As a writer myself I can tell you it just does NOT work that way. To get to the level of detail these writers do, it takes a LOT of time to plan out such elaborate stuff (especially when we can go back and find that various background props were there all along or that a line was foreshadowing something else).
It would be great if they had everything already on paper for the entire season but last season didn’t finish all that long ago and they’ve been breaking stories as fast as they can I’m sure.
It takes a lot of prep time to figure out complicated stuff (and remember, they know a LOT more about the timeline than we do that they have to take into consideration).
Therefore they can’t just whip the scripts out or it’ll all fall apart. They HAVE to plan it with as much detail as they can and a lot of knowledge of what’s to come in the future even if it doesn’t affect the script they’re on currently just so that they don’t mess up stuff for the future.
With how much we analyze and overanalyze every little thing and have to ask them to clarify, imagine what would happen if they just didn’t bother and made it up as they went along without any idea of what was supposed to happen.
They’ve probably been plotting out the majority of the season the last couple of months and are just now getting to the specifics of how it has to happen for each episode to work.
Once you have a clear idea of where things need to end up, it’s a lot easier to figure out those little details along the way. SO much easier than trying to go back and rework everything once you come up with a brilliant idea for where it needs to end up and how much would it stink if you came up with a great idea for the ending and then had to go back and rewrite every script you wrote that summer to make it happen, instead of planning them all out in the first place and then writing them in detail closer to the deadline?
As much as I want episodes NOW, it’s a long process and they’re doing the best they can so that we can have such an awesome show that has lots of layers to it. If it were another type of show maybe they would have already, who knows, but it’s not.
Even if they had every script ready to go, you still only get the actors and the crew together for a limited time to put everything into place and you’d still only get a certain number of episodes as ordered by the network, so it doesn’t really matter all that much when the scripts get in as long as they have something to shoot off of for the first one when everyone shows back up and they’ve done that and will continue to crank out scripts in the meantime.
So please, cut them some slack. This is how TV writing works. It would be awesome if somebody presented every single script ever for a series to a network before it ever began and they could spend forever perfecting it ahead of time, but that’s not how it works with serialized stuff. It’s a credit to them that they plan out as far as they do and then go back. We’ve seen a few problems with that, but not as many if they were flying by the seat of their pants with every single script. Things are planted in episodes where we don’t even pick up on the significance until later and then realize it was there the whole time. That’s good story-telling.
/end writer rant
As for the other episodes with heart in the title, they have all been important episodes where something big has happened. I responded with the list because 1×07 was not the “last” time heart had been in the title which was the question asked. I do agree that it has a connection to this one simply because it was referring to a heart that was taken / wanted for some reason (we don’t know why PP needs Henry’s heart – control, a powerful curse, what?), but I liken it more to 1×02 The Thing You Love Most, simply because that one was, in fact, about a heart that was needed.
1×16 Heart of Darkness had stuff with Snow’s inner turmoil (something we’re bound to see again thanks to her dark spot affecting her current judgement and wanting to do things the right way from now on), and Queen of Hearts was about Cora yes, but it also had Snow & Emma fighting to get back to Henry and taught us about Emma’s magic/her heart not be able to be taken etc. – things that are bound to come up again very early on this season if not in the premiere.
As for RH – I’ll be sad if he is recast but he’s pretty much the only one that they can do that with because he didn’t get much chance to develop as a character so whoever takes on the role will give us that opportunity to get to know RH and will become that character for us. Everyone else has gotten way more character development and is kinda too late to change them. It’s sad that the scheduling didn’t work out, but it’s tough months in advance to say “yes this guy would be great for the 10 minutes we need this year but can you make sure he doesn’t work again for a few months because we might need him again but we’re not completely sure when yet.” – it just doesn’t work like that.
We’ve lost a lot of awesome background characters to other projects because they are wonderful actors and deserve to be in bigger roles and OUAT can’t tie them down for mere minutes here and there. A) Not in the budget B) Even if the budget were unlimited and they could afford to have every single character be seen and barely heard, 99% of the actors would not be satisfied with that – look at Meghan, she knew she was being backburnered and took the option to go star on another series even though she loves OUAT. The actors want to act and be seen and there simply isn’t enough time for them all to be starring and have lots of camera time.
Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.