Sunday, May 14, 2017

Once Upon a Time 6.21-6.22: “The Final Battle Parts 1 and 2”

“True belief is believing even if you can’t see.”
- Henry

We have reached the finale of season 6, and this chapter in the “Once Upon a Time” story. We have also reached the end of blogging this show. It’s been renewed for season 7 but there is so much “reset” of story being bandied about and a large chunk of the core cast won’t be returning, that I’m making the decision that this will be my last post.

We begin in the Enchanted Forest during an unspecified time of great upheaval. A young man races through the woods and wakes his young daughter who is guarding a storybook just like Henry’s (maybe even his) and she’s sent away with the order to share the stories with people. The next morning, the girl finds her father’s sword and Tiger Lily shows up to take the girl to her mother with the promise that one day she will reunite with her father. I get they are trying to make us invested in these new characters but I’m only mildly interested at this point.

Cut to Storybrooke, Henry wakes up but things are horribly awry. Everyone he runs into (including Archie) is convinced that the whole fairytale thing is just mental illness son his part. Basically, we’ve reset to season 1 with people not believing Henry because of the original dark curse. Henry finds Emma in the mental hospital and she/s upset that he’s dredging up talk of magic and fairies and True Love’s Kiss. She doesn’t want to jeopardize her progress towards getting out. Oh, and Henry has another mother: Fiona. She’s the new Mayor. Which makes me curious … would this have the same backstory as the original version where Rumple was trying to procure baby Henry when Regina got him? And if it is, did Fiona ever know that her doting husband turned into a teenage boy with anger issues? Fiona also insists that Emma burn the storybook to “crush” both her and Henry’s delusions. We also see Fiona pay a visit to Rumple and Gideon (Belle is apparently dead). At the moment, it’s unclear whether Rumple remembers this shrew is his mother.

In the Enchanted Forest of now, we find the rest of the Charming/Mills clan and things aren’t good. Just as they start searching for Emma and Henry, Zelena swoops in with some terrible news. Oz (and as it turns out all the other realms) are disappearing. Thanks to whatever Fiona is doing to Emma, the realms of story are disappearing and everyone along with them. Regina thinks she needs to use her magic to get back to our world to save Emma and Henry but Hook thinks another climb up the beanstalk to fetch a (potentially nonexistent) bean is the right answer. So, after David calms Hook down a bit, they start climbing (yay father-in-law/son-in-law bonding?).

Back in Storybrooke, Henry busts Emma out of the mental hospital and takes her to the roof where she married Hook. She gets flashes of the day but she doesn’t trust her mind and she just wants to go back to Boston and lay low. This gives Henry an idea (which I’m guessing is paying Grandpa Gold a visit) but he says that he’ll help Emma leave town if it’s what she really wants. He does have a lot of his dad in him (which of course just makes me miss Neal). It turns out while Rumple is trying to bond with Gideon over Belle’s disappearance (it sounds an awful lot like what happened with Milah, God the Black Fairy is a bitch), Henry is breaking into Archie’s office to find Emma’s keys and ends up finding the storybook. And then Fiona finds him and knocks him down the stairs in an attempt to both incapacitate him and break Emma. She also shows Rumple photos of Belle all over the world.

Back in the Enchanted Forest, we get a little Regina/Evil Queen reunion. The Evil Queen has been living in the castle once she and Robin escaped from being burned by angry villagers. They now steal from the rich and give to the poor (mostly). But hey, in this instance, two Reginas are better than one! Oh, and Hook and David find the bean (there is some mildly amusing shenanigans) but then they realize that a dragon (maybe Lily?) has taken up residence in the giant’s home. Oh boy!

It seems the Black Fairy may have finally won when she convinces Emma to not only burn the story book (which conveniently opens to a picture of Hook) but also leave town. Henry seems powerless but I’m not counting him out yet. I guess I can’t count out Hook and the Charmings either because Hook has gotten the bean back to ground level. Now he needs to use it and get Emma to believe again. I’m also kind of waiting for Rumple to get his memory back and kick his mother’s butt. Henry marches right into the shop like he owns the place (or at least is related to the guy who does) and promptly points out to Grandpa that he’s awake, too. Rumple is focused on saving Belle so Henry asks for just a little assist (while Emma gets ready to go on a first date gag to snag a bail jumper).

Henry manages to get a message to the rest of the family (although he’s not sure they receive it) that he’s going to fight the Black Fairy on his own. As he stands in the hallway, ready to die trying (and as everyone in the Enchanted Forest is about to bite it), Emma shows up and says while she doesn’t remember everything Henry told her, she believes it and that’s enough to stop the curse just in the nick of time. Meanwhile, the Black Fairy pays Gideon a visit at the pawn shop and reveals she still has his heart and forces him to find her wand so she can translate Henry’s drawings. When Rumple gets back and drops the “I’m awake” bomb on Mummy, she taunts him with her own truth bomb. She’s not meant to kill Emma: Gideon is. Because only light can snuff out light. Which makes no sense at all. On the plus side, killing the Black Fairy breaks the curse and reunites everyone (well we can hope anyway). And yay, Emma remembers just in time to throw down with Gideon yet again. Rumple goes to try and get Gideon’s heart back so that he can stop his son from killing Emma but it doesn’t work out. Instead, Emma gives in to her fate (and being the personification of light) and things seem to work out. Henry wakes her with True Love’s Kiss (there’s a big group hug) and Belle and Rumple get a baby Gideon back to have a real shot at being a family.

And as we see all the realms restored, we also find the Charming/Mills/Gold clan living their lives happily. They even all gather for a big family dinner at Granny’s. I wish there’d been dialogue for this scene because that would have been great. Then we find the young girl on a train with her own “Once Upon a Time” book heading to Seattle years later where she finds a grown-up Henry Mills who doesn’t remember having a daughter. I see where the writers are going here but I’m still very skeptical.

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