Reply To: Season 5B: In Review

[Keb]

1) What was your favorite episode of S5B?
–Her Handsome Hero (Belle centrics almost always win for me, but also, it seemed–for one episode–to add some depth to her character, something that’s been sorely lacking in many episodes where things tend to just reset these days.)

2) What was your least favorite episode of S5B?
–Last Rites. It was stupid to kill Robin, and then bring back Hook via Deus Ex. It’s angered and saddened the fandom with no positive results, no more love for Hook than he already had, and no character development for anyone but Regina (who, granted, is doing fun things with it). Stupider was the missed opportunity to really explore the Zeus/Hades relationship and actually give Robin some plot before killing him off.

3) What did you think of Hades and the Underworld?
–Hades was brilliant (though the blue hair didn’t quite fit). I enjoyed every moment of him on screen. The writers failed to give him consistent motives, though, and that weakened the arc. They also missed some major opportunities to show why Gold didn’t like being there and compel Regina to deal with her past head-on–yes, she dealt with her parents, and that was awesome, but Peasant #917’s presence there on her account was barely nodded to. Also, more time with Pan would have been good–it felt like we didn’t get enough of his story in the Underworld, nor was Gold given any further motive to do him in completely. That took away from their farewell in Storybrooke, where Gold’s killing Pan had a beautifully ambiguous effect–now it was just hatred. Some hint as to how things had played off in the Underworld before would have helped make the final death more impactful.

4) What was your favorite and least favorite moment?
–The most magical moment I think was actually when the coins from the fountain started raining on the Charmings. So I’m going with that for favorite.
–Least favorite was Belle putting herself under the sleeping curse, because while I understood she needed maternity leave, it felt like they’d undone all the character growth of the previous episode and sacrificed the opportunity for Belle and Gold to work together to save their child, as well as the chance for Belle to get any closure on anything this season. But big second-least for killing Robin pointlessly and then bringing back Hook equally pointlessly (no, I didn’t want Hook to go away, but it hurts the story and the fandom the way it played out so far).

5) We had a lot of old favorite (and least favorite) characters return this arc; which character did you most like seeing? Who do you wish we saw?
–Cora by far stole the show whenever she was on.
–So glad we got to see more of Moe and more of Gaston.
–Wish we could have had time to really explore Pan a bit more. He came off flat, especially with most of his previous story so long ago.

6) Thing you’re most looking forward to in S6?
–The Rumbelle plot arc could be AMAZING (or awful, you never can tell with those two…the actors know how to pull off almost anything, but the writers seem clueless anymore as to how to write them).
–Also more of the steampunky Island of Forgotten Characters. They actually brought it into the show and I’m still giggling.

7) Overall grade and final thoughts on S5B?
–I give it a B. There were missed opportunities, and some awful dropped storylines, and a bit of character assassination, but overall…they managed at moments to recapture parts of the show I fell in love with, and they at least made some effort to get continuity with past events (if not magical rules consistency, which they seem to have dropped altogether). Belle had some powerful, beautiful moments, forgotten as she was half the time, and Rumbelle will always make my heart melt (he had Pandora’s box all tucked up in the passenger seat on his overcoat!). To get an A, they would have needed a better reason to bring Hook back than “just because” and actual closure to the Camelot storyline.