GREAT episode but major continuity issues.
Please elaborate on this, because I have no idea what you're talking about.
BTW, here's my review (cross-posted):
My review:
In the future, creative writing students should be given two series as 'study material': this show and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because there's a ton that can be learned about how to write just by watching both series, particularly when it comes to balancing humor with drama and when it comes to wrapping up serialized stories.
Depending on how you choose to view this episode's placement in the season, A&E and the other writers either wrapped up the Frozen story arc exactly on or ahead of schedule, but either way, they pulled another page from the "Book of Joss" in doing so.
As with Smash the Mirror Parts 1 and 2 three weeks ago, there was so much going on in this episode that it's hard to know quite where to start in talking about it all, so if some of this comes off disjointed, I apologize.
I would've loved to have been on set during the filming of this episode, because the way the characters behaved as their 'worst selves' was seriously some of the best material I've seen in this show to date, and had to have been a joy to both write and act. I do kind of wish we'd seen a bit more 'in-depth coverage', as it were, of characters beyond just Snow, Charming, Kristoff, and Regina, but when you have as much to get through as this episode did, sacrifices have to be made, and what we got from 3 of those 4 was more than enough to make up for not seeing more craziness from some of the supporting characters. I especially loved the writers finally acknowledging their massive motivational screw-up vis a vis Regina's past, and have to give kudos to both Lana and Ginny for the way they handled the whole thing. I also enjoyed the big swordfight between Snow and Regina.
As if the stuff involving Ingrid's spell wasn't enough, the writers also filled in about 3 seasons' worth of blanks in the course of about 40 minutes (not counting commercials), and, in the process, tossed out a whole bunch of theories/implied assumptions about Emma's backstory pre-Storybrooke, especially with regards to her time in the foster care system. They also made her character a whole lot more complex, emotionally, than she already was.
For starters, it had been previously assumed/implied that Emma 'aged out' of the foster care system before we saw her in Portland, but, after tonight, it's clear that, after Ingrid freaked her out, she just never stopped running. The fact that her relationship with Ingrid - the one good thing in her life before Neal - ended the way it did, BTW, actually makes the fact that she 'took a chance' on letting Neal in all the more remarkable than it had been before given what we knew about her past at the time the writers showed us her relationship with Neal and what happened between them.
While we're on the subject of the flashbacks, did anybody catch the particulars of where Ingrid's house was location-wise (I didn't quite see the caption) and when, exactly, she arrived in Storybrooke (also, what was up with her Nun-esque outfit)?
After "Family Business" aired, there was a little bit of discussion here about when Emma's Season 1 run-in with Ingrid would've happened given that she only wore her blue jacket in a handful of episodes, and we finally had that question answered tonight. With the first season's events happening relatively in real time, Emma had to have visited Any Given Sundae between the end of "The Price of Gold" and the beginning of "That Still Small Voice" (since TPoG is the only episode that aired in November 2011 in which she wore her blue jacket).
It was a pretty fair bet that this storyline was going to end with Ingrid's death, but I was kind of surprised that they didn't just go the predictable route of having Emma and Elsa take her down using magic, regardless of how sympathetic they'd made her character. I did like the symmetry and symbolism inherent in Ingrid sacrificing herself to stop her own spell after realizing that she'd made some seriously terrible mistakes, and all four of the actresses involved in that scene really sold the raw emotion of the moment, so kudos to them.
As I close out my review, I have to ask three questions (all of which stem from the fact that I missed last week's episode):
* Why was Anna immune to the Shattered Sight spell?
* What was up with Henry's attitude?
* Why was Rumple making preparations to leave town?
