Wednesday , March 27 2024
Emma Swan encounters a giant who lives atop a beanstalk, and hangs out with Neal Cassady on this week's Once Upon a Time.

TV Review: Once Upon a Time – “Tallahassee”

Until now, we’ve known very few details of Emma Swan’s (Jennifer Morrison) past. In this week’s new Once Upon a Time episode “Tallahassee” we learn how she ended up pregnant and in jail, but perhaps just as importantly, we discover why she has such profound trust issues and has learned to read people incredibly well. 

Still in the Fairytale Land wastelands and accompanied by Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin), Mulan, Sleeping Beauty (Sarah Bolger), and now Hook (Colin O’Donoghue), Emma seeks a compass that will be key to getting them back home. The compass, however, is in the possession of a certain giant (Lost‘s Jorge Garcia) that lives atop a beanstalk.

Although she’s wary of Hook (and with good reason — the pirate is an, albeit charming, creep) Emma has no choice but to trust him, at least as far as she must. Her only apparent sympathy for him comes from her belief that he had not only lost his hand, but his true love, to Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle). Of course, as we know, that’s not exactly the truth. 

We learn that Emma had been a thief 11 years before she arrives in Storybrooke, and involved with another thief who abandons her, leaving her literally holding the bag when the cops arrive. She had after many years learned to trust and in the end is betrayed by one of the few people she’s ever loved. 

We learn, however, that August (Eion Bailey) is manipulating events, and to “protect” Emma and preserve her for fulfilling her destiny in breaking the curse, August convinces Neal Cassady (Michael Raymond James) that the right thing to do is to leave Emma and let her go to prison. Promising to let Cassady know when he can again contact Emma, August says he’ll send a postcard. And, indeed, in the opening episode of season two, we see Cassady in New York with the promised post card — now that Emma has broken the curse. 

The retelling of “Jack and the Beanstalk” is clever, suggesting that the giant is the last of his kind, the remainder murdered by humans. Explaining that the “victors get to tell the story,” he holds human is little regard, assuming that they are only out to harm him. When Emma doesn’t, the giant is surprised and grants Emma not only the prize she seeks (the needed compass), but also Hook’s life.

With the compass in hand, Emma needs only the ashes remaining from the armoire to transport herself along with Snow and the rest of the crew back to Storybrooke. Her immediate quest seems now in reach. But who will get transported along with their small party? Will Hook traverse into our world? What about Cora (Barbara Hershey)? I have a feeling that Hook and Cora provide a more sinister menace than Rumple and Regina (Lana Parrilla). Both Regina and Rumple are driven by love and loss, and I’m not entirely sure that Hook is driven by anything other than ego and wounded pride. He’d humiliated Rumple for no other reason than he had been a defenseless and more vulnerable opponent. And Cora seems driven only by power. 

And what of this dream that both Sleeping Beauty and Henry have? A red room of flame and fire with no doors or windows — an adversary with fearsome eyes. Maleficent? It would make sense that Sleeping Beauty would have nightmares of her Evil Witch — but Henry? What is their connection? Any ideas? It is clearly important, but how?

I keep coming back to the Giant’s words, “the victors tell the tale.” It is so true of history, going back through the centuries in all of civilization. It is the victor that gets to tell the tales, to write the history books. And so often that history is revised to rationalize, frame or spin the story so the outcome creates the illusion that the victors were right, were the good guys, were the valorous ones saving humanity from the giants, ogres and oppressors, when it might just as easily have been the other way around.

These are highly significant words for Once Upon a Time‘s narrative. In traditional fairy tales, the victors are the “good guys,” and from within the story, they are the ones to have the final say. But the series has turned traditional narrative on its head, providing alternative explanations — alternate histories for all of the fairy tale characters. Maybe the good guys aren’t necessarily quite as good as they’d have us believe, and the “bad guys” not quite as evil (or at least without provocation or reason.

I really enjoyed getting Emma’s backstory. In addition to filling in how she came to be in prison — and pregnant, it also explains how Mr. Gold had known where to locate Henry. We know that Mr. Gold had never met August, which is why he had been so easily fooled into thinking he was his long-missing son. But, we also now know that August had arranged for Emma’s incarceration likely because it had been easier to keep tabs on her in prison than if she had been out on the road with Neal Cassady. I imagine that after Emma’s baby had been born, August dropped an anonymous note to one Mr. Gold.

I’m intrigued that the writers (Jane Espenson and Christine Boylan) chose to name Emma’s love Neal Cassady. As you may know, the real Neal Cassady was a prominent figure of the Beat Generation and part of Ken Kesey’s circle of friends who personified the tune in, turn on, drop out movement of the ’60s. Long before that, Cassady served 11 months in prison for receiving stolen goods, closely paralleling Emma’s story in “Tallahassee.” But where the connection goes from there will, I suppose, remain to be seen. 

Tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. ET, Once Upon a Time writer-consulting producer Jane Espenson will join me on Let’s Talk TV Live on BlogTalkRadio to talk about tonight’s episode and the series in general. In the second half hour her Husbands‘ cohorts Brad “Cheeks” Bell and Sean Hemeon will stop by to talk about the new Husbands comic book, and a special event in Salt Lake City taking place November 11. So be sure to stop by. Jane and Team Husbands will be taking calls during the show, so try to stop by and listen live (or join the chat room).

Once Upon a Time airs Sunday nights at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.

About Barbara Barnett

A Jewish mother and (young 🙃) grandmother, Barbara Barnett is an author and professional Hazzan (Cantor). A member of the Conservative Movement's Cantors Assembly and the Jewish Renewal movement's clergy association OHALAH, the clergy association of the Jewish Renewal movement. In her other life, she is a critically acclaimed fantasy/science fiction author as well as the author of a non-fiction exploration of the TV series House, M.D. and contributor to the book Spiritual Pregnancy. She Publisher/Executive Editor of Blogcritics, (blogcritics.org).

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