Fruit of the Poisonous Tree Questions

[chloris.livejournal.com]

As with the last episode, I have some questions to ponder for Fruit of the Poisonous Tree.

1. I'm going to start with one that I'll probably just have to hand wave since the answer is 'just because.' But how did the lamp continue granting wishes when the Genie was freed? If the lamp can grant wishes all by itself why does it even need a genie? Yes, I know I'm over thinking but it bugged me.

2. When do you think Regina started playing the Genie? She seemed so genuinely sad in the party scene when I was watching the first time but now I think she started in on him, trying to gain his sympathy, right from the moment they were introduced.

3. Connectedly, was she EVER a prisoner? That seems so out of character from what we were shown of the king and all we have is her and her father's word on it. We know daddy will do whatever Regina wants no matter what and lying for her is likely to be something he does frequently.

4. One more thing about Regina, in Fairy Tale land she has the BEST clothing. Everything she wore in this episode was flawless. She must find the sartorial choices in Storybrooke to be quite dull in comparison.

5. What was Mr. Gold's angle this week? He shows up to sell some land in the middle of the night and didn't ask questions? (Though I'm perfectly willing to believe that he already knew the answers so didn't need to ask.) Also, he seriously wants her to ally with him, or at least talk to him before acting.

6. I think Emma should at least seriously consider his offer and a wary alliance with him does make sense. The fact that she doesn't trust him is a bonus in this case considering where trusting Sidney got her.

7. And about that: where is her truth detecting power this week? It seems a very writer-dependent power that only shows up when she needs it for the plot. Or did Sidney never quite lie to her? Maybe he always stopped at half-truths but then why wouldn't he lie? He doesn't know about her power. Gold I completely understand not lying as he manipulated her in Desperate Souls. Rumpel/Gold DOESN'T lie - he either can't or he chooses not to but he has never said anything untrue in any scene he has been in.

8. Or maybe, and this is probably a vain hope, Emma knew he was lying and has a plan of her own. I don't know about that though since she has been shown to be very straight forward in her dealings around town. She doesn't tend to plot. She tends to get a chainsaw and lop off tree limbs.

9. 50,000 for a luxury house? Where? I'd like to see that! Or maybe 50,000 for the land (out of town funds) and then Emma was hoping to uncover other misappropriations for the actual house? To be honest I had trouble watching the confrontation scene so I might have missed something. (I spent it cringing while waiting for Emma to finish making a fool of herself.)

10. The Stranger has the book. And, damn, if he didn't look very excited about getting his hands on it. The questions are how he even knew it existed and what is he going to do with it? I hope they don't draw out the mystery too much longer. If you leave questions too long it becomes impossible for the answers to be truly satisfying since everyone will be attached to their own pet theory and most people are going to end up disappointed.

And I think that's enough from me for this episode.

Comments

[dj-rocca.livejournal.com]

Basically with the Genie wishes, the king gave him one last wish which I guess the lamp itself would grant since the Genie was free.

I didn't think she was playing him until she pulled out the snakes and she didn't kiss him in joy after he was like "I killed your hubby". I was like YOU BITCH. Because I wanted to believe she could love him and not play him like everyone else!

Emma's talent of "truth telling" or whatever does depend on the writers. The writers are fluxing with so manythings (and the timeline itself) that I'm just shaking my head.

[chloris.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the lamp can grant the wishes so why do we need the genie in the first place? Tradition? :D

I don't think writers should give a character a power unless they are willing to follow through and be consistent about it! It just seems sloppy otherwise.

[chloris.livejournal.com]

It's just in most stories the genie has the power and he's the one who twists the wishes around on the wisher. Here I guess it's just an unusual living arrangement. And maybe the guy with the rules. *scratches head*

[bloodysuicide69.livejournal.com]

Maybe he's not the one that twists it to end badly. That's just the way it happens, because your messing with fate and what is "meant" to be. Stuff like that.

I know in past stories he was the one twisting it around, but this is the take I think they are going to do.

In the animated Aladdin though.... he was good. And I know the whole "free the genie" thing was all from disney's aladdin. Even the cuffs coming off.

[litlover12.livejournal.com]

Regina may have lied to her dad as well. He may have genuinely thought she'd been locked up.

[chloris.livejournal.com]

Maybe! But he seems completely wrapped around her finger to me so I wouldn't be surprised if he were in on it.

[kanjo-girl.livejournal.com]

I honestly wanted her to love the Genie at least a little bit. Because he showed her such kindness. I really don't get Regina's character, save for the fact that she might truly be evil. I wish I could understand it better.

Damn, Mr. Gold seems to know everything. I'm pretty sure he knows Sidney wouldn't betray Regina so he's offering alliance with Emma, which she should start considering.

I think The Stranger wrote the book. Or at least it comes from his childhood.

My crack theory is he's actually Rumple's son. But that's a huge stretch.

And good lord, would it kill for them to have more POC's in this show? Maybe they could bring in Aladdin or something?

[dj-rocca.livejournal.com]

Hear hear! We'll get Billy in the next episode...but who knows how long we'll see him for.

[kanjo-girl.livejournal.com]

.:facepalm:. I know, right? I love this show but I fear for their portrayal of POC's. Like, the fairy god mother was killed after her two-second appearance. And Sidney is a pawn to Regina, helplessly in love with her.

But I will hold on to hope.

[dj-rocca.livejournal.com]

I know! So far Billy's kinda...disappointing too. All he's done is dropped off Ruby's car. Brought the tow truck to the mine. Moved some rocks and drank with Ruby.

That's it. He didn't even USE the tow truck to get the grate off the air shaft, Ruby did.

[kanjo-girl.livejournal.com]

Yes! Exactly! I was so fully prepared to ship Ruby and Billy too. So far, I am a disappointed shipper, just sayin. Billy's freaking adorable too, I don't understand why he doesn't get much screen time. At all.

At the most, he's probably gotten two minutes of screen time altogether, tbh.

[chloris.livejournal.com]

At the very least Emma could use him as an information source! She really needs one to navigate the undercurrents in town. Right now she's blundering about and not even seeing the trap doors and hidden passages.

I agree about more POC's! It such a white show. We have Regina and Sidney so far but not much else.

[bloodysuicide69.livejournal.com]

Remember though, if you imagine the timeline. She was always after the king. If you go back to the episode where Graham dies. You see that Sidney is already in the magic mirror. And the funeral for the king is going on. So it can't be that much later than what we saw in this episode. Meaning that Snow had to have already done that "evil thing" she did to The Evil Queen. "take all her happiness" and what not. So we have yet to see that play out. So as far as we know, the EQ was wholly evil until before that moment when Snow denies her, her happiness.

Right??

[babbss.livejournal.com]

That makes a lot of sense. If Snow told her father the EQ's secret maybe that's why he's been acting so cold towards her in the recent episode. The EQ and the King could have very well loved each other but Snow telling him the secret damaged their relationship.

[bloodysuicide69.livejournal.com]

When the season comes out on DVD i'm going to watch the episodes in order of FT timeline!!

[dragoon811.livejournal.com]

I'm operating under the thought that the Stranger is a Grimm.

And I'm with you on the 50 grand, that bothered me, too! And the lying "super power". Urgh. -.-;

And I love seeing what Rumplegold gets up to, myself. So excited for next week!! (well..the 12th lol)

[chloris.livejournal.com]

Yes, Snow White's stepmother is Regina. But that's not why she hates her. As far as we know right now Regina married Snow's father for revenge over a lost love who we have yet to meet.

What I think is that Regina was never locked up by anyone and that Regina's father lied to the Genie about her being locked up. Probably to gain the Genie's sympathy.

[chloris.livejournal.com]

So excited for next week!!

Me too!!! \o/ Damn Super Bowl making us wait.

[dragoon811.livejournal.com]

Love the icon Rumple's my favorite character, I positively LOVE watching him! (he's so naughty. I adore him!!)

[chloris.livejournal.com]

I have LOTS of Rumpel icons! I keep making new ones. :D

[dragoon811.livejournal.com]

<3

[bloodysuicide69.livejournal.com]

I've been toying with the idea that the Stranger is a Grimm brother too. Maybe that makes him neutral in the plot or even neutral-good. :)

[dragoon811.livejournal.com]

Maybe just plain chaotic good... the queen views him as a threat, but he doesn't seem instantly evil or malicious, either. Can't wait for them to show us more :)

[maddarilke.livejournal.com]

It's important to remember that Emma doesn't realize that Sydney is playing a double agent, that he's really STILL working for Regina. Which makes Emma's lie-detecting abilities even more wavery.

I'd like to see her allied with Gold for selfish reasons, although from the looks of next week's episode, I'm not sure that an alliance with him wouldn't be an extremely dangerous proposition in itself.

But I'd still love it. Mr. Gold needs a friend (or more). :)

[rumpelgold.livejournal.com]

^ This <3

[chloris.livejournal.com]

I do still hold out some hope that there is going to be a twist. Sidney as a triple agent. Emma not as fooled as we think. But I am prepared for the probability that it is all as it seems and her lie detecting is nothing more than an occasionally convenient plot device.

Being too close to Gold is definitely dangerous (and I thought that from the beginning - everyone isn't going to be afraid of him for no reason), but I'd love to see a wary alliance between them. At the very least it would lead to more Emma/Gold scenes and that would be of the good. :D

[idle-curiosity.livejournal.com]

2) I get the feeling that Regina's been playing the part of the sad and neglected wife long before the genie arrived on the scene. Even with Snow, after her father's death, she played the grieving, misunderstood and neglected wife who somehow never managed to gain her husband's affections. And all the while, she's scheming. I get the feeling she married the king out of revenge for whatever Snow did to her, and was biding her time until the right useful tool came along.

4) She has the most awesome wardrobe.

10) Still on my pet theory that The Stranger is a reincarnation of Graham, lol. Nothing so far disabuses me of the notion. If he is Graham, he would already know about the book, because Henry showed it to him. And you get the feeling that he's been following Henry, so he could have seen Henry burying the box, and took it before the castle was demolished. He uses bolt cutters to open it (nice collection of tools he's got) and viola! There it is.

[chloris.livejournal.com]

2. I agree with that! She's been playing her part just waiting for someone to fall into her trap.

10. We'll have to see when they reveal his name. *g* And whether he has a fairytale alter ego or not.

Yeah, the tool collection. Where did he get that? We saw him come into town and he didn't have much with him. Maybe he had things shipped to himself?

[sparkythegeek.livejournal.com]

I'm hoping/figuring that Emma is playing some deeper game by aligning herself with Sidney and risking foolishness at the town council meeting like that. Not that I'm super pro-Emma, but I just hope she's smarter than that.

[bloodysuicide69.livejournal.com]

The whole Sidney double agent thing, really put a bad taste in my mouth. When is Emma gonna catch a break? I'd like one episode to put Regina on the bottom, trying to figure things out for once!

I should have seen it coming though, with everything the FT world was depicting of him. He fell in love, and with that.... gave himself whole heartedly to the EQ who wanted nothing to do with him except use him for all he's worth. :\ Poor Genie.

[chloris.livejournal.com]

I don't know. It seems as though a lot of the episodes have featured Regina looking shocked or annoyed and issuing empty threats that Emma has completely ignored. She didn't get Emma out of town or away from Henry or even away from the sheriff's office. It's as though Emma's stubbornness completely perplexes her. However, thinking about it, the only time we've seen Regina wholly outmaneuvered was in the sheriff's race and that was when Gold was involved.

[bloodysuicide69.livejournal.com]

Yea, her stubbornness keeps her around. Also Regina can't understand why she's not "scared" or "submissive" to her.

I wonder if Regina what Regina will do when she finds out Emma is the curse breaker. Probably stop at nothing to just flat out kill her!

And I'm still wondering what Henry's place is in all of this.

[rumpelgold.livejournal.com]

Can I bluntly say how happy I am that finally someone else says Mr Gold has never lied.

Somehow I keep reading in fanfiction and blogs how he tells one lie after another to manipulate while truly he never has 8') Thank you for listing it among your points <3

[chloris.livejournal.com]

He really hasn't. I've paid a great deal of attention to his scenes *cough* and he never outright lies though he may shade the truth or leave things out. Also, he's very straight about the limits to his power and that there will be a price for his help. And that everyone who deals with him has a choice. They can walk away but they choose to deal instead.

I'm of the opinion that it's part of his curse. Just as any curse can be broken (and that makes me wonder how much time he has spent finding the flaw in his own curse), it seems like there needs to be a way to balance his power. The fact that he can manipulate people into doing exactly what he wants while also never lying to them - and even clearly warning them - makes him so much more interesting!

[rumpelgold.livejournal.com]

Exactly 8)

But with all he's doing it is rather plausible that he wants the curse to be undone. In the scene with the queen he says "it's the curse to end all other curses", having her use it ends other curses including the one that has been cast on him (which could give him time to set things straight before they're send back to fairy tale world). He regretted taking on the Dark One's powers. If anything I think he's playing everyone to get rid of the curse and to get rid of the darkness. 8)

At least, I like to think that's why he is behind everything. He probably has a motive that now makes him look bad but in the end might reveal he's doing things for a greater good, or to become a better person himself.

I love your icon btw 8)

[ouronlylight.livejournal.com]

1. The way I viewed it was that being granted his freedom didn't stop the genie from being a genie. In Aladdin, after Genie was freed, he still possessed magical powers and could grant wishes (or anything at all) if he so desired; he just wasn't bound to do so. Since Leopold had already been offered the three wishes, the genie had to finish granting them, but otherwise he was free to kind of do his own thing.

2. I think that Regina marked the genie as an easy target the moment that he laid eyes on her and started making head-over-heels-in-love faces at her. I DO think that she may have been genuinely sad at the party, because Leopold does not seem to have been the most attentive husband, but I think that she used her dismay to her advantage. I also tend to think that Regina did feel sad about backstabbing the genie, but she wanted Leopold dead too much to feel too bad to do it.

3. I tend to think that Regina was a prisoner, although I know that many disagree with me. The way that I see it, Leopold was a very generous and benevolent ruler, but he always resented Regina for not being his first wife, whom he'd loved so much, and tended to see her more as a possession of status than an actual human being worthy of happiness.

4. Queen!Regina has the most FABULOUS outfits, there is no denying it. Her gowns of Secret Evil are just stunning (that blue gown plus her hair when she was talking to the genie was gorgeous), and her over-the-top outfits of Obvious Evil are just too awesome for words. (I want her jaunty sideways hat SO BADLY, OMG.) <3