Quite the interesting finale. Mixed bag here but mostly good.
Squeaks by with a 7/10. I’m doing both parts.
Liked:
– Regina and Emma Scene in Neal’s apartment. One of the best scenes of the season. When they actually spend time with character development, it’s so good. And these two desperately needed to chat. Lana was great as always.
– Rumple going for the crystal before Belle. That’s all you need to know right there. I no longer can root for this couple. The man will never love her more than his power.
– Overall, I liked Henry in this episode. And I liked the kiss he got in the end and Emma and Regina’s reactions.
– Regina’s struggle throughout the episode was fantastic.
– Mr. Hyde. I think the actor was good. It will be interesting to see what they do with him next season, and what other untold stories they are actually going to tell.
– I love the EQ. Splitting her up allows them not to butcher Regina’s development. I just literally have no idea where they are going with this.
– Hook using his Hook to stab Hyde.
– YAY DRAGON!
– An August reference!
– Many Neal references. It was nice for Henry to continuously talk about his Dad and refer to him as such.
– Henry using his author abilities to take the crystal.
– I thought the CGI was solid for the most part and the new land was interesting.
Mixed:
– What was Rumple going to do with the sterling silver plate and that table with the markings on it and the crystal? What was his plan before Henry destroyed magic.
– So there are more story books?
– So are they going to delve into Violet’s father now? That just seemed like quite the random thing to drop on us if they weren’t going to explore it. Could Violet’s father be Lily’s dad? Could Maleficent be Lily’s mom who supposedly “died?”
– The fountain scene. Ok so this is a very powerful message from OUAT and it is very season 1. And I get what they were doing. However, it was so incredibly corny, and I’m not sure something like that works so great on the tv, but the message was clear and that part I liked. And I liked it came from Henry, who has the heart of the truest believer. Hooray for not forgetting prior plot points! But would a bunch of busy New Yorkers really stop dead in their tracks to listen to a kid next to a lion? Not convinced. But having them think it was some sort of magic show, worked.
Disliked:
– So there’s another holy grail? In a random library?
– Henry’s bi-polar behavior. So by the end, he’s back on team magic again? What about all the reasons he decided to go Rogue in the first place? Nothing has changed.
– Too many convenient plot points. Like the apprentice’s wand breaking. Of course. The holy grail being there when they needed it. And there were many more.
– Roland being raised by the Merry Men. Like what????? I know it wouldn’t work to have Regina babysitting all day and raising Roland, but come on. How on earth is this the best for the child. Robin would be rolling over in his grave if he knew Regina would just forget about Roland. And I know Regina was somewhere else so Zelena had to do it, but like I doubt she will even mention Roland going forward. He was still very cute though and the CGI of the getting sucked into the portal was cool.
– So what does this mean going forward? I thought this would be the magic vs science story line but I’m not sure it is. Like why does Mr. Hyde want to be running storybrooke? We didn’t even get his motivations. And like isn’t everyone there powerful enough to overthrow him? I just don’t see him as that big of a threat. He has no magic capabilities. He’s just really strong. I was sort of hoping the Jekyll and Hyde stuff would lead us to a bigger villain because I don’t think Mr. Hyde is big enough to carry a half season. I realize they have brought the EQ back to help, but I really hope next season is more than just a collection of misfit characters getting the arc of the week and a crazy EQ going around (not sure what her motivation really is either). After all, the EQ was only horrible because of what Snow White did. She only killed people to get to Snow White. So will the EQ just want to kill Snow and her family still? I really just don’t understand the motivations for either villain which is problematic when we are going into hiatus and have no idea where the story is going.
I’m also sick of the finale’s having nothing to do with the overarching plot of the season. They have done this like three straight times now and I’m not the biggest fan. It takes away from the season.