This episode has an awesome name. I just have to say that up front. It was also a pretty awesome episode! Let's take a look.
We get to see Cruella de Vil's back-story. In a world much like 1920's London, Cruella is being kept hostage by her mother, who is an expert dog trainer. Madeline (Cruella's mother) uses her dogs to keep Cruella in line, forcing her to live out her days in an attic. Years later, when Cruella is a young adult, a reporter by the name of Isaac (actually the Author) shows up looking for a good story to tell. He finds Cruella locked up in the attic, after Madeline sends him away. The Author frees Cruella and takes her out dancing. Cruella is overjoyed to be free. The Author reveals that he travels between realms and records stories with a magic pen and magic ink. He can also manipulate stories to say whatever he wants. He wants to help Cruella to escape from her terrible home life, so he writes her a gift: she will be able to control animals from now on.
Cruella says she has to go confront her mother one last time, now that she has the power to stand up to her. After that, Cruella and the Author can run away together! Madeline finds the Author, and reveals a horrifying truth - Cruella killed her father, and Madeline's next two husbands as well! She is a monster! The Author isn't sure which of the two stories to believe. Cruella uses her new power to turn Madeline's dogs against her, killing her gruesomely. Cruella then kills the dogs and makes her famous fur coat. It turns out that Cruella has stolen the Author's pen and ink. The Author goes to get them back from her. As they struggle over the ink, it spills on Cruella, transforming her to the iconic villain we have today, with the crazy black and white hair. Just as Cruella is about to kill the Author, the Author manages to write down that Cruella is unable to take another life. Thus, his life is spared.
In Storybrooke, Maleficent confronts Cruella about her daughter, Lily. Cruella reveals that Lily did indeed survive passing through to our world, but that Cruella left her out in the woods to die. Maleficent turns into a dragon, intent on killing Cruella, but Cruella uses her power to placate Maleficent. While this is going on, Regina shows up and tells Emma, Mary Margaret, and David all about Zelena. She needs to go to New York to rescue Robin.
In order to do that, Regina needs leverage over Rumple. She goes to Belle for help. Belle summons Rumple and asks him for the truth about why he's in Storybrooke. Rumple shows Belle his heart, which is almost entirely black. Unless the Author rewrites his happy ending, Rumple will soon lose all hints of goodness within him, and thus lose the ability to ever feel love again. Belle seems to cave, willing to forgive Rumple. The two share a kiss, but then Belle makes a cruel taunt about her relationship with Will, and it's revealed that Regina has Belle's heart and was controlling what she said. Regina sends Belle home, and threatens to crush Belle's heart if Rumple doesn't keep quiet about Regina going to New York. If he attempts to warn Zelena, then Regina will make Belle pay the price.
Cruella goes to visit the Author, who is still being held captive by Rumple. Rumple doesn't know that Cruella and the Author have a history together. Cruella doesn't want the Author to rewrite her "happy ending." She wants revenge. Unfortunately, she cannot kill the Author herself, because she is unable to take another life thanks to his writing. She thinks of another way to reach her goal: she kidnaps Henry.
Cruella then tells Emma and Regina that she will kill Henry unless they kill the Author for her. Rumple talks with the Author, revealing that he knew all along that Cruella wanted the Author dead. The Author shows him the piece of paper where he wrote that Cruella can no longer kill. Rumple realizes that this will be the perfect way to turn Emma towards darkness - to protect Henry, she'll be killing a defenseless person!
Emma, Regina, and Hook go out looking for Henry, while Mary Margaret and David are tasked with finding the Author. Emma is still angry with her parents, and says that she can't trust them. Emma, Regina, and Hook are out looking in the woods, when they hear Henry calling for help. It seems like the sound is coming from many different directions, so they split up. Regina and Hook each find a conch shell that was projecting Henry's cries for help. Emma finds Cruella and Henry. Emma doesn't know that Cruella can't kill Henry. As Cruella holds Henry close to the edge of a cliff, Emma warns her to back off. Cruella thinks Emma is bluffing, but... Emma lashes out, using her magic to send Cruella toppling off the cliff. Cruella is dead, and Henry is saved.
Okay. Do I have anything to complain about? Well, I love the idea of pushing Emma into darkness, but I can't help but be a little annoyed about this setup. Just because Cruella is incapable of murder doesn't make her some poor defenseless innocent. She could have seriously injured Henry, both physically and psychologically. For that matter, being kidnapped is probably pretty psychologically damaging, wouldn't you think? I feel like everybody is acting like Emma just slaughtered a totally innocent person, instead of acting out to save her son from a very dangerous and evil woman. We'll have to see where this is going.
And one other thing - Regina took Belle's heart! Ouch! That's some pretty extreme villain behavior. I hope we address this later, because the way the episode presented itself, it was like it was no big deal. Or... maybe I misunderstood. It seemed like Regina went and asked Belle's permission to do this, but then was that her own heart, and not Belle's? I guess this whole moment sort of confused me. Why did Regina even bother? She could have just run to New York without telling anybody. Rumple can't warn Zelena if he doesn't know Regina's on her way!
But this episode was probably my favorite of this back half of the season. Cruella de Vil's back story is so much better than Ursula's was. As I was watching, I was thinking that things were sort of mediocre... okay, so she was a tormented little girl who had an evil mother. She had a spark of goodness in her, but due to terrible circumstances, she turned bad. Sound like anybody else we know? Uh... every villain this show has, pretty much. But no! In a well-executed twist, it turns out that Cruella isn't a good person who has turned dark. She's just... evil. Her mother locked her away because she didn't want to turn her daughter in to the authorities, but it turns out that Cruella is a crazy murderer. Yikes! (Although - to be fair, weren't her parents sort of asking for it when they named her "Cruella"?) I'm really upset that Cruella is dead, because she turned out to be the best villain we've seen in a long time.
I also loved the atmosphere of this whole back story. Setting it in the 20's was an excellent way to nod to all the classic bits from the Disney film, including the theme from the movie, the car, the crazy hair and the coat made of dalmatian fur.
We got the clearest answer about the Author that we've yet received. Apparently, there are endless storytelling realms, and the Author can travel between them and write down what happens. That's why Frankenstein's world was recorded... I guess Mary Shelley was one of the "authors?" In any case, I like this explanation. It's vague enough that it opens the door for virtually any imaginable possibility in the future. I loved the detail when the Author asked Cruella what year it was, and she didn't know. Her story existed outside of time, even as it was clearly coded as the 1920's.
Emma is holding a grudge! I loved the fact that both Hook and Regina tried to talk her into forgiving her parents, but she wasn't having any of it. She's basically angry that her parents were total hypocrites. As she walks around in the woods with two people she trusts entirely, it doesn't bother her that they used to be villains, because they were always honest about what they were and what they'd done. Mary Margaret and David, on the other hand, have always presented themselves as virtuous heroes. There was a really funny line in this section, when Regina told Emma to get over her anger, and Emma reminded Regina that she held a grudge for decades all because a ten-year-old couldn't keep a secret. That was pretty funny.
Regina and Emma's friendship actually got quite a few moments in this episode. More than Hook and Emma's relationship. But honestly, when the three of them were all looking for Henry together, I was overjoyed. Because of Emma's recent rift with her parents, Regina and Hook are the two people Emma is closest to (except Henry, of course). Earlier, when Regina was planning on going to New York to rescue Robin, Emma was really worried about her. She even offered to come with her and help out. How sweet!
Even though I complained earlier that Emma going "dark" doesn't work when the person she killed is super evil, I still really like the idea of Emma slowly succumbing to her powers. That sinister look she had at the very end of the episode was so disturbingly juxtaposed to the way she had her arms wrapped around her crying son. It's going to be deliciously angst-y! I can't wait!
9/10
Okay. Do I have anything to complain about? Well, I love the idea of pushing Emma into darkness, but I can't help but be a little annoyed about this setup. Just because Cruella is incapable of murder doesn't make her some poor defenseless innocent. She could have seriously injured Henry, both physically and psychologically. For that matter, being kidnapped is probably pretty psychologically damaging, wouldn't you think? I feel like everybody is acting like Emma just slaughtered a totally innocent person, instead of acting out to save her son from a very dangerous and evil woman. We'll have to see where this is going.
And one other thing - Regina took Belle's heart! Ouch! That's some pretty extreme villain behavior. I hope we address this later, because the way the episode presented itself, it was like it was no big deal. Or... maybe I misunderstood. It seemed like Regina went and asked Belle's permission to do this, but then was that her own heart, and not Belle's? I guess this whole moment sort of confused me. Why did Regina even bother? She could have just run to New York without telling anybody. Rumple can't warn Zelena if he doesn't know Regina's on her way!
But this episode was probably my favorite of this back half of the season. Cruella de Vil's back story is so much better than Ursula's was. As I was watching, I was thinking that things were sort of mediocre... okay, so she was a tormented little girl who had an evil mother. She had a spark of goodness in her, but due to terrible circumstances, she turned bad. Sound like anybody else we know? Uh... every villain this show has, pretty much. But no! In a well-executed twist, it turns out that Cruella isn't a good person who has turned dark. She's just... evil. Her mother locked her away because she didn't want to turn her daughter in to the authorities, but it turns out that Cruella is a crazy murderer. Yikes! (Although - to be fair, weren't her parents sort of asking for it when they named her "Cruella"?) I'm really upset that Cruella is dead, because she turned out to be the best villain we've seen in a long time.
I also loved the atmosphere of this whole back story. Setting it in the 20's was an excellent way to nod to all the classic bits from the Disney film, including the theme from the movie, the car, the crazy hair and the coat made of dalmatian fur.
We got the clearest answer about the Author that we've yet received. Apparently, there are endless storytelling realms, and the Author can travel between them and write down what happens. That's why Frankenstein's world was recorded... I guess Mary Shelley was one of the "authors?" In any case, I like this explanation. It's vague enough that it opens the door for virtually any imaginable possibility in the future. I loved the detail when the Author asked Cruella what year it was, and she didn't know. Her story existed outside of time, even as it was clearly coded as the 1920's.
Emma is holding a grudge! I loved the fact that both Hook and Regina tried to talk her into forgiving her parents, but she wasn't having any of it. She's basically angry that her parents were total hypocrites. As she walks around in the woods with two people she trusts entirely, it doesn't bother her that they used to be villains, because they were always honest about what they were and what they'd done. Mary Margaret and David, on the other hand, have always presented themselves as virtuous heroes. There was a really funny line in this section, when Regina told Emma to get over her anger, and Emma reminded Regina that she held a grudge for decades all because a ten-year-old couldn't keep a secret. That was pretty funny.
Regina and Emma's friendship actually got quite a few moments in this episode. More than Hook and Emma's relationship. But honestly, when the three of them were all looking for Henry together, I was overjoyed. Because of Emma's recent rift with her parents, Regina and Hook are the two people Emma is closest to (except Henry, of course). Earlier, when Regina was planning on going to New York to rescue Robin, Emma was really worried about her. She even offered to come with her and help out. How sweet!
Even though I complained earlier that Emma going "dark" doesn't work when the person she killed is super evil, I still really like the idea of Emma slowly succumbing to her powers. That sinister look she had at the very end of the episode was so disturbingly juxtaposed to the way she had her arms wrapped around her crying son. It's going to be deliciously angst-y! I can't wait!
9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment
I'd really appreciate hearing what you think!