He's Pinocchio? That's Kinda Disappointing

Once Upon A Time, S01E20

Emma wanted to move forward with her custody battle against Regina, but Mr. Gold wouldn't help her.  She went to August for help, who said that he would show her the big picture that would help her defeat Regina.  However, Emma failed to believe that August was from the magic world, even though he proved to her that he was the little boy that saved her as an abandoned baby.  August's past life as Pinocchio was revealed, and we learned that his passage to the other world with Emma was conditional that he be the one to guide Emma to believe in the existence of magic and the world where fairy tales are true.  Regina also tried to snatch up David with a story about fate and a good dinner, but he wanted to just stay friends with her.

Finding out that August's illness was actually him turning back to wood (no doubt for all the things he failed to do that he promised) was less interesting than I was hoping his ailment would be.  It does explain why he looked like he was too stiff to get out of bed in another episode.  What was better about knowing his identity was that Mr. Gold had already figured it out and was rubbing the fact that he hadn't reconnected with his father in this world yet.  You have to enjoy that a little bit after the crap that August pulled in the previous episode.  I felt bad for the old man who did everything to protect his child, but his kid turned out to be August, rather than feeling for August who saw his father for the first time in about 28 years but couldn't exactly have the family reunion he wanted.  I just don't know why August hadn't found him before.  He's had plenty of time to look around town (I assume Storybrooke is not that big) and see everyone.

I don't know if I was too impressed by the fact that Pinocchio was the one who got to come with Emma in the magic wardrobe to the non-magic world.  I think it was a little pointless, really, that he did come because he didn't stay by her side long enough at all.  You can't blame a boy that young for wanting to escape a horrible place so he could have a chance at a better life instead of guarding a baby for 20 plus years.  That's a lot of responsibility for a boy that came to be from a damn piece of wood.  I did feel bad for Emma, left on her own, when she could have had someone always out there to take care of her.  If August had tried any time before Emma had entered Storybrooke to checkup on her or do the task he had been entrusted, I might have forgiven him.  But instead he waited until he started feeling his limbs turning back into wood to run to her side.  What a useless piece of wood he is!  Almost anyone (besides the Queen) would have been a better traveling companion for Emma.

I half wanted Emma to believe August in the woods, but I half wanted her to regard him as a nutcase because I just don't care to see him end up happy.  I don't know what the best way would have been for anyone to get Emma to believe at that point, but I don't think that showing her the tree that they exited out of to another world, was the best approach.  I did like that Emma figured out that August was the one who tampered with Henry's book.  Of course, that only made him look even less credible in her eyes.  I did expect, a little, that if Emma touched that tree she would get some kind vision of the magic world and start to believe.  Then again, Emma has no memories of that world since she was only there for a few minutes before they sent her away.  I guess she can't remember her mother's face or anything like that.

MM had a brilliant scene with Mayor Bitch, where she forgave her and both pitied her for her sad existence that only meant anything to herself through making others' suffer.  She totally detailed how pathetic and empty the Mayor's life is, and Mayor Bitch just had to stand there and listen.  Points for you, MM!  Later, when the Mayor was trying to get David in her clutches (no doubt to take a stab at MM), she was easily turned down.  All of the pity and talk of how it was fate that brought her to save him that cold night ain't gonna make him want her.  I hate David, but I give him credit for not being so stupid that he would think the universe wanted him to be with the Mayor.  Although, the misery she could have brought to his life could have been a good punishment for him.  Huh...  No, I wouldn't want MM to have to see Mayor Bitch being smug about having David when she couldn't.  It's better this way.  The Mayor might try some other scheme involving David later that might harm him.  That would be good.  Maybe if he almost dies, I might be happier that he's still living and still scum.

Emma started to drive off with Henry to leave Storybrooke!  Um...can Henry leave the town safely?  Also, that's pretty illegal, and I'm sure she'll be charged with kidnapping if they make it out of town.  If Emma thinks this is a good idea to get back at Mayor Bitch, she's crazier than she thinks August is.  I groaned when I saw her driving away.  This is going to blow up in her face so badly.

I think this episode was a little disappointing.  I wanted to see more of Mr. Gold getting August back for that crap he did last week, but he only seems to be teasing him more than anything.  August can frankly turn into a piece of wood right now and float away in a river.  He's just below David as my least favorite characters right now.  I think that Emma is going to be in a world of trouble if she manages to escape Storybrooke with Henry.  It disappoints me even more that she would resort to running instead of fighting at this point.  Something better get in her way as she tries to flee because I can't foresee her decision ending well for her or Henry.

Emma Meets The Mad Hatter

Once Upon A Time, S01E17

This week we were taken into Wonderland and learned about the back story of Jefferson, aka the Mad Hatter.  In Storybrooke, Emma tried to get MM back to her cell before the arraignment next morning, but got abducted by Jefferson instead who wouldn't let her go until she mads him a magic hat that would let him get back to his old world.

It probably took me longer than most people to figure out who Jefferson was supposed to be because I was only thinking of fairly tales that mostly came from the Grimm variety rather than other stories of magic and fantasy.  The last thing I thought he would be from was somewhere like Alice and Wonderland.  I've never heard of the Mad Hatter having a daughter (actually, I've never heard of his background story period), so the scenes of him and his daughter threw me for a loop.  Not even when Jefferson pulled out his magic hat to transport himself and the Queen (whom he called "Regina," something I thought was odd until later) into the passageway into different worlds.  I just simply thought he was a magician until they went through a mirror-like door, and they were walking through tall grass and mushrooms.  Yes, it took me until then to realize "This must be Wonderland" and the smoking caterpillar confirmed my theory.

I liked that through Jefferson and the Queen's recovery mission in the Queen of Hearts' garden we learned that the two queens were sort of rivals.  I thought perhaps they might have been sort of friends (both being unreasonably cruel rulers), but after the Queen revealed that the box she retrieved actually held her a shrunken version of her father (whom she returned to full-size with a piece of mushroom), it looked like they were considerably enemies.  It's unclear to me, however, why the Queen chose to get her father at that time (I assume it's around the time Snow was going to save Charming?) or how long the Queen of Hearts had kept him prisoner there.

Even though we don't have much time to understand the relationship between Jefferson and Grace, I felt for him when he was trapped in Wonderland and wouldn't be able to keep his promise to return to her in time for their tea party.  Queen Bitch had to rub it in that she was double-crossing him by throwing his own words back at him about family being important and said that if he really cared about Grace, he should have never left her in the first place.  She has a lot of nerve.  Worse than her basically sticking her tongue out at him as she left him there, Jefferson was taken to the Queen of Hearts who had his head cut off when he didn't answer her question.  She's about as sympathetic to Jefferson's desire to go home as the other queen was and told him if he wanted to go home to make another magical hat.  It was nice how they explained why he was a "mad hatter" by the fact that after being stuck in Wonderland he became obsessed with making another hat that would send him home (he looked damned crazy with the thousands of hats surrounding him in that one scene).  It was no wonder that in Storybrooke he was just as nutty (although I'm not sure why he has awareness of his former self unlike everyone else except Mr. Gold).

Storybrooke Jefferson is just as miserable, trapped in a beautiful house by himself while he can only look into other lives through telescopes (glad he's not using it for creepier reasons).  He was suspicious from the beginning, wandering around in the woods at night, but he seemed like just a lonely guy until he drugged Emma's tea.  His offer of a hot beverage was fishy to me anyhow, but Emma didn't seem to think so and drank with little hesitation.  When she woke up later tied and gagged (and also did he remove some of her clothes??), I'm sure she won't be making that mistake again.

I was pretty impressed by the way Emma smashed her cup with a pillow and used the shard to free herself.  Guess she wasn't a private detective for nothing.  She was at least skillful enough to not immediately get caught by a weirdo who was not only sharpening scissors (I don't care if he makes hats--was there a need to do that right then??) but had also tied up MM in another room.  When I saw that, I was hoping that Emma would throw a chair out a window and they would just hope for the best and jump out of there as soon as possible.  This has to be the creepiest situation that Emma and MM have been in thus far.

Things looked worse when Jefferson had them at gunpoint before the two could escape, and he seemed to only have plans for Emma (MM was tied up again, but he claimed it was for her own good).  I thought he was simply working for Mayor Bitch at first (based on their previous connection in the other world), but then it just turned out he wanted her to make him a working hat.  At this point, I was wondering if the line between Storybrooke and the magic world would be broken if Emma started to believe in what Jefferson was saying. I started thinking that this might be the moment when Emma truly believed what Henry was talking about, especially when she said that she would love to think that MM was her mother.  Instead, Emma was just playing around with Jefferson and whacked him over the head while his guard was down.

I wasn't too worried that Emma and MM would make it out all right, even when Jefferson was rolling around with Emma and almost looked like he was going to shoot her.  I didn't expect MM to knock him over with a chair and then kick him out of the window, though.  That was pretty cool.  However, they were less freaked out that Jefferson was gone when they looked below.  If it was me and a seemingly maniac like him was holding me against my will, I would have been a lot more cautious as to whether he was still around.  Of course, I'm pretty sure that Emma's hat had "worked" and he had been sent to another world, but MM and Emma didn't know that.  They were way too relieved at his disappearance.  Also, why did Emma keep the hat and throw it into her car?  Evidence?  She need a reminder of the horrible night she and MM shared?

I was unexpectedly touched when Emma was telling MM how important she was to her and asking for her to have faith in her (once again).  Since Emma gave her the car keys and let MM choose whether to flee or stay, I knew that MM would definitely stay.  It was a great moment when MM was in her cell right where she was supposed to be, and Mayor Bitch couldn't believe it.

I'm not sure what the deal is that Mayor Bitch and Mr. Gold have.  Is he just pretending he will help MM in court or is he leading the Mayor on about whether he is on her side?  I might just have missed something in another episode (possibly when Mr. Gold was in jail himself).  Either way, I'm worried about whether Mr. Gold will really help Emma out like he promised or if he's playing for Mayor Bitch's side (at least for now, anyway).

Emma held onto Henry's book at the end, so I'm starting to think she is little by little believing in the other world. Either that or she was really captivated by Jefferson's story and just had to see if what he told her matched up to anything in  the book.  I dunno.  Hopefully it does mean she will soon be a "believer."   She may be even sooner if Jefferson pops out of that hat sometime.

So MM should be going to court in the next episode, I guess.  If Mr. Gold isn't going to actually defend her, then she is going to be in deep shit.  I suspect that no matter what happens Emma will do whatever she can to make sure her "family" doesn't end up on death row.  I wonder if next time we will see Snow go to save Charming or if it will be about another lesser character.  Either way, as usual, I'm eagerly waiting to see this story unfold.