Kktjones

So it appears the actors for Belle, Robin (original recipe), Granny, Ariel & Cruella (and perhaps others) have already finished filming their appearances. All were in and out in one day, so it definitely looks like these are brief cameos. Katmtan (reliable source in Vancouver) has heard Ginny & Josh will film for one day next week and she's heard conflicting reports as to whether or not they will film in Steveston/Storybrooke (shotting is scheduled there for Wed & Thurs this week). No word on JMo, but I'm guessing this is some type of montage again. I was also surprised to see Michael Socha (Will) and Sarah Bolger (Aurora) listed in IMDB for 7x22 since we didn't hear about their returns.

Actually, if you enlarge the photo, you'll see that it's just a thick silver ring (Roni's apparently been wearing it all season) - it's just the reflection that looks like a diamond or larger stone in the middle. I only know this b/c I saw a discussion about it on Tumblr :). I think getting the original cast back for the finale will draw back a lot of people that dropped the show, so the focus should be on them. However, I'm trying to be realistic b/c I'm guessing JMo, Ginny & Josh are only going to be filming a day or two. I'm thinking it will be more along the lines of JMo in 7x02. I would love to be wrong and have them driving the plot and action of the last ep, but I'm thinking it will be more of a scene or two in Storybrooke at the very end.

It's interesting because based on social media, the actress playing Robin is filming for the finale today, but I think Zelena already wrapped up. Maybe Bex will also be back for the finale, but I don't think she's been filming the last few episodes.

These two posts summarize my feelings exactly! I'm guessing these will be very limited cameo appearances and I can only hope they don't ruin these characters any more than they already have! Would love to just have a glimpse into the happy lives of my favorite four and hope that the return of R&R doesn't do anything to disrupt it.

The EW article also says "These won’t be the only actors returning for the last installments, as additional talent is expected to be announced soon." I am hoping that means they're saving the big announcement for last - Jen, Ginny & Josh. It's really the only way they can get me interested in watching the finale. Although I still can't figure out how they would make this work given HH is years behind SB.

I was catching up on the show "The Resident" tonight and one of the doctors looked so familiar, but I couldn't place him. After checking out his IMDB profile, I realized he played Ryan, the guy who Emma went on the fake date with in the OUAT pilot. Too funny! Merrin Dungey (Ursula) also plays a sleazy hospital administrator on the show. The jury's still out on the show - I loved Matt Czuchry on The Good Wife, but not sure about him on this show.

I assume we'll hear within the next week or so if any of the original cast is coming back for the series finale. Does anyone have any thoughts on how they might integrate people like Snow, Charming and Emma into this story? Belle is a little easier as her story would be (and always has been) solely with Rumple. But given that HH is years behind SB, how could they bring these two worlds together? Especially since the timeline is so messed up, I just can't figure out how it could work, what year it might be, how old the characters would be (including Hook & Emma's baby). Everyone here is so much more thoughtful and creative than the writers, I thought you all might have an idea of how it could all make sense and end in a satisfactory way...

I think she's actually back for ep 7x20 which they are currently filming. That's the same one Jared is confirmed to appear in. According to A&E it's a big Regal Believer ep with flashbacks to mother of year Regina and Henry before he leaves SB. My hunch is that someone from HH (2017) will reach out to someone in SB 2017 with a warning or something. It is interesting that they are showing SB in 7x20, then 7x21 is called "Homecoming" and I believe A&E have confirmed that they will return to Storybrooke for the finale (or did they just say they would return to Storybrooke at some point this season? If that's the case it may just be for 7x20). Anyway, I haven't been watching this season, but I'd be mildly interested if they return to SB - even if they just show OG Hook and some minor characters.

Looks like Ginnifer Goodwin will also be joining the comedy ranks in her new pilot. Ginny is actually the reason I started watching Once - I loved her in previous roles. I hope she can regain some of the spark she seemed to lose over the years doing Once.

I remember at the time there was a fun debate raging on Tumblr & Twitter as to whether Hook would succumb to the evil, but then resist at the last minute or if it was all an elaborate plan to trick the Dark Ones so that he could destroy them for good. People were choosing "Team Plan" (as in he had a plan) or "Team Flip" (as in he changed his mind at the last minute). I knew it would be the latter, but I think the former would have been such a better story!

I honestly cannot believe this is the tagline they are using for the final arc of this series! It's so stupid and has nothing to do with the stories and characters that people care about. I haven't been paying close attention this season, but it seems the things people like are Tiana, Drizella, Alice/Whook, and the old characters (mostly just riding on the goodwill of the previous seasons). So instead they've decided to focus the end of the series on Gothel, the coat hangers, Zelena and Robin? Like WTF? And based on the most recent Hot Seat it doesn't look like they intend to include any of the old cast in the finale. I know it's cancelled so they probably don't care, but they have to realize they are damaging the legacy of the show which will negatively impact things like streaming, DVD sales, cons, merch, etc.

Personally, I find Lana's real life personality extremely off-putting. It has nothing to do with her character and everything to do with her huge ego and her attention-seeking behavior. She also feeds into the worst parts of her fandom and continually throws her costars and the writers under the bus. I think for anyone that has followed the fandom the last couple of years, it's very clear that Lana and Jen do not get along at all. I won't even get into Lana's fans/stans, but I think their behavior adds to people's dislike of Lana. I agree and think we really won't know anything until people start getting out there and taking part in new opportunities. I think being mentioned in the article is probably a good sign for Ginny & Colin, but I don't think it means anyone not mentioned has no future. (I'll probably delete this soon as I'm sure her crazy fans will screen shot it and work themselves into a frenzy about it like they do everything)

Where do I begin? My top worst storyline is the eggnapping. This was the beginning of the end of Snowing as we knew them. It made them out to be terrible human beings who would separate a child from its mother, even if they thought it was a literal dragon for some idiotic reason. Isaac was supposed to have orchestrated the whole thing by misuse of his authorial powers, and yet, Snowing were held responsible for their actions. Once they realized what they'd done, Season 1 Snowing would have tried to find the child and bring her back to its mother. S4 Snowing just moved on, because who cares about their subjects being slaughtered en masse by the Evil Queen or fetectomies as long as they were happy, amirite. My second worst nominee is Hook murdering David's father. It made no sense because it was OOC for Hook to hide his reputation as a blood-thirsty pirate (in fact he was very protective of that image), plus he was living in Neverland at the time. So, it's not like King George could come after him. It was useless angst and led to the worst storyline for Captain Swan. It ruined the pairing for me for a while. Even now, I have to ignore it to enjoy CS. It would've made more sense if Hook had taken David's father with him to Neverland to save his life, and he'd died there of natural causes or at the hand of the Lost Boys. That would still have created some conflict with David when he found out, but not the crap we got. My third choice is the "Baelfire was evil all along" retcon. This may seem trivial compared to the rest, but this retcon touched the very premise of the Show and sort of ruined the very foundation it was built on. It is basically the "Han shot first" retcon for Rumple. There are SO many terrible retcons over the last three seasons, it's hard to narrow it down. I heartily agree with all three of the ones @Rumsy4 listed. Especially Hook murdering David's father. Not only did it make no sense, there was no reason for it as no one even cared in the end. It was done 100% for shock value. I would also say the retcon in "Awake" where Snow & Charming see Emma through the door, but don't go to her, is one of the worst. I have to pretend that didn't happen every time I see them interact with Emma. Next would be Hook murdering his father. Everything about this retcon was completely unbelievable. It somehow fit into the events of S2? Hook's father survived as long as he did through a sleeping curse and a TLK from a nurse he never met? Regina somehow knew about this? Hook killed him and left his half brother an orphan? It was all ridiculous. Finally, I hated the whole Emma & Cleo story. It takes so much away in terms of how Emma became Emma, why she had a hard time getting close to people, etc. For me it really killed her characterization, so I just pretend it never happened.

While I loathed both of these, what I think I hated most was that these two relationships ruined my favorite relationship from Season 1 & 2A which was Snow/Emma. The writers clearly decided these two relationships were more interesting and just completely stopped writing for the mother/daughter relationship. And there was SO much potential there! How does Snow feel about Emma co-parenting with the woman who terrorized her? How does Emma overcome all the feelings of abandonment to forge a real, honest relationship with Snow & Charming? How does Snow feel about Emma finding her own true love, but with a former villain? How does Emma feel now that Snow got that replacement baby? There was so much great fodder there that they just completely left on the table. As someone said above, they weren't writing the relationship as strained, but it definitely came off that way at times - primarily because these two barely interacted after Season 2. It sometimes boggles my mind to think of all the untapped potential this show had that they completely wasted...

That's a really good point. I was not hopeful about her showing up for the finale before, but I think this tweet and the "no" answer to seeing Emma & Hook's child pretty much sealed the deal. I HIGHLY doubt any of the original cast will be back for the finale...

It is telling that the thing they're the most proud of happened in the very first episode. I guess it really was all downhill from there for both the creators and the fans...

Well, to be fair, the answer was "Probably not." I know a lot of people want Colin to be free of this show, but I don't think any of the answers in this Hot Seat indicate whether he's staying or leaving. I wouldn't be shocked if he's done, but I also wouldn't be surprised if he stayed with the show to the end. As we've all mentioned before, he, in particular, has a lot of reasons to stay. Of course all this is moot if the show gets cancelled... This question was hilarious. The fact that they asked if it was a "nightmare" rather than a "dream" is very telling! And don't even get me started on the curt "No" in response to possibly seeing CS's child. It just further validates my decision to stop watching.

Don't forget we had Rapunzel for a couple of episodes and then Zelena and Robin at the end of 7A (but the beginning of their arc). 7B looks like it will be even more crowded if they decide to flesh out some of the coat hangers, as well as adding The shooting of 18 extra minutes for each episode just blows my mind. I could see 4 - 5 minutes because there's some variance in how long a scene will take, but 18 extra minutes is so incredibly wasteful. They could likely cut production time on each episode by a full day if they cut that down to 48 minutes.

I think the worst example was Camelot where they had flashbacks within the flashbacks where we learned exciting things about our main characters a bunch of characters that we'd never see again. Or maybe the worst was in 3B when they had the missing year as great fodder for the flashbacks, but decided to give us multiple flashbacks of Zelena in Oz and a young Cora getting screwed over by Zelena's father Snow's mother.

I would assume this was a condition of her staying on for S7. I'm sure she gets paid more for it and it goes on her resume. At least we now have confirmation that A&E and the network really don't give a crap about the quality of the show! Given how much work would have to go into pre-production, how exactly did Lana swing a lengthy international vacation over the New Year's holiday? Whatevs - glad JMo and Robert never lowered themselves to directing this train wreck.

I thought it was interesting that the writers decided to ramp up the past evil deeds for their villains while they were turning them into heroes in the present. They did it for Regina and Hook (and even Rumple to a certain extent, although his present day actions were pretty bad as well). It's almost like the more redeemed they get, the worse their past gets. Hook, for instance, didn't really have much of a body count or many truly evil deeds in his past until S5 (murder rings, killing his father, murdering David's father). Regina's evil past just seemed to get worse with every single flashback...

Question for those still watching the show closely. Two things A&E talked about in interviews were the "gentrification" storyline and the fact that HH would comprise both fairy tale and regular people. In regards to the first, has there been more to that beyond Victoria trying to buy Roni's? And in terms of the second, have we met any regular people in HH (beyond the background police officers/restaurant workers)? So far every regular/guest character has a FT counterpart, right? Do you think they originally planned to do more with these two aspects, but realized people weren't interested?

It started way before S6. Just look at the payoff Snowing fans got after the non-stop angst of S1 - Snow and Charming separated for all of 2A! They didn't even get one full episode together after the curse broke.

(apologies @jhlipton, I haven't mastered how to quote something from a different thread!) Anyway, I just wanted to bring this over to the Hook/Colin thread for a little more discussion. First, let me say I would love it if Colin was able to get a pilot or another project lined up so he could get away from this sinking ship. However, after hearing JMo talk about how difficult it was for her to shoot the Once pilot while still on HIMYM, I do think it can be rather tricky. It really only worked out for her b/c she wasn't the mother, so they were extremely accommodating and flipped the filming of the last two episodes so she could go off and film Once. I can't see Once doing the same for Colin (unless they already know it's cancelled). Second, I hate to say it, but besides Once, Colin's agent hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire. I'm happy that he's done a few small movies, but none of them have really been significant or anything that has bolstered his resume. I almost hope he signs on with a new agent based in LA rather than his current UK-based guy. Finally, based on everything he's said in the past, I feel like he'll stick with the show to the end (for many reasons including his young family living in Vancouver, his lack of steady work prior to Once, loyalty, etc.). And since they may not know the fate of the show until later this Spring, I believe he'll miss his chance to sign on for this pilot season. If anyone has a better understanding of how things work - both with agents and pilots, please chime in b/c I really want to see Colin succeed beyond this show!

I have a sinking feeling he will stay with this show to the very end. It would be very difficult for him to line something else up while shooting Once full-time. I do think they have realized that the Hook/Alice storyline is one of the more popular ones and I'm guessing it will continue into S8. Just makes me even happier that the real Killian is back in SB with Emma and their children (it's been like 10 years, so I'm guessing they've had like half a dozen by now). I think Robert already has his next project lined up, so I do think they'll wrap Rumple's story up this season either way. Who knows about Regina and Zelena - sounds like they will be getting a lot of the focus in 7B.