Sunday, May 7, 2017

Once Upon a Time 6.20: “The Song In Your Heart”

“I ruined your parents’ wedding. The least I can do is make sure you enjoy yours.”
- Regina

If you like musicals, then this episode is probably for you. And if you are a Captain Swan shipper then you’ll be thrilled. As it stands, I’d be more excited if the musical didn’t coincide with Emma and Hook’s wedding. But that’s where we are and I have to suck it up and deal with it. And as it turns out, the music is pretty catchy. Before we get into the main plot, we catch a glimpse of 11-year-old Emma wanting to do a talent show but one of her foster siblings tells her she’s always going to be alone.

In the Enchanted Forest in the past, Snow is pissed that the Evil Queen is going to try and ruin their lives with the dark curse. So, she makes a wish on a star to give them what they need to protect their daughter. And for some reason that results in everyone bursting into song. Not quite as logical as a demon but whatever. We get to see Snow and Charming do a fun duet together about how the power of love and music is going to be what they need to win. We then find the Evil Queen railing at the craziness and doing a pretty awesome rock ballad about how her dark magic is still going to prevail. And then, we get a very pirate-y song with Hook going on about how he wants revenge on the Dark One (so the Charmings offer him said prisoner in exchange for passage to the Evil Queen’s castle). Very odd way to shoe-horn Hook into the story in the past, especially since when Snow first met Hook in season 2, she didn’t know who he was. Oh, the joy of retconning! I do have to admit I didn’t know Colin O’Donoghue had such a nice voice. Everyone actually sounds pretty good (if a bit autotuned). The Evil Queen goes to Rumple to try and get answers but he sends her away empty handed, insisting she prove she was the right student to entrust with the dark curse. Zelena’s watching and she ends up sending a little something to help Regina in the hopes that Rumple will see it was from her and realize his mistake. While the contraption works to pull the song out of the Charmings, Rumple isn’t going to know because as Blue explains later on, no one is going to remember the songs to ensure they are safe in unborn baby Emma’s heart so one day she can use it to fight the final battle. Okay, I have to say that’s kind of stupid.

In the present, things aren’t going quite to plan on Emma and Hook’s wedding day. Sure, she agrees to wear her mom’s wedding dress (having gone through a wedding myself recently, I can’t really say the style would fit Emma) but the Black Fairy pops in and destroys said heirloom, baiting Emma with another dark curse and the final battle. It seems the Black Fairy is going to make good on her promise of a curse. She’s got a whole mess of dark fairy dust tied to the clock tower to release said curse right when the wedding is supposed to be happening. It looks like the curse is supposed to separate Emma from everyone she loves so she has to fight alone. Emma decides she needs to just take the bitch down and she says goodbye to Hook and Henry. Except, Hook is still annoyed that Emma won’t let him in all the way and he confronts Rumple, taking him out with some poison from Neverland. Unfortunately for Hook, the Black Fairy is still looking out for her baby boy.

In short order, Regina and Zelena come up with a potion to freeze the curse but Rumple gets his hands on it and freezes the family so they can’t help Emma. She’s ready to give the Black Fairy her heart when Henry finds storybook pages about the song. Emma finds her voice and manages to stave off the Black Fairy for the moment. But the curse is still coming. So, what do they do? They go ahead with the wedding. I will admit Emma looked pretty in the dress she wore and the vows weren’t too cringe-worthy. I would like to see some proof from Archie that he can actually officiate these things. But whatever. We end with a big group number that sort of felt like kind of a Bollywood thing (minus the twangy instruments). Also, the next generation (read baby Neal and Robin) miraculously appeared in their parents’ arms when the number was over. I did like seeing Zelena and Regina dancing together and the dwarves rocking out. But the curse is unleashed as the clock strikes six. What will happen next and whose memories will be effected we will have to wait for next week’s two-hour season finale to find out.

I went into this episode with skepticism and I came out of it enjoying the music more than I thought and being able to tolerate the shipper stuff. I’m never going to be happy with Emma’s choice and so I’ll have to content myself with the stories in my head where Neal comes back and they get their shot at a second chance. I really hope that the finale next week wraps up the story in a good enough way that if the show doesn’t come back (it hasn’t been renewed yet) it gives us a satisfying ending. The writers have said we will get things wrapped up but I don’t see how we can answer some of the lingering questions, namely who is Lily’s dad in the next episode. That information just doesn’t seem like it would fit with what is happening with the final battle, unless Lily is somehow tied to Emma’s fight? I mean seeing them team up would be pretty cool but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

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