Neverlight

I agree with you! It was alright. There were some good moments, but other times I was bored and the writing was not convincing to me. I am now only happy because Frozen is over. I did not like it and 4a very much. Anna and Kristoff were cute and had funny moments and Elizabeth Mitchell is a good actress, but it was waaaay too much emphasis on them and Emma as the special one and their backstory and every flashbacks has to be about them.... and the Snow Queen was not as good as a villain as some of those who came before her on OuaT.
In the next half season I hope there will be more emphasis on other characters again too and the series can be more balanced with the flashbacks and equal attention for characters.
The story with Rumplestiltskin is weird to me and I do not understand what they are doing with him, but maybe they can explain it better in 4b if they do more equal screentime and he can get more story. I missed Belle in this episode and Robin Hood.
The scenes at the sheriff's station were the best to me. Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas were so good in them when they played Snow and Charming under the spell, the sword fight with Regina too and then when they all were laughing so hard together when it broke and they came back to themselves.

Ron_Beckett

I'm probably one of very few but I thought this was the best episode yet in regards to the SQ storyline.

I had to watch that confrontation when Ingrid decided to sacrifice herself several times because of how much I loved it. And the music, OMFG!!!!

Really gonna miss Elizabeth Mitchell. She made the storyline worthwhile for me.

All the Emma/SQ flashbacks- those were my favorite. In her own twisted way Ingrid truly did love Emma.

I loved all the fighting with SW and the EQ and then Emma getting the EQ to undo the wrist bands.

Kind of sad that the Frozen storyline is coming to an end. I was really loving the Emma/Elsa friendship so it's gonna suck when she leaves.

Anna not so much- too annoying for my taste.

And the scene when they all reunited- loved it. The way Emma held her arms open to her parents was a serious 'aw' moment.

~*~*~

I am not feeling the Rumple story though. Him and Belle are pretty much duds to me. And I hate that he wants to steal Henry away from his family. Rumple is a douche to put it simply without cussing him out.

Upcoming stories with the villains- the only one I'm not looking forward to is Cruella de Vil. She's always been on my dislike list. I'm back to Oz (ie another story line I'm not a fan of as I didn't like the Oz story either).

~*~*~

Mainly though I want a S4 soundtrack now!

I love Emma's past theme and again the music they used when Ingrid sacrificed herself just about killed me

fox24

There's a deleted scene that shows Ingrid first meeting Regina and showing that she brought magic from her world, which is how she got the memory rocks

Jinzle

But in Boston she had no magic.

Rhonwen

and somehow Rumple who is suppose to be the most powerful magic weilder etc the show didn't have him be able to bring magic until the curse was broken.

good job writers

fox24

Well Regina brought limited objects in her vault but she couldn't like conjure anything that's what the rocks were an object. although we didnt see her holding anything. I guess her dress had pockets lol

Austenphile

And he couldn't use magic outside SB either in 2.15 when he tried to heal himself. But yet thanks to the hat he will have magic over the town line, instead of just being freed from the dagger.

Rhonwen

I hope this destrution of Rumple's character, his progress, and background better have a huge payoff for us. If not they will have wrecked a truly great character for nothing ..

Where's my pic of the villan with the handlebar mustache that's how cardboard they are making him. He's never wanted to rule before and all of a sudden?

We have no idea what's going on, and right now it's looks horrible

Austenphile

Maybe he is possessed by an amalggamation of all the dark ones afterbeing resurrected out of the dark one vault. Some of the others could have come along for the ride. Or some of Pan's personality got blended in when he plunged the dagger through the both of them.

But yeah, before he wanted power for what he could accomplish for himself. Saving Bae from the Ogre wars or getting to the LWOM. He could easily have ruled in the EF but never seemed interested. And now, he's all gung ho on conquering the outside world. I could understand wanting to rule SB even if I didn't agree but outside the town line???

GrhmLz

The magical retcons and inconsistencies this arc have been ridiculous. But that is just my opinion.

I like EM as the SQ but the show really 'dumbed down' and made it so convenient how 1) the SQ was able to get to our world when it took the most powerful wizard in all the realms centuries 2) How apparently she so easily brought magic to our world, maintained it inside and outside of SB. I understand she was not part of the Dark Curse but that is what I mean by 'convenient.' Made me want to ask after all of this, where was the Sorcerer, or his apprentice, early on, to honor a deal with Rumple to be reunited with Bae in our world, through his magical door, since that was what he really wanted all along? Maybe the Dark Curse would have been avoided? There was not an issue with leading Ingrid to our world, to Emma, and to her redemption of sacrificing herself to be reunited with her sisters in spirit. Why not help Rumple too?

One other thing that never fully resonated with me was how and when Ingrid knew she would see Elsa again. Her plan to have both of her new 'magical sisters' in our world seemed flawed since the only way Elsa got to our world was by accident after Emma visited the past. How could SQ have possibly known something like that would occur. I find is highly unlikely that the Apprentice made her privy to everything that would play out in the future.

With those issues aside, I did feel for Ingrid and what lead up to her end. Very sad and misguided journey but I am glad her final moments were of Gerda's acknowledgement of her sisters, her regrets, and her final wish to free her sister Ingrid from the Urn. I did tear up in the end when the full weight of what she allowed herself to become sunk in.

I Do think the best part of the episode was the Cursed Regina, Snow, & Charming jail scenes with Anna and Kristoff. Good comic relief even if the episode was not intended to use this curse on a more serious note to work out deeper rooted relationship issues.

As always, I think the young actress playing young Emma shines. That was good casting from the start.

So, Belle. She gets to sleep this curse away? No comment. *sighs*

I loved the Henry & Regina reunion scene at the end.

I did read some commentary regarding Regina's magic. I have been annoyed during some instances of episodes past where it feels like they are downplaying Regina's magical ability but I do not think that was the case this episode. The reason is I think Regina used her own light magic to seal herself in so her dark magic was not able to counteract her light magic. That would be the reason for Emma bringing down the magical barrier so easily because she used light magic to bring down the other light magic. It was 'like' magic, so that was the way I viewed that, it was not meant as Emma's magic outshining Regina's.

I know there was the scene where Hook used Gold's concoction to release Regina's use of light magic to keep Henry sealed in, but since Rumple is supposed to be the most powerful wizard in all the realms and can be a step ahead magically, that is not too far-fetched, even if it was kind of obvious that one was just done for plot.

Yeah, all and all, glad to see the Frozen arc come to its close. It was overkill, in my opinion, and too much for my tastes. With the preview, hopefully the new arc with the new villainesses will bring our main characters back to the fold front and center.

DigificWriter

All shows that aren't straight-up realistic are going to have points where the writers do things for the sake of plot that seem inconsistent with other things they've done. It's not worth quibbling over.

GrhmLz

I will point out inconsistencies if I think I see them. Feel free not to 'quibble', though, if it does not particularly phase you. They stand out more this arc, in my opinion, because these were new characters squeezed into OUAT past canon events (ie. The SQ showing up in SB in 2001, having circumvented the Dark Curse) and there was not nearly enough balancing of character development to go along with this heavy plot-driven arc. Retcons or revisionism are tools to be avoided when at all possible, it can taint the flow and enjoyment to the overall series.

DR76

It's still about Emma's magic outshining Regina's magic in this episode, because the writers are now saying that Emma"s "light" magic is more powerful than Regina's "light" magic. Yet, in the season premiere, apparently Regina's "light" magic was powerful enough to destroy Elsa's snow monster, but Emma's wasn't. It's like they cannot make up their minds.

First of all, the whole idea of light=goodness and dark=evil is repellent to me. And this simplistic, yet confusing portrayal of magic is becoming downright confusing.

Primal Slayer

It was ok though things went over way to easy imo. The bottle magically being right there and being from their mother, a curse that is suppose to have kill each other and yet no one is killed or injured. The writers just held back to much.

But I am here for this Queens of Darkness! Cruella looks PERFECT, Mals new costume is 10x better then her original, Ursula.......if that is her official look, they wrong.

Kelaine

I thought Ingrid's change of heart was way too fast. Thirty years working towards this plan and she dumps it all because of a letter from her sister? Five minutes before, she was willing to kill everyone in the town? Including little children? And, now, poof, she's over it?

Don't get me wrong. I liked Ingrid. Elizabeth Mitchell really sold the character for me. Although there are gaps in her story, I can let most of them go because she made me feel like this all made sense even if I didn't have the full story (although I do still want to know how she learned to control her magic and learned the Rock Trolls memory charms. Either she didn't spend all her time in that urn or someone knows how to download memories/knowledge as well as steal them).

I think we were supposed to see Ingrid as the perfect foster-mom for Emma, but I found her kind of disturbing. First, let me say that I took Kevin's phobia of spiders a bit more seriously. No matter how irrational or "silly" a phobia may seem to people who don't share it, it's real to the person suffering from it. A person with a phobia can face a life or death choice involving facing it and not be able to do it. Being forced to experience it can trigger emotional trauma and PTSD. To persons experiencing it, it's as real as having a loaded gun to their head and knowing they're going to die if they make one wrong move.

So, Ingrid sharing Kevin's phobia with Emma? And having already made purchases to exploit it? And telling Emma to exploit it rather than help Emma and Kevin find another way to coexist?

I realize Kevin was just supposed to be the bully kid and that we're not supposed to look for depth. But, I couldn't help thinking that here's a kid in the foster system. Older kids have usually been taken from parents who couldn't care for them--prison, abuse, and/or drugs are common--or who have lost their family and either don't have anyone who can take them or don't have any relatives willing to take them. Like Emma, Kevin probably feels like any home situation he's put into is unstable and sees another child as a threat who might displace him.

Maybe he needed to be reassured that Emma wasn't a threat. Alternately, maybe bullying was what he'd learned either as an abused child or as a child trying to survive in an overcrowded foster system. Either way, teaching Emma to exploit his weakness and use it to intimidate him was wrong.

My take (even though I don't think it was the one the writers intended) was that Ingrid was trying to win over Emma by treating her as the clear favorite and not just letting her get away with hurting other kids but teaching her to do so.

Then, she throws her in front of a moving vehicle. I think Ingrid spends a lot of time fantasizing about how things "should" work out and isn't prepared for when reality doesn't work that way.

As for magic and Storybrooke, although they handled it pretty quickly, Ingrid seemed to magically enter SB with the scroll she'd been given. I'm assuming that somehow wove her into the spell, giving her the timeless effect. But, there are two other possibilities.

First, Ingrid didn't seem to age over the twelve years before she met Emma. She could have already been protected from the passage of time by something the sorcerer had done sending her over.

Second, despite the fact that Henry aged, time was essentially stopped in SB. Henry is Emma's son and Rumple's grandson. That could mean what happens to him isn't what would happen to anyone else. He was also Regina's adopted son and she may have done something she couldn't reverse that kept him free of the town's timelessness.

In that case, before time started up again, a normal person coming to SB might have stopped aging.

As to Ingrid's magic, I'm assuming she was sent over with some things she figured out how to get magic from later or that she had figured out how to steal/absorb magic from Emma at some point.