Once Upon a Time The Stranger Review!

Wow! Tonight's episode was very good! The episode starts out with August fixing Mary and Emma's front door. Mary doesn't want any more sneaky queens snooping around her place with keys and rightly so. We learn that Emma wants to hire Mr. Gold to help her take custody of Henry away from Regina. Who else thought at that time there was nooo doubt that Mr. Gold would help her? A child getting the chance to return to his mother! Of course Gold would help! lol! Snow is happy to get back to her teaching job but we know someone isn't. Regina has a conversation with Mary Margaret about her return to school and where she should be placing blame for the Kathyrn thing. Finally Mary is seeing sense and continues to believe it's Regina's fault despite all the protests. I was waiting for her to mention that little talk they had while she was behind bars but Mary goes and does something better. She tells Regina that she forgives her! The look on Regina's face here and a little while later after Mary says she feels sorry for her and that she must be pretty lonely to have revenge be her only driving force was another wow great scene moment! This, THIS is the words I wanted someone to say to Regina from almost the very beginning! Finally, someone does. Regina tries to shrug it off which made me a little angry that she didn't continue to ponder what was said but maybe she's just trying to hide it. Then Henry appears and digs the dagger in deeper with the promoted speech that good WILL win and evil WILL lose. I like how Lana Parrilla and the writers are portraying Regina. After all the evil things she has done they can make us STILL feel sorry for the truly messed up diva.

Later, August tells Emma she needs to calm down on all the Henry custody stuff and focus on what he thinks is important. Believing in a storybook. Then Emma meets Henry at Granny's Dinner and after all this time of having the Storybook back in his possession Henry FINALLY notices their is a new story! Wow, Henry with all those scenes of you looking in that book you've never noticed until now?! Okay, I guess we have to buy that. Anyway. he starts to talk to Emma about Pinocchio and low and behold we're back in the Fairy Tale Land and on the open sea with you guessed it. Geppetto and his wooden boy.

We follow Geppetto and Woody as they argue on who should keep the white life saver and then we see the whale (Mr. Whale?) open his mouth. We're next given a wet but safe Geppetto on the shore looking for his Woody. I mean Pinocchio. He finds his puppet all lifeless. Boo hoos. Blue Fairy! "I'm a real boy!" The Blue Fairy warns the boy to remember to be brave, unselfish, and truthful and he'll always be a real boy. How sad is that or maybe that's a good thing! "You better behave little boy or I can turn you back to a block of wood in no time!" That's how to keep your kids in line! Everything seems so happy and we're given a close up of Pinocchio's hat which is the same hat that August has on his desk in his room! YAY! After 4 weeks we've finally got our answer! August IS Pinocchio!!! Just to show us they're not kidding this time we also get a glimpse of August's wooden leg! No doubt about it! :D

August calls Mr. Gold and later walks into the pawn shop to meet with him when who should be talking to Mr. Gold but August's dad! I mean the Storybrook version of Pinocchio's dad who has no idea who August is but sure gives August a little jolt to Mr. Gold's smug delight! You go Mr. Gold! Get your revenge on August in showing him how it feels to meet a family member you think you've done wrong after so many years! THAT'S  the way to get your justice instead of merely killing him! After August's father leaves August talks to Mr. Gold about how to get Emma to believe. Mr. Gold promises he'll nudge Emma August's way so he can try to get her to believe again. This is exactly what he does when Emma comes calling and declines her request for being her lawyer which sends her straight to August.

Meanwhile in the Fairy Tale Land the Blue Fairy shows Geppetto a special tree that she wants him to make into a wardrobe for Snow and Charming which will take them to the other world before the Curse begins. Later, Geppetto won't make it unless his son can be one of the only two people who can travel in the wardrobe. She agrees at first but after the events of the pilot take place goes back on her word and says Snow and Emma need to be the two. While the Blue Fairy has gone to prepare the other fairies for the curse Geppetto closes Pinocchio into the wardrobe and seconds later Emma is also in the other world with Pinocchio. He is the seven year old boy who claimed to find Emma on the side of the road. They stay together until they're in an orphanage together where Pinocchio goes back on his word to watch over Emma and guide her. He runs away leaving her behind.

That scene FINALLY showed David doing something right. To show how desperate Regina is getting in trying to keep Mary and David appart we are given Regina's car breaking down and David helping her to her house and eating her food. Who in their right mind would ever eat anything Regina makes?! Oh right. We're talking about David here. Thought we were talking about a character with some sense for a moment. The working her magic line was funny and the look on Regina's face when she talks about finding David and tries to kiss him looked so real. Maybe she did listen to Mary's advice a little. Maybe she is just a lonely little girl who wants someone to love. After David spurns her advances and leaves we get the promoted smashing of the mirror. Kudos to the acting and writers again for making us feel for the evil gal again! 

While all this is going on August has taken Emma to the place where they both came into this world. August and Emma have a very moving scene where August tries to get her to believe. Emma really almost made me cry with how much desparation she feels at the prospect of being everyone's savior! Probably the best performance out of Emma ever! Even when August shows her his wooden leg she can't even see it because she's in so much denial. Later we're back home with August who happens to be passing by his father's place and even though his father doesn't remember him August asks to be his partner in making coo coo clocks or something. Back together again. Awww. Over at Regina's house Emma convinces Henry to sneak out of the house and into her car at night. Then drives off with him determined to take him with her out of Storybrooke! The woman's gone crazy again and there's some serious stuff going to go down now! Great show and on to next time's scenes!