ABC's Once Upon a Time - Part 8

[Sawyer]

That wasn't the shift in status quo I was hoping for, but Sam Witwer gave me life and Henry basically told Rumple to go f*** himself, so I'm reasonably happy with the finale.

 

[Sithborg]

Witwer was great. One thing to look forward to next season.

(can already see everyone getting an evil version)

EDIT: Also, did anyone find the scene with Zelena and Robin's son really, really creepy?

 

[Sawyer]

I don't think they'll do an evil version of everyone thing. I feel like it's pertinent to Regina particularly because it's definitive evidence to all these fools that the Evil Queen was not some distinct split personality of hers, it was her. Just because she chose to stop being a cruel, vindictive b**** doesn't mean that person wasn't her at all.

But on a related note: Hey, Snow? Stop making f***ing Mary Margaret decisions! You're Snow White now. Use your got damn brain.

 

[Milos]

I'm sure this has made milos happy.

 

[Mani-Man]

If you want to tell me that the writers favorite isnt Regina...people are lying.
This season finale was perfect proof of how much they love regina and twist everything for her.

Now she is also excused of all her horrible crimes...because it wasnt her?
Screw that.
It wouldnt be so bad if you wouldnt have a character who has a perfect redemption on the same time.

Hook is all about aknowledging that he was a villian and the bad guy, he wants to be better and is deeply sorry.
So why this garbage excuse for regina?

God i hate her so much...and the writers for cuddling her.

Other then that, it was a pretty good season finale.
Love the Jekyll and Hyde story already.

 

[DigificWriter]

Last night's finale wasn't as epic as Season 4's Operation Mongoose Parts 1 and 2, but it was still very solid, and reminded me very much of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 4 finale, "Restless".

I love the story of Jekyll & Hyde, but wasn't expecting them to go that route with the show, so kudos to them for that. It did surprise me that they cast two actors to bring the role to life (since that's not traditionally how the character(s) have been handled), but it makes practical sense given that they ended up successfully separating the two entities from one another (nice twist on the story, BTW, writers).

Separating Regina's darkness from her goodness was also an interesting narrative decision, although I'm not really sure where they're heading with that given that they've already got a really interesting villain set up in Hyde. I will say, though, that they really need to tone down the severity of Queenie's* makeup, because it was too 'loud'.

I don't know about anyone else, but I really like Violet, and thus enjoyed her and Henry's questing. It was nice to see the return of The Dragon (of course Rumple would know what Tamara had done to him), and seeing magic in New York was fun. The Wishing Fountain thing was admittedly a little weird, especially since I wasn't expecting it to actually work, but the visual of the coins falling into the Land of Untold Stories was neat, as was the water from the fountain turning into a giant funnel cloud.

I also have to give a shout-out to the writers for the offhanded revelation of Violet's dad being the titular character of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, as it pretty much made my day (as did Regina and Emma's reactions to her and Henry kissing).

My excitement and anticipation level isn't quite where it was at the end of Season 4 last year, but I'm intrigued to see where they go next, so bring on Season 6.

* My name for Dark!Regina

 

[psylockolussus]

Oh look they found a way to bring back the Evil Regina and once again the main antagonist for the 2nd half of the season wasn't even present in the 2 hour finale because they already got something else on their plate.

 

[Sithborg]

If you want to tell me that the writers favorite isnt Regina...people are lying.
This season finale was perfect proof of how much they love regina and twist everything for her.

Now she is also excused of all her horrible crimes...because it wasnt her?
Screw that.
It wouldnt be so bad if you wouldnt have a character who has a perfect redemption on the same time.

Hook is all about aknowledging that he was a villian and the bad guy, he wants to be better and is deeply sorry.
So why this garbage excuse for regina?

God i hate her so much...and the writers for cuddling her.

Other then that, it was a pretty good season finale.
Love the Jekyll and Hyde story already.

Except that they aren't really letting her off the hook? I mean, Regina pretty much admitted that she enjoyed being evil. The whole point of the separation is to remove her temptation to go evil again. Which kind of lines up with her character progression.

This also allows them to use her as the villain again while also not completely undoing her character progression.

 

[Primal Slayer]

I read tvlines recap of the finale and it gave me a headache, sounds like the episode was all over the place.

 

[O'Haire]

Other than Sam Witwer it was pretty bad. Don't think I will be back for next season. The show just isn't good anymore.

 

[Teelie]

Spoiler

How did the evil Regina survive after having her heart taken and crushed?

Probably something to do with her being split meaning she is still tied to the "good" Regina.

 

[spideyboy_1111]

i absolutely loved the finale up until the Evil Queen Regina returned from dust... and until Hyde showed up in Storybrooke....

the 2 - part finale episodes at first seemed to really be taking the show in a much needed change of direction with the Steam-Punk world... and American History Fables (referring to the books Henry found, there was an image of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox) also a nice cameo in SPW market with the 3 musketeers saying "all for one and one for all" it really seemed to be shifting the show back into it's literary routes rather than disney only. (im going to ignore the fact mickey did a muskateer movie lol) also the reference to a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's court was pretty fantastic. i was also excited to see Mushu back in the land of the living. They also seemed to acknowledge alot of our Regina complaints only to cycle back into bad decisions again..

But then.... we get Hyde backing in boring story neutering Storybrooke... (Henry should have just destroyed the town) Regina's progression being shorthanded by the return of the bad side she killed, and Mushu having his heart ripped out .. at least she didn't crush it

 

[spideyboy_1111]

Is the black grail the black cauldron?

well.. by the definition of the word.. it can not be a cauldron. it's a chalice or a cup.. not a cooking pot.

 

[Milos]

Can't wait for next season!!!

 

[Xrated48]

Thought the finale was disappointing. I don't see the point of having the wicked queen back and Hyde seems like another bad villain.

 

[Milos]

http://www.iconheroes.com/collectio...e-available-december-2016?variant=19852335361

 

[Jostru]

I wonder where they'll go with the Regina flashbacks next season.

Nowhere interesting. Absolutely nowhere. This show will always go back to square one. At the end of the day, Regina will ***** about some girl telling a secret and how tough her life is, Snow will be the righteous smartass making dumb decisions, David will back up said dumb decision with an equally dumb speech, Rumple will seemingly change but end up being a dick for the gazillionth time, Belle will whine about Rumple's said dickery for the gazillionth time, Emma will be referred to as the savior while doing no saving at all, Hook will make snappy remarks towards everyone and Henry will take after his grandparents by both saying and doing dumb things.

 

[PyroChamber]

Nowhere interesting. Absolutely nowhere. This show will always go back to square one. At the end of the day, Regina will ***** about some girl telling a secret and how tough her life is, Snow will be the righteous smartass making dumb decisions, David will back up said dumb decision with an equally dumb speech, Rumple will seemingly change but end up being a dick for the gazillionth time, Belle will whine about Rumple's said dickery for the gazillionth time, Emma will be referred to as the savior while doing no saving at all, Hook will make snappy remarks towards everyone and Henry will take after his grandparents by both saying and doing dumb things.

Don't forget the number of characters introduced in the season that'll either just be there for one episode, or they'll stick around until they're completely forgotten about and you won't remember them until they show up out of nowhere with no clear explanation of where they've been; i.e. Merida, Maleficent, Lily, Red, Dorothy, Mulan, Hercules, Meg, etc.

 

[Sawyer]

Once Upon a Time Season 6 Will Drop Half-Season Storyline Arcs

I value Seasons 1 and 2 in their entirety more than I do the past three seasons, so I'm good with this. The half-season format has gotten a little played out for me. Like Kitsis says, it's literally "villain arrives, villain causes trouble for the bulk of the half-season, villain is defeated, rinse, repeat". They've just opened up the land of untold stories, don't only dive in for 11 episodes and then find something new.

 

[Mani-Man]

Half season approach was done for too long.
Season 4a,b and ESPECIALLY 5A,b would have needed a full season so much...there was too much story and not enough time.

So hopefully Season 6 is able to have proper focus this time and gives everything enough time.

 

[Teelie]

Good because they sucked at writing a good 11 episode story arc. Instead of 22 episodes with a lot of filler in them they somehow squandered the ability to write two compact 11 episode arcs and make them interesting.

Of course this just means we'll get 11 episodes of story and 11 episodes of filler.

 

[Sithborg]

Now if they could just cut back on the flashbacks a bit. They were used well in 5A, but where just bad in 5B. I think forcing them to create an episode with a connection to the past is something that really limits them.

 

[Sawyer]

I think the only season where they managed the half-season thing in a decent manner was season 4. IMO, both halves were of comparable quality that season. 3A was a tremendous amount of wandering around, 3B was only a slight improvement, 5A was actually pretty good until the finale set everything back to the status quo and 5B was basically just a rehash of 3A but with the Underworld instead of Neverland.

And yeah, my hope is that, now that the Land of Untold Stories is up for grabs, the flashbacks focus on those characters and (for the most part) those characters alone. They've stretched the Snow/Charming/Regina/Hook/etc. backstories thin. Rumple is the only one I'd be willing to give a pass just because he lived for centuries and focused all his energy on travelling worlds to find his son. We know he's got a past with Hyde, and while I'd prefer it not to be used frequently, I'd probably be okay with him factoring into other FBs as well. But none of this s*** of Charming being like "Oh, hey, did I forget to tell you guys when I went to summer camp with Paul Bunyon?" It's getting into Jack's tattoo territory.

 

[Xrated48]

I felt like 3A was the best storyline the show has ever done even better than the first two seasons by just a little bit. Other than 3A the other half storylines were not really good except for maybe 5A.

 

[Sawyer]

Once Upon a Time Casting Sinbad, Scheherezade for Season 6