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Reposted from TWOP: If the actresses who played Snow White and Regina weren't so good, I would be throwing a spinning wheel through a window right now. So the common starting point of everything going wrong in the past was Ava. Of course. And they also had to add in Emma saying "I thought our family were the good guys." I think they forgot the part where Ava turned into an ogre and ate a baby. On a technical note, how exactly did she get behind some solitary tree in the park without being seen? This episode presented Regina's crimes against Snow and Snow's (and her bloodline's) crimes towards Regina as being equal, which was beyond infuriating. For the number of times that Regina pointedly mentioned that Snow *murdered* Cora. She mentions Cora killing Ava, but what about Johanna? Daniel? Will we still get to Regina admitting that it wasn't Snow's fault? But now they can leave the past behind, because they've forgiven each other? Since Snow had already forgiven Regina, basically, they're saying they can leave the past behind them because Regina has forgiven Snow. This is just so messed up. So apparently, you can put a spell on a heart, so you cannot be controlled by someone who possesses it? First time we've heard of that one. That means Snow was even *more* justified in killing Cora, since she could likely NOT have controlled Cora by holding her heart, to prevent her from becoming the Dark One. Don't you just love it when they change the rules? And the backstory, of course. Finally, a single magic lesson, and Emma's all "by sundown, I'll be ready?" Give me a freakin' break! Now, she's apparating things around the diner like she's been doing it all her life? With all the plot waffling, couldn't they have slowed down and developed that?

It would have been hilarious if Ariel jumped off the ship as Blackbeard fell off the plank, turned into a mermaid in midair, held Blackbeard down in the water until he spilled the beans and then flipped her tail up at the Jolly Roger and sent Hook et al to Kingdom Come.

I'm just repeating my post from TWOP -------------------------- The episode was alright, but dragged a little. It's been seven episodes... time to pull out the body snatcher "twist" again. Sheesh. I'm just relieved they didn't ruin Ariel's ever after. Does the spell finder device still work if the person is dead? I figured the cloak going under the sea meant Eric could still be alive in another realm, or maybe Under the Sea. I think this episode confirmed that Snow feels no ill will towards Hook, with Ariel's "Will he help me?" and Snow's "I don't see why not. He helped us find Henry." I am glad Regina is getting reformed but that happy family dinner at the end was a little too much. I resent that they put Charming and Snow into the Tired Sitcom Subplot of the Episode. I expected (and wanted) Charming and Snow to show Henry how to sword fight and do archery. Make up some dumb lie like they're the Presidents of Storybrooke's Medieval Festival Club or something. Driving a car was lame. It has nothing to do with who they are. So Hook gets a heart-to-heart with Henry last episode, and Snow and Charming get lines that some of the Dwarves could have delivered. I did feel for Hook a little near the end, but what was with man-handling Ariel after she revealed who she was, and herself acknowledged that Hook didn't kidnap Eric. Did he not consider keeping Blackbeard captive until he told where Eric was? Did Blackbeard sail Eric to the island himself and none of his crew knew? There were more holes than a New York Bagel. I don't think I can roll my eyes any further at the Kiss-of-Magic-Draino that Zelena put on Hook's lips. It's just so contrived that now Emma is so open to love because he helped Ariel find Eric. Ahh, these anvils that always fall between true loves.

In the previous episode, Zelena said to Rumple that she loved his brain. So it's probably not Henry.

I thought NYC-Only had potential last week, but WTF was up with this week's episode? As others have mentioned, it was really ineffective to open with the vigil for some guy we had never met before. And the whole discussing of bashing in NYC did not feel natural at all and was just so clunky. Same with Mercedes' friends we had never seen before being shocked at inter-racial relationships as if they were living in 1980. It felt like a really obvious and poorly done after-school special. I thought Sam/Mercedes had chemistry a few years back, but they needed to build it back up because I didn't feel it. The whole Rachel-on-Broadway was hard to believe in the first place, and it's a little late to try to show the effect on her schoolwork. So Rachel didn't even know she was underachieving? We never saw her stressed or overworking herself, so it came out of nowhere. She seemed like a complete idiot quitting this school she worked so hard to get into, and acting like a self-entitled brat. I can buy her being frustrated, but being dumb enough to quit? This episode was all seriousness and there was no humor. The attempts were painful to watch. Throwing fur coats and coins/screws off the pier is littering and not funny in the least. Overall, the episode was poorly paced, poorly written and rather boring to boot. I hope people don't tune out next week in droves because of it.

Emma's magic works well if it's about to kill her or if not doing magic will cause everyone to die. Otherwise, not so much.

Just reposting from my thoughts here as a record (it's the same as what I posted on TWOP): The episode was alright. I'd have to agree that each episode so far has been seriously flawed in one way or another, though there are some good moments mixed in there. Zelena kills people because she was jealous of her sister? Surprise surprise, another questionable motivation as usual. Can't wait for the next villain who turns evil because someone tripped her (oh wait...) Zelena's adopted mother seemed quite loving, and Young Zelena seemed quite normal with actual emotions in her scene shaving her father. But she finds out she was an orphan and suddenly she's crazy jealous and vengeful? I didn't buy the transition. She turns green with envy but no one else does? Is she the only envious person in the entire universe? Cora already wanted to be royalty all along? Since when? And if Rumple's contract specified her first born, why would she care about changing it to her first born with Rumple? Rumple also didn't bother to snoop around to see if she had any children previously? The reveal of the Wizard wasn't very satisfying to me. I was surprised it was Walsh, but he was a guest character we saw for the first time four episodes ago. How did he figure out how to use all those magical objects anyway? I must say I actually felt something between Regina and Robin for the very first time when she gave him her heart. And now I have that "Last Christmas" song in my head. But what is up with his lines, "Deep down, you want to talk." He's really in touch with his emotions, isn't he. Why did Belle seem so angry when she was throwing dirt onto Neal's coffin? That was a bit odd the way she stabbed the shovel into the ground. So this episode's Babysit-Henry storyline goes to... Hook! I actually did like their scenes together, since it was the only ones actually dealing with the emotional fallout of Neal dying. Typical that the episode after, everyone is already distracted by something else. I was mildly amused when Henry asked how his father could have been a boy when he met Hook even though they're the same age. Hook didn't even try to answer the question and Henry seemed to forget about it. Huh? Snow, Charming and Emma do not ask, wonder or worry why Zelena was so fascinated by Snow's baby? I had to laugh when Zelena threw Regina through the clock tower, and Emma, Charming and Snow decided to take the elevator up. So much for Emma using magic when it's a crucial moment. Why not take the stairs for some rousing cardiovascular exercise while you're at it. Meanwhile, the Blue Fairy went off to do what? Set up sales sheets for this year's candle sales? This episode was structured around the duel between Regina and Zelena, which didn't work for me, since it was obvious Regina wasn't going to die. That made it seem like filler from the start. If Zelena wants Regina's heart so much, why not just take her by surprise last episode, or the one before that, or the one before that? Why not follow Regina to the woods? An evil villain would not act the way she is acting. Hopefully, her inaction will actually make sense in the grand scheme of things, because right now, it definitely doesn't.

I agree the whole Rapunzel/Charming/Flashback/Present-day parallel fears setup was very clunky. But it was the price we had to pay for having a Charming centric episode.

Looking at the title of this week's episode, I hope we don't get a Kermit-the-Frog worthy sob story for Zelena.

If the ratings had been good, ABC could have ordered another season. The original plan was to air the show as a one-and-done during the "Once" hiatus, but the game changed when ABC gave the show its own timeslot and premiered it in the fall. I hope they can arrange to have you transferred to a store closer to your new home, Last Time Lord.

#2 and #3 would be the same... all the flashbacks since the Wicked Witch has been flashing back to that missing year when they returned to the Enchanted Forest. There was brief moment where certain characters had a memory of the Fairy Tale Land before the original curse (eg. Regina and Tinkerbelle), but that was just momentary to remind us where she had seen that tattoo before. I thought that was unnecessary or they could have included that in the "previouslies".

Just posting my response on this forum as well... I loved the last three episodes, but I thought the pacing of this final episode was a mess, from Amara and Alice dragging Cyrus away (and she's supposedly one of the two most powerful magical practitioners in the world?), to the long-winded trip to the well, to having Anastasia die *again*. So the Guardian of the Well can just decide who gets to live and who gets to die? I did like the moment when Jafar realized that he had stolen water from her and when he got punished. When the brother said to Cyrus, "So all this was for nothing?" and Cyrus said "It was very everything." Well, maybe for you but what about the two of them slaves to the lamps and getting no true love from it? I did laugh at two of the things the Rabbit said, the first being "Look kids, here is where Cyrus' spleen fell out." So did Cyrus die there? Or was he just injured? The Will/Anastasia kiss breaking the curse was really good. While I was thrilled when I found out later the water would restore her, I think they should have left that out, and just kept her alive to the end. The nice thing with a closed series is that they could have that happy ending. Though knowing the actor who played Will was going to the main show made me worried that they will kill of Anastasia or break them up again. I think they went a bit too far to already show Alice and Cyrus' daughter. So it looks like they have no interest in showing them ever again... they're just going to live a quiet domestic life in England? I was glad to see Alice's father but wanted to find out her wife was evil and he kicked her out. It was amusing to see her eyeing Mrs. Rabbit though. Even though I was a little disappointed with this episode, the three before this made me like all the characters, I'm still glad they did it. I loved Naveen Andrews on "Lost" but I couldn't stand Jafar here. He was irritating me right to the end so I hope we never see him on the parent show.

When Emma worked her magic, Neal was "ejected" from Rumple's body, so his body was lying there and Rumple closed his eyes.

Plus they need a place in "our world" to contrast with the Enchanted Forest. I do love Storybrooke, but in the mid-season finale "Going Home", they made it seem so final, with the cloud sweeping over and covering Storybrooke. I genuinely felt sad. I don't mind them bringing it back, but the very next episode? Plus, they cannot break and re-enact the Curse again, because you can really only do that once... well, now they're at twice, but three times will NOT be the charm.

Yeah, they were fun to read for "Fringe". And for all shows, really. For "Fringe", the last season was the only one I watched as it was airing! I caught up on DVD a few episodes into the final season, so I could actually participate in posting. I also wish I could just download all the stuff I wrote on TWOP about all the shows I've ever watched, but the search function can't do that, LOL.

That's great for the recaps but it's unfortunate all the forum content will still be gone even in archived form. Whenever I watch a show on DVD, I always go to the TWOP forums and read the episode threads after each episode to see what the initial reaction was. I've done this for Season 1-4 of "24", all the seasons of "Fringe", etc. And I was planning to do this for a number of different TV series I've been wanting to see on DVD.

So this is what the headwriters said in an interview http://tvline.com/2014/03/31/once-upon-a-time-neal-dies-michael-raymond-james-burning-questions/ This is something "they" are all going to deal with? Who? Isn't Neal the one who never got the chance to have a final scene with his son? And he's dead... so, who's left to deal? Henry? Except in another interview, they basically said Henry will be sad but he'll understand since his dad died a hero. Riiight... Wow, how convoluted is that? Wouldn't a more natural reaction be for Neal to try NOT to make the same mistake? Not repeating history over and over again ad nauseum?

She did such an awesome job in Neal's final episode. It must have been tough, since she had played it once before, but she really made me feel sad for her.

It would have been nice if the subplot was Snow starting to connect the dots. I think the writers just wanted to write sardonic lines for Zelena like "I'm not going to let you have your baby without me here, mhahwahwahwah". I agree that it was actually destructive to the Snow character and a total disservice to her. But I guess they had no time for that Snow subplot? It would have made more sense to put the Regina/Robin scenes into a separate episode. I mean, Rumple is loose and an Evil Witch is loose, and Regina takes a moment to follow Robin Hood to his camp in the woods? Kinda like last week, she went to take a leisurely stroll by the lake with Henry? Puleeze.

I loved that he had another nice conversation with Emma in this one.

Oops, I meant "Manhattan". I went back and changed it. Thanks for reminding me. Well said. He always seemed to be treated like an inconvenience.

This character had such promise. I still grew to like him despite his disconnect with the Younger Bae, but his best episode was probably "Manhattan" after which he was underused, underdeveloped and glossed over. Speaking about "Quiet Minds", I know this season is all about flashbacks to the missing year, and discovering along with the characters what happened. In some ways, that was effective in that the viewers and the characters realized together that Neal was a goner. If the writers are intent on saying that Neal didn't have a choice when he let August convince him to leave Emma, they need to explain why rather than to have the character repeat he didn't have a choice and Emma agreeing. Since I liked Neal, I kind of wished that his final episode would have the old-school reflective flashbacks. They could have shown how his imprisonment in Neverland might have changed him, how his second return to our world turned him into the Neal we now know, maybe better insight into why he made the decision with August, how he started to try to find Emma but he lost courage, maybe how he started to go to Storybrooke after getting the postcard and how he ended up turning back. That all would have made his death more poignant, and would at least try to bridge the distance between Young Bae and Adult Neal. It seemed to reinforce that the writers didn't care much about and had no idea what to do with the character since they threw his death in some random middle-of-the-season episode. As a character from the "real world", I think his character did have a lot of potential, and it's sad that he paid the ultimate price for Rumple trying to find him. I mean, what's the point... Rumple could have just let him go out into the Ogre Wars and die there. Yes, he ended up creating Henry, but Neal and Henry even didn't get a final father/son scene together.

I'm reposting here from TWOP as well... I like Neal, and I don't read spoilers so I didn't even know someone was going to die. So I'm a little bummed out. I had a bad feeling halfway through the episode when they seemed to be covering the bases of every loose end that Neal had. Not very well, I must say. Clearly, the writers are not changing their minds with the "I didn't have a choice.. you know that!" without actually explaining why he didn't have a choice if they really meant for Neal not to have a choice. Me too. I enjoyed his scene with Emma walking through the forest, and that was really sad he didn't have one last scene with Henry. I actually thought he had chemistry with the kid. I even enjoyed Neal's scenes with Hook (what an awkward hug... almost seemed like they wanted to go a whole other direction with those two guys), as well as his scenes with Belle in the flashbacks. I did laugh when Neal went, "What the hell" when Lumiere lit up. The way they had that scene at the beginning of the episode with Zelena telling that flying monkey to find Rumple, I actually spent the first half of the episode expecting Neal to turn into a flying monkey under Zelena's command to smoke Rumple out. I like Belle being smart, but they just had to throw in lines like "Rumple may have seemed cold and hard, but deep inside..." Why would she be saying such a thing to supposed victim of Rumple? Talk about insensitive. The Regina/Robin Hood scenes bored me. Does Henry look older with every episode or what? That was a really nice scene he had with Emma by the fireplace. I'm glad they inserted a nice mother/son bonding scene there. I'm still sad there won't be any more Neal/Henry scenes. As for the death scene, how painful was it for Emma to have another man die in her arms like that. Jennifer Morrison knocked the scene out of the park. I didn't think the actor who played Neal was that bad, though Robert Carlyle expressions were also heartbreaking. It's kind of unfair that Neal/Bae had to die in the end to save Rumple. I can't believe I'm saying this but I almost wish the Blue Fairy came up out of nowhere and said, "Hey, anyone want him to turn into a 15-year-old?" As stealinghome said, the ending was way too rushed and they could have done a very satisfying reveal of Zelena as the Wicked Witch, with Snow playing an active role in figuring it out.

I agree that it's a little annoying to read one-sentence mid-show comments, or running commentaries that might go completely off-topic. If someone watches with commercial breaks, I can see why they would be bored during the commercials and want to comment right away. I suppose if people want to make comments while watching, perhaps they can start a During-Show Comments Thread, and every week, they can use the same thread to post during-show reactions. Then, it's all in one thread so the forum won't be cluttered with double the number of episode threads every week. If one of those are started, there should be a spoiler tag on it.

I was reading this article about the closing of TWOP and this is a quote in the article which struck me: http://www.buzzfeed.com/doree/why-the-closing-of-television-without-pity-and-daily-candy-m How can anyone actually discuss a show like "Once Upon a Time" on Twitter with the word limit there, other than tweet stuff like "OMG, Rumple escaped!". Scrolling through hundreds of comments? Without reading them or what?