OUAT 6.5 Street Rats

• I really expected this episode to be a “let’s seeing how many times and characters we can shoehorn into saying the phrase A Whole New World.” I was so prepared that I started a counter in my notes and . . . well they didn’t do what I expected. OUAT was oddly focused tonight.

The A Story- Emma’s Whole New World: Honesty

• Tonight, Emma leads Archie out into the woods to follow the red bird that is friends with the Oracle who started this whole thing. They find the Oracle dead and someone is running away, but not before Emma tackles the mystery person, that is none other than Princess Jasmine.

  

  "Emma, you've been seeing dead people?" Archie

  After being hauled down to the jail, and because Charming is co-sheriff, Jasmine tells the Charming bunch who she really is. Emma is stoked because she saw the movie Aladdin, but alas, nothing is ever as good in real life. Elsewhere, the Evil Queen wants to know what Emma is seeing in her vision and when Archie refuses to divulge the info, she turns into Archie to find out herself.

  

  This season, we get double the Archie!

  Oh, and she sent sent real Archie, bound and gagged, to be babysat by Zelena, since that is all she is good for this season. It takes no time for Emma to begin spilling secrets to faux Archie, before he/she followed her back to Chez Charming where Hook and Regina were also hanging out for some reason.

  

  The Charming Bunch!

  Faux Archie tells everyone Emma has a secret, forcing Emma to her everyone the truth. #SwanQueen worries about their future, so they make a date for later in Regina’s Vault. At the vault, Regina makes Emma a drink, that not only quenches her thirst, but will lead them to Aladdin.

  

  "It's a love potion-I mean will lead us to Aladdin!" -Regina
  #SwanQueen

  It leads them to a cave, under the vault or somewhere, and they find the remains of Aladdin. Jasmine is distraught and Emma wants to mope. Then all of a sudden, Aladdin appears and gives Emma an out of being the Savior. Emma doesn’t want to literally sever her Savior powers, but Hook has other plans for her. Also, Aladdin is in longer a savior which is going to be a huge joke on Jasmine!

  

  Sketchy Hook, plotting to cut Emma's Savior powers . . .

The B Story- Aladdin: Once Upon A Time Addition

Agrabah is literally out in the middle of the desert!

• The flashback this week focused on Aladdin and it was nowhere near as good as the movie. We followed Aladdin and Jasmine on a quest to find the Diamond in the rough, which lucky for them was right next door in the only cave near their little town of Agrabah. They find it super easily but the stone is actually what gave Aladdin his Savior Powers.

  

  "Good thing your cave of wonders in right outside of town," Aladdin

  Jafar appeared and gave Aladdin a pair of shears, showed him his future that was pretty much death, and told him that the shears would literally sever his magic from him. Aladdin doesn’t do that, yet, (and will later give said shears to Emma) but he goes on to defeat Jafar, save Jasmine from him hourglass prison and save the king from Jafar’s spell. Jasmine also friendzoned him, like three times before they parted as he went on the search for Jafar who was now on the lamb.

  

  Like sands through the hour glass, are the days of Jasmine's lives!

*****Extra Tidbits*****

• Regina asks why is magic always literal on this show? As fans we want to know too!
• Henry could solve all of this if he just WROTE THE STORIES! Gah, Henry be useful for once.

  

  Pretty sure Goldilocks is giving the Evil Queen her manicure!

• I love that we get to see baby Robyn weekly, but where is Snow and Charmings grapefruit? Is he still with Blue? For that matter where are Blue and Granny?

  

  Archie's last gig as a human (before being turned back into a cricket) is babysitting!

• I love that when Jasmine told Aladdin Agrabah needed the savior, his exact words “yeah, about that . . .” and the scene cuts away! LOL!
• I really want to see the untold story of Aurora. Literally she, Maleficent and Lily are all still in town somewhere, presumably hanging out with the Giant and Hansel and Gretel.

• That’s it for this week. Next week looks to be a Hook episode as we tackle 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. (Sigh).  

Street Rats

I'm already concerned...

This week on OUAT, Aladdin and Jasmine's backstory. All of it. In one episode. I guess.

Yeah, you. Your story.

Jasmine tracks down Aladdin, a thief, to help her save her kingdom from Jafar. To do this means to walk through mounds of dirt for hours to find a cave that holds the weapon that can defeat Jafar. Turns out that Aladdin is the real weapon and their little hike was probably pointless. Well, not totally pointless. They spent most of the time flirting/bickering, so a Charming would tell you they discovered true love. Speaking of the Charmings, why does every guest to Storybrooke have to be bombarded by a Charming lecturing them on how they know best?

Poor Jasmine. Especially poor Jasmine because it's Henry. What am I saying? Is one Charming really worse than another? They all have the same agenda so it doesn't really matter which one you're stuck with.

There there, Jasmine. It'll all be over soon.

The guest of the season always ends up at the Charming loft at some point to brainstorm about plans on how to save the town (themselves) from the big bad of the season. In Street Rats, this is still the case, but unfortunately for them one of their trusted members is the evil queen in disguise and they spoon feed her their plan and information. It takes them a little while to piece together the clues of Archie's disappearance to figure out it was really the evil queen in their apartment. 

Poor Archie, though. They figure out that he is missing, and they know that the evil queen is pretending to be him. They have to know this can't be good for Archie, wherever he is. They didn't seem to care too much, in this episode anyway, that he's gone and little do they know he was being held captive in Zelena's farm house, forced to baby sit Robin at times until they turned him back into a cricket. If it doesn't affect Snow, Henry, Emma, Regina, David, or Hook (listed as top priority within the group to lowest priority) you're pretty much screwed. The Charmings aren't gonna come after you right away. 

Jasmine is lucky that Aladdin has something in common with Emma and they figured it out, otherwise her problem would have been knocked down on the list of priority issues of Storybrooke. The Charmings set out to find Aladdin for Emma Jasmine. They use magic and they find his remains and that pin thing Jasmine gave him at the beginning of the episode, so they all accept his death. Emma gets really mopey for a while and asks to be left alone, which really hurts Hook's feelings.

But then Aladdin creepily shows up from behind some wall. 

He talks about some scissors that can cut one's ties with their savior status. Aladdin used them and then Agrabah fell and he blamed himself. Anyway, he gives the scissors up to Emma, who doesn't do anything with them until she consults the rest of the family.

Tender Full House moments every week.

They decide Emma won't use the scissors so she gives them to her most trusted companion Regina Hook, and he claims to have buried them below the sea.

NOT! They're really hiding in his leather jacket pocket. Hopefully he stores them somewhere a bit more safe, but we'll see.

Emma, you seriously should have given them to Regina.

Overall this wasn't my least favorite episode. Jasmine and Aladdin are not the most exciting characters with the most exciting stories, but at least some savior progress was made. We know Aladdin is alive and where he has been, although the timeline is so screwy in this show that I couldn't tell you for how long. We know that he is no longer a savior, and we know Emma could potentially give up that status if she chooses. We know that Emma is going to break up with Hook pretty soon. So, yeah. Not too bad.

See you next week for Dark Waters!

GMW 3.15 Halloween Terror #3

• 

  No one was happy to do another Halloween Terror Episode!

  The promos for the episode show that it has some potential. A world where Riley and Maya, and seemingly no one else are friends. This could be good . . . . and then . . . .
• We begin in out normal/present time. Corey wishes his class Happy Halloween, Riley and friends say they outgrew it. Lucas makes a joke about he and Riley being the most important relationship, which every laughs at because we all know it isn’t true. Auggie enters dressed as a ghost, announced the third Halloween special, to which every groans (what if this happened and was not suppose to make it into the episode?).

  

  Spooky . . .

• This takes us back to the . . . . minis- thank God they didn’t speak. Mini Maya never met Mini Riley because the bay window was closed.

  

  These monsters returned . . . 

  Riley’s best friend is that stupid bear, Maya is Riley’s bully, Lucas is a lone cowboy because Zay never moved to NY, Farkle never evolved from season 1, Smack was just stereotypical nerd, circa Save the Bell era, and Corey only taught class, not life lessons. Topanga stayed the same and for some reason, Auggie was never born, but Ava and her new boyfriend Dewy/Doy still annoyed hung out with Topanga.

  

  He's Farkle time, get it?
• Riley asks if her class can evolve around her and her friends, but Corey tells her all that he teaches are names and dates. Maya the bully makes Riley do her homework, but if the grade is too good, she threatens to beat up Riley.

  

  "Why are you wearing a large bow?" -Maya

  Cowboy Lucas encourages Riley to not be a sheep or duck, and be eaten by the wolves aka Maya.

  

  Lucas breaks the news that he is Riley's love interest . . .

• For some reason, halfway throughout the episode, the story becomes, because Riley and Maya never met, Auggie was never born, so narrator Auggie is in danger of not existing. His first step to correct things is to try to put Farkle and Smackle back together. This fails and results in a heartbroken Smackle.

  

  Smackle channels her inner Violet from Saved by the Bell . . .

  He then tries to restore Riley and Maya’s friendship, but it too fails. The next day in class, upon being called on, Maya sets up a time to beat Riley up. This scene was actually my favorite.

  

  Notice, Riley is just coloring in class . . .

• Riley later feels everything is wrong in the world and it’s all her fault. Agreed. Corey gives her advice that changes her and begins to wonder if he should begin teaching this way.
• Ava breaks up Dewy/Doy, and ghost Auggie tells her he loves her, but she of course doesn’t hear it.

  

  "Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" Topanga

• In the quick Disney tie everything up in the last two minutes, Riley reasons with Maya and they become friends, Farkle and Smakcle suddenly become interested in one another and ghost Auggie is no longer ghost Auggie, as Riley and friends now see him wandering around as a ghost.

  

  This is exactly how I see their relationship . . . awkward . . .

  The episode comes full circle when we jump back into the past and see Corey open Mini Riley’s bay window so Maya can crawl in. The End!

  

  "Check out this bear I stole like 3 episodes back." -Mini Riley

*****Extra Tidbits*****

• In case you missed it, the show literally spelled out the secret of life for us: “people change people!”

  

  "People Change People" - GMW writers

• If Auggie never existed, why would Ava and Dewy/Doy still barge into the Matthews apartment? Better yet, why would Topanga let them?

IF I WROTE THE EPISODE

This one, like many before it, had so much potential and again, failed to live up to what it should have been. I would have just started out with the narration of what would the world be like if some things never happened. I would even still keep Mini Maya going to the bay window and not being able to get in and cut back to the current time. Corey would not be their teacher because no one was friends and planned to petition to get him to the high school. Since it’s Halloween (and because William Daniels isn’t getting any younger) Feeny would be their special guest teacher just because the class is still awful. I liked Maya and Lucas as bully and lone cowboy (though I’d be tempted to just make Lucas awful or maybe a nerd because he was too afraid to do a sport without a friend). I’d make Smackle the most popular girl in school and Farkle the soccer star of the school.

I actually liked the Auggie having to correct things in order to exist, which says something when Auggie is the best part of the show. This easily could have been a two-parter, especially since it aired halfway through October. In my episode(s) Ava would have only been seen in passing, but Dewy would not be a part of it (or exist). Finally, when everything seems bleak and like this new world is the new normal, Auggie fixes Riley and Maya’s friendship and he wakes up from the bad dream. The End!


Girl Meets World: Of Terror 3

This spooktacular edition of GMW was most disappointing. Doy, baby Riley, baby Maya, Auggie in every other scene, and Doy again made this an almost unbearable episode for me. I don't want to be too harsh, but it really was one of my least liked episodes this show has ever produced. 


The episode was a dramatic interpretation of what life would be like for Riley and her friends if she had never befriended Maya. It's a fun idea and this had the potential to be a really cool episode, but then this happened...

I can't stand this kid. Have I mentioned that? So we see Maya at the window trying to get in, but a singing Riley that is playing with her teddy bear has no idea. They don't become friends and life at their high school is very different because of it. 1. Farkle never had his moment of change. In Girl Meets Yearbook, Farkle and Riley are both disappointed with their superlatives and together they attempt to remake themselves, but since Maya and Riley never became friends, the group never was. Donnie Barnes and Morotia M. Black never had an impact on Farkle or Riley's personalities.

2. Riley's situation, I think, is very similar to Farkle's. She never had her moment of change. She never created the Morotia M. Black persona and her world was one continuous rainbow. Berry the bear and big hairbows are staples in her new life.

3. Maya is much darker. She never met the light in her life and the result is darkness. She is kind of a bully, forcing Riley to do her homework and specifically requesting Cs. She doesn't like Riley in this new reality, but she still kind of pokes fun at Lucas.

4. Lucas started channeling his inner cowboy. This one I don't really understand because when we first met Lucas on the subway, before he was friends with either of the girls, he didn't dress that way. Oh well, I don't really care because he wasn't a huge part of this episode anyway so I'm just going to accept it.

5. Zay wasn't there, but he was mentioned. Lucas mentioned that he use to be friends with Zay and that Zay never moved up north from Texas.

6. Smackle basically got a wardrobe change, a runny nose, and orthodontic headgear because clearly two people never becoming friends would have impacted the genetics of her teeth. It's strange to me that she is even a student at their school in the new reality because she only moved when she became friends with Farkle and the rest of the gang, but their friend group never happened so she would not have been invited to come to their public high school if it wasn't for that. I don't think she should have been in this episode because her situation seems a little similar to Zay's.

7. Corey was also different. He didn't believe that people changed people and he had developed a liking of bow ties.

It's possible I would have liked this episode more if Auggie and his crew hadn't had their chunk of story. Although I did enjoy this creepy thing..

But why did Doy and Ava (but mostly why Doy) have a part? To include Auggie I assume, but I HATE Doy. That kid isn't cute, he is obnoxious. Let me give a shout out to Ava, though! Kicking that little horror out of the apartment and shutting the door in his face almost made her part in the show completely redeemable. Thank you, Ava. Thank you for doing what some of us have been wanting to do for a while now. I hope that moment was symbolic. I hope it represents the door closing on Doy's future on the show. Please don't ever open that door ever again. 

Well, I guess we're off for a few weeks until Girl Meets Her Monster premieres in November. I'm ready to see Riley and Topanga have any type of interaction at all, that includes fighting. 

See you soon! 

OUAT 6.4 Strange Case

OUAT 6.4 Strange Case

• Tonight we got the untold story of Jekyll and Hyde. I’m just not as excited about it as I was Cinderella. I think this is because we had their story initially last season and that was so soon.

The A Story- There’s Something About Mary

• Jekyll continues his work creating a cure to rid Storybrook of Hyde and the Evil Queen in Dr. Frankenstein’s lab, sans Dr. Frankenstein. Since everyone else is too busy to guard him, they leave him in the very capable hands of Grumpy and Doc- yes everyone else was indeed way too busy.

  

  "I might need someone who can actually protect me!" -Dr. Jekyll

  It isn’t long before the Evil Queen and Hyde show up to take the formula. With the wave of her hand, the dwarves are useless. They steal it, but later when Gold and Regina check back in on them, Jekyll reveals that he hid the real formula, to which Gold, using Jekyll’s heart as leverage then steals. In the flashback, it is revealed Dr. Jekyll wanted to desperately get into a scientific academy and impress his love interest Mary.

  

  Mary is quite interested in Hyde!

  The academy, nor Mary have interest in him. Enter Rumple, who adds the finishing touch to Jekyll’s serum, thus turning him into Hyde. Mary falls for Hyde, Hyde blackmails the academy and Hyde spends the the night with Mary.

  

  Mr. Hyde or the ghost of Abe Lincoln?

  Just one problem, when Mary and Jekyll wake up together, the both freak out, which leads to Jekyll killing Mary, thus making him the true monster.

  

  "Bye Felicia!" Dr. Jekyll

The B Story- Tapped in the Closet Jolly Roger Starring Belle   

• Gold is having trouble focusing on work since his wife, Belle moved in with Hook. So, he gives himself a haircut (which looks infinite times better on Robert Carlyle but now we have Rumple wigs that look weird).

  

  BAM!

  The Evil Queen and Hyde stop by to take a necklace. Gold reminds them they agreed to hurt Belle, but the Evil Queen takes delight in saying that she only made that deal with Rumple, Hyde did not. Fearful for her life, Gold rushes to the Jolly Roger, where Hook has packed his treasure chest to leave and move in with Emma. Before he goes, Hook gives the love of his life Belle a conch to call him whenever she is lonely is in danger.

  

  "Now no one can trace our secret calls to each other," Hook

  Gold casts a protection spell that doesn’t allow Belle to leave the ship, and no one else seems to really care. Jekyll hops the boat, angry at Rumple and wanting to make him pay, tries to kill Belle. He smashes the conch phone from her lover Hook and chases her to the deck. While this is happening, Gold stabs Hyde with his Dark One dagger but it doesn’t kill him. Just as Jekyll is ready to kill Belle, her true love Hook saves her and impales Jekyll. Hyde is preparing to command Gold with the dagger when he dies too, because Jekyll is the original Hyde and if he dies, Hyde dies.

  

  Whoops!

  Gold takes responsibility for creating the “beast” that was Jekyll and Hyde because he had hoped the serum would have helped Belle fall in love with him back in the enchanted forest.

  

  No one threatens his Belle, but him!

The C Story- Snow White Goes Back to School

• Snow started teaching again this week. Was it because school is just starting back in Storybrook or because it’s a convenient plot point? You decide. She has a teacher assistant named Shirin, who is better known as Princess Jasmine.

  

  LOL "no one knows who I am," Jasmine

  Snow is teaching the kids from the Land of Untold Stories but what subject she is teaching is beyond me. She’s kind of awful but redeems herself by teaching archery in the end. Also, Jasmine meets secretly with the Oracle from the first episode to get help to find Aladdin, who is apparently also in Storybrook.

*****Extra Tidbits*****

• So, Henry has a new girlfriend or is this the same one from Arthur’s kingdom?
• Why weren’t Charming and Emma guarding Jekyll?

  

  "We don't actually contribute to Sotorybrook anymore," said Emma!

• #Swanqueen met up to make secret promises to each other- true story!!!

  

  "We have not shared enough scenes this season," Said Regina.
  Emma nodded in agreement.
  #SwanQueen

• Belle and Gold had their 585,000th argument about the same things as before.
• Seriously, what class is Snow teaching? Does she even know

I hope we’re ready for to play a game next week! How many times will OUAT characters work in the phrase “A Whole New World?” Predictions?

Strange Case

This week on OUAT, Snow finally got to start teaching again! I'm really glad because she wasn't going to be able to focus on life until she was back in a classroom. I'm curious though, is Snow qualified to teach? I guess they were taught Newton' s laws of motion in the enchanted forest? I don't know, but she certainly managed a range of reactions from her students.

From, what do we call this, shock?

To cynicism, maybe?

Anyway, all of her students failed their physics test so Snow decided to take things to the next level. Archery level. And now Snow is out there shooting arrows with her class. Is it really a good idea to take this lot out to shoot arrows at failed tests? I don't know. Hope nobody gets hurt! 

 We also learned more about Jekyll and Hyde in Strange Case, and then they died, which is really alright with me. See ya later, boys.

Back in their (Jekyll /Hyde) land, Jekyll was trying to get into some kind of academy where they would sponsor his research, I guess, and he could live happily ever after as a scientist with his love, Mary. Jekyll was in love with a woman named Mary, but he was too timid to tell her how he really felt. Rumple somehow made his way across realms and time to find Jekyll and his serum. I guess he knew Jekyll was working on a personality separating serum and he wanted it to rid himself of his "weak" side that had feelings for Belle. Anyway, Jekyll's serum was nearly complete, minus some magic to kickstart it, which Rumple was able to provide. Once the juice was functioning as intended, Rumple encouraged Jekyll to split his personality so that he could win over Mary with his more assertive side. 

Notice how I am completely unsure of everything I just saw in this episode. Words like probably and phrases like I guess dominate. There are really no established rules when it comes to time and realm jumping, so I get lost trying to make sense of it all in my head while watching. Does anyone else have this problem?

Anyway, back to Jeckyll and Hyde. Using Hyde to get to Mary actually ends up working because Mary has a thing for Hyde. Jekyll discovers it and has a little bit of a freak out and kills Mary by pushing her out of a window. 

Turns out Jekyll is actually a villain too. He's been seeking revenge on Rumple all this time and he was waiting for Belle to come out of her box so that he could kill her. I guess he blames Rumple for Mary's death so this should even them out. Too bad for Jekyll because Hook was there to save Belle. I'm actually really excited about this one because I have a feeling Hook might try to cash on this with Rumple later. It could be interesting. 

I know Shane is a fan of Hook and Belle, Book. I have to say, after this week I am more convinced. Hook is spending a lot of time with Belle and they seem to enjoy each other's company aboard the Jolly Roger. Rumple and Belle are toxic anyway. This relationship has just become too creepy for me. Especially after this episode where we saw Rumple threaten her and lock her on a ship. Here's to hoping they never find their way back to one another. 

#FreeBelle

The big reveal in this episode was the discovery of how to take down the evil queen. When Jekyll was poked through, Hyde also died. Hyde wasn't aware that this would be the outcome so I'm not sure if the evil queen knows that killing Regina would kill her too. 

This was a really heavy Jekyll/Hyde episode with a dash of Snow and a hint of Jasmine. There were no real notable savior or evil queen moments. I'm sure in time that will change. Until then, I will most certainly look forward to it.