The Whispers 1.2 "Hide And Seek" Review

                                      
As Claire (Lily Rabe) follows up on the lead of the photograph, she calls Jessup (Derek Webster) to ask him to hold off putting it out in public and tells him to meet her at the hospital.  Henry (Kyle Harrison Breitkopf) tells her about his new friend and when she asks about him, she's interrupted by the doorbell, of course that was Drill ensuring he doesn't tell her anything.  But really couldn't the doorbell wait, it's not like anyone who's there will go away if it's someone she knows, or will be doing more than cold calling! At the hospital as he asks Harper (Abby Ryder Fortson) questions about the photo and if that's Drill, her father, Harrison Weil (Jamison Jones) tells her to answer the questions, but she says she can't otherwise her mother won't get well, it's a game and she has to play and win.  She asks Harper if Drill stops her from answering Maria (Catalina Denis) and she says it might be okay but then doesn't tell her anything.  Maria sees the photo and tells Claire the man was her patient and ran away.

Obviously they don't know his name but he had tattoos and spoke Arabic (hey look Arabic speaking aliens!! ha and I mean aliens as in little grey men!)  As Claire watches the surveillance footage with Jessup, Sean (Milo Ventimiglia) strikes down a guard.  She pauses it and zooms in, he asks her who he is cos she's keeping something from him and she replies it's her husband.  They only found his plane and no body, but the man here wasn't behaving like Sean cos he doesn't speak Arabic or have tattoos.  She gives Maria her card and tells her to call only her if he turns up.  Now wait a sec, we see Sean had an appointment with her which he cancels, but he couldn't have been the one with the appointment.  He just said that to ensure she wouldn't be at home, cos I was thinking (for a change) if she had an appointment with him she'd have told him and secondly she wouldn't have had an appointment cos he was meant to have remained in hospital, not run away.

En route to the hospital, Wes (Barry Sloane) stopped Claire in her car and she told about the sketch and the man being Sean.  He doesn't think it's a good idea to talk in public as Lena (Kristin Connolly) just told him the whole of the neighbourhood probably knows about his indiscretion and affair with her.  He also says he had a second chance with Lena and Claire says she hasn't been given a second chance.

Sean heads to Maria's house where he finds a gun and showers before passing out in the shower! Right any ol' excuse to go shirtless and nakked!  ha.
                                            
Seems he was in there quite a while without getting wrinkly skin!  He comes out and then draws on the floor, another symbol.  Thought that symbol looked a little like the swing where Minx (Kylie Rogers) headed after leaving home, saying she doesn't want to be there anymore cos she doesn't like her parents arguing and the way they look at each other.  Of course she was getting up to her own tricks according to Drill, as she tells her friend about a new game she can play and then she'll show her some magic, that's their secret though. Why are children so mesmerized by talking figures and lights, just a general comment, since Minx had lights everywhere in her room and she's had them since she was little, as we see in flashbacks later on.  Guess that's one of Drill's attractions with the lights, as well as only being able to communicate with the use of electricity.

Wes's home is investigated by the FBI since secret files were downloaded and he said it wasn't him. Lena argues with him some more thinking she's been spying on him, but she's still more concerned about his affair.  Which he doesn't seem to be quite over with, no matter what he said about his second chance.  Especially when she tells him he doesn't know what he's talking about and they were much more than that.  Looks like she heard that.  Wes has put a tail on Claire and follows her to Maria's house where she almost runs into Sean, he makes a run for it through the window and she chases him, leaving his bag behind.  Of course she must've been some kind of fast runner cos getting a headstart on her, he didn't get very far, or was that his intention.  Cos after losing her, he shows himself and then vanishes.  She tells Wes she didn't get to see who he was, but she did really and wouldn't tell him.

Henry watches TV in the night and Grammy (Dee Wallace) tells him she heard someone talking in     the room, which he says was the TV, of course he can hear now, but he's hiding that.  That's just another 'reward' Dill's given to him, like teasing Harper about giving her mother back if she listens to him and does what he wants, winning the game.  Satellite footage showed some form of anomaly from where Sean's plane went missing and Wes tells Frommer (David Andrews) he turned off his transponder which cant be done on an F-22.  Minx has plans which show the same symbol Sean drew on the floor and he gets into Maria's car with the gun.

There is something about this show which had more of the supernatural element than anything alien or otherwise cos of the flickering lights, something associated with spirits, rather than anything out of this worldly.  There wasn't much revealed in this episode and no reasons as to why Claire and Wes had their affair to begin with, it doesn't look like there was anything wrong in their personal lives at home, but seemed like a plot device the writers used to plod along, ensuring Minx was told by Drill of this and that made her an easy target to manipulate, as she'd want someone to talk to.  Just like Sean appearing before Claire was just to prove she wasn't imagining things and that really was him, otherwise as I said if he's got amnesia and he's running away why stop and reveal himself, cos there'd be no point in running.

Then there was Wes and Claire, two people who had the oft mentioned and repeated affair, yet she finds it comfortable to lie to him about who she saw and Lena thinks he's still lying to her.  Then if the adults lying wasn't bad enough, we see their children do it too.  Henry keeps the fact he can hear from her and Minx just seems to do whatever she wants whether there are consequences or not, like being able to leave the house at night without anyone knowing.  It's easy for Drill to make them promise not to tell about him or what his game is, cos their parents keep secrets too.  Suppose the only interesting aspect was why Sean would take Maria hostage.  Though the fact he had a storage unit with various clippings and other stuff shows he's been trying to figure out this puzzle for along time.

The Musketeers 1.1 "Friends and Enemies" Review

                             
D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino) and his father, Alexandre (Oliver Cotton) ride to an inn and as D'Artagnan puts away the horses, the men inside are attacked.  One is killed and his father is also killed as one of the men says he's Athos (Tom Burke) of the king's Musketeers.  Of course it's not really him as this is the opening we're not meant to know what he looks like yet at least in the show, oh you know, having to suspend disbelief and all that, even though we do know who Athos really is.  The real Athos wakes up in a room and after drinking wakes himself up with a cold bucket of water and dunking his head into it. D'Artagnan rides to Paris to avenge his father.  He gets a room and in the night a woman arrives with another man and he challenges D'Artagnan to a duel the next day.  She waits for him upstairs and takes his pistol from him when they meet on the stairs.  Later sending the night together.  When D'Artagnan wakes in the morning he finds a bloody dagger in her pillow and takes it with him when he hears a scream.  The man she was with is dead in the bath and they see D'Artagnan with the knife, he escapes through the window.

At the garrison D'Artagnan challenges him to a sword fight.  Athos trying to explain he didn't do it. Constance (Tamla Kari) also telling them they should be ashamed of themselves: three against one. He finally gives up and she takes him to her house and bandages him up.  Louis (Ryan Gage) tells Treville (Hugo Speer) he must find Gaudet (Philip Brodie) who has important letters of his, which he's written to Phillip in Spain in the hopes of peace.  He doesn't want Cardinal Richelieu (Peter Capaldi) to find out.  Treville sends the Musketeers after the men, but Athos is arrested for murder and is thrown into prison, after the same impostor robs a carriage and kills the occupants, telling the drier to tell everyone that Athos spared him.  He accuses Athos before the king.

D'Artagnan helps the others cos he wants to know the truth and they find the men at a castle, the only way is over the bridge.  He knows someone who can help them and Constance pretends to be a prostitute so they can overpower the guard and get in.  D'Artagnan fights the man and is about to kill him when Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) tells him they need Gaudet alive.  But he draws his sword and D'Artagnan has to protect himself, so much for that.  Also Constance is shocked at having to fire the pistol and kill a man to save D'Artagnan.  Porthos (Howard Charles) finds the Musketeers uniforms, however the cardinal already has his hands on the letters, as procured by Milady (Maimie McCoy).   Which was a waste of time really, since Louis already admits to the cardinal what he's done and he says he won't do that again without his counsel, but could come in handy for blackmailing purposes.

They arrive just in time to save Athos before being executed by firing squad with a letter from Louis, as Athos wanted it to be over.  Especially with him contending with the demons of Milady and what he did to her, of course, we know it's Milady who is his wife (reading the books aside) as she also showed D'Artagnan the scar around her neck from the rope.

Aramis has his own woes as he spends time with Adele (Emily Beecham) and has to escape when the cardinal arrives early, aka Armand.  He jumps from the window, or at least must hang there until the Musketeers find him, leaving behind his pistol.  Which she kicks under the bed but doesn't get rid of or sends it back to him.  Of course the cardinal was going to find it and use it against her.  He needed to find who it belonged to but Aramis already told him.  He kills Adele for her betrayal with his pistol and Aramis believes she's deserted him for the Cardinal and to stay at his summer house.  Whilst he's also plotting with Milady who killed the Spanish traitor Mendoza who was a poor lover and he would've betrayed the Cardinal eventually as she tells him.

As an opening episode it had all the right amount of interesting scenes and dialogue to get you hooked and jokes.
Treville: "I've had complaints, an allegation you've been duelling with the cardinal's Red Guards, is it true?"
Athos: "let me think...no...because that would be illegal."

 As already we see the Musketeers are a force to be reckoned with and in constant fights with the Red Guard and detested by the cardinal.  So it's no wonder he does away with his mistress, Adele after he finds out she was with Aramis.  Who jumps out of a window to escape as much the same as D'Artagnan did.  The plot where D'Artagnan spends a night with Milady when we know who she really is was kept going for quite some time as he doesn't know she is Athos's wife and Athos doesn't know about them either.  But already D'Artagnan has an eye for Constance even if she is married and we thought Aramis was meant to be the amorous one!

The Whispers 1.1 "X Marks The Spot" Review

                                          
As children play, they're watched by a bearded man, yeah okay how else am I supposed to describe him, short of calling him a perv, which he wasn't!  A girl, Harper (Abby Ryder Fortson) goes back home with her mother, Amanda (Autumn Reeser) and speaks wit her imaginary friend.  Her mother calls her for lunch, oh and how easy for Harper to have gotten hold of those knives in the knife block, it was not only within reachable height, but then she was going to sit there and eat!  She meanwhile raids the toolbox as she's been told to and makes her mother climb the treehouse.  Where she steps on the marked spot and falls through it cos Harper tells her to.  Now how can a child not be old enough to know the outcome of that and what would happen, also who does that to their parents, imaginary friend telling them to do it or not.  Yeah okay I know it's just a show and such things do happen in real life!

Harper isn't the only child affected as there are others who are either influenced by the children themselves or by the 'unknown' Drill, as all their imaginary friends have this name.  Agent Clare Bennigan (Lily Rabe) is called in as she's a child expert and also investigated such cases before, where children mysteriously blew up buildings.  She's also a mother and her son, Henry (Kyle Harrison Breitkopf) can't hear or speak.  As she leaves him at a baseball game.  She's also lost her husband, his father, Sean three months ago and yeah figured out very early and I mean very early on, that her dead husband was the one watching Harper in the playground.

In Mali, Africa, Wes Lawrence (Barry Sloane) is called to the site of some wreckage in the desert, which is unexplainable.  He's called back home and said bearded man, oh let me just call him Sean (Milo Ventimiglia) is admitted to hospital, where he has countless number of tattoos and also speaks in Arabic.  Which is completely irrelevant, but was there for just that added stereotypical factor.  His doctor Maria Benavidez (Catalina Davis) asks for someone to translate and later that night, he leaves the hospital and goes to the playground wearing doctor's scrubs.  Pretty soon Drill makes his way to Henry and allows him to hear again, but it's their secret, also that he will bring back his father to him, which is all he wants really.

Clare is assigned a new partner, Jessup Rollins (Derek Webster) who understandably doesn't want her taking the lead and doing things her way but she's the one who's had experiences with these cases and finally there's the reveal that the man is her husband, Sean cos of the photos around.  An airforce pilot whose plane crashed and was found miles away in the desert.  He finds another tattoo on his arm of the treehouse and presumably that's why he was at the playground.  As we also get to find out that Wes and Clare have history of an affair and now Wes is back home with his wife Lena (Kristen Connolly) also with a daughter, Minx (Kylie Rogers) who's also communicating with Drill.

As for the title, a clue for those who needed to know the show was more sci-fi than supernatural, hence the 'X', yeah that's just me being pedantic, ridiculous or both!  But I would've preferred more supernatural than aliens although it was obvious alien invasion was on the horizon.  Also the plane was "grabbed from the sky and ripped to "shreds" by something.  Thus the alien connection.  Though as more children turn up and are manipulated by Drill getting the others to talk to them or even Drill communicating himself with them, it's apparent the show is about the children more so than the adults.  I do have to say that I got a feeling of deja vu whilst watching this and as my mind wandered, I thought of how Barry Sloane looks much younger in this than he did in Revenge!  Or whether I prefer Milo with a beard or sans beard.  I was still watching though and yes I can multi-task and still be amenable to this show!  Ha.

Once Upon A Time 4.20 "Lily" Review

                                               
It was inevitable that Lily (Agnes Bruckner) and Emma (Jennifer Morrison) would meet again, in a world where flashbacks are law or lore, fairytale lore that is.  But Emma couldn't believe that she and Lily were living so close by when they were older and she didn't even know.  That's one thing about Emma, she's the Saviour and all that, but she's a bit slow on the uptake at times, does a lot of running away and walking out on people, which means she still needs growing up to do and that includes still needing to learn what it means to have a friend.  She called August (Eion Bailey) her friend, her second friend after Lily, but even that came at a price.  Especially when he was changed back to a little boy and losing his memories, so that means she lost him too.

After the reveal that Lily was Maleficent's (Kristen Bauer) daughter and was still alive, Emma had to find her which also saw Snow (Gennifer Goodwin) and David (Josh Dallas) having to apologize to her mother.  As w know apologies don't mean much in this show when we're dealing with villains. It's not Maleficent they must ask forgiveness from, but Lily.  The other thing about Emma is how she bears grudges, particularly where her parents are concerned and they make mistakes, as they're human, as Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) told her, but she still didn't want to listen.  No one's asking for outright forgiveness, but some understanding and not going half cocked into a situation, I mean look at the number of mistakes Hook's made.  Oh and another thing love, she's far from perfect herself. Not going to go into all the mistakes she made in her past, the most glaring being giving up Henry (Jared Gilmore) after he was born.  So in that respects, like mother, like daughter, but Snow had to give up Emma cos of the curse.  She didn't want to.

Anyway Regina (Lana Parilla) needs to find Robin (Sean Maguire) to warn him about Marion being Zelena (Rebecca Mader).  So she and Emma decide on a roadtrip to New York and to get Lily back for her mother.  Which gives Regina and Emma more time to talk.  Regina bringing along the scroll for magical purposes and getting back to storybrook.  Flashback to Emma having found a foster family, now finds Lily in the garage and says she needs help.  Later finding out she robbed a store withe her boyfriend and can't go back there, asking Emma to retrieve her mother's necklace.  Only she is found out by her foster parents and once again Emma runs away, without giving anyone a chance to explain, or hearing them out.  See a trait she's never lost!

The other thing, coincidence or not is how Emma and Lily's life mirrored each other's in many ways and not an Evil Queen's mirror in sight.  Though she was hypocritical, even at that age, she berated Lily for resorting to stealing with her boyfriend and lying to her.  But then that was Emma a few years later too with Neil.  And what's more is that he left her holding the bag literally and then taking the wrap for him.  Now Emma why were you so judgemental back then and still now.

Oh the kicker at the end, Zelena is carrying Robin's baby, well they didn't waste any time getting back into the everyday rigours of married life!  As well as getting one up on Regina cos Robin and his code, he won't leave the baby.  Zelena really up to her old tricks as per usual, you'd have thunk after everything she's been through, she'd have given up on her revenge trait, but green it seems is for life!

Gold trying to get his happy ending and ensure his heart isn't completely blackened.  But isn't it the case, the more he tries, the darker it'll get and quicker.  Now there's this quest to get Emma to turn dark and killing Cruella was meant to be that turning point, but it didn't come. Perhaps since she's lived in the real world and knows how people can really be, that dark maybe isn't in her vocabulary, but bearing grudges is her norm.  What was good about this episode was no foray of flashbacks into the magical world, or the Enchanted Forest, it was just all about the modern world, saving Lily and saving Robin.

New fave character of mine has to be Hook, well, not so much new, at least he's consistent and willing to accept other's flaws, especially those of the woman he loves and can understand the choices people make.  As said he's made his fair share of bad decisions, even if many of them were as a pirate.  It's not as if he had anything to lose back then or anyone to keep on the straight and narrow for.  His character has evolved though and whether it be for the love of a good woman or not, it's good to see that taking place since so many revert back in this show.

The Musketeers 3.10 "We Are The Garrison" Review

                                      

Contains Spoilers

As the Musketeers attend Treville's (Hugo Speer) funeral and say their farewells, Grimaud (Matthew McNulty) narrates about dying; in a scene reminiscent of Feron in 3.6 Death of A Hero.
Grimaud: "bury your friend your minister, the saviour of France.  Your grief is your downfall, while you weep, and mourn as the pain overwhelms you.  You are blind, you won't see me coming!" And the dramatic music crescendo build up...

At Christophe's inn, they say goodbye and talk about Athos (Tom Burke) not touching a drop, obviously Athos was staying sober for Grimaud.  Constance (Tamla Kiri) tells Sylvie (Thalissa Treixeira) she should tell him as they need some good news, but she doesn't think it's the right place or time.  That she is pregnant with Athos's baby.  Porthos (Howard Charles) recalls Treville and gives him a rousing goodbye, by saying how he was a father to them all, gave his life for his country and how he won't forget his bravery and sacrifice.  Touching that Porthos should be the one to pay tribute to Treville as being like their father.  He had father issues and problems in series 2.  D'Artagnan (Luka Pasqualino) adds how he didn't care if you were from a farm or from the streets, or anywhere else.  "All he saw was the man that you could become, the soldier, he gave us a home, a family" and clearly he can hold his emotions no longer as he's in tears.  How they owe him everything and Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) finishes off with how they were all young cadets with self doubt, Treville believed in them and that made them Musketeers; also recalling his "endearing temper."   As they all toast "Treville!"
As explosives come raining through the window and then explode.  The four of them are uninjured and soon there are more explosions, this time from the garrison.  D'Artagnan runs to find Constance as Porthos tries to stop him, but he goes ahead anyway. They find some survivors and pull them out of the rubble and flames and Athos spots Grimaud on the roof as the smoke clears and then covers him, he vanishes.

They believe D'Artagnan to be dead but he comes out alive with Constance and Porthos goes after Brujon (Tom Morley).  D'Artagnan begs Aramis to bring her back to him and after a while she begins to breathe.  Sylvie arrives with help and they take the injured to Christophe's.  Including Clairmont (Daniel Parr) where Aramis tries to save him and remove more shrapnel from him.  Porthos says there aren't any weapons but they stole their gunpowder or the garrison would've gone up in flames and be completely destroyed.

Grimaud tells Marcheaux (Matt Stokoe) the Musketeers are still alive and he only killed D'Artagnan. Marcheaux replies they're demoralized, so they're more or less destroyed anyway, but Grimaud isn't satisfied.  As he plots some more.  Griamud goes after Sylvie and he notices the old woman putting a hand on her stomach.  He asks Sylvie if Athos would come for her and for the both of them, as she spits on him.  He takes her hostage and tells Marcheaux to bring the old woman to him.  He asks why Sylvie would want to bring a baby into this world and she replies he should know why.  Then realizes he doesn't know why.  He kills the old woman and sends her to the a garrison with a note written in Sylvie's hand.

It tells them to meet in the town and all three must come or else they'll start killing the refugees every hour starting with her.  Porthos says they have an advantage in that Grimaud thinks that D'Artagnan is dead and they can use him for this.  Athos asking D'Artagnan how it must be to risk his life for someone he loves and he replies it makes it more worthwhile.  D'Artagnan will take out as many as he can and will be the element of surprise.  When they arrive, Griamud orders them to drop their weapons and they want the hostages first.  Sylvie tells Athos he shouldn't have come.  Grimaud orders them to execute Porthos and Aramis and they're led away.  D'Artagnan finding the time to strike now.  Aramis saying as a condemned man they should have last requests.  Porthos says he'll only waste it by praying.  They fight and overpower the men, then fire two shots.

Then attack the rest of the men to save Athos and Sylvie and the hostages.  But D'Artagnan can only wound Grimaud with his dagger and yet again he makes his escape.  So how many lives has he had then, nine for the entire ten eps so surely his luck has to run out in the series finale.  Sylvie and D'Artagnan take supplies to the inn and Grimaud hides by the docks.  As they begin the task of rebuilding the garrison, Athos tells Anne (Alexandra Dowling) she should promote Porthos as he will be a great asset as a strategist.  She wants Athos to take Treville's place as minister, but he says Aramis is more suited since he has ecclesiastical experience too.   The dauphin is to be blessed tomorrow and she has invited all the people to come, not just the nobility.  They need to go after Grimaud but thus far they've been fighting him by their rules and they need to throw honour out the window and meet him on his terms, yeah fight dirty!

Obviously the blessing was going to be attended by Grimaud as he turns up at the inn and Constance helps him by removing his dagger as he then vanishes again.  Telling her, or rather repeating from before that "pain makes us strong."  Clairmont dies and she tells Broujon he was the strong one.  Elodie (Lily Loveless) arrives in Paris saying Grimaud came after her and she still hasn't named her daughter.  He introduces her to Constance and she'll take care of her.  He tells Elodie he'll always be a soldier.  At the cathedral, Elodie spots Grimaud in the crowd heading inside and tells Constance who he is.  She warns D'Artagnan and they go after him, recalling the gunpowder and clear the church.  D'Artagnan puts out the fuses on the barrels and then fights him, as he cuts his cheek.  Then runs again.  Athos tells him he must do this.  They fight and Athos finally kills him, telling D'Artagnan 'it's done'. Finally!!

The blessing goes ahead and Anne tells the people she's disbanding her Musketeers and reforming them as the peoples' Musketeers, where they will fight for France and for justice still. Outside, she gives Porthos his promotion to General and sends him to the front.  Telling Aramis he should be her minister, but he declines.  Later Athos tells him it's the best way for him to be close to his son and Aramis replies he'll be his son's servant and minister.  Athos reminding him how he didn't think of Treville as just his captain, but more.  He taught them to be Musketeers but also they are men.  Porthos marries Elodie and he wants to be there for them both and she'll get his pension if anything happens to him.  He asks Broujon to accompany him and he becomes a Musketeer.  Athos needs to go away for a while, taking a leave of absence and  wants D'Artagnan to be captain.   He reluctantly accepts, but only as long as he returns.

Oh here see D'Artaganan in a hat!!

Athos also gets to be the one who speaks the title in this ep after Brujon says they don't have anything left, it's not the place that makes the garrison but they do and wherever they go, "we are the garrison."  We also get to see what a conniver Anne really is in secret, well she is Spanish after all, as she hires Milady (Maimie McCoy) to carry out an assassination.  She works for her now and she asks if she really wants this man taken care of.  Who turns out to be, no surprise, Gaston (Andre Flynn) as he is the last remaining loose thread in her ascension to the throne and becoming regent.  Now nothing stands in her way, in her complete takeover of the throne, but was it really all for France and Aramis doesn't realize what lengths she'll go to, to preserve herself and perhaps the dauphin.  hey glad I was right last ep review when I said Milady will probably kill Gaston!  Perception! ha.

As they go their separate ways, Athos narrates now and ends his dialogue with love.
"...with great passion... face a challenge; hearts that stay true to all they hold dear, courage, no matter how many enemies lie in wait for us, faith the daylight will always follow the dark, [Sylvie: "and love"]... 

above all else."

So it ends after three years of fights, romance, intrigue and backstabbing.  A fitting way to go out still blazing before people got bored of it, maybe not so much bored but before writers exhausted all the storylines just for the sake of more eps; but also giving them all a happy ending that they deserved. Porthos getting a ready made family, Athos on his way to becoming a father, Aramis becoming minister and taking up the role, so he's able to see his son and D'Artagnan holds the garrison for Athos's return, keeping the next generation of Musketeers together.

I was reading how many people equated Athos with being similar to Grimaud, but personally I didn't see the similarities.  They were two very different men from two very different worlds and upbringings.  Athos was of nobility, with character and great standing.  He treated people with respect, didn't judge them harshly or unfairly no matter who they were, his personal life with Milady aside.  Even then he did still maintain some feelings towards her.  He was above all a Musketeer, fighting for injustice wherever he came across it and was selfless.  Griamud was the exact opposite. He was not loved, downtrodden in his meagre existence, though it was no fault of his own, he could have strived to be a better man, a better person when he grew up.  Yet he was only interested in what he could get from the world and what he was owed.  In some ways his start to life was similar to Porthos, with only his mother to bring him up.  Grimaud's mother did try to end his life, but she was faced with a terrible life of her own.  Porthos had Treville, but even then he made his life his own after leaving the court of miracles and deciding to go his own way.
Griamud was fuelled by pain and suffering, never by doing the right thing cos it was the right thing to do.

The Musketeers 3.9 "The Prize" Review

                                     
Contains spoilers...

As Gaston (Andre Flynn) and Lorraine's (Robert Glenister) army stands poised at the outskirts of Paris, the news spreading that Louis (Ryan Gage) has died having seen his son once and for the last time, they rush to help, but he's gone.  In a meeting with the council Treville (Hugo Speer) is told Louis took back making Anne (Alexandra Dowling) his regent and he is now the regent.  Which the council agreed to, but even Treville didn't know of.  Treveill has Athos (Tom Burke) take away the dauphin to a safe place since it's too dangerous for him at the palace.  Anne demands to see him but Treville won't tell her where he is.  She's also upset that she's no longer regent as they are at war.

Athos takes him to Constance (Tamla Kari) at the garrison and they didn't even bother changing his clothes until later, but also stupidly left them behind.  She and Sylvie (Thalissa Teixeira) take the dauphin to Christophe's old house, but he doesn't remain there for long, as Sylvie leaves him alone and he goes out.  Here he picks some fruit from the stall and the woman makes a commotion even after Constance pays for what he took.  She wants the guards to arrest them, as they leave.  It was a bit of a cat and mouse and hide and seek story in the ep, didn't know whether to laugh or what as everything that could've gone wrong did and it was predictable. .

Athos doesn't tell anyone what he's done, but it would've been easy for anyone to guess where they would've taken him. Treville gives the order to disband the Red Guard and the Musketeers must enforce it.  Athos tells Marcheaux (Matt Stokoe) that they can't have traitors in their midst.  As they fight, Porthos (Howard Charles) dislocates Marcheaux's arm and he still tries to fight them.  Gaston is impatient and wants to march into Paris now and become the heir, or leave the dauphin on the throne for a while, where he can then have an unfortunate riding accident.  Lorraine also wants his lands restored to him, so they share a common goal.  However Marcheaux and Grimaud (Matthew McNulty) have other ideas, they can let them have the palace, he just wants the gold and wealth. Also Grimaud has the gold to pay the army.  Smarmy Grimaud still can't be taken care of.

Treville sends Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) and Porthos out to get Gaston as he has an offer for him.  He can have the villa that he likes and will have an income.  Gaston thinking Louis's left him a legacy.  Treville plans to divide and conquer.  He also has a plan to find a boy who resembles the dauphin and D'Artagnan goes in search of one.  Anne still demands to see her son and when Aramis returns with Gaston, she asks if he knows where he is.  Aramis also asking Athos what happened to
"all for one."  Gaston spies D'Artagnan taking the boy into the carriage and Aramis watches him take the bait.

Treville and Porthos ride out to meet with Lorraine as Treville offers him back his lands independent of France, which is what he wanted.  Grimaud isn't a party to this, but he knows the men won't march without Lorraine leading them.  Also concluding that the dauphin wouldn't leave Paris, that Treville would find it too risky.  So he sends Marcheaux and his men to search for the boy.  Constance takes him to her house and he rests there. She must find Athos to tell him and finds Anne at Treville's office.  She agrees for her to see her son at the church, which was silly cos Treville was her regent now and not Anne, so she couldn't really order her to do anything.

Sylvie tells her she can't do that but she does anyway and Sylvie finds Aramis to tell him, but Marcheaux overhears her cos she shouts out the location.  Which was stupid so much for keeping him under the radar.  Marcheaux heads there with his men , as Athos and Aramis must fight the guards. Treville says he should get Gaston anything he wants, increase the offer of money and offer him joint leadership of the army too.  As Gaston tells Lorraine he was offered nothing, there wasn't any deal or legacy.  As Treville finally agrees with Lorraine he will give him back his lands definitely, if he agrees to move his men back as a goodwill gesture, which he does.  But takes him a long time to sign the treaty.

At the church Marcheaux's men try to take the dauphin, but Aramis arrives in time and they have to get the boy away.  He tells Anne she's in too much danger here.  Athos finally says he should've told them what was really happening, since when did they do that and why start now, it's a little late in the final series, ha.  D'Artagnan finds Constance at the laundry and the woman agrees to hide the dauphin there but she doesn't want money, only the garrison's laundry.  She and Sylvie leave, as D'Artagnan hides under the floorboards.  The woman tells the others to act naturally, which was a joke, as the men search and find nothing, she breathes a sigh of relief, alerting Grimaud that all's not as it seems. What she couldn't wait until he left.  Thus he puts his sword through the floorboards, yeah cos he's so clever.  Finally stabbing D'Artagnan as he gives a shout in pain.  He could've moved from there, but he had to protect the dauphin.

They're both taken to the camp and Grimaud tries to stop Lorraine from signing, he does sign the treaty, but he stabs him repeatedly and Gaston escapes as the others arrived.  Treville and Porthos hold them off as best they can with D'Artagnan.  But Treville is shot by Grimaud, why didn't Athos just shoot Grimaud instead of charging at him with his sword, it would've been easy.  He's done that in the past, but Grimaud gets away and lives to fght another day in the series finale.  As they stand over Treville, who dies.  Think it would've been better to either keep the dauphin in the palace or have him hide out somewhere else instead.  Still plenty set here for the finale, as Grimaud surely must be taken care of once and for all.  He's gotten away with too much for too long and it's always Athos who manages to miss him.  Wonder if we'll get a happy finale or one of some emotion and will our Musketeers all survive.  Silly question really, they have to have a happy ending seeing as it's the last ever ep and also they've had way too much deaths already.  Well, aside from Grimaud whose luck must run out.

A niggle was Milady (Maimie McCoy) Treville hired her as an assassin, but she hasn't done much of anything lately, let alone any assassinating.  Will she come back in the finale and assassinate Gaston or will we not see her again.  She's meant to have a showdown with Constance though, at least, so things can be put right, to a degree, but as this is a different adaptation to the books, probably this won't happen, then again...

The Musketeers 3.8 "Prisoner of War" Review

                                          
Anne (Alexandra Dowling) has been sending messages to her brother, Philip in Spain in the hopes of peace and she sends Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) with a letter to meet with Spanish envoys at a secret location, without knowledge or consent of Louis (Ryan Gage) or Treville (Hugo Speer)  Of course Grimaud (Matthew McNulty) happens to overhear everything they say, being able to lurk and sneak about everywhere, including the palace still.  She's worried for France as Louis grows weaker and takes too much of his new medicine, he's in pain.

The Musketeers take Spanish generals to the prison and tell Marcheaux (Matt Stokoe) to treat them with respect. Porthos (Howard Charles) tells him to treat them how they'd expect to be treated and he replies that they slaughtered French soldiers and are to be hanged the next day.  Aramis rides to the rendevous point but is met by Grimaud and his men who take him hostage, sending demands to the Queen. The Spanish prisoners must be released in exchange for Aramis.  Also Gaston (Andre Flynn) is behind the attempt too as he wants Anne discredited and removed from the throne.  He has the backing of  the Duke of Lorraine (Robert Glenister) who wants the prisoners in his hands and Aramis killed.  However Grimaud has his own agenda for the Musketeers as he tells Gaston, they are his.

Louis wanders off and he ends up in the garden, hallucinating and passes out.  Treville has the Musketeers search for him and he is found by D'Artagnan (Luke Pasqualino).  Louis says he saw Milady De Winter (Maimie McCoy) and is taken back to his quarters.  Treville tells them of his medicine.  Later he finds a handkerchief at Louis's side bearing her mark of the flower.  He heads to his quarters and finds her hiding there.  He says if he was going to be killed, he'd already be dead. She wants money from Louis since they were on good terms, but Treville instead says he will give her a retainer for her services.  She denies she's an assassin any longer even if she did kill the Duke's son.
Milady: "I'm disappointed by your calm demeanour.  I'd hoped for shock, panic.  Even a faint note of surprise would've been nice."  Alas no,  he doesn't seem to be surprised at anything which makes him truly a politician.  Compared to Athos (Tom Burke) who wasn't told about Milady being here, but promptly drops his apple upon seeing her, they kiss and embrace and then he leaves her for Sylvie (Thalissa Treixeira) an odd reunion if ever there was one.  Especially as she later asks what he'll do, kill her.  Well we all know how the story goes, but in this case there was dramatic licence, as always.

Treville says he will spare the Spanish prisoners but not by Royal Assent as he agrees to the men being exchanged for Aramis.  They must take the prisoners.  They arrive before they are hanged as Marcheaux has sped up their execution and are met by the wrath of the people.  Also D'Artagnan sees his cousin Espoir (Tim McCall) there who is also being hanged as he is a thief. D'Artagnan wants to take him too but Marchauex doesn't let him.  He pleads that he's French and all he did was steal bread whilst the Spanish are set free.  The Musketeers finally take the men and D'Artagnan takes Espoir. They meet in secret and he tells them about the farm being razed to the ground and how he came to Paris to find work and make an honest living but didn't find any work.  Athos agrees to him going with them but only if he's released before they reach their destination.  They think it could be a trap and the seal of the Spanish could have been forged.  Athos storms out of there when he finds out and will deal with Aramis himself.

Milady heads to the garrison and finds out about Athos and Sylvie and she will wait for him.  (See above).  Constance (Tamla Kari) tells Sylvie about the Queen wanting the poor to be educated and she can use the press to this end, as she prints out ages to be distributed to the poor to help them read. She asks about Athos and Constance explains he's well and she will tell him she asked after him, but Sylvie doesn't want her to. Grimaud holds Aramis suspended and he takes his cross from him and throws it into the fire, he doesn't need to fear God or anyone else, only him, after Aramis tells him about his mother and how she was brutalized by the soldiers.  Grimaud calls her weak, but Aramis says she was strong.

D'Artagnan releases Espoir as Athos tells him to and they make camp.  He takes him to a clearing where he stumbles upon Grimaud and his men holding Aramis as D'Artagnan sees his horse.  They plan a raid to free him and Athos asks if Espoir can shoot.  Seems after all that fighting, Grimaud once again escapes as was obvious he would and Espoir saves Athos from being shot.  Aramis is held as a shield by Grimaud and he tells Porthos to shoot him but he doesn't, allowing him to flee.  Aramis is angry they didn't shoot him, seems like he should've had a go and he wouldn't have missed, even if he was still shackled.  He's angry and Athos asks why he didn't tell them about the Anne's plans.  He replies he wants peace.  Don't they all.  They return to the palace and Aramis wants to speak with Louis himself but she doesn't want him to.  Anne hands out money to the poor in the street and they distribute leaflets with her seal on it depicting Anne and her lover.

Grimaud and Marcheaux planned this after Marcheaux shows Grimaud the leaflet being distributed by Sylvie to educate the poor.  The Musketeers rescue Anne and take her back to the place, as Athos storms out when he finds out what's happening to Sylvie.
Athos meets Milady and she says they're still married asking about Sylvie, he asks what she's done with her and she replies she's all right.  He rushes to find her and discovers she's been arrested for the leaflets and is about to be flogged.  Sylvie pleads with Marcheaux that there's no going back after this for him but he doesn't care.  The Musketeers arrive as Athos stops him and Marcheaux tells him he's disobeying the king's orders.

Anne wants to explain to Louis but he doesn't want to listen and mumbles "Spanish harlot," as he walks past her.  She wanted to give the crown a good reputation by helping the poor but Louis didn't want that.
Milady accept Trevilles offer.
Milady: "I'll kill for you."
Treville: "Not for me, for the crown."
Milady:" Spoken like a true politician."
Treville: "seems we've both found our place."
A bit of a funny conversation when Treville tells Athos he's a captain now and Treville's reminded he wasn't always a politician himself.  Also Gaston calling Anne a "bitch", hmm getting past the BBC censors, we'll wait and see.

Seems the title was apt considering Aramis is in many ways a prisoner, not only of war, but his love for Anne and not being able to see his child, as well as for his circumstances and not being able to find and get the peace that he so gravely desires.  A lot of scenarios being set up here for the series finale and yet the treachery continues from Grimaud, being the key villain in this series, he always gets away!

The Musketeers 3.7 "Fool's Gold" Review

                                                
The Musketeers are on the trail of Grimaud (Matthew McNulty) and interrogate an innkeeper, with Aramis (Santiago Cabrera) shooting a bottle off his head as he refuses to speak of his whereabouts. Then D'Artagnan (Luke Pasaqualino) gets the notion to use cadet Brujon (Tom Morley) to shoot an apple off his head instead, he pretends to have a shaky hand and he finally relents and tells them he's heading east.  The cadet fires the gun and the innkeeper is surprised, D'Artagnan adding he is a cadet but a Musketeer cadet.  Athos (Tom Burke) was losing patience with him, especially since he wants Grimaud more than anyone.  He says he's well enough to ride after being injured in the shootout. They ride out when they see a child in the forest and naturally they must follow her, Porthos (Howard Charles) and D'Artagnan are caught in a trap and shout for help.  The women have the others too. They know all about the soldiers in the forest and how they came to their village and took everything.

They have built this new place hidden away and Aramis and his comment about always being tied up by a woman didn't really help them any.  "I've been tied up by women too but it's only ever been recreational."
Juliette (Fiona O'Shaugnessy) doesn't want to help them, but one of the women, Theresa (Meera Syal) says they should and it's only for one night.  They meet some other women and one of them, Elodie (Lily Loveless) is pregnant, her husband is away fighting and she asks for any news about his regiment.  Porthos tells her they only know they were headed to another place.  They also have a man in their midst, Bastien (Howard Melling) who says he was made fun of by the soldiers since he's a cripple, knew he was lying.  They feed them and Juliette tells them that she knew Grimaud's mother when she was little, as Theresa also tells them that he was here and he's probably in a cabin in the woods.

They are raided by men and one of them kills a woman, as they realize they're looking for something. The women fend them off as best they can and Aramis asks for a poultice and bandages for Athos but Juliette refuses him, cos they don't have much and can't spare it.  They head after the remaining soldiers the next day as they invade their camp again and D'Artagnan tells Athos to continue on his own, as he heads back to the camp.  They capture one man, Robert ( and find out that they're deserters but they're also criminals.  He tells them they were taken by the soldiers to fight and calls them cannon meat.  He ran away and he may be a thief but he isn't a murderer of women and children.  He thinks he's going to be killed and tells him to shoot already.
D'Artagnan: "we're all afraid of dying, the trick is to just find something worth dying for."  Much the same as what Porthos said to Elodie about being afraid in the battle.  As he later says, "...fear has no power over you."  That's why he returned to his men.

Athos finds the cabin and is caught off guard as he's hit and is barricaded inside by Theresa who tells him she knew Grimaud's mother.  She was barely a child and was mistreated by the soldiers.  She could hardly look after herself let alone a baby and she rescued him when she left him in the river and brought him up as her own, well she didn't do a very good job of it.  Athos tells her she should've left him in the river.  She tells him he's better than him and much cleverer, er, don't think so, he may keep getting away but that's just what you'd expect from a sewer rat!  ha. Sorry.  Athos manages to get out and runs after her but she poisons him instead, oh no a woman got the better of him.  The others find him and bring him back to camp.  Er, one point, when he ran out of the cabin he didn't have his sword with him, but when he's found his sword is by him.  He wouldn't have been able to go back for it though, would he?

Elodie tends to him and tells them there's no antidote, if he makes it he makes it.  Porthos talks with her and tells her about her husband and that there were casualties, he's probably dead.  She's left alone now and he says his mother brought him up alone too and he turned out all right.  She hopes she's having a son and he also admits he was afraid in the war.  He even left one day and got a few miles away cos of what fear does to you, but then thought of his men and came back.  There's another raid and Juliette slits the throat of one of the men.  They're after gold and Bastien is behind it.  See the weasel was obvious!  They take her and leave a note for the gold.  Athos has nightmares and dreams of Grimaud and of Sylvie (Thalissa Teixeira) as Aramis later tells everyone, after he recovers.

Athos tells Aramis to meet by the blacksmith's place and they lay traps for the men and fight them. The women help and eventually they are victorious. Juliette tells Bastien she used the gold for the women and this place as he tries to kill her, Aramis shoots him.  Porthos tells Elodie he can stay here and help her if she wants but she tells him that France needs him more than her or her daughter. There last ep Porthos was speaking of not having a family and this ep he could've had a ready-made family of his own.

At court, Anne (Alexandra Dowling) tells Louis (Ryan Gage) to a name her regent and she'll look after their son and Louis doesn't want any part of it.  He later watches her play with the dauphin and Treville (Hugo Speer) tells him he should make peace with her.  He asks her for a drink with him and tells her he will name her regent as she promises to write history with the dauphin as his heir and how he may be Aramis's son by blood, but Louis taught him everything.  He will never be known as his son.  Admitting she slept with Aramis once, well once was enough wasn't it.  Aramis also acknowledging to Juliette that he has no children of his own either.  He couldn't exactly tell her could he.

Anyway this ep seemed more like a filler, rather than one where they find Grimaud and Gaston. Even though Louis doesn't want to believe that Gaston is in on the plot to raise an army.  He thinks Gaston could've been taken as a hostage.  He lost Feron and he doesn't want to lose another brother.  As Treville tells Louis he can't have a state funeral since he was a traitor, Louis adding that a traitor wouldn't have saved him.  Theresa vanished too so she probably knows where Grimaud i,s a wonder he didn't turn on her either, when she nursed him.

Once Upon A Time 4.19 "Sympathy For The De Vil" Review

                                           
Cruella's (Victoria Smurfit) back story ep where she's locked up by her mother and weren't meant to think that as in all fairytales, she's evil.  Growing up locked in the house in the 1920's, a writer/Isaac (Patrick Fischler) comes a-calling for a story and after noticing the three portraits of her mother's three husband's on the wall, he thinks he's onto something.  Back then writer's used to cold call like salemen then did they.  This one being Issac and he gets Cruella out of her attic and takes her dancing to a nightlcub.  Of course it was easy for him to write the key into her room.  As he is the Author of the book.  He has his fun as her mother told him he should leave and gets more than he bargained for, as Cruella leads him a merry dance too, claiming her mother poisoned her father and her other two husbands.

He can only see some sort of good in her as he writes her diamonds and also tells her about the pen and the special ink.  Giving her his car so she can finally leave her mother.  But she double crosses him and her mother reveals it was actually Cruella who poisoned them.  As she madly sews herself a fur coat made from the dogs.  Though he does catch up to her and writes her away for now, not before they struggle and she gets his ink in her hair, thus causing it to turn black and give her the two tone effect.  Even before the ombre effect came in!  Ha.  He also says that all of the times they've been living are all outside the realm of time itself.  Huh, which was a stonking bit of a mess, I mean making that Storybrooke library clock redundant!!??

Cruella kidnaps Henry (Jared Gilmore) and Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) and Regina (Lana Parilla) help Emma (Jennifer Morrison) look for him, but apparently Gold (Robert Carlyle) has a hand in this too since he wants Emma to turn dark and this was one way to speed up the process.  Emma not wanting Snow (Gennifer Goodwin) or David (Josh Dallas) to help cos she's as peeved as ever for their actions and lying to her about Maleficent's (Kristin Bauer) baby but not mad at Regina for keeping Snow's secret.  There was a kicker too in that Henry managed to free himself (again) with some broken glass he happened to be sitting by, must've been Robin's men littering beer bottles again, or maybe Will who's a beer guzzler of the most profuse variety.  Cos he managed to do the same in Neverland too.  As Snow and David get to the Author, he's written that Cruella can't kill anyone, what took him so long, with them having to tell Emma.  Too late as Emma uses her powers, sending Cruella over the edge this time, literally and not just cos she already was mentally over the edge.  Emma killing her in front of Henry came so easy to her didn't it.  Now everyone's thinking she's so totally dark, or has the potential, but no it was to save Henry.

Regina tells David and Snow that Zelena (Rebecca Mader) is really Marian and she killed Marian back in the woods after Emma rescued her.  Meaning Emma didn't change her fate or history after all, as Marian remained as dead as she ever was.  However, once again Emma did manage to act before thinking of the consequences.

Regina needed Belle's (Emile de Ravin) help with Gold and used her as leverage.  She did ask her for help when she saw her, but it seemed a little confusing in that Belle would willingly give up her heart to Regina.  As she manipulated Belle this time into meeting with Gold.   Then reveals herself in the woods, as well as Belle's heart, intending it as use for leverage.  As for the so-called evil twosome, Cruella got away with admitting she left Maleficen't baby in the woods and then uses her magic to send her to sleep as a dragon.  That was a bit of a yawn moment, where's their real evil and being at odds with each other.  She bears grudges against Snow and David for what they did to her baby, but she can't even fight Cruella over it.

Once Upon A Time 4.16 "Poor Unfortunate Soul" Review

                                             
Where we find out what happened to Hook's (Colin O'Donoghue) ship and why Ursula (Merrin Dungey) is an enemy of his and theirs as she sides with Gold (Robert Carlyle) and the other evil twosome.  She was a mermaid just like Ariel (JoAnna Garcia) but her father wanted her to use her singing to lure sailors onto the rocks instead of giving people the pleasure of her voice.  The only thing they both have left of their mother.  So no one used the word Siren in this, which is what she was really meant to be.  But this is OUAT and we had to expect different.

Had a feeling for a bit that somehow Emma (Jennifer Morrison) thought there was more to Hook and Ursula than just pirate and mermaid since he at first didn't want to tell her about their backstory, when he mentions her.  Obviously it wasn't going to be like that since Hook only had eyes for Milah until he met Emma, years later.  However he did have a soft spot for her since as I said, they've both been through loss, but really who said they were romantically involved, she was a bit young for him dearie!!  Hook tries to get Ursula to reveal what plans Gold has in store in finding the Author of the book and he has the very thing which will make her help.  This being her voice in a nutshell, or rather a seashell.  Flashing back to how she refused to do her father, Poseidon's (Ernie Hudson) bidding and wanted to run away from him.

Meeting our lovable pirate rogue in the process who offers her free passage cos he knows what it's like to lose someone.  (Course luv I'll take on free passage with ya!! ha. Plus I also have the right name!!  Mila!)  Of course her father wants her to come home.  Hook needs the squid ink in return for free passage but her father puts paid to that.  As we know, revenge is so hard for our would-be hero/villain to get on the Crocodile.  Thus he betrays Ursula and takes away her voice and whereby she gets a lesson in how cruel people can be in the real world.  Growing tentacles and losing her mermaid's tail.  Should I have said her innocent mermaid's tale for some reason.  Ursula had that bracelet from her father's vault, the same one sported by Ariel which Regina (Lana Parilla) gave her in season 3, so was there an abundance of these bracelets.  Though Regina, as Ursula back then, was a good scene.

Hook gives her back the shell but she doesn't get her singing voice back, later finding out the only one who can do that is the one who cast the spell, her father.  As Ursula throws him into the sea. Knew he'd be rescued by Ariel cos she hadn't seen her in a while and there's not many friendly mermaids we've come across.  She tells him she was angry about Eric since she had to rescue Blackbeard (Charles Mesure) to find where he was and the scene I liked was where Ursula bought back Hook's ship in a bottle!  Later we'll learn that it was Elsa (Georgina Haig) who cast a spell and did that, but not any more detailed explanation, would've liked to have seen that.  Okay the more plausible explanation is that Elsa shrunk the ship when Blackbeard had it after he doublecrosses Ana and threw them in the chest for Hans.  Thus Hook and Elsa not knowing each other.

[Just a gripe though, which seems to be an invalid gripe, just thinking out aloud) does this mean Elsa and Hook knew each other when they were back in Arrendelle, or wherever they met.  Cos they didn't appear to know each other when she got to Storybrooke and no mention was made of it either. ]
So father and daughter meet again when Ariel brings him back through a portal and she gets her voice back, keeping her bargains he tells him Gold intends for Emma to turn to her darkside.

Of course things weren't going well for August (Eion Bailey) since Gold can't get any answers from him about the Author or the book.  He gets a potion whereby his nose will grow when he's lying. Which it does as he questions him on the page from the book, he tells him he doesn't know where it is. Regina having to magic up some smoke through the chimney and enter Snow's (Gennifer Goodwin) body to give them the message about Gold and August, which must've been creepy.  Let's see, why didn't she use this sell in previous eps when the situation called for it.  Anyway she tells them where August is and they rescue him but not before they're confronted by Ursula and the Cruel one, Cruella (Victoria Smurfit) who's clobbered over the head with a frying pan by Snow.

Gold's plan/secret whilst the Saviour is around no one will get their happy ending, thus she needs to turn dark.  See once again Emma's the cause for all the palaver.  However Hook pics this time to tell her she's his happy ending.  (Everytime they said that phrase, my mind went back to Avril Lavigne's Happy Ending song.  But it's so relevant, "so much for my happy ending, all this time you were pretending..."  Getting back to Hook and Emma; if she's his happy ending, then something must go awry for them since he's really a villain turned good, cos it's the same as Regina not getting one either.

However August tells them the Author is inside the door and trapped inside the book itself which was convenient.  His nose grew cos he didn't know where Henry (Jared Gilmore) had the book. Oh and Regina tells Emma about her dream of seeing Robin and then the Evil Queen who appeared to be protecting him, was that from his fate, or rather was she really the Evil Queen.  She asks Emma to locate Robin in New York, umm, like getting a phone number, but she did know where he'd be.  Since she gave him the keys to Neil's apartment.

One other nitpick, relevant for 4.20 is how Emma can locate people, but she never felt remorse or any kind of inkling to find Lily and make things right.

Once Upon A Time 4.12 "Heroes and Villains" Review

                                                 
Rumples (Robert Carlyle) attempts to use the hat when the stars align thereby harnessing all the power under the stars! Well, no as he and Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) who still ain't got his heart back, poor luv! has to still be his pawn.  Anyway when the stars do align he'll be able to leave Storybrooke and head to New York with Belle (Emilie De Ravin) though why they haven't heard of any other places is beyond me.  I mean why not Tallahassee?

Back at his castle, Rumple's managed to get his hands on a gauntlet which was going to come back to bite him in Storybrooke.  You think if he knew, he'd not have bothered keeping it.  Where we get our first meeting of his with Cruella (Victoria Smurfit) Maleficent (Kristen Bauer) and Ursula (Merrin Dungey) as they kidnap Belle for the gauntlet.  Only he rescues her and gets it back too.  Why all the ruses at times, they seem pointless.

Regina (Lana Parilla) and Robin (Sean Maguire) manage to put Marian's (Christie Laing) heart back in her and unthaw her, well unfreeze is the right word, although neither one of them had their hearts in it)!)  Even had Marian willing to give Robin up for Regina but she in all her newfound goodness didn't want to come between them.  (Jumping forward, she should've just taken him considering the storyline with Marian.)

Meanwhile Hook and Rumples were street sweeping, following the broom to the mansion once again, where they were led to the portal to Arrendelle.  Storybrooke is full of portals to other fairy lands but not-a-one to New York?!!   Henry (Jared Gilmore) gets to work at the pawn shop, which didn't last long, as Belle was packing a suitcase and was in need of another one, I mean she didn't know she could get those and clothe aplenty in New York.  Well fashion isn't really Belle's strong suit.  As they scour for more cases, Henry chances upon the gauntlet, leading Belle to a flashback.

She ended up doing washing for Rumples, who appeared to have swiped someones clothes too, cos he certainly doesn't wear them (see New York's a calling for new clothes!)  She sees a puppy and then ends up tied up near a cliff.  Then Rumples gets a coin which turns out to have Princess Leia, er Belle where the gauntlet is demanded in return for her.  Thus leading us to meet the toothsome threesome, which sounds much better.

Hook tells Emma (Jennifer Morrison) about the portal to Arrendale, but it's Rumples talking for him, Emma sensing something was wrong with him, yeah especially since it took so long for him to utter his trademark "luv."  Seems these characters take a leaf out of each other's acts, like Regina manipulating Belle, then talking through Snow (Gennifer Goodwin).  Wonder if Hook still had the freewill to kiss Emma, or was that Rumples, ha.

It was more like a stab in the back rather than through the heart.  Even if that's exactly what Regina accomplished for herself after letting Robin go after they'd done the full on dirty a few times.   Robin decides he wants to be with Regina and shows her their page from the book together and their happy ending.  Cue Marian keeling over (and again jumping forward, nothing but a convenient faint no doubt on her part, to tear them apart.  The only option being Marian had to leave Storybrooke and Robin recalling his code had to go with her too.  They can leave but can't return, but do still have their memories intact.  As I said, convenient for future plot purposes.

Gold gets into Regina's car where they share a conversation about happy endings, what else, as he tells her he's leaving and going to find his happy ending.  As Elsa (Georgina Haig) and Kristoff (Scott Michael Foster) head through the door to Arrendelle, Ana (Elizabeth Lail) recalls Rumple's meeting with her and how he lies, seeing as he was also the one who found the door.  Trying to get Ana back before she blabbed about his plans.  A the clocktower he still plans to go ahead whilst waiting for the stars still to align, as he also plans to crush Hook's heart once and for all, but was taking his sweet time over it.  Now let's not be shedding Crocodile tears, as Emma arrives in the nick of time, but he freezes her to stop her using her magic.  This means his magic is more powerful than hers, well he's been using it for years.  They do seem to have some sort of a link since in season 1 he had a hand in wanting Emma to be born.  Only it was Belle who saved the day with the dagger, commanding him to give Hook's heart back.

Thus she realized the gauntlet was never traded for her, he would never lose his power or give it up for her and so he loves his power more than her.  Making him cross the Storybrooke line, well he got his wish, only not with Belle.  Who finally comes to terms that she can't have a happy ending with a villain either and goes in search of Will.  Probably why he frequented the library a lot.  Well it wasn't for the books! ha.

Elsa and Ana arrive home and prepare for her wedding, with the smell of chocolate in the air.  Will this be the last we see of them, well if Zelena (Rebecca Mader) can return...  Emma puts Hook's heart back and decides she must find Regina instead.  Henry finding a secret door in the mansion, why was he still there and blank storybooks, which means this must be where the Author is.  Why have an emergency supply of storybooks when they just magically seemed to appear in the one book anyway.  Emma agreeing she wants in on Operation Mongoose.  Rumples finds his way to New York where he meets Ursula, in an aquarium of all places.  They might have taken her out of the sea but they didn't get the sea out of her.  Where they plan some more evil.