REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 105
The fifth episode of “Once Upon A Time in Wonderland”, “Heart of Stone”, begins in the exact moment episode 103 left off, with Will and Anastasia ready to jump off to Wonderland. It is in that moment that Anastasia’s mother shows up and tries to talk her out of it. As cruel as she might have been, she was right because Will and Ana didn’t think things through. When this episode aired there was a lot of rumors (none officially confirmed) that Anastasia’s mother was Lady Tremaine, making Anastasia one of the wicked stepsisters, which sounds right since this has the name of one of the two (the other being named Drizella). But in season 6 of “Once Upon A Time”, we met Lady Tremaine and also both stepsisters, which would normally cut off the rumors, but knowing what we know now about season 7, maybe she was actually a Lady Tremaine and maybe Anastasia is indeed one of the wicked stepsisters. This would take thing into a whole new level of confusing, but it is possible.
After ignoring Anastasia’s mother, this couple makes the jump and enters Wonderland where they realize that things are far from being what they imagined they would be. With just a wagon to call home and the food they manage to steal or gather, they realize that they can’t live only on love. Despaired as they are, Will and Ana sneak into the palace to steal food, but it becomes obvious that Anastasia wants something more. This is most easily seen after they get caught and kicked out. We see that Will stole some bread and is very happy about that, but Anastasia doesn’t even care about it. Realizing that going to Wonderland was a mistake and that her mother was right, Anastasia wants to go back home, but not empty handed. After she sneaks back into the castle, she meets the king once again. That is the moment the king realized he found his Queen, because Anastasia has ambition or, as he put it, “the desire to be more” than what she is. But this story is not yet finished. There will be someone that will push these two characters, making them the people we see in present day.
Instead of continuing the villain team-up, this episode showed something even more interesting: the team-up between a villain and a hero. In a team-up like this, the villain usually thinks he/she has the upper-hand, and this time it is no different. The Red Queen is aware that Jafar is simply using her to get what he wants. While he still doesn’t have it, she is sure she doesn’t have to worry much about him, but the problem lies on the fact that Jafar won’t need the Queen forever, and he will turn on her once he has what he needs. To protect herself from him, she needs a powerful magic dust, and to obtain that she needs Alice’s help. As a reward for her help, the Queen says she will tell Alice where Cyrus is. They go to a ravine, and while on the road, there was something the Red Queen said that I thought was really interesting “We both want something we don’t have, Alice. It’s just a matter of what we’re willing to do to get it”. This is definitely one of the things that distinguish a villain from a hero. Obviously everyone wants (at least one) something, and we all try to get it the best way we can. But that is of course subjective. It is exactly what we are willing to do to get what we want that makes us who we are. And in this episode we find out what Alice is willing to do to get what she wants. She will go to great length to find Cyrus, but she won’t kill someone to do it. This is one of the things that makes her a hero.
But heroes and villains aren’t so black and white, and I think, in her own way, Anastasia is a hero too. She hides behind an evil she created, but deep down, she is good, and we start to see that in this episode. She didn’t want the magic dust for herself, she wanted it to reverse the spell Jafar put on Will. “We are all heroes in our own tales”, but Anastasia is a hero in some other people’s tales too (at least she is one on mine).
Meanwhile, Jafar is planning other ways to force Alice to make a wish, and he kidnaps the Rabbit for help. In the end of the episode we see that they are now going to find someone Alice cares about.
After reversing the spell Jafar placed on his tower with the magic dust she was able to obtain, Alice is now coming for Cyrus, but Cyrus is also coming for Alice too, since he broke out of his cage. I am sure they will find each other soon.
This was, as usual, a nice episode, but not as nice as the last, so I will give a 7.9/10.
I will be back soon with my next review that will answer a question we have been wondering since the beginning of the show: “Who’s Alice”.
Emma Roberts is Set to Return in American Horror Story: Cult
It’s been confirmed that Scream Queens star Emma Roberts will return for AHS: Cult.
Ryan Murphy shared the news on Instagram (as usual) along with a first photo of the actress in her new role.
Roberts had previously appeared in AHS in season 3 and 4 (Coven and Freak Show).
Murphy posted a picture with Roberts looking beautiful and deadly with the caption, “Look who showed up on the set of Cult looking glamorous and ready for action.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BXQ5t-TAZ95/
Later, Roberts herself also tweeted that she’s back on the show:
I've joined #ahscult will you? mrrpmurphy
📸: johnnygray5 https://t.co/FwnTrDmuvG— Emma Roberts (@RobertsEmma) August 1, 2017
American Horror Story: Cult premieres September 5.
Learn More About the Mutants’ Powers in New The Gifted Featurette
You’ve seen the mutant powers that Thunderbird, Blink, Eclipse and Polaris have again and again, but do you actually know what they do?
FOX and IGN gave us a closer look and explanation about all the powers of our new mutants on The Gifted.
In the featurette, we have writer and executive producer Matt Nix explaining a bit of the plot, as well as Blair Redford (Thunderbird), Jamie Chunk (Blink), Sean Teale (Eclipse), and Emma Dumont (Polaris) breaking down their character’s powers.
Check it out:
Get a look at the new mutants (Thunderbird, Blink, Eclipse and Polaris) from the new Fox series, #TheGifted! pic.twitter.com/G7PfUnKkpI
— IGN (@IGN) August 1, 2017
The Gifted is set to debut October 2.
REVIEW: Big Little Lies, Episode 101
Big Little Lies begins with an episode that totally fits its name: “Someone’s Dead”. We found out there is a body but we still have no idea who is dead and if it was or wasn’t a murder (it probably was).
Before I actually start reviewing the episode, let’s take a moment to appreciate the killer cast this show brought together: Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Shailene Woodley, Laura Dern… And these are just some of the big names. This is definitely one of the reasons this show was successful. Of course the story contributes, but a new show must always catch people’s eye so that they watch it. And a cast like this is totally a big eye catcher. And because of this, of course this show couldn’t possibly be left out of the Emmys. It is nominated for 16 Emmys including both Outstanding lead and supporting actress, Outstanding limited series, Outstanding supporting actor, amongst others.
The episode followed both present and future (or present and past, depending on your point of view) and that is nice to watch because gives it a faster pace. In the flash-forwards we see the police questioning some suspects that knew the people involved in that found raiser and possibly the victim. I was assuming we would find out who died by the end of the pilot, but I guess I was wrong. But at least it is a miniseries, or it would end up like “Pretty Little Liars”. It was a good show, but it was a very long one for the story they had to show and so they repeated the same idea over and over. As a 7 part show, this will probably not happen here. I do love a good mystery and that is what “Big Little Lies” seems to offer.
We see the struggle of 3 moms about to “lose” their children to first grade. Things are definitely changing in their lives and some of them feel uneasy about that. That first day the daughter of Renata Klein, who is Madeline’s “enemy”, had bruises in her neck and she blameed Ziggy for them. It may not seem like much of a dig deal, but according to what we hear in flash-forwards, that was when it all began (or maybe a bit before when Madeline tripped and twisted her ankle, according to another person). The point is that there wasn’t really a big event, a big explosion of anger. Something smaller happened and the butterfly effect managed to do the rest.
There was also something that caught my eye (and my ear) in the episode. We saw Celeste and Perry in the beginning of the episode, and then through the course of it, and they seemed really sweet (maybe too sweet according to a lady in a flash-forward). But of course that things aren’t always butterflies and there is something going on underneath. Celeste told Perry the incident at the school and how Amabella blamed Ziggy for what happened to her and Perry said he didn’t want their kids near him, just to be safe. After Celeste replayed that she was sure she girl was lying or mistaken, Perry got violent and grabbed her. This is to say, if you think that someone’s life is perfect while yours sucks, then stop, because there is no such thing as a perfect life, and when someone makes their life look perfect, that is usually because their life sucks more than yours.
It was also really great to see Madeline’s side of things. Usually in movies or shows someone like her is the bitch mom no one likes, but I am glad this isn’t the case. It was nice seeing her struggle with her daughters and especially that last part when she and Abigail talked. I think Madeline is a bit like Renata and I thought it was weird they didn’t like each other, but maybe the reason for that is because they are so alike.
This was a nice first episode. As I said, I was hoping to find out more in the flash-forwards, but this way is good too because I get to make my theories on who is dead and who killed who. I will give this episode a 7.8/10.
Hope you guys check my next review of episode 102, because there is some “Serious Mothering” coming our way.
Emma Booth Joins Cast of Once Upon a Time in Recurring Role
Australian actress and model Emma Booth has joined the cast of Once Upon a Time season 7.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Booth joined in a recurring capacity and will play a witch whose true identity will be revealed later in the season.
Adam Horowitz has already confirmed that she won’t be reincarnating the show’s previous Wicked Witch played by Rebecca Mader.
The seventh season of Once Upon a Time premieres October 6 on ABC.
REVIEW: Midnight, Texas, Episode 102
“Midnight, Texas” is back with episode 102, “Bad Moon Rising”, and I have to say that this episode was much better than the first one, and not just because we didn’t see Mr. Snuggly. In some ways I think this episode set the story for the season/show in a more detailed way than the pilot did.
Tensions continue to raise in the beginning of the episode alongside the moon. Not only Bobo was charged with a murder a lot of people say he didn’t commit, but also the full moon was coming and with it we learned what Reverend Emilio is, not a werewolf, but a weretiger. This fact makes this show a little bit like “Teen Wolf” in which people aren’t only turned into wolves, but also other animals like coyote, jaguar… In this show they say that your personality reflects on the animal you become. But things are still different here, of course, since in this show one is born a child of moon, and so cannot be turned or turn others. Anyway, in this episode the Reverend caused a great amount of trouble and even lost control and killed a woman (Tina Gomez, a police officer). I think it was really beautiful, well-made and different seeing the Rev. turn from tiger to human, especially the final part of the transformations, when the wind sort of blows away the hair of the tiger like it was nothing but leaves.
It was also nice to see that everyone in Midnight (or at least most people) know about the supernatural or highly suspect somethings is wrong. Some of them don’t know exactly which person is what, but they know some are magical. This is definitely a good thing because a lot of shows spend too many time thinking whether or not to tell someone about their supernatural abilities and, sometimes, it eventually gets boring and repetitive all this struggle to keep someone in the dark. This is also a good thing because, like Manfred’s grandmother said, people like her grandson don’t have to pretend to be normal and so they can fully embrace who they are.
I was also glad that the police found out more about Aubrey’s death and let Bobo out. I was afraid they would try to extend it for a long time and we would see for a few episodes the supernatural team come together to break him out of jail. It would have been nice to watch that, but not if we had to wait several episodes for that to happen, when we can watch much more enjoyable things. In other shows sometimes the biggest enemy isn’t the most powerful one, but the weakest and by this I mean us humans, especially police officers. Sometimes they don’t want people to know about the supernatural and so “waste” some episodes doing something that could have easily been done in a faster away, just so that they don’t reveal themselves. I am glad that this show will be different (or at least it seems like it will).
As I said before, this episode really set up on what appears will be the story of the season. It started when Fiji performed the exorcism, but apparently it wasn’t quite complete because something is still in this side of the veil. And it doesn’t seem to be some regular demon, but a powerful one, which has a special interest on Fiji. Aside from this, we heard Joe tell a prophecy. I love prophecies, especially the ones that end up being self-fulfilling because it makes my head hurt if I think about it for a long time. Joe says the vail is breaking, but it is prophesized that an army will battle the evil and seal the vail forever. This army will be led by a man with the gift of vision. The first person that comes to mind about this “man of vision” is probably Manfred. I guess we will see if the guesses are correct.
Lastly, it was also great to see Creek and Manfred kiss in the end of the episode because that means the writers won’t probably focus on making a really big drama out of that love story, pulling them both to and away from each other at the same time.
It was definitely a great improvement from last episode to this one. Hope it only gets better, and things seem to be definitely pointing in that direction. I will give this episode a 8.0/10.
I will be back next week with my review of episode 103 “Lemuel, Unchained”. Hope you guys stick around.
Old Man Rick Scene Will be Explained on The Walking Dead‘s Season 8 Premiere
One of the most talked about scenes in the new trailer for the eighth season of The Walking Dead is the very last one, where we can see Rick as an old man waking up in what looks like a hospital.
There have been infinite theories about this weird scene, most notably that he could be waking up from a coma after the accident he had on the first episode… or maybe it’s just a dream sequence.
Either way, we will find out in the season premiere, executive producer Robert Kirkman has confirmed. “I’m pretty sure you’ll learn in the first episode what that means,” he said, at the Television Critics Association.
“Or was it the time jump,” asked Kirkman, “I don’t know, maybe it was Rick waking up from his coma. Wouldn’t that be weird? That is an intriguing tidbit that we did throw out there on purpose, and we’re hoping that people continue to question how it is that fits into the story line and what it is. Comic book fans know where a scene that kind of looked like that would fall, but it also doesn’t seem like we would be getting to that just yet if you were a comic book fan, so there’s a mystery to that.”
Season 8 of The Walking Dead will premiere October 22.
Source: Comic Book Movie.
REVIEW: American Gods, Episode 104
Unlike all the previous episodes, “Git Gone” follows only one storyline: Laura’s. We see her journey since maybe a few days before she met Shadow, until the moment that ended the last episode (Laura showing up in the motel room where Shadow was staying).
First, we see that the casino where Laura works has a very peculiar theme: Egypt, or even better, old Egypt, when pharaohs were still in charge. In a show about gods where we also got to meet Anubis, in a scene like this there is irony everywhere. And it is in this same place where Laura meets Shadow, in what was a funny scene: Shadow was cheating and Laura warned him to stop or he would suffer the consequences. And this is how a new love was born.
We also saw a glimpse of Laura’s life before Shadow: it was just from work, to home where she did pretty much the same things every day. She was sad all the time, and we even saw a scene in which she tried to kill herself (I am not sure that was her exact goal, but it seemed so). After she met Shadow she started to be happier with him, but eventually she went back to her very strict daily routine, and nothing seemed to please her. She wanted to feel some excitement again and so she asked Shadow for his help to rob the casino (like Shadow had asked before). Apparently it was a perfect plan and could definitely not have failed, but it did, and that is why Shadow was in prison in the beginning of the show. Laura does say a lot of times that the plan was perfect and there was no way he could have been caught, even when he was already in jail, which makes me wonder if there was some God interference. I have been saying, in past reviews, that I think there is something special about Shadow and, if there is, then Wednesday probably had to make sure that Shadow was exactly where he wanted him. He had to make sure that Shadow had nothing to go back to when he got out, otherwise he wouldn’t take the job. So, how long was Wednesday manipulating Shadow’s life (there is if he actually was)?
We also got to see how the relationship between Laura and Rob began and ended, but this time around, Laura didn’t even feel happy again like she did when she stared seeing Shadow. It was also really great to see the parallels between Laura’s scene in “heaven” and Mrs. Fadil’s. In fact, the reason why they showed the Mrs. Fadil scene was probably so that we could “compare” it to Laura’s. Like I said before, both Mrs. Fadil and Anubis were extremely calm during the entire passage, but when it comes to Laura it is a completely different story, and not only because she didn’t pass the heart test. Laura was, as it is to expect, extremely upset and not welcome to any idea of the afterlife (like she had said before in the episode). But Laura’s journey didn’t end with her death. She was pulled back to Earth and she is now on a quest for love. Anubis warned her that this doesn’t mean she is back for good, and when she finishes her task, Anubis will take her back and put her into the darkness.
[WPGP gif_id=”6430″ width=”600″]
There is also something else I enjoyed in this episode. Throughout this hour we saw that there were a lot of flies going around and Laura was obsessed with killing them with her bug spray (she used one called “Git Gone”, like the name of the episode). This is of course just a detail, but it is this kind of details that are able to take a show from “good” to “great”. In my view, this is a metaphor that represents Gods and us humans. We are the flies that are constantly bugging the Gods. When the Gods are sick of us, they use their “bug spray” on us, meaning that they do whatever they want to us, and that definitely does not keep them awake at night, after all, they simply killed a fly.
This was a good episode, but I think maybe it should have been split to other episodes, I mean, show these flashbacks throughout the previous episodes. I understand they wanted to make us wonder if Laura was truly alive and also who had saved Shadow in the pilot, but they could have still shown these scenes in this episode and just divide the ones that happened before Laura’s death, instead of “waste” an entire episode with this. It wasn’t really a waste, but I just feel like it would have been more interesting if they had done things differently.
This was, in my opinion, the worst episode so far. It was good as I said, but compared to the others it felt lacking. We didn’t see Wednesday nor any other Gods (except Anubis but he is not very important). I am giving it a 7.7/10.
Hope you guys stay tuned, because next episode, “Lemon Scented You” is really awesome.
Game of Thrones‘s Hot Pie Sells Direwolf-Shaped Loaves IRL
WARNING: Spoilers for Game of Thrones Season 7 ahead.
Fans of Game of Thrones in the U.K. had a chance to try that delicious bread Arya love made by Hot Pie himself.
In anticipation of last Sunday’s episode, “Stormborn,” Ben Hawkey, the actor who plays Hot Pie on GoT, partnered with Deliveroo, a London-based food delivery service to open up his own shop.
The online shop was called “You Know Nothing John Dough” (because of course it was), and it was selling direwolf-shaped loaves for £1.
Hot Pie made a surprise appearance on last weeks episode, followed by the comeback of Arya’s long-lost direwolf, Nymeria, so the loaves came at a very convenient time.
There was no physical location for the bakery, and unfortunately, the window for orders has already closed.
Hawkey said via High Snobiety:
“Hot Pie’s Direwolf loaves are a favorite for Game of Thrones fans, and people are always asking me for the secret of my recipe. I can’t share that, but Deliveroo customers will have the chance to try them themselves. You don’t even need to take a dangerous walk down the King’s Road to visit, it comes to you.”
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 104
Things are starting to make more and more sense and Jafar is one step closer to getting what he wants on episode 104 “The Serpent”.
This episode starts with a flashback, and in it we see young Jafar finding a woman everyone was afraid of, to be his teacher. It is because of flashbacks like this that they are so important in the Once Upon A Time universe. There are some things that could always, of course, be explained in the present, but it would probably feel more rushed and it wouldn’t be as easy to understand, and this is one of those cases. In this episode we finally know more of Jafar’s plans, and what he needs to do it. To change the laws of magic, Jafar needs 3 genies and to perform that spell it takes 2 sorcerers. Jafar already has 2 genies, which he and Amara were able to catch, so now he only needs Cyrus. Maybe it would be to imagine that something had happened to Amara along the way, and the two sorcerers now are Jafar and the Red Queen but, as I said before, Jafar is only using the Queen to get what he wants. She thinks they are going to change the laws of magic together, but she has no idea what is to come.
We also see some symbology of the serpent. “When they need to, they change their skin, and are reborn”. And that is exactly what Jafar does. But turned out he had done that already, before we all thought he did. Jafar was playing Amara just so that he could learn everything she knew. We also learned, with a little twist in the end of the episode, that the staff Jafar carries with him all the time is actually Amara’s magical essence. She was the one who made him aware of the genie spell. And as everyone has an endgame, we will find out, in episodes to come, not only exactly what Jafar wants to do when he is able to change the laws of magic, but also why Amara also wanted to perform this spell.
In present day, we continue to see conflicts of interest inside the villain team. Now that Jafar knows Alice has help, he wants Will eliminated and wants Anastasia to do it. The Red Queen is hoping to set the matter aside by simply putting Will behind bars, but Jafar wants him completely gone and wants everyone to see it, so that they don’t follow his example of helping Alice. A public execution is prepared and Anastasia is probably hoping very badly that Alice shows up to save him. I have to say that the people of Wonderland are definitely having too much of a good time in a public execution, which can totally relate to the original story in which the Red Queen is obsessed with cutting people’s heads off.
Meanwhile, after Alice and the Knave split up to run from collectors, who are working for the Caterpillar, Alice makes a new friend who is actually an old friend of Will’s: Elisabeth, also known as Lizard. This could possibly be another connection to the original animated movie Alice in Wonderland. There we see Bill who was literally a lizard, unlike Elisabeth who is a person. This character isn’t that much important in the movie, but then again she isn’t also here in the show, although we will see her once again. They find out the Knave of Hearts is to be executed and they manage to save him.
Trying to escape from the royal maze, Alice and Will stumble upon Jafar and the Red Queen. Jafar threatens to kill Will and even starts chocking him, which forces Alice to make her first wish: “I wish that if the Knave of Hearts dies, then I die”. This was totally a smart wish. Jafar can hurt Alice, but he can’t kill her since he needs her alive to make the rest of the wishes, otherwise he can’t use the genie. So, Alice doesn’t have to wish to save her own life. But Jafar would gladly kill Will, and now he can’t. It was also smart since she didn’t wish that only Jafar couldn’t kill Will (like a guy did in a flashback), no one can, or else she dies too. Jafar tried to force Alice to make a second wish by saying he would rip her arms and legs off, but she didn’t, which makes Jafar aware that she cares more for others than herself, and so going after the people she loves is exactly what Jafar is going to do. But wishes comes with a price and Alice paid it when Jafar turned Will to stone, saying if she wants her friend back, she will have to wish it.
Confrontations between good and evil started to take place, Jafar is starting to get what he wants and Cyrus is closer to being free. This was definitely a great episode and so I am giving it an 8.2/10.
I will be back soon with my next review of episode 105, “Heart of Stone” where we will find out how Will and Anastasia were separated and how she became Queen.