Wes&FredFan

Given how often Rumbelle's been interrupted, I actually cheered when somebody else got interrupted by Belle, who was trying to save the day . Odd, I know. Maybe when all of this is over, they can leave Rumbelle alone for a date and baby-making. Regina's got Robin/Roland, Emma's got Hook/Henry, Snow has Charming/baby. No more interruptions.

Nextract

Much better than last week!

The power Rumple has, always great to be reminded of it! when they tried to stop him take Reginas heart, how the hell are they gonna win when she has him doing her bidding?!

Emma, very little screentime but hey she looks like she is learning magic and its pretty cool.

Regina/Cora, love the backstories of the family always interesting.

Snow and Regina where awesome together glad to see them getting along and Snow cheering regina on to win against wicked!

Rumple/Wicked - Best scene in the episode, the look of Rejection was epic.

8/10 definitely not a filler.

Magic Mirror

You gotta feel a little sorry for Cora. Looks like she really took Jonathan's betrayal deep and it turned her dark. Granted, her ambition was there all along but it didn't seem tinged with darkness until after she was played.

fox24

yeah Jonathon played her it was intresting to see her naive

SaraSidleStokes

I did get to see the Ep (Yay for coming home in time)
I felt a bit sorry for Cora it seems she turned Darker due to this Jonathan Fellow
I can't feel Sympathetic towards Zelena
But (and this is lot for me to say being someone who was not a very big fan of Regina's at one time) I am loving Regina's redemption story, So glad she is turning into the person she is and I hope all ends up good for her in the end
Also can I just say I am loving her and Robin.

aeverett

There's nothing wrong with Cora's ambition. She was born into a world where social mobility depended on marriage or magic and she knew that if she wanted better she had to marry for it as she didn't yet know she had magic. I really hated the subtext in this episode that Cora's wanting to give herself her best chance by getting rid of Zelena was somehow immoral. Leaving her in the middle of the forest instead of on someone's doorstep in the middle of the night was sketchy, but that's the only thing that separated her actions from Emma's when Henry was born. If anything Emma was less justified as our world provides food stamps, WIC, public housing, etc. and there doesn't seem to have been a comparable set of benefits in the Enchanted Forest for someone like Cora. At least Cora didn't choose to be a thief rather than get a real job the way Emma did when she was stealing cars with Neal.

Lucas4Brooke

Just copying and pasting from my tumblr, cuz I'm lazy .

Wow, the hour flew by! Unlike last week I really enjoyed this episode. I love how we learned so much about Zelena’s plan in one hour. If only the stupid bitch would understand how lucky she was to escape her crazy, selfish, ass mother!

Regina- She’s grown so much, I’m so proud of her. If we look back at the last two seasons the difference is glaring. I love how she apologized to Belle, and i honestly believed her. She was genuinely sincere, as opposed to *coughHookcough*. She was also protecting Snow/MM so much when all she wanted to do in the past is kill,kill, kill her. Again, another episode that proved why this character has ALWAYS been one of my favorite.characters on this show.

Emma- She’s such a cutie pie with how proud she is of her own magic. I loved her little “Boom!” LOL.

Belle- Again, how much does this girl rock! Love how her smarts are being highlighted and how much she feels like a main cast member now. She’s finally integrated and I couldn’t be happier! Also amazing, that JE let Belle voice her anger at Regina! again FINALLY! I know we complain about her screen time, but she’s gotten so much lately that I’m almost ready to take back every complaint I hailed at A&E.

Rumple- I hated, hated what he did by seducing Zelena, that scene was disgusting! But I get his desperation at wanting to be free from the bitch. I do love that he told her he is against her time spell and that he’d rather kill her than dishonor Nealfire’s memory. Also I hate him being treated as a doll and having to use Roland to get Robin to give him the heart. At least he showed his disgust at being forced to threaten Roland.

Cora- I’ll admit I felt a little sorry for her until she abandoned Zelena. What a horrible, horrible mother this woman was! Sometimes I wish she would have given Regina up too. She would have definitely had a better life than she had living with this monster!

Now onto the couples.

Outlaw Queen- DAYUM what a kiss! They have so much chemistry! Love that Regina listened to what Snow told her and decided to just go for it. Also Robin broke my heart a bit by being so guilty and promesing Regina, that he would get her heart back no matter the cost. You can tell he didn’t want to lose her over this. And when he went in for the kill, after that pause? *THUD*

Rumbelle- SIGH- so far away but still so connected. You can tell when Zelena mentioned another woman helping him to dress, his mind immediately went to Belle. And Belle was willing to do anything to get the man she loved back, even work with a woman she doesn’t like. TEARS. I can’t wait for their reunion and A&E better give us one heck of a pay off after everything they’ve put us thru!

Snow Queen- Like Swan Queen, they’ve come so far! Adore the relationship they’ve developed this season. They’re more like sisters that anything else. And I’m glad they’ve let bygones be bygones. Shows how far BOTH of them have come.

So seems like we get more OQ flashbacks next week and finally learn why and who cast the curse that sent all of them back to Storybrooke.

DR76

Exactly when was Hook recently insincere?


From which kingdom did Eva hail from? She was visiting the kingdom of Snow White's grandfather in this episode. And in one of the flashbacks from last season, she was at the court of Regina's grandfather. Where did she come from?

Lucas4Brooke

He didn't seem sincere to me when he apologized to Belle. Seemed like he did it more for Emma's benefit, but just my opinion.

aeverett

Cora's decision to give up Zelena to make her own life better was no different than Emma's decision to give up Henry. The only difference was that Cora dumped her in the woods where as Emma at least made sure Henry was adopted out. Cora had dreams to pursue and Emma knew she didn't want to raise a baby. Considering both were betrayed by the child's father, both were acting rationally. If Cora had attempted to drop the baby on the doorstep of an orphanage or something, I'd have seen no trouble with it. Her leaving a newborn alone in the woods is my issue.

goodbyegirl84

I was a little confused by the timeline.

In this episode we see the first meeting of Cora and Eva, where Eva is betrothed to Prince Leopold- but he doesn't want to marry someone he has never met- so after meeting Cora for 30 seconds he wants to marry her. Eva then meets Leopold and they dismiss Cora. Leopold's kingdom seems to be the closest to where she works at the tavern.

In season 2 we have "The Millers Daughter" where Cora meets Princess Eva delivering flour to seemingly the closest kingdom to her fathers mill. And they don't show any signs of recognition, whatsoever. But in the end she marries Henry and becomes his queen. So Cora achieves her goal.Also if Eva is still a princess she hasn't married Leopold in this time.

But in season 1 "Stable Boy" Cora and Henry are living in an estate- not a castle. And Henry is not wearing a crown. Also, and I rewatched the scene, there is no recognition between Cora and Leopold whatsoever. Seems odd.

Obviously given they were created years apart explains the continuity errors. But it did throw me off.

So this change in narrative makes Leopold out to be a bit of a creeper marrying the daughter of a woman he almost married.

Also how many kingdoms are there is FTL? Also how close to each other are they, if Cora can commute between two jobs in neighbouring kingdoms. Starting to understand how Cora could be duped by Prince Jonathan.

At one point or another we have Prince Eric, Prince Henry, Prince Leopold, Prince Charming, Prince Phillippe, Prince Thomas.

That six kingdoms that we have in seemingly close proximity. Mind you, let's not forget Rapunzel's kingdom, so seven kingdoms.

meraki

Only thing I care about:

Regina & Snow scenes

Regina & Robin kiss!!

Austenphile

I am probably in the minority but here goes. I enjoyed the episode and at first watch that included the Snow Queen scenes but after thinking about it I have some major problems with the Regina and Mary Margaret scenes (and I am deliberately referring to her as MM because she was acting like season 1 cursed MM and not like Snow). It was great that MM apologized (again) and that Regina finally accepted it and moved past it. However there was no mention of murdering Snow's father, downplaying of trying to kill her several times and sending her in exile, no mention of the attempts to kill Charming and Emma, and even worse no apology from Regina for keeping Emma from her parents and causing her to have a horrible childhood. Yes it is great that Regina is protecting her now and admitting that Snow is not a monster but I liked the Beauty Queen and Outlaw Queen scenes much better. Snow loses her backbone around Regina and is too much of an apologist. It is like the abused child still looking for her mom's approval (much like Cora and Regina). Snow is one of my favorite characters and I really hated how she acted in those scenes and I wish she would show some self respect like Belle did.

Jewel Leigh

I believe Cora said Henry was 5th in line for the throne -- or maybe she was saying that Regina or herself would be 5th in line. Regardless, this could be the reason for Cora and Henry merely living on an estate. By the time Regina is a young adult, as far as we know, that 5th in line might have changed to 20th in line.



Example, being: If Henry had 4 older siblings, his oldest sibling would become King/Queen after Xavior died. It is possible, that sibling - now King or Queen - might have 10 children, all of whom would be in line before Henry and his children. Basically, Henry is not in the direct line to be ruler, although he still given the title of prince in respect. His child (Regina), however, isn't given the title of princess. All of these are reasons that it makes sense that he chose to not live at the castle. He probably wanted his privacy.


According to the writers, Leopold DID recognize Cora. I agree that it didn’t seem that way in the episode (Cora I could find believable, because she would have been playing like she didn’t know him. Perhaps he was purposely playing it that way too). But all this information, makes Cora and Leopold seem like super super creeps.




Do we know that none of those are from the same Kingdom? I mean, Prince Eric and Prince Thomas could be brothers and they could be the children of Prince Henry’s brother. (I don’t think these particular relationships are true, but the point being that not all prince’s have their own kingdom).




Also, they are aren’t princes but these could also be separate kingdoms: Princess Ava, King Midas (Princess Abigal) and Maleficent (Princess Aurora)




And that difference (abandoning a baby in the woods vs giving the child to an agency who would make sure the child has a home) is what makes Emma and Cora’s situation completely different. 



Plus, Cora’s reasoning is shown to be completely without any doubt selfish to the point of complete disregard of the child (she said she gave Zelena up so Cora would have HER best chance, where Emma said she gave Henry up so he would have HIS best chance). Emma had nothing to give Henry (the government might provide money, but she had no home or life of any stability). Cora might not have much to give either, but leaving a child in the woods can never be said to be in their best interest. A poor life of hardship is better than that. Had Emma tried to abandon Henry the woods, I would say the same -- a hard life where she has little to offer her child would still obviously be the right choice between those options. But Henry wasn’t abandoned.


Also, the only reason Cora didn’t want Zelena was because she would make her seem too soiled to ever be made royalty. If she had married Leopold, it seems she would have kept Zelena, meaning there doesn’t seem to be a plausible reason that she would be unable to be a mother or that keeping Zelena would even be too bad of a life, just not the life she wanted.



Still, even if the reason to give up Zelena was selfish, had Cora found her a home or made she she was given to someone who would provide that, the situation wouldn’t that bad. Even in our world, plenty of people give children up for adoption for purely selfish reasons. That in of itself doesn’t mean they are horrible people.

This bothered me too, but it is in character. Snow has always been the one to take blame (like saying that she is responsible for ruining Regina's life, ignoring that Cora was the one who actually killed Daniel). I don't mind Snow apologizing, but there's a point where it becomes too much, like she is for forgiveness rather than moving forward herself.

I would have like Leopold's death to been mentioned. I'm not saying two wrongs make it right, but Regina killing Snow's father and then Snow killing Regina's mother... there's a certain karma in that. I think Regina feels completely justified in Leopold's death, so I actually doubt being sorry for that crossed her mind. So I think we need to be patient with Regina. She still lacks awareness in many ways. She sincerely apologized to Belle because Belle laid it out for her (you locked me up for 30 years and tortured me). Regina has enough awareness to then be able to see why this is wrong and not necessary.

All in all, this episode was super positive for Regina.

Miss Cam

I'm of two minds of this episode.

It had a lot of progress for Regina, and it was really nice to see her apologize to Belle (whose rant was well-earned!) and be so fiercely protective of Snow. I hope she gets to a point of apologizing to Snow as well. Snow's apology came from who Snow is, I think, and what she did to Cora clearly weighs heavily on her. (The way in which she did it mostly, I think.)

I enjoy seeing everyone working together, and Emma actually embracing and finding joy in her magic is another nice development. Seeing Rumple forced to use magic against his will was the disturbing other side of that.

The baby name conversation was really funny, but it made Snow's disappointment over her parents later on more poignant. I don't think what Eva did was that horrible, all things considered, but Snow has always held her up on such a pedestal it was probably a shock to her.

The flashbacks didn't do that much for me, and I am not a fan of this new version of Cora and Leopold's backstory. It makes Cora seem even worse, and not a great reflection on Leopold either. While there is nothing in past to contradict this new turn, it also doesn't jive with previous stuff, so yeah. Not crazy about all that.

Zelena has no idea who her mother really was, clearly, or she wouldn't be trying to change history but rather thank her lucky stars. But she sure has managed to united everyone in a common goal. I can't really feel sorry for her at this stage, because she's using her pain as an excuse to hurt so many others - kinda like Regina did for a long time, but she has made progress there. Not sure Zelena will ever get to that point.

Excited about next week!