#please read this knowing that 80% of my brain was still screaming about infinity war when i watched this

[sieben9]

“unforgiven” impressions

{Quick request to anyone reading: I'm watching OUaT for the first time, and I want to avoid spoilers. So, if you want to discuss something spoilery, I'd be grateful if you could start a new post for that. Thank you!}

Today on Once Upon a Time: Really Judgey Trees

Seriously, whatever mystical entity lives in that thing should probably re-examine its decision-making process, because for one, I would assume that everyone has the potential for evil (and the show's own philosophy seems to back me on this one) and also, more importantly, the baby didn't ask you anything you stupid tree.

Also, I'm sure there's a portion of you wondering what my opinion about That Thing near the end of the episode is, and honestly, I'll just let Nick take this one for me.

The only thing I will say on the matter is that a six month jump would have helped here. Not much, but it would have.

Anyway, on to the plot and me shouting at fictional characters under the cut.

OK, before I get into anything else, I have to give an amused nod to Rumple 100% commiting to the "death-death devil-devil evil-evil" look while lurking in a darkened cave over the ashes of a twice-killed dragon-shifter.

you have magic again, my dude, you can afford a coloured tie

Also, yes, deflecting annoyance with humour. Moving on.

As for the alleged main plot... looks like Snowing did a bad.

on a level from 1 to "made my kid's rattle look like the end of my evil sceptre" how extra are you?

Actually, I wouldn't mind someone clarifying if "lost her child" is meant in the literal "misplaced it" sense or the euphemistic, more depressing "that pregnancy did not end well" sense. Like... this is not something that I need to be kept in suspense over.

I'm fairly sure the flashback was meant to set up the background for that, but all I got was "judgey tree" and the fact that there seem to be at least two semi-competent guards in the Enchanted Forest; if I saw Snow and Charming running around with these three, I'd assume some kidnapping or mind-control debacle, which means I absolutely should not let them pass. Good on you, random bridge guards.

doesn't scream "trustworthy," does it?

Also, it's nice to know that potential for good and evil is determined prenatally. And by "nice" I mean "I hate it and am going to ignore it, thanks."

And I call this the "alleged" main plot, because while it sure seemed to be the focus, Snow and Charming sneaking around for unknown reasons and being uncharacteristically shady just... didn't grab my interest. At all. Sorry, guys.

What mainly came out of this plotline is the thing I mentioned earlier--that they hurt Maleficent greatly--and some rather sinister foreshadowing surrounding whatever Snow and Charming did and the way Emma is going to react to it. Going out on a limb here: it has something to do with Snow's and Mal's concurrent pregnancies, so it has to do with Emma; they won't tell her, she'll find out anyway, and shit's going to blow up in a major way.

Just throwing that out there.

Oh, also, Maleficent is alive again.

Which is fine. It's fine. Sometimes you kill off a character and then you realise you'd rather still have them around. I just wish "dead is dead" hadn't been established as such a Major Thing early in the show, because now this will bug me every time it happens.

In the slightly more interesting plot: Regina terrorises nine-year-olds.

"And you didn't shave!"

Look, pal, you know I love you, but maybe tone it down a little. Shouting a child into thinking harder pretty much never works, and I'm almost sure you know that.

Joking aside, I really enjoyed the scene where Regina went to apologise to Geppetto, by the way, in part because it clarifies the arc she seems to be on.

perhaps the true happy endings were the apologies we made along the way?

Put simply, I think an important part of this plotline is just a) Regina becoming the sort of person who would "deserve" a Happy Ending™ anyway or b) demonstrating that she already is. It also contrasts nicely with the scene earlier in the diner, where Cruella brings up Regina's past, so we get a reminder just how much she's changed since those days.

In completely unrelated news, I've been thinking about the concept of redemption a lot lately, and how it overlaps with, but is still different from atonement. It's been a weird weekend.

Anyway, there seems to be an actual lead on the Author now, which I... well, I have mixed feelings on that. Because on the one hand, that plot sounds pretty interesting, but I'm dreading another 4A situation where there's so much going on that it all just becomes impenetrable noise.

And, of course, there's that final scene with Snow, which I adored.

what is it with dramatically-lit conversations in the rain this season?

Less for the actual content of Snow's request, and much more for the spotlight it set on their relationship and, again, how much it has changed over the last... years? Months?

I'm also deeply impressed the acting from Ginnifer Goodwin in that moment where she asks Regina for help, and to keep a secret for her. There's so much going on in those words. She clearly has to psyche herself up to ask for this. She (silently) admits that her own inability to keep quiet caused Regina immense pain (even if it wasn't Snow who did the actual hurting.) And then she asks anyway, because that's where they are at, and because she trusts Regina to help her with this. And a kind of help that will probably be personally difficult for Regina, too.

Not sure what I think about the whole "help me cover up my mistakes" business, but as a character moment, it was great.

Tiny little non-sequitur appreciation for Belle “one wrong move and you’ll hop out as toads” Gold

the face of a woman with not a single ounce of patience left in her body