Once Upon a Time
Season 1 episode 5-
"That Still Small Voice"
Hello gentle blog readers (I know there is at least three of you); I
start this recap with an apology. No, you have not accidently sat in a time-travelling
Delorean, following the shooting of your eccentric scientist friend. It seems
that like Cinderella,
my fairy godmother too, was murdered by Rumplestiltskin for her magic wand, and
instead of going to the ball, I still had to work at all hours of the day,
therefore I very far behind on my Once Upon a Time and The Vampire Diaries episode
recap/reviews, I'm really sorry! But on the flip side that means you get double
the reading this week, YAY! I know you’re very excited, so let’s begin looking
at a magical episode of OUAT, in which we learn that you have to be very
careful what you wish for, as you might end up causing a natural disaster or be
turned into a CGI cricket.
Once upon a blue fairy, Jiminy cricket was not born a cricket. That sound right there, is a thousand Disney writers scrambling wondering whether their research was wrong. In this very special flashback, of what I assume is the beginning of Pinocchio’s story, Jiminy spends the first half of his life travelling around with his creepy, puppeteer, con-artist parents, Helena Bonham-Carter (Carolyn Hennesy) and Mayor Wilkins (Harry Groener- quick someone tell Buffy the high school thing didn't work) wishing he could be free of their evil doing ways and be free like the crickets.
At a town his parents have chosen to "entertain" Jiminy meets little
boy (Michael Strusievici) who will have no importance later on in the episode
and who is very excited to see the puppet show. In a moment of kindness, the
young chap offers Jiminy an umbrella(!) and demonstrates to him just how far
down the rabbit hole, away from being the good person he wants to be, he has
gone.
Not strong enough to just run away to a different circus like a grown
man, he instead turns to our favourite imp Mr Rumples. T. Iltskin, wheeler and dealer, since the beginning of the show. In a fantastic
moment that looked straight out of a storybook (not Storybrooke) Jiminy brings
his parents stolen wares to Rumple to trade for a thread of gold. Because he
was sitting at a spinning wheel, spinning threads of gold. See what they did
there. Why Rumple was trading stuff for gold is not addressed, but I think we
should just take a moment and be grateful it's not newborns. A sucker for a
lost cause he can exploit Rumple trades a Jiminy a vial of magical liquid for whatever
it turns his parents into. Why? Because it’s awesomely and creepily vague,
that's why.
After robbing a young, happy couple blind in exchange for some fake
medicine, Jiminy finally having had enough, tosses Rumple’s magic brew at his
wicked parents. His parent’s final scam it seems has been played on him. His
Father swapped the real magic with the fake magic and now the young, happy
couple are creepy, wooden puppets. Just then, when you think it can't get any
worse, the little boy, who gave Jiminy his signature umbrella, walks in the
door looking for his parents.
Let’s leave Jiminy, as he reflects on how badly he messed up and move over to Storybrooke where his alter ego, Archie Hooper spends the episode reflecting on how badly he keeps messing up.
In the "real" world Archie is still treating Henry, while
Henry is trying to recruit Archie to Operation Cobra. It involves a lot of
staring and awkward pauses. Regina, not happy that her son still thinks she's
evil or because she knows she's evil and doesn't want anyone else to know (it
will do your head trying to figure it out, trust me) bullies Archie into
crushing her son's "delusions" a move which absolutely destroys Henry
and leads him into the arms of his real mother, Emma.
Emma, who
recently expected a job as deputy in the Storybrooke police department,
starts this episode, causing trouble for Sheriff Graham, before she even gets
her badge.
-Side bar- Is it actually
possible for someone with no police background to come in and just be a deputy
or is this something we just have to go along with? -Answers welcome-
As she complains about her wardrobe
options to the ever so stylish Sheriff, she cautiously accepts the metaphor of
her choosing to stay in town, I mean her new police badge, an act that causes a
nearby mine to sink into the ground! It goes to show how important it is to
choose the right accessory.
This is where our two (or
three if you count Fairy Tale Land) meet. As it happens in all TV show
small towns everyone goes to where the action is. Emma and Sheriff, meet Madam
Mayor at the diseater site, as she is desperately trying to cover up the hole.
That is when she’s not giving the sink eye to Emma over her new job (it’s because
of Henry, not jealously over the Sheriff Graham, because remember that didn’t
happen.)
Henry convinced that down in the sunken mine there is the proof
he needs to convince Artie of his fairytale past. Upset and determined, he goes
into the mine and what should happen, but nearly as soon as he goes in, he and
gets trapped inside with Mr Hooper.
On the outside there is a power struggle between Regina and
Emma until both women find that they have common ground in the fact that they
both want to save Henry.
On the
inside Archie and Henry have a heart to heart, where Archie confesses that he
was pressured into crushing Henry’s heart and mind into teeny tiny little
pieces. Like in Fairytale land he is trying but failing to be the good man he
wants to be. It’s like the writers are trying to
draw parallels between the stories or something
While in Storybrooke, Archie learns an important lesson from Henry,
that he should always let his conscience
be his guide. An idea that infuses him with such new confidence, that he
straight up blackmails the mayor into submission as soon as he is rescued.
I really, really liked this episode. From Jiminy’s parents
wonderfully twisted dialogue to Archie saving himself from certain death by the hook of his famous umbrella. Both worlds were very well done separably, but
tied together perfectly. The new back story for Jiminy was an interesting
development and brought a fresh take to a character we already know. The only
bits I found to be off-putting, was the fact that Jiminy while it might be true
to the weak nature they were trying to give to the character, never discussed
the option of just running away. The other was that the dialogue between Henry
and Archie in the cave while sweet and poignant, was a bit ham fisted, spelling
out the notion of the small voice inside over and over. Other than that A pluses
and congratulatory stickers all around, well done. It was touching, it was
funny, it sweet, just like a fairytale.
Extra Fables:
- In other news, while Emma may be growing closer to her own son,
her parents are in a bit of a mess. Mary Margaret and David Nolan are flirting
over games of hangman and therapeutic walks, all while he is trying to remember
his old life with his wife, Kathryn. Things get a little too close to ‘whoa I’m
falling for a married man’ territory for Miss M, so she gets out of the line of
fire by resigning from the hospital. This is a sensible move on her part, but
as she is a fictional character on a TV show, any logical decision is not going
to last for very long.
- Unlike Jiminy and Henry, I
don't like the sound of crickets, because the only time I usually hear them is
after I try telling a joke. See, that's them now.
- I really liked the seeing the friendships between all the
Fairytale characters in Storybrooke, last
week it was Red Riding Hood (she’s Red Riding Hood, they are not even trying to
hide it) and Cinderella and this week it was Archie (Jiminy Cricket) and Marco
(Gepetto) which has carried over from Fairytale land.
- Pongo
the Dalmatian was back and it might just be me, but didn’t Regina’s office look
suspiciously like Cruella de Vi’l’s.
- Is Regina playing the
part of a worried mother or do you actually think she was really concerned for
Henry’s safety? And what does the fact that Snow White’s coffin is sitting at
the bottom of the mine mean?
That’s it for now, until I finish my next post everyone,
always let your conscious be your guide and make sure that when you wish upon a
star the Fairy in charge does not take things so literally.
If you do decide to follow me
at Hanniebee852 on Twitter or
here at Pop and Fizz, I cannot guarantee that a sink hole won’t appear outside
of town and threaten to ruin your evil plans- it’s just one of those things.
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