Once Upon a Time: The New Neverland (3x10)

We're back in Storybrooke! Woo! I've got to say, a lot of things about this episode blew me out of the water. I was really impressed. I wouldn't be me if I didn't have complaints as well, but over all I think this was exactly the episode we needed. It broke the Neverland pattern, got us out of those woods and back among some familiar and comforting settings and characters. Let's talk about the plot.

The Jolly Roger arrives in Storybrooke and everyone happily reunites with the returned travelers. Rumple puts Pandora's Box under lock and key and everyone promises "Henry" that Pan can't hurt him anymore. Hook informs Neal that he's backing off of Emma for Henry's sake. Neal tries to ask Emma out, but she doesn't accept. David talks to Emma and tells her not to miss the good moments in life. Emma believes something is wrong with Henry, since he's been acting strangely, and he wanted to stay with Regina instead of her. Nobody else believes her. Pan, in Henry's body, releases the Shadow from where it was trapped on Hook's ship, and the Shadow kills the Blue Fairy. In order to protect Henry, Regina takes him down to her vault, where Pan-who-looks-like-Henry knocks Regina out using some magic potion thing and then absconds with something very important.

Emma, still convinced that something is very wrong with Henry, goes with everyone else to Rumple and asks him to release Pan from the Box. Whatever is happening, clearly Pan is controlling the Shadow. The group goes out to the edge of Storybrooke. Emma crosses the line back to the real world, and Rumple releases "Pan" outside of Storybrooke as well, so that he will be powerless to use magic. Emma is about to shoot him, but "Pan" convinces Emma and everyone else that he's really Henry. The group goes to Regina's vault, finds her unconscious, wakes her up, and they all discover to their horror that The Curse is missing. Yup, that's right, the original Big Bad Curse is gone, and it looks like Pan has it. Pan tells Felix that if he enacts the curse now, everyone in Storybrooke will lose their memories and Pan and Felix can be in charge, running a whole new Neverland.

Okay. I'm going to talk about all of this before I move on to the other plot thread.

Good things!

1. All of the reunions at the beginning. Holy hell, my heart was swelling with sappy emotional happiness at all of this stuff. I mean, it was sort of spoiled by the fact that it wasn't really Henry hugging these people, but other than that all of the hugs and the love and the cheering... my goodness. Rumple and Belle, Wendy and her brothers, Emma, Mary Margaret and David with the dwarfs and Granny, and even Ariel and Eric found each other. While I don't care about Eric as a character, I was getting totally swept up in all of this lovey stuff. Really well acted by everyone. I think my favorite part, though, wasn't actually a reunion at all. It was this lovely little moment between Rumple and Neal. Neal comes over to Belle and Rumple and the two share a look signifying their newly repaired bond. Neal leans forward and touches his forehead to his dad's. I melted when I saw that. So sweet, so perfect.

2. Tinker Bell. She's actually something of a character now, and I find myself enjoying that. The Blue Fairy doesn't give her her wings back because apparently she doesn't believe in herself anymore, which of course makes it all the more tragic when Tink shows genuine grief over Blue's death. I also loved it when she shot down Hook for flirting with her. It's clear she still has some self-esteem, even if she's lost confidence about her magic.

3. Jared S. Gilmore's acting. I know. I can't believe I'm saying that. I think I've just realized that it wasn't ever really Gilmore's fault that he was giving bad performances. Henry is just a bland, badly written character. As Pan, Gilmore actually did a decent job. Not anything sparkling and fantastic, but definitely a lot better than I was expecting.

4. As I mentioned earlier, it was so lovely to be back in Storybrooke, surrounded by familiar people and familiar sights. Granny, the diner, even Regina's vaults were cool to see once more. It all just solidified the fact that Neverland was a good detour, but not a good permanent location.

Bad things!

1. Robbie Kay's acting. So now that Henry is in Pan's body, we had to pass over the acting of Henry to Kay. So, wow. Apparently Henry is a badly written character, because the formerly talented Kay really sucked at pulling him off. Henry had to "reunite" with all of his family members after being trapped in Pandora's Box, and every hug and every happy moment just felt really disingenuous. I hope these boys can switch back to their own bodies soon...

2. The Curse... again? I was so happy with this show for not recycling its plot lines. They always try and push things forward in new and creative ways. And now we're bringing back this element again? All I can say is I hope they have something new to do with it.

Alright, I'm gonna be really brief about the other plot. Just after Snow and Charming's wedding, the two of them go on their honeymoon to the summer palace. Snow tries to sneak off to go after Medusa, whom she believes will help her defeat Regina. Charming finds her and comes along. They try to fight Medusa off, but Charming is turned to stone! Snow manages to defeat her by forcing her to see her own reflection in a shiny shield. Killing Medusa means that Charming is freed. Snow admits that she's been so intense about defeating Regina because she wants to start a family, and she's afraid of bringing a baby into a world with so much evil in it. However, she now understands that they need to move forward, regardless of Regina's threats.

So, I liked seeing Snow and Charming, actually, because we got another reminder of Snow as the bad-ass warrior. I also liked the idea of her obsession getting to her and actually costing her Charming's life. However, ultimately I didn't like this plot very much. Why? Well, we've seen it a thousand times! Haven't we already been here, with Snow vs. Regina, Regina sucks, Snow freaks out about it, but then for some reason they don't solve anything? I don't know, I'm just over it. The other thing I didn't like was how easy it was to defeat Medusa. I mean, really? Nobody else thought to have her look at her own reflection? Please.

So there you have it. As you can tell, I didn't think much of the subplot, but the main plot in Storybrooke was generally fantastic. While I'm skeptical about a few things, I'm willing to give this show the benefit of the doubt.

8/10