Fairy Interesting - OUAT - Going Home

Last week I completely missed the mid-season finale! But I figured I'd have a chance to catch up since there was no new episode this week. So here we go... what's in store for our intrepid cast of characters heading into the Christmas hiatus?

3.11 "Going Home"

Talk about a doozy of a mid-season finale. I can't believe (and am very grateful) that I somehow evaded all spoilers related to this because... wow. Just wow.

How I felt at the end of this episode

So this week was all the feels, basically. Rumple discovers that the boy really is his undoing, Regina makes the ultimate sacrifice, and no one gets a real happy ending.

Where to start.

Well, I have to give props to the Henry/Pan and Pan/Henry actors once again. To not only play the opposite but then to do the switch mid-episode was well done with no remnants of the other personality.

The ending was insane, but there were some things that got a little shortchanged along the way. At least in my opinion.

It was nice to see Tink believing in herself, but there wasn't much of anything leading to that moment. She was just, okay, I can do this. And it seemed awfully easy to destroy the shadow by throwing the coconut into the flame.

I was reading an EW article in the most recent issue about the way networks seem to be cramming more and more twists and crazy events into individual episodes, possibly in reaction to the marathoning of tv that people can do with sites like Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. I hadn't really thought about this before, but I do feel like this has become a bit of an issue this season in particular. So many things have to fit into 42 minutes that things like capturing Pan a couple of weeks ago or destroying this powerful shadow that predated Pan on Neverland are over so quickly that I almost feel cheated. If they were so easily defeated, then why did it take so long for it to happen? Don't get me wrong, I think it was time to move on from the Pan and shadow story line, but the shadow just was a little too easy.

I was, however, fairly satisfied with Pan's demise. Though angry as all get out about the loss of Rumple. I seriously cannot imagine the show without him. I really would have rather seen Regina go. I felt like Rumple still had more story that could have been developed while Regina has maxed out her usefulness. And Belle's crumpling to the ground was just so very sad.

Though of course, with the whole curse lifting and everything who knows what twists and turns might come about in January. After all, if the curse never happened, then does everything revert? Or did it just not happen for Emma and Henry?

Also, now that a year has passed Henry's getting older than his years is alleviated a little bit. But that's just a side note :)

Back to Rumple and Pan for a moment. This was another thing that had me shaking my head. I can't believe that 1) everyone just left Rumple and Pan ALONE there after doing the switch. 2) that they actually considered leaving Pan COMPLETELY UNSUPERVISED? I understand Regina, Emma, Snow, and David running out to find Henry and get the scroll, etc. But Bae and Hook just leave Pan there to wake up alone? And Belle leaves Rumple there to face his father alone? I mean, really. After everything they've been through with Pan did they really think it was a good idea? I just couldn't buy that. Even with the anti-magic leather cuff.

I did enjoy all of the mini flashbacks, though many of them didn't really move the plot along. I'm not even sure why I liked them, but I did.

Another sidenote: I realized (and Googled) that Ginnifer Goodwin is pregnant. Which explains some of the ridiculously pouffy outfits in the last few episodes. So congrats to Ginnifer and Josh! And a major duh moment for me (you can tell I'm so out of the loop on celebrity news :)

So the last 10 minutes were basically met by my incoherent babbling. First, I seriously thought for a minute that Rumple was going to cut off his own arm in order to remove the anti-magic band. But as soon as he showed up to confront Pan magic-less I knew what was coming. I kept saying "the boy was his undoing" interspersed with a whole lot of this: No. no.no.no.no.no.no.no.no. THEY ARE NOT KILLING RUMPLE. NO NO NO NO NO I can't I can't I can't.

And how very fairy tale for him to say "I'm a villain, and villain's don't get happy endings." Everything is black and white in the end. There may be nuances built into the characters along the way, but the heroes will always ultimately win and the villains will all ultimately be defeated. And that's the way fairy tales work. And it's almost a message in and of itself that we would get so upset about Rumple's death because real life doesn't fit into those perfect black and white dichotomies. There are very few pure villains and very few pure heroes. So when a fairy tale world meets the real world and lines begin to blur only pain can result.

My very scared question becomes ... what about Hook? Because technically he is a villain. Even if the Pan story got turned on its head, he has, from the beginning, been presented as a villain - a suave and charming one, no doubt, but a villain none the less.

Now to the ending. That was one of the crummiest things ever. As in, it may have been Regina paying the price to not see Henry again, but everyone else had to pay it too. Emma and Henry have finally found their real family, Bae has found a reason to live, Snow and Charming have their daughter back and it's all up in smoke. And not only are they separated but Emma and Henry won't even remember. Don't even remember. It's horrible.

During my note-taking this was my reaction as they left Storeybrooke: I can't even with what will how the rest of obviously they remember something it can't be over I hate no fair - as you can see, almost complete incoherence had descended upon me.

Though obviously from the very ending, we see that the fairy talers have not forgotten.

Hook showing up made me giddy, though I have to wonder why it isn't Bae coming after her. However, this does seem to mean that we will get to see even more Hook so that's a good thing - he doesn't disappear just because Pan has been defeated.

So there we go. I'm still a bit speechless about the ending and really curious as to what they're going to do in the next couple of months. I'm not sure what I think about bringing in the Wicked Witch of the West, though I suppose it was only a matter of time after their introduction of the ruby slippers.

So... what did you think? Love it? Hate it? Were you as flabbergasted as I was? Do tell!