Once Upon a Time 1x18 The Stable Boy

[oyceter]

Okay, as soon as I saw the title of this episode, I figured it meant another guy fridged.

Also, it's nice to see Lana Parilla doing something aside from EEEVVVIIILLLL, though I very much didn't buy her "true love is awesome!" speech to Snow.

I probably sympathize more with Regina than most, since the mother bits ping fairly strongly for me, and I was glad that her mother was her biological mother (I think), and not yet another evil stepparent. It also makes a lot of Regina's parenting re: Henry make a lot more sense, particularly her idea that being overcontrolling and overbearing and doing what she thinks is right for someone is actually the right thing. I now want a lot more backstory for Regina's mother and Regina—how does her father fit in? It sounded like Regina's mother already had Regina when she married up, but I may have been reading that wrong? And if Regina's father is her adoptive father, that may be the first warm and loving adoptive parent-child relationship we've seen so far on this show. It would be ironic if the show's entire schtick about biological parents were basically coming from a woman whose biological mother was terrible and whose adoptive father was her source of comfort.

My current speculation is that something happened to Regina when her mother tore out Daniel's heart. (Also, is it just me, or are a ton of fridged guys named "Daniel"? Danny from Alias, Daniel from Nikita.) (Also also, hey show, handsome white guy being love interest vs. exotic genie love toy is not cool. I hope Sidney is double crossing Regina somehow.) There is too much heart imagery otherwise, and Regina's sudden transformation to a woman who completely rejects her mother's values to someone who not only embraces them, but embraces them to the point of plotting for at least a decade or so against a little girl. I mean, seriously. Snow obviously made a terrible mistake, but she was what, eight? I basically think Regina's mother did a version of the heartless potion of Rumpelstiltskin's that Snow took, and the entire hatred of Snow is clearly mother-hatred transferred onto a safer person. Plus, if this is the case, then there's a nice parallel with Snow later trying to hunt down Regina for vengeance, and it might give Regina a sort of redemption arc in the next season. Otherwise, I'm really not sure what they're going to do with her character, since it's fairly one note.

So there's Regina and her vault of hearts—she's another Queen of Hearts—and then there's Rumpelstiltskin and his obsession with progeny and true love. I forget why I think this, but I vaguely remember that he had a hand in Regina adopting Henry and thereby eventually bringing Emma into town and reuniting her with Mary Margaret/Snow, and he's had some very Mr. Sinister-esque comments about Snow and Charming's children. And he's the one who tells Snow about the potential of her child. And of course there's his own origin story with his own firstborn. Both Regina and Rumpelstiltskin basically seem to be working to endlessly replace what they've magically lost, but they can't quite manage it because the loss itself transformed them. Anyway, I am hoping Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold's interest in Emma turns out to be less than benign, largely because I am still annoyed at the Beauty and the Beast take in the show.

On a minor note, hate August so much OMG HAAAAATE! WTF with his giving Emma crap about trusting when he's basically been all macho guy manipulating stuff with Henry's book and acting like he knows so much more and only dropping knowledge when it suits him?! I wouldn't trust him either! HAAAAAAATTTTTEEEEEE.

Also: Kathryn is not dead, WHOO!

Comments

[tablesaw]

he's had some very Mr. Sinister-esque comments about Snow and Charming's children.

I'll just be dying over here.

[oyceter]

Seriously! The obsession with getting their hair! The DNA-esque helix the hairs make!

... okay probably I am overimagining.

(But he totally has some secret mutant genetic experimentation lab somewhere.)

[tablesaw]

OH MY GOD! MAYBE THAT'S WHY THE COLOR RED SUPPRESSES RED'S MUTANT ABILITY!

[oyceter]

XOVER!

[roadrunnertwice]

I don't have any show discussion to add, but a stalled thing I was working on a few years ago had yet another fridged Daniel in someone's backstory. I do not know what's up with that.

[oyceter]

Hee! It's a weird coincidence...

[meganbmoore]

I haven't watched this one yet, but I just want to say that I'm very sad the fridged stableboy and Kathryn/Abigail will never meet because they played siblings in Damages. (Where he was fridged, because that's his thing. I'm always amazed when Ryan survives an episode of Nikita.)

[oyceter]

Oh! He's Ryan from Nikita? No wonder he looked familiar! (Well, that, and I think he looks vaguely like Christian Bale or something.)

[fourthage]

I have decided that destroying Snow/Mary Margaret is not actually Regina's goal and she is instead playing an incredibly long game to get back at her mother, canon evidence to the contrary be damned.

[oyceter]

I like this thought!

Oh show. Sometimes you have awesome moments of surprise, but I really wish a lot of your plotting was much less obvious.

[ide_cyan]

I think Barbara Hershey might be getting typcast -- this character seemed stenciled from the shape of the one she played in Black Swan.

[oyceter]

Heh, did not realize that was the same actress, thanks!