Fairy Interesting: OUAT "Lady of the Lake"

2.3 "Lady of the Lake"

In tonight's episode Henry continues to prove that he is more astute than about 90% of the other characters by uncovering Regina's vault, getting to know his grandpa better, and helping Jefferson along the way. In the flashback we learn more about Snow and Charming and Snow finally gets to meet Mama Charming where she learns a life lesson about parenthood and sacrifice. And in alterna-Fairy World Snow runs into an old friend and she and Emma set off to find the wardrobe looking for a way back to Storybrooke. We find out that Cora is even more eviler than we thought and Emma acts a whole lot stupider than she actually is. Until she redeems herself at the very end.

I love the mix of the flashbacks to Fairy World, the present in Storybrooke, and the present in Alterna-Fairy World. However, it does feel like there is so much going on in each episode that the focus is much more narrower than in episodes last season. For example, we got barely anything in Storybrooke and I felt like Jefferson's story got a little short shrift because of this.


My favorite zingers of the night - and this episode seemed to be full of them:
Cora: "The apple fell very far from the tree." Ha! Right!

Emma talking about the Chimera: "Like turducken?" (I found this particularly funny as I wrote a paper about women as chimeras last semester and was boring all my friends with facts about this particular mythological monster.)

Emma: "I think we'll be okay, I just killed a dragon last week." (btw, the look on Snow's face when Emma said that was priceless)
Mulan: "Have you ever seen an ogre?" (and, for the record, I totally don't like her still)
Emma: "Pretty sure I've dated a few."

Aurora about Emma's leather jacket: "What kind of corset is this?" (And Aurora is sorta kinda but not really maybe growing on me. I think the writers are trying a little too hard to bring in another kick-butt female, but it feels totally forced to me)

David Charming: "Maybe we should've gone with Operation Viper." And really? You're going to leave the vault just like that without even looking around at ALL?! Are you people on stupid pills this episode?!

Ahem.

And speaking of stupid pills, here are the things that annoyed me about tonight's episode (as much as I love this show and enjoyed this episode, I still want to strangle some of the writers). I did definitely love a lot of things, but let me get this stuff out of the way first :)

First off, Emma may be out of her element, but she is not an idiot. She was a bounty hunter for pete's sake! People who have done that kind of thing for a living do not do something as stupid as shoot off a gun in the middle of the woods when they were JUST told that ogres only track by sound. Seriously people. I just don't buy that at all.

And I understand that he's Prince Charming and everything, but I seriously doubt that the king's guard  could be defeated that easily. I was really wanting Snow and Lancelot to ride up and save him. I would have believed that a lot more. Having them arrive just after felt stupid. And, perhaps I missed it, but the only arrow I ever saw shot was at the very beginning (lodging conveniently in another guard's chest when Charming barely ducked?!) so where did the arrow come from that hit Mama Charming? And why would she come running back out? She didn't fight Charming at all when he told her to go inside and he never yelled or did anything that would make her think he was hurt. Just very weak writing in this section.

Also, why on earth does Snow so conveniently lay out her ENTIRE PLAN as they are leaving the camp. She was so worried about Cora overhearing, but when they're almost in the clear she divulges everything? Your viewers have brains writers! All these lame plot devices are glaringly obvious!

And my final nitpick (and please, if you have a response to any of these, feel free to comment below. I'm just airing my opinions - I'm sure there are tons of people that would disagree with me) has to do with the ogre. First, it seemed way too easy for Snow to kill him. THIS is the monster everyone is terrified of? Second, there's only one ogre in the forest? They kill him and then are just all tromp tromp through the woods at night. The one thing we just said was too dangerous to do. *sigh*

Okay. I feel better now.

btw King George is a vindictive BAD WORD and he looks even more evil in Storeybrooke, but that may be because he looks like Widmore in the real world. EVIL

What is with all the evil parents?!

It's a good thing we had Mama Charming to balance things out. I totally knew that she was going to trick Snow into taking the potion (well, duh, Emma), but I loved the exchanges between her and Snow. They were so sweet and I wished she could have stayed alive so Snow could get a little bit of a real mother's love. However, it did shed a nice light on her interactions with Emma.

Speaking of which, I wish Emma had been a little more visibly moved by Snow's early musings. I loved her comment that they had a family already, but she seemed so cold and distant. At the same time, as I thought about it, I realized how hard it would be for her to see all of the things that should have been hers and to think about the family life she should have had. And this would bring up her anger over having been abandoned. Her speech at the end was perfect and their mother/daughter moment was brilliant. I was completely heartbroken by Snow's last glance at the life that was supposed to be.

I did wonder how much of the Fairy World has actually been destroyed. There seemed to be an awful lot of it left for them to tramp through. I was horrified to learn that Lancelot is dead. I liked him. But then I thought, how do we know Cora is actually telling the truth? It's not like she's exactly a paragon of virtue. And her evil smile as she scooped up the ashes was almost Regina worthy.

Can you imagine how crazy it would be if she ends up being the uber villain and Regina has to work together with Snow, Emma, and Charming to save Henry and the rest of the Fairy World people?! That would be super fun, since you could never trust her no matter what.

While it's all noble for them to march off trying to find Cora to save the day, wouldn't it be smarter for them to go back to the island and let everyone know that Cora has been masquerading as Lancelot? You know, before Cora sneaks back in and causes more damage?

Henry and David Charming's sword fight was sweet. It was nice getting to see Henry act like a kid for once.

I loved getting a little more Jefferson and of course Henry was the perfect one to help him see the truth, but it all seemed a little bit too easy and his reunion with Grace felt far too brief. I felt rather cheated. Here's hoping we get a Mad Hatter focused episode really soon.

So what did you think? Do you subscribe to the theory that the guy in the apartment in the first episode is Rumple's son, who might also be Henry's father and the key to ... well, I don't know what, but it's fun to speculate!