Once Upon a Time 3.04: Nasty Habits

Like ‘Quite a Common Fairy’ and ‘Second Star to the Right’, ‘Nasty Habits’ was an attempt to tie Neverland in with pre-established arcs and character transformations, and subsequently working in this season’s big bad as a villain who has had run-ins with a lot of the familiar characters. Doing this is probably the only thing that’s giving him any bit of clout as a convincing bad guy.

It’s four episodes in, and I’m still not sure about Pan, or Robbie Kay’s eyebrow acting. Sure he’s nasty, and his rebel boy attitude is great to rile up the people around him, but I just can’t take him as seriously as I did Cora or Regina. We hear a lot about how bad he is but we’ve never actually seen it in action. OK, so he’s been kidnapping boys to join his band of dancing prats, but what’s so bad about that? He’s scheming, but so are Hook and half the cast, so what’s different about him? He’s just not working for me so far.

What IS working is how easily Pan and Neverland fit in with what we already know about people like Rumple, Bae and Regina. Tinkerbell fell prey to our future Evil Queen’s weakness last week, and Pan took advantage of Bae/Neal’s abandonment and betrayal issues this week, which run through a lot of the different dynamics in the show right now. And seeing Pan meddle and ruin these relationships serves, at least partially, his bad boy persona.

Obviously Henry’s feelings about Neal are different to what Bae felt for his father in those flashbacks. Neal didn’t leave Henry on purpose or betray him but I guess that doesn’t matter. Henry still feels alone, and Pan is getting closer and closer to using him to bring magic back to Neverland (or something).

What’s frustrating about this season so far is how much the rescue team have been running around in circles. I was hoping that Tinkerbell (or Tink as she likes to be called) would bring them a lot closer to finding Pan then they actually managed to get this week. Season three is in need of some serious plot excitation, and David’s bogus dreamshade wound just doesn’t cut it.

5/10

Plus

I miss Storybrooke :(

I really hope Neal taking Henry and running away from Rumple doesn’t make him turn properly evil again. For the sake of his journey he needs to save them both.

He Said, She Said

Neal: “So I take it you’ve a plan, or the whole the sacrifice your life thing was just you being dramatic?"

David: “There is no hope.”
Hook: “If there’s one thing I’ve gleamed from you hero types it’s that there’s always hope.”

Mary Margaret: “I have no idea how to comfort my own daughter. It is the first thing that a mother learns and I don’t know how.”

Also posted at Doux Reviews.