S06.E20: The Song in Your Heart

[AudienceofOne]

4 minutes ago, Camera One said:

We'll meet the other Dark Fairies in Season 7, 8 and 9.  They include Rumple's grandmother, Regina's great-grandmother and Hook's mother.  They're the three sisters from MacBeth.

Actually Regina's great grandmother and Hook's mother are the same person. She left the enchanted forest for Hook's realm because she got a vision that her daughter would give birth to evil. This means that Hook is Henry's step father, step grandfather, and adopted great grandfather. Henry will soon go back in time and marry  Hooks' mother. The next season will include a revelation that Hook is also Henry's step son.

[OnceUponAJen]

On 05/09/2017 at 0:04 PM, Rumsy4 said:

That was the funniest line of the whole season! Especially paired with that little Imp!Rumple-dance pose.

It reminded me of the Psych musical when Sean's dad comes onscreen and he just says, "No" and walks off.

[Shanna Marie]

I finally got around to rewatching, and my biggest laugh was realizing what my week-long earworm was. I've spent the whole week with a song fragment in my head, and it's been frustrating because I couldn't recall the words or the rest of the song. I could kind of "hear" the voice, but every time it came close to top of mind, it dissipated. I knew it was from a musical of some sort, and I was mentally scrolling through every musical I know of. Turns out, it was Zelena's song. I hadn't rewatched that part, but apparently it stuck in my brain. I've been humming one part of the chorus of that song to myself all week. So I guess I'll be buying a download of that one.

Anyway, the Final Battle stuff still makes no sense. Not only should they have known not to take Rumple at his word, but wouldn't Henry's book have shown it if the Black Fairy had truly been defeated? Shouldn't they have checked that before making wedding plans? And then the way Blue talked about the way the magic would work to protect Emma in the biggest fight she'd ever face ... unless this song stuff comes up again in the finale, all the song in the heart thing did was protect Emma in this one confrontation that she only sort of won and that wasn't even the real fight. She was the one who forced that confrontation ahead of the curse that was going to lead to the final battle, so if she and the others had done nothing all day, they'd have ended up in exactly the same place, which means the entire episode was utterly pointless, and the song in her heart was unnecessary. Given this show's track record for continuity, I'm not holding my breath waiting for them to even remember the song in the heart stuff in the finale, so it will likely end up having nothing to do with Emma's biggest battle.

Oh, and the other day, I woke up in the morning with a bird singing rather melodically outside my window. I'll admit that I checked to make sure I was talking instead of singing. You know, in case someone cast a spell. It all begins when that bird starts singing ...

[Camera One]

I guarantee there will be no mention of music or songs in the season finale.  But oh no, wait, the song in Emma's heart is at a frequency beyond the human hearing range but it will definitely help her to defeat The Black Fairy even though we don't hear it.  Or the confidence that Emma got from the song in this episode is what makes her ready for The Final Battle.  What's that phrase?  You win the final battle but you lose the war?

Edited May 14, 2017 by Camera One

[Camera One]

I just rewatched the musical numbers (unfortunately, there was just one I couldn't bare to re-watch), and it does add extra poignancy knowing the show as we know it is over.  

Jennifer Morrison has a beautiful singing voice, but the higher pitch makes it sound like it's someone else's voice.  The stronger singing lines she directed towards The Black Fairy in the first song she sings in the Mayor's office is where you can really hear the lower Emma voice.  Rebecca Mader also sings at a slightly higher pitch than her speaking voice, though the difference is not as extreme.  

[Countriebabe08]

On May 7, 2017 at 8:05 PM, Jul 68 said:

Loved Emma's dress and makeup, especially her lipstick. It was all beautiful.

THAT should have been how the show ended.

It basically will have ended with half the cast bowing out of the next season!!

[Noneofyourbusiness]

13 hours ago, AudienceofOne said:

Actually Regina's great grandmother and Hook's mother are the same person. She left the enchanted forest for Hook's realm because she got a vision that her daughter would give birth to evil. This means that Hook is Henry's step father, step grandfather, and adopted great grandfather. Henry will soon go back in time and marry  Hooks' mother. The next season will include a revelation that Hook is also Henry's step son.

Hook's realm is the Enchanted Forest.

[KingOfHearts]

This episode makes me think Zelena went around cleaning up Regina's messes to insure her sister would cast the curse. And there's Rumple sitting in the cage thinking, "Ah, I'm not worried. Regina's insane sister will take care of it." Regina is very overrated. She was only powerful due to the meddling of superiors around her. She was only able to cast the curse because she was most likely to be pushed over the edge enough to kill her own father. (As well as get into a feud that would produce a Savior.)

Zelena and Rumple are the true masterminds.

Edited May 14, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[Jul 68]

On 05/11/2017 at 2:33 PM, Randomosity said:

Seriously. Bad week. Emma's out, so S7 will be a mess if it happens (do we know for sure it will?). Stupid Ottawa. And on top of that, Timeless was cancelled.

*cries*

Did you hear the news?

'Timeless' Saved From Cancellation as NBC Reverses Course With Season 2 Renewal

[Randomosity]

30 minutes ago, Jul 68 said:

Did you hear the news?

'Timeless' Saved From Cancellation as NBC Reverses Course With Season 2 Renewal

Yes!! Thanks for checking that I had. Such a bizarre turn of events, and it doesn't make up for everything else, but it's close! :)

[Wayward Son]

I loved the episode! Probably the best of the season for me! Highlights include 

 

- Bex, Collin and Josh's vocals. 

- Wicked Always Wins

- The Captain Swan Wedding 

- "I'd rather gouge my eyes out with a rusty fork" 

- Emma'a wedding dress (she looked so beautiful) and Hook's wedding suit (he looked so handsome)! 

[AudienceofOne]

5 hours ago, Noneofyourbusiness said:

Hook's realm is the Enchanted Forest.

I always thought his original realm was 17th century English naval world. Oh well, it's not like I was being serious.

[Shanna Marie]

You know, when you think about it, this episode was basically Magic Baby Tree Thing: The Musical (and probably a few other episodes, as well). Villain pops by to mwa ha ha, describe exactly what she's going to do, and exactly when she's going to do it. Heroes run around trying to think of a way to stop her. In a flashback, we see the formation of an incredibly useful and powerful magical thing that will save the day. In the present, heroes try to use the magical thing. Villain does exactly what she said she was going to do. Though in this case, they used the song. It just didn't do any good. They'd have had the exact same outcome if Emma had spent the day having a mani-pedi with her mother rather than her running around, trying to stop things. I wonder if the song in the heart is an ongoing, lifelong source of strength, or if she used it up in the confrontation she forced rather than in the actual final battle.

On a more positive note, if the poll about best numbers had a best choreography/physical performance category, Hook's song would have to win. Rewatching it, I'm really rather impressed. That scene could have fit in an old-school movie musical. It probably helped that they likely hired professional dancers for the pirate chorus, but Colin did some pretty heavy lifting at the center of it, having to do that chair flip thing, getting up and down from benches and tables, and making it all look utterly effortless. The choreography for that number was very organic and natural, like it was just a likely more stylized version of the way he normally moves. It wouldn't look too terribly weird if you muted it and didn't know it was a musical number. And the movement was very musical -- every step, every motion, every facial expression fit perfectly with the music, punctuating a phrase, and right on the beat. That's where I think Colin's being a musician really came in handy. He could feel and sense the phrasing and move accordingly.

Also, I have decided that since everyone was randomly bursting into song and not necessarily having just one musical number, as part of the Once Upon a Time in Offscreenville episode associated with this episode, Hook and Charming burst into an "Agony" (from Into the Woods) style duet during the voyage (in a ship, over land, within walking distance, but whatever) to the Evil Queen's castle, with Charming singing about Hook being a lousy pirate who'd never amount to anything and Hook pointing out that Charming knows nothing about him. Maybe a wink-wink lyric or two with ironic hints about Hook's future.

[Camera One]

15 minutes ago, Shanna Marie said:

They'd have had the exact same outcome if Emma had spent the day having a mani-pedi with her mother rather than her running around, trying to stop things.

It's unclear if The Black Fairy would have needed/wanted to release the Dark Curse in the Clocktower if she had just gotten Emma's heart.  Was she just going to crush it?  Why didn't she do it the last few episodes?  

Why did Snow need to wish on a star?  It really makes Blue the worst friend/advisor ever.  Last time chronologically was probably when she told Snow she had something she didn't have - hope!  and then she flew off.   If Snow hadn't wished on a star, would Blue have offered the "song in your heart" protection?  Was Blue singing "Happy I Just Screwed You Over Day" in the background during that last song?

Edited May 14, 2017 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

10 minutes ago, Camera One said:

It's unclear if The Black Fairy would have needed/wanted to release the Dark Curse in the Clocktower if she had just gotten Emma's heart.  Was she just going to crush it?  Why didn't she do it the last few episodes?  

Everything about the Black Fairy is unclear. Would Emma handing over her heart even have counted? The Black Fairy is doing all this because of a prophecy saying there would be a final battle between her and a Savior, but if Emma hands over her heart, there's no battle, so the prophecy is still unfulfilled.

[KingOfHearts]

Zelena gave up her magic to stop the Black Fairy from amassing enough dark fairy dust to create/cast the Dark Curse... and her sacrifice did nothing but slow her down for five minutes. Regina will probably pull something out of her butt to save the day with no consequences at all. IMO, Zelena has every right to be green with envy.

Edited May 14, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[Shanna Marie]

14 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

Regina will probably pull something out of her butt to save the day with no consequences at all.

I'm thinking this one is going to be a Rumple win. It'll turn out that the prophecy had nothing to do with him being the Savior and was specifically about him battling Fiona.

[Noneofyourbusiness]

7 hours ago, AudienceofOne said:

I always thought his original realm was 17th century English naval world. Oh well, it's not like I was being serious.

Nah, it was a part of the Enchanted Forest that had a 17th century-esque navy.

[kingshearte]

18 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

Also, I have decided that since everyone was randomly bursting into song and not necessarily having just one musical number, as part of the Once Upon a Time in Offscreenville episode associated with this episode, Hook and Charming burst into an "Agony" (from Into the Woods) style duet during the voyage (in a ship, over land, within walking distance, but whatever) to the Evil Queen's castle, with Charming singing about Hook being a lousy pirate who'd never amount to anything and Hook pointing out that Charming knows nothing about him. Maybe a wink-wink lyric or two with ironic hints about Hook's future.

You have no idea how much money I would pay to make this a reality.

I really wasn't sure about this whole musical episode thing, but I finally found time to watch it, and... I didn't hate it. Much of it was kind of terrible, and the plot wasn't any better than any other recent one, but I had a lot more fun watching this episode than I have watching any others in quite some time. I may even watch it again, and I haven't rewatched in I don't even know how long. 

[MedievalGirl]

Given the Hamilton shoutout the week before I expected at least a few lines of rap. Totally threw away their shot.
During the reception a line containing the word happy happened to have Happy's face center screen. That was really funny.
I loved that Princess Emma was wearing a dress in the style of a real-life princess. 
I also loved seeing Snow in the war council outfit. I still have the fabric for that in my hoard and now I have a clearer idea of how to adapt it for a baby-affected body. 
The songs. I wanted to like them but I kept cringing. Maybe I need to watch it again so as not to be surprised. 
Loved the wedding and the unrealness of the rooftop CGI. 

[jhlipton]

On 5/14/2017 at 5:18 PM, Shanna Marie said:

I have decided that since everyone was randomly bursting into song and not necessarily having just one musical number, as part of the Once Upon a Time in Offscreenville episode associated with this episode, Hook and Charming burst into an "Agony" (from Into the Woods) style duet.

Since Jane Espenson was a co-executive producer during "Once More With Feeling", you'd think she might have given them some advice as to a cursed singing plot (include at least one never-seen-before character, so we know that everyone is cursed, for example).  But she seems to have forgotten most of what she learned on BtVS.

[Camera One]

Quote

It probably helped that they likely hired professional dancers for the pirate chorus, but Colin did some pretty heavy lifting at the center of it, having to do that chair flip thing, getting up and down from benches and tables, and making it all look utterly effortless. The choreography for that number was very organic and natural, like it was just a likely more stylized version of the way he normally moves. It wouldn't look too terribly weird if you muted it and didn't know it was a musical number. And the movement was very musical -- every step, every motion, every facial expression fit perfectly with the music, punctuating a phrase, and right on the beat. That's where I think Colin's being a musician really came in handy. He could feel and sense the phrasing and move accordingly.

He did a good job, but the choreography designed for him wasn't that amazing to me.  He was basically stepping on various pieces of furniture and doing fist bumps in the air.  What made the number stand out wasn't really his dancing skills, but that the song had background singers (the pirates) with singing parts.  The lack of that in all the other songs made them less like musical numbers and more like solos (or in Snowing's case, a duet).  Regina's choreography was the embarrassing gyrating.  Zelena's was the pointless "scaring" of Munchkins, which lasted way too long.  At least Snowing got to do a little bit of dancing.  Emma's theme song had actions that corresponded to the words, so in that way, it was a bit more meaningful.  The wedding song number started beautifully but the rest of it was a tad chaotic, our main characters got lost in the crowd, and they missed out on featuring the few guest stars who attended.  Granny and Blue in particular did not get a closeup shot.  As I mentioned in another thread, I hate "nah nah nah" parts of songs.

On rewatch, all the songs grew on me, which is a good thing.  Most of the cast had really good voices... stronger than Belle in the new movie. I still wonder why they didn't write a different song for the sing-off.  It would have been less boring than a repeat of their earlier songs.

Edited May 21, 2017 by Camera One

[daxx]

Instead of the sing off repeating the same songs they should have had Hook and Emma sing a duet in the captains cabin right where he said he wanted to help. Something supportive for them both.

[kingshearte]

I ultimately kind of loved this episode, but it occurred to me that there were a few things it was missing. 

1. A legit Emma and Killian duet. I mean, come on.
2. A Charming and Killian duet, like someone up there suggested. Not necessary for plot reasons, but so necessary for awesomeness reasons.
3. The Snowing theme. This one only occurred to me recently, but they've been using this musical theme since the pilot, and yet it makes no appearance in the musical episode. Hell, that should have been the song Emma found inside herself. My music geek heart would have loved that so much.

[Camera One]

Emma's song was partly Snowing's theme, so I suppose that did ultimately make sense (though at first, it was curious why they didn't use Emma's actual score theme as the basis for the song).

Emma and Killian could have gotten more lines later in "Happy Beginnings" instead of the long-stretch where it just sounds like a chorus.

The biggest waste really was the sing-off since that was just repetition.

One weird thing was how Snow couldn't help singing when she woke up, but later could talk just fine.  

And what a huge wish that it could cross realms and affect Oz (Zelena) too.

Was Blue too busy to explain anything until the end?  Talk about granting a wish and letting it get out of control.

[KingOfHearts]

Quote

Emma and Killian could have gotten more lines later in "Happy Beginnings" instead of the long-stretch where it just sounds like a chorus.

"A Happy Beginning" had the characters singing differently, and it made me wish we got some more Storybrooke songs. Lana sounded a thousand times better. Jen and Colin were using a sweeter tone, which was a pleasant escape from their respective songs that had more tension. 

Rumple's fakeout is now on the list of my favorite moments on the show.

Edited May 28, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[Camera One]

I'm listening to the songs a lot these last two weeks.  I like Zelena's song, but her plan made no sense.  Why not swoop into town and defeat the Charmings herself?  Or go to Rumple's cell and demand that she cast the Curse, or she won't help Regina stop the Charmings?  

Not to mention the songs were apparently meant to stop The Black Fairy, so why did it have any power against Regina?  Plus

Spoiler

the songs had no role in stopping The Black Fairy in the end!  

I'm sorry but A&E can't plan/write themselves out of a paper bag.

Edited June 3, 2017 by Camera One

[KingOfHearts]

A song in Emma's heart was pretty much a retcon. She never did any singing, other than in the Wish Realm and in this episode's flashbacks. It doesn't really make sense or add to anything. It's funny how the writers keep trying to add things to make Emma more special or heroic without actually making her make new choices. Not only is she the Savior destined to break the curse, but she's also magical (S2), born of a pure fetus (4B), and part of a long line of Saviors (6A), and now we've discovered she's had a song planted in her heart in order to end a minor scuffle with the Black Fairy. The writers throw these things at her instead of making her important by her own merit.

[jhlipton]

1 hour ago, KingOfHearts said:

The writers throw these things at her instead of making her important by her own merit.

That might involve... character!!!  Dun dun DUN!!!!! 

[Camera One]

If Snow hadn't made that random wish, would Blue have done anything to make sure a song was planted in Emma's heart?  

[KingOfHearts]

5 minutes ago, Camera One said:

If Snow hadn't made that random wish, would Blue have done anything to make sure a song was planted in Emma's heart?  

When you think about it, Blue is almost like an Enchanted Forest deity. People pray to her and she manipulates their fate.

[KingOfHearts]

One of the lines in the Snowing song goes, "Cause love can defeat powers, curses or beans". It doesn't really make sense. Defeat magic beans? Perhaps "queens" would have been a more sensible choice?

[daxx]

31 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

One of the lines in the Snowing song goes, "Cause love can defeat powers, curses or beans". It doesn't really make sense. Defeat magic beans? Perhaps "queens" would have been a more sensible choice?

Oh, but the Queen can't be defeated. Donchaknow.

[InsertWordHere]

The beans line bothers me so much, but to be fair, the line after is "and the unhappy ending let that be the Queen's."

But what can we replace "beans" with? Teens? Spleens? Greens? Or just use queens there and use beans in the next line instead? 

[Camera One]

Maybe fiends?  

[Shanna Marie]

I have some of the songs from the musical on my phone, and they've been coming up in shuffle when I take my morning walks. That's made me really listen to the lyrics, and I have to say that the plot makes even less sense when you really listen to the songs.

In "The Most Powerful Magic," there's a line saying "love expressed through song is the most powerful magic of all." But then all the other songs are about hate. The only love expressed through song was in the Charmings' song, and maybe in the snippets we saw of the secondary characters. Otherwise, it's Regina singing about how much she hates Snow, Hook singing about how much he hates Rumple, and Zelena singing about how much she hates Regina. Not to mention, the fact that it's coming out in song doesn't really change anything. These are things they'd have been saying anyway, things they're quite open about.

There didn't need to be a Zelena song, given that she never had any kind of relationship with Emma, and she was in a different world. Replace that one with maybe a group number of those secondary characters who were important to the Charmings and who have played a role in Emma's life -- Granny, the dwarfs, Archie, Gepetto. Then maybe have Regina admit to some kind of conflicted feelings -- maybe she could have had a happy life with all the opportunities she had to turn against revenge, all the people she could have loved but didn't -- stuff she'd hate to find herself saying but couldn't help herself under the spell. Hook could sing about his lost love and what his hopes for the future had been, in such a way that the audience would know Emma was ultimately the answer to. That would be love expressed through song in a way that could have become powerful magic.

And "A Happy Beginning" should have had some sign that the spell was spilling out and affecting them again, with everyone at least a little surprised to find themselves singing. It had to be magic for everyone to be able to burst into a synchronized song and dance number with no planning or rehearsal, but there's no sign of them reacting to the magic.

And I still wish we'd had an "Agony" type duet between Charming and Hook.

[RadioGirl27]

This episode was just so bad, everything, from most of the songs (I only liked Hook's and Zelena's) to the idea behind the script (Emma was never alone, she had a song in her heart!, so stupid) or the wedding (Hook and Emma deserved better than that), was terrible.

Edited September 17, 2017 by RadioGirl27

[KingOfHearts]

In retrospect, this episode had the depth and complexity of a TV Guide description. The songs were broad strokes of each character, having little to do with their nuances or development. It's like taking their basic bio, then cutting off everything but the first two sentences. The flashbacks were so irrelevant that the characters could get amnesia with no effect on the timeline whatsoever. Even as far as vignettes go, it didn't accurately or faithfully portray the various icons.

[Camera One]

Quote

KITSIS: One of the fun things about a musical is you emotionally say what you’re thinking in song. For Emma, who has been a very guarded and walled-up person, the wedding signifies the growth of her being able to trust someone again and letting her walls down, so we felt like the musical was perfectly a match with that.

How many times does she have to become "able" to trust someone again?  With the possible exception of Emma, I don't think anyone else said anything in song that they didn't already say a hundred times in regular speech. 

Quote

HOROWITZ: All the songs in the musical are designed — and we hope this audience feels this way when they watch it — to not be to just stop and have a song; they’re designed to actually reveal character and move the story forward.

"Wicked always wins", "Love is weakness", "Revenge will be mine", "Love is the most powerful magic"... that's revealing "character"?  LOL.

The interviews were all going on about how the musical didn't interrupt the plot, but really, as everyone said above, very little of the details in this episode was relevant.  The singing wasn't mentioned once in the two-hour finale.  

Still, it was the best episode of Season 6.

Edited December 30, 2017 by Camera One

[KingOfHearts]

26 minutes ago, Camera One said:

Still, it was the best episode of Season 6.

Probably because the songs had nothing to do with Season 6.

[Rumsy4]

7 hours ago, Camera One said:

Still, it was the best episode of Season 6.

This and The Other Shoe were the only decent episodes in the season, even if they were ultimately pointless. The rest were more or less trash.

Edited December 30, 2017 by Rumsy4

[Camera One]

Jealous foster kid: "You're just like the rest of us... all alone."  Huh?  What does that have to do with putting down her goal of winning a singing competition?

Ruining Snow's iconic wedding dress.  This show is just full of hope!  

Flashback #5000 of Snow losing hope in the past and then everyone relying on blind hope in the present.

It's funny how this episode is a microcosm of this show.  The flashback story starts with Snowing singing, and then basically the rest is the villains singing.  As Shanna Marie said above, most of the songs were about hate.  These songs would totally work if they do a "Once Upon a Time" Broadway musical in the future since the villains get an intro song summarizing their main motivation and MO.

Regina can tell the fairy dust will be released at 6 just like that? 

"The Black Fairy wants to separate me so I have to fight the final battle alone".  Well, I sure hope this "song in your heart" spell thwarts that dastardly plan before the finale.

Spoiler

Oh wait, it totally doesn't.

So in this episode, they find out the Curse was going to be cast at 6pm.  Emma prepares to face The Black Fairy with zero strategy.  The heroes have no coordination whereby Hook uses squid ink on Rumple but he wakes up just in time when Regina and Zelena easily come up with a solution to freeze the Curse so he could steal their formula because he couldn't use his magic to freeze everyone... that's like totally beyond his power, right?  

How convenient Belle isn't around to have everyone tell her how Rumple betrayed all her "friends".

Henry coming to give Emma a pep talk about the final battle and not worrying at all?  Shouldn't they cancel the wedding maybe?  The Black Fairy didn't freeze him because...?  She didn't understand the bond between mother and son?  Because her whole reason d'etre was trying to protect Baby Rumple, right?

Peter Pan tried to weaken Emma by making her feel like a "Lost Girl" in Season 3.  His ex-wife tries to do EXACTLY the same thing.  

I forgot Emma's original plan was to just give her heart to The Black Fairy?  It's nice to learn the main lesson on this show... just give up, everyone!  "We'll just have to hope" that things will work out.

I don't get it... so the songs could have stopped the Dark Curse from being cast?  Or not?  Was this "song in your heart" spell something that Blue can only do once in a millennium or what?

Ooh, a missing page from the Storybrooke shows up for no explicable reason... again.

Every time I watch this episode, I think... what a shame this wasn't the actual finale.  

Spoiler

Instead, we got The Last Supper.

Or even worse, Regina crowned The Queen of the Universe.

Edited August 30, 2019 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

6 hours ago, Camera One said:

As Shanna Marie said above, most of the songs were about hate. 

Oh, that drove me nuts as I was watching tonight. Snow sings, "Love expressed through song is a weapon like the Queen has never seen." And then we get a bunch of songs about how much people hate other people. The only song about love is "Powerful Magic" (and maybe some of the background character songs Regina sees through her mirrors).

I still have the same issues as from the first time around -- the hate songs that went into Emma's heart to give her the power of love, the very on-the-nose character exposition songs that would be great for Act One of a musical but that were pointless for season six of a series, the fact that this powerful magic that would help Emma when she needed it most ended up not really doing much of anything, all the idiots dancing and singing when they knew a curse was coming, the musical number at the wedding coming out of nowhere with no explanation. But it's still a lot of fun to watch and I found myself grinning like an idiot while watching. Most of the cast seem to be having a blast, as well. It was lovely to see the genuine joy on Emma and Hook at the wedding.

I just wish they hadn't squandered the talent and potential and had done something more or better with this episode (and with the series, in general).

Josh Dallas needs to be hired to voice a prince in a Disney animated musical. Rebecca Mader could voice the princess's wacky sidekick BFF (or a goofy princess -- I could see her doing the princess in Once Upon a Mattress or a character like Fiona in Shrek). I'm still mad we didn't get an "Agony" like duet between Charming and Hook.

[KingOfHearts]

7 hours ago, Camera One said:

Peter Pan tried to weaken Emma by making her feel like a "Lost Girl" in Season 3.  His ex-wife tries to do EXACTLY the same thing.  

Brilliant writers like A&E know that in order to see characters as part of the same family, they all need to act exactly the same way in the same situations. How else would we know they were related??

In retrospect... I don't like this episode all that much. A musical episode of OUAT sounds like a dream come true, but this is S6, where everything is phoned in. It doesn't have that Alan Menken-esque Disney magic and it doesn't try to go in a different direction either. It's nice to see the cast try their hand at singing, but the writers tried too hard to make the musical numbers relevant the plot. It's an obvious rip-off of the Buffy episode.

Edited August 31, 2019 by KingOfHearts

[Camera One]

It's funny how in every interview, A&E were all about how this episode fits into the storyline, yet

Spoiler

You could just watch the last 10 seconds of this episode and pretty much not miss a thing in terms of understanding the agonizingly boring 2-hour season finale.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

16 hours ago, KingOfHearts said:

It's nice to see the cast try their hand at singing, but the writers tried too hard to make the musical numbers relevant the plot. It's an obvious rip-off of the Buffy episode.

They'd have been better off if they'd ripped off more from the Buffy musical because one thing the Buffy musical did really well was use the musical format to do things that couldn't have happened with regular dialogue instead of musical numbers and use that as a way to progress the character stories. With the Buffy musical, they went with the idea that you'll express things in song that you might not say otherwise, that music causes you to express your real feelings. With the Once musical, no one (other than possibly Emma in her confrontation with the Black Fairy) said anything they hadn't already said dozens of times. Being forced into musical numbers didn't bring out any deep hidden thoughts or feelings. On Buffy, the musical showed us that Buffy was deeply unhappy after being brought back from the dead, which she'd never admitted to her friends; that Xander and Anya had serious doubts about their relationship and were rather irritated with each other; that Spike had fallen in love with Buffy and that was driving him nuts; that Giles was afraid he was holding Buffy back. About the only on the nose song was Tara's song about being in love with Willow, since I don't think that was something she wouldn't have said otherwise. In the aftermath of the musical, there was a bit of a rift between Buffy and her friends as she turned to Spike, Xander ended up leaving Anya at the altar, Tara broke up with Willow for using magic to manipulate her, and Giles left.

One of the issues with the Once musical was that most of the musical stuff was in the past, so it had nothing to do with the characters' current situations, and therefore it couldn't affect the status quo. But they still could have maybe used the songs to show us things about the characters then that maybe change our perception of them. Since it was supposed to be "love expressed through song" giving Emma power, show the gushy insides of these villains, since all their villainy came from warped reactions to lost love.

It might have helped if they really had treated the musical like musical theater and had it be two acts, as a two-parter. Have the Act One songs, then go deeper for Act Two, leading up to the music actually mattering to the Final Battle rather than it being a minor skirmish. Then they could have done something like the "Agony" style duet between Charming and Hook, with Charming singing about his hopes for his unborn daughter and Hook singing about hoping to find love again but despairing because of how dark his heart has become, and the irony is that they don't realize then that they're singing about the same person. Or, once Emma uses the song in her heart to defeat the Black Fairy, there's a spillover effect that has people in Storybrooke singing, which brings out a few truth bombs and leads to the musical number at the wedding.

Though I guess at the end of the season isn't the best place to put status-quo-altering truth bombs. So we're stuck with a musical episode that tells us nothing new and that doesn't affect the plot at all.

[Camera One]

At the end of the day, this episode was filler.  Though really, no more filler than the last couple of episodes with The Black Fairy and trying to piece together the broken wand or whatever they were trying to do which seemed to amount of nothing, unless I remembered incorrectly.  

Edited August 31, 2019 by Camera One

[tennisgurl]

At least the cast actually seemed like they were having fun this episode, and not sleepwalking through the show like they have been most of the season. Although I cant say I really liked this episode as much as I did the first time around. The whole spell as a way to get Emma to fight the Black Fairy through loves magic is pretty stupid, considering how every song, except for the Snow and Charming songs and some of the ones we see the supporting players sing briefly, are about hating people and wanting revenge on them! The songs themselves rang  from the pretty good (like Hooks pub song) to the pretty but kind of bland (the happy beginning) to the lame (Regina's villain song) and the cast did pretty well, especially Josh and Jen, but the whole thing just seemed so half assed, just like the rest of the season. 

Thanks for your on the nose mean girls line, foster home girl! Really, at this point the whole episode just seems pointless, super on the nose, and not relevant at all to what is going on with the characters right now. I would have preferred, if they wanted to do a musical episode, to have the characters get a song curse put on them right now in the current time line, so they could sing about what is actually happening to them NOW, and get some insight into the characters and what they are currently going through. We could have a love song between Hook and Emma, a kind of wistful song from the Charmings about missing so much of Emma's life and them trying to hold onto hope in the hard times and how much it takes out of them, things that actually give us insight into our characters and move the plot along. But instead we get the characters thinking crap that hasn't been relevant to the plot or the characters in years, like Zelena singing about hating her sister or Regina being evil and anything about the dark curse. It just makes the whole thing pointless, especially so close to the end. This should have been a big milestone and celebration of the shows long history, but it ended up just being filler, and a retread of stuff thats already happened, or that we know never comes to anything.

The wedding itself is lovely, and I admit to be grinning like an idiot the whole time, seeing Hook and Emma officially starting a life together, and their vows were perfect for them. On the other hand, I admit that I feel like the wedding of Captain Hook and Snow White and Prince Charmings bounty hunter magic daughter should been a bit less...generic? I still wish they had gotten married at sea, or at least by the dock, or incorporated some more of their lands traditions into the wedding (of course we dont know much about those, because what is world building?) or just made it stand out more and showed their personalities. Or even  had some more supporting characters around for the wedding, like Nemo and Liam 2.0, or the Frozen crew, or Aladdin and Jasmine, or Philip and Aurora and Mulan, or Ursula and Neptune, who would especially want to be there with their connections to Hook. There are tons of characters who I would think would want to come (and it would be easy, considering how easy travel between worlds is now) and yeah its hard to get actors back and this is wedding is apparently happening super fast, but come on! Half the reason you do something like a wedding, especially near a shows ending, is to get a bunch of supporting and previous characters back to check up on them and see them all interact again before the finale! Its just like the rest of the season, it just feels like going through the motion. 

And really, everyone dancing around singing about happy beginnings as the next dark curse/final battle, the one that is supposed to kill Emma, doesn't make them look hopeful, it makes them look like a bunch of idiots, dancing and singing instead of working to try and prepare for any of the crap thats coming. 

[Camera One]

I really wonder whether the song/lyric writers had any idea about the plot in this episode. I mean, the entire song is about "happy beginnings" and their beginning is being Cursed?  It's almost funny to listen to the song in the context...

Quote

EMMA: "Tomorrow is uncertain... who knows what it will bring." 
HOOK: "One thing is for certain, with you, I have everything."

In 2 minutes, you won't be together anymore, so...

Quote

EMMA: "There's no storm we can't outrun"

Yeah, because we just stand there and watch because what's the point of running?

Quote

EMMA & HOOK: "Leave the past and all its scars... a happy beginning now is ours."

You can't leave the past when it's directly impacting you in moments.  How is a "happy" beginning yours when everything is about to be taken away from you?

Quote

CHARMING: "What makes it even better... today our story starts anew." 

This seriously was the funniest line in the whole song.  I mean, what?!  Someone took one too much naps this season.  I guess it's nice and optimistic to think being Cursed is starting your story "anew", LOL.

Quote

EVERYONE singing the chorus

So this is what a group denial session looks like.  Seriously, all the heroes in all of literature and film can learn from this group grinning about their impending demise.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Camera One

[KingOfHearts]

37 minutes ago, Camera One said:

So this is what a group denial session looks like.  Seriously, all the heroes in all of literature and film can learn from this group grinning about their impending demise.

It kind of makes everyone seem like they're in a cult, doesn't? Reminds me of the Apocalypse Christmas song from Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.