GENERAL: This was a really good episode and I enjoyed it a lot. I have a feeling @WickedRegal is gonna need some tissues, though. If it weren’t for all the Gothel stuff, it’d be sorta perfect because that part of this season just drags. Focusing on Henry is how it should be.
Rating: 9/10
LIKED
–My god, Jared grew up. Nostalgia time because I can still remember what an adorable little 10 year old he was.
–“Perhaps I should help the family I do have here.” <3 Rumple. Always.
–“They didn’t accept the real Henry Mills.” Okay, all season I’ve had trouble believing that Henry needs to go find his real story because that’s not how people talk or think. But this line makes it so much clearer how much of a lie Henry would have to live every single day of his life if he ever dared to step outside of the tiny Storybook hamlet.
–Henry made himself believe and broke his own curse by taking a giant leap of faith and calling his past self. “Home isn’t a place; it’s the people in it. And they will always be with you.” I actually started crying. The actors did a phenomenal job. It’s amazing that we’ve seen this boy grow up…
–Regina trying to smash Gothel’s head in with a bat is also how I feel about Gothel and her overall plan.
–Henry broke the curse by kissing Regina’s forehead. So beautiful. So full circle. So exactly what it needed to be. Henry is his mothers (both of them) son.
–Robin and Alice are the absolute best thing about this entire season. They are a ship that will live on in OUAT lore as one of its best.
–“You want to ruin me like the world ruined you; I’m not like you. I’m not an orphan or a street rat or a girl who’s lost her way….you chose hate. But I choose love.” Alice will go down as one of OUAT best single season characters. I’d give anything to have had more of her.
–Henry’s essay. I can’t. I’ve given this show so much (deserved) crap over the years but there are times that it reminds me why I’ve stuck it out. “As long as someone believes that…there will always be magic.”
MIXED
–Hey, Tiana is still a thing on this show! Such a wasted character.
–Regina digging up a grave of a very recently dead woman to get a storybook is all manner or creepy and weird.
–This episode is a love letter to RegalBeliever and it’s beautiful. But it will always feel weird that Henry is having these monumental life crises and Emma isn’t there to co-parent with Regina.
–I have no idea how I feel about Wish Rumple as the final villain. Sell it to me well, OUAT. Make me believe.
DISLIKED
–The witches are becoming trees. In an eternal grove. I mean…everything about this particular plot is dumb and weird and I wish it wasn’t happening and we could focus on the family and characters instead.
–The time travel paradoxes are insane and the show would be better if they just had everyone live in 2045-2050 and make the argument that technology didn’t advance much in 30 years. I just think it’s too complicated and full of holes.
–Suddenly this show became “Honey I Shrunk the Imp, the Captain, and the Archer.”
–Facilier’s sudden death is so unearned. We know nothing about him or what we wanted or what his connection to Regina is.