Once Upon A Time SEASON 1 EPISODE 18 FULL LENGTH REACTION

The Stable Boy- Thank you so much for another fantastic reaction for another amazing episode of Once Upon a Time, Timothee! I really love this episode!! First... Regina's grudge against Snow White is so much deeper than I ever really suspected, and so much more than Regina just blaming Snow for Daniel getting killed back when Snow was ten years old. A lot's happened between them in the many years since then and Regina's hate towards Snow has only grown so much stronger. And yet her anger towards Snow isn't simply because Snow just told her secret. However, we learn in this episode that Snow telling Cora Regina's secret about being in love with Daniel is most definitely the root factor in Regina's hate towards her, because it's absolutely what started everything. I definitely feel so badly for young Snow, because she is most certainly naïve. But again... Snow is only ten years old, and she also had lost her mother at such a young age. Of course, she couldn't possibly understand that Cora is so evil and so incredibly manipulative. And Snow White shouldn't be blamed by anyone for what happened to Daniel. Regina's anger towards Snow is definitely misplaced. I wish Regina would see her mother for the villainess she really is, but you also have to understand that her mother... no matter how evil she really is and how angry Regina is towards her... Her mother is her mother. It's easy to be angry and to rebel against a parent, but it's not as easy to hate a parent enough to want to kill them, or even to blame them so completely like she hates Snow. Especially when they've been emotionally abused and manipulated by a parent their whole life as Regina has been by her mother. And with this being said... Regina is one of the villains who always blames everyone else for her problems. And she blames the consequences of her cruel actions on others too. Mostly Snow because Snow has become the main target of her hatred, and it's all certainly festered and grown over the many years since the incidents revealed throughout this episode. Now... One of my overall favorite moments in this episode is between Emma and August, while they're talking on the bench in the harbor as August inspires Emma to look at her investigation from a different perspective. I just really love their friendship dynamic, and I continue to love the mystery behind who August is. I really love how he helps Emma to see her investigation in a different perspective... comparing her block to writer's block. Brilliant! Another of my favorite moments in this episode... I absolutely love, love, love the end scene between Regina, young Snow, and later Cora (Regina's mother), as Regina figures out how Cora knew about her and Daniel, when Snow confesses to her that she told her secret despite her promise to Regina that she wouldn't. It's a great scene brilliantly acted by not only young Snow, played by Bailee Madison, who is definitely the perfect actress to play young Snow, but especially by Lana Parrilla (Regina), who suddenly becomes completely numb to all emotion. Lana's acting in this moment is absolutely phenomenal, and when she's talking with her mother once Snow leaves the room as well. As for Cora... Boy, is she evil! And she's so good at being manipulative. If you pay close attention to Regina's relationship with her mother, then you would clearly be able to see the parallels between them. A lot of what Regina has become in the years since the events from this episode's backstory, comes from the kind of woman Cora is. As for how I feel about Cora... I hate her. While she's scary as any villain can be thanks to Barbara Hershey's fantastic acting skills, Cora is also evil and twisted enough to believe she's doing right by her own daughter. And people who believe in this way of thinking, are scary in the worst kind of ways. She makes for a really good villain because Barbara Hershey plays her brilliantly. However, Cora is not one of my favorite of all the villains throughout this entire show. However, I do enjoy her as a villain. And yet I still hate her too. But in spite of this, I really love this episode because of Regina. She's just amazing all throughout this episode. Now... I really love Regina's backstory a lot, as we get to know a younger and kind version of Regina, when she herself was a good woman and in love with a stable boy, who is sadly murdered by Regina's own mother, which is the root cause for Regina becoming the villainess we know her to be now... the Evil Queen. It's a brilliant backstory for such a villainess we've grown to love so early on in this show. And I also love seeing Regina as a kind woman. Because it most certainly helps us to feel much sympathy for Regina, despite who she is now. It's so good to actually get to know the reasons for the characters like the Evil Queen, becoming villains, as well as how characters come to be heroes as well. But mostly the villains, because like Regina says to David in Storybrooke, and like Rumplestiltskin says to Charming in the Enchanted Forest... "Evil isn't born... It's made."... a famous quote from Once Upon a Time, that I very much love. And I love seeing how villains come to be, especially because we don't have any backstory for these villains becoming who they are in any of the Disney movies, other movies, fairytales, and stories created about them before. It's one thing I especially love about Once Upon a Time, because we really learn why characters become villains and heroes too. Phenomenal! I also like Daniel's character. He is played by actor Noah Bean, who I like from other shows too. He's very kind, and I love that he is a stable boy and that back then, Regina didn't care about power or her opportunity to become the Kingdom's Queen. She loved Daniel despite him being poor. I love seeing that Regina had found True Love with him, which is why it's so tragic that Cora kills him by ripping out his heart and crushing it right in front of Regina. And this is another parallel between Regina and Cora, as we see the kind of woman Regina later becomes and see that she too eventually came to rip out hearts like her mother did to Daniel, as we see Regina do with the Huntsman, Graham, back in episode seven... The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Brilliant! And sadly, I do not believe Daniel would appreciate Regina becoming so evil and calling her actions avenging him. As for Emma being easily manipulated and her falling for Sidney's lies, which are clearly lies that she should have seen through, especially given her superpower that hasn't really come into play much lately... It is a little frustrating, or annoying that Emma would continue to fall for Sidney's lies, which he's very careful with the wording in all he says like I've mentioned before, even though as an audience to this show we know that he is lying. And I don't care much for the bit where Emma lets him offer her flowers, allowing for him to bug her office. But what bothers me more, is that we never see Emma talking to August about finding the shovel shard or the shovel which it belongs to being in Regina's garage, inside of her office or the station. We only have to assume she and August must have taken the shard to the station and spoke about it there off screen. Plus... Emma had to draw up the search warrant she later served to Regina so she could legally search her garage for the shovel. With all this being said... I feel that Sidney planting a bug in Emma's office would have worked better, had we seen how Regina came to know that Emma knew about her broken shovel and why she had to move it. I appreciate the idea, even though I feel it could have been executed a little differently. Sadly... Emma blames August for telling Regina about her finding the broken shovel shard. And it's so sad, because I like August a lot and I trust in his yearning to want to help Emma. It does seem a little strange that August would think it's unfair for Emma not to believe in him fully, since Emma doesn't know him all that well, but I feel like he's sincere enough to get Emma to trust in him a little. At least enough to believe he wouldn't sabotage her investigation. However, it is understandable that she would think he might have ratted her out. And I was shocked when the revelation and twist comes in the end with Kathryn being alive after all, back when I first watched this episode as it aired on TV. And there could be many meanings as to what might have happened to her and how the frame job against Snow really came about. Who exactly is behind it all and how deep into it are the characters suspected of their involvement? Gold had something to do with Kathryn's disappearance too, due to what Gold says to Emma in the station just before she discovers the bug in the flowers after she smashes the vase... as he states that perhaps there still may be time for him to work a little magic. What has Gold done, or just how much does he know? Where has Kathryn been all this time? What has Regina done? I love the intrigue! And lastly... The image we see of the horse on the title card screen is of young Snow on her horse as her horse is running away from whatever has scared it, while young Snow is desperately trying to hold on and to keep from falling off. It's of young Snow on her horse just before Regina races up to her to save her. The image just looks like it does, because young Snow is hunched down low over her horse's back. Thank you so much for your reaction again, Timothee!!! I am so excited for these last four episode reactions from you, from season one!!! These last four episodes are most definitely among my favorites throughout the season. I love them! Things are about to get really good! So, until your next reactions, dear friend... Thank you! Sincerely, Heidi

Heidi Elizabeth Marcum