So, after
Baelfire was pulled through the portal that was supposed to bring him to the
Land Without Magic back in ‘The Return’,
he wound up in Victorian London. Seeing
this makes me wonder quite a bit about the implications of this. If you’ll forgive me for bringing in sci-fi
logic into this show, I think we can all agree that our world, the Land Without
Magic, and the fairy tale world of the Enchanted Forest can be considered
parallel realities. Does the dual time
lines between these two worlds match up, and each generation in the Enchanted
Forest is linked to a particular generation in the Land Without Magic? For example, the ‘origin of Dark One Rumpelstiltskin’ era of the Enchanted Forest
matches up with our world’s Victorian era and the ‘Snow White vs. Evil Queen Regina’ era overlaps with the 70s-80s in
our world. Or am I completely
off-the-mark, and the cross-dimensional jumps are completely random in regards
to the passage of time? I’m really
hoping my musings on this is properly translating into writing. If it doesn’t, I apologize.
Anyway,
ramblings aside, because Baelfire was thrown into Victorian London without
anything to help him get started (I doubt Enchanted Forest currency would fly
in the Land Without Magic), he lived as a street urchin until circumstances led
him to be taken in by a Victorian family.
And not just any family. The
Darlings! As in Wendy, John and
Michael. (And I’m not ashamed to admit
it- every time they introduce a new childhood icon into this story, I have a
total fangirl moment) I really feel bad
that Baelfire couldn’t just live out the rest of his days as part of the
Darling family, as he really seemed to mesh into that family effortlessly. But nothing’s ever cozy in this show, and he
finds out through Wendy that a mysterious sentient shadow comes to their
bedroom window at night. In spite of
Baelfire warning Wendy not to trust the shadow (not sure how him being
reasonably leery about anything magical means he just doesn’t believe, but oh
well), she allows it to take her one night.
She returns the next morning, apologizing to Baelfire for not listening
to him, as the shadow wants to come back the following night in order to take
one of her brothers away forever. It was
really noble of Baelfire to allow the shadow to take him instead of Michael,
just so the Darling family could stay together (although I do wonder how the
kids explained Baelfire’s sudden absence to Mr. and Mrs. Darling the following
morning.) Question- why was he so
shocked when he saw the shadow took him to Neverland? Where did he think it was taking him?
After all, hadn’t Wendy already implied that was where the Shadow was
going to take him? Either way, he’s still shocked and surprised to the point
when he manages to wrestle himself out of the shadow’s hold, and as a result,
practically falls right into Captain Hooks’ lap.
Like with
last episode, it really bugged me how everyone refused to take Emma’s concerns
about Tamara seriously. As I said
before, I’m not too surprised with Neal not listening to her, as he obviously
loved Tamara enough to want to marry her and it’s perfectly reasonable that
he’d want to think the best of her. (Besides,
I don’t have much faith in Neal’s level of intelligence, anyway.) But in the case of Snow and Charming? They’re really dismissive of her suspicions.
They’re practically telling her to drop it, like she’s just a little kid
harping on an old grievance. Way to have
faith in your own daughter, you guys. I
bet they felt rotten when Emma got the
confirmation that she was right about Tamara.
Of course, that confirmation came at the apparent cost of Neal’s
life. Seeing how this episode handled
this moment leaves me in a state of bemusement.
The way everyone is acting to Neal’s apparent death suggests that he and
Emma actually had a shot at starting over.
Really? Cause I never got that
impression. While they do seem to
confess their love before Neal gets pulled into the portal, I really don’t
think that should count as a legit love confession, as it was more of a moment
of emotionally high stress. In regards
to Neal, he was all set to marry Tamara, and he seemed to genuinely love
her. So much so, he up and invites her
to Storybrooke without checking with anyone else, all because he apparently needs
her there. When Emma tries to warn him that something’s
not quite right about her, he brushes her concerns away like they’re
nothing. But the moment he finds out
Tamara had been playing him, he’s all ‘I
love you, Emma.’ Really? Cause you have a funny way of showing
it. If Tamara HAD been legit, I’m sure
Neal would have gone through with marrying her without batting an eye. And yes, I’m sure there’s a part of Emma who
will always care about him. After all, he
was her first love. As Hook said back in‘Tallahassee,’ ‘you never forget your first.’
In addition, Neal did give her Henry, and they never actually had
closure, so there’s bound to be lingering feelings. But there’s that whole betrayal thing that
Neal pulled on Emma. You know, with how
he had her sent to prison for a crime he committed? And don’t try to tell me he had to do that to
make sure she’d be able to eventually return to Storybrooke and break the
curse, because there were a million other ways he could have left her without
sending her to jail. For instance,
making her believe he didn’t love her, like Snow did with Charming back in the ‘7:15 A.M.’ flashback. Or even just never showing up at the rendezvous
point. If all else failed, he could
have even faked his death somehow. While
he does claim to regret his actions, simply being remorseful isn’t always enough
to fix things. (i.e. how cursed
David/Charming doubted cursed Mary Margret/Snow’s innocence during the whole
possible murder of Kathryn subplot towards the end of season 1. The only reason their relationship was
repaired after that was because the curse broke and everyone got their memories
back.) At the end of the day, Neal’s
betrayal caused significant damage to Emma’s psyche. It’s the reason why she has put up walls
higher than Mt. Everest around her heart.
It’s why she has such a hard time trusting people and opening up to
anyone, as she’s convinced that if she does let someone in, it’s only a matter
of time before they let her down. It’s
also the reason why she gave up Henry, because Neal’s actions left her with the
feeling that she was unlovable and didn’t deserve the unconditional love her
son would have held for her. I don’t
think Neal could have ever made up
for all of that. There are simply some
things you can’t ever get past.
Apart
from that, there is the whole iffy issue this show never seems to address. Remember how Emma claimed to have been 18
when she gave birth to Henry in ‘The
Price of Gold?’ There were a few
elements that popped up that seem to contradict that statement. First off, Henry was 10 when he showed up on
Emma’s doorstop in the pilot episode.
That event took place on Emma’s 28th birthday. Think about that for a moment. Emma’s birthday is in October, and while I don’t
think it’s ever stated when Henry’s birthday is, there is a greater chance that
it’s before October. Meaning when Henry
turned 10, Emma was 27. That does seem
to indicate that Emma
was actually 17 at the time. In
addition, in ‘Desperate Souls,’ we’re
told that Emma’s old prison record was sealed by the courts when she got out of
jail. Obviously I’m no expert on the
legal system, but if her juvie records were sealed, wouldn’t that mean she was
out of jail by the time she turned 18?
This further indicates she was younger than 18 when she had Henry, as he
was born when she was still in jail. My
point is, if she gave birth to Henry before she turned 18, that would mean she
was still a minor when he was conceived.
Meaning the adult Neal had sex with Emma when she was still legally
considered a minor. That is the very
definition of statutory rape, and it does bug me a bit how that detail is never
addressed in the show.
Because
Belle is still stuck in her ‘Lacey’ persona, Gold/Rumpelstiltskin is not even
trying to behave himself. This results
in Neal, who catches him in the act of attacking Dr. Whale just for looking at
Belle/Lacey, to once again disown his father.
Was that what Regina was trying to accomplish when she implanted the
false memories inside Belle? Was she of
the mindset that if she couldn’t get what she wanted (reconciliation with
Henry), then no one else could get what they wanted, either? If that’s what your train of thought was,
Regina, then you are acting like a spoiled child and therefore don’t deserve to
have Henry in your life.
We finally
find out exactly what Greg and Tamara are up to- they’re apparently part of
some kind of magic-hating society who are on a sort of witch-hunt in order to
get rid of any form of magic. Basically,
they’re magic-Neo-Nazis. While I know
racial prejudice is a deep-rooted problem and people who have that mindset
cannot easily be swayed, if they can at all, getting rid of magic? That’s not just bigoted, it might be horribly
misguided. I don’t think it’s even possible to actually destroy magic. If we regard magic as a brand of power, then
shouldn’t the laws of conservation of energy apply? You know, energy cannot be created or
destroyed; it can only change from one form to another. Didn’t these two pay attention in science
class? After all, we’ve seen that
they’ve been using science to detect/nullify magic in the past few
episodes. So, did they just fall
asleep/play hooky during that particular lesson? The question still remains how Tamara got wrapped
up in all of this. As I’ve said before,
I get why Greg’s part of this anti-magic group.
Anyone might feel inclined to do what he’s done after what he went
through in Storybrooke as a kid, particularly when he lost his father, whom
Regina virtually admits to have killed.
But Tamara? What exactly led her
to be so adamant about getting rid of magic?
Was it just a matter of her being sympathetic to what Greg went
through? Anyway, the episode ends with
them getting orders from the mysterious ‘home office’ to up the anti- instead
of just targeting the magical beings in Storybrooke, they’re just going to
eliminate the whole town by using the fail-safe self-destruct gem they’d stolen
from Regina.
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