Second Star to Undone

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen last week's The Vampire Diaries, please leave the blog and come back later. Additionally, if you have not seen last night's episode of Once Upon a Time, please leave the blog and come back later. The following reviews will contain spoilers.

Also, feel free to skip down to the Housekeeping section underneath the reviews.

The Vampire Diaries - "She's Come Undone" - Review

It's torture time at the Salvatore house. Everything else failed to make Elena turn her humanity back on so Stefan and Damon come up with the brilliant plan to torture emotion out of her. Yeah... great plan guys. Even better plan to bring Katherine into the mix. You really should have known better. Well, guess you got lucky still having a Hunter's Ring around so Elena could kill Matt with no actual repercussions except her emotions flooding back. I'm sad "emotionless" Elana is gone, I thought she was fun. Instead, we get an Elena who's focused on taking down Katherine. This is gonna be fun.

Speaking of Katherine, she was... interesting, to say the least. Of course she's almost the perfect person to bring in on torturing Elena. However, the boys forgot that her mind's rather quicksilver like... but hey, now she's teaming up with Bonnie.Uhm... yeah... not sure how well that's going to turn out. I seriously doubt Qetsiyah is going to give Katherine Silas' immortality. That'd be too easy, also frustrating for Elena.

Last but not least, we got a lot of Caroline running around being freaked out by Silas and Rebekah being nice to Matt. Both were kind of fun. I enjoyed the Rebekah/Matt moments, they were sweet. As for Caroline... I'm really annoyed at Silas about that. I really hate it when villains decide to mess with and torture people connected to people they want to do things for them. It makes those people less likely to actually want to do what you want them to. I had this same problem with Klaus. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway... now that we've got a new direction to go in... I'm less excited about the coming episodes. I'm not a fan of, as Rebekah put it, sympathetic Elena.

Once Upon a Time - "Second Star to the Right" - Review

I've got to hand it to Regina, she holds up well under torture. Not sure what that means for her character exactly, but I'll admire her ability to endure the pain. I would have squealed after the first jolt from Greg/Owen's machine.

I also have to say: That was the most terrifying adaptation of Peter Pan ever. I commented in my review of Disney's Peter Pan about how Hook was essentially castrated for Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Well, who the heck's afraid of ol' Captain Hook now? I'm more afraid of Pan... or rather, "The Shadow." The design of that thing was scary from the get-go. I'm not sure how Wendy ever thought it was a nice shadow. I would not have trusted that thing at all. Also, Neverland, when we actually saw it, was presented as pretty terrifying it its own right. The dark, foreboding edifice, the wailing of the Lost Boys... which reminds me, why does The Shadow want all those boys for anyway?

I thought the parts of the Peter Pan story set in London were cool. The sets and costumes were excellent. I also enjoyed how they didn't leave out a single detail from the Disney movie. They had Nana, John's umbrella, Michael's Teddy Bear, and Mr. Darling being a giant grump. I really loved Mrs. Darling, though. She's clearly the last word on matters in the Darling household. Also, I'm glad Bae didn't turn out to be Peter Pan.

Okay, enough of that. On to Tamara and Greg. Well, mostly Tamara. Greg's just a bundle of Daddy-issues. Tamara on the other hand... she's a piece of work. What really interests me, though, is who they're working for. The way they said "The Home Office" made me think FBI, but then Tamara starts in on how "unholy" magic is. Those comments made me think it's some kind of cult. We'll probably never find out, though, which is sad, that could possibly be really interesting.

A few more things to wrap up here: I enjoyed the spell Snow endured in order to find Regina. Those types of spells never work the way you expect them to. It also showed that Snow would not hold up under that kind of torture. Next, I found the interplay between Rumple and Lacey both sickening and alluring. Apparently, Rumple's planning on getting rid of Henry... unless he was talking about something else... but, well, we'll see, won't we.

I can't wait till next week!

Housekeeping

I'm all caught up now! Yay!

Let me know what you thought of the episodes in the comments. I'd love to know what you thought.

Love ya, Jessie.

Second Star To The Right - Initial Reactions

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen tonight's episode of Once Upon a Time, please leave the blog and come back later. The following Initial Reactions will invariably contain spoilers.

Once Upon a Time - "Second Star to the Right" - Initial Reactions

• Well that was slightly unexpected. Straight from the recap into the episode.
• It's London.
• Victorian London, the only place a kid in his kind of outfit would more-or-less fit in.
• Nana! Wendy, too!
• Dang those marathons.
• Gotta say, that was really weird. Poor Frankenstein.
• Well there goes that ounce of hope for Rumple.
• So who stole the beans? Tamara?
• I kind of like Snow's coat.
• That you know of...
• There is more than one person in that room.
• The FBI is in on it?
• Hook doesn't trust anyone. He double crosses you when you betray him.
• That's a horrible joke.
• Torture is no fun.
• The crap is this?
• A horrible ad for Disney parks? Yup. Gonna stop talking about it, now.
• She hiding him away?
• Oh snap, caught in the act.
• Mrs. Darling is officially awesome.
• So does Bae think the shadow is his father?
• The better question is, how did he get it?
• Interesting spell.
• I don't think saving her is going to work, but you can give it a shot.
• Yeah... sometimes those "feel whatever she feels" spells aren't always what they're cracked up to be.
• That's creepy.
• Time for Tamara to lie through her teeth.
• It's about time they had that talk.
• So you think, Tamara.
• Because you're incredibly cock and ridiculous, Greg.
• Oh how wonderful, religious crazy people.
• Poor Snow.
• Wendy seems a little freaked out.
• Pan's shadow is keeping the Lost Boys there.
• Something's gonna happen to bring Belle back, me thinks.
• Family seems to be the only thing, though.
• Gots to love surveilance.
• Greg's gonna get caught.
• Regina's brain is gonna be fried.
• Yeah, don't believe the people you're torturing for information. That's a good plan.
• Battle time at the Darling residence.
• I figured Bae would go with The Shadow.
• Ick, that flying around is making me motion sick.
• Good job shooting the machine first!
• Except is totally was.
• Neil's amazingly calm.
• Go Emma!
• Random magic bean.
• Neil saves the day... until the floor falls through.
• Bye bye Neil.
• Sucks for Emma and Henry.
• Dig dig dig.
• Sucks for you, Greg/Owen.
• Neverland does not sound like a happy place.
• This is how Bae met Hook.
• And Smee!
• Where is Henry?
• Yeah, that's a giant problem.
• Dun dun dun.