It's a new year, and I've resolved to turn over a new leaf by becoming a more responsible blogger. In other words, I'm going to start blogging more regularly (and responding more regularly) to your comments. I started this blog because I needed an outlet for my thoughts on OUAT and other things, but since the Timeline (which was a group effort) and the MBTI post have been modestly popular, I want to make an effort to write about things that interest others too. (Isn't that unselfish of me?)
Today I'm focusing on the unanswered questions of the show. Those pesky little questions, some of them with us since the first season. Some of these questions arise from the events of the show itself, while others only really jump out at you when you start trying to put everything together (like the Timeline).
So here we go. And of course if you have theories, answers, or other questions I haven't covered here, please comment!
Let's begin!
1. When (and how) did Hook and Bae leave Neverland?
This one is a bit convoluted when you start thinking about the Timeline. Baelfire slips through the portal he creates with the Blue Fairy's bean to Edwardian London where he befriends the Darling family, sacrifices himself for them, and ends up back in Neverland via the Shadow, where he then meets Hook who has been there for who knows how long. Hook went to Neverland after the events of "The Crocodile," in which he watches Rumpelstiltskin rip out Milah's heart and crush it. He uses the bean to open a portal to Neverland for his ship and crew. So far so good I suppose.
Where it gets confusing is when they leave. As far as we know, Neal could have come back to our world any time, as long as he had about 20 years somewhere other than Neverland in which to age from a teen to his mid-thirties. His apartment in Manhattan is full of paraphernalia from different decades of the 20th century. At the latest he had to have come back to the LwM by the the early 2000s when Emma was making a career of stealing cars. Personally, I think he came back in the 1980s as a teen (he is supposed to have been born in the 1970s, according to a wanted poster) and aged the necessary years.
Hook came back about a year prior to the Dark Curse being cast (I won't get into all the details, but there is evidence of this if you link all the different references to the Dark Curse, Snow's marriage, Snow's pregnancy, etc.). If Bae returned to our world the year leading up to Regina casting the Dark Curse (assuming it was close to 1984 in LwM), it is very likely that he and Hook would have left together. Why they ended up in different places, I can't imagine, but it would have put Bae getting back to the LwM the same year that Emma was sent through the wardrobe.
Of course, the big assumption there is that time between the LwM and EF is synchronous, and that can't be true. In fact, the show itself depends on the fact that time for the Land without Magic and the Enchanted Forest is not synchronous until the Dark Curse is cast.
Why? Because it would have been impossible for the events to have happened in the span of time that we're given if the two lands are synchronous. More than one-hundred years have to go by in the Enchanted Forest until Emma is sent to the LwM as a baby if we are supposed to believe the show's repeated reassurance that Rumpelstiltskin (and therefore Hook and Bae) have lived for centuries. Whereas, only about eighty years can possibly go by in the LwM during the same events.
2. How did August know that Neal was Baelfire (and, more importantly, what that actually means)?
This has been a mystery since Season 1. There were many theories. My personal favorite was that the Blue Fairy told him during the present-day events because this seemed like the most straight-forward answer (she had personally been in on what went down for Bae and Rumpel at the beginning of their story). But the writers assured us that this was impossible because Blue didn't remember. Only Rumpel and Regina remembered.
The only answer I can advance at this time is that August had to have gotten hold of the Author's copy of Once Upon a Time as an adult in LwM and read about Bae, so that later he could use that info to his advantage and have seen a picture of Bae to compare to Neal. But there are problems with this theory too. First, how would August have gotten it (maybe it would have appeared for him like it did for Mary Margaret)? Second, even though Merida was able to read about Rumpel's life with Belle, Henry told us in Season 1 very definitely that he couldn't figure out who Mr. Gold was because he wasn't in the book. So, really this brings up another question: Was Gold put in the book after Isaac was defeated? But even if the book itself changed after Isaac, the evil Author, was defeated, August still shouldn't have been able to read about Rumpel (or Bae when it concerned Rumpel) in the book during the events of Season 1.
Some people have theorized that August was told about Rumpel and Bae as a child, before he left the EF. This doesn't really seem likely to me. Baelfire and Rumpelstiltskin's relationship wasn't common knowledge, and I believe that the Blue Fairy, Belle, and Smee were the only people who really knew anything about it. Who would tell August? And why?
And even if someone told him the story (or if he read the story in the book somehow), what would lead August to know, definitively know, that grown up Neal had once been teenage Baelfire? Not even Rumpelstiltskin recognized his grown up son (he thought August was Bae, despite the major differences in their eye color). So how would August be able to recognize him?
So we're still wondering how August knew about Baelfire. Or I am, at least.
3. How did Cruella and Ursula stop aging when they went to the Land without Magic?
I have no idea how to even begin to answer this one. Cruella and Ursula fall through a portal (created by the Author) that sends infant Lily (in her egg) and the two ladies to LwM. Lily ages to adulthood and Cruella and Ursula don't age at all. I would love to hear theories about why this was possible.
4. Did the Holy Grail come from our world?
Maybe I missed some crucial info here, but I could have sworn that Merlin stated that dangerous magic (and the Dark One) comes from our world. When we first met Merlin, it seemed possible that he and his friend were escaping from slavery or the losing side of a war (or both) in our world when they found the Grail. I didn't assume that they were in the EF or our world, but our world jumped out at me as the more likely place. After that, it seemed that Merlin lived in the EF. I don't know how he got there. Does this mean that the Grail was the Grail or something else (what else?)? Like the Burning Bush and Blackbeard, when the writers use historical figures and events, the story starts to get confusing. And who would have been the Author during this time to record these events?
5. Where was Lancelot?
In Season 2 we had a nice little mystery presented to us, namely that Cora had somehow been imprisoned by a village of Dark Curse survivors, but in actuality she was masquerading as Lancelot, whom she later claimed was dead. This threw a lot of people for a loop when Lancelot showed up alive in Camelot a year or so later (in Season 5).
Now, it's conceivable that Cora merely pretended not to be able to get out of her prison because it served her purposes (somehow). She's good at tricking people. And I for one did not believe that Lancelot was dead simply because Cora said he was. Cora's a grade A liar. Some might even say pathological. But the question arises: If Lance wasn't dead, where was he all this time?
He wasn't in Camelot because we know he'd left due to the complications of adultery with Guinevere (this was before Regina cast the dark curse because Rumpelstiltskin still inhabited the EF). Had he ever actually been with the survivors at all? We assumed he had left Camelot and taken up with the survivors, and then Cora had killed him and taken his place. If he wasn't dead, when and why did he leave? Or did Cora pose as Lancelot from the very beginning? If she did, she ran the risk that the real Lancelot would show up at any moment. On the other hand, it's possible that Lancelot never left Camelot at all. He could have been hiding in the castle from the very start. That's a bit creepy.
6. If Zelena was posing as Marian, why is she able to return to Storybrooke without dying?
I have to admit that as much as I enjoyed the scene in which Zelena surprised the heck out of Rumpelstiltskin in the hospital, I don't think the plot twist made much sense. Maybe someone else can explain it.
What we are supposed to believe, if Zelena is telling the truth, is that after she died her essence traveled back in time through the portal that Emma and Hook went through, followed them around, and when the moment was right turned herself into Marian and "killed" the real Marian by puffing her into smoke (which, btw, we've never seen done to anyone that I can remember, have we?).
So, she regained her physical body when she went to the EF. I don't know why. Maybe because her essence was in a time and place that her physical body existed again? I won't try to answer that.
The main point is, when she came back as Marian, she knew (having been with everyone as herself previous to these events) Robin's back story and she fit herself right in as his wife. Now, how she recognized who Marian was in the EF past (since, presumably, she had never seen her), I don't know. Lucky guess? Maybe Regina described Marian to her once? But even Emma didn't recognize Marian, so that's kind of confusing.
But for the most part the premise works up to the point that Elsa ends up in town and accidentally freezes Marian's heart. Because it's really Zelena's heart now, isn't it? Zelena is in a comma and Regina is trying to save her, and Robin's kiss doesn't work on her.
Zelena (as Marian) is finally cured when Elsa leaves. Inexplicably she goes to Regina and tells her that she can have Robin, that she understands how things are (why would Zelena do that?). But then, Elsa's freezing spell comes back (how?) and Zelena will die unless they can get her out of Storybrooke. Robin won't leave the woman he thinks is his wife and the mother of his child, so they go together. Because Zelena was using the shamrock, she's able to keep up the pretense even in the Land without Magic.
Then she and Robin return to Storybrooke and get swept into Camelot. Why doesn't the ice magic affect Zelena when she comes back to town?
Did I miss the hand-waving that happened to explain this?
Today I'm focusing on the unanswered questions of the show. Those pesky little questions, some of them with us since the first season. Some of these questions arise from the events of the show itself, while others only really jump out at you when you start trying to put everything together (like the Timeline).
So here we go. And of course if you have theories, answers, or other questions I haven't covered here, please comment!
1. When (and how) did Hook and Bae leave Neverland?
This one is a bit convoluted when you start thinking about the Timeline. Baelfire slips through the portal he creates with the Blue Fairy's bean to Edwardian London where he befriends the Darling family, sacrifices himself for them, and ends up back in Neverland via the Shadow, where he then meets Hook who has been there for who knows how long. Hook went to Neverland after the events of "The Crocodile," in which he watches Rumpelstiltskin rip out Milah's heart and crush it. He uses the bean to open a portal to Neverland for his ship and crew. So far so good I suppose.
Where it gets confusing is when they leave. As far as we know, Neal could have come back to our world any time, as long as he had about 20 years somewhere other than Neverland in which to age from a teen to his mid-thirties. His apartment in Manhattan is full of paraphernalia from different decades of the 20th century. At the latest he had to have come back to the LwM by the the early 2000s when Emma was making a career of stealing cars. Personally, I think he came back in the 1980s as a teen (he is supposed to have been born in the 1970s, according to a wanted poster) and aged the necessary years.
Hook came back about a year prior to the Dark Curse being cast (I won't get into all the details, but there is evidence of this if you link all the different references to the Dark Curse, Snow's marriage, Snow's pregnancy, etc.). If Bae returned to our world the year leading up to Regina casting the Dark Curse (assuming it was close to 1984 in LwM), it is very likely that he and Hook would have left together. Why they ended up in different places, I can't imagine, but it would have put Bae getting back to the LwM the same year that Emma was sent through the wardrobe.
Of course, the big assumption there is that time between the LwM and EF is synchronous, and that can't be true. In fact, the show itself depends on the fact that time for the Land without Magic and the Enchanted Forest is not synchronous until the Dark Curse is cast.
Why? Because it would have been impossible for the events to have happened in the span of time that we're given if the two lands are synchronous. More than one-hundred years have to go by in the Enchanted Forest until Emma is sent to the LwM as a baby if we are supposed to believe the show's repeated reassurance that Rumpelstiltskin (and therefore Hook and Bae) have lived for centuries. Whereas, only about eighty years can possibly go by in the LwM during the same events.
2. How did August know that Neal was Baelfire (and, more importantly, what that actually means)?
This has been a mystery since Season 1. There were many theories. My personal favorite was that the Blue Fairy told him during the present-day events because this seemed like the most straight-forward answer (she had personally been in on what went down for Bae and Rumpel at the beginning of their story). But the writers assured us that this was impossible because Blue didn't remember. Only Rumpel and Regina remembered.
The only answer I can advance at this time is that August had to have gotten hold of the Author's copy of Once Upon a Time as an adult in LwM and read about Bae, so that later he could use that info to his advantage and have seen a picture of Bae to compare to Neal. But there are problems with this theory too. First, how would August have gotten it (maybe it would have appeared for him like it did for Mary Margaret)? Second, even though Merida was able to read about Rumpel's life with Belle, Henry told us in Season 1 very definitely that he couldn't figure out who Mr. Gold was because he wasn't in the book. So, really this brings up another question: Was Gold put in the book after Isaac was defeated? But even if the book itself changed after Isaac, the evil Author, was defeated, August still shouldn't have been able to read about Rumpel (or Bae when it concerned Rumpel) in the book during the events of Season 1.
Some people have theorized that August was told about Rumpel and Bae as a child, before he left the EF. This doesn't really seem likely to me. Baelfire and Rumpelstiltskin's relationship wasn't common knowledge, and I believe that the Blue Fairy, Belle, and Smee were the only people who really knew anything about it. Who would tell August? And why?
And even if someone told him the story (or if he read the story in the book somehow), what would lead August to know, definitively know, that grown up Neal had once been teenage Baelfire? Not even Rumpelstiltskin recognized his grown up son (he thought August was Bae, despite the major differences in their eye color). So how would August be able to recognize him?
So we're still wondering how August knew about Baelfire. Or I am, at least.
3. How did Cruella and Ursula stop aging when they went to the Land without Magic?
I have no idea how to even begin to answer this one. Cruella and Ursula fall through a portal (created by the Author) that sends infant Lily (in her egg) and the two ladies to LwM. Lily ages to adulthood and Cruella and Ursula don't age at all. I would love to hear theories about why this was possible.
4. Did the Holy Grail come from our world?
Maybe I missed some crucial info here, but I could have sworn that Merlin stated that dangerous magic (and the Dark One) comes from our world. When we first met Merlin, it seemed possible that he and his friend were escaping from slavery or the losing side of a war (or both) in our world when they found the Grail. I didn't assume that they were in the EF or our world, but our world jumped out at me as the more likely place. After that, it seemed that Merlin lived in the EF. I don't know how he got there. Does this mean that the Grail was the Grail or something else (what else?)? Like the Burning Bush and Blackbeard, when the writers use historical figures and events, the story starts to get confusing. And who would have been the Author during this time to record these events?
5. Where was Lancelot?
In Season 2 we had a nice little mystery presented to us, namely that Cora had somehow been imprisoned by a village of Dark Curse survivors, but in actuality she was masquerading as Lancelot, whom she later claimed was dead. This threw a lot of people for a loop when Lancelot showed up alive in Camelot a year or so later (in Season 5).
Now, it's conceivable that Cora merely pretended not to be able to get out of her prison because it served her purposes (somehow). She's good at tricking people. And I for one did not believe that Lancelot was dead simply because Cora said he was. Cora's a grade A liar. Some might even say pathological. But the question arises: If Lance wasn't dead, where was he all this time?
He wasn't in Camelot because we know he'd left due to the complications of adultery with Guinevere (this was before Regina cast the dark curse because Rumpelstiltskin still inhabited the EF). Had he ever actually been with the survivors at all? We assumed he had left Camelot and taken up with the survivors, and then Cora had killed him and taken his place. If he wasn't dead, when and why did he leave? Or did Cora pose as Lancelot from the very beginning? If she did, she ran the risk that the real Lancelot would show up at any moment. On the other hand, it's possible that Lancelot never left Camelot at all. He could have been hiding in the castle from the very start. That's a bit creepy.
6. If Zelena was posing as Marian, why is she able to return to Storybrooke without dying?
I have to admit that as much as I enjoyed the scene in which Zelena surprised the heck out of Rumpelstiltskin in the hospital, I don't think the plot twist made much sense. Maybe someone else can explain it.
What we are supposed to believe, if Zelena is telling the truth, is that after she died her essence traveled back in time through the portal that Emma and Hook went through, followed them around, and when the moment was right turned herself into Marian and "killed" the real Marian by puffing her into smoke (which, btw, we've never seen done to anyone that I can remember, have we?).
So, she regained her physical body when she went to the EF. I don't know why. Maybe because her essence was in a time and place that her physical body existed again? I won't try to answer that.
The main point is, when she came back as Marian, she knew (having been with everyone as herself previous to these events) Robin's back story and she fit herself right in as his wife. Now, how she recognized who Marian was in the EF past (since, presumably, she had never seen her), I don't know. Lucky guess? Maybe Regina described Marian to her once? But even Emma didn't recognize Marian, so that's kind of confusing.
But for the most part the premise works up to the point that Elsa ends up in town and accidentally freezes Marian's heart. Because it's really Zelena's heart now, isn't it? Zelena is in a comma and Regina is trying to save her, and Robin's kiss doesn't work on her.
Zelena (as Marian) is finally cured when Elsa leaves. Inexplicably she goes to Regina and tells her that she can have Robin, that she understands how things are (why would Zelena do that?). But then, Elsa's freezing spell comes back (how?) and Zelena will die unless they can get her out of Storybrooke. Robin won't leave the woman he thinks is his wife and the mother of his child, so they go together. Because Zelena was using the shamrock, she's able to keep up the pretense even in the Land without Magic.
Then she and Robin return to Storybrooke and get swept into Camelot. Why doesn't the ice magic affect Zelena when she comes back to town?
Did I miss the hand-waving that happened to explain this?
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