DigificWriter

Regina flat-out told Ariel that Eric is in Storybrooke.

As for Agrabah's location, we've known since Season 1 that it's a 'sub-kingdom' within the Enchanted Forest, but even if it were its own realm, it wouldn't have been beyond the reach of the Curse, as we know it (the Curse) crossed into Wonderland and yanked Jefferson to Storybrooke.

I_Love_Siobhan_Magnus

You know, in NSA's logic, when someone's lying to you, technically they're telling you the truth as long as you don't find it out, so Eric IS in Storybrooke until Ariel gets there. OK I'll check out the list of next episode's guest stars and see if the actor's name is on it.

Kelaine

Going to say, I just got to watch all of this episode. I liked it better than I was expecting to.

Ariel and Eric's Love Story:

Yes, underdeveloped. However, they did emphasize Erica and Ariel as a destined couple beyond what we usually we see with our destined couples. Eric has been having visions of Ariel (sent to him by Ursula), which enables him to recognize her immediately as both the woman who saved him and as the woman he loves (I imagine there was more to the visions than he mentioned). Ariel felt some kind of magical connection with him at once. She's also different from most mermaids (which may have something to do with why Ursula herself is pushing for this union). Most of them seem to be deadly to all non-mermaids. Ariel saves complete strangers of other species.

The Ball

Can you say "budget cuts," boys and girls? There, I knew you could.

Or that's my guess. They were told they could borrow prom dresses from some other show without being warned that long prom dresses are no longer in. And I'm going to just assume Snow's wig took more of a beating than they expected by the time they shot these scenes.

Ursula

I don't know if Ursula is good or evil. Both Eric and Ariel seem to see her as benign, but she's got an entire movie something like a quarter century worth of little girls have grown up watching that says otherwise. Plus, tentacles. And scary looking. But, did threaten Regina's life, so not all bad.

What if People Have Dumb Secrets?

Sorry, but I was thinking of characters from fanfics and other stories who could have been tossed in.

"Darkest secret? Does living under an alias to avoid being extradited for murder count?"

"Er, Emma, I'm your stepsister. Oh, and my name's not Jones." (OK, character from another story, not the Captain. But, how could I resist?).

"I hate your spinach puffs."

"Obi-wan never told you what happened to your father, did he?"

"Uh, you know these soylent green energy bars I've been handing out? Uh, I was lying when I said they were kosher. . . ."


******

When Emma cast the spell in Gold's shop, he told her to think of why she was doing this and who she was protecting. Her focus was on love and the need to protect.

Although it's possible Rumple never mentioned that other emotions could fuel magic to Regina, I find it hard to believe she never cracked a spell book or spoke to another witch or magic user who could tell her otherwise. She either doesn't believe in the effectiveness of other emotions* or sees an advantage in not covering those in her lesson plan.

*I remember reading that it's relatively easy for actors to learn to portray anger. What we would call the more positive emotions are harder (supposedly, if you try to portray fury vs winning the lottery, winning the lottery is a lot harder to make convincing). The theory I've heard is that anger is reptile brain stuff and a lot easier and more primal to access. Of course, maybe there's just survival value in being able to clearly convey to anything that might want to attack you that it is a bad idea. There's less value in letting something that might attack you know you won the lottery.

*****

Despite the mermaid Regina turned to wood, should I suspect that mermaids have some kind of natural defense against things like Regina's magic? Otherwise, why didn't Ariel get turned into a newt earlier in the conversation? Are forks really that powerful?

Although, I would guess it was a silver fork (stainless steel is a relatively recent invention in The Land Without Magic and I suspect any world without steel mills hasn't invented the stuff). Silver has always had an anti-magic reputation (although, if it was that easy, you'd think everyone would be doing it).

It may also be that Ariel had some kind of special protection, since the real Ursula seems to have a destiny for her and Eric.

Anyhow, if Ariel has a magic protection, she became vulnerable once she used the bracelet--and maybe when she freed Snow from it.

I_Love_Siobhan_Magnus

Gee you were overthinking it. Regina hadn't mastered the petrifying spell yet when she was dealing with Ariel and Snow, or she didn't prepare it for Ariel, that's why. Ariel had no magic to protect herself, otherwise she wouldn't have been muted.

Grace52373

Sorry, I didn't know since I rarely go here, because of the Rumple hate and constant fighting over who should be redeemed and whether or not Milha is the self-centered witch or a victim of domestic abuse rather than an abuser!

Anyway, I should have put in the other seasons, but this season Rumple is being confronted by his past mistakes and the temptation to continue to make them, so this season has been even more of a journey to redemption than others!

Jiorjiina

Cyrus and Alice are in Wonderland. Agrabah is part of the Enchanted Forest (closer to Philip and Aurora's kingdom, by the look of the architecture). There's no reason Aladdin and Jasmine can't be in the Enchanted Forest or even Storybrooke depending on where they were when the curse was cast.

I think this was set several years before the curse was cast. Snow was obviously still a bandit, but had met Charming by now (someone asked on twitter and Adam confirmed it), but they hadn't started to try and retake the kingdom yet.

Regina only started trying to cast the curse after Snow and Charming's big wedding (and it still took her about 9 months), so Eric had several years to go off and travel and then come back home again. It's entirely possible he was back in his own kingdom (principality, really) by the time the curse struck.

I_Love_Siobhan_Magnus

I doubt it. If the producers have planned to bring them into this show as new characters, they will do it, but not this season, maybe the next season.

I could figure that out without Adam's confirmation. When Ariel told Snow that she fell in love with Eric by the first sight, Snow immediate got it with total understanding because it reminded her of her acquaintance with Charming. She must've been there and already met him, otherwise she would probably think it as a dumb thing as Ariel suggested.

Jiorjiina

No one said anything about it being this season. All that was said was that the door is wide open for them to be on the show. And it would seem kind of odd with them mentioning their kingdom and featuring their villain and then to not have them on the show ever...

Kelaine

Thanks, I try.

Regina's been wicked queening it for years. Also, if they're going to show her killing off a guard earlier for minor reasons (which is how I count not stopping Snow before she jumps off a cliff), she shouldn't suddenly resort to non-violent methods with the next character who irritates her--and who she has already done the only thing Regina needed her alive for.

Also, Regina refers to Ariel in Skin Deep. So, this is about the time she captured Belle (about two years before the curse). David had yet to meet Rumple, who was drinking when they met, something he started after Belle's death.

Another timeline clue on how long Belle was imprisoned: Roland is four years old. If time started moving in FTL the same time it did in SB, it began at the start of S1, The start of S3 is two years after that. This means Roland would have been two when the curse was cast.

DigificWriter

^ The shows internal timeline is not lined up with real time, so, no, it hasn't been nearly three years since Emma arrived in Storybrooke.

I need to do a more extensive search to confirm this, but I'm fairly sure that the show's internal timeline has only reached 2012.

AngieBelle

Belle was imprisoned for about 3 years. Roland is the same age he was when the curse was cast- time was frozen there until just recently. The first season was about a year...but the second season was maybe a month at most!

DigificWriter

Season 1 DID NOT last a year in terms of the show's internal timeline.

There's a 12-hour time difference between Boston and Phuket, and we know that it was 8:15 A.M. in Phuket at the exact moment Emma arrived in Storybrooke (see "Pilot" and "Selfless, Brave, and True"), and that the flashbacks in "Tallahassee" took place 11 years before its present-day events, dating said present-day events as still taking place in 2011, which means that the events of S1 could not have taken place in more than 3 months or the calendar would've changed over to 2012 and the flashbacks in "Tallahassee" would've been captioned '12 years earlier'.

Emma and Snow were not in the Enchanted Forest for more than a month, and we also found out that Storybrooke first came into existence in 1983; subtract 1983 from 2011 and you get 28, which also dates the first two seasons' events to 2011.

All of that points to what I said about the show's internal timeline only having reached 2012 by the events of S3.

AngieBelle

S1 took place over more than 3 months...Emma's birthday is in October, and episode 12 took place on Valentines Day. It may not have been an entire year, but it was far more stretched out than S2 was. They were moving in relatively real time for at least part of S1- they told a lot more slice of life stories in present day in the beginning. Plus, Henry was 10 in S1 and 11 in S2.

It is correct that Tallahassee took place 11 yrs earlier. S1 started at the *end* of 2011

DigificWriter

^ Even if part of S1 did take place in 2012, the show's internal timeline still isn't lined up with real time, meaning that we're still only in 2012 by the events of S3.

AngieBelle

Once the show started becoming more serial, no, it wasn't lined up with real time at all because each episode picked up immediately after the previous one. But parts of S1 were...in particular the pilot and episode 12 which both aired and took place on Valentine's Day.