August reappears in a surprising way, and his past connection with a new visitor to Storybrooke is explored. Here is a recap and review of “Selfless, Brave and True.”
Recap:
Phuket, Oct. 24, 2011. August wakes up with a wooden leg. Soon after in Hong Kong, he visits a doctor, who thinks he’s crazy, so August takes off running, being pulled into a staircase by a man who says the Dragon can help. At the Dragon’s office, August meets Tamara. The Dragon knows who August is and asks for $10,000 and the string Geppetto used to animate him. August runs into Tamara that night at a bar and steals her envelope of cash. The Dragon exchanges the money for a potion. Before August can take it, Tamara steals it and returns to the Dragon for the truth about magic. As his body smokes and floats, she kills the Dragon with a taser. A month later in NYC, Tamara watches Neal and August talking, then introduces herself to Neal.
Emma brings Henry to Neal, who tries to persuade Emma to stay and meet Tamara, who is coming. Over bagels, Tamara tells Henry how she “accidentally” met Neal. Emma and Henry leave, and Neal tries to break the whole fairytale background to Tamara, but she is enraged. At the diner, Regina introduces herself to Greg. She notices his familiarity, but he brushes it off. Regina later breaks into his room, telling him she knows he is Owen and that his father isn’t in Storybrooke.
While shooting arrows in the forest, Mary Margaret wanders upon a trailer where a completely wooden August is living. Although August warns her not to, Mary Margaret tells Emma and Marco about him. Tamara overhears. Mother Superior says August is wooden because he is not brave, truthful and unselfish.
Tamara asks August to leave and he can have the remainder of her potion. While driving to New York, August realizes Tamara is playing him. He pulls a U-turn and back at the sheriff’s station, Tamara tasers him before he can warn Emma. The Charmings plus Neal and Marco watch August collapse and die. Mother Superior heals him because he sacrificed himself this time, except he returns to a child and doesn’t remember anything. Greg receives a call from “Her.” It’s Tamara. They’re having an affair.
Review:
“Selfless, Brave and True” started out shaky and then went on a downward slope. Just as Once Upon A Time was moving towards its former days of glory, this episode broke the trend. But despite all the negativity, there were a few redeemable qualities involving the usual females in Storybrooke.
The scene towards the end of the episode in which Emma apologizes to Henry for lying to him about his father and asking Henry not to push her way was one of the rare and beautiful instances of Emma accepting her role as a mother. Although she still retains her sassy attitude and independent strength, Emma has noticeably evolved as a character in a most realistic way. How could a mother not be smitten by Henry’s unyielding belief in the good of all people?
The second positive note to this episode was Regina returning to her former quick-witted and threatening self. There is not much on Once Upon A Time (in my opinion) that is more enjoyable to watch than Regina wreaking havoc on someone, whether taunting Mary Margaret and her blackening soul, or threatening to make Greg vanish. Her combination of dark and subtle humor delivered just as seriously as a grave threat makes the performance all the more enthralling.
Moving on to a harsher critique. Some of the characters’ motivations or reasoning behind their actions were lost on me. Starting with Tamara, what purpose does she have in seeking magic aside from power? While that may very well be her desire, the fact that she was just privy to magic’s existence after what she made sound like an epic search for magic (she’s what, like, not even 30?) was a stretch for the audience. In addition, the show introducing a new female character so soon after failing to identify Greg’s mystery texter was cause for suspicion. Greg, a son wanting to see his father again, has an understandable motive, but it’s weak. He has no reason to believe that his father is alive and well in Storybrooke, especially since he was not previously aware of the time-freeze.
Once Upon A Time’s recent attempts at shocking reveals have come off incredibly flat, and combined with everyone being somehow connected, it’s almost too much to handle. I’m aware it’s a fairytale show, but considering they started out with Emma being a skeptical outsider and gently eased her in along side the audience, it is now not even trying.
About the Dragon. His appearance and ability to release smoke would seem to suggest that he’s Mushu from Mulan. However, without his sass and overall goofiness, the affect of his appearance was lost. Why was he inclined to help Tamara if his clients were typically not the average Jane? He already knew what August was suffering from when he walked into the room, but was somehow unable or unwilling to see that Tamara was scamming him.
As I have mentioned before, I have been willing to overlook poor special effects for the sake of the story, but gliding, floating, smoking Dragon did not help the story. If anything, it harmed it. These effects indicated a supernatural quality to the Dragon, who was then so easily put down by that taser. In contrast, the special effect of wooden August was odd, but not any odder than Fringe doing half an episode where everyone was a cartoon.
Let’s talk about this show’s lack of racial diversity. It’s a poor reflection to have the only two African-American characters (Sydney Glass and Tamara) turn out to be wishy-washy with their allegiances and willing to partake in schemes of questionable ethics. Up until the point where Tamara killed the dragon, she was character worth a mild amount of sympathy. Now she is just an annoyance and one more dot on the already overcrowded plotline of season two.
Oh, the drama of August’s dying breath. Though more relevant than “Rosebud,” August muttering “She” right before he died and then coming back with no memory was an all to convenient and cliche twist. It would be fair enough if he return to childhood because Mother Superior’s wand misfired after being dormant for 28 years, which is likely not the case because she did not seem shocked.
In other news, with the random mention of the bean field early on in the episode, I reasonably expected it to be followed up on. No such luck. Henry was again carrying around the storybook, yet we still did not receive an answer as to who wrote it.
1 Comment
“so easily put down by that taser”, yes that’s what disappointed me the most :(