Kktjones

I was just remembering this discussion we had after 6x10 last year and wanted to look at some of the predictions based on how the series actually ended. What's interesting is that these would have been way off if JMo has decided not to come back after 7x02. In that episode Emma & Regina had no interactions and the actresses didn't even film on the same day. But let's look at how they ended 7x22. We've all discussed the ending they gave Regina and how the finale was focused on her rather than Henry. But in terms of CS vs. SQ I found these predictions to be very close to what actually happened. Clearly CS is married and just had an impossibly cute baby - Hope Swan-Jones (according to the script). However, the very last interaction on the show was between Regina and Emma. During the final scene Lana really played up her lines about Emma and it left many SQ fans feeling like it was clear that Regina is in love with Emma. (I've also seen some taking it as far as saying that it was obvious Hope is Emma & Regina's daughter (conceived on the graduation trip) and that the final scene was actually their wedding, but I chose to believe those people are just having a bit of fun and don't actually believe that). So they definitely ended with CS married and happy, but did give the final moment of the series to Regina/Emma.

My money's on a couple rape by deception storylines - everyone loves those. I do think Lana is a given, but I'm just praying they don't drag Colin into their mess. I never want to see any of the actors I like involved in one of their shows again...

I feel like that ending was a bone for all the Evil Regals since they didn't give Regina the big, fancy wedding. They had to do something epic to appease her fans, so they picked this nonsense.

Honestly - it almost sounds sarcastic when you see it written that way! Let's just say the whole damn thing was just strange. (I mean "HOLY.BLODDY.HELL" - really?). But the "Sorry I'm late" was broken into two sentences by JMo - either by her own choice or the director's...

Someone just posted a couple pages of the coronation scene script. Interestingly this seems to indicate that some of the awkwardness of the Emma/Regina exchanges were directing/acting choices. I am happy to see that the baby's name in canon is "Hope Swan-Jones" and that she's "impossibly cute." Also interesting to see the Wish Henry was supposed to arrive with them wearing his deputy badge. Guess they decided to edit that connection out...

I'm glad you liked that! It just felt so strange to me - everything about that scene was just a little off, but the dialogue between them seemed even more clunky than the rest. And yes, I do think both Regina's "Is everyone here" and "Emma" did seem very baity - as did the mention of Emma & Regina on a graduation trip with Henry. I never really saw the queerbaiting until S6, but this was pretty bad. And like you said, why bother? The show is over. I just wish that in the end these two could have had a comfortable, friendly conversation instead of it always feeling like Lana's trying to sell one thing and JMo another.

So I had decided not to watch, but it happened to be on when I turned on the TV and I saw they were in Storybrooke. So I watched up until Zelena told Alice & Robin that Regina and Emma had taken Henry on a graduation trip and then I noped the hell out of there. It just felt so baity and I had no desire to see the rest of the Regina love fest. Since then I have finally seen the final scene with Emma, Hook, and Baby Hope. Ignoring the ridiculous premise that they were making Regina “Queen of everything”, what the hell was that dialogue?? First we have Regina looking around and saying “is everyone here?” in a baby voice looking like a 6th grader waiting for her crush to show up at her birthday party. Then Emma bursts in and says “Sorry.” Followed by stating “I’m late.” (I know they were going for the parallel with the pilot, but she didn’t even say it like Regina did where it was all one sentence.) Then Regina, in a super sappy voice, says “Emma”. Ewww. Things don’t get better from there. Next we’re treated to some awkward dialogue where they call each other Madam Mayor and Miss Swan (never mind the fact Emma’s been married for several years now). Sorry, I was excited to see the Swan Jones family, but why do they always insist on these strange exchanges between Emma and Regina? There hasn’t been one that felt natural and organic since about S3. Kind of bummed that they used the return of Snow & Charming to be all about rescuing and then crowning Regina. I truly loved them in the early days, but in the end they (especially Snow) were just props in Regina's story. While I found Emma's exchange with Regina to be hella strange, I still loved seeing her one last time with husband and baby in tow. She looked so happy and content in that final shot that it left me feeling really good. Also, since I didn’t watch S7 it’s easy for me to just ignore all the nonsense that seemed to happen in this episode (and here’s a post on Tumblr that pretty much sums up how I feel about it – did someone here write this?). It also helps that my head cannon is Regina makes it about another week before she’s taken out by a family member of another one of her victims – this one not named Henry!

I would definitely warn them that this show gets very plot heavy and never slows down enough for the characters to react and talk about the things that happen to them. Also there is a major lack of payoff to pretty much everything. As @KAOS Agent mentioned above, S2 was an extreme disappointment to many people (which was clear from the drop in ratings) in that there was no payoff to the broken curse. We were expecting to see how it impacted relationships between Emma/Snow, Snow/Charming, and Emma/Charming, and Emma dealing with the fact that Henry's other mother wasn't just a bitch, but was indeed an evil murderer, etc. None of that happened. They also made it clear by about 3B which relationships they wanted to focus on. It was Emma/Regina, Snow/Regina, Emma/Hook, and Regina/Henry. Later we got more Emma/Charming - likely due to Ginny's reduced working schedule - but they decided to completely ignore Emma/Snow which was the backbone of S1.

This article - Once Upon a Time bosses list the show's 25 craziest fairy-tale twists - explains so much about the show and about A&E. It feels like so many things were done on the show so that they could say things like: "Captain Hook, Aladdin, Princess Jasmine, and the Little Mermaid traveled across realms together in the Nautilus submarine from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "Robin Hood sacrificed himself to save his true love, the Evil Queen, from Hades’ wrath, who was just trying to impress his girlfriend, the Wicked Witch of the West." Just proves they really were all about the "wouldn't it be cool if..." and didn't care if it necessarily made sense or was in-character.

@PixiePaws1: The vomit inducing image of Emma groveling at Regina's feet was THE most offensive they put on the screen. A&E in 7x22: Hold my beer ;) (Not to be gloom and doom, but I don't think A&E will be able to resist one last chance for Emma to bow down to Regina. At a minimum expect a hug and some words of adulation.)

I'm having a major dilemma about watching the series finale live next week. I REALLY want to see Emma, OG Hook, their baby and Snowing. Those characters are the reason I watched 6 seasons of the show and I'd love to say a proper goodbye. But that's also why I don't want to watch. I REALLY don't want to see Emma and Snow kissing Regina's ass. Is there any chance the two of them get out of the finale unscathed? If not, I think I'm going to have to rely on Tumblr gifs and possibly You Tube clips of my faves. Seems a shame to miss the parts I want, but I just can't stomach the Regina-worship I suspect will be going on. On another note, anyone find it strange that they didn't include one frame of Emma from next week's show in the promo? They keep including the pic of her with the cupcake from the pilot, but using actual show footage for all the other returning guests. They may be trying to keep the baby a secret, but I can't imagine she's holding the baby the entire time she's on screen. I guess maybe they don't want to spoil the big coronation scene. I would think she is the biggest draw to get people watching next week, but what do I know.

Here's a link to the TVLine article where Adam mentions Emma as the heart and soul of the show. This article is much more balanced and actually makes the finale sound somewhat appealing. I should have known that EW always tends to skew their coverage towards Regina. ETA: OMG - I see that EW just published yet another Lana/Regina focused article (here's a link to it on Tumblr since don't like to give her clicks)! I don't know what Natalie Abrams will write about after this show is over since Lana has nothing else lined up...

I believe the call sheet only indicates that Weaver "puffs" his own heart turning Wish Rumple to dust (and then dies with a smile on his face). It also mentions "Rogers is dying" and then after Rumple dies says "Rogers and Alice embrace" or something. However, apparently the person that posted the call sheets originally says that Weaver gives his heart to Rogers to save him, thus killing Wish Rumple and himself. On another note, has anyone read the latest EW interview with Ginny & Josh? I always liked those two, but wow! do they have an interesting take on the series and the finale. Warning: do not read if you do not like Regina. Could cause massive eye-rolling, gagging, and a strong need to flip a table.

I have never been happier with my decision to stop watching at the end of S6. They just couldn't resist one last chance for everyone to bow down to Regina (even Wish Henry who was effectively orphaned by her). I have NO desire to see Snow & Emma once again kiss her ass and tell her how wonderful she is. In fact, this ending pretty much ruins S1 for me. I can't imagine sitting through all of Regina's horrible and evil behavior knowing that not only does she never get her comeuppance, but that the series ends with her canonization. Just give me all those gifs of Emma and Hook with their baby and I'll be happy to skip the rest.

Interesting - another site had last night's episode at .4 in the demo. Either way it's not good. I don't even think the returning stars can help the ratings at this point...

I haven't been following this season very closely, but I'm not sure how last night's show explained any of the timeline issues. In fact, I didn't think any of it was new information (i.e. I made these posts back in early December). The problems still exist - why is Robin older than Neal? Why haven't Zelena or Regina aged? Why does Henry look the same now as he did when he first met Cinderella over 10 years ago? Also things like Alice meeting Cinderella's mother and so on. And don't get me started about the wish realm and the nonsense that raises. I just can't with this show. P.S. Regal Believer is a creepy relationship and you can't convince me otherwise. A mid-30s man with a wife and child has a TLK with his mother. Yeah, hard pass.

Yeah - I'm guessing he was even more surprised that it also impacted his real life when a large, vocal faction of "Evil Regals" tried to not only get him fired, but ruin his reputation in the process. Guess being in a relationship with Regina on the show backfired for him in more ways than one.

I do wonder if he expected his character to be elevated by entering into a relationship with one of the leads - a la Hook. If his expectations were high, I can understand his disappointment when his character became nothing but a purse holder for Regina. In terms of his comment at the con, I think it was meant in a joking way, but it still does come across as a bit bitter and petty...

Yeah, I think the 4A finale is when a lot of us realized that the writers had no interest in pay-off or closure on emotional storylines - they just wanted to move along to the next plot. I'm not a big fan of angst and did not enjoy the Rumple/Hook storyline in 4A, but the positivity police were out in full force telling us all that it would be worth it when we got that heartfelt conversation about why Hook felt the need to get his hand back and how he slipped into his old ways by blackmailing Rumple. It seems almost funny looking back on it that people actually expected that! If I recall, even Matt Mitovich at TVLine mentioned the lack of pay-off for Emma & Hook fans leading to A&E's famous "well, we can't just do 40 minutes of them kissing." That's when I really pulled back from the show and started only watching for my favorite characters. Obviously without 3 of my 4 favs (and really it's a different Hook, so 4 out of 4), Season 7 held no interest b/c the plot and the writing is just not strong enough to overcome their absence.

I do wonder if A&E knew last summer that S7 would be the last season and that they could definitely get JMo, Ginny, Josh, Sean & Emilie back for the series finale, would they have written a totally different story? One of the biggest issues is that they doubled down on the fake WishRealm so that they could include a different version of Hook and keep CaptainSwan happy in SB. Do you think the season would have been better if it had been some sort of quest or adventure with a goal of reuniting with SB/Emma/Snowing/Belle, etc. at the end of the season? My opinion is their desire to keep things going for multiple seasons coupled with their insistence on using the same old FT flashback & character centric formula is what really killed the show. People would have been much more invested in seeing the real Regina, Hook, Rumple & Henry fighting to get back to their loved ones...

I just looked and she was announced as a regular on Sept. 6th which is when they were shooting 7x06, so this could be the case. I recall Mekia talking about a scene in 7x05 where Tiana goes on a date, and they also filmed a scene of her and Rogers together in HH. Both scenes were cut, but I think this does hint that they were originally planning to pair them up. If they decided to scrap it I really wonder why. I know that most CaptainSwan fans hated the idea of Whook having a love interest, but pissing fans off never seemed to stop them before. Who knows how their minds work.

I do find it somewhat interesting that the character that seems to have the most significant story arc this season is a recurring one - Alice. She has the father/daughter story with Hook both in the EF 2.0 and in HH. She has some type of bond with Rumple that I guess we will learn more about. And now she has this developing romantic storyline with Robin. It feels like perhaps the backlash about Cinderella caused them to ease up on her and switch their focus over to Alice. Spoilers seem to show that she and Robin will appear together in the majority (if not all) of the remaining episodes and she is filming a lot for the finale. I do wonder why they decided to promote Tiana to a regular instead of Alice...

Jennifer Morrison in talks for a new CIA drama. This looks interesting! She's got to be one of the hardest working actresses in Hollywood. I get exhausted just reading about everything she's doing. This also explains her lack of screentime during S6 and why she generally looked tired and washed out for most of the season... I feel bad for those attending (and thankful that I decided not to go when they didn't invite JMo), but I hope this means he's got a new project in the works!

I'm thinking the only "source" for this is the fact that Adam (and JMo) posted pics of the red jacket and the yellow bug (just like their source claiming the CS baby was there seems to be random tweets about Hook baby-proofing his hook). I doubt there was time for Jen to do more than the big group scene yesterday. All the photos (including the final one where she says "That's a wrap") are her in the dress. Unfortunately the yellow bug has been filming more than JMo this season, so I don't think the fact they posted a pic of it yesterday means she filmed with it. Of course I have no inside information, but just trying to keep my own expectations in check. ETA: I do see the tweet now by YRVShoots that says JMo filmed with the red jacket and yellow bug yesterday and they will add her to Storybrooke via green screen, so that could very well be happening. I guess I'm just very wary since this person has mis-interpreted spoilers in the past.

So do we dare hope this means she's filming for more than a day? Tomorrow is studio and then Wed & Thursday are in Steveston. I can't imagine she and Gosh won't be present for at least one of those days. We could potentially have some fun scenes of Emma, Hook & the Charmings meeting Henry's family as well as Alice (with Robin)? Or now do we have to worry that they're going to shoehorn in some Regina-propping scenes?