A plan to trap The
Evil Queen in the Mirror World backfires when she turns the tables on Emma and
Regina and sends them there instead. Henry is experiencing some teenage woes in
his friendship with Violet and Belle looks for a way to make a permanent escape
from Rumple.
Discussion and Thoughts
Straight up, I think it’s very interesting,
telling even, that whenever there is a Regina-Emma centric episode, they must
be physically separated from the rest of the population via some version of a
“road trip”. We have it again in this
episode. Outside of the narrative, the writers love to tell us that these two
women are friends and “family” but that reading of the text is undercut by the
text itself; to have Emma and Regina spend any extended time together, it must
be coerced or be forced by the text.
This suggests that in the narrative context of the show it is unnatural for
Emma and Regina to choose to spend any time together in each other’s sole
company and that the friendship isn’t nearly so deep as the writers would have
us believe. If this episode does one thing it is to reinforce the idea that
Emma and Regina are not actually friends and the only thing connecting them is
Henry.
This is not one of the better episodes from the
Once Upon a Time catalogue largely because it feels frustrating, it marks time
and doesn’t move the story forward in any significant way and it re-treads old
ground – Regina is full of woe and (even though she is also fairly woeful) Emma
puts her own feelings aside to talk Regina off a ledge. The one difference is
that Regina is not quite as belittling as is her custom; must be a consequence
of the personality split. But, that being said, what was interesting about the
episode was the deliberate delivery of mixed messages via the narrative and the
fact that our main characters were written to be particularly stubborn in their
determination not to see it.
Summary: After being given Jekyll’s serum by by the Evil Queen, Killian’s worst part of him is released…or rather, worst parts. And despite their need for revenge, the separated parts (along with Killian) discover a far greater need in the form of Emma.
Rating: E. Very, very ,very explicit.
Word Count: ~5300
FF.net / AO3
A/N: It has finally arrived! This originally started as a birthday gift for ladies who had December birthdays in the OUACS podcast, but then I realized, that with the Secret Santas so close, I wanted this to have it’s moment. (Happy early Birthday, lovelies!)
Yes, this is a gang bang fic. And yes, it features all of them giving pleasure to Emma, in some instances two or all at the same time. None of the men interact sexually. If I tag you and this is not your cup of tea, feel free to pass (tags will be at the end as usual). I just want to thank those who encouraged me to to do this, since it had been rattling in my brain for quite some time.
Thank you to my beta/ Mulan to my Ruby @biancaros3, and to Kait @spartanguard, for taking a look as well. Also, thank you to @fergus for checking over the smut ❤
also: the two hooks in the title refer to the alter egos. Each gentleman still has their hook. And if you think Killian seems a little OOC, I just think he is a very open-minded pirate 😉
“You think we lost it?” Emma doubled over with her hands on her knees, out of breath from running so far and so fast. They were in the middle of devising a plan to try and trap the Evil Queen once and for all when she materialized, sending smoke monsters at the heroes in every direction. Emma and Killian fled as far and fast as the possibly could, stopping once they reached their backyard.
“Aye, it seems to have lost our trail,” Killian answered, equally as winded. “Let’s just hope that the Queen lost our trail as well.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that, Hook.” In a cloud of purple smoke, the Evil Queen appeared once again, looking regal yet menacing in a tight oxblood velour gown. She sauntered up to Killian, her hand stroking his facial hair. He recoiled from her touch. “Actually, it’s Killian, isn’t it? You most definitely are not the fearsome Captain Hook that I remember. The man who was so willing to get his revenge on the Dark One that he murdered his own father.” She leaned in as he tried to turn away from her, but with a wave of her hand, he found himself unable to move. “I wonder what it would be like if he came out to play…” The Evil Queen reached into the sleeve of her gown, revealing a vial of Jekyll’s serum.
Whooooo what a train wreck, although I’m less annoyed now that I’ve had some time to cool off. This was a thematically interesting but not well written episode. It had a great deal in common with the S5 finale, now that I think about it, which was another one of A&E’s: unnecessary Neal, awkward side-lining of other characters so Emma can Go Places With Regina, clumsy dialog, reuse of show mythology, and a strong sense that the details have not been thought through at all.
That said, only one character got destroyed on Sunday, and it wasn’t Emma Swan.
I understand that after all of this time, A&E want to personally guide the SS Regina into the iceberg. Her two happy endings have just run smack into one another as a result of her wishes. Being caught in between them is, I would hazard, exactly what she deserves. I do wish (ha) they would back off and let someone else handle the detail work, though. In their anxiety to showcase her horrible glory, they ride roughshod over other characters, and the particulars of the writing are clunky. Having built this elaborate symbolic structure, they then feel a need to hit the audience over the head with it.
We know, guys, we know.
But to get back to those themes. We have yet another adventure in dualism here, another mirror world where down is up:
The Other Shoe – Characters flip roles, the hero doing something regrettable and the villain having a surprisingly sympathetic story.
Strange Case – Characters try to physically dissociate themselves from unwanted qualities, resulting in an apparent opposition that conceals unity of purpose.
I’ll Be Your Mirror – A literal world of mirrors, the virtues of being yourself vs playing a role, identity vs seeming.
Wish You Were Here – The apparent opposition is revealed for a facade; Regina’s two halves reach moral if not yet physical identity. The real world is exchanged for a “wish world” in which an essential change to Emma’s identity ripples through the EF and makes it a perfect place for… Regina, while her victory in Storybrooke starts to fall apart underneath her.
Because today, it really is all about her. Buckle up! I hit 3k words again this week.
This was pretty much my take on the ep, probably due to your influence (you have destroyed all my pessimism with your logic and rational reasoning).
I do think that the writer shenanigans on twitter are them trying to protect their twist/temporarily placate fans who are not going to be happy with it. Because that is far more believable than the alternative, that they are really very stupid. The writing may not always be good, but they are writing one of the most successful shows on ABC. The idea that
people good enough to have created a hit TV show are dumb enough not to see what they have written is far more ludicrous than the idea that they are rather clumsily trying to protect a twist from the GA.
And people tend to forget we are not a good barometer of how the story is being perceived, as we do not interact with our media the way most people do.
I think Gideon’s presence was spoiler protection. They knew they were not going to be able to keep Giles Matthey’s return under wraps through the entire hiatus, especially if he is sticking around for any length of time (I am holding on to my hope that they don’t put Belle through losing him). So they revealed him pre-hiatus to maintain some kind of surprise.
What, fandom isn’t normal?! 🙂 I hope you’re right about the Twitter stuff. (Also, thanks!)
I don’t think they’re gonna do that to Belle, either. She’s been through enough (and then some).
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