Review/Recap of Once Upon a Time Episode 7.02 "A Pirate's Life" - Spoilers!
I will FULLY accept this explanation.
At the end of last season when most of the main cast took off after their contracts expired, I (and many others, I'm sure) wondered what in the crap was going to happen to Hook and Emma. I mean, they'd just had this big splashy wedding episode and it was their happily ever after and that's what the show had been building up to for six seasons... and suddenly one half of the Captain Swan ship was just... not going to be around?
Unforgivable!
But how to make this work?
I imagine that the OUAT Writers' Room went digging in the obscurest backstory details to figure out how to dig themselves out of this hole that contract negotiations and ABC executives had unceremoniously shoved them into. And found a loophole called the Mirror... sorry, the Wish Universe. Remember the wish that Evil Queen!Regina made in season six that put everyone back into the Enchanted Forest and Emma wasn't the Savior and Hook was an old, fat drunken comic relief character?
Yep. They brought that back. And even gave old!Hook a backstory and character and a youth lift so we could be graced with Colin O'Donoghue's rugged good looks (*cough* I mean, what?)
So... the Hyperion Heights Hook is NOT the OG Hook. The Hook we know and love is living happily with Emma and their new pirate baby in Storybrooke awaiting the inevitable crappy direct-to-DVD Disney sequel for their kid. Instead, Officer Rogers is the Mirror... Wish Universe Hook.
(Oh screw it - he's "Mirror Universe" Hook. I'm not bound by copyright claims for this thing.)
Basically, they've given themselves a clean slate with an old character and I'm intrigued by this development. I'm also somewhat impressed by it. I thought that they'd have to shoehorn some weird retcon thing that was going to RUIN EVERYTHING... but they didn't. All because they had one seemingly-throwaway joke character that they could retool and make cool again.
I approve this message.
Other things I liked:
- Is it just me, or did they tone down Victoria Belfrey's insane liposuction mouth? Too bad, she's still the Evil Lipmother.
- Detective Rumple is the same asshole as ever... but with a heart of gold? Maybe?
- All of Storybrooke's happy endings mean that Archie Hopper's therapist business isn't doing so hot... but his wedding officiating gig is booming. THAT was beautiful. Second only to Mirror Universe Hook, that was probably my favorite twist of this episode.
Basically, we're back to the old formula of introducing a new character in modern day, flashbacking to their origin story in fairy-tale-world, showing how their cursed self is similar to their fairy tale self, and they're awesome. Plus, some evil queen character is always trying to ruin everyone's life.
Yep. We've seen this movie before. Certain things in life never change: high school girls grow up into bitchy women, cursed fairy tale characters remember who they are in reality, and pineapple on pizza is the greatest ever.
(I will fight anyone on that last bit.)
I will FULLY accept this explanation.
At the end of last season when most of the main cast took off after their contracts expired, I (and many others, I'm sure) wondered what in the crap was going to happen to Hook and Emma. I mean, they'd just had this big splashy wedding episode and it was their happily ever after and that's what the show had been building up to for six seasons... and suddenly one half of the Captain Swan ship was just... not going to be around?
Unforgivable!
But how to make this work?
I imagine that the OUAT Writers' Room went digging in the obscurest backstory details to figure out how to dig themselves out of this hole that contract negotiations and ABC executives had unceremoniously shoved them into. And found a loophole called the Mirror... sorry, the Wish Universe. Remember the wish that Evil Queen!Regina made in season six that put everyone back into the Enchanted Forest and Emma wasn't the Savior and Hook was an old, fat drunken comic relief character?
Yep. They brought that back. And even gave old!Hook a backstory and character and a youth lift so we could be graced with Colin O'Donoghue's rugged good looks (*cough* I mean, what?)
So... the Hyperion Heights Hook is NOT the OG Hook. The Hook we know and love is living happily with Emma and their new pirate baby in Storybrooke awaiting the inevitable crappy direct-to-DVD Disney sequel for their kid. Instead, Officer Rogers is the Mirror... Wish Universe Hook.
(Oh screw it - he's "Mirror Universe" Hook. I'm not bound by copyright claims for this thing.)
Basically, they've given themselves a clean slate with an old character and I'm intrigued by this development. I'm also somewhat impressed by it. I thought that they'd have to shoehorn some weird retcon thing that was going to RUIN EVERYTHING... but they didn't. All because they had one seemingly-throwaway joke character that they could retool and make cool again.
I approve this message.
Other things I liked:
- Is it just me, or did they tone down Victoria Belfrey's insane liposuction mouth? Too bad, she's still the Evil Lipmother.
- Detective Rumple is the same asshole as ever... but with a heart of gold? Maybe?
- All of Storybrooke's happy endings mean that Archie Hopper's therapist business isn't doing so hot... but his wedding officiating gig is booming. THAT was beautiful. Second only to Mirror Universe Hook, that was probably my favorite twist of this episode.
Basically, we're back to the old formula of introducing a new character in modern day, flashbacking to their origin story in fairy-tale-world, showing how their cursed self is similar to their fairy tale self, and they're awesome. Plus, some evil queen character is always trying to ruin everyone's life.
Yep. We've seen this movie before. Certain things in life never change: high school girls grow up into bitchy women, cursed fairy tale characters remember who they are in reality, and pineapple on pizza is the greatest ever.
(I will fight anyone on that last bit.)
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