Season 6A: In Review

[MatthewPaul]

1) What was your favorite episode of S6A? Runner up?

Favorite episode was definitely “Heartless”. It was a good classic return to form with Snow and Charming. My biggest fear coming into this episode was that they would retcon Snow and Charming’s first meeting by having them meet earlier, and they would forget cause of some form of amnesia. Thankfully that wasn’t the case. They did sorta meet, but it was done in a cute and creative way that didn’t undermine “Snow Falls”. The new twist with the sleeping curse at the end of the episode was unexpected and clever, which was refreshing to see.

The runner up would be “The Other Shoe”. I know, there’s the big Anastasia sized elephant in the room, but I still really enjoyed the episode despite that. It was nice to see more of the Cinderella tale that we missed out on in “The Price of Gold”, and I liked Ella better in this episode. Lady Tremaine was also a lot of fun, and very well cast and acted.

2) What was your least favorite episode of S6A? Runner up?

It would probably have to be “Wish You Were Here”. The Wish Realm and how it worked drove me bonkers, and distracted me. I disliked how the Wish Realm Emma was a complete pushover with no backbone, and having Regina kill off Wish Realm Snow and Charming really left a bad taste in my mouth. For a Winter Finale it also felt too slow, as if its only purpose was to build up the second half of the Season. We’ve had good Winter Finales even before Season 3. Both “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” and “Queen of Hearts” were fantastic.

Runner up would be “Changelings”, mainly for continuing to take things too far with Rumbelle’s relationship. The flashback was also lackluster, aside from the Black Fairy reveal.

3) We had a lot of new characters crop up this year. Who was your favorite and who was your least favorite?

Favorite new character was Jasmine. I’m a huge Karen David fan due to her work on Galavant, and I thought she did a pretty good job with what she was given. I want to see her fleshed out more, but I still liked her. I would have said Hyde, but technically he appeared in the last two episodes of Season 5, so I don’t think he counts as a new character for Season 6.

Least favorite new character was the Oracle. She was bland and just there to give exposition. She was especially useless, when it turned out that she wasn’t Jafar in disguise. Seriously, the end scene with her in “Strange Case” felt like it was setting her up for some sort of involved role in the next episode, but instead the Evil Queen kills her offscreen within the first few minutes. It doesn’t help that the actress was pretty wooden.

4) What storyline fascinated you the most? And which one frustrated you the most?

I was fascinated the most with exploring Savior mythology, but like RG mentioned, it’s moving very slowly. I was frustrated the most with the Rumbelle storyline, and the choice to have Rumple have an affair with the Evil Queen. Just when I kept thinking “they can’t make Rumbelle any worse than it already is”, the writers find a way to do so anyway. The worst part is I believe that they do ultimately plan to get them back together, but making it justified and believable is quite the tall order.

5) What do you hope to see more of in S6B?

Pretty much I want to see all of the setup storylines this Season wrapped up and not left to the wayside. These include the Savior storyline, the Black Fairy and Gideon storyline, the Agrabah/Jafar storyline with Aladdin and Jasmine, the potential Dragon/Lily storyline, more Untold Stories and more about the Land of Untold Stories itself, and the Charming’s father murder storyline.

6) Final grade and thoughts on S6A?

I guess I would give it around a C+. Not as bad as 5A, which seems to be universally disliked, but a downgrade from 5B, which I mostly enjoyed. The biggest problem with this Season so far is that it’s too slow and wants to do too much at once. We have the Evil Queen, the Savior stuff, the Aladdin and Jasmine stuff, the Untold Stories stuff, the Gideon and Black Fairy stuff, the Charming’s father stuff, and possibly more. I think this is the opposite problem compared to the Split-Seasons of Seasons 3-5. The Split-Seasons had clear central themes, but often felt rushed. That being said, I am curious to see what 6B does and how it ties together with 6A.

How would have changed this season? What would you have written instead (even if you loved most of this arc, what would you have done?)

Here are a few basic ideas I had in mind:

1) Hyde wouldn’t have been killed off so quickly. He’s a joy to have around, and the Season 5 finale was seemingly building up to a larger role for him. Hyde was supposed to rule Storybrooke, but he gets locked up as early as the premiere, and is killed off in only 4 episodes. I would have continued having Hyde and the Evil Queen as a power couple, and perhaps even developed a romantic arc around them. I would have much rather seen that relationship than the Evil Queen with Rumple.
2) Jafar would have been introduced into Storybrooke, and much earlier. I thought perhaps Hyde and Jafar were working together, and would explain why he sent Emma to follow the red bird. This would tie-in with the earlier idea of the Oracle being Jafar in disguise. Jafar could even still be a genie at this point, with Hyde being his master. Aladdin could have later stolen his bottle.
3) The figure under the hood would be the Dark Swan or some figment of Emma’s worst self. During the Summer hiatus, I thought maybe we would see other characters split with the serum, and we would explore duality as one of the major themes of this Season. We could have had Dark Swan, Dark Hook, the Wicked Witch, Lacey, and maybe even darker versions of Snow and Charming. Jekyll even recreates the serum in “Strange Case”, so it’s not like it couldn’t have been done. This would lead up to Emma facing off against herself, as she is her own worst villain. This would have also been a potential way to give the other characters something to do, as many of them were neglected. Maybe this could have also been a way to make it up to fans who were disappointed in the end direction of 5A?
4) Wonderland’s mythology would have been much more respected and tied-in. It should have been more clear how Jafar’s involvement with Aladdin and Jasmine fit in with what we saw of his motivations on Wonderland. Aladdin should not have broken Jafar’s staff, as that created a host of questions regarding how that effected Amara. Anastasia should have been one of Ella’s stepsisters, as it was so heavily implied. Anastasia could have even been sent to the Land of Untold Stories, as a way to tie-up the loose ends with Will’s storyline. Genie rules would have been consistent with the established genie rules from Wonderland.
5) We were promised that like how 5A explored Dark One mythology, that this Season would explore Savior mythology. Aside from the vision and Aladdin’s backstory, we really haven’t learned as much as we should have. Why not explore how Rumple decided that he needed a Savior for the curse to work? Yes we know that he created the True Love’s potion from the strands of Snowing’s hair, but what led to him figuring it out? Why is Aladdin the only other Savior we’ve seen? Couldn’t we learn of more of them?
6) The way the Wish Realm worked would have made more sense. It didn’t seem like a true peek of “What if the curse never happened?”. Emma and Neal should not have met, Henry should not have been born, Granny should not still be alive, Stealthy shouldn’t suddenly be alive, the dwarves should have shown some sign of aging, etc. Emma also would have been more fleshed out. Snow and Charming would have raised her to be strong and capable of overcoming obstacles.

[RumplesGirl]

3) The figure under the hood would be the Dark Swan or some figment of Emma’s worst self

I think this is the biggest missed opportunity this season. Emma batting her Savior self and all the emotional turmoil that would cause is meaty as heck while being incredibly cohesive to who Emma’s journey all along.

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

[thedarkonedearie]

I think this is the biggest missed opportunity this season. Emma batting her Savior self and all the emotional turmoil that would cause is meaty as heck while being incredibly cohesive to who Emma’s journey all along.

See I just never liked this idea.  Not that I’m in love with it being Gideon at the moment either, but I did not want it to Be Emma herself under the hood.  How exactly would that have worked?  Would it be figurative?  Like it’s just a figment of Emma’s imagination?  Like how could she be battling herself?  I don’t get it.  The only thing would be if she took some of Hyde’s serum and she was battling her dark self but we already say Dark Swan and she wasn’t very dark at all.  She already proved that she could handle the darkness pretty well.  She overcame it, especially in the episode, Nimue.  So even then, I wouldn’t have liked it.  In the first scene this season with Jafar and Aladdin, I believe Jafar said that all Saviors have an enemy, or a villain, so I was always expecting it to be an actual person under the hood.  And then the writers drove that point home again when Emma needed Regina to be the EQ in order for her to realize she was in fact the Savior.  She needed an enemy to trigger her Saviorhood.  Also something about Emma battling herself in the dream just seems so incredibly cheesy to me.  So while I don’t like that her biggest threat under the hood is someone we just met, who we no very little about, I am glad it is not Emma herself.

[Author]

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