Once Upon A Time "That Still Small Voice" Review

First and foremost, Once Upon a Time needs to quit hiring child actors. If they insist on writing major roles for children, I'd advise the casting director to fly over to the United Kingdom and find child actors there. The real talent is miles and miles across the Atlantic. I open this review of "That Still Small Voice" because the two child actors used in the episode essentially destroyed the episode. I won't write seven paragraphs of criticism about the two actors because that'd be cruel. Instead, just trust me when I write that most children cannot handle loaded and emotional scenes.

Once Upon a Time continued their reinvention and reimaginging of classic fairy tales. Jimminy Cricket was the central character of the events in "That Still Small Voice." The title refers to him--someone who lived his entire life with a voice as faint and small as one of the characters in Honey I Shrunk The Kids when they're yelling at Rick Morani, who looms above them. Cricket admired actual crickets from a young age. For him, the creatures represented everything good and wholesome about humanity and life. His parents, Martin and Myrna, laughed in the face of their son. Myrna believed crickets were noisy and annoying creatures whereas Martin cared so little that he didn't bother commenting on his son's love for them. The elder Crickets believed in one thing--theft. The Cricket family wandered around the fairy tale world as traveling puppeteers. Jimminy stole from the audience as the puppet show thrilled and wowed the assembled audience; however, even as a boy, Jimminy felt wrong about stealing from people. The young boy's conscience always got the best of him; his parents treated his conflicted feelings like they treated their paying audience.

Jimminy's fatal flaw was an inability to reconcile in his conscience with his small voice. In other words, he didn't believe in himself enough to stand up to his parents and carve out a new life for himself. Each time he offered a dissenting opinion, he immediately retreated when met with laughter or disrespect. Unable to muster the strength or will himself, he went to Rumplestiltskin. Of all the people in the world, Jimminy resorted to a guy whose breath (I can only imagine) smells like ten year old spoiled milk, and in certain lighting resembles a rotting corpse. Anyway, Jimminy paid a fee for some of Rumplestiltskin's magic. The magic came in a tiny bottle. Rumplestiltskin explained that the liquid in the bottle would free Jimminy from his miserable life. The plan blew up, though, and Jimminy accidentally caused a husband and wife/father and mother's transformation into dolls. The event horrified him, even more so once he learned that a small boy would be without his mother and father.

The Storybrooke narrative paralleled the fairy tale world. Jimminy lacked the strength and will power to stand up to the queen; Jimminy tried to destroy Henry's illusion about fairy tale world after he was threatened by the mayor; Jimminy needed to hear someone tell him what he needs to do to find happiness, contentment and enlightenment. Jimminy told a fairy (or faery) that he needed to redeem himself because the couple's child needed someone to lead him through life, to help him make good decisions, to make him feel less alone. It just so happened that Henry needed the same things--someone who believed and shared in his belief as much as he did. Jimminy and Henry provided what the other needed while they waited for rescue in a collapsed mine. Henry told his therapist to use his voice; Jimminy told Henry that he DOES believe in Henry's imagination. And then they were rescued and all was well.

I didn't like "That Still Small Voice." I thought Jimminy's arc was too thin for an A story. The mine collapse didn't mean a damn thing--just a plot device to force two characters into a space where they were, literally, the only ones who could help the other. The behaviors of certain characters in Storybrooke don't quite track. For instance, Regina and Mr. Gold behave in ways their other selves would, but the curse should've wiped everyone's memory clean. Of course, I think both villains know more than the audience thinks they do. Two smart and evil villains won't enter a new world without some grip on the old one. The ending suggested this much, at least. I'm annoyed the writers force the audience to watch tedious scenes between Regia and Emma or Mr. Gold and anyone else as if we're supposed to buy both villains suffer from curse amnesia.

The ensemble hasn't been handled very well. Snow White and Prince Charming were in their own separate show this week. The destined-to-be-together characters walked the grounds of the hospital, felt attracted to one another, buried the attraction, and were interrupted by actual wife of Charming every now and again.

Regina and Emma weren't involved in anything new. Regina still despises Emma. They were forced to work together to save Henry. Regina continued to despise Emma after Henry's rescue. Emma was involved in an interesting development when separated from Regina--the revelation that things keep changing the more time she spends in Storybrooke. Indeed, Henry correctly predicted that fairy tale world exists at the bottom of the mine. None of the characters saw the other land. In time, the wall will shatter and the series will end. Of course, the series won't end. I won't be surprised if the worlds meet during spring sweeps. I don't know how the series will continue into seasons two and three. It's still early, though.

There were more LOST references tonight (Apollo candy bar, hole in the ground with something important in the ground, mine collapse). I was foolish to state Kitsis and Horowitz weren't making LOST with fairy tale characters because the writing team clearly wants Once Upon a Time to be LOST. The two narratives are essentially a slightly tweaked version of the sideways world. The character study format of each episode is straight out of season 1 of LOST. It's not working. They need to stop referencing their old series because OUAT looks worse in comparison.

Jane Espenson wrote the episode. Espenson's a veteran of the Whedonverse. She wrote great episodes of Buffy which were funny and moving. I felt Espenson's pen throughout every Harry Groener scene. I enjoyed that. LOST veteran Paul Edwards wrote the episode.

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