Once Upon a Time REACTION - S02E01 - Broken

Yay... we're into season two and things are getting exciting!! There's so much to come and things are definitely different from season one. First... my favorite moments within this episode are when we see everyone become reunited with one another after their true memories have finally returned. I love seeing Snow and Charming turn towards the town as they begin to look for how the purple smoke affected them, as they come upon Red and Granny, and they hug as old friends. And I love seeing the dwarfs come up to them as well, as they all first bow to Snow, who then embraces them. And Charming reaches out respectfully to shake Grumpy's hand. And then... we have the moment Emma and Henry come up to them, as Emma struggles to grasp the truth about her parents at last standing before her and embracing her... with them being the same age, but especially because for the twenty-eight years of her life, she was alone after they abandoned her. I love seeing Emma's emotions as she really struggles with all she's ever known, and what's now finally in front of her. Such a beautiful scene in its entirety. I absolutely love it. As for the very first scene with the random guy in a city, as he later receives a post card from Storybrooke with a single word... broken, from a bird... there's nothing that can be said about it for now that won't be spoilery, even though I know that you already know who he is, but for those watching these reactions who haven't seen whats to come... I can say that I was definitely intrigued by its mystery the first time I ever watched this episode. Now... the action of the episode begins with a Prince and a soldier riding fast on their horses towards the remains of what appears to be a palace, then we see a woman lying asleep on top of a crypt. A short time later, we learn that the Prince is Prince Phillip and the sleeping woman is Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, and that the soldier is Mulan. Once Upon a Time loves to takes the beloved fairytales and stories we all know and love, and put their own little twists and spins on them to make this show so exciting and different from all that we know when they can. Which I absolutely love. So... when you see Aurora with red hair, instead of blonde like she has from her Disney movie, that's just the creators' casting choice. And with Mulan... she wasn't ever a Princess, until Disney later considered her to be one like every other female lead within their movies. Mulan was a woman, who saved her frail father from having to fight in the Huns' war they waged against China, by dressing in her father's armor and pretending to be a man in order to fight in his place, until she was later found out and her life was spared despite having broken the laws of war, only for her to go on to become China's greatest hero because she defeated the Huns, their leader, and saving the Emperor from being assassinated. If there is any character from Once Upon a Time, who is most different from their character we've known before, Mulan is definitely one of them, though there are also some similarities from her character in the Disney movie as well. Before Once Upon a Time, her character has never connected to Sleeping Beauty in any way. This is something done solely for this show. And it is interesting in some ways. I really do like Mulan a lot, and the actress, Jamie Chung, who plays her. As for Phillip and Aurora... their characters for me weren't exactly what I hoped from them upon learning who these new characters were, but I do enjoy their overall storyline throughout this episode, especially upon seeing how it connects to what's going on in Storybrooke with the other heroes and villains, as well as upon learning that this fairytale storyline isn't actually a flashback like they always have been up until this point. This is another big change for the show and I really love it, that both storylines within Storybrooke and in what we learn remains of the Enchanted Forest... both take place within the present day. As for Gold and him setting up the storyline taking place throughout Storybrooke upon him summoning the wraith to kill Regina like Jefferson hoped he would do upon learning that the Evil Queen has been keeping Belle prisoner all this time... I really like this overall storyline a lot. I love how Gold twists his promise he made with Belle by summoning a creature to kill Regina for him, seeing as he promised Belle that he himself wouldn't do so. It's cruel and wrong, and Belle absolutely has every right to be angry with him once she overhears Gold's conversation with Emma, Mary Margaret, and David. But Gold's scenes throughout this episode are once again... top notch. Like Robert Carlyle's performances always are. Now... I really love that while Gold appears to have gained back his own power right away, that Regina struggles to summon her own powers. It wasn't designed by Gold to be this way when he brought magic back, but Gold as the Dark One is a lot more powerful and stronger than Regina is, and like we saw back in season one's episode, The Stable Boy, Regina at first struggled against magic, always hating it when her mother used it against her and especially to kill Daniel. All of this comes out to help explain why Regina struggles throughout most of this episode to bring her magic back out. Next... I really enjoy seeing how most of the townsfolk form a mob to go after Regina now that they remember who they are and all she's done to them. I like how Archie comes running to Emma, David, Mary Margaret, and Henry seeking help to stop them, knowing that it would be wrong to let the mob kill her. I also like that Henry sticks up for Regina as he pleads with his family to help her, because she is his adopted mother and because he does love her. I also really appreciated that Henry stuck up for Regina and did finally show some love for her, as he understands that Regina does in fact love him too. I found it to be hilarious, when Grumpy states... "Great! Let's watch." when Archie says that the mob is going to kill Regina. I really love and appreciate the humor throughout this scene, especially when David learns that Mary Margaret had a one night stand with Whale, including Mary Margaret's quick response that they had been cursed. And I also enjoy the humor in the next scene as well, when David acts all tough when he confronts Whale for the first time. too. I really like how we quickly learn that not even Charming, or Snow know who Whale really is, nor does it appear anyone else does either. This brings mystery to Whale's character. As for the whole wraith storyline, both in Storybrooke and in the Enchanted Forest... I really enjoy it a lot. I love how the stories tie into one another. How Gold marks Regina for death so that the wraith will come to suck out her soul like Mulan explains to Phillip and Aurora how it kills its prey. How Phillip himself has become marked for death as well as we see the imprint left behind on Regina's hand, as well as Phillip's hand from the medallion the creature wore after Phillip cut it from around its neck only for him to have picked it up without a glove covering his hand. I like how the wraith comes to kill Regina until it is thwarted by both David and Mary Margaret in the police station when they and Emma come in to save her. However, I didn't really like how Phillip simply gives up without really trying to fight against it. But that being said... Phillip's soul is taken and he dies, leaving behind Aurora to grieve, as well as Mulan, who appears to be in love with Phillip as well. And then.. I love the overall fight scene in the end as David and Mary Margaret continue to hold off the wraith long enough for Regina to try to summon a portal through Jefferson's hat, while Emma stays close by her to protect her. However, I too wasn't too thrilled at first that Regina pulled out the hat to use it, because I thought that Jefferson was the only one who had the magic to be able to use it. But after thinking back season one's episodes, Hat Trick and An Apple Red As Blood, I later realized that the hat is simply magical and that anyone with magic can use it, but Jefferson knows the powers the hat possess better than anyone because he makes them and he knows the lands to which he's traveled through in all the years he's been the Mad Hatter. In Hat Trick... Jefferson had told Emma that he's a bit of a cartographer and that he's been to many lands, and in his storyline with the Evil Queen in that episode, we see that one of the lands he's traveled to is Wonderland. So Jefferson essentially serves as a guide who uses the hat to travel to the other lands with, and who knows the hat's powers and limits most. And this really helped to put this idea during the fight scene against the wraith into perspective, in regards to how the hat works. I hope all this make sense to you. Please let me know if it doesn't. As the fight scene continues... Regina is still struggling to summon her magic, until the moment when Emma touches Regina's arm and the hat at last begins to spin a portal begins to open. All of a sudden... the wraith finally breaks through the fire that David cast between them and himself with the wraith, but the portal within the hat then opens and pulls the wraith inside. Unfortunately, the wraith reaches out just in time to snatch Emma by her leg and swiftly pulls her through the portal with it. Immediately, Mary Margaret charges into the portal after her daughter, and David tries to do the same, only for the portal to close before he can. In that moment, David blames Regina for his wife's and daughter's disappearance and he demands to know where they are or if they're even alive, after having learned from Regina that none of them returned to the Enchanted Forest once the curse was broken because she believes there's nothing left of it to return to. However, Regina's magic is at last working again thanks to Emma's touch, and she turns to attack David, threatening to kill him until Henry then walks inside the office with Red. I really like this moment between Henry and Regina, as Henry pleads with her to stop hurting his grandfather. And I especially love when Regina tells him she's doing so for him and that she loves him once again, in which he replies, "Then prove it." I like how Henry does at last believe her when she tells him she loves him, and yet now he is asking her to show him by becoming better than the Evil Queen she no longer has to be if she were to choose to be a better person. A hero, instead of a villain. I also love that David stands and offers to take Henry in with him because he now knows that Henry is his grandson. And I love the next scene between him and Henry when they walk inside Mary Margaret's and Emma's loft... in which they are now going to live, and how David assures Henry that he will find Emma and Mary Margaret upon seeing how worried Henry is for them. That somehow, they will find a way to bring them back home. And lastly... we have the final scene in the Enchanted Forest between Mulan and Aurora, as Mulan explains to Aurora that while she had been asleep under Maleficent's sleeping curse... that twenty-nine years had passed by in which for twenty-eight they had all been frozen due to Regina's dark curse, that for some reason spared the small area within the Enchanted Forest in which they stood, and the area in which Mulan plans to take Aurora to for shelter. I really love this whole explanation and the mystery behind what's happened within what remains of the Enchanted Forest during the years of the dark curse and the year afterwards, in which Mulan and Phillip had presumed their search for Aurora after Maleficent brought her sleeping body to this place where they were now standing. And then... some of the rubble shifts beneath the area where the wraith suddenly broke through into their world, and we learn that the events in Storybrooke took place before the events within the Enchanted Forest, as the wraith had broken through the portal where Mulan and Phillip then fought against it. And lastly we finally see Emma and Mary Margaret buried half beneath the rubble and unconscious. And neither Mulan nor Aurora are pleased to see them, as they realize that Emma and Mary Margaret are possibly the ones to blame for the wraith attacking and killing Phillip. Overall... a brilliant and an exciting episode. I really enjoy it a lot. And boy... is there ever so much more to come. :) I can't wait for you to continue on with season two!! So thank you very much for this reaction! Until next time...

Heidi Elizabeth Marcum