Serial posting so I don’t cross-edit while someone else posts.
One other thing that scene does is adds extra poignancy to her first meaningful scenes with Henry being in a park. Where she explains about being without a family, nonetheless. Just when I thought Pilot couldn’t get any weightier. :/
THAT my friends is what made Once so amazing. And that, my friends, is what they’ve lost by insisting on retconning the crap out of this story.
I do wonder, of S4, what will it be about, really? The show, on the surface, was about Emma finding her way home to her family; as you dug deeper, it was about Rumple finding a way back to his son. It dovetailed as those two stories merged into one. But both of those motivating factors are gone, now; Emma is home, she knows her parents, she has her child, and Bae is dead. What becomes the driving force at the center of the show?
I wonder if that’s truly why 3B was so bad; it was a show without a central tether. 3A was still centrally about the small SF family – saving Henry, Neal’s journey to get to his family, Emma finding her identity as a lost girl. But 3B just kind of wandered without a core; kill the witch was the whole point of the show and it just rung empty. We all felt it, certainly. Is 4 likely to be better? Doubtful. Neverland wasn’t the strongest story ever, but it “felt” on track. Without that core motivation, I just question whether Once could ever even “feel” like Once again.
I’ve never, ever seen a show jump the shark in front of me like this one did at 315. And unless they do some serious retcon magic, I am not sure if it is even possible to right the ship at this point. They had the opportunities, but would not or could not take them.
Heartbroken. I’m gonna miss this show so badly.
“I’m finally walking away cause you’ll only hurt me… you’re not worthy…
I won’t let you pull me in
‘Cause I know you’re gonna win
So the war is over…
I can’t fight you anymore
I’ve never been so sure
That the war is over…”
Cause this story needs some mending & a better happy ending...