Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A- | 288 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT For Whom The Belle Tolls
By Cindy McLennan | Season 2 | Episode 11 | Aired on 2013.01.13
Granny's Diner. Snow is showing Charming a picture of a house she's interested in buying. When Charming says the yard looks small, Snow wonders if he's going to say that about every house they look at. Charming says, "I grew up on a farm." Snow knows this isn't about houses, though. Charming says, "We buried a friend this morning, Mary Margaret. It made me realize I don't want to die here." Snow says, "But our home, David -- it doesn't exist anymore. The ogres are back. Cora's in power." Charming says they must return to fight until things are right. Snow though, is tired of fighting. That's all they've ever done. In Storybrooke, they have a chance to be together. Charming asks what if they don't belong there. "Isn't it worth it to fight for what we really want?" Snow looks down and then back up at her husband. "Unless we don't want the same thing?" This gives Charming pause. We're going to cut away in a moment, but first, I need another...
Sidebar. There's been a lot of talk about how, even though they now have their memories back, the characters seem to mostly use their Storybrooke names with one another. People are split on whether or not they like this. It annoys me, but only for petty, selfish reasons. During the second season premiere, I decided to use their original names (except when I didn't, and you'll notice I keep calling Archie Archie, rather than Jiminy in this episode, probably because he's in human form), mostly so that I didn't have to remember to switch, when jumping between the two realities. Back then, it seemed to me, that since those are their original names, those are the names they should use, now that they remember themselves. Even though it soon became clear the show was taking a different approach, I decided to remain consistent. That said, I can understand why the writing team might want to use both sets of names. As Charming has told us, the characters are a mixture of "both" realities now. Also, it's probably a handy marker for the writers to give to us, the audience, to remind us when we're in one reality, versus the other. I can make sense of most of the characters using their Storybrooke names because they've been using them for the past 28 or 29 years. I cannot make sense of Charming calling any of them by their Storybrooke names because he was in a coma for 28 years. He knew them longer by their Enchanted Land names, no matter how we slice it. Similarly, I don't like Snow calling him David because he wasn't David to her for very long, and when he was David, he was a lily-livered fool. So there.