Loved it! Agreed, there was a LOT packed into the hour, but that’s pretty typical with season premieres. There’s a lot to get done – remind returning viewers what happened last (apparently not all viewers are as rabid about every single second as us…weiiiird… 🙂 ), provide enough exposition to get new viewers interested in returning, and start a new chapter of the story. So, I think they did a good job. I have to say, I was pretty impressed with the CGI Pabbie! The snowmonster wasn’t too bad for OUAT CGI either, I thought.
I felt the interactions with Hook & Emma were completely spot on. I like that Hook is challenging Emma to deal with their new ‘status’ but knows when to back off. He didn’t come off whiny to me. He knows Emma, she acts exactly as expected but really, it’s still going to be frustrating dealing with the morning after cooldown after their fun lil game of tonsil hockey the night before! I actually really loved his response to her ‘be patient’ – once again reinforcing he’ll be there, but pointing out a monster could come kill him at any moment – almost kind of acknowledging her ‘there’s a crisis’ attempt to put things on hold.