SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
Another season, another crisis.
Emma and the rest of Team Good have quite a few problems on their hands. Which is just another Sunday for them really.
Crisis number one this season?
Emma is going to die – if not at the end of the season, then by the mid-season finale – at the hands of some shadowy, hooded figure that will stab her in the gut with a sword. According to Hyde there is always a villain who comes along and kills The Saviour and according to Jafar Saviours never get a happily ever after.
But we all know Emma is in no real danger. She’s the main character. She has plot armour. Plus, Team Good always manages to find a way out of the worst of situations, so we know that they will here too.
If Emma ever tells them that is.
Because once again, when met with a problem, Emma decides to take it on alone rather than share her burden with her loved ones.
I understand the whole orphan thing and growing up alone and having to learn to depend on herself. But after six seasons it would be nice to see Emma not do that for once and just confide in them from the start. If she did that though, there wouldn’t be as much dramatic tension so the writers won’t actually have her break that habit.
No theories yet as to who the hooded figure is, but Emma’s story hasn’t captured me yet so I’m not that invested.
I am invested in Regina’s though. She is probably the most complex character on the show who has the most interesting story right now.
Which leads us to crisis number two; the Evil Queen is alive and well.
I was waiting for her to appear all episode and there wasn’t much of her to see unfortunately. Lana Parrilla hammed it up a bit too much in that performance, but the Evil Queen was always fun to watch and her wardrobe was always amazing.
My favourite scene of the episode was near the end when Regina and Snow were discussing their shared history. It really made me realise how far they’ve come in their relationship and how much Regina has grown and changed.
I also forgot that she was Snow’s stepmother so it reminded me of that little fact as well.
And can Regina finally have her happy ending? She’s more than earned it.
The part of her story I’m not looking forward to though is the brewing conflict between her and Zelena. Can we not have her be evil again? We really don’t need her teaming up with the Evil Queen.
Zelena is a character that I think has been on the show for far longer than they needed to be. The first time she showed up last season I thought “Why is she here?” They ultimately found a use for her, but she really should have left the show after the Wizard of Oz storyline came to a close. If she goes back to being evil, then that will be several steps backward for her character.
It is sweet seeing her and Regina bond and be sisterly but it feels like she has no real reason to be in the show anymore. She’s just there.
Crisis number 3 is Hyde himself.
I’m curious as to what it is he has planned for Storybrooke and the people from The Land of Untold Stories that he brought there. I thought they were meant to be allies of his but that doesn’t seem to be the case. He didn’t have much to do in this episode except sit in a cell and threaten then by threatened by Emma (I’m not so sure should be trusting and confiding in him; he’s not trust worthy and also she should really let at least Hook know about the whole she’s going to die thing).
And then there’s Rumple and Belle who have a crisis of their own that in no way has anything to do with what is going on in the rest of the show. It is the same crisis/problem they have been experiencing for quite a while and for far too long.
We all love Rumple. For much of the show he was the only character worth watching it for. But that’s no longer the case if all we’re going to get from him now is seeing him and Belle continue with the same old problem.
This season began not with a bang, but with a whimper. It was…okay. Underwhelming at best. If this episode is any indication as to what the rest of the season will be like then recapping it will be hard because really, not much of anything worth talking about happened. This first episode was kind of boring.
Random thoughts:
- You’re not Jafar…
- Where are Jasmine and Genie?
- Aladdin’s British?
- Hyde sounds like Tom Hardy’s Bane.
- Who is the oracle chick?
Once Upon a Time airs every Sunday at 8 PM on ABC.
