Monday Recap: Think Spoilery Thoughts

Since last week I failed at life and blogging, I am posting this super early. I may go back and do a posthumous post on Dark Hollow based on my notes, but know that this entry is very much a stream-of-semiconsciousness first draft and thanks to the good people at Time Warner Cable I missed the first 10-12 minutes of Think Lovely Thoughts.

Seriously, if ever there were spoilers - HERE THERE BE SPOILERS. Turn back.

Well. The bottom of the family tree starts with Henry..

GOOD GRIEF IS THE ONLY WAY TO NOT DIE ON THIS SHOW TO BE IMMEDIATELY RELATED TO HENRY??? Wait no. Cora died.

Who did we meet?: Li'l Rumpel! Rumpelstiltskin's two moms. And deadbeat dad. Sins of the father much?

When and Where did the events take place?: Enchanted Forest during Rumpel's youth, (This is now the furthest back we've gone in EF time!), and present day Neverland. Where it is now apparently daylight.

What did we learn?: Peter Pan's backstory, duh. Seriously SPOILERS AHEAD. Last warning.

Wait, what?: When did everyone have time for a wardrobe change? NOW Regina loses the blazer?

Oh Henry: Aw, the heart of the truest believer is RINGED IN GOLD. Also, seriously? You just...rip your heart out and hand it over to a teenage boy? What are you, a teenage girl? And no one thinks to mention how this went HORRIFICALLY WRONG for Cora?

Really OUAT?: If Robert Carlyle is out, I'm gone. Blog or no blog. Seriously, don't play me like that OUAT.

Random Thoughts/Crackpot Theory:

I really liked this episode. (Still #ShutUpSnow #ShutUpCharming) I really didn't see Pan's reveal coming until this episode unfolded, and it makes a LOT of sense. It very much hearkens back to Regina and Cora's relationship, but this feels fresh. Fairy tales are always about abandoned children - or feeling abandoned - because stories about happy well adjusted people are boring and there's not much we can learn from them.

We knew that these layers of Rumpel's father/Rumpel/Baelfire were coming - they just KEPT alluding to them. But I think it was deftly handled.

So we have Pan's beginnings, and we now have his present. What we're missing is a BIG chunk of the middle. How and when did Pan figure out that he would need the Heart of The Truest Believer to renew his (stolen) youth? How did he get Henry's picture? And strictly speaking, the shadow ISN'T Pan's. That actually might be the biggest reveal of the episode.

So we've got a magical shadow-being guiding a newly-minted tyrant around a magical island that manifests whatever children believe in. Ok.

The Shadow tells Pan that the price for giving up his son and regaining his youth is that he's only managed to buy himself a significant amount of time. Magic always comes with a price.

Pan "believes" he will find a solution to the problem that's been brought to his attention by a magical being with -ahem- shadowy motives.

As far as we know, beyond flight,conjuring, magical fluting, and crazy emotional manipulation - Pan does NOT have the power to see the future.

But no one leaves Neverland without Pan's blessing, and both Baelfire and Hook managed to do just that. We still don't know how much time passed in A Land Without Magic before that happened. But we know that Neal and Emma are close in developmental age, and she got knocked up at 18 because this is a FAMILY SHOW.

Pan KNEW that Bae was Rumpel's son, and he let him go from Neverland. Why? He kept all the other boys. Unless someone was whispering in his ear that he HAD to let Bae go in order to gain the Heart of The Truest Believer. Someone who KNEW about Baelfire, and Emma, and The Dark Curse, and Henry.

It may be a tired old chestnut, but I'm not ready to give up the ghost on that shady bitch. This whole scenario has fairy dust all over it. Blue Fairy Dust.