Once Upon a Time is Magical, and OMG BELLE!!! (Spoilers & Speculation)

I always have friends telling me, "Have you seen [some television show]? Oh my God, you have to watch it! You'd love it!" They are always enthusiastic, but I have people telling me this for a whole number of shows all the time.

As it is, I don't generally watch a lot of television as it airs. I'm not always home in the evenings so it can be hard to keep up with a show, but the ones that I do keep up with I remain loyal to. I also have Netflix, which is one of the best investments ever.

There was one show recently that kept coming up over and over again, though, and that was Once Upon a Time on ABC. Initially this irritated me because, well, I felt singled out for my love of Disney and fairy tales. It didn't help that, when someone would describe the show to me, they would say, "Since you love Disney so much this would definitely be a show up your alley."

Yes, obviously I love Disney, but I don't enjoy getting lumped into a category - and just because I generally love Disney doesn't mean that I love everything Disney. In all honesty, I only own 1 Mickey Mouse shirt, and that was gifted to me. I mostly collect princess merchandise. On top of everything, the way people would say that I would like it bothered me. I felt like they saw me as some sort of stereotype, almost as though they were somewhat talking down to me.They wouldn't actually tell me anything about the plot or the characters, not even who was in it - just that I would enjoy it because a bunch of Disney characters were running around.

But the last person that talked to me about the show was also a Disney fan, and asked me if I had Netflix. When I said yes, she told me that the entire first season was there to watch. This appealed to me because I knew that I could sit in front of my television and watch everything back to back if I enjoyed it. So, one day, when I had nothing to do, I decided to give the pilot of the series a chance and just watch.

The pilot got me hooked (pun somewhat intended).

I love that Snow White is a strong woman who is not afraid to use a sword. I love that Prince Charming (and P.S., in Disney lore in the OG Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs the prince is just named as "Prince," while in Cinderella the prince's name is "Prince Charming") is a charming kinda guy with a compelling story and a great personality. I love how I truly sympathize for Regina and everything that she's been through, and hope that she does redeem herself for Henry. I love how a character can turn out to be more than one fairytale character. I love how layered the show is, and how much more we still can find out about the characters and their stories. I love that it is a show that doesn't overly PC itself, and how focused it is on parent-child relationships. The concept and execution of the stories are wonderful, and while at times the CGI can get a little goofy, it doesn't take my enjoyment out of the show.

I suppose I could go on and on, but to sum up, I think the show is well-written and well-executed.

I am now completely caught up, and I just have to talk about this last episode, "The Outsider," and what I speculate is to come for the rest of the season. If you don't want any spoilers for future episodes (as I've been visiting the spoiler websites - can't help it), you might want to stop reading. I will also be including promo pictures for the next episode.

Hook was a jerk and shot Belle in the arm, and now she doesn't remember who she is since she fell over the town line. Rumple is traumatized and heartbroken. Then karma hit Hook (literally) with a car, coming from the outside world - and the poor stranger driving said vehicle crashed onto the side of the road. Hook flew to the side of the road as well, and as we know now is unconscious.

When the show opens back up on Sunday, I'm pretty sure we'll be right back in this spot where "The Outsider" ended, with Mr. Gold, still mortified looking at his shot beloved, trying to figure out what to do. Belle will be freaked out, not just because she's shot, but because she doesn't know how she got to where she is or why this strange man keeps calling her Belle.

We know that once someone passes the town line without any magical help, their Storybrooke selves become their only selves. I have a few questions though. 1) Did Belle even have another specific identity/story past being stuck in an asylum for as long as she can remember? Did she have another name that we never found out about? Did she remember any version as to why she'd been locked up for so long? And 2) Would Belle remember, at the very least, Jefferson freeing her, telling her to find Mr. Gold and her interactions with Mr. Gold as a result? I am hoping that this would be a yes, but we'll have to wait and see.

In the images, we also see that Prince Charming, Snow White and Emma happen upon the scene - I guess doing some family sheriff patrol time. Hopefully that will help calm Belle down.

In the summary for "In the Name of the Brother," it says, "Dr. Whale is tasked with mending Hook’s wounds and performing surgery on the stranger whose car crashed upon entering Storybrooke. But some of the townspeople fear that the stranger may have seen magic -- which could expose their true identities to the world -- and think that leaving him to die would be the best solution. Meanwhile, as Mr. Gold tries to reunite with a despondent Belle, Cora attempts to reunite with daughter Regina; and in the land that was,Victor desperately wants to prove to his disapproving father that he can, indeed, bring back the dead.^{" (courtesy of} http://onceuponatime.wikia.com/wiki/Gerhardt)



So Hook will be taken to the hospital. I personally hope he becomes incapacitated for a while so that he can suffer for a bit. No amount of hotness can rectify his harming of RumBelle. And I'm pretty sure that Emma will be the one that finds him due to this image right here:

"Oh crap. Not HIM again!"

Granted, she could just be calling Dr. Whale for an emergency trip to the hospital instead.

I wondered initially if Rumple would just heal Belle with magic right then and there, but in one of the previews we see Belle in a hospital bed, so I figure he decided not to - probably so that she wouldn't freak out more. She does, however, freak out when he kisses her.

Nope. No true love's kiss, folks. And why would it work? She can't love him if she doesn't remember their history, just as we saw with Snow White and Prince Charming in season 1's "Heart of Darkness." But Charming fought for his true love by proving his love to her by taking an arrow that Snow intended for Regina, so that Snow would not become truly evil. When Snow realized that he would die for her, she fell in love with him again, they kissed, and all of her memories (and personality) came back. As Regina has said, "True love's kiss can break any curse." So unless Rumple can figure out some sort of magic to change Belle back to her old self (probably something he doesn't want to risk), he'll need to get Belle to fall in love with him again, and he's going to have to do some really big things in order to make that happen. Let's hope that Hook doesn't try to woo Belle while they are both stuck in the hospital.

As for Dr. Whale, he seems to be in for one heck of an episode. Besides being tasked to help all of these injured people, the residents of Storybrooke are afraid that the outsider witnessed magic (meaning that amazing fireball that Rumple never got to shoot off at Hook), so they think that it might be better to let him die. That doesn't sound like the moral choice, folks. I'm pretty sure that they'll come around - I mean, they are fairy tale characters after all.

Anyhow, we'll see more of Dr. Whale's background, which means we're going back to black and white. From the looks of things, it sounds like Dr. Frankenstein's possible classic monster is actually his brother (though one could argue that Daniel ended up being the monster, poor guy), and it sounds like the guy has some daddy issues. Maybe we'll see that story play out, and when things don't go as well as planned, he will be humiliated/possibly terrified of his father and perhaps will flee to Oz. I am convinced that the guy is also the Wizard of Oz. We've seen that page of flying monkeys in Henry's book twice, and he was described to Regina as a "wizard." Rumpelstiltskin inquired while talking to him about a pair of slippers to help him travel between worlds. Plus, the outfit with those glasses - it just screams Oz to me.

Some people threw a fit when we discovered that Dr. Whale was Dr. Frankenstein. "It's not a fairytale, it doesn't belong!" Ah, but my dear friends, it does, and it is still separate. Dr. Whale's world is separate from the fairytale realm, just like Wonderland is. This is amazing for the show because it means that all literary worlds are real and connected to each other, which opens up a whole new realm of possibilities for the show.

And then there's the reunion of Cora and Regina, something we've all been waiting for. Perhaps you'd like to see a sneak peek of this encounter? Well, here you go:

I have to wonder where these two are. I mean, there are dressed up mannequins in the background...if Regina decides to make her own apparel line, then I am so in. I guess this must be her new makeshift home (I like the apple tree and mirrors - nice touch). But perhaps she never left home at all - Regina reaches for a doorknob at the end of this scene, without an obvious door attached to it. Perhaps she has secret hiding places in her house? Smart girl.

Anyhow, what amazing performances and dialogue here! Poor Regina - she's so heartbroken. It almost looks like she finally blames her mother more than Snow for Daniel's death. Regina knows better than to trust mommy dearest at the moment, though that will probably change eventually, as Lana has hinted. Cora doesn't appear insincere here, though she very well could be. Perhaps we'll eventually see a Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker moment eventually. "Join me, and together-" etc. etc. Storybrooke would be in hot water if these two decided to be an evil mother/daughter team.

"Emma, and Henry, and the two idiots-" HAHAHAHA!!!! Love it.

Seriously though, it doesn't seem that Regina holds much against Emma for thinking that she was guilty, which is nice. It can give us all hope that, eventually, they can co-exist in Henry's life peacefully.

So they're off to let everyone know that Regina is innocent. And considering that Archie is alive and well, word has ideally gotten around, and perhaps now the residents can figure out who it was that was actually murdered (we can hope that somebody noticed that they went missing, but I kinda doubt that we'll hear much of a follow-up on that). All of the characters meeting together should be interesting to say the least. We know that Cora meets up with Rumple and behaves in an extra friendly manner - it doesn't look like Storybrooke will be up in flames just yet, but Cora must have a grander plan in mind.

Let's look ahead even further. In a promo from a few weeks ago, Rumple appears to be finally calling in the favor that he's owed from Emma in season 1 to go on a little trip to locate Bae. I guess he'll focus on wooing Belle when she's well-enough to get out of the hospital. Anyway, Emma, Mr. Gold and Henry all end up in NYC to look for him.

Neal is coming back to the series, and from a location shoot we saw that Emma was chasing someone through NY, which has to be for the episode "Manhattan." On the same day of the shoot, Emma was seen talking to Neal in a restaurant. This has been speculated online for a long time, but I believe that the theory that Neal is Bae is true - and I think that he could also be Peter Pan.

Timelines in the show are weird, but Robert Carlyle has revealed in interviews that Rumple is 300 years old. We know that both Bae and Hook got magic beans to jump to different worlds. Hook took his crew to Neverland after his run-in with the Dark One. The blue fairy said that the bean would take Bae to where he needed to go - once Bae realized his father would not accompany him, perhaps the bean changed it's route for him to Neverland? The place is a haven for other Lost Boys, so Bae could fit in there quite nicely. How he would have then made it to our world would be another question, but we can get to Neverland "second star to the right and straight on 'till morning," so it't not impossible.

How will Bae react to seeing his father again? How will Neal  react to seeing Emma (August sent him that postcard but never showed up) and potentially discovering that he is a baby-daddy? That's a whole lot of information to digest.

Rumpel seems to have pretty decent knowledge of the past, present and future. If all of my theorizing is correct, does Rumpel know that Emma was his son's girl, and that, therefore, Henry is his grandson?! Rumpel knew who Emma was, so when Henry was put up for adoption, he knew to connect Regina to him. This actually could then make him a double-grandfather to the savior's child! Rumpelstiltskin sure loves kids.

Some people may hate on these potential coincidences, but I kind of love them.

Yay!

Neal has to be familiar with the magical realm - how else could August convince him to listen to everything that he'd have to say (and believe him) by just showing him something small in a box? We don't know what it is yet, but we are supposed to learn what exactly that thing was sometime this season.

And yes, August will be back this season. I miss him too, but I'm pretty sure why we haven't seen him. He doesn't handle responsibility and shame very well - he's probably too mortified to face his father, or the rest of the town for that matter. And once Emma does talk to Neal, she might be pretty angry with August. Could she forgive the two of them? And how will Henry feel about all of this? Emma told him that his biological father was a hero so that he wouldn't be disappointed.

Wow, that was a lot. Thank you for sticking it out if you did.

What do you think about Once Upon a Time and where the series is going? Do you like my predictions? Do you think they might be true? Talk about it here!