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Once Upon a Time

Have really gotten into this show with my kids. It's from a couple of "Lost" writers (and featuring references to it, like some of the numbers, an Apollo bar, things like that). Lots of layers to the plot so far, great discussion topics. Cliff and Stef, you would absolutely love this.

Father Roderick has a great group that dissect this on his SQPN network podcast.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Cliff Ravenscraft @GSPN on December 12, 2011 at 12:05pm

Enjoying it here in our household as well. Really enjoyed this week's episode. Can't believe how this show gets better and better as it gets deeper into the story. LOVE IT

Permalink Reply by Lon Winters on December 12, 2011 at 11:19pm

Spoiler Alert!

But before I get to that - of the two fairy tale based shows, I do like this one better. I'll check out the podcast. But my first mpression is that there isn't enough mystery to generate enough podcast materiali guess every show can't be another LOST, but it will be interesting to see what show actually will generate the next wave. Alcatraz looks like it could be in the running.

One mystery of OUAT, which may have just been answered, has been whether the Queen/Mayor and or Mr. Gold is aware of what's going on. Most things that they have said cold be taken either way, and there was some dialog during the acquisition of the curse that raised the question. Then after the first few shows or so, they changed the intro saying "...and only one of them knows the truth" while showing footage of the mayor. That could have referred to her, Gold or especially Henry. But did this last episode answer that? At the end, it was difficult to see which version of her they were showing.

Permalink Reply by Cliff Ravenscraft @GSPN on December 13, 2011 at 7:43am

i just assumed the end was showing her in the present. hmm "we're going to have to watch that again." LOL

Permalink Reply by Lon Winters on December 13, 2011 at 5:01pm

I'm pretty sure that's the case - i just got confused because of the fast transitions where some of them looked like it could have been her as the queen. That plus the pretty big reveal confirming she knows and is aware and Graham remembering who he was.

Permalink Reply by DougInAtlanta on December 13, 2011 at 9:16pm

And the video cuts and who's on-screen at the moment may just be a bit of misdirection if applied to the narration. I haven't seen the last episode yet, so trying to stay semi-spoiler-free (with exceptions for the GSPN forums, of course. :) )

Permalink Reply by DougInAtlanta on January 3, 2012 at 8:54am

Finally got around to watching the mid-season finale, and indeed I also believe we were seeing her in the present, she knows what's going on, and she killed (or did she, hmmm) the huntsman. Having seen Snow White's coffin at the bottom of the mine, and now the vault, it seems the fairy tale land is just under the surface, figuratively and literally.

Permalink Reply by Lon Winters on January 4, 2012 at 2:43pm

And that showed that there's a physical link between the two worlds as she was in the actual place where she originally stored the heart. I'm still confused about the "and only one person knows the truth" narration in the opening. Maybe I'm just over-thinking it. Henry knows, but not in the same sense. But does that mean that Rumple/Gold doesn't know? He's the one who brought Henry to her. Was it ever explained why she wanted a child - how would that fit into her plan?

Permalink Reply by Daniel J. Lewis on January 4, 2012 at 2:51pm

We've also debated the "Only one knows the truth, and only one can break her spell" line in our Once Upon a Time podcast. Since an early episode, I believed that Regina did know everything, except Emma's true identity. I ended up being right! *Does a little dance.*

We call Mr. Gold the most-intriguing character. He seems to know something and have some kind of power. Remember how flippantly he responded when the Evil Queen said, "You know that if this curse works, you won't remember any of this?" He responded, "Oh well. What's da harm?"

And I also think that Mr. Gold had some kind of power over David when he saw the windmill, or at least Mr. Gold knew what was happening.

Permalink Reply by Amanda From Michigan on January 4, 2012 at 3:03pm

I'm wondering if Regina didn't have to tell Mr. Gold some stuff after he showed up with Henry, the baby left by the wayside. I am sure he didn't show up with a baby out of the goodness of his heart. Because he delivered Henry, so to speak, he has a power over Regina that no one else has. I think she had to tell him the truth at that point. And he's smart and schemey. Maybe he figured it out.

Permalink Reply by DougInAtlanta on December 13, 2011 at 9:14pm

Trust me, Roderick has plenty of material to fill a podcast. They cut down the recap portion when they had to cut one episode into 2 1-hour parts, but they've scaled back recapping what we've already seen and deal with things like original fairy tales vs Disney's versions, the origin of some of the names, etc.

In that latter category, Roderick noted that Thomas, the brother of (who we thought was) James, means "twin". And that big of digging paid off when we found out the James was really David, the shepherd. (And *that*, of course, sparked discussion of parallels between him and the shepherd David in the Bible).

Permalink Reply by Lon Winters on December 14, 2011 at 2:31pm

I hadn't considered that, but yes, that is interesting stuff and definitely podcast worthy. One of the first questions I had when the show began was, "Did the original story or any other version go beyond where Snow White was awakened by the Prince?" My fiancée told me about a somewhat disturbing version she had read once - where they put iron boots on the queen and heted them over the fire and she died dancing, or something along those lines.

The misdirection you mention in your other reply, that's a good word for it. What I wasn't sure about was whether it was intentional. No more spoilers until you watch it!

Permalink Reply by Amanda From Michigan on December 15, 2011 at 11:26am

I find it charming...haha...but haven't paid much attention to it. I do think I'd like it more with a podcast to go along with it.