In fairy tale land Geppetto and Pinocchio are struggling
on a raft in a stormy sea to escape the whale. The raft goes down and Pinocchio
hands Geppetto the life preserver and jumps into the ocean – saving his father.
But on the shore, Pinocchio isn’t moving and is an inanimate puppet (dead? Hard
to take a pulse or be sure). In comes the Blue Fairy to turn him into a real
boy (no, a life real boy – turning him into a real corpse would be kind of
funny, but also extremely cruel) and so long as he remains brave, truthful and
unselfish he will remain a real boy.
Later Geppetto, Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket are visited
by the Blue Fairy bringing menacing news about the Evil Queen’s Curse – but there
is hope if Snow White’s child can be protected until she is 28, she will be
able to break the curse. To
protect her from the curse, she needs to be put in vessel carved from a magical
tree – which, of course, Geppetto can do.
They go to see the magic tree which he can turn into a
wardrobe – there’s enough magic in it to protect 2 people and the Blue Fairy
plans on it being Prince James and Snow White (pregnant with Emma) who will be
safe then at 28 be the one who fights the Evil Queen. But Geppetto is worried –
if they go to a world without magic, won’t Pinocchio turn back into wood? The
Blue Fairy doesn’t know – and Geppetto insists that Pinocchio takes the second
spot inside the wardrobe (much to the consternation of Jiminy Cricket).
Geppetto silences him by reminding him that it was
Jiminy who killed Geppetto’s parents. They agree to tell Snow White and the
Prince it can only protect one.
But the plan is scuppered because the saviour baby (Emma)
is to be born early – if Snow White doesn’t go through with her then who will
tell her who she is and make her believe in her magical destiny in a world
without magic? Geppetto still wants to protect her son – and decides that
Pinocchio can protect her and tell Emma her destiny – and in 28 years he must
make the saviour believe. He is put in the wardrobe and comes out in the real
world before the curse – followed soon by Emma as a baby.
But when they end up in the children’s home – a bleak and
uncaring place from the little we see, Pinocchio
runs away and leaves her behind
Emma, Augustus and Mary Margaret are installing some
nifty new bars and locks on the door, aware now of the skeleton keys Regina
carries around. There’s also some concern about Emma’s threat against Regina to
take Henry away from her – not just because Regina is a big bad enemy – but because
Emma will have to be Henry’s mother then.
To granny’s to meet Henry with Augustus – and Augustus
wants her to look at the big picture and learn more in order to tackle Regina –
since she doesn’t believe in the Fairy Tale. Augustus is one of the believers –
and he wants her to come with him for a day, but she has to meet Henry.
There’s a new story in the book – an unfinished story
about Pinocchio. And then we move to Augustus playing with Pinocchio’s hat!
Aha, we have his secret identity! And now he has compromised himself to Gold
after the last episode and is spying on Emma for him – is that brave, truthful
and unselfish? Apparently not because his leg is turning to wood (on the plus
side, that’s really going to help convincing Emma something’s going on)
At Gold’s shop, Augustus runs into Geppetto leaving and,
yes Gold knows who Augustus is now and his relationship with Geppetto. With more
and more people knowing the truth (or admitting they know the truth) the line
between the fairy tale land and the real world is blurring. Augustus still
believes he can make Emma believe – but not while she’s focused on a custody
battle – so she wants Gold (who Emma is planning on hiring) to direct her to
Augustus.
And Gold refuses to take Emma’s case, on the excuse that
they can’t win and it would just hurt Henry more. Which, somewhat confusingly,
sends her to Augustus as her last possible option. Who then decides to tell
Emma his own story.
Augustus takes Emma to the diner where she was found as a
child by a 7 year old boy – by Augustus. I’m not sure of the acting here, on
the one hand, stunned and overwhelmed would fit, but it looks a little frozen and
wooden (TOTALLY UNINTENDED PUN. Honest). He also tells her about the blanket Emma was
found in – proving he was that child. Then tells her she was found in a tree
and that Henry’s book is allll true. And that he’s Pinocchio - and Pinocchio’s story hasn’t been finished
because it’s still going. Shockingly enough (and ye gods he actually looks
shocked!) Emma doesn’t believe it so he starts pouting because she doesn’t
believe. And it turns out when Emma decided to come back to Storybrook – that was
when he started turning into wood. Because rather than helping Emma – he was
out there having fun and breaking that whole “be unselfish” thing – so he shows
her his wooden leg. But all Emma sees is a flesh leg – she doesn’t see the
wood.
They then have the oddest argument in the world – which becomes
about Emma being in denial because she doesn’t want to be responsible for
everyone’s happiness. She doesn’t want that vast responsibility, she doesn’t want
to be the champion.
Feeling like a failure he confesses how he feels like a
failure as a son… to Geppetto – who reassures him in a touching scene that adds
Augustus as Geppetto’s assistant.
Emma decides to fix her problems by luring out Henry in the middle of the night, asking if he wants to live with her. And when he agrees – she wants to run away from Storybrook entirely.
Meanwhile, at the school Mary Margaret is trying to
verbally duel with Regina, but her Wet Lettuceness makes her seem more snippy
than cutting or at least it seems this way – but then she gives Regina an “apology”
which must be like a gut shot. I think it’s unintentional partly because there’s
no way Mary Margaret could know how perfectly targeted those words are and
partly because she’d be far too Wet Lettucey to ever deliver such an epicly
crafted take down. (And I say, because I really should say it more often, Lana
Parilla, the actor who plays Regina, is truly excellent). She follows this up
with a conversation with Henry that gets her slapped down again.
Then it’s David’s
turn – Regina is stuck with a car full of shopping and a dead battery and David
comes and gives her a lift home with her shopping. She tries to invite him for
dinner but he makes an excuse – and even Hanry is having dinner elsewhere – leaving
Regina all alone yet surrounded by these super-nice, friendly people who,
gosh-darnit, would have been such good friends if she weren’t soooo mean. Yes
it’s laid on really thick, but I still kind of admire how it’s been done. But
Regina’s wretched state encourages David to stay for dinner. But it is just a pity dinner – and when he
leaves Regina throws a glass at her mirror in rage.
Storywise I loved the many back-references in this
episode – as we approach the end of the season, all the old stories are being
linked in. I was also really glad to see how Augustus both aged (when none of
the denizens of Storybrook have except those who left – Emma, Augustus and
Henry) and how he knows the truth. I can feel the conclusion getting closer and it's actually reached a stage where I'm really eager for each episode
But that argument between Emma and Augustus about Emma
not wanting all the responsibility for everyone’s happiness and everyone
counting on her. Ooookaaaay… how about the guy with the flesh leg trying to
convince you it’s made of wood and saying you were magically transported by a
tree? I mean, isn’t the argument more “this is ridiculous and impossible – how can
you possibly EXPECT me to believe this?!” Not “I don’t want to believe, the
implications are too much!”
There is still very little inclusion in this show and
with just 2 episodes left I doubt we’re going to see more. There are no GBLT
characters and the recurring POC are Sidney/Magic Mirror/Genie who are
eternally dedicated to Regina as a servant – and slave.
Regina is played by a Latina actress – but she’s cast as
a villain, which isn’t much of a step up even though the character is very
compelling. And that’s about it for recurrent inclusion. We had one POC fairy
way back in the beginning but even she died (after serving)
I also don’t like the reference to Augustus hanging
around in Phuket when he felt Emma return – Phuket (and Thailand in general)
has a horribly stereotyped reputation as some kind of hedonistic paradise in
western culture and fiction and this played into it not only because Augustus
was slacking off there rather than helping Emma – but this is Pinocchio. Part
of the Pinocchio story is that he was led astray to an island full of depraved
and hedonistic pleasure (albeit, in the Disney version that’s smoking, drinking
and playing pool). To have Pinocchio slacking off on an island stereotyped for
its hedonistic pleasures… yeah I see a parallel there.
