Fantasy Island Review: Welcome to the Snow Globe (Holiday Special)
On Fantasy Island‘s holiday special, “Welcome to the Snow Globe,” Christmas brings out vulnerability, with fantasies that intermingle with our characters in a way that we haven’t seen before.
It’s odd that Elena, on an island of real-life magic, doesn’t like to take part in Christmas, the most magical holiday of the year, but allowing Ruby to warm her up to it is nice to see.
In our first fantasy, a tired businesswoman comes to the island to experience Christmas in a Hallmark movie, and if you’d like to experience alcohol poisoning, take a shot every time they say “festive channel” because they didn’t get the rights to say Hallmark or Lifetime.
The fantasy is sweet, and, seriously, who wouldn’t want to be in a Hallmark movie during Christmastime, but it’s quickly overshadowed by Ruby and Gina, or Elena and James, or Mr. Jones the dog apparently being a human.
More on that later.
Festive Channel Blues
Fantasy Island then makes the grave error of giving us time with Elena and her ex-fiance James while also pushing their Elena/Javier agenda.
The truth is that Javier is boring compared to James. I don’t just mean his personality (even though…), I’m talking about Javier and Elena as a whole.
James and Elena have the chemistry Javier and Elena are craving. They have the camaraderie, the passion, the longing gazes that Fantasy Island thinks they’re giving us with Elena and Javier.
Elena spends the better half of the special thinking she did something seriously wrong; that the island is reacting and revolting because of her seeking out James for the holidays.
It’s later revealed that Elena and James actually weren’t the problem, but a man who shouldn’t have been there. It’s never relayed to Elena that this wasn’t her fault, which is upsetting because she deserves to know that.
In typical “festive channel” movie spirit, in the end, Elena must choose between the love of her life and her destiny to run the island.
There’s, at one point, a brutally awkward conversation between James and Javier where they’re both aware of each other’s feelings for Elena and they get… possessive?
It’s strange, and it definitely doesn’t look good on either man.
Regardless, Elena ends up staying on the island, because duh, and Elena, yet again, is selfless in not asking James to stay on the island with her.
Shouldn’t Elena get to be a little selfish sometimes, though? If James asked Elena to come back with him, why is it so outrageous that she does the same?
Every moment between Elena and Javier that follows Elena admitting that she belongs on the island feels stunted.
Now that we’ve seen how open and free she is with James, watching her walls go back up to maybe let Javier in feels unnecessary.
Mr. Jones’ Diary
I have a strong belief that every single television show ever should have dogs.
That being said, I never in a million years would’ve expected Fantasy Island‘s dog to actually be a human. Interesting, definitely, because Mr. Jones is a strange name for a dog, but very devastating to me personally as we lose the dog in all of this.
I have many thoughts on this particular storyline, and I’d love to start with Mia, played by Geri-Nikole Love. Mia comes to the island looking for her husband — with divorce papers — and his best friend as the reason why.
Her husband, now a dog, has been missing for a year, and in that time she’s fallen in love with his best friend.
Very quick turnaround, but alright.
Only after finding out that her new beau is actually planning to kill both of them does Mia decide she actually wants to be with Nathen. And Nathen takes her back!
That man has a lot of love in his heart to look past the fact that she showed up to the island with divorce papers in hand after only a year.
Kudos to him, truly.
The Love Doctor
Finally, Dr. Gina and Ruby stop dancing around each other and stand together.
Ruby gets Dr. Gina as a secret Santa, because of course she does, and she gives her a needle for her record player, which is practical but also laced with thought and care.
As the two share a kiss under a mistletoe, there’s promise of more to come from them, and I personally can’t wait to see how they grow with each other.
While the end of the episode is disappointing in that James goes home and we lose our dog mascot, overall, this episode connected us to these characters in ways we have never gotten to see before.
Elena and Ruby invite the audience into their found family, as they spend Christmas away from their loved ones, and Welcome to the Snow Globe ends up feeling like a warm hug rather than a ratty hand-me-down sweater.
Stray Thoughts:
- Roselyn Sanchez is amazing in this episode, channeling emotions we’re seeing for the first time from Elena, in an incredibly genuine way.
- “Can you re-dog me?” may be my favorite line from the show thus far.
- What are the rules of getting to Fantasy Island? What are the flight plans? Do you go through TSA? I just want to know how a man brought a gun onto the island without trouble.
- Ruby desperately needs to convince Elena to get another dog for the island. Writers, take note.
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What did you think of this episode of Fantasy Island? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Fantasy Island has been renewed for season two and will return in 2022.
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Laura Wanberg
Laura is a homebody who loves everything about TV. Some of her favorite shows include Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Parks and Recreation, and The Morning Show. With her ever-growing list of new shows to watch and books to read, her favorite thing to do is to cuddle up with her cat and get lost in someone else's world.