Weekly Wrap Up - Mar 15, 2O15 - Once Upon a Time

Episode 14: Unforgiven - And you thought Snow and Charming were good people.

Warning: Like all of my posts, there are spoilers inside. If you have not watched this episode yet, please avert your eyes until you have.

She is just as frustrated about the story as I am.

Is Once Upon a Time getting interesting? Not really. The whole episode was based around the secret that David and Snow are keeping, the history between them and Evil Sister Team 3. Everyone in town is on edge about the two new villain additions, while Regina and Henry are still at it trying to find the author. They realize Pinocchio may know something about the author since he was able to change his story in the book. So off they go to try to strangle it...I mean, nicely ask him if he remembers what he did.

Well, while David is tailing Ursela and Cruella, he finds out they are trying to resurrect Maleficent. Remember the dragon Emma vanquished a few seasons back underneath the clock tower? Yeah, that was her. Now he has to keep the evil girls from doing so and manages to swipe her totem that could be used to resurrect her. He also schemes with Snow to take her ashes and dump them in the harbor so it would be even harder to bring her back to life. Maleficent is getting no love here.

What I noticed most about this episode is how AWFUL the acting has gotten. Now, I never thought the acting overall for the show was always amazing, but it definitely has been much better in the past. What happened to Josh and Ginnifer this episode? Their face and feelings don't match their voices. Its painful to watch them this time around. I know they are both good actors, so I will give them a pass. Maybe the direction was awful this time or maybe they realize how over stretched this storyline has become and have resorted to purposeful bad acting to get the show cancelled. Either way, what happened?

Is that a battery in your pocket, or are you happy to see me?

I mean Jennifer Morrison, Robert Carlyle and Lana Parrilla are still giving good performances, so I have no idea why these two have just marched off into mediocrity for the moment. Maybe the Evil Sister Team 3 are rubbing off on them because they are kind of sub par as well. I think surprisingly Cruella takes the lead as far as really nailing her character even though she is the most awkward character there.

So the big secret is something we already know. Emma could be super evil apocalypse in the future [yay, they have continued the Emma's evil storyline....lets hope they don't screw it up]. At the very least, Once Upon a Time has improved from the movie, Maleficent, and she actually turns into a dragon this tiem, as poorly created as that dragon is [the CGI is just...horrible].

Yeah, yeah whatever. So apparently that is only half the secret. The big, big reveal is Snow and Charming caused the death of Maleficent's child because she was a villain and they were heroes. She pushed her away feeling they would never be able to work together. So Maleficent actually has a decent back story while the other two are kind of hanging out being her support group homies. But it still took the ENTIRE EPISODE to get there. Geez people. To me, that was a lot of pointless build up. Regina asked the question we were all wondering. "What the hell do you mean woman? Just spit it out!"

You sluts, you are totally cheating on Emma for hiking

Honestly, that much build up did not give me that great of satisfaction for the reveal. Oh really? You were responsible for the murder of her child? How? Oh we have to wait another full episode to find out? Gee thanks. The reason it isn't that big of a deal to me because I can't even understand how her child died. Couldn't she bubble protection spell it? And who is the father? Also how did she not manage to escape the curse? She was not originally a member of Storybrooke except as a dragon underneath the clock tower. So what is going on here? How come she didn't escape, but "Fish sticks and Pound Puppy" did and jumped out into the real world? This makes zero sense to me. It feels like Snow is hinting that she indirectly caused the death of Maleficent's child and blames herself more than a "I actually punched her in the stomach and killed it myself by accident" kind of issue.


Something Wicked this Way Comes:

1. Stake Out- 

Is David and Emma really following the Ursela and Cruella in a cop car? How does Cruella and Ursela not notice this? Its so obvious you might as well put a sign on the car says "HEY, WE ARE FOLLOWING YOU. JUST LETTING YOU KNOW."

Look at me! I'm like Angelina Jolie!

2. Maleficent's totem- 

Totally looks like one of those dragon claw pendants you find at the Renaissance Faire. I swear that is where they got the design from. I did like the fact that the totem ended up being a baby rattle. That was pretty creative.

3. What year is your computer from?- 

First off, I have no idea what Emma was typing as the screen was a desktop. Second, what year is that computer from? The mid 9Os? Has Storybrooke not gotten an upgrade since then? Man the monitor looks old and so does that desktop. Phew. Way to be technologically in the future Sheriff's department.

4. The Knave-

Is he still in Storybrooke? I forgot about him. He served literally no purpose in the last story, got dropped for a while, and now he is Belle's new boy toy? Seriously, why?

This season has been the worst so far and that's pretty hard to say as all of the seasons have been funky since season 2. There are droplets of decent story elements, but overall the story telling is very dry, mediocre and may I say, not compacted enough. There are long stretches of "Who cares?" and "What is the point of this?" There is barely any character development, forward story movement, or enough interesting turns. The best characters in this episode was really Emma and Regina which run parallel in a way as far as story telling goes. One is born of light while the other was bred for darkness. They both want the same things, but both have their own issues. Yet they work best when they are together. I like Regina's growth in this episode with the apology and I enjoyed Emma's growth with trusting Hook more. These are long standing issues that are given a chance to create more balanced characters.

Maleficent's back story has become very interesting, but it also has become interesting far too late in the episode, which has made it less impactful emotionally overall. You want me to dislike her as a villain and now you want me to feel sorry for her? Augh. I don't mind her having a good back story, but don't build her up as such a villain if that ends up being the issue.


DnD Episode Rating: 6/1O 

To my lovely readers: Down and Dirty Reviews and The Weekly Wrap Up will go on hiatus until April 5th 2O15. Keep rocking on and we will return soon with content and more!