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Okay. Point the first, just to get it out of the way: WE DIDN'T SEE A BODY, THEREFORE HE ISN'T DEAD. Alright? There was no body, the magic when the knife twisted was golden which means true love magic, the prophecy said 'undoing' not 'death', and this is OUAT, where no-one bloody stays dead even when there is a body. See Blue this very episode. So. He's not bloody dead, okay?
Ahem. Moving swiftly on.
And, alright. I don't believe he's dead, I don't believe that, but if he is, if that happened ... that was a good death, and a hell of a line to die on. "I'm a villain. And villains don't get happy endings." Simultaneous sacrifice and admission of guilt, finally breaking clean of three hundred years of cowardice and courage and bargains and screwing everyone over and doing his damnedest to protect those he loved. He got to say goodbye to Bae and Belle, he got to have Bae and Belle, together, if only for about a day, and he died proving his father wrong and protecting his family to the very last. So. You know. A good death.
Gotta say, I love the thematic echoing from all their pasts this episodes. Putting Rumple back where he started (including crippling himself for his family without magic, if the implication with the sword and the cuff followed through) in so many ways. The sacrifice of a loved one for Regina, her father to cast the curse, her son and her happiness to restart it. Emma and Henry in the VW Bug. Snow and Charming sacrificing their daughter all over again. Hope and sacrifice, echoing back around. All else aside, this episode was a fantastic thematic full-circle, and I admire that.
Um. On the downside, though, ALL THE GODDAMN ANGST, WHAT THE HELL? Rumple's death broke my heart, but I was expecting it. The second Regina started to reveal the extent of the curse's price this time around, I was just going 'nope, no, why would you do this to me?' all the way to the end of the episode. I mean, I mean, cathartic and oddly cleansing, the whole thing, but HAPPY ENDINGS, PEOPLE, CAN WE HAVE SOME?
But hey! Hook, lovely, so nice to see your face a year later! Yay, fix that, fix the whole thing right now! (Realm travelling is apparently very easy if you're anyone but Rumpelstiltskin, I notice). But, good, families back together and if everyone in fairytale land forgot and if Regina went evil again because she couldn't remember the awesome and terrible sacrifice she just made, I will be VERY ANNOYED. It was seriously so cathartic for me, that thing. Terrible and horrible and all the angst, but it really, really did give a sense of payment and cleansing, coming full circle and standing on the other side of the line they once had. They've come so far and learned so much, loved and grown and sacrificed, everyone from Snow and Charming to Regina to goddamn Archie (which, by the way, thank you for being the one person there to give Belle a shoulder to cry on, cricket, you're a goddamn class act and I love you). All I'm saying is that had better not be lost the way lessons often seem to be on this show, alright?
Very, very good episode, actually. Hurty as all get out, but thematically perfect, and the poignancy was stunning. Gotta love it. Basically the good kind of hurty, and a fantastic mid-season finale. Provided they don't screw the whole thing up as soon as we see the results, I am actually pretty happy about this episode? I think I liked it a lot.
But. Um. To finish out, just because I'm not giving this up? LALALALA, NO BODY, NOT DEAD, CAN'T HEAR YOU, EVERYONE ALRIGHT WITH THIS? YES? GOOD? OKAY!
See you all in the New Year, then! (Though, gods, I don't know if I can wait three months to know who's alive and who's dead. Or, okay. I don't know that I can wait three months for proof one particular character isn't. Lalalala, still not listening, don't judge me, okay? *grins sheepishly*)
Ahem. Moving swiftly on.
And, alright. I don't believe he's dead, I don't believe that, but if he is, if that happened ... that was a good death, and a hell of a line to die on. "I'm a villain. And villains don't get happy endings." Simultaneous sacrifice and admission of guilt, finally breaking clean of three hundred years of cowardice and courage and bargains and screwing everyone over and doing his damnedest to protect those he loved. He got to say goodbye to Bae and Belle, he got to have Bae and Belle, together, if only for about a day, and he died proving his father wrong and protecting his family to the very last. So. You know. A good death.
Gotta say, I love the thematic echoing from all their pasts this episodes. Putting Rumple back where he started (including crippling himself for his family without magic, if the implication with the sword and the cuff followed through) in so many ways. The sacrifice of a loved one for Regina, her father to cast the curse, her son and her happiness to restart it. Emma and Henry in the VW Bug. Snow and Charming sacrificing their daughter all over again. Hope and sacrifice, echoing back around. All else aside, this episode was a fantastic thematic full-circle, and I admire that.
Um. On the downside, though, ALL THE GODDAMN ANGST, WHAT THE HELL? Rumple's death broke my heart, but I was expecting it. The second Regina started to reveal the extent of the curse's price this time around, I was just going 'nope, no, why would you do this to me?' all the way to the end of the episode. I mean, I mean, cathartic and oddly cleansing, the whole thing, but HAPPY ENDINGS, PEOPLE, CAN WE HAVE SOME?
But hey! Hook, lovely, so nice to see your face a year later! Yay, fix that, fix the whole thing right now! (Realm travelling is apparently very easy if you're anyone but Rumpelstiltskin, I notice). But, good, families back together and if everyone in fairytale land forgot and if Regina went evil again because she couldn't remember the awesome and terrible sacrifice she just made, I will be VERY ANNOYED. It was seriously so cathartic for me, that thing. Terrible and horrible and all the angst, but it really, really did give a sense of payment and cleansing, coming full circle and standing on the other side of the line they once had. They've come so far and learned so much, loved and grown and sacrificed, everyone from Snow and Charming to Regina to goddamn Archie (which, by the way, thank you for being the one person there to give Belle a shoulder to cry on, cricket, you're a goddamn class act and I love you). All I'm saying is that had better not be lost the way lessons often seem to be on this show, alright?
Very, very good episode, actually. Hurty as all get out, but thematically perfect, and the poignancy was stunning. Gotta love it. Basically the good kind of hurty, and a fantastic mid-season finale. Provided they don't screw the whole thing up as soon as we see the results, I am actually pretty happy about this episode? I think I liked it a lot.
But. Um. To finish out, just because I'm not giving this up? LALALALA, NO BODY, NOT DEAD, CAN'T HEAR YOU, EVERYONE ALRIGHT WITH THIS? YES? GOOD? OKAY!
See you all in the New Year, then! (Though, gods, I don't know if I can wait three months to know who's alive and who's dead. Or, okay. I don't know that I can wait three months for proof one particular character isn't. Lalalala, still not listening, don't judge me, okay? *grins sheepishly*)