[Joyce]

Rating: 9/10

Hi everyone! I’m new to the podcast and the forum, but I’m so excited to have found it! I know opinions are very mixed about the new season, but personally, I’m loving it! I like how the podcast references seasons 1-6 as “Once Proper”. I consider that to be its own thing, and Season 7 to be something entirely new, though happily related to the original that I loved. Therefore, I don’t see any opportunity for Season 7 to “damage” or detract from what came before. It was either the show was cancelled and we got nothing more, or we get a chance to try something new, and you like it or you don’t.

What I personally like, is the return to the emphasis on the mystery. I’ve seen comments that the first few episodes have felt really disorganized or confusing, but it reminds me so much of both Season 1 and Season 5a (Dark Swan). We come in in the middle or even end of the story, and spend the season piecing together how we got there. I love that! I strongly suspect that so much of what may have come off as disorganized now will eventually be revealed to have been heavily planned and intentional pacing of clues and revelations. Only time will tell…

All that being said, this was by far my favorite episode of the season so far. Lana Parrilla has taken it to a whole new level! I was pretty sure that Lady Tremaine wasn’t going to have cast the curse, because it seemed too obvious from the beginning. I suspected the “good guys” may have done it, even though we saw that in 3b. This was a nice twist, though, a somewhat unsuspected villain, combined with some underlying driver for Regina/the good guys to not break the curse. Seeing how that internal conflict plays out should be really fun! I am confused because it appears that Adelaine Kane is a guest star, not a regular, even though she’s appeared pretty heavily in every episode so far, I think. Makes me wonder if the curse might get broken (or maybe changed somehow) earlier that we’d expect, so the emphasis can shift to someone else. If that does happen, I’m hoping there’s a big twist with Hook’s daughter (i.e. she’s a new character rather than an existing fairytale character) and she becomes a main player. I’m curious to see how Zelena & Robin fit in as well! Sounds like a lot of new/returning characters coming soon, so the layout of the whole thing may not be what it looks like now.

Anyway, lots to think about and ponder – and again, that is and always has been my favorite aspect of this show. My favorite scene was Regina’s awakening – masterfully played, good twists, but left more new questions than it answered. My least favorite was probably the scene where Drizella killed the prince. The blackening her heart so her mother couldn’t use it concept isn’t a bad one, but I think they could have done a little more with that plot point. I also hated to see Julian Haig discarded so quickly.

I’m really looking forward to next week (two episodes – yay!) They’ve been peppering along with the Wish!Hook/Daughter/Missing Girl storyline for a while now. I’m excited to start to see where that’s going to go.

Thanks all!
Joyce

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