Season 4B In Review

[RumplesGirl]

At the end of every arc, I make this thread and pose a series of questions. It’s a nice way to have everyone weigh in on what we all liked and didn’t liked in the current story. (it also really helps with the podcast)

You all know the rules. Play along.

1) What was your favorite episode of S4B?

2) What was your least favorite episode of S4B?

3) Did you prefer S4A (Frozen) or S4B (The Queens of Darkness)?

4) Who was your favorite QoD?

5) What was your favorite plot twist?

6) What was your least favorite plot twist?

7) Overall grade for S4B and final thoughts?

 

[RumplesGirl]

1) What was your favorite episode of S4B?

Easily Operation Mongoose Part 1. That one hour felt magical and very much like the show I fell in love with so many years ago.

2) What was our least favorite episode of S4B?

Heart of Gold. This episode was cringe worthy bad, with plot holes, bad dialogue, bad story lines and highly questionable morals.

3) Did you prefer S4A (Frozen) or S4B (The Queens of Darkness)?

S4B by a long shot. Finally the show felt like it was getting back to its roots and not focusing so much on the bright and shiny Disney FanFic. It felt like we could have real conversations, like we used to, that were about fate and free will and destiny and not just “here is the plot. Discuss.”

4) Who was your favorite QoD?

Cruella, obviously. Which is weird since I was so against her being on the show in the first place. Victoria Smurfit nailed it.

5) What was your favorite plot twist?

Probably the AU. It was incredibly fun to see all the twists and turns. Also really loved Henry becoming the next Author.

6) What was your least favorite plot twist?

Zelena being alive and pregnant with Robin’s baby. Once Upon A Soap Opera. Zelena and her her pregnancy and her miraculous resurrection added nothing to this story, either the Queens of Darkness one or the Author one. It was just for OutlawQueen drama but doesn’t do anything except make Robin look bad and make the entire situation look incredibly squicky

7) Overall grade for S4B and finale thoughts?

Overall grade: B

The Queens of Darkness were a mere distraction to the real story: the Author and the role reversal of the heroes and villains. Ursula and Cruella were really just around to kill time. Mal got more screen time and more development but that was only because of her ties to Lily who, after her own centric, ended the season with a whimper and not a bang. So much for that anti-Savior idea. This season felt far more organic and natural to the series as a whole because it tried to distance itself from the villains of the arc (who were, again, not really the point of the season) and focus more on the fundamentals of good and evil. However Adam and Eddy and the show continue to get bogged down in their own shipping drama and in their need to have big shiny Tweetable moments as opposed to quiet and introspective ones. But, it was a lot better than Frozen.

 

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[WickedRegal]

1) What was your favorite episode of S4B?

I’m crossed between Sympathy For The De Vil & The Season Finale. But I guess I’ll go with the Season Finale…could it have been written a little neater, sure, but what’s done is done. And plus…Henry was the Star who actually got to do more stuff in two hours than he did this entire season!

2) What was your least favorite episode of S4B?

4×16 Best Laid Plans! Snow and Charming stealing Mal’s baby…I just…I still can’t! Then again, I don’t know who to blame…Snowing or the Author!

3) Did you prefer S4A (Frozen) or S4B (The Queens of Darkness)?

I’m stuck here….I loved Ingrid a lot back in 4A, but I loved Cruella in 4B too! So I guess it’s a tie.

4) Who was your favorite QoD?

Cruella! I loved Cruella….and I don’t know whose more peeved off that she’s buried in a pine box, me or her. This woman lived for diamonds and furs…at least bedazzle the blasted thing for her!!!!!

5) What was your favorite plot twist?

Cruella actually being psychotic in the mind…her happy ending was killing people! There hasn’t been a shocker like that on Once in at least two seasons!! Victoria Smurfit slayed this role like no one’s business!

6) What was your least favorite plot twist?

So many this time around.

Zelena being pregnant….I was fine with Marian being Zelena, but making her pregnant just seemed unnecessary to me. And if she had to be, why make it with Robin Hood?? And also the fact that Regina can’t get pregnant…why make her infertile, just felt that was a slap in the face to OutlawQueen fandom….And killing Cruella….ugh! I shipped Authella and I loved Cruella…why’d she have to go down!

I got my wish….Zelena’s alive, OutlawQueen reunited, and WickedSisters lives…but it came at a very high price to pay. Moral of the story…be careful what you wish for Oncers!

7) Overall grade for S4B and final thoughts?

8.0/B-

It could’ve been written neater, cleaner, and far more interesting….but alas, we are where we are! Season 4B was a nice ride….overhyped as h—, but a nice ride nonetheless! Let’s hope Season 5 is better! 🙂

"If you go as far as you can see...you will then see enough to go even further." - Finn Balor

[MatthewPaul]

1) What was your favorite episode of S4B?
: “Operation Mongoose Parts 1 and 2.” I feel like I have to include both parts together, because they were meant to be one large story watched in one sitting. It was the most exciting of the episodes. I really enjoyed seeing Isaac further developed as an author with a God complex, seeing the Alternate Reality with the roles switched, and seeing Henry actively involved in the story.

2) What was your least favorite episode of S4B?
: “Enter the Dragon.” This was was just so clunky. There were several plot holes and inconsistencies with the flashback, and it overall just felt like a let down. We were waiting for the Maleficent and Aurora story since forever, and this was how they delivered it to us? The present day Storybrooke scenes just came across as just dumb. So the Queens of Darkness are a group of sorority girls? Oh, and trains exist in Storybrooke, apparently!

3) Did you prefer S4A (Frozen) or S4B (The Queens of Darkness)?
: Unpopular opinion, but I think I have to side with 4A. As much as many slam the Frozen arc for coming across as money grubbing, I felt it was still more cohesive compared to the Queens of Darkness arc. I enjoyed the Frozen characters and their involvement in the show. One of the bigger weaknesses for the Queens of Darkness arc was that they completely underutilized the trio of villains. I get it, the Author (Isaac) was who the arc was really all about, but still. We got three of the most iconic Disney villains ever, and that was all they could do with them? Another thing that brought the Queens of Darkness arc down for me was the twist involving Snow and Charming. It came out of nowhere, and it contradicts with what has previously been established on the show. In particular, their secret never came out during the Echo Cave scene back in Season 3. I also couldn’t stand seeing Snow and Charming act so shady just to prevent Emma from learning what they did. This plot twist really felt like character assassination for the two characters.

4) Who was your favorite QoD?
: Cruella De Vil. Victoria Smurfit really sold the role, and it’s a shame we couldn’t get more of her.

5) What was your favorite plot twist?
: What WickedRegal mentioned about how it turned out that it was Cruella who killed the three husbands, not her mother. This was a twist none of us saw coming, and it just felt so good to get something unpredictable for a change.

6) What was your least favorite plot twist?
: Zelena being pregnant after sexing it up with Robin Hood while pretending to be Marian. I actually didn’t mind the twist that she survived, went back in time and masqueraded as Marian. This actually could have been their way out of this Outlaw Queen mess, but instead they took it one step further in a way nobody dared to think they would. The most controversial aspect to this plot twist is that technically she raped Robin Hood, since he would not have consented to sleeping with her had he known.

7) Overall grade for S4B and final thoughts?
: Considering I gave 4A an 8/10, I guess logically it would make sense to give 4B an 7/10. I still liked both better than 3B.

[Keb]

1) What was your favorite episode of S4B?
Darkness on the Edge of Town or Operation Mongoose Part 2…hard to choose. I loved watching Rumple maneuver without his magic at the start, and I loved how Team Charming (INCLUDING BELLE) handled things with Chernabog and the hat.

Operation Mongoose overall was pretty good, but the most epic moments were the swordfight with Rumple, Emma, and Henry, and the tiny bits of Rumbelle fluff we got. Not quite enough to make up for the angst of the rest of the season, but I really enjoyed those moments and felt more captivated by this second half of the finale.

By itself, Poor Unfortunate Soul stands out…that episode felt magical to me even if I wish that it could have had a) more Belle and b) more Ariel.

2) What was your least favorite episode of S4B?
Lily. I didn’t enjoy Emma turning on her former best friend, wasn’t a big fan of the backstory (though it was well-performed by the younger actors), and really disliked the Zelena pregnancy reveal. Just left a bad taste in my mouth at the end of that episode…even with the beautiful Rumbelle moments and Will finally having something to do for two seconds. This ep reminded me a lot of In the Name of the Brother on how I felt after watching it…there were moments I loved but the rest was painful to watch.

3) Did you prefer S4A (Frozen) or S4B (The Queens of Darkness)?
S4A. It was frustrating as heck from a Rumbelle PoV but at least Belle occasionally got to have a role to play. And I loved the Frozen cameos–and the fact that they were present throughout the arc, rather than dropping off like flies the way important characters did in the second half of S2.

4) Who was your favorite QoD?
Tough one…I loved having Mal back but wasn’t the biggest fan of the Lily storyline, and Cruella won me over by being incredibly entertaining to watch against all my expectations; I loved Ursula’s episode but she was also a bit of a let down as far as actual relevance to the storyline. If I have to pick…I’ll go with Mal in the hope that there is more to come on her backstories with Regina, Aurora, and Robin Hood.

5) What was your favorite plot twist?
Honestly, frustrating as it was to see Ursula leave so soon, her getting her happy ending by making a good choice. It was refreshing and made that episode feel a little more like things we saw in S1–where Emma was bringing back happy endings even if she didn’t believe yet.

6) What was your least favorite plot twist?
Emma killing Cruella. It made sense but in the end it didn’t even matter. It mattered for all of 2.5 seconds when she said it was fine to kill Lily since she was already a murderer. That’s IT.

And Zelena’s pregnancy. I thought they were going to try to make OQ palatable and they made it worse. Just…eugh.

7) Overall grade for S4B and final thoughts?
C-. Some of the episodes left a really bad taste in my mouth and there were a lot fewer of those magical moments that Once sometimes gives us. Also, Will was completely wasted this season, and Belle, who could easily have been SO SO relevant (I mean, when Chernabog was loose, she was part of the team…and then once she lost the dagger Team Charming just…forgot she existed), kept getting entirely forgotten. For entire episodes. The finale where she was hyped as being, you know, present, served up an entire hour of No Belle, and and maybe two whole minutes of her actually mattering to the storyline. There were things we were promised, either explicitly or implicitly, that A&E completely failed to deliver, and retcons that hurt to watch (Aurora’s story stands out here, but also Snow and Charming’s thing with Lily felt retconny the way it was done, even accounting for the author’s influence on events).

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[MatthewPaul]

Also, Will was completely wasted this season

Man, I should have mentioned this in my post, but he’s been so underused I sometimes forget he was even a part of this Season. The most frustrating thing for me is that we had an entire Season of Will being in Storybrooke, and they still never got around to answering why he’s back in Storybrooke in the first place and what happened to Anastasia. If Anastasia is dead, just let Will spit it out already. However, the fact that they won’t just say that she’s dead does give me hope that she really isn’t. Maybe they did run into a snag with his storyline, regarding Emma Rigby’s availability. ScarletBeauty was also one of the most pointless plotlines ever. It was purely an obstacle for Rumbelle, and not treated as a serious relationship in the slightest. We barely saw them interact when they were a couple, and we never even saw how they ended up together.

[RumplesGirl]

We barely saw them interact when they were a couple, and we never even saw how they ended up together.

I thought we were supposed to hear how ScarlettBeauty got together? Am I misremembering an interview? At any rate I agree: Will was so utterly pointless. He never should have been brought over in the first place, especially since it turns out: no Jafar in 5A!

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[MatthewPaul]

especially since it turns out: no Jafar in 5A!

Are you completely shocked that it doesn’t look like we’re getting a corporate tie-in for 5A? It does look like we’re finally getting Camelot, and to my knowledge there’s no Camelot/King Arthur movie coming out this year. Certainly not one by Disney, at any rate. There’s not even a re-release of The Sword in the Stone planned for this year, which already got one 2 years ago, and since it’s not in Disney’s Diamond Edition line, it wasn’t given much attention. It’s ironic that we were predicting Camelot for Season 4 last year when Season 3 was coming to a close, so we were off by one year. That’s not to say we still can’t get Jafar for 5B. Aladdin Diamond Edition would still have only been out for a few months, so not too late to tie-in with it. Plus, we could still get Aladdin in 5A for just an episode or two like they did with Ariel in Season 3.

[disqus_bcr0sanawk]

 

1) Sympathy for the DeVil. I know lots of people will disagree, but I found the back story of Cruella to be rather refreshing. There was a meme I saw not to long ago that stated that on OUAT “Villains were just victims, whose story has not been told.” The title and trailer for the episode sure made it seem like Cruella’s story was going to follow this trope of “the good person turned dark by life.” As we all know, however, Cruella really did not deserve much sympathy. The episode added a good dose of realism by introducing the notion that sometimes evil cannot be explained by a bad childhood, lost love, etc. The complex villains of the show are great, but I found it really unrealistic that they all happened to be “victims.” This episode challenged that notion and really caught me off guard.

 

2) Poor Unfortunate Soul. I found this episode disappointing for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, it came off as very forced and rushed. I am not sure if Merrin Dungey had other obligations, but it was obvious to me that the episode was a vehicle to try and write Dungey’s character out of the show as quickly as possible. Also, I did not like the revelation that Ursula wasn’t in fact Ursula, the Disney villainess, but rather a mermaid who gave herself tentacles. This made the whole character of Ursula irrelevant to me. I’m sure the writers could have found a better way to reveal Gold’s endgame. As it stands, Ursula (and this episode) just seem largely unnecessary.

 

3) S4A. I understand the dislike of the Frozen characters, but S4A was much more coherent and had a clear purpose for the majority of the characters. S4B meandered way too much and really did not seem to have any idea where it was going. A lot of the plot points and new characters ultimately seemed unnecessary (see above.) The new characters that remained (Lily for example) were not built enough for me to really care about them. The whole “search for Lily’s father” angle that seems that will be carried over to season 5 just gets a huge “meh” out of me. I think in the case of  Lily, it would have been better to explore that whole “a villain is a victim” angle. I would be much more sympathetic to her plight and her search for her daddy if I had seen some of the way she suffered outside of Emma’s presence. S4B had a lot of messy buildup for ultimately very little payoff while S4A had a tremendous amount of payoff.

 

4) Cruella hands down. Maleficent and Urusla were a tremendous bore for me. Cruella, however, was a riot. She was fierce, witty, and just plain fun. Her zingers had me laughing out loud and her evil acts really impacted me especially since the majority of them did not involve magic. I loved every second she was on screen.

 

5) It’s a tie between Emma’s fate at the end of Operation Mongoose and the revelation about Cruella.

6) The alternate reality of Heroes and Villains. It came off as very gimmicky. Also Gennifer Goodwin trying to be evil? Blech! No thank you.

7) Overall grade B. Could easily have been C or D had it not been for the great cliffhanger regarding Emma.

[RumplesGirl]

Are you completely shocked that it doesn’t look like we’re getting a corporate tie-in for 5A? It does look like we’re finally getting Camelot, and to my knowledge there’s no Camelot/King Arthur movie coming out this year.

Incredibly shocked. And yeah, I couldn’t find anything Camelot-y either.

 

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Author]

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