Once Upon a Time REACTION - S03E04 - Nasty Habits

First... please don't worry about taking more time to watch these episodes and posting your reactions for them. I know you're extremely busy with school right now. Again... please let me know if you need me to lower my payment per month so you won't feel obligated to react to twelve episodes per month for awhile. Let me know how many you feel you can do, and I will be fine with whatever your decision is. Either way... I'm happy for your continued reactions, no matter how many episodes you are able to watch and post per month. Please don't feel bad for making me wait. I'm a patient person. :) Thank you so much for another good reaction for Once Upon a Time... season three's episode titled, Nasty Habits! Overall... I enjoy this episode. It's not one of my favorites and some of the storylines I really like more so than others. I mostly love the storyline taking place with Emma, Hook, David, Mary Margaret, Regina, and Tinker Bell. And I also really enjoy the backstory between Rumple and Pan, which begins a new mystery as to how these two brilliant characters know each other. I especially love that Pan too has taken the place of another well known storybook character like we've seen with Rumple, who so far has been the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, the Crocodile in Hook's storyline from Peter Pan, and Cinderella's Fairy Godmother like we saw back in season one's episode, The Price of Gold. In this episode, we learn that Pan is also the Pied Piper, which sets up the origin story for how he recruits the Lost Boys. And it's really, really good. But first... to be perfectly honest.. while I actually do enjoy the acting between Robert Carlyle and Michael Raymond-James throughout the storyline between Rumple and Neal in this episode, as Rumple discovers Neal is alive after all... I am not really a fan of the storyline itself. A part of it I know is unfair because I don't care much for Neal's character. As I've said so many times up to this point. But the other part of it is also because I am just tired of the feud between Neal and his father, and their constant back and forth between Neal hating his father for abandoning him, then loving him again when things get bad, to Rumple fighting to prove to his son that he's changed and Neal's disbelief in him, and finally to Neal just hating him again upon learning from Pan and later Rumple about the truth behind the prophecy that Henry is somehow destined to be Rumple's undoing. Their long time family problems have just worn thin for me. And believe me... I know that I am in the minority when I say this. But it's the truth. It's how I feel. The scenes with them and especially with Pan were well acted and nicely shown, but it's my least favorite storyline throughout this episode. I also don't really care much for the scenes in the backstory between Rumple and Bae, because again I don't care much for the bitterness between them. However, I love it when it connects to Rumple discovering Pan is the Pied Piper, who had drawn Bae and a number of other children out of their homes with the music from his pipe that is revealed can only be heard by the boys who feel lost and like they are unloved. As Rumple learns Bae feels as well. I love seeing Rumple later rip off the cloak from the Piper's head, as Pan reveals himself to him, and how we learn that Rumple has actually known Pan since he himself was a boy, which is a very long time. This was a brilliant scene between Rumple and Pan... Again... Pan is an amazing villain. At first... when it was revealed to us that Pan might be so, I wasn't so sure I would like it if Pan was a villain, especially since Hook was the villain we've known all these years from Peter Pan. However, it was after the second episode from this season... Lost Girl, that my mind really came around to loving Pan as a villain, especially since we've also come to see Hook slowly changing into a better man throughout season two, and more so as season three continues. And in this episode... Pan is amazing. I also love the scene in the beginning as Emma, Hook, David, Mary Margaret, Regina, and Tink are all trying to come up with a battle plan to use against Pan and to save Henry. I think it's hilarious when Emma struggles to call Tinker Bell by her real name because of how funny doing so sounds to her. And I also agree with Tink that they all need to come up with a way to escape Neverland, before she agrees to risk her life by helping them all to break into Pan's camp. Once Tink leaves the others to return to her tree house until they can come up with a plan, David then turns to Hook and states that Hook had once escaped from Neverland and Emma asks him how he did so. I love how we learn that Hook had once made a deal with Pan so that he could leave the island... a deal that is unknown, as Hook doesn't go into detail about it. But then... Hook guides them all to the cave in which Baelfire lived while he too lived in Neverland. Sadly, we don't get to know too much more about Hook's time spent with Bae while on his ship or in Neverland, but I love how Hook shares with them how he had taught Bae to chart and navigate the stars in the sky, and how to make a map, even though Hook reveals he can't actually read the map due to him also teaching Bae the importance of secrecy for the life of a pirate. Meaning... that Bae is now the only one who can read the map. Before I get more into that... I have to say that I really love and appreciate the brief moment between Hook and David, as Hook continues to urge David to tell his wife and daughter the truth about being poisoned. Unfortunately, David still refuses to, believing that it's best to keep their minds on saving Henry, rather than giving them something more to worry about. And then... in a very brief moment, David senses that Hook isn't telling him something and because you and I both know what's to come... I'm super excited about this and I love this moment. :) In the end... Emma finally breaks down as she admits to her parents that she realized too late that she still loved Neal, before she storms off to be alone. And while I may not like Neal or the idea of him and Emma winding up back together, I still felt really bad for Emma in this moment. You can really feel her pain and emotions... which shows wonderful acting by Jennifer Morrison as well. And lastly... I enjoy the continued scenes between Rumple and his vision of Belle. They're sweet and while Belle isn't really in Neverland, I really love how the creators and writers found a way to keep Belle very much involved in Rumple's storyline throughout this season since they can't be together. Overall... again, I enjoy this episode, though it's not one of my favorites from this season. However... the next episode is one of my absolute favorite episodes from this season, and is overall one of my very favorites throughout all of the seasons too. It's amazing and I can't wait to watch your reaction for it!!!!! :) So thank you again for another fun reaction! Until your next reaction...

Heidi Elizabeth Marcum