Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20160328005933/@comment-24674051-20160328170901

I enjoyed it well enough, though as others have pointed out it is not necessarily the best episode of the arc.

Things I liked:


 * The story with Henry and Cruella. Personally, I like that Henry is getting a little chance to grow. And his decision at the end to come clean. And I wonder how Henry is going to be able to write Hades story? that was a nice bit of setup.


 * The tidbit about James resenting David. In the context of the episode it seemed a little out of place, but that was obviously a setup for the upcoming meeting between James and David, and maybe James won't be as big a D-Bag as we all currently expect. Plus, It was good to see David get some screen time without Snow.


 * Hades interactions with Liam present day, and the fact that it looks like Liam was the bartender at the Underbrooke version of the Rabbit Hole.


 * The expansion of the "Better Place". Up til now we've been thinking that it's olympus, but I think with what we saw at the end, it is more than Olympus. Obviously the "Better Place" has as much to do with the person going there as it does with the destination. (We did not see Henry's version, and Olympus makes perfect sense for Herc, while the Ship is ideal for Liam and his crew).


 * The reintroduction of the storybook, which was another nice callback to season 1.


 * The deal between Hades and Liam in the Flashback. I know a lot of people are like "WTF?!, why does Hades care?" but This was actually spot on. Hades saw an opportunity to not only gain a few souls now, but also an investment in the future. And his "trick" of Liam about the Mutiny not looking good. he gave Liam a "Devil's Choice" of either the reputation of a mutineer or the life of a Naval Officer.  That is How Hades works, and I liked that type of portrayal, since there was another option available that Hades steered Liam away from.

Things I was not crazy about


 * a lot of the back story was kinda meh. Particularly Killian's character.  I'm not sure how he went from that drunk and gambling deckhand to the Naval Officer that we saw in "Good Form".


 * Emma seems to be rather flat of late (not just this episode).  She needs to have a little more emotion that what she it showing.


 * No Rumple or Robin, and Regina very limited. as was Snow. So the episode, as others have pointed out, was very short of sass, snark, sarcasm, or wittiness.

Random Observations


 * Hades & Zelena? I'm interested to see where they are going with that, but right now I'm like "Whaaaat?!"


 * Based on the promo - looks like we may get the real Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz.


 * As pointed out above, How is Henry (as the author) going to be able to do anything heroic? He indicated that his goal was to do something heroic (which he at least partially achieved by coming forward with Cruella's plan), so he now has unfinished business of his own.


 * We've seen around 11 or so people cross over now (Henry, Herc, Meg, Liam, and several of his crew). I suspect that the unnamed Apprentice will cross over off screen at this point. Shouldn't Hades be having RED CGI hair at this point? (Not that I like the blue, mind you).