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sieben9 · 6 years

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“the serpent” impressions

{Quick request to anyone reading: I’m watching OUaT for the first time, and I want to avoid spoilers. So, if you want to discuss something spoilery, I’d be grateful if you could start a new post for that. Thank you!}

Today on Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: Tense standoffs, the episode.

Damn this one was good! And not just because of the villain-backstory, I swear.

didn’t hurt, though

But seriously, this episode picked up the pace a lot, and in a good way, too. Which, considering we’re firmly in act 2 territory now, makes sense. This is the “throw stones at the tree” phase of the plot, after all. (Ask me about three-act-structure. Or rather, don’t, because I will never shut up about it.)

Some more excitement under the cut. I really liked this episode, OK?

Alright, I did promise tense standoffs, and let me tell you…

I wasn’t exaggerating. My personal favourite might just be the one between Will and Anastasia, even if it wasn’t quite as high-stakes as the big one near the end. I still don’t know how or why their relationship ended up Like That, but that dialogue was very revealing. I also found it interesting that Will is clearly aware that Anastasia still loves him; he even taunts her with it, however indirectly. I don’t think either of them expected her to actually go through with the execution, and I’m eager to see how the consequences of that play out in future.

…you know. Once he’s a flesh-boy again.

By the way, I had great fun shouting at the screen this episode. Mostly variations of “because she still loves him”, whenever Jafar said something in variation on the theme of “why haven’t you dealt with Will already?”

“Why didn’t you mention him before?” – Because she still loves him and doesn’t want you anywhere near him

“Why did you lock him up?” – Because she still loves him, and doesn’t want him dead.

And so on, and so forth. Like I said, I had fun.

Speaking of which, the episode-long standoff between Jafar and the Red Queen (do I still call her that? Can I say Anastasia now, or will that make her materialise in my room to stab me in a kidney?) which… well, the way you’d expect a staring contest to end when one of the participants models themselves after a reptile. Anastasia put up a good fight, but she still blinked first.

At least set the stage for the absolutely epic rescue, as performed by Alice and Lizard. Well, mostly Alice. I did call the executioner-swap, by the way. I know doesn’t make any difference to anyone, but I wanted recorded here.

And then, of course, we come to the great big stand-off at the end of the episode. Which was 1) way tenser and 2) wayyy darker than I would have expected.

i mean… damn.

By the way, Socha is far too good at playing “getting choked out” for comfort. I mean, kudos to him and all that, but I had to pause and breathe once or twice before going on with the episode when that happened.

The whole thing, of course, was mainly a character moment for Alice. (Will and Anastasia also have a bit of one, but you know. Mainly Alice.) Because she did break her promise to Cyrus here. No matter how urgent and important it was (and no matter how much I agree with the decision) she did use a wish when she said she never would. And she was very explicitly didn’t do it for herself, but for a friend. The way in which she used the wish was also very telling. She didn’t wish him safe from harm like the innkeeper did for himself, she tied her life to his, which is an incredible show of trust. (Actually, “trust” seems to be another recurring theme in this show, and I like it a lot.)

I also found it interesting that Will didn’t want her to use the wish to save him. He��s come a long way, and fast, from the guy wanted to steal her wishes keep them for himself, hasn’t he?

Of course, Will still didn’t make it out of that confrontation particularly well, because Jafar is a really sore loser. Seriously, he couldn’t have expected Alice to wish Will back. He just that out of spite.

But, yeah. Very tense scene. I approve.

And now, because I couldn’t find another place for it: an honourable mention to Elizabeth “Lizard”.

alice sure attracts the diamond-in-the-rough type, doesn’t she?

She’s fun and earnest and might have a tiny little crush on Will, but seems to be managing it quite well. I also love how entirely transparent she was from the very beginning. “No, I am totally looking for will to hand him over to the Caterpillar. No other reason, I swear! Yes, sure, let’s undertake this entirely out-of-proportion difficult quest to save him. Of course I’m game!”

I also loved her comment that “Will went through a dark phase”, simply because it makes it sound like the man did a stint in emo-town, and that mental image is absolutely priceless to me.

I hope Lizard sticks around and neither dies nor turns out to be evil/a traitor/something else unpleasant. I’m not betting any money on it, but I really, really hope.

Oh, and two more honourable mentions:

Alice punching the Red Queen in the face like she wants to turn it inside-out and…

“I have a blade.”

It’s the deadpan delivery that sold it, I think. I love casually-violent Alice a tad too much, I think *g*

And now for the bit that got me quite unreasonably excited: villain backstory!

file under “way too adorable to be allowed”

So, Jafar’s Start of Darkness was because his father abandoned him… Yes, I know, entirely groundbreaking. But that’s the nice thing about writing — if you keep coming back to a certain point over and over and over again, you can call it a “theme” and that isn’t repetitive, its Art™.

Anyway, this young boy goes into apprenticeship with the dangerous sorceress, because he wants revenge on his father, the Sultan. I’m sure that will never come up in any way, shape, or form again. (Meaning: I cannot wait for this to come up again, please, show, let it come up again.)

And maybe that’s just me, but one thing that made the entire flashback so suspenseful, was the question “I wonder who will betray the other one first”. Because that’s how this story goes, right? You can’t have to supremely powerful beings, even if Amara seemed genuinely dedicated to that vision. I expect this that either she’d betray Jafar, and then he’d turn the tables (because we know he survived) all that he’d turn on her all on his own. And I really didn’t figure it out until the scene where it happened. And I definitely didn’t guess that she’d be the staff.

Which I probably should have, but nobody’s perfect.

I wonder if there’ll be more to Jafar’s quest for power than simple revenge, but I’ll hold off judgement until I see what the Sultan actually did to him. (I mean, it can’t just be “he was never there”, right? I mean, it could, but that would be a bit… lame.)

Short version: I am very enamoured of this villain-backstory, and I am very interested in how it will intact with the present-day storyline.

To close this all out, another thumbs-up to the way this show uses Cyrus, who doesn’t quite manage to escape McGuffin-hood, but is still doing a good deal better than many other characters who have to spend a lot of their screentime locked up and with no way to escape without dramatically disrupting the plot. (Though I think he should be out fairly soon-ish, if not next episode.)

I also unashamedly loved his wishbone-narration – things striving to be reunited with their other half – over the montage of people who are separated from their other halves, and miserable because of it. That was some good cinema. Or at least the kind of cinema I enjoy immensely.

So, the pressure is definitely on. I just hope Alice will find a way to 1) get Cyrus out of that cage and 2) de-petrify Will soon. Poor woman has had enough heartache for a while.

#ouat #once upon a time in wonderland #the serpent #sieben watches ouatiwl

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