Day 308: Ariel

And so it is that time again. But unlike last week I just can't. I cannot handle this week's episode of Once Upon A Time. It just leads to awfulness. Actually, this post I had on Instagram accurately describes my feelings about it at the moment:

Just as last week may be my favorite episode, this might be my least favorite. Maybe, but maybe not. I'm honestly not really sure because I loved the episode, but it's just that it pretty much broke my heart. 

So let's just jump right in, literally. Spoiler alert!

Yes, jumping. Right into the water. Snow, as usual, is on the run from Regina, because that is surprising of course. Well she ends up jumping off a cliff to escape the guards, into water, where she almost drowns, but guess who saves here? If the title didn't give you the hint, I don't know what will. Yes, Ariel. She's here and she's awesome. Oh, and she can walk.

Meanwhile, present day, Hook decides to be awesome and tells the truth...Neal is alive. Only he doesn't tell Emma. He tells Charming and Snow, who initially doesn't want to keep it from Emma, but they eventually decide that they should. Now is a good time to bring in my first beautiful evidence of CaptainSwan in this episode. Remember the kiss from the last one? Yeah, looks like things are about to get really interesting. Hook doesn't want to keep it from Emma, but at the same time he does because he doesn't want to hurt her. Instead he just wants to go find Neal and bring him back without telling her. Just keep that in mind.

But then Snow, being the idiot she is sometimes, decides that she can't keep a secret from Emma, and therefore blurts it out when they're about to leave to go rescue Neal and need a cover story. Meanwhile, in two of my favorite lines from the episode, Hook says they're getting firewood (huh...wait five minutes, go get some firewood or something), and Charming claims they're going to get water (maybe like that water that saved him or something?). Pretty brilliant Once Upon A Time, pretty brilliant indeed. 

So now Emma knows, but she doesn't want to believe it. We'll find more out about that later, but here again we have a slight hint at something. Emma's all no no no I don't believe it, until Hook looks at her and she meets his gaze. It's only then that she actually starts to believe and stops totally denying it. Funny how that works out. 

Regina on the other hand, yeah, she's not so happy about this whole Neal thing, so she goes off to find Rumple and leaves Emma and Company to go find Neal by themselves. Little do they know that Neal has been moved...to the Echo Cave. And back in the historical Enchanted Forest, Ariel is at a ball with Snow so she can meet Prince Eric. She does, they dance, he offers her a chance to see the world with him, she says she'll think about it (because her legs...yeah, those turn back into a fin with the tide). The whole scene was pretty cute though. Again, Regina doesn't think so, this time as the Evil Queen, so she comes up with an evil plan that will ultimately get her Snow White...of course. 

In Neverland, Rumple's got problems. Meaning that we know he's not in the box that Neal was previously next to. I have my theories though. Anyway, Rumple's being taunted by the Shadow, because Pan wants Rumple to head back to Storybrooke, and intends to get him to do that by bringing up Belle. Belle though, yeah, the shadow's turned into her. Lucky for Rumple Regina was there to save him. And now it certainly sounds like they're teaming up. 

On their hike to find Neal, Emma tells Snow a little secret: she kissed Hook. Apparently this isn't important though, other than we get to talking about Neal. I don't know about you but it's starting to feel like they just go back and forth by the episode: Hook, Neal, Hook, Neal, Hook, Neal. Yeah can it just stop now? Seriously. Either way, Snow just wants a happy ending for Emma, and she tells Emma that she should open herself up to the possibility of Neal being alive and the fact that she loves him. Sigh.

For Ariel, things are getting messy...or wet. Regina's plan? Turn herself into Ursula and give Ariel a bracelet that will enable her to have legs...and for Snow to have a fin. Of course, it's all one big trick because Regina just wants Snow to have a fin so she can capture and kill her. Ariel doesn't get this really, and it's one of my favorite parts about her character: how naive she is. Like I think this is really a part of the character that's brought out in a great way. But Regina comes and tries to capture Snow of course, therefore revealing that she's not Ursula, and Ariel stabs her in the neck with a fork in order to swim away with Snow. To finish up the Ariel plotline for now, Snow convinces Ariel to go back after Eric, but when she gets there it turns out she's lost her voice: Regina stole it. Well, there goes Eric. 

And now we get to the heartbreak. Emma and company have finally made it to where Pan's hiding Neal: The Echo Cave. Hook knows it, and he doesn't like it one bit. He apparently lost half his crew in the cave because in order to rescue the person you need to tell a secret. That's why Pan wants them to rescue Neal: so he can find out their darkest secrets, which will eventually be their undoing basically. Honestly, the second Hook said secrets I knew what was going down. Doesn't mean I want to believe any of it. 

So here we go. They make their way into the cave. Neal's on a ledge, but they can't get to him without telling their secrets. Not sure how it's going to work, Hook goes first. And it just about killed me. He starts out with something just about everyone other than Charming knew: He kissed Emma. That's not good enough though. It's not his darkest secret. But this is : "It's what the kiss exposed. My secret is I never thought I'd be capable of letting go of my first love, of my Milah, to believe that I could find someone else. That is, until I met you." And let the tears begin. 

Snow's secret? She wants another baby when they get back to Storybrooke. Too bad Charming can't go back...and therefore we get his secret. I still don't think it counts because Hook knew, but that's alright. That is not what's important here. One can't forget that Hook just said he loves Emma. Too bad this next part RUINS LIFE. 

All those secrets enabled a bridge to form over to Neal, which Emma quickly walks across. She tried to break open the cage holding him but we all know that's not how it works. Emma has to share a secret too. Sounds like she still loves Neal, and that she probably always will. But her eventual secret isn't that she loves him, but that she wishes he was dead because letting him go would be easier than dealing with all the pain. And then Hook makes this face. 

So Hook loves Emma, but Emma loves Neal, and Neal also loves Emma. Oh, and Neal isn't ever going to stop fighting for Emma. And once again we have another terrible, heart breaking face from Hook. Why does this have to happen? Why do they need to break all our hearts!?!

But to finish off this episode, Regina and Rumple head to the beach. Not for a day in the sun (is there even a sun in Neverland?), but to cross realms. How? Ariel. Regina gives her her voice back and sends her off to Storybrooke to get the thing that can eventually stop Pan. 

And so this week's episode ends. Heartbreaking, right? Unless you ship SwanFire. Then I guess it was wonderful. But for us CaptainSwan shippers it was awful. I just really hate how blind Emma is. Hook just wants to protect her, and he said straight out that he loves her. He hasn't loved anyone in 300 years other than Milah, who's been dead that whole time, and then Emma walked into his life and he's begun to love again. He's changed. He really has. And she just totally ignores him. Blows him off and runs to Neal. Now, is that totally endgame right now, no probably not because it sounds like Neal's still gonna have to fight for her. Actually I really think that next week will be an interesting one for this love triangle just because now they're all in the same place. 

I just really hate that Hook might not get a happy ending. No one loves him, and all he has absolutely no one if not for Emma (and her family). No, if he loses her too he has no one. Something obviously happened to his mother, his father abandoned him, Liam and Milah died in his arms, and Bae just totally blew him off even after Hook said that he wanted to change, and I truly believe he would have changed. Hook doesn't exactly love easily, not after everything he's lost in his life, so saying that he does love Emma should seriously have more of a reaction than anything, even though we all knew it after last week's "As You Wish." 

Sigh. This episode. I've actually seen it three times now. Once last night, once this afternoon because I always watch at four on Monday's and then once just now to take screenshots and write this blog post. Last night though, after I watched the episode, I watched the promo for Good Form again, just because I absolutely love that promo, and then I watched the CaptainSwan kiss and I legit cried. This love triangle is really heartbreaking. 

Tonight's Disneybound was Belle though, so that's exciting, and honestly I think it's one of my favorites outfit wise. I loved the dress I was wearing and it went perfectly with my blazer and my heels. Next week shall be fun too though, since I pretty much had everything for that one already. =)

Frumpstagram today was "All In the Details," and some of my favorite details come from no where but Animal Kingdom, where the prayer flags bring plenty of color and decor to the entire area!

Here's today's Disney History: 1916: Legendary newsman Walter Cronkite, the second voice of Epcot's Spaceship Earth, is both in St. Joseph, Missouri. He also appeared in the 1981 TV special Walt Disney: One Man's Dream and the 1989 broadcast of the opening of Disney-MGM Studios. 

Have a magical day!

  

Day 294: Nasty Habits

Sooo....it's a....time for another episode of Once Upon a Time. Just a word that you may want to not read this if you want to avoid spoilers. There shall be a lot of them. Well, moreso for next week than this week really. But either way, thar be spoilers ahead!

I will now do my best not to freak out as I did last night when watching episode 3x04, Nasty Habits (specifically as we reach the end of this post). But I can't promise anything.

When we got into this week we found Tink with Emma & the Gang, while Rumple was off somewhere, Pan was chatting with Henry and Neal, amazingly, got to Neverland after hitching a ride on the shadow...whom he summoned by using Robin Hood's son. We don't really talk much about that at the moment though. This episode is all Neal and Rumple, and for good reason.

It's no question that I do not ship SwanFire (aka Emma & Neal), and instead am an avid shipper of CaptainSwan (Emma & Hook), but that doesn't mean I don't like Neal. Let's just get that out of the way. In fact I love the character as a whole. I think he can certainly be funny at times and the entire Bae & Rumple backstory is just absolutely heartbreaking. It's just I don't see Neal and Emma working out...kind of. This episode brought up a lot of new thoughts when we were so certain this past week that CaptainSwan was happening. You'll hear why we were so sure a little bit later.

But anyway: Neal is in Neverland. This is a surprising development because honestly I feel it should have taken him a bit longer to get there. I mean, that gunshot wound healed pretty quickly for him to be running around. Either way, the episode opens up with Neal talking to what seems to be old enemy Felix (Pan's right hand man...or Lost Boy). Apparently Pan never taught them how to tie knots because Neal easily gets rid of the ropes and punches Felix in the face, knocking him out. The interesting thing from this particular scene? At the end the shot does not pan (no pun intended) to Felix lying on the ground...but instead to the rope. How is this significant? Why are we panning to the rope?

Meanwhile, Tink yells at Emma & the Gang for not having an escape plan, and she heads back off to her little treehouse while Hook leads everyone else to the cave where Bae stayed during his time in Neverland. Of course we get a bit of Charming & Hook Bromance, but what I noted from this is the real concern Hook has at the end of the conversation. I think this is certainly one example of how Hook really has changed since we first saw him a year ago in "The Crocodile." Again, more on this later.

While all this is going on, Rumple is off talking to Belle about his Nasty Habit of Self Preservation, hence the title of the episode: Nasty Habits. Eventually Neal pretty much runs into Rumple, almost literally, and then they go find a squid and get some magical squid ink to stop Pan for a while. Speaking of Pan, he's in the middle of a party with Henry, and it turns out Henry can't hear the music from Pan's pipe, which leads us into our weekly backstory.

It's the return of young Bae! Rumple is still being the Dark One and Bae is still not liking it (honestly as much as I love him, this is getting kind of annoying). So when Bae goes missing, Rumple is eventually led to a campfire with dancing boys and, you guessed it, Pan. Also turns out that Peter Pan and Rumple have a serious history. I'm starting to get the idea that EVERYONE has a backstory with Pan. When I watched this the second time though I was trying to pinpoint how this all fits together in a time line, because at this point Milah is already dead, right? Maybe? I'm not sure. Not super important, but something I was debating for a while.

Back to present day, where Neal and Rumple run in and get Pan trapped for a while with the squid ink. They steal Henry, who's knocked out with a sleeping curse kind of thing from Rumple, and then some yelling ensues because Pan had to mention the prophecy about Henry and Rumple to Neal, so now Neal thinks that Rumple is gonna kill Henry. Which honestly I'm not sure if he's going to or not or what is going on. It's really kind of super confusing.

On the other side of the island, Hook and Emma are checking out Bae's cave with everyone else. After a wonderful few moments of Hook checking on Emma (CaptainSwan a little!) and a wonderful comment from Regina about making pasta, Emma discovers a chart of stars created by Neal when he was younger, one that will lead them home. Except no one can read it. Turns out Hook taught Bae a few things back in the day, including how to chart stars, but he also taught him part of the pirate code: secrecy.

Now here's where I'm really conflicted. So Emma comments "The only person who can read it is dead" and runs out of the cave. Snow and Charming, trying to be the parents they aren't really right now, run after her, and there's an interesting conversation that ends with Emma mentioning "Because I knew the moment I saw him that I never stopped loving him." She's crying and runs...back into the cave? Isn't that where Hook is? Don't know if that means anything but it's something to point out. Meanwhile Charming and Snow have a conversation about moving on if one of them died. Obviously Charming could very easily die at the moment...but is this a parallel to how Emma needs to move on from Neal anyways? I mean, she does think he's dead. And he's certainly had more than enough second chances. But then she really does love him? But Graham! What about him? She moved on for Graham!

To finish things out, Pan resets the board by capturing Henry and Neal because Neal previously left Rumple stuck with Squid Ink. Oh, and apparently Pan wanted Neal (aka Bae) to leave Neverland earlier. Everyone is where he wants them now, and the game is about to change. But what in the world is going to happen? Does that mean that everything that has happened on the show previously is designed perfectly by Pan? Is it all a part of his game? So when Henry wakes up from his little sleeping it turns out that he can now hear the music of Pan's Pipe, and Henry starts dancing with the other Lost Boys. Uh oh. Looks like Henry doesn't feel quite so loved after all. That's not going to make it easy for anyone to come rescue him. And so we end with a menacing shot of Pan.

And then we have the promo for next week's episode, Good Form, which I've successfully guessed correctly to be the Captain Hook backstory episode. Here's the promo, which you MUST WATCH!

And if you haven't figured it out yet? Yes...that's Emma and Hook. In fact a picture was released this last week already spoiling this kiss. Four pictures actually in total. But this promo offers a lot. LOTS AND LOTS. I mean, an entire episode of Killian Jones, whom we apparently have a lot to learn about. But there are a lot of questions that this poses too. What is up with CaptainSwan vs. SwanFire. If Emma still loves Neal, and is all upset about it, what is up with this kiss? Not that I'm really complaining. We've been waiting for that for a long while (ummm...they met exactly a year ago in episode 2x05). But why is young Killian up against Pan? And then there's the fact that everyone seems to be pretty happy with Hook. We know a little bit about this from the promotional photos released this last week, that the above kiss is due to a small but much needed victory in the quest to save Henry and it's all Hook's doing, so Emma's pretty happy with them. 

Now we will have plenty of time to talk about the world's most charming swashbuckler next week. PLENTY of time. Gosh I am so very excited for this next episode. Maybe it's just because Hook is my favorite character, but the promo for next week looks spectacular. I mean, we have some general idea of the backstories of every other character, so I am quite excited to finally see the backstory for Hook! 

Anyway, in honor of tonight's Neal-centric episode, I've got a Neal Disneybound for you! I'm actually really happy with how this one turned out. I've been putting more and more thought into these as the weeks go by, and there are some really exciting ones coming up too! Below you can also see that I removed my coat when Neal did during the episode. I was legitimately sitting in the chair and had to take it off because he did. Have to keep true to the character, after all! 

Here's today's Disney History: 2011: Google celebrates the 100th birthday of Mary Blair with a Doodle honoring the late Disney artist. Google's Doodle for this day features an image of the illustrator as she would have drawn herself, surrounded by the simplistic patterns and shapes that made up her familiar cartoon world. 

Have a magical day!