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why-this-kolaveri-machi · 3 years

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it wasn’t power i coveted; it was acceptance.

Titans 3.06

y’know, i was just thinking the other day that 1.06/1.07 and 2.06/2.07 were the best episodes of their respective seasons, so i have great hopes going in to this one. fingers crossed!

as always, typing this up as i see the episode.

SPOILERS AHEAD

1. oh! um... that was a Cold Open, all right. *nudges* get it? cold? because it’s snowing? and two people got murdered in cold blood? eh?

... oh, i’ve just started.

1.5. i wonder if “i want to be sipping pina coladas on a beach with you” is the new “i’m just one day away from retiring.” i was so on edge after that--i kept expecting that car to explode. even so, the way they died wasn’t an anticlimax: brutal, and quick.

1.75. so i’m assuming that’s the titular lady vic! this show better bring up why this doll was important or why these two cops needed to be killed, and not leave it to the ether like jericho’s little mindscape jaunt in 2.08 (i’m still dying to know what that was about???)

i love how deliberately unappealing wayne manor is.

(sorry for the pic quality. i don’t have hbo max! ssshhh.)

2.3. i love the many references to “home” and “our house” when they’ve been here for less than a week and saw one of their friends get blown into pieces. i mean, i unironically love it: home is where family is, after all!

2.5. i’d like to say that kom is playing some sort of long game here, especially given the build-up we had last season and some of the more niggling details this season: why did kom choose now to use her bond to lure kory when she’s been on earth for months? why did justin call kory now, just around the time that she started getting kom’s visions? and what about kom’s ability to exactly imitate other people? hmmm.

2.75. the reason i wrote i’d like to say is that i’ve made the mistake of assuming plot complexity where there is none; i was so invested in the jason todd orchestrated his own death theory for instance, when it turns out that oops! ra’s al ghul just happened to leave a little lazarus puddle in gotham, and oh yeah! scarecrow just happens to have a network of henchmen working for him on the outside and a fully functional laboratory and a weapons cache fit for a new supervillain in the basement of the high security psychiatric unit/prison that he’s in!

(no i’m not bitter, why do you ask)

2.8. iiiii don’t know what to say about the implications of sex slavery being a thing on tamaran, so i’m not going to say anything at all. for now.

3. gotham, six years ago... wasn’t it five years before s2 that jericho died and the titans disbanded? and when was the flashback from 1.06 where dick let zucco die? i think it was after the events of 2.08: jericho? i can’t seem to find any transcripts or reliable information online, so i’m going to have to rewatch 1.06 at some point.

(i love the old-fashioned batman music in this heist scene)

3.5. “security is a joke... it’s my way of keeping my dad on his toes”. what you’re an ethical thief now, like an ethical hacker? i don’t think that excuse is going to sell, barbara, on the day you do encounter a decent security system and your father is forced to arrest you.

(then again, gotham’s security is piss-poor. did you know that you could just walk into arkham asylum without any official clearance, ply one of its most dangerous inhabitants with contraband, and said inmate could get away with having an entire laboratory and weapons cache--NO I’M NOT GOING TO LET THIS GO)

3.8 so that flashback between dick and barbara was really cute! and also illuminating:

a) dick sounds so light, so... um. look. i have some apologies to tender to mr thwaites, because while i’ve always thought he does a fine job as dick grayson, i’ve never been terribly fond of his cadence as he delivers dialogue. it’s often monotonous, i thought, but then again, he’s usually delivering exposition or dealing with one soul-crushing crisis or the other. so i was pleasantly surprised to hear dick sound so carefree and alive in his conversation with barbara, laughing frequently, his emotions so bare and bubbling to the surface. it’s really a fantastic contrast to the traumatised and world-weary dick grayson that we see now, even more so than the costume department just bunging a backwards-baseball cap on mr thwaites’ head and hoping that will convince us of his relative youth.

b) and god, when he wakes up from that memory, all alone in his bed, bleeding from bullet holes in his shoulder (bullet holes that are--in a somewhat convoluted way--barbara’s fault)? yikes. it’s great. you have my apologies, mr thwaites!

c) can you imagine dick just... crawling back to wayne manor, trying not to be seen by anybody, shedding his suit and just... collapsing onto his bed without even tending to his wound? the sheer emotional and physical exhaustion of it?

d) it’s so interesting to see how barbara and dick approach the idea of legacy--a big theme on the show!--in this flashback. barbara is the one bucking the idea that she should follow in her father’s footsteps, while dick seems pretty content with the batman-and-robin setup, and even tries to get barbara to join their team (robin-girl. pfffft). obviously after this several traumatic things happen wherein dick ends up questioning and then resenting his role as robin, his relationship with batman or even returning as a vigilante at all. and barbara... ends up replacing her father as commissioner. it’s tragic, really.

e) the dynamic between dick and barbara in the flashback reminds me of how it was between dick and donna in 1.08 and even between kory and dick in early s1. it’s like having an older, strong-willed woman by his side means he gives over the steering wheel for a while and lets himself... unspool, a little bit. it’s kinda endearing.

also:

*pinches his cheeks*

3. you know, we talk about dick and Eldest Daughter Syndrome, and that’s definitely valid, but here gar seems to me the embodiment of it, with all the emotional gardening and firefighting that he’s expected to do. he’s kind of the guy expected to keep his shit together and take care of everyone else while they are falling completely to pieces, unable to carve out time to process his own trauma. he’s also picked up dick’s and kory’s tendencies to bottle up their struggles and shun appearing vulnerable, and he’s struggling in the shadow of both dick and kory undergoing acute crises, his best friend (and frequent confidante) on the other side of the world, and seeing hank die, utterly helpless to stop it.

i’m glad that he got a chance to tell dick even a smidgeon of what he really feels, and i hope this is at least a semblance of a wake up call for dick to actually sit down and work with the people he repeatedly calls family.

3.5. it’s heartening to see that dick immediately makes it his priority to go talk to gar. but don’t blow off kory in the process, man!

4. i’m really loving this dynamic between kom and conner--i get the idea that both of them consider each other as Unknowns, alien two times over. but conner’s only ever known the titans, who embrace being different, and kom’s only ever known... well.

anyway, kory is Really Stressed, and honestly? #relatable.

when you’re forced to bring an estranged family member to hang out with your friends...

4.5. i love that the titans are spending so much time in the kitchen. a real family!

5. jonathan crane is a creep and i absolutely cannot stand him.

5.25. how did he get a whole lab setup (in the basement of a hospital...?) with a bunch of whitecoats to work for him? how did he just waltz into the viewing room of an operation theatre when he’s one of the most wanted men in gotham right now? why is jason wandering around maskless when--presumably--as the adopted son of the most famous person in gotham he’d be a tad more recognisable than your average joe?

why do i expect this show to answer anything anymore?

5.5. that’s not necessarily a criticism, mind; i’ve said since season 1 that titans is very comics-like in this aspect, all about the Aesthetic and the splash-page splendour rather than the niggling unimportant details of how or when the characters got to said location. like. the camera gliding over the operation being set-up, lady vic bursting in and doing her murder dance (imagine the luck of the poor intern who chose this day and this surgery to assist) and jason, shocked and slack-jawed, framed by blood.

5.75. it’s a sobering reminder for jason that, though he chose this path in order to gain control over a world that seemed like it was rapidly spinning out of his grip, he’s only succeeded in handing over even more control to a man with an agenda that is very clearly not aligned with his own. he’s in too far to stop now, though.

5.9. i have a lot more thoughts about jason! saving it up for the end of this recap, though.

6. more kitchen time! i better see dick do some cooking soon...

(”our kitchen”! it still delights me! kitchens are So Important)

6.25. so much of dick’s issues have revolved around his relationship with bruce, so it’s completely understandable that in the wake of a huge crisis where bruce literally asks dick to replace him and be a “better” him, dick would default to all the worst things he learned from the man. and i’m glad kory’s having none of it, but come on, guys. the woman’s literally fetched her fratricidal sister out of a hole in the ground with no idea what said sister is going to do next and experiencing a burgeoning sense of guilt far, far beyond her history with the titans, and dick’s too far into his autocolonoscopy that he can’t see that she needs help.

6.5. “he services your urges”--well, as far as we know, kory is the last person he had sex with...

7. “i hope [gar] isn’t angry with me...” SIR! i thought you’d already spoken to him! smh, as the kids say. kory wouldn’t be needing to reassure you if you just took the effort to build two way emotional relationships with the rest of the team. @superohclair was taking about dick’s relatively low emotional intelligence? i agree.

7.5. “i got my own problems [...] you and barbara? fix it.” YOU TELL HIM, KORY

8. man i really like this weird, sad tension between dick and barbara--this sense that both of them are approaching the other based on how they remember them and are ultimately disappointed by the truth. barbara thought she could trust dick to... well, be a better batman, but dick has not only failed at that in her eyes, but repeatedly undermined her while exploiting the authority that she gave him. in dick’s eyes, this is nothing like the barbara that he knew, rebellious and ready to do whatever it takes to find something.

like. this show sometimes really hits me in the chest about the ways it shows kids grow into adults and into caretakers, and the way it’s stop-start, the ways nothing can happen at all for a long time and then it’s Crisis Central all at once and there’s no space to breathe. the weird sort of sadness that comes with nostalgia.

8.5. oracle name drop! i agree with barbara, any system that can just randomly tap into gotham phonelines is a monster.

8.7. (i don’t know if it’s my imagination, but is dick holding himself... differently in this episode? like that wound is definitely bothering him, and he’s running on fumes)

9. man, that was a really sweet scene between kom and conner. “feeling alien in your own world”... “not quite here nor there”

honestly this team runs on conner and gar’s faith in their value as a family, and it’s a sign of conner’s generous heart that he extends that opportunity to blackfire. this arc of maturation for him, where he’s now able to consciously choose which parts of himself he can use to do the thing he wants to so--save people--has been so fulfilling to recognise. this baby’s grown with the titans! and what he’s learnt is that people can get fucked up, but the titans is a place where they can be fucked up, and grow.

MY MAN CONNER

10. oh man i’m drinking in the gar-dick interaction in this episode like i’m three days into the desert and it’s the only source of water for miles around!

a) gar is absolutely not dealing with dick’s bullshit this episode and I LOVE IT. it’s such a far cry from the man who was idolising dick/robin back in s1 and expecting him to solve all their problems. dick is fallible, dick is fucked up, but he Tries His Best and that’s ok.

b) dick, huffing and puffing through that vent, unable to put any pressure on his left shoulder, trying to have a heart to heart with gar... fuck i love this asshole.

c) bruce took in a kid who was suffering... “and made him into a weapon”. well. i absolutely agree with dick that it was bruce who put these kids into these horrible situations with him and they came away with a bucketload of trauma to add to the one that they already had. but we know that bruce was really trying with jason, and at the end of s2, dick was coming to acknowledge that bruce had offered him something that wasn’t just darkness. jason’s death and bruce’s reaction to that shattered that fragile progress.

d) “gotham got to me too.” i feel more sympathetic towards dick running off on his own than most, and it’s not just because i’m an unapologetic stan. we’ve seen before that dick... devolves when overwhelmed, and he lashes out and makes ill thought out decisions and just Does Not Deal. it happened after hearing the news that deathstroke had returned in s2, and it didn’t help that everyone around him was reeling at the news, either. this time, however, he has his salvation in his family, and despite some stupid decisions like running off and kidnapping supervillains without telling his team, he’s been really on the ball this season. thinking clearly and logically, holding it together and working on a plan, thinking two steps ahead of the villains... yes.

e) gar needing to believe that jason isn’t beyond redemption... there’s a lot of blood on his hands, too, from when he was manipulated by cadmus last season. it makes sense why he’d relate to jason’s predicament, and i hope dick picked up on that.

f) my head just added a plaintive ow after dick jumped feet first into the storage room

i need, crave gifs of this scene!

11. *sits on hands* i’m going to talk more about red hood, i promise!

12. more gar and dick! is it my birthday??!!

(actually, according to the tamil calendar, it is my birthday! my “star” birthday)

12.5. excellent. dick using some implausible training that bruce taught him to solve a mystery? passing some of that knowledge onto gar? that proud smile when he sees gar perfectly execute moves that he taught him? MY HEART IS EXPLODING

13. aw, i love flashback!dick and barbara, they’re so cute <3

13.25. why does it not surprise me that the way he proposes a relationship to barbara is by saying “we make sense”? this guy can deduce exactly who was present where and what weapon they were holding from a garbled audio recording but other times he’s utterly clueless, and that’s a consistent character beat right from s1

13.5. so.... that’s why lady vic has it out for... barbara....? i don’t get it. it’s flimsy. but hey! the fun thing about titans is that i don’t have to get it. the payoff has nothing to do with the plot.

14. i can’t believe that barbara fell for that, but at least that wheelchair fight looked awesome, so.

15. oh yeah, i forgot that red hood bullied the mob into helping him and scarecrow... at least that explains the whitecoats and the elaborate set-up.

15.5. honestly i love how this dynamic between kory and kom is developing, though i wish more of the team would pay attention to it. time to call justin, i think!

16. i wonder what happened after that second flashback where barbara got hurt during that heist. did she give up on doing any more (maybe jim caught her)? was it because dick was called away by bruce and then the titans and got caught up in his own issues? maybe barbara froze him out because she wasn’t looking for the relationship that he was looking for? maybe the idea of doing that with someone turning into batman-lite was just... unappealing? scary?

whatever it is, it doesn’t look like dick ever processed the end of that relationship. it’s very intriguing to see where their dynamic goes next.

17. so.... what, did vic deliver some fear toxin to barbara? i... what?

17.5. and i TOLD YOU that they would never explain that doll or why vic attacked those two cops at the beginning! oh, titans. never change.

18. did jason just randomly have tim’s restaurant burgled? god, i’m feeling a bit nauseous... are they going to kill tim’s father?

18.25. i feel like the rest of the season is going to wrestle with jason’s culpability in the horrible stuff he’s doing and i’m already seeing that prospect divide fans. on one hand, his story is taking a lot of oxygen away from other equally interesting story arcs, and he’s done some truly awful things, like indiscriminate murder, threatening to kill children, blowing up hank, and potentially killing tim’s parents.

there’s something to be said for the kind of hold that crane has over him, and the so-called ‘anti-fear’ drug that he keeps plying jason with--he’s alone, drugged almost constantly (to the level of dependence), fresh from the trauma of being bludgeoned to death. he hasn’t conquered fear; he’s ruled by it. on the other hand, given that he’s the one character on the show given an obvious and identifiable ‘mental illness’ arc (maaaaybe dick too), one can argue that it’s irresponsible to show this progress into such violence: jason was vulnerable because he was struggling, and that left him vulnerable, but it took only a push before he became a fucking serial killer.

but that could mean we underestimate the degree of that vulnerability, and the mechanics of this universe where he fell into the clutches of the one supervillain perfectly designed to exploit that vulnerability. that helpless spiral into further and further self-destruction is all too real. it’s valuable to know that someone who has sunk that low can still seek help--actual help--and get it.

18.5. i don’t know. it’s not a question i’m going to resolve at the end of an overlong recap at 1 in the morning. i don’t believe it’s even a question that titans can resolve. but i am interested in where they’re going next with jason.

19. this episode was genuinely great! i’m pumped for the rest of the season!

#titans #titans spoilers #meta #dick grayson #koriand'r #barbara gordon #garfield logan #conner kent #komand'r #jason todd #jonathan crane #a byronic cupcake #badass strawberry truffle #manic pixie pop tart #a tragic jalebi #this is a 3k+ MONSTER yikes

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tomeandflickcorner · 8 years

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OUAT Episode Analysis- Page 23

I’d like to apologize in advance if my episode analyses seem to be declining a bit in terms of quality as of late. I’d usually have a transcript for the episode in question on hand when writing these up, but the website I used for transcripts haven’t posted a new transcript for OUAT in a while. Unless someone knows of an alternate site I can use, I’m going to have to write these up with just my memory to rely on.

So, we start with Regina and Zelena storming into the Charming’s loft apartment to inform the Nevengers that Queen Cobra is back and was turned back to a person. Of course, their timing is horrible, as Emma was in the middle of informing Snow and Henry about her recent engagement. On the plus side, it was a bit amusing how Zelena immediately noticed the ring without any prompting. And, to Regina’s credit, she does seem genuinely happy to hear the news. (Which is a huge 180 from her attitude at the end of the Underworld arc, when she told Emma she wanted to kill Killian for being alive when Robin wasn’t.) Even more, when it becomes clear that Evil Queenie was plotting to use Robin Clone as bait to force Regina to come face her, Regina even tells Emma she doesn’t blame her for the situation. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t genuinely surprised by Regina not blaming Emma and accusing her of talking her into bringing Robin along. But pleasantly so. I’m all-around okay for Regina showing some actual character growth.

Anyway, Regina eventually goes to her office to save Robin Clone, who is being contained by magic ropes. Which was a rather clever move. It made me chuckle to see how the ropes would immediately re-tie themselves every time Robin Clone managed to get free. But when Regina shows up, Evil Queen decides Robin Clone served his purpose and, partially due to a conversation they had earlier, sends Robin Clone back home to Wish World. Which I expect is incontestable proof that the Wish World continued to exist even after Emma left. Meaning it’s a real place, and Regina killed an actual version of Snow and Charming, made a version of Henry lose his grandparents and mother, and left an entire world at the mercy of an angry Rumpelstiltskin. But of course, I doubt they’re ever going to address that. In any event, Regina and Evil Queen initiate an all-out duel to the death, with Evil Queen using those dumb fate-severing sheers to sever the tie between them. Which essentially nullifies the previous-standing rule that Evil Queen will instantly die if Regina does. Eventually, Regina gets the upper hand. But before she could finish her opponent off, she catches a glimpse of her reflection in a shard of the mirror that got broken during the fight. And that triggers her memory of the event chronicled in the flashback portion of the episode.

So, in Regina Flashback #685, Evil Queen Regina is, of course, hunting down Snow White. (Shocker!) When she realizes Snow has evaded her again, she tries to coax the villagers into surrendering the information on Snow’s whereabouts, going on about how only she loves them and how Snow doesn’t care about them. (Yeah, and how many villagers have you massacred at this point?) Out of nowhere, Tinkerbell shows up, urging Regina to knock it off and just go find the man with the Lion Tattoo. While it’s nice to see Tinkerbell again, this does make me wonder why Regina got so surprised to see how downtrodden Tink was in Neverland. But I guess EQ Regina was just too caught up in her own little world at the moment to really take in Tink’s appearance. EQ Regina, of course, refuses to listen to Tinkerbell, stating she’s not going to let pixie dust decide her life, and to prove she’s capable of love, she’s not going to kill Tink, blah blah blah.

Sometime later, however, Henry Senior, who later reveals he conspired with Tink off-screen, tells Regina that he knows of a spell in Cora’s old spell book. This spell would allow EQ Regina to locate Snow. Except this turns out to be a false lead, as their quest brings them instead to Cupid’s Arrow, which would help Regina find who she loves the most. (Surprised Rumpelstiltskin didn’t try to get his grubby hands on that particular artifact.) EQ Regina is livid, and accuses her father of betraying her. But she quickly gets an idea and magically manipulates the arrow. Instead of leading her to who she loves the most, the arrow will lead her to who she hates the most. As probably everyone predicted, when EQ Regina fires off the arrow, it doesn’t lead her to Snow like she suspected it would. It leads her to her wardrobe back at her castle. More specifically, the mirror inside the wardrobe door. Meaning Regina hates herself the most.

Yeah, while that was predictable, it was a bit odd to be told that Regina hates herself. She just always seemed to be...I don’t know…full of herself? But I guess it could be argued that that was her compensating. But now that Regina has been reminded of that, she decides she needs to accept the Evil Queen. I mean, I think that’s what we’re supposed to conclude. But the way they executed it was kinda odd. I’m just saying, if they wanted to show Regina accepting the Evil Queen as part of her, wouldn’t it have been better to show her reabsorb Evil Queen? But instead, she does something to their hearts, with Evil Queen getting some of Regina’s light and Regina getting some of Evil Queen’s darkness. (Wasn’t Evil Queen’s heart crushed at the end of 5B? Or did it reform when she did?) Personally, I think this seems a bit like a cop-out. Especially since they still seem to be treating the Evil Queen as a separate entity, particularly in the scene when Regina fills in Snow, Henry and Zelena about it. Snow even says that the Evil Queen might not be capable of being redeemed (which seems odd coming from Mrs. Purity and Light), and Regina says ‘If I can be redeemed, so can the Evil Queen.’ Or something to that effect. Again, I don’t have access to episode transcripts at the moment. And Zelena doesn’t seem swayed by the idea at first either, which was also odd, because, in the show’s timeline, it was just about a week or so ago that Zelena was on Team Evil Queen. Regardless, Evil Queen takes that as her cue to step in to actually apologize to Snow for everything she’s done to her. To my knowledge, this is the first time Evil Queen/Regina ever acknowledged and apologized to Snow. So I had no complaint about that, even though it took her long enough.

In an unrelated story, may I ask who’s watching Baby Neal and Baby Robyn while this is going on? I mean, Regina, Snow, Zelena and Henry are at Granny’s, and Charming’s taking a dirt nap. I supposed it’s possible Emma is looking after the babies, but it still amazes me how often the babies seem to vanish until the plot demands their presence.

Rambling aside, that’s when Henry is given the task of using his position of The Author to send Evil Queen to a place where she can have a fresh start. Which was a bit odd, especially when they point out that it’s against the rules to manipulate events. But Henry is all ‘nope, loophole time,’ saying something about how it’s only against the rules to alter events in your own world, but other stories are fair game. I’m sorry, but that sounds iffy to me. Because Author Isaac got punished for manipulating things in the Enchanted Forest. And he wasn’t from the Enchanted Forest. He was from the Land Without Magic. So he was altering events in a different world from his own. It just….seems like this is going to blow up in their faces somehow. Especially since Charming’s wish that the Evil Queen would get what she deserved still stands, to my knowledge. In any event, Evil Queen is transported to Wish World, where she is able to enter the tavern and meet up with Robin Clone again. Which I guess is meant to be them rectifying how Regina didn’t go into the tavern to meet Robin Prime all those years ago.

Now, I’m not exactly a fan of Regina, but I don’t necessarily hate her. Even so, I still question what the point of this whole split-storyline for Regina even was. Because it looks like the lesson Regina had to learn was to move forward with her life and accept that there’s good and bad in her, and that her happy ending isn’t tied to Robin’s presence in her life, and that she has to love herself. But didn’t she already learn that lesson at the end of S4, when she decided to not erase Zelena and the then-unborn Baby Robyn from existence? Plus, this whole thing with Evil Queen ending up with Clone Robin seems like the writers wanting to allow Regina to have her cake and eat it too. This whole thing just seemed completely pointless to me. Also, there’s the tiny matter that Evil Queen is in the Wish World now. You know, where Wish!Henry is out for her blood? What’s going to happen if and when he finds Evil Queen and Robin Clone? I suppose I should just be happy this whole storyline is over and done with, but it just seems like it was painfully clunky and poorly executed. Especially if they’re still not completely acknowledging the fact that Regina was the Evil Queen, and therefore should be held accountable for everything she did to people.

So, now that that’s out of the way, let’s move on to the Captain Swan portion of the episode. Killian is still in an emotional funk because he still hasn’t been able to tell Emma about the thing with Grandpa Robert. While he’s down by the Storybrooke Pier, being all emo, he’s approached by Captain Nemo, who has come to bid Killian goodbye, as he plans to set off with Liam 2.0 and the rest of the Nautilus crew. Gotta say, I’m not happy with that. Why can’t Nemo stick around in Storybrooke? I realize Killian’s not alone anymore and he has the family that Nemo told him he could find. But that doesn’t mean Killian doesn’t also deserve to have friends outside his future wife and father-in-law. And this episode is a perfect example of how Nemo could be the perfect friend for Killian. Just look at how Killian’s face lights up when he sees Nemo. He’s totally happy to see him. I realize Faran Tahir is an actor who might have other commitments, but that doesn’t mean they have to write Captain Nemo off. They can just make allusions to his ongoing presence in Storybrooke. I don’t think we’ve seen Marco/Gepetto since 4B, but I’ve never doubted he wasn’t still somewhere in town.

Anyway, Killian confides in Nemo about the situation he’s in, and Nemo, being the supportive friend/pseudo father figure that he is, advises Killian to seek forgiveness, as guilt can eat away at you just as much as vengeance. But Killian doesn’t seem to follow Nemo’s advice, as the next time we see him, he’s encased his memory of Robert’s death inside a dreamcatcher, and is apparently getting ready to burn it.

Now, I have some questions about this moment. First of all, would Killian burning that dreamcatcher result in him forgetting about that event? If not, it makes this seem a bit counterproductive. But more importantly, how was he able to extract his memory with the dreamcatcher? Don’t you have to have magic to do that? I know it was a fan theory for a while that Killian somehow maintained a bit of magic from his stint as Dark Killian, but that was never confirmed in canon. So how could Killian pull out that memory with the dreamcatcher, considering he’s supposed to be completely non-magical? Is there something you want to share with the class, Captain Jones? Have you been holding out on us? Or did A&E change the rules on us again.

Unfortunately, Killian made a poor judgement call, as he chose to schedule the dreamcatcher burning while Emma was home, and she witnesses the memory playing out within the dreamcatcher. While it is a bit odd that she recognizes Grandpa Robert, who she’s never even met, she quickly figures out that Killian was planning to burn the memory instead of being honest and coming to her about it. To be fair, he had every intention of telling her the night before, but I also realize he had second thoughts and his guilt got the better of him. The two end up having an argument over the matter, which isn’t a bad thing. Communication is vitally important in a healthy relationship. And it’s made very clear that Emma’s not mad because he killed the grandpa she never met. She’s mad that he didn’t come to her about it. To which Killian admits a part of his actions in wanting to burn the memory is because he couldn’t cope with the guilt, and doubted he could ever look Emma’s parents in the eyes again. In other words, his self-loathing is back again in full force. In the end, Emma decides to return the ring to Killian, while making it clear that they can talk about it when he feels ready to be honest with her.

Okay, I completely get why Emma did this. I get where she’s coming from. At the same time, returning the ring seems just a teensy bit extensive to me. I mean, she knows Killian has self-esteem issues, and has crippling self-loathing. This is nothing new for him. So I’m wondering if we’ll see her contemplate how he might have interpreted that gesture, considering he was experiencing a pretty big low at the time. Because Killian certainly seemed to feel like she meant it as a full-on breakup when he seeks out Nemo to ask if he can accompany him when he leaves Storybrooke, stating he needs help to become the man Emma needs him to be again. However, as the episode ends, Killian is approached by Snow, who somehow seems to not know about what happened between him and Emma, as she voices her happiness for the both of them. She even goes so far as to say she’s glad that he’s the one Emma chose. Overall, I really liked this scene. Especially since I don’t think we’ve EVER seen Killian and Snow interacting before. Unless you count the ‘thank you, milady’ bit back in ‘Tallahassee.’ And that was a LONG time ago, when neither of them had any idea of how hard Emma and Killian would fall for each other. (Although, Snow might have had an inkling. I noticed that look she gave them.) And it’s great to see Killian getting the confirmation that both of Emma’s parents approve of him. At the same time, I have to shake my head at Snow for her obliviousness. She’s standing there, being all happy smiles and sunshine, and doesn’t seem to notice that Killian obviously is in poor spirits. She doesn’t even question why he’s standing alone in the snow. Considering Emma obviously didn’t tell her about the fight they had, you’d think Snow would be wondering why Killian wasn’t off with Emma somewhere.

Snow’s obliviousness aside, she does tell Killian about how the Evil Queen is off getting her happy ending, which ends up restoring his hope that he can still get his happy ending, too. He decides he can’t leave Emma after all, and goes to tell Nemo that he changed his mind and is staying in Storybrooke. But before he could get a chance to leave the Nautilus, Gideon pops up and magically forces the Nautilus to sail off. Before teleporting off, Gideon tells Killian that he can’t afford to have him in Storybrooke if his new big bad plan is going to work.

Now, because of Gideon’s interference, Killian is trapped on the Nautilus as it sets off to a currently unknown location. And since he didn’t leave Emma a note explaining that he was planning to go away, but only temporally, she’s not going to know what happened. Which means she’s probably going to entertain the notion that Killian left for good. After all, Emma has crippling abandonment issues to go with Killian’s self-loathing. Admittedly, I was initially put-off that Killian didn’t leave Emma a note before he headed off to the docks to join up with Nemo. But I suppose he probably had his talking phone with him. And, if Snow hadn’t unknowingly helped change his mind, he would have called before the Nautilus left Storybrooke to let Emma know he wasn’t leaving for good. Especially since he knows Emma’s history of being abandoned. But since it’s unlikely there’s good phone reception under the ocean, Killian’s probably not going to be able to reach Emma to let her know he was sent away by force. All I can say is that Emma better not spend all of the next episode thinking Killian abandoned her. She better figure out something’s wrong, and that Killian Jones would never leave her on his own, within the first 15 minutes. (Likewise, if we’re forced to listen to Snow and/or Regina spout off some ridiculous ‘good riddance to bad rubbish/you were too good for him anyway’ nonsense, I will be ticked. Especially since that would make them seem incredibly two-faced, as they were all supportive and happy about the engagement in this episode.) Most importantly, A&E? Don’t drag this whole angst plot out too long, okay? I want to be happy by the end of next episode. I know the episode will be written by Jane and Jerome, who have yet to let us down in terms of quality CS moments. But considering there’s talk of Tiger Lily joining the cast, I’m stumped about what she’s going to bring to the table.

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#ouat episode analysis #ouat 6x14 #page 23 #regina mills #the evil queen #evil queen regina #slightly anti Regina #wish world #wish!robin #snow white #zelena #henry mills #ouat babies #killian jones #emma swan #captain swan #captain nemo

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