What did you think of 3×15 Quiet Minds? (poll, discussion)

7 responses to “What did you think of 3×15 Quiet Minds? (poll, discussion)”

1. Marj | March 30, 2014 at 11:08 pm | Reply

   Hard to believe the show killed off Neal. I wonder if the actor wanted to quit or something like that. It seems so bizarre to kill the character who connected so many of the others together.

   Glad that Rumple is back … but I thought “dead is dead.”

   Relieved that Snow and David know who Zelena is and will stop drinking her tea and orange juice.

   I’m warming up to Rebecca Mader in the role. She has a creepy quality that could make her one of the show’s epic villains.

   The episode seemed unusually disjointed.

   Is Neal really dead? If Rumple and the Blue Fairy could come back from the dead, could Neal come back also? I never really liked the actor, but the character seems crucial.

   • Riles | March 30, 2014 at 11:37 pm | Reply

     Never cared for Neil, the actor, either. I’m not sad he is gone. He just didn’t fit the role imho. I understand from a role point of view how it could be very crucial.
     Also, “dead is dead” seemed pretty finite. Not to keen on the writers (once again) reversing their own canon. Once they make a declaration, they need to stick to it. If not, they need to explain, in detail, their way around it.
     To just say, oh, I have a special key, and nothing further, erodes the construct of the story.
     I keep repeating the phrase “not-well-thought-out”
     That seems to be a recurring principle that needs to be fixed.
     I like the ReginaHood thing, except I can’t stop thinking of how she killed hundreds if not thousands of people. There is no coming back from that kind of atrocity. Nobody, and I mean nobody, would ever forgive what she has done. MOST people would not. It seems that FTL has partially forgiven her. When you think about it, people would be trying to constantly kill her.
     There is absolutely no redemption for what she has done.
     Maybe they should not have made her into such a HUGE monster. If you use your imagination and put yourself into the characters of FTL, you would clearly understand that.

     • Marj | March 31, 2014 at 12:48 pm | Reply

       I know what you mean about Regina. She killed all those villagers for no reason — and killed her own father just to get revenge on someone who hadn’t even intentionally hurt her — and now it seems we are expected to think that her love for Henry has wiped the slate clean. I think this is another case where it helps to suspend disbelief. Regina is *trying* to be good. In the universe of the show, that counts for everything and moves someone out of the villain box and into the category of flawed but basically good person.

       Same could be said of Rumple. He was horribly destructive as the Dark One. And yet, he is now one of “our” people.

       It’s not logical, and it’s not realistic — but it is okay, I think, in the world of fairy tales, where everything is exaggerated, and things don’t have to be realistic or logical all, or even much, of the time.

       I think the show is trying to say something about forgiveness and redemption. It’s doing it in a larger-than-life way. But I think it works if you look at what the characters are like in the present moment.

2. Lisa | March 31, 2014 at 3:41 pm | Reply

   I agree with Riles in that I never really warmed up to the character of Neal and thought Michael Raymond James was miscast in the role. Had another actor played the part I might feel differently about Neal’s death but, as it is, it wasn’t all that unexpected(rumors have been rampant ever since Adam and Eddie announced that a major character would die in the second half of the season) and I can’t say that I’ll really miss him. I think the way it came about was clever but a bit rushed.

   Rumple’s “resurrection” makes perfect sense if you think of “The Dark One” as an immortal being. I never thought for a second that Rumple was actually dead or that Robert Carlyle wouldn’t be back, it was simply a matter of how the writers would do it. Having “The Dark One” rise from the goop in a scenario orchestrated by the WWW makes sense knowing the connection between Rumple and Zelena, and the “life for a life” condition reminds me of the candle that Snow used to save Rumple and kill Cora—–if one life is spared another is taken.

   I’ve also had issues with Regina’s redemption, particularly when it comes to Henry’s relationship with her which I feel has been under developed. What I mean by that is that in season one we had this kid who hated his adopted mother so much that he went looking for his birth mother so that she could defeat “the Evil Queen.” By this season’s winter finale Henry had decided that Regina was no longer a villain but his mom. Regina had certainly made strides toward doing the right thing for the right reasons but it hardly erased the atrocities she’d committed in the past. Henry’s opinion of her seemed to go from A to Z in a couple of episodes. Seeing his feelings about her evolve over the course of time would have been nice and made more sense.

   I can see where you’d say the episode felt “disjointed,” Marj. I think that’s what I mean when I say it felt rushed. For one thing, I was surprised that they learned the WWW’s identity so quickly, though I was nervous that Snow accepted her help so easily. I hope that the town will devise a plan that will get the Dark One’s dagger away from Zelena. That seems crucial to any hope of defeating her.

3. Riles | March 31, 2014 at 4:20 pm | Reply

   I’m looking forward to duel between Zelena and Regina next week. It looks pretty good. I hope hey take their time with it and make a really good action sequence. Since the inception of the show, I have been waiting for an all-out magical war with spells being thrown back and forth for about 10 minutes or so. Ok, maybe not 10 minutes, but a decent amount of time.
   I’m tired of the roman candle fireball thing.
   I definitely have to suspend disbelief when it comes to that because the first one to raise their hand should win. I mean *poof* you’re now a statue, game over. Instead they will probably be throwing fireballs and tossing each other about with magic. How about turn the opponent into a rat? Then the opponent turning herself back into a person. If you turn your opponent into a stuffed animal, do they still have a conscious to turn themselves back? lol
   Yep, suspension of disbelief will help here.

4. Kris | March 31, 2014 at 9:13 pm | Reply

   Well, I’ve been a little out of touch – been working a lot of hours, but I finally caught up tonight. Have to say, I agree with everyone. I was never into the Neal character – just didn’t care for the actor in that role, and I’ve been behind Emma and Hook since that whole thing started. I’m not going to say I didn’t cry a few tears – mostly for Emma, Rumple, and Henry. However, here’s what I think on some of the other issues:

   I do love that Regina and Rumple are able to achieve redemption. I do acknowledge, though, that not everyone will feel that way. Hence, the WWW. If the writers can show her to be even more evil than Regina ever was, the audience will be more willing to accept that Regina “isn’t so bad.” She’s earned a place in many viewer’s hearts – now they just need to win over all those who share Riles opinion.

   I still think they all made a huge mistake in not telling Henry the truth, and I believe we’re going to see that in the not-too-distant future. I think “killing off” Neal plays into that plot line. I see Henry blaming Emma for not having the last of the time he could have had with his father because she didn’t “trust” him with the truth the way he trusted her when he first went looking for her. I think Emma also blames herself and will only be forced to confront the truth when Henry accuses her. As much as she says she thought of going back to New York and never telling Henry the truth “for his sake,” it’s not really for his sake at all. She just doesn’t see it yet. She doesn’t want to give up the fantasy that Regina gave her – never having given up Henry and the false memories of the life they had shared. Just remember the line where Emma told Henry she couldn’t tell him everything, but asked him to trust that she was doing what she had to do. Henry said he trusted her. Going to come back to haunt her. I just don’t know if they’ll go all the way to Henry turning evil for awhile, but I think something not good will come out of it.

   Finally, I’ll just say this. If Regina doesn’t open up a can of whip-butt on that witch, Rumple is going to rip her a new one as soon as he gets that dagger back. And I can’t wait to see it.

5. Sofie | March 31, 2014 at 11:49 pm | Reply

   They killed my favorite. Not okey. Horrible! And the worst thing is that they didn’t even have to do that for the story to go on, and besides that they broke their own rule. Again – NOT OKEY. Worst season ever. Like come on, what are ya doing?!