Once Upon A Time Rewatch: Episode 1.1 and 1.2

Now that the season has wrapped up, I've started rewatching the first season from the start to see if now I know what I know if I notice things I previously missed and if I view things differently.

One thing I viewed differently was Charming declaring he'd always find Snow. The first time I saw it, I thought it was a very romantic line. This time, knowing what I know, I realize that the last two times he found Snow was courtesy of Rump. If not for Rump, he wouldn't have found her, at all. In fact, he'd still be trapped in the Infinite Forest. Which is why his whole attitude with Rump when he and Snow went to visit him in prison made him seem like a pompous little jerk. Dude, if not for Rump you would have never found your precious Snow. Show some respect.

And Snow's line that Regina tried to poison her with an apple because she's prettier than Regina elicited a roll of my eyes. She knows very well and so do we that Regina tried to poison her because her loose lips cost Regina the love of her life. Besides, no offense to Little Snow, but honey, Regina is a lot prettier than you. Just saying.

Snow's comment when Regina shows up at the wedding about Regina no longer being queen takes on new meaning after seeing the scene in the finale where Snow tells Charming let's take back the kingdom. So, apparently whatever happened, they de-throned Regina. I just hope the castle Snow and Charming are living in belonged to Snow's father, because if that's King Charlie Widmore's palace, The Imposter Prince has no right claiming the place as his own.

And when everyone is meeting to find a way to help the person responsible for everyone being cursed to escape the curse, after seeing the first season you now know why Grumpy acts like he can't stand the Blue Fairy. That's because he can't. That's because she ruined his chance of true love. Because of her she destroyed who he was: a dreamer, and turned him into a grumpy man who no longer had any dreams.

I also have to wonder if the gestational period is different in Fairy Tale Land. Ella was pretty pregnant when she helped trap Rump. When Regina retrieved the Dark Curse from Maleficent it was Snow and Charming's wedding night. Then she went to enact it and when it didn't work she went to visit Rump and he told her Snow and Charming had just been to visit him. I doubt six months had past, since Snow was pretty heavily pregnant when she and Charming visited Rump, so it would seem the gestational period is faster in Fairy Tale Land. But Snow gave birth before Ella, who appeared to be heavier pregnant than Snow. Unless Rump had just been caught when Snow requested to see him, and she and Ella were pregnant around the same time. Still, it doesn't seem like that much time had passed while Regina was trying to bring the curse down on everyone for Snow to be that pregnant.

I guess the biggest thing is you can really see just how well Rump manipulated everyone and how deep his manipulations go. Snow said Rump could see into the future, so he knew exactly what was going to happen and how to manipulate everyone with his foreknowledge.

It was because of what Rump said about Emma being able to break the curse that got everyone on the project to send Emma away so she'd be protected from the curse. It was Gold who brought Henry to Storybrooke to be Regina's son, knowing it would eventually be Henry that would bring Emma to Storybrooke. And while MM admits she gave the Once Upon A Time book to Henry, she's never said just who gave it to her. I'd bet money that MM got that book from Gold. I also wonder if it wasn't Gold who put it in Regina's head about how a child might make her life better and he could find her one.

Rump gave Regina the Dark Curse, but she opted to trade it away for the sleeping spell to Maleficent. So what did Rump do? He helped Charming to break the sleeping spell, so Regina would be driven to get back the Dark Curse and use it. And he got Charming to hide the true love vial inside of Maleficent because after what went down between Regina and Mal it was the safest place to hide it from Regina. If Regina tried to come near her after what she did to her to get back the curse, Mal would have killed her.

Personally, I think Rump lied when he said Emma could end the curse. He needed her to get the vial from Maleficent's belly so he could bring magic to Storybrooke. He saw into the future and knew everything that would happen. Because the strands of her parent's hair helped create the curse, her presence in town was able to start time-up and get everyone to remember who they are., but I think her real purpose was to retrieve the vial from Maleficent's belly so Rump could bring magic to Storybrooke. Maybe restoring everyone's memories when she kissed Henry had more to do with her finally believing.

Let's just say, Phase 1 of the curse has ended, now an even nastier Phase 2 has begun. Before everyone was frozen in time not knowing that they were. Now time is frozen, again, but this time everyone knows who they are and that they're prisoners. Knowing you're a prisoner is a lot worse than not being aware of it. Rump even told Snow and Charming when they visited him in prison they'd all be a prisoner just like he was.

Regina believed Gold wouldn't remember anything, so there was obviously things he put in that curse she was unaware of. He always knew the truth and he'd been waiting all this time for Emma to come to Storybrooke and for everything to go the way he wanted it to.

Emma never had the power to end the curse, she only had the power to make everyone remember who they were and to discover they were all prisoners in Storybrooke. You've got to hand it to Rump, he really turned the tables on all of them. Since he's the one who created this curse, I bet he knows the real way to end it, but I don't think he's going to tell anyone how that is exactly. Not when he's got everyone where he wants them.