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Sunday 11 August 2013

Once Upon A Time 2.18 "Selfless, Brave and True" Review

                                       
Charming (Josh Dallas) makes breakfast for Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) but Emma (Jennifer Morrison) thinks it's about time she came out of her stage of self pity.  She takes Henry (Jared S Gilmore) to see Neal (Michael Raymond-James) and he hopes he can tell him some stories from the storybook.  Tamara's (Sonequa Martin-Green) coming down and he wants Emma to stay too.  Snow heads to the woods and whilst shooting arrows to vent, she hers a noise and finds part of a broken arrow and a trailer.  Here she chances upon August (Eion Bailey) with the tip of her arrow in his leg.

In Phuket, August's leg is turning to wood and he believes he needs the hospital.  Here he's thought a psycho after he sticks a scalpel into his leg.  On the run someone stops him and tells him he knows someone who can help.  Here he sees a woman drop her phone and this woman turns out to be Tamara.  The Dragon (Tzi Ma) tells August he needs a personal item from him and the necklace he wears will do but also $10,000, which he doesn't have.  He takes his whale necklace but it's the cord that's magic since his father used it when he created him so he could be animated.  August meets Tamara in a bar and of course she tempts him with the money cos it was all a set up from the start, she wasn't dying that much was obvious and tells him the Dragon took her grandmother's photo.  The lure proves too much and August steals the money.  When he's given the potion she shows up and takes it from him, she paid for it.

Emma tells Neal to be honest about her and tell Tamara where he comes from, after small talk over bagels, like Henry asking how they met, he spilt coffee on her blouse and gave her his scarf, sense another set up here, Emma leaves and Neal tells her where he's from, showing her the book.  Funny they always manage to show the Hatter's pic in there!  Well we need something as a reminder, seeing as he's not around!

Snow finds he's been living here since the curse broke but he didn't get better, that's why he was missing when Geppetto (Tony Amendola) came to find him.  She wants him to return where they can help him and also to see Emma but he refuses.  He's seeking redemption but can't find any, something close to Snow's heart (no pun) cos she's in search of that too, how to move on from what she did.  Regina (Lana Parrilla) sees Mendel (Ethan Embury) at Granny's diner and thanks him for telling her about Henry in the woods.  He seems familiar though they haven't met.  She tells Snow that the special is blackened sole (soul.) Snow tells Gepetto and Emma about August.

August is missing and that's cos Tamara pays him a visit and tells him the bottle he seeks is in New York and if he leaves now he can have it.  Tamara confronts the dragon in Phuket and he tells her about magic but she doesn't know about him and as he begins to change, into a dragon, presumably, she tasers him, why are these men so weak against women?  August finds him dead and as he drives away, he finds her photo in the car and turns around.  At the sheriff's station he doesn't find Emma, but he calls her and Tamara cuts the wire to the phone and then tasers him too, so underneath all that wood, his heart wasn't wooden, cos she managed to get him too.  Well that sounds better than that taser!

Regina tells Mendel she recalls him as Owen and she kept his keychain he gave her.  His father left after he did and she tells him he's not around and he should leave otherwise he will know what it means to disappear for real.  They find August and he tries to tell Emma about Tamara.  The Blue Fairy (Keegan Connor Tracy) might help after Henry recalls, "selfless, brave and true" which is what August tried to be.  The Blue Fairy turns him back into little Pinocchio and he can't recall what he was telling Emma, well conveniently, otherwise there'd be no story to continue!  Tamara watches and feigns belief in magic.  In New York, August tells Neal he's going to find Emma to break the curse so she can help him and Neal doesn't think it's a good idea cos then his father will recall all about him.  Sorry but he already knew.  Tamara watches and then pretends bumping into him with her coffee.
She pays a visit to Mendel in his room, obviously they're lovers and in on it together, but now we'll get the boring story of how they met, ugh, don't really care!

SO was that meant to have Mulan's dragon, considering he was a bit useless, well he was.  Of course her taser isn't magic but it is made to destroy people connected to magic and look Hook's vanished, cos he'll come to their aid later on.  Though Regina seemed to still have a soft spot for Owen, it's a shame with her magic she couldn't see past this at what he's really like and what he's up to!

August's SFX were kind of brilliant since he could still move around even if he was wood and he was okay living out his life in a trailer in the woods until Snow had to lure him out and Tamara had to show up.  Just cos she's Neal's fiance what made them so sure she'd be okay with magic and she could even be trusted.  I mean look at Emma, and how long it took for her to believe in the entire magic is real scenario.  So naive on their part, just as letting Owen/Mendel wander around town.

Snow slapping Geppetto when he admits there was room in the cupboard for two, thus Snow could have been with Emma, but she understands and apologizes, it wasn't her who hit him, she'd have done the same to be with Emma.  Yes but the entire purposes was to get Emma away from Regina.  Also Emma promising Henry she will never lie to him again as long as he stops pushing her away!  Snow comes clean about wanting Regina to kill her and how her heart is blackened.

Though fans regret August having to become a boy all over again, even if his father can make up for lost time now.  Something Snow and Charming can do with Emma, but she's not a little girl.  Just as well, we can't have all our fave characters being turned into children, next we'll get a little Hook, ha.  Tamara and her conducting every scientific experiment she could on the liquid in the bottle, as if she'll be able to defeat magic with her science or whatever she wants to do.

Did you notice August finds his leg turning to wood at 8.15, when Emma arrived in Storybrooke and the clock was forever stuck at that time, not also mentioning 815 was the number of the flight/plane in Lost, noticed that and blabbed it out too! Ha.  The pages Tamara flicked through in the book showed The Mad Hatter's pic was from the episode 1.17 Hat Trick,  Hansel and Gretel in 1.9 True North and then Bae in 1.8  Desperate Souls.  Snow was listening to Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Bad Reputation.

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