. This episode seemed to focus a great deal on Belle’s backstory and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Belle isn’t as dainty as I once thought. She boarded an invisible ship alone and was packing a handgun! Not to mention how well she fought against Hook; when she pushed him down into the cargo bay I had to laugh. The great pirate Hook is no match for a little girl. Once Upon A Time does a fantastic job at making the women on the show incredibly brave, adventurous characters without making them lose all their feminism. The only exception to this that I can see is Mulan who definitely has a true warrior spirit and can be a bit bossy to the point where I want to slap her sometimes.

If you’ve read my previous articles then you know how much I have come to love Rumpelstiltskin. Seeing him rush to Belle’s rescue in the library managed to get an, “Aww,” out of me. I know Rumpel clearly cares for Belle a great deal, but I’m not sure that he would choose her over Bae if he had to.  I would love for Rumpel and Hook to make amends and work together because I love them both. If I had to choose between the two though, I’d definitely choose Rumpel over Hook. At least Rumpel has shown that he does things out of love not revenge. Somehow I just knew that Belle would be the one shot by Hook and I can only hope that Rumpel saves her and helps her remember.

I’m sure all you clever folks caught that the elusive Yaoguai was actually a man named Phillip. Yep, that Phillip is Aurora’s prince. I thought it was interesting to see how he and Mulan had met and the fact that Belle is the one that saved Phillip makes me think that all of the storylines are going to come together in one great culmination of good vs. evil. Wouldn’t that be something spectacular? Fairies, good witches, and characters like the Charmings standing in battle against Ogres, evil witches, and Regina and Cora.

In the Name of the Brother

True love can break any curse. You have no idea how painful it was for me to watch Rumpel kiss Belle and have nothing but rejection take place. I want every happiness for Rumpel and Regina but it seems that no matter what, both of them get hurt worse every time they try to find it. I will say that this episode may have been my favorite for a variety of reasons. The first of those is how much it humanized Rumpelstiltskin. When Belle was shot and he caught her and healed her, I saw true affection on his face. I have never seen him more distraught and desperate than when Belle threw Chip and refused to see him. I think those two have fabulous chemistry both on set and off, which makes a huge difference in how they come across on screen. Speaking of chemistry, Hook and Emma have some serious flirtations going on. “I am interested in my hook. May I have it back? Or is there another attachment you'd prefer,” that was probably the best line of that whole episode. I laughed way too hard at that scene.

For those of you who may not know, Disney recently bought Lucasfilms, the film company that produced Star Wars and Indiana Jones amongst its repertoire. Ever since then I have been scanning each episode for a Star Wars reference and last night they delivered! Not only was the stranger’s ringtone the Imperial March theme, but the room Emma and Company go into to talk to Dr. Whale is R2|42. Now I may be stretching this a bit, but D is the fourth letter in the alphabet making this choice of room number interpretable as R2D2, the beloved name of the Droid in Star Wars.

I am a huge fan of symbolism and I love to pick things apart and try to figure out what something might represent. In last night’s black and white episode, Rumpelstiltskin was the only one in color and that color happened to be red. So I got to thinking and came to the conclusion that he may have been shown in red to symbolize either the color of temptation or the sacrifice. This seemed to fit the theme of Frankenstein’s story in any case. While I am semi on-task talking about Rumpel, I’d like to point out that we learned last night how Rumpel was mentor to Cora, meaning she is at least as cunning as he is. Also, we heard Cora say, “Let’s seal it like we used to,” and then they kissed. That theory about Rumpel possibly being Regina’s real father is suddenly not looking so far-fetched.

Cora is not to be trusted no matter what. She is obviously after something other than simply her daughter, otherwise why all the drama to get to StoryBrooke and find Regina, right? I have to say though, that Regina has an awesome underground safe house! It’s decorated nicer than most houses. I think we’re in for a horrifying mother/daughter reunion filled with all sorts of evil magic casting. And to top all this off, Rumpel decides to pull the one person who could help fight back away from town to help find his son. I’m both excited and scared to see what happens when Emma and Rumpel travel together. One thought that crossed my mind last night was, “What if Henry is the key to everything going on in StoryBrooke and he will have to sacrifice himself along with Emma at the end of all this?” It’s a scary thought, but what is even more nerve wracking is who is this stranger and who did he call? Ghostbusters! Hang in tight, my dearies. It’s a long three-week wait until we see what happens next.  Once Upon A Time will return February 10th.

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