Once Upon A Time S1 E11 Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
Added 2021-03-03 20:59:16 +0000 UTCThe Mirror's back story!
Comments
I am probably alone in this opinion, but I feel Emma is in the wrong when it comes to Regina and Henry throughout the entire series. Emma may have given birth to Henry but that in no way makes her his mother or gives her any rights in that regard. When it comes to everything she says about Emma's place in Henry's life, even before Emma crossed the line in this episode, she is 100% in the wrong. Regina is Henry's real mother, not Emma. I hate how Emma constantly undermines Regina's authority when it comes to Henry, and yet acts like Regina is being unreasonable. Emma can disagree all she wants, she has no legal authority, nor any moral authority because she did not raise him.
Lucile Byrd
2024-05-01 01:18:19 +0000 UTCFruit of the Poisonous Tree- Thank you so much for another fun reaction for Once Upon a Time!! I like this episode overall. Although it isn't one of my favorite episodes from season one, and while I do consider it to be among the weaker of the episodes this season for me... it's still enjoyable. Mostly because I love how it is that Sidney winds up a prisoner in becoming Regina's Magic Mirror. It is a brilliant twist for his character that I never saw coming, as is Sidney being a genie from Agrabah on top of it. Brilliant! However, it's never established whether or not this genie, is meant to be Genie from Aladdin. But most people assume so because Sidney is from Agrabah. For me... I choose to just see him as a different genie, since there is the possibility that there are more than one genies, and even more than one who are from Agrabah. And I hate the idea of him being Genie from Aladdin, because they're nothing alike. Not in the slightest bit. Agrabah is the only similarity that would link them together. Also, as far as Emma's superpower goes... her ability to tell when someone is lying at times seems wonky. However, in this case... I don't believe that Sidney ever once has lied to Emma. He was manipulating Emma for Regina yes, but he never once has actually lied to her about what he's doing. Regina did actually fire Sidney from The Mirror (the newspaper), and if you pay careful attention to Sidney's past storyline upon him discovering that Regina had manipulated him all along to get him to kill King Leopold for her, we see that Sidney absolutely holds a grudge against Regina and despises her for her cruelty despite still being unable to let go of his love for her. So when Sidney spouts off to Emma about how he distrusts Regina and is angry with her for being so manipulative, for firing him, etc... it's all true. He loves Regina and is still working for her, but at the same time he despises her and doesn't trust her. Plus... Emma never outright asks Sidney if he is still working for Regina to try to set her up, she never asks him if he had anything to do with cutting the brakes on her car, etc... Therefore... Sidney technically never lied to Emma, which is why both Regina and Sidney are able to get away with manipulating Emma so perfectly. They were very careful and tricky. And I love it. Sidney's acting in his scenes with Emma, as well as with Regina, are really good. With all that being said... I absolutely love the end scene between Regina and Sidney, when it's revealed they are still working together to take Emma down. A brilliant reveal and I just love the interaction between these two sly characters, especially with the symbolism by showing Sidney's face within Regina's mirror, and with Regina picking up the apple and holding it out in front of her while she stares down at it with a gleeful and cruel smile. Also... Regina's perception of herself is just as she claims, and therefore, she doesn't really lie as often to Emma as she seems to. Emma knows she's crooked, but Regina knows how to manipulate anyone and knows what buttons to push. And unfortunately for Emma... this time, Regina wins. Now... like I said before, I really like the twist with Sidney being a genie and becoming trapped within Regina's mirror because of his own wish given to him from King Leopold. In the beginning, Sidney states that all wishes come with a price like all magic, and that he never intended to use it for himself because he knows of the consequences. And yet, after everything Regina does to him, he misguidedly wanted to punish Regina for her betrayal and thinking that by him always being by her side, would do just that. Little does he realize that making this wish meant he would become even more of a slave to her and that he would forever become forced to do her bidding. He forgot all about the consequences to making wishes. The consequence of his wish, or the fruit of the poisonous tree as the title of this episode suggests. It's a brilliant twist and I really like it a lot. As for King Leopold... yes, he was a good man, a good King, and a good father, even a good husband to his first wife. However, he was kind of a lousy husband to Regina, only because he couldn't love her the way she wished for him to live her. Which I understand too, of course. He wasn't ever cruel, and I suspect he was very good to her. But he never really showed her he loved her in the way she wanted him to. However, he read her personal diary, then had her locked away within her own room. Very wrong indeed. But then... Regina also most likely left her diary out for her husband to find and hoped it would be enticing to get him to read it, so that he would come to fall into her trap she set up for him too. And I suspect that Regina also had herself locked inside her room and set everything up so that Sidney would think she became a prisoner at Leopold's command, when she most likely told the guards outside of her door to not let anyone in other than Sidney. And then... she pleads with Sidney to kill Leopold by claiming that her only chance to be free and to love Sidney, was for her to die. Until of course, Sidney foolishly suggests that the King dies instead. And sadly, Sidney falls for it. Regina is clever to give Sidney a weapon he can use to do so with from his own kingdom, the Agrabah Viper. And unfortunately, Sidney doesn't see the cleverness in her plan to use this snake until it's too late. As for Regina's motives for wanting King Leopold dead... it's all a part of her plan to make Snow White suffer for what Regina blames her for. The supposed secret Regina told Graham in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter that she couldn't keep. Plus... killing the King allows Regina to be freed from her loveless marriage and to be Queen, as well as the kingdom's rightful ruler should she succeed in destroying Snow White too. Now... I really hate seeing David and Mary Margaret having their affair, even though David isn't really married to Kathryn, and yet in their minds, as far as they and everyone else know, they are having an affair. So everything is just awkward. Honestly, I have a really difficult time with any storyline involving affairs in any show, movie, and especially affairs in real life. Needless to say... I think they're wrong and it shows that those who cheat on their loved ones don't really love them. Obviously, David is truly in love with Mary Margaret even if he doesn't understand why, and not Kathryn who he feels obligated to love, but... well, I won't continue with this train of thought. I just don't care much for this affair storyline so much because I simply just want David and Mary Margaret to be together and for Kathryn to find happiness with someone else. However, this brings me to my next thought. Under the curse... everyone is kind of the opposite of who they truly are, or at least they are too afraid to be who they truly are. The curse causes them to make mistakes that their true selves would never make. For one example... in the Enchanted Forest, Charming is known to be charming, brave, honest, and noble. And under the curse, David is for the most part quite the opposite. He means well and he tries, but he always seems to fail and fall short. That's the curse making him different from who he really is. It makes them struggle to be who they really are because they're not meant to be their true selves. And it's not just David that the curse effects this way. Mary Margaret, Kathryn, and everyone else is effected by the curse this way too. David is the character I chose to point this out about with because the actor who plays him... Josh Dallas once pointed this out in a interview he gave and I really always loved how he explained the kind of men Charming and David are. I hope all of this makes sense. Let me know if it doesn't. Just know... I may not care too much for the whole affair storyline, and yet I do understand it for this show and for these characters, given that the curse is meant to make them feel miserable at Regina's design. And I do really like this about this storyline. I hope this makes sense. As for what King Leopold says to Sidney just before he dies... he states that he never should have wished for the genie to be free. Like Sidney says to him, all wishes come at a price, like all magic does. And because Leopold frees Sidney, he later kills the King upon becoming manipulated by Regina. Hence... the consequence of King Leopold's wish. I really love this about the episode upon them bringing this back. It's very clever writing and storytelling. Next... Sidney is incredibly foolish to fall for Regina's deception and absolutely wrong to kill King Leopold for her even it he believed Regina's lies. And was Regina ever cruel and devious. But after all... she is the Evil Queen. As for her crying... I feel that perhaps a small part of her might have appreciated that Sidney felt for her the way he did and was sorry for setting him up like she did because he truly and foolishly loved her, which is why she did offer him a chance to escape so that he wouldn't be locked up or killed for his crimes. Regina's past has yet to be revealed at this point, but she's made it pretty clear that love is very scarce in her life. Now, back to the Storybrooke storyline with Emma and Henry, etc... Sadly, Emma falls for Sidney's and Regina's deceptions too, and she too pays for her mistakes. For awhile, she's lost her rights to be with Henry and it's really sad. Emma absolutely makes a mistake by allowing herself to fall down to Regina's level and it's fair for her to be penalized for her role in their deceptions. Unfortunately, Regina wins this battle because she was smart. And while it's sad and wrong that Regina had Henry's castle torn down, it was still good of Regina to build him a newer, perhaps safer place for him and the other children to play. Although... I do think that this new playground looks terrible, but c'est la vie. However, I like the idea for the design of the new playhouse because it's designed after the Evil Queen's Palace in the Enchanted Forest, as it appears in Henry's storybook. As far as the Stranger's role in this episode, no matter how brief his scenes are... I really love his interaction with Henry inside Granny's Diner and how he mysteriously keeps asking Henry questions about the storybook. I also love how Henry is also suspicious of him like Emma and Regina are. And then... in the end we discover that this Stranger is the one who finds Henry's book and now has it in his possession, not Regina like we were meant to believe. So mysterious. And lastly... I do enjoy David's and Mary Margaret's brief scene together, even if they are having an affair. It's unfortunate that their cursed memories are making them believe that they are having an affair and that Kathryn will wind up being hurt by their affair should she find out. But that's what this curse is meant to do... make everyone trapped within it miserable because they're not themselves. And Regina's loving their misery too. Overall... this is a good and solid episode. It is interesting to learn about who Sidney Glass really is and just how deep he is in with Regina within both worlds. Thank you again, so much, Jessie! As always... I enjoyed this reaction from you and I can't wait for more!! Sincerely, Heidi
Heidi Elizabeth Marcum
2021-05-23 09:24:28 +0000 UTCYes! The character development in this is amazing, I can’t believe they’ve given as much information as they have and it only being episode 11. When starting this, I was afraid it would be one of those shows that throws a bunch of questions in your face without giving any reason for relating to, and staying interested in getting to know, the characters. I need to feel something for them before I care about anything that happens to them and the writers hit the nail on the head with this season so far!
Jessie Dobbie Reactions
2021-03-04 17:38:20 +0000 UTCYes, this is probably the safest place to ask questions and avoid spoilers. They mentioned in the pilot that Mary Margaret found the book three months ago and gave it to Henry because he was lonely and depressed. She thought a book of fairy tales might teach him to have hope that things will get better. I love the fact that not only have we already seen hints of complicated backstories for many of our characters like Rumple, Regina, Emma, and "Snowing" (the contraction for Snow and Charming) that show us they have a lot of internal emotional conflicts, but this consideration of Henry's realization and how it affects his view of his mother gives us emotional complexity even for the ten year old!
Paul Fisher
2021-03-04 17:13:07 +0000 UTC
