S05.E22: Only You / S05.E23: An Untold Story

[InsertWordHere]

12 minutes ago, Camera One said:

They described August like he was a wise sage.

A true crime. 

Show, I can kind of accept your Regina issues, and I get why you whitewash Neal, but stop trying to make me like August. I am never going to like August. He is not Emma's friend. He is not wise. IIRC, the Dragon didn't even seem to like him much back in that episode I shall never view again. Stop it. 

[AudienceofOne]

*sigh*

[Rumsy4]

19 minutes ago, Camera One said:

And then after 1:15, things really started to unravel.  The embarrassing fountain scene.  They had Emma apologizing for not believing in Regina.  They had Snow admit she was partly responsible for the Evil Queen being created.  They described August like he was a wise sage.  And then the horrible idea to separate Regina from The Evil Queen. 

I agree 100% with everything you said, Camera One. The parts I quote made me especially angry. What a disaster of a finale!

[AudienceofOne]

I accidentally started part 2 first and Hook, Charming et al were in a cage. Then I put on Part 1 and Hook, Charming et al got put into the cage at 18 minutes. And at that point I knew they were going to be in that cage for at least another half hour. I nearly turned it off then and there.

And then the fountain. I... have no words.

As usual, all of this could have been tolerable with a hefty dose of Captain Swan and there just wasn't enough.

[janett snakehole]

What a joke of a finale. I thought the first half was okay, not something I was going to love no matter how well it was done, but it wasn't bad. I found Regina's long monologue about her struggles to be obnoxious because while she showed some true reflection it also had way too much self pity. She's a mass murdered okay, I have no patience for self pity from her. Especially if the pity is about not wanting to do the right thing or having to fight her murderous impulses. Must be so hard, of course Emma would feel bad for you. *one million eye rolls* 

Weird that there was very little reference to Robin outside of the letter and the first few minutes of the ep. Did they forget he was supposedly Regina's soul mate? 

Also didn't love that Emma apologized to Regina for not being there for her. When was she supposed to have been there for her? When she was grieving for her true love? I mean come on, how silly. Real tired of Emma apologizing for things she shouldn't and to people who never apologize to her. 

What the hell was Henry's problem? Holy angry teen, batman. He was pretty insufferable throughout. Especially his anger towards Emma that she didn't believe in Regina. Let go of the Regina victim complex, show. Please I'm begging.

The Neal destroying magic retcon was stupid. Henry thinking he knows whats best was stupid. Henry was just stupid. 

The Snowing/Zelena/Hook adventure deserved more focus. At least it provided some entertainment. 

The fountain scene was dumb as hell and a knockoff of Elf. A cheesy show should have some limits to how silly it gets. 

On to the real anger. THE STUPID JEKYLL JUICE. Really Snow? Really. The stupidest of all stupid plans. Lets take the "evil queen" out (oh you mean yourself - part of you - who you are - you idiots), kill it, and now you are no longer culpable for all the evil that you perpetrated (not that you really ever were). IT DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. It was rage enduing. Emma and Snow's endorsement of it made them look like idiots. *The family we were always meant to be.* WHAT Regina hated you for like 30-40 years, what is this family you speak of? 

I can see why Regina would be motivated to literally removed the bad parts of herself, but why would Emma and Snow think that is appropriate or okay to do? I can't with this show. I think the last 15 minutes were a show ruiner for me. I don't know if I can keep watching. The most extreme whitewash I could image and they thought that was the best storytelling avenue for Regina? Now we get the evil queen and Regina. ugggghhhhhhhhh

Oh and captain swan get maybe two minutes or so of screen time after a season of extreme angst. What is the point of this show? Nothing matters. 

[MMR]

Great ep! Loved all Regina stuff,love Sam Witwer.
 And 2 Regina's next season! Yaaasss! Can't wait!

[AudienceofOne]

Oh, the end of the next season will be Regina re-absorbing the Evil Queen because of her realisation that she's a part of her. She'll work out that she has to accept the evil things she's done and not try to blame them on a separate part of herself. Because apparently this character needs to have a physical manifestation of her evil deeds roaming around for a season to work that out. FFS.

I didn't mind Regina's monologue because I thought she was finally realising that redemption is a journey and she'd always had to live with the things she'd done. Then she pulled a Regina and decided her evil self was something she could get rid of so she wouldn't feel culpable for her actions. Which is fine. So far, so Regina. She's really that awful. But Emma and Snow actually encouraged her? That's when it lost me. Actually, it lost me when it split everyone up for two episodes. But that's when it really really lost me.

[janett snakehole]

35 minutes ago, AudienceofOne said:

I didn't mind Regina's monologue because I thought she was finally realising that redemption is a journey and she'd always had to live with the things she'd done. Then she pulled a Regina and decided her evil self was something she could get rid of so she wouldn't feel culpable for her actions. Which is fine. So far, so Regina. She's really that awful. But Emma and Snow actually encouraged her? That's when it lost me. 

I totally agree. It was the co-sign from Emma and then Snow that made it so bad. It made them both seem so freaking stupid that they didn't even feel like the characters I've been watching all these years. Especially Emma, someone who has always been about taking responsibility and punching back and saying this is who I am. Her supporting the stupid separation seems completely counter to everything we've seen from her. 

The monologue annoyed me so much because it was so self-pitying and then Emma also felt sorry for Regina. Cue eye rolls from me. Yes, lets feel bad for the person experiencing homicidal tendencies and forcing themselves not to indulge in evil. I mean it's good that she resists, but I don't think she deserves pity for it. 

If the Jekyll juice separation had been framed in narrative as a bad idea then it wouldn't bother me as much, but it was presented as a triumphant moment for Regina. I don't understand what these writers are doing. It's such a stupid message. Do evil shit- no biggie, this potion will take out the evil you, then you can kill it, and what's left is the best version of yourself. (Even though she seemed exactly the same afterwards). As a Killian fan, if they did this with him, I would be pissed. It's such lazy storytelling. They wanted to bring back the evil queen while not having Regina be responsible in any way. dumb

[Hookian]

And we all know how this will all end. Regina will have to take in the EQ again and except that she's apart of her and be able to control her or something stupid. Just let CS have some awesome stuff and an engagement.

And I know the wedding dress has been there before but here's the thing guys. This time it was literally in between them. Other times it's been in just the background. This time the dress was literally between them, and it made it very very obvious IMO of what CS's big moment will be next season.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Hookian

[shoregirl]

I got second hand embarrassment for Jared for both the believe speech and the argument with Emma/Regina in the rare books room . He was really bad in both of them. Some of it was the writing but he is not a great actor (or maybe even a good one) and those scenes really were beyond his capabilities. That's one of the main things I got of the episode, they seem to want to give Henry more to do but Jared isn't a strong enough actor to handle it.         I don't think I'm down for double the Regina/EQ that we're going to get next year. I would like some scenes of Emma and Hook just talking and being at peace with each other. Maybe a nice scene with  Snowing and Captain Swan having a nice family dinner together .

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I am going to strain my face rolling my eyes at Henry. I have never felt that level of second hand embarrassment at a TV show in my life. That was like how the fucking Care Bears solve their problems. In any real world, people would have ignored some dumb kid screaming about magic. Anywhere. That was just embarrassing.

Ha, Henry doing the Care Bear stare! Seriously, that scene was so cringe inducing on every level. The writing was bad, his acting was embarrassing, just everything. I find it difficult to believe that people in New York would all get up and throw pennies in a fountain, even if they thought it was for performance art (I live in Berkeley, where we politely ignore people who yell on the bus, on the train, in the parking lot, on the sidewalk). But Henry doing a combination of clap your hands for Tinkerbell and Elf's "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" made me hide my face behind my hands because it was so bad.

I'm unspoiled but once Regina started referring to the Evil Queen in the third person, as if it were a person separate from her, I just knew she was going to be split into two people. I was actually surprised when Regina was able to crush the Evil Queen's heart so easily. As someone who watches shows about vampires and other demons, I was yelling at my tv because you can't just let the remains blow away on the wind and reassemble somewhere else! So I was not at all surprised when that's exactly what happened at the end of the episode. I have no desire to watch two Reginas fight all next season.

[txhorns79]

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Ok so violet got a text from Henry and he still had to explain to her in the same scene what a bus is?? The hell??

It was odd that she knew about texting, but needed to have a bus explained, but I don't think we've seen a lot of buses in Storybrooke, have we?

What I thought was weird was Zelena and Robin's son's hugs goodbye and overall sweetness together.  Didn't Zelena kill the kid's mother and secretly replace her?  I know that people in Storybrooke move on quickly, but it might have been nice to see some acknowledgement that Zelena really harmed that kid.   

[Rumsy4]

1 hour ago, Hookian said:

And I know the wedding dress has been there before but here's the thing guys. This time it was literally in between them. Other times it's been in just the background. This time the dress was literally between them, and it made it very very obvious IMO of what CS's big moment will be next season.

We had a whole season of Wedding foreshadowing. Or so we thought. We didn't even get a proposal, or see them move in together, which was actually openly set up in the season. What's the satisfaction in seeing payoff two seasons down the line? 

The big CS moment for S6 will probably be them going on a second date. ;-)

Edited May 16, 2016 by Rumsy4

[Curio]

I was busy yesterday and couldn't watch the show live (or comment in the live thread, which I was really looking forward to), but reading these comments makes me really nervous for watching it tonight. I've always joked on the forums about how the show treats Regina and The Evil Queen as two separate characters, but now they've actually doubled-down on that concept and are doing it for real? Without any ounce of irony? Zeus have mercy.

5 hours ago, Camera One said:

The Writers can't possibly say we can rewatch Season 2 and go, oh yeah!  that's what Neal was doing.  Riiiiight.

The Writers also expect us to rewatch Season 2 and 3 and want us to believe Neal was an ultimate hero who had no choice but to ditch Emma (twice) and that Zelena murdered him. So, it's par for the course.

1 hour ago, janett snakehole said:

It was the co-sign from Emma and then Snow that made it so bad. It made them both seem so freaking stupid that they didn't even feel like the characters I've been watching all these years. Especially Emma, someone who has always been about taking responsibility and punching back and saying this is who I am. Her supporting the stupid separation seems completely counter to everything we've seen from her. 

Are we honestly surprised, though? This is the same Emma who totally supported Operation Dumbass from the very beginning because the plot called for it, even though she should have been the one person cheerleading about how you make your own happy ending and punching back against the world. Every single time this show calls for Emma to try to be Regina's friend, they have to make her do something completely out of character.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Curio

[Randomosity]

25 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

We had a whole season of Wedding foreshadowing. Or so we thought. We didn't even get a proposal, or see them move in together, which was actually openly set up in the season. What's the satisfaction in seeing payoff two seasons down the line? 

The big CS moment for S6 will probably be them going on a second date. ;-)

The fact that we didn't see anything like this stuff made me realize that Emma - theoretically the main character of the series - pretty much could have taken the day off and stayed home this episode and nothing would really have been any different. I guess that garbage can might have burned out of control, but, you know, fire extinguishers. 

[Tiger]

What was that accent Sam Witwer was doing

Edited May 16, 2016 by Tiger

[jcin617]

Hey Henry, if you're willing to break the Author rules for a little "And then the Olympian crystal appeared in the Author's hands."  You could have just gone the whole 9 yards with "And then magic ceased to exist in Storybrooke."    The end.

[Arnella]

9 hours ago, Daisy said:

oh wait. so does this mean Storybrook is Team Charming, Rumpy, Grannt, The Dumb One, and now an entire new town of Unfinished Stories?

What about all the unwritten stories that OUAT watchers care about??  Just throw me one line about how Grumpy and Astrid are living happily off screen somewhere with their lovely dwarf/fairy baby.

Also Roland sent the cute meter off the charts before he left but we didn't even get a goodbye for the rest of them??

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Maybe Adam and Eddy will be so wrapped up in their new show that they will leave next season entirely to Jane Espenson or one of their other competent writers to write. Maybe they won't have time at all to come up with asinine plots that go nowhere and maybe,  just maybe,  they won't have the time to troll twitter and flame shipper wars. 

From your mouth to god's ears!  However, they finally have their Woegina AND their Evil Queen. (forgive me but my first thought was they they were pleasuring themselves already).  So they can stop pretending their writing makes sense and indulge in their contradictory character development.

[jcin617]

And moreover, while I'm still digesting this episode....  Why is having an "untold story" a bad thing.  It would be impossible (I would think) to tell every sentient creature's story in every parallel realm/universe through the "Once Upon a Time" author/book medium... if that's what "untold story" even means.   Because that's like, a gazillion stories.   Mine would be fairly mundane, I should think.  Except Chapter 26 ... and maybe 30. 

Edited May 16, 2016 by jcin617

[RadioGirl27]

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Also Roland sent the cute meter off the charts before he left but we didn't even get a goodbye for the rest of them??

Well, he said goodbye to his mother's killer and his father's rapist. That was more than enough.

[babyPhat279]

Wait, why is it the land of untold stories? Jekyll and Hyde is a pretty well-told story. It even has a musical and an Eddie Murphy movie.

[Randomosity]

14 minutes ago, babyPhat279 said:

Wait, why is it the land of untold stories? Jekyll and Hyde is a pretty well-told story. It even has a musical and an Eddie Murphy movie.

Snow White, Peter Pan, Cinderella, etc. were all pretty well-told before this show. The show is about what we don't already know about well-known characters. Their untold stories... I guess.

[jcin617]

34 minutes ago, RadioGirl27 said:

Well, he said goodbye to his mother's killer and his father's rapist. That was more than enough.

Why was he even leaving?  Weren't they just sending the folks from Camelot home?   I've sort of lost track of who's in Storybrooke "normally" or via portal or via Dark Curse #2521.

[Randomosity]

1 minute ago, jcin617 said:

Why was he even leaving?  Weren't they just sending the folks from Camelot home?   I've sort of lost track of who's in Storybrooke "normally" or via portal or via Dark Curse #2521.

I think they were sending back anyone who wanted to go to their 'home realm', be it Camelot, Sherwood Forest, whatever version of Scotland Merida was from...

[Dianthus]

My overall reaction to last night's travesty can be summed up in two words: Bitch, please!

[kirkola]

11 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

I was unspoiled, but I had a feeling they were going down the Dr. Jeklyll and Mr. Hyde route, as soon as they introduced both of the characters.  Kind of enjoying Hyde, but that's mainly because I found him to be a strange mixture of Bill Compton from True Blood (mainly how he looked and dressed) and Hive Ward currently on Agents of Shield, especially the way he spoke.  Got a kick out of it.  I guess him bringing a whole of "untold story" characters to this planet could be a fun storyline for next season, but that's assuming the writers won't drop the ball, which admittedly has been known to happen.

 

I had to pause the show to look Hyde up to be sure it wasn't Stephen Moyer.  He didn't move or speak like Moyer, but he definitely looked like him.

[kili]

Quote

Those were really sad looking (read: FAKE) lions in front of the library...

LOL. Those lions weren't put there by production. Those are real stone lions. They are modelled after the ones in Trafalgar Square as opposed to the New York Library Lions. I think they are actually the same age - both sets being unveiled in 1910 (New York/Vancouver - London ones are much older). 

I noticed the transition from the "Land of Untold Stories" to the "City of 8 Million Stories". 

How come evil magic evil doers never seem to die - they just disappear into smoke/ash to reform later (Rumple, Zelena, Regina, Malificient). Could Hyde really have strangled Jekyll? Are good people the only ones who can die? Hades is ash. Is he coming back too?

Edited May 16, 2016 by kili

[Selina K]

11 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Kind of enjoying Hyde, but that's mainly because I found him to be a strange mixture of Bill Compton from True Blood (mainly how he looked and dressed) and Hive Ward currently on Agents of Shield, especially the way he spoke.  

I enjoyed Hyde a lot.  He definitely had some kind of Bill Compton / weirdly not Southern vampire thing going for me as well.  He was absolutely menacing and I believed he was full on bad news.

When Hyde was choking Hook in the cage, my husband was yelling, "You have a hook!  Use it!"  I was glad to see they actually did make use of the hook later in the episode.

I know this was technically the CS season, but could we have capped it off with a little more closure? Conversation? I mean, yay, Emma said "I love you" while not in mortal peril, but for all the harrowing death scenes I sat through this season, I couldn't get a little more happiness to counterbalance?

Regina.  Sigh. I don't know where to go here.  I hate that Snow and Emma bought in to the personality splitting, though almost worth it for the reaction posts over in the live thread.  I can see that act being a very visual representation of something that one might be advised to do metaphorically in therapy, but the real way you learn is by owning your past and then living with it and knowing how awful it feels so you don't make the same mistakes again.  I'm not completely anti-Regina.  I liked her a lot more in most of 5B than I have since season 3B.  I think it might be fun to see how season 6A plays with the duality of the character and I hope she is after Snow / Charming and Hook / Emma just because it could be more interesting than our typical big bad, oh he/she is so sad because child reasons, oops now theyre gone, on to the next.  But the inherent whitewashing of her sins by dumping them into an actual second representation which paves the way for "good" Regina to go forward and never have to apologize for her past deeds, well, you can think that was another personality, but for real, it was all you.  Sometimes even when you're "good" you don't get "good" things, Regina.  You know, like Emma, and Snow, and Charming lived through for 28 years, because of hmm, i don't know ... oh wait, yes, because of you, Regina.  Sorry that six months of goodness hasn't paid the rewards you expect, but that doesn't make you cursed.  Life is hard. Bad things happen. Good things happen, too, but no one is guaranteed perfect.  You're more likely to find good stuff when you don't sit around moping about how good things never happen to you.  I get she is in mourning, but this attitude has been persistent through the show, and it is hard to empathize with the character for me because bad stuff happens to everyone, and you can either let that rule your life, or you can cry a bit, and then stand up, deal with it, and keep walking forward.

[Randomosity]

13 minutes ago, Selina K said:

...weirdly not Southern vampire thing going for me as well...

...I know this was technically the CS season, but could we have capped it off with a little more closure? Conversation? I mean, yay, Emma said "I love you" while not in mortal peril, but for all the harrowing death scenes I sat through this season, I couldn't get a little more happiness to counterbalance?...

Before the Jekyll/Hyde thing was made clear, my first thought was 'Dracula, is that you?'

Also, just re-watching now, but I noticed that when Emma and Killian walked up to Granny's, it was very much dark night outside. The cemetery scene was gray, but definitely still during the day. I'm telling myself that they were extra late to the gathering at Granny's because they went home to do some reunion ravishing of each other first.

ETA: also, I REALLY thought the Dracula thing when Charming had the wooden stake ready to stab him with.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Randomosity
Vampires/stakes...

[Camera One]

If Merida wasn't in such a rush to get home, none of their problems would even have occurred. What happened to a true leader stands by your friends?  

It was totally cheap that the stakes stated at the beginning of the episode (that Storybrooke would be destroyed) if Henry got rid of magic, wasn't even true.  

Regina agreeing to take the Red potion and Snow and Emma condoning it was against multiple lessons this show has "imparted" over the years.  Such as... Magic always comes with a price, We are both, enjoy the moments between battles, There's a hard way and there's an easy way, Love yourself, Have faith, Have Hope, and from last episode, grieve normally, etc. etc..  

As someone said above, Hyde or Rumple tricking Regina into drinking it would at least have spared the damage to Snow and Emma.  But who cares about those two props.

Henry had such vitriol for Emma, but he didn't even get to yell at Rumple?

Edited May 16, 2016 by Camera One

[MostlyC]

JEKYLL JUICE

 

This is going to make me giggle for days.

[Anakerie]

Very disappointed that the episode did not include Rumple opening the box and yelling "Where's Belle and who put a DICK in here???"

[3dog]

36 minutes ago, Camera One said:

Regina agreeing to take the Red potion and Snow and Emma condoning it was against multiple lessons this show has "imparted" over the years.  Such as... Magic always comes with a price, We are both, enjoy the moments between battles, There's a hard way and there's an easy way, Love yourself, Have faith, Have Hope, and from last episode, grieve normally, etc. etc.. 

Yes, this. Plus the doctor had just flower-squeezed that thing together about 10 minutes ago. They had no idea what kind of other side effects it could have, but not one of them was like, "So....is this stuff safe?"

[Mathius]

42 minutes ago, Camera One said:

Henry had such vitriol for Emma, but he didn't even get to yell at Rumple?

Um, he did yell at Rumple.  When Rumple blamed him for dooming Belle and his family after sucking away the crystal's magic, Henry yelled back that this is Rumple's own fault and not his before storming off.

Edited May 16, 2016 by Mathius

[darkestboy]

I actually really liked this finale. Jekyll and Hyde for next season, great actors in both roles and I can get behind Regina's Evil self having a life of her own to an extent too.

Does this mean that Rumple got to revive Belle off screen? Once again, he wins.

Henry was an idiot throughout this two parter but Violet's suddenly gotten a bit more interesting as a character though.

I liked the team up with Zelena, Hook, David and Snow during most of this episode along with the Emma/Regina scenes.

The first half of this season was such a mess, the second half a nice recovery and the finale had enough to make me want to watch next season, 8/10

[BoPeeps]

Because my expectations are rather non-existent with these writers, when they present go nowhere, solve nothing, retcon everything, chaotic, circular clusterfuck episodes I am neither surprised nor disappointed.  So, there were disjointed amusing moments that actually entertained me.  Some stupid?  Yeah.  Some touching?  Yeah.  Enough to keep me coming back in the fall?  Yeah.  As long as I keep those expectations very low, story and progressive character wise.  They still have my favs alive and "quipping".

A&E do not know how to create good relationship stories as a rule.  For all their True Love expounding, they either are held back by pubescent Disneyesque/ family hour restrictions or they are genuinely afraid of serious sexuality in a relationship. It is probably an accident that the Captain Swan love affair has shown at least some mature development.  (But oddly enough, the answer to every coupling should not be a named- for -dead -men infant.  Please keep Swan and Hook from that story stunting fate! Let them now get sassy and have some confident adventures. They love each other...as has been well proven!)

On the other hand, beating people bloody and habitual violence is not a problem. Much like American society.

Fun stuff: Actual action. The Steampunk set. The Bromance. The opening of the door to Don Quixote, Paul Bunyan, etc. The embarrassingly sappy Henry Tinkerbell Mills speech (no one got physically bloodied and it appealed to the magical child like portion of my brain that has been reality- bludgeoned after too many decades of witnessing heartless, cynical human behavior)

Not so fun: Shitty writing, shitty writing and some shitty writing.  Being true to their story and concept has vanished and they don't seem to care at all.  Hyde creeps me out. Portals are as common as potholes.

Question marks: Will they handle the Evil Queen well? (Ha)

[LucidDreamer]

What did I watch???

Awful, terrible, storytelling topped off with questionable character motivation and some very bad acting. (Cringing at you, Henry).

I laughed out loud at the "We do believe in fairies (uhm, magic)" speech at the fountain. Embarrassing hardly covers it.

Other crazy stuff (some not yet mentioned in the thread):

• The New York Public Library (stand-in, but supposed to be that) allowing two random teens in a rare book room unsupervised. Because that would happen, NEVER!! (Not even at your local library would they be allowed to do this, especially not carrying in book bags or whatever).
• The Unholy grail -- What?! Is this the goblet Judas drank from before the betrayal, because I know a little bit of the Grail story and I don't recall that little tidbit.
• The use of Jekyll and Hyde -- not a fairy tale, not a folk tale, not even a classic story (like Peter Pan) with fairy tale or folk tale trappings. A serious book for adults (despite the horror aspects, it really is a deep psychological tale) is reduced and its entire message subverted because... Someone wanted to bring back the Evil Queen, but still have a "good" Regina? (P.S. WTH does Disney have to do with Jeckyll & Hyde? Is there a movie in the works or something?)
• No one seems particularly concerned about their babies -- who is taking care of Snowflake? (I guess Granny is stuck with the other one).
• Henry... Just everything. Just send the kid to boarding school, please.
• Regina making sense -- UNTIL she said she was CURSED. No, lady, you did stuff. No one forced you. No one cursed you. Own up and move on.
• That awful Connecticut Yankee name drop. I get it, writers/producers -- you think we are so stupid we have to have it all spelled out for us.
• The sets for the "Town of Misfit Stories" were cringe worthy. Like, cheap homemade video bad.

I pretty much watched this season bored out of my mind (other people in my house wanted to see it, so...) Next year, I may just skip it and read the comments on here instead.  They make more sense and are much more entertaining.

[Randomosity]

Thoughts upon re-watching:
 

• They made it a point to show Granny with the green bean, so are we to infer that baby do-over was off at his day job or hanging at Starbucks?
   
• How is there STILL an empty apartment just waiting around for them in NYC? Who is paying (the astronomical rent)???
   
• Based on the mail from Robin to Regina, I guess he expected the US Postal Service to be fully functioning in a not-quite-real town? (Did anyone catch the zip code on Regina's address? It looked to me like 04875, which doesn't actually exist. However, if it was 04675 instead, it's not far from a real place called Swans Island, hee).
   
• Why did Violet and Henry originally go into what looks like a small branch of the library that you might find uptown, but then end up in front of the big one with the lions? Never mind, despite the lions, it wasn't meant to be the library. The fountain was the focus. Whatever.
   
• Also, why was Emma's voice weird while talking to Henry at the fountain. It had more of a quality you'd expect when talking to a 3 year old, not a 13(?) year old.
   
• Ahahaha, Henry 'knew Emma was lonely' while she was seriously dating Walsh?! Maybe his wish actually just spurred Walsh to propose, and we can just leave Hook showing up as a result of Hook's doing absolutely everything he could to get to Emma. Let's not taint that effort, ok Henry? That was Killian being in love with Emma already, not your dumb wish.
   
• Yeah, no. As someone who has lived in both Vancouver and NYC, I sure as hell would have paid exactly zero attention to Henry's bat-crap crazy rant on the lion. Not only that, but you can bet a security guard or two would have gotten to him before he got very far with that nonsense.
   
• It almost sounded like Emma said Daddy instead of just Dad when they popped up in the fountain. Dawww.
   
• I essentially never notice the soundtrack music on this show, but I did catch nice blips of string-instruments in the background this time. I liked it.
   
• On re-watch, the Captain Swan kiss wasn't even a little impressive (looked like Emma was trying hard to avoid tongue :\ ). Last week's reunion was FAR better than this nothingness.

[Primetimer]

A mostly satisfying season finale wraps up some loose ends and sets up next year's villain, because these characters just can't catch a break.

View the full article

[tennisgurl]

You know what I have noticed? The writers are good at writing one shot, adventure stories, in interesting lands, and writing the characters when they are fun adventurer types. Those usually go over well, or at least not painfully. Its when they get into morality plays, continuity, pointless subplots, and convoluted storylines that things fall apart. 

Maybe this show would be better if this whole show was just Our Heroes traveling the multiverse, having adventures, and having only some continuity and reoccurring bad guys? 

Edited May 16, 2016 by tennisgurl

[Serena]

It's kind of hilarious how the site recaps are always completely the opposite of whatever the majority forum opinion is.

[profdanglais]

57 minutes ago, 3dog said:

Yes, this. Plus the doctor had just flower-squeezed that thing together about 10 minutes ago. They had no idea what kind of other side effects it could have, but not one of them was like, "So....is this stuff safe?"

Yes, and also, did they sterilise that enormous needle before Snow jabbed the entire length of it into Regina's arm? Hyde had already used it on himself and they've been dragging it around from realm to realm, so unless Jekyll Juice also has antiseptic properties, ew. 

[3dog]

4 minutes ago, profdanglais said:

Yes, and also, did they sterilise that enormous needle before Snow jabbed the entire length of it into Regina's arm? Hyde had already used it on himself and they've been dragging it around from realm to realm, so unless Jekyll Juice also has antiseptic properties, ew. 

Good point. Maybe this was the pay-off of a decades-long scheme by Snow to give the Evil Queen hepatitis.

[Randomosity]

9 minutes ago, profdanglais said:

Yes, and also, did they sterilise that enormous needle before Snow jabbed the entire length of it into Regina's arm? Hyde had already used it on himself and they've been dragging it around from realm to realm, so unless Jekyll Juice also has antiseptic properties, ew. 

Exactly my thought upon seeing it. So not a good message.

[InsertWordHere]

33 minutes ago, Randomosity said:

Ahahaha, Henry 'knew Emma was lonely' while she was seriously dating Walsh?!

I am okay with Henry thinking his wish was about Walsh and Emma getting married so "our family could be complete" when it really was about Hook showing up and taking them back to their family in Storybrooke. 

[Randomosity]

1 minute ago, InsertWordHere said:

I am okay with Henry thinking his wish was about Walsh and Emma getting married so "our family could be complete" when it really was about Hook showing up and taking them back to their family in Storybrooke. 

I just don't like the insinuation that Henry was the one who 'wished' everything into motion. I prefer thinking it was Hook wanting to get to Emma of his own volition, no outside influence. To each their own ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Curio]

3 minutes ago, Randomosity said:

I just don't like the insinuation that Henry was the one who 'wished' everything into motion. I prefer thinking it was Hook wanting to get to Emma of his own volition, no outside influence.

I don't see why it can't be both. Hook was working by himself using his own free will to get to Emma, and Henry also made his wish simultaneously. In fact, if this show cared about continuity and silly things like that, they could finally show us the flashback of Hook's bean adventure, and then they could retcon it so that Henry's penny wish at the fountain gave Hook just enough extra magic wind to push the Jolly's sails to outrun Zelena/Snowing's curse during the missing year. Because let's be real, Hook may be a hell of a captain, but it's still really farfetched to believe he sailed that entire ship on his own and did it fast enough to outrun Dark Curse 2.0.

[InsertWordHere]

1 minute ago, Curio said:

Because let's be real, Hook may be a hell of a captain, but it's still really farfetched to believe he sailed that entire ship on his own and did it fast enough to outrun Dark Curse 2.0.

To be fair, those curses are pretty slow. Snow gave birth to a baby during the first one. Pan activated his curse at the beginning of Going Home and they still had time for Rumple and Pan's big street confrontation and goodbyes at the town line. Zelena had a whole scene with Rumple after she flew over and added her memory potion to the Curse. But the wish thing could explain how Neal's pigeon had time to fly all the way over to Hook and Hook still had time to ditch his crew, sail the Jolly Roger outside the curse, and find someone who happened to have the exact rare magical object he needed. 

I think Henry's wish is what suddenly made a bean available (for a price).

[RadioGirl27]

Finally saw the whole episodes, and, boy, that was bad. The only things I liked were the blink and you miss it Captain Charming hug and the actors playing Jeckyll and Hyde. The rest was pure crap. The Zelena/Hook/Snowing adventure could have been great, but they didn't even talk to each other. It could have been Granny, Grumpy, Blue and Archie and nothing would have changed.

The New York stuff was painful to watch (shut up, Henry!, shut up, Regina!, grow a backbone, Emma!). And, once again, poor, poor Belle.

The lack of payoff for Hook and Emma was insulting. All this pain and misery for a tackle (that may or may not mean they are TL), a kiss in a cementery and an ILY. Wow, breathtaking stuff. The relationship is exactly in the same point it was before the Dark One curse, Camelot, Hook's multiple deaths and the UW.

[justmythoughts]

I've just  finished the first part and even after reading your comments I was not prepared for some BS!

Please, someone shove a whale over Henry's mouth! What a brat! The only thing I could think during his scene in the rare book room with his moms was: well done, Regina and Emma, a 15 year old thinks he  can treat you like that, so you deserve it! He was impolite, way out of line, if he was my son after his first word I would be like: lower your tone, mister, or you will be grounded till 18! When he said Emma was worried about Regina like she should not and she looked at him with that face and said sorry... not for the first time, but one of the strongest, I wanted to slap her! He is your son, you don't need to take any of his crap! Regina's just gave her a  speech about how Emma was right to be worried about the EQ!

And ... that speech. Nice parts... like Regina finally saying out loud she's done unspeakable things (for one second I was like, please say: including to you, Emma, I aknowledge the fact you grew apart from your parents because of me!). But that BS of "I could not forgive Snow"... WTF? There was no need for forgiveness, just understand she was a child, manipulated by your mother as so many other adults (including Regina herself) had been. And all that I don't deserve to be happy blahhhhh... just not! She had many happy moments with Robin, she still has Henry, she has her friends, now even a sister... yeah, sad Robin is gone, but her life is not exactly the most miserable in the universe, and I wished Emma'd have pointed that out: I was soooo good, a clean pure love hearted baby, and even so I grew up with no love, no family, no friends, for 28 years, without killing a single soul, so I am sure you have a lot of good things in your life right now, GINA, that can help you to pass through this difficult time and move on, without turning the EQ again. 

It really bothered me.

But, the Jekyll and Hyde part was quite nice till now, Charming and Killian are adorable. (I was just thinking that Ginny must have a really good body double, she cannot be that pregnant and be jumping and falling during the time/space travel scenes).

Rumple predictable as always chooses power over love...

Have I mentioned how much Henry's bratyness and Regina's victim of the world has made me angry? Yeah? Can I just say it again? 

Well... back to the second episode... thanks for providing me a space to lash out, guys! And no, I complain, but I know I'll never be able to give up on the show, I just love some of them too much to say goodbye by my own choice, and some parts are still good!

Edited May 16, 2016 by justmythoughts
poor grammar