S06.E20: The Song in Your Heart

[Camera One]

I've rewritten the lyrics of "Happy Beginnings".

EMMA: Tomorrow is uncertain but I don't care anymore
KILLIAN: No matter what we do, love... crap will happen, all the more
EMMA & KILLIAN: And happily ever after, is a crock we've never seen
EMMA: Used to think I'd make a difference, but now I finally know
EMMA: There's no point in try'in to run
KILLIAN: We will get burned by the sun
EMMA & KILLIAN: Screw the flashbacks in the past, a tacky retcon now is ourrrrs

SNOW: We stand around together... there's nothing for us to do
CHARMING: What makes it somewhat better, soon our careers start anew

REGINA: We villains take the limelight
REGINA & ZELENA: We enjoy screentime galorrrrrre
ZELENA: Next year, us villains are all back
HENRY: Good luck as the ratings fall

ALL: There's no point in try'in to run.  We will get burned by the sun.  Screw the flashbacks in the past, a tacky retcon now is ourrrrrrrrrs.
 

Edited August 31, 2019 by Camera One

[PixiePaws1]

99% of shows FEATURE a wedding of the lead character....but A&E had to shove the happy couple aside to feature a long song (with incredibly  cringe-inducing dancing) for Reggie and shoehorn in one for Zelena..

Emma didn't get the wedding she deserved..cheated yet again 🤬🤬🤬🤬

[Shanna Marie]

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

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. 

As with so many things on this show, it's an easy fix. Instead of the Black Fairy just poofing away when she doesn't get Emma's heart, have her fake her defeat so they think they've won and don't know the curse is still coming.

Though I think even better would have been to have the curse hit before the wedding and use the wedding as the very end of the season, when it really is all okay. Then maybe have Blue wink and wiggle her wand during the wedding, so it can turn into a musical number.

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

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?

My mental fanfic version had the series ending with them all back in the Enchanted Forest and rebuilding their kingdom, with Emma and Hook getting the full royal wedding, with Hook, now the admiral of the royal navy, in dress uniform and Emma in full-on princess mode in a palace.

[Camera One]

Did we even know before the end of this episode that "The Final Battle" was going to be a Curse?  It's one episode before the finale, I still had no idea what the final battle even would entail.

Or they could have said the singing and dancing would create a protective vortex around

Spoiler

Henry, who was not affected by the Curse in the finale.  If The Black Fairy didn't know that, they would at least have a leg up on her.

I was also thinking maybe before the wedding, they could have a "24 hours later..."  Of course, that would mean we would already know there was a happy ending, but who didn't?  We might be all worried that Rumple and Belle might have died in the final battle because they're not at the wedding.  LOL, nope.

Edited August 31, 2019 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

3 hours ago, Camera One said:

Did we even know before the end of this episode that "The Final Battle" was going to be a Curse? 

I didn't think the Curse was the Final Battle. I'll admit, I tend to zone out whenever they start talking about the Final Battle, prophecy, etc., but I thought the Curse was to stack the deck by getting all of Emma's allies out of the way. Why the Black Fairy thought she needed to stack the deck when the prophecy was that the Savior would die in the battle, I don't know.

Then again, supposedly the Final Battle was between the Savior and the Black Fairy, with the Savior dying, but Emma's prophecy/vision was of her fighting Gideon. So, which is it? Or does fighting Gideon count as fighting the Black Fairy, since she's controlling his heart?

Watching the parts of the Wonderland spinoff with the Jabberwocky at the same time as watching the Black Fairy arc of the mother show makes it clear just how lame a villain the Black Fairy was. It would have been cool if the Black Fairy had been more like the Jabberwocky, more creepy and able to get into people's heads rather than cackling evil and flouncing the cleavage around town.

[Camera One]

23 minutes ago, Shanna Marie said:

I didn't think the Curse was the Final Battle. I'll admit, I tend to zone out whenever they start talking about the Final Battle, prophecy, etc., but I thought the Curse was to stack the deck by getting all of Emma's allies out of the way.

That makes sense.  My memories of the Season 6 finale is very fuzzy so even now I'm not sure I understand what The Black Fairy's actual plan is.  Probably because I am trying to block it out, LOL.

Edited September 1, 2019 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

On 8/31/2019 at 10:29 PM, Camera One said:

even now I'm not sure I understand what The Black Fairy's actual plan is

I'm afraid you and the writers are in the same boat. They never knew, either. They just handwaved something for her to do in each episode without there being any real throughline or direction.

I was thinking more about the idea that the spell was supposed to put "love expressed through song" into Emma's heart to one day be a weapon, but then we only got villain songs. Putting aside real-world issues like who in the main cast could sing and which characters needed a musical number whether or not they actually ever had anything to do with Emma, it makes it clear just how narrow Emma's world is. Who are the people who love her who would have been around at the time of that spell? There are her parents, who did get the "Powerful Magic" number, but maybe they could have sung something else about their hopes and love for Emma. There's Hook, who was in hate mode at the time, but he could have sung about just wanting a love that wouldn't be taken away from him. There's Regina, supposedly Emma's BFF now, but she actively wanted Emma and her parents dead at that time, so it's weird for her song to be included in the spell (did Blue know at the time that Regina would be Emma's BFF in the future?). In season one, Ashley was Emma's friend, though she ended up severely sidelined aside from the occasional episode, but I guess she could have done a song (and was she even at the wedding?). There was Ruby, who was also a friend of Emma's in season one but who drifted away to the point they were able to retcon the fact that she left town more than a season earlier without it contradicting anything. Maybe there could have been a group number involving all of the Charmings' friends, who cared for their daughter via them, and more than just the tiny glimpses through Regina's mirrors. Supposedly, August is Emma's other BFF, so Pinocchio could have had a song (and was BFF August even at the wedding?).

Belle is more Hook's friend than Emma's, but I guess she couldn't have been in the episode because at that time she would have been Regina's prisoner, and her locked up by Regina and singing about her love for Rumple would have made this episode even weirder than it actually was.

So, that's the people in Emma's life who care about her -- her parents, her future husband, the person who would become a friend who actively wanted her dead at that time (and who as a friend is still usually a bitch to her), and a bunch of people who cared about her parents but who really never became more than acquaintances to Emma.

[Melgaypet]

This damn show, I swear. I have to admit I like this episode. Every complaint you guys bring up is valid. It doesn't make any damn sense, but for once I just don't care. Maybe I'm just grasping for something in this bleak and tedious season to hold onto, I dunno, but there's something about musical episodes that make my brain go to mush. I've been that way ever since Xena did one. I get overly generous. I was even kind of...well, "touched" is a stronger word than I mean, but I didn't roll my eyes at Regina saying she didn't want Emma's wedding ruined since she had ruined Snow's. There was a glimmer of personal responsibility there, I'm just saying. A point for Regina. She tends to lose a thousand points every time she opens her mouth, so I suppose it's only fair to make a note of the non-asshole things she says.

(Though I'm still annoyed that Hook and Emma weren't married on the Jolly Roger. And that Nemo wasn't there. Or Liam the Younger. Or Ariel. Or Smee. (Is Smee even in Storybrooke at this point? I kind of lose track of the tertiary characters with the various Curses.) Or that Belle wasn't there as Hook's best woman. Was anyone on Hook's metaphorical side of the aisle?)

So I guess I do still have complaints! I haven't lost all my cred.

[Camera One]

9 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

There are her parents, who did get the "Powerful Magic" number, but maybe they could have sung something else about their hopes and love for Emma. 

Heck, her parents should have gotten two songs, but of course, they wanted to do that ridiculous and repetitive "sing-off" with Regina.  Why would Regina's hateful song have powerful magic too? 

Blue came out with this song-in-your-heart spell out of nowhere, and somehow Zelena could come up with a counter-spell in 5 seconds.  But the counter-spell somehow took the songs from everyone's mouths and downloaded into Emma?  Huh?  Did Blue anticipate that too?

Meanwhile, in the present, this song-in-your-heart spell broke the spell that Zelena and Regina randomly conjured up to "freeze" the Curse (but ended up being used to "freeze" 5 people).

But by unfreezing 5 people, now the songs have left Emma's heart?  So she can't use it again to break another Curse?  

Blue believed the Savior always died, so what was the point of giving Emma this song-in-your-heart stuff?  Isn't that just delaying the inevitable?  

So Henry was the one who ruined The Black Fairy's plans, but 

Spoiler

she let him roam free in the Curse in the next episode to mess up her plans again.

Edited September 4, 2019 by Camera One

[KAOS Agent]

I didn't care for this episode when it aired and I have zero desire to watch it again. This show loved to rip off Buffy, but I'll never understand how they always managed to suck at it. If you have a good blueprint to follow, how is it possible to screw it up so badly? Both the Once and Buffy musicals occurred in the sixth season of their respective shows with both seasons being pretty lackluster up to that point. The Buffy musical actually managed to briefly turn the season around. It brought out tons of things that the characters had been hiding and then the next episodes dealt with the secrets revealed (and delivered one of my favorite Buffy episodes, "Tabula Rasa"). Once could have done something similar. Why not have a villain cast a singing spell along the lines of the Shattered Sight where hidden resentments are expressed in song? Try to break the alliances amongst the heroes by sowing seeds of bitterness (bonus: a second Buffy rip off a la The Yoko Factor). No Three Stooges like idiocy,  just hard truths. How would Regina handle it if Snow and David were really let loose with their feelings of the past? Or how could Snowing deal with Emma's childhood traumas? Maybe Hook could express some of his messed up feelings from the whole Dark One/death experience - although that one gets tricky because the actions taken there involve the Darkness and individual choices were influenced heavily by other factors and it's hard to hit out at Emma for that and then have them still on track for marriage.

Speaking of the wedding, didn't they just decide not to have one since Snowing's was ruined and it still bothers them to this day that their happy day was marred by Regina and her threats? Now Emma and Hook can always look back fondly at the black cloud of doom that descended on their wedding. Lovely. Also, I hated Emma's wedding dress and would never see Emma picking out a Grace Kelly inspired gown.  

[Camera One]

18 minutes ago, KAOS Agent said:

Speaking of the wedding, didn't they just decide not to have one since Snowing's was ruined and it still bothers them to this day that their happy day was marred by Regina and her threats? Now Emma and Hook can always look back fondly at the black cloud of doom that descended on their wedding. Lovely. 

That inconsistency really stood out when these episodes were binge-watched by my friend when she visited.  She said, "Huh?  I thought they decided not to have the wedding."

Which makes me wonder if something happened to make them decide to squeeze in the wedding last minute.  

Spoiler

Couldn't they have The Black Fairy enact the Curse and it doesn't work, and then the song-in-your-heart spell is the one that finally destroys The Black Fairy and the show as we knew it could have just ended with the wedding (and the "Happy Beginnings" song would actually have made sense).  I doubt anyone's heart was warmed knowing Snowing retired as farmers or the dysfunctional family of murderers and their victims sitting down for dinner.  I'd rather the musical episode be two hours, and the boring Curse be an hour.  

But oh no, we couldn't have done without The Great Sacrifice of The Evil Queen.

Edited September 4, 2019 by Camera One

[KAOS Agent]

6 hours ago, Camera One said:

Which makes me wonder if something happened to make them decide to squeeze in the wedding last minute.

It's more likely that they're just idiots who didn't care about inconsistencies. The last scene shot for the season was Snow interrupting Emma & Hook's breakfast sex. If they were able to shoot that after the finale had been taped and insert it into an episode that aired two weeks earlier, then they certainly could have reshot the scene where they decided not to get married yet or at least added some explanation for why they changed their minds.

[KingOfHearts]

On 9/3/2019 at 5:25 PM, Melgaypet said:

Though I'm still annoyed that Hook and Emma weren't married on the Jolly Roger.

They could've totally ripped off The Little Mermaid or the ending to Peter Pan, and they didn't. Still better.

18 hours ago, KAOS Agent said:

If you have a good blueprint to follow, how is it possible to screw it up so badly?

That's this show in a nutshell - not even with just Buffy, but the entire Disney canon. The writers didn't need to provide much original material at all. All they needed to do was adapt classic fairy tales into a modern, live-action setting, and people would've eaten that up. Disney's story formulas are tried and true, and all A&E needed to do was follow them. Even after that came up with their own half-season formula, which worked pretty well, they screwed it up in S6.

Quote

Spoiler

I'd rather the musical episode be two hours, and the boring Curse be an hour.  

Spoiler

Yeah, I would've taken some random centric over the lame 2-hour curse. It would've made a lot of sense, actually, to make the musical two hours. They probably would've had to write more songs for pacing, otherwise it'd feel weirdly spaced like the flashbacks in Smash the Mirror. The first hour would've been like Act I, and the second Act II, structured like a real musical.

Edited September 4, 2019 by KingOfHearts

[Camera One]

I thought this reaction video from a vocal coach to songs from this episode was entertaining.  It doesn't go over the Hook or Zelena songs, though.  I was thinking how it's interesting if someone quit the show, and then came back to see the musical episode.