A Godwink Christmas

There’s just something special about Hallmark’s Christmas movies. Are they cheesy? Yeah. Are they formulaic? Yeah. But do we watch them year after year? Hell to the yeah. There’s just something about quaint towns covered in snow as people fall in love over and over that we just love to see.

Especially me.

We wish you a Merry SPOILERS!

OUAT: A Noblish Sacrifice

Last time on “Once”: Lucy was rushed to the hospital as everyone tried to figure out what was wrong with her.

Victoria meanwhile tried to keep Anastasia safe from Gothel and Drizella. She was forced to work with Rumple, who wanted to know if Anastasia was his long sought after Guardian as well as wanted to heal Lucy. He tested Anastasia and while she showed amazing magical powers, she ran away and let Drizella take her from their mother.

After going with Regina to San Francisco, Henry had to bail on her to be there for Lucy. She was left to deal with “Kelly,” Zelena’s cursed persona. Kelly hated Regina because she convinced Kelly’s daughter to drop out of college and travel the world, also seemingly cutting her mother out of her life as well. Regina apologized and tried to convince Kelly to come back to Seattle with her. When she refused, Regina was able to wake Zelena up. Zelena was willing to go to Seattle but pointed out a big problem—Kelly was getting married in a few weeks.

Rogers and Tilly discovered the coven symbol under the troll bridge and reported it to Weaver. He discovered a coin from the coven and told the two that “they” were in the city.

Henry read to Lucy and decided to try True Love’s Kiss, but it didn’t work. Regina told Zelena that was because Victoria must’ve broken Lucy’s belief, preventing the kiss from working. However, it was a good thing that it didn’t work—Henry’s life depended on it!

In the Enchanted Forest, we did a lot of time jumping. So hold on and try to keep up!

Ella gave birth to Lucy and Drizella showed up to threaten them with the Dark Curse. But Lady Tremaine somehow was working with the heroes and they used her blood to turn to Drizella into a statue. She got freed on Lucy’s eighth birthday by Mother Gothel and the two went off to cast the Dark Curse.

Regina went to recruit Zelena and a grown up Peanut, who were now in the Enchanted Forest while Hook went to visit Alice, who was keeping a fully Dark One Rumple company. Rumple gave Hook something to help him remember who Alice was in the curse and Alice asked him to deliver a letter to someone she had fallen in love with. Henry took Lucy to the original Enchanted Forest, leaving her with Tiger Lily so he could carve a magical wardrobe so they could escape ahead of the curse. But he got captured instead.

All the heroes confronted Drizella and Gothel, who revealed they captured Henry and poisoned him. It forced Regina to cast the curse. Alice’s new love was Peanut and they promised to find each other in the curse while Hook gave Ella the white elephant statue so she and Lucy would still be together in the curse.

In Hyperion Heights, Regina and Zelena vow to find a way to break the curse without killing Henry while Gothel gave Drizella’s powers to Anastasia. She then trapped Drizella in a hole with her mother while preparing to find the rest of her coven so the next part of her plan could start.

We open on a boiling potion as someone chants to some goddess. The camera pulls back to reveal three women in hoods, looking like members of Gothel’s coven, as the one chanting holds a book. She dips a vial in and gathers some potion in it before holding it up. 

(Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble...)

Thank You, Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time is over.

It is strange to write that. While part of me knew that all TV shows come to an end, it still felt like Once would always be there. So it is strange to think that it won’t be back in September, that there will be no more set pictures or that I won’t be waiting excitedly for spoilers or hints about storylines.

As I said, I will continue recapping the show until the very end. And then I have to go back and finish recapping Season 6. And then I will go back to finish my recaps of Seasons 1, 2 and 3A. So I won’t be saying goodbye to Once Upon a Time so soon.

I know a lot of people are doing rewatches as well so I’m not alone.

The recaps of the last half of this season should come out over the summer, if all goes well. Then I can move into Season 6 in the fall—unless I discover a new show to recap. I doubt there will ever be another show like Once Upon a Time for me, but there will be new shows to watch.

Once Upon a Time will always hold a special place in my heart, especially the Outlaw Queen ship. I thank Sean, Lana and everyone involved with the show for the past seven years. It was truly magical. It brought me amazing new friends, a new found creativity, a wonderful and supportive community and inspired me to live my own dreams. I finally went to Paris because of Once, because I wanted to see my favorite cast members—especially Lana and Sean.

It’s also pushed me closer to realizing another dream—of being a published author. I’m working to turn some of my more popular fanfics into independently published novels. Then I can say I’m a published author. Wish me luck on that project!

So, yes, Once Upon a Time changed my life. It will take time to get used to it not being a regular presence but I know it will always be there—just as long as there are Oncers out there.

Long live us.

Channel Awesome: #ChangetheChannel

I’ve probably talked about being a fan of several contributors on Channel Awesome, formerly known as That Guy With the Glasses. After all, I started my Nostalgia Nook posts because there was media I knew the Nostalgia Chick would never cover and I wanted to discuss them.

(And I know I dropped the ball and didn’t review Halloweentown IV this past Halloween. I forgot but I will do it this year, especially as I’ve come to some realizations about it).

Anyway, I was introduced to That Guy With the Glasses when a friend sent me a link to Lindsay Ellis’ Nostalgia Chick review of Labyrinth. I loved it and watched her other videos before starting to explore the site’s other contributors, including the Nostalgia Critic. I remember watching Kickassia, eager for each part to be released each day, and discovering new people to watch (like Linkara) from it.

Then came To Boldly Flee, which featured the end of the Nostalgia Critic as Doug Walker (the man behind the glasses) wanted to focus on new, more original productions. While I was sad and knew I would miss the Nostalgia Critic, I wished him well. I even gave one of his new shows, Demo Reel, a chance—but soon found that it just didn’t hold my attention or strike me as particularly funny. There also ended up being long stretches between videos and while I understood that it was a more complex production than Nostalgia Critic, the long stretches were definitely more of a turn off. However, I was still watching other contributors on the site and kept going there almost every day.

Barely a year after To Boldly Flee ended the Nostalgia Critic, the last episode of Demo Reel brought the character back. I expressed my concern to some friends on a message board who also followed the site because I didn’t know if Doug was bringing the character back because he truly missed it or because they were losing viewers over Demo Reel, so they were just giving people what they wanted. I was concerned that he wouldn’t have the same passion as he had before. I’m not sure that didn’t happen—while I watched some of the new Nostalgia Critic videos, he started to do a lot more recent stuff that I had no interest in and eventually, I stopped watching his videos.

I did keep watching other contributors, particularly Lindsay, Linkara and Paw Dugan (also occasionally Todd in the Shadows) . So I was still going to the site almost daily.

Jesus Christ Superstar: A Real Superstar

I’ve been familiar with the works of Andrew Lloyd Webber since I was a little girl. My parents are big fans of his and have seen several of his shows on Broadway, including the original production of Evita with Patti Lupone. I used to counteract my insomnia by listening to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at night to fall asleep. And then I eventually graduated to more music, including Jesus Christ Superstar. I saw the 1973 movie version and my mother and I went to see the 2000 revival (which has a story attached to it that’s kinda funny, kinda sad. Maybe I’ll tell it later).

So I was thrilled when I found out the latest entry into the catalogue of live musical events would be Jesus Christ Superstar, fittingly on Easter (and my birthday!). The cast announcements proved it was shaping up to be a good one and I eagerly tuned in, waiting to be blown away.

I was not disappointed.

First, a little synopsis because some people were still confused about the plot even though it should be well known. Jesus Christ Superstar tells of the last 7 days of Jesus’ life…through song. We start before he rides into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as Judas worries about how large the crowds that surround Jesus are starting to get. He is afraid they will draw the wrong kind of attention from the Pharisees as well as the Roman officials, leading to disaster. It leads to some tensions between him and Jesus while Mary Magdalene tries to keep the peace. But Judas ends up turning Jesus over to the authorities as the crowd turns against him. Ultimately, Jesus is crucified.

Got it? Good. Let’s get on to the review!

Once Upon a Time: Dude, We’re Getting the Band Back Together!

As I wrote about last month, Once Upon a Time is ending this May. We have received confirmation that the finale will air on Friday, May 18th and will be two hours long. So, you know, like usual. Naturally, this set off a lot of speculation and hopes that different cast members would return for one last hurrah. Co-creators Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis said that they had sent out invitations for anyone who had been in Once to return and they had been waiting for responses.


Over the past week, we’ve received several announcements over who would be returning for the finale. Here they are:


Beverley Elliot (Granny/Widow Lucas)

Keegan Connor Tracy (Blue Fairy/Mother Superior)

Robbie Kay (Peter Pan)

Joanna Garcia-Swisher (Ariel)

Victoria Smurfit (Cruelle de Vil)

Lee Arenberg (Grumpy/Leroy)

Tony Amendola (Gepetto/Marco)

Sean Maguire (Robin Hood)

Jared Gilmore (younger Henry Mills…or as he called himself, Original Recipe Henry)

Emilie de Ravin (Belle)

Ginnifer Goodwin (Snow White)

Josh Dallas (Prince Charming/David Nolan)

Jennifer Morrison (Emma Swan)

IMDb also lists Raphael Sbarge as returning as Archie Hopper/Jiminy Cricket. No other source has confirmed that though.

The fandom is pretty much buzzing at this point now that we know all these familiar faces are returning and we’ll be saying goodbye to our beloved show with our beloved cast (mostly) back. Of course, there are questions about how some of them will appear. Peter Pan and Cruella are dead. So is Robin, unless he’s appearing as a ghost or Sean is playing Dark OQ.

(Pictures posted of Sean, though, seem to hint at Original Recipe Robin, which has most of us leaning toward ghost…though some people are hoping he’s coming back to life for an OQ endgame. I’m trying not to get my hopes up as we’ve been burned way too many times before and I can’t imagine it’s going to change just because the show is ending).

Once Upon a Time has started to film the last two episodes and filming should continue until the end of March, possibly into the first week of April. It’ll be sad to know when they say their goodbyes and leave the set for the last time, but it’s heartening to know they will all be together for one last hurrah.

Here’s the magic they made…

Once Upon a Time: Journey’s End

It’s official—Season 7 of Once Upon a Time will the show’s last. ABC, Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis announced it Tuesday, February 6th, ahead of the show’s return from the midseason hiatus on March 2nd.

Is this a surprise? Honestly, no. It was touch and go for Season 7 last May. Even with the announcement of the reboot, most of us went into this season with the belief that it could very well be the last. It looks like we were right.

What happens now? Well, we’ll see how the final episodes have played out. Adam and Eddy have said that the finale they have planned will tie everything up, though it’s unknown if any past cast members will appear before the end of the series. According to an interview given by Adam and Eddy, the finale will involve another alternate universe (think Heroes and Villains or the Wish Realm), so who knows what that will mean.

There will probably be a lot of speculation in the coming months as we approach the finale. People will probably be calling for certain actors (Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas, Jennifer Morrison, Emilie de Ravin) to return and may phrase their statements as if they are coming back. We won’t really know until there are official announcements from the production and/or the actors themselves.

What about me?

I will continue to recap the remaining episodes of Season 7. Then I will go back and finally finish recapping Season 6 before continuing with my Season 1 recaps until we get back to where I started recapping on a regular basis. Maybe by then, I can watch Outlaw Queen start all over again without either crying or being angry at everything we could’ve had but didn’t.

I’ll do my best to keep everyone updated and let’s enjoy the last moments we have in this world of fairy tales together.

Once Upon a Time returns Friday, March 2nd at 8PM.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

In 1995, Robin Williams starred in a movie where he played a man who had been trapped in a board game for decades. Bonnie Hunt and a young Kirsten Dunst went along for the ride and we watched jungle animals take over a small New England town.

That was Jumanji. And now twenty-something years later, Jumanji has been reborn for another generation. How is it? Let’s find out!

Beware snakes, stampeding rhinos and SPOILERS!