The Saviour - 7/10
A Bitter Draught - 8/10
The Other Shoe - 8/10
Strange Case - 8/10
Street Rats - 6/10 Dark Waters - 7/10
Season 6 is really shaping up to be a very competent season, and perhaps no episode so far sums up why more than Dark Waters does. Any show in its sixth season can be excused for not bringing much new to the table, as very few shows that last this long are able to - even fewer do it well. But a show that accepts and embraces that fact can still deliver fun episodes and plots worth following. And so whilst Dark Waters doesn't set the world alight with new ideas or anything that stands out beyond the creative norm for the show's premise it nonetheless has a bit of fun, and manages to avoid the pitfalls of dullness and filler material.
So far the six episodes of the season are all very varied. In the same way that episodes were from the earliest seasons, you can pick the episodes from a crowd because they each do a sufficient job at offering something different - focusing on different characters, different stories, different fairy tales and fictions. They're then also borrowing from the more serial nature of later seasons and making sure we have an ongoing story with the main characters that is worth investing in. All in all it makes for a season that's feeling less standalone and 'filler' than early seasons sometimes felt, and less intense and overblown than later seasons have felt. By finding this crucial balancing act and perfecting it somewhat it makes even the most infuriating characers bearable - partly because they're less imposing in smaller doses, and partly because the writing sufficiently involves them throughout and simply brings them front and centre when the story calls for it. So well done for that.
This is particularly relevant with Dark Waters, a story that takes on the challenge of focusing on Hook and Henry - an ambitious challenge given that the show has form for not writing its male characters effectively. Season 5 took every teenage cliché as it failed to figure out what to do with Henry as he's grown older. It turned it all into The Hook Show, as it disappered up its own behind with a convoluted Dark One mythology. It practically forgot Prince Charming existed, and even the superior acting talents of Robert Carlyle couldn't excuse the dullness of Rumple's character - even he seemed bored. It's refreshing then that Hook gets a story that is about Hook, and generously weaves in the story of Captain Nemo as well. Whilst Nemo currently feels like a disposable or forgettable character it was all the same admirable to see the show continue its pursuit of exploring different stories, and allowing Hook to do something other than fawn over Emma without taking it anywhere.
In fact the episode was on fine form with advancing Hook and Emma's story, making it perhaps the most bearable it's been so far. The frustrating cliffhanger at the end of the previous episode (coincidentally the weakest episode of the season so far) was resolved within minutes of this episode and used as a means to explore the dynamics between Hook and Henry, and also Henry and the Evil Queen. The best way to put it is that the writers narrowly dodged a bullet here, and so whilst Nemo and his submarine didn't make for a particularly engaging story it nonetheless served the series better than the Agrobah stuff has so far, and was a platform to explore characters we might actually need to care about a little more (Aladdin is so far a complete non-entity, and Jasmine - I knew I'd seen her somewhere before, namely Waterloo Road!).
Hook was more in the guise of his former piratey-self, and whilst the episode delivered a decent enough commentary on how he's largely put his vengeful past behind him, it perhaps inadvertently highlighted how dull the character is compared to how he used to be. Still, acceptable if he doesn't repeatedly sit front and centre of the show as he did in the previous season.
Henry came across as a bit of a spoiled brat, frankly, and was largely unlikeable in the story. But also frankly, that's not a bad thing. Better to feel something about Henry than nothing at all and it was nice to give him something integral to do again that didn't involve the also-up-it's-own-behind author mythology.
It perhaps also helped to have the episode make time for other characters too. Hopping back and forth between characters makes the world feel far larger and more involved. The Evil Queen is busy at work messing everyone around, and effectively so. And whilst it will remain to be seen if there is genuine pay off for the Regina split, it's certainly keeping Regina relevant and she remains one of the consistently strong things about the show. Emma and Aladdin's scenes were less effective, mainly as the latter remains utterly unengaging. And it's a shame to see Zelena still criminally underused, sitting around doing very little - she's perhaps the weak link in a season that has otherwise even made a bit more time for the major players (even Snow and Charming to some degree!) which is surprising given how much of an asset she was to Season 5, ultimately one of the few very good things about it. A Zelena-centric episode must surely be on the horizon soon?
On a final note, the Rumple and Evil Queen scene at the end was suitably creepy and beyond disturbing in its own way. What makes it work though is that Rumple's exact motives are continually illusive, and it's made the character more interesting than he's been in seasons (I am wondering if he's planning to use the scissors of doom to cut the Dark One out of himself... given the 'alter ego' theme this season has been following...imagine a second half to season six where a scaly Rumple and an Evil Queen were both running around in Storybrooke!).
All in all, Dark Waters isn't the best episode of Season 6 so far. But it's enjoyable enough for a show in its sixth season, and as a final aside the effects were superb for this show as well. It was good enough on all fronts, and made two less interesting main characters carry an episode rather effectively. If there were more episodes of this quality then it wouldn't be a bad thing, and even if there are a few shortfalls they are largely excusable when the final product is this enjoyable.
I am awaiting the explanation for Mr Gold's newly cropped, silver-grey hair ..
Perhaps Morpheus demands the flowing locks as his price for helping Belle to wake up, or Belle attacks him with the 'Hair-Clippers of Doom' on awakening, and the shock turns him grey ...:D
He needed it to play the older Begbie in the new Trainspotting movie.:)
Just catching up with this season and have enjoyed it so far.
A couple of thoughts: Mr Hyde is resistant to magic, but we've seen Regina enhance her own physical strength and speed many times in the past. Surely she could have tried that against him?
Who is the mystery hooded swordsman/woman in Emma's vision? At present I'm thinking Dante, but it could well be evil-Regina or Jafar.
Just catching up with this season and have enjoyed it so far.
A couple of thoughts: Mr Hyde is resistant to magic, but we've seen Regina enhance her own physical strength and speed many times in the past. Surely she could have tried that against him?
Who is the mystery hooded swordsman/woman in Emma's vision? At present I'm thinking Dante, but it could well be evil-Regina or Jafar.
I was glad S6 went back to basics, but they've gone too far back to basics with this retread of the Evil Queen vs Snow and Charming. The whole heart stealing, sleeping curse, Snow/Charming being prominent characters...boring.
Easily S6's weakest episode to date. I struggled to keep attention with this one.
I liked this one. Nice flashbacks even if the woodsman was a crap assassin though.
Any intimate scene with Evil Queen and Rumple is one of the sick bucket. Stop this thing at once.
Another week, another moment where Belle just lectures her estranged hubby on his crappy behaviour. I did find Zelena's jealousy amusing enough even if Belle put a target on her there.
Evil Queen finally came up with an effective sleeping curse for both Snow and Charming, good twist, 7/10
I liked this one. Nice flashbacks even if the woodsman was a crap assassin though.
Any intimate scene with Evil Queen and Rumple is one of the sick bucket. Stop this thing at once.
Another week, another moment where Belle just lectures her estranged hubby on his crappy behaviour. I did find Zelena's jealousy amusing enough even if Belle put a target on her there.
Evil Queen finally came up with an effective sleeping curse for both Snow and Charming, good twist, 7/10
I am heartily sick and tired of Belle. All she ever does is shout at Rumple with that unbecoming sneer on her miserable face.
Rumple needs to cut his losses and just leave her to cope alone - she clearly doesn't want him any more (unless as a hate-figure to endlessly nag). I can't see any way back for this couple.
Eventually he might take the drastic step of using the shears to separate Gold from Rumple just to please her. It would be amusing to see sparkly Rumple and the Evil Queen causing mischief together, while Gold allies with Regina and co. to try and stop them.
As far as Rumbelle goes, Belle's just not worth the effort IMO and is turning into another miserable scold - just like Milah.
Poor Rumple.
Eventually he might take the drastic step of using the shears to separate Gold from Rumple just to please her. It would be amusing to see sparkly Rumple and the Evil Queen causing mischief together, while Gold allies with Regina and co. to try and stop them.
That's not how the shears work. They merely separate you from your destiny as in Aladdin no longer being a saviour. They don't split your personality.
The Saviour - 7/10
A Bitter Draught - 8/10
The Other Shoe - 8/10
Strange Case - 8/10
Street Rats - 6/10
Dark Waters - 7/10 Heartless - 7/10
Rather ironically, Heartless is the episode of Season 6 that emphasises more than any other so far how this is a season with its heart in the right place. It's very much trying to do the right thing - righting the wrongs and getting back on track after a previous season that threatened to see the entire premise disappear up its own rear end. And for the most part it's doing an admirable job as well.
Another thing that Season 6 is doing well is keeping viewers on their toes in regards to what the end game might be. There's no half-season arc here, no clear direction. Each episode has so far worked to carve out its own identity and stand out distinctly, whilst each may very well be building upon whatever it is the season is ultimately building to. It's a refreshing change of pace, and Heartless does a good job at keeping up that pacy, unpredictable tone. There's so many dangerous and powerful players all converging at once - the Evil Queen sits front and centre, but so too did Hyde before his untimely demise. Zelena is there and also very much powerful, Gold is still around and becoming more unpredictable by the week, Jafar is still presumably out there lurking in the shadows. This is how you do a multitude of villains at once, rather than the more tacky Season 4 approach of combining the likes of Cruella, Ursula and Maleficent (who were all individually great, but collectively just a random mess). It adds an air of mystery, and that very much taps into that Season 1 vibe when nobody quite knew the scale of what was going on.
Heartless is a Snow White and Charming story, and it's about time they got a bit more focus - given how much time they've hung around only to be left in the background. The problem is that their source material has been largely exhausted, and whilst the episodes of Season 6 are all quite distinct and unique - even including this one - it is too familiar in tone to nearly every Snow and Charming story we've seen previously. The episode even gives us a handy flashback sequence that proves it. Their encounters are repetitive to the point it's a plot point, but that should mean that six seasons in we're not getting more of those repetitive encounters as main stories. The two warrant a Snow/Charming-centric story, but something new rather than nostalgic would be preferential. And it does something odd to the episode - because on the one hand the Evil Queen makes this huge power-grabbing climatic move, but on the other hand it's wrapped in a package that feels quite 'filler' and as if we're in 'been-here-before' territory.
The issues don't end there with this main premise. There are a fair few instances in the story that depend on sheer convenience. The Blue Fairy suddenly being relevant again is shoehorned in after a long absence. Again, the show's heart is in the right place as it tries to make time for the Storybrooke ensemble characters. But she's wedged in more forcefully than Archie, or Granny, or Dr Whale were. It doesn't detriment the episode to see her, and it probably does help to make the whole town feel bigger than just the core cast as well, but it is convenient. What's also convenient is the plant that is at the centre of the story - it's convenient that this plant was able to exist at all, it's then convenient that they now suddenly think it might be in Storybrooke, and then ultimately it's irrelevant anyway so doesn't even get to be the deux ex machina it looked to be. It's hard to tell whether that makes it better or worse, but ultimately it doesn't help make the episode feel any less 'filler' when the artefact at its centre is made redundant. The best thing to come from it was the Blue Fairy listing away the powerful people in Storybrooke right now... that mass assemblage of potential big bads all with their own motives. It was satisfying to see the show addressing that at least.
So with the Enchanted Forest sequences being overly repetitive rather than nostalgic, did the Snow/Charming story have anything going for it? Ultimately, whilst the Evil Queen's decision not to kill Snow White was yet another convenience of the story, it's one that can be forgiven because it does deliver something of an interesting twist. The new sleeping curse that forces one to sleep whilst another wakes rather confusingly gives pay-off to the previous convenience that was seperating Snow's heart into two in the first place, and now making it a plot point that's had actual consequences. It's good to see attention has been paid to the continuity of the show here, and whilst it does trade off one convenience for another, this one seems to have more potential for interesting storytelling. There might be a decent Snow/Charming story yet!
The Evil Queen herself is shaping up to be brilliant. As is true every week, the decision to split Regina and the Queen in half remains a questionable direction to go in that will depend very much on the pay-off that Season 6 eventually delivers with it. But the Queen herself has been a reliable and genuine threat, with her plot in Heartless being the darkest and most brutal she's been yet. It's impressive how much momentum is kept behind the character, and one of the hardest things for a fantasy show to do is to signpost your antagonist early on and keep them interesting throughout. Thinking of a show like Buffy which had impossibly powerful villains - who simply went into 'remission' from time to time when the writers couldn't think of ways to keep them relevant or interesting for very long. It is genuinely impressive that the Queen is as relentless this season as she is, with credit to the writers and to Lana Parrilla - who has the difficult job of playing not two different characters but two interpretations of the same character. She does it effortlessly and is so far the best thing the show has going for it this season...
Not that Heartless is let down elsewhere. Whilst it's slowgoing there was a bit more of a tense move from Zelena. She's been consigned to the background so far this season but she's a powerful character, and Rebecca Mader capable of tremendous range. It's promising that she's breaking out of her shell a bit more here. Gold's story is similarly slowgoing, but much more satisfying than it's been in seasons - with his inner-turmoil clearly still a major issue for him. Belle's impatience with him is understandable, but the character has possibly inherited the frustrating traits that Gold had previously... she's just not fun or interesting to watch. Hook gets a brief moment that dares to make the character slightly likeable again - it ends up descending into fairytale-cheesiness, but there was something for a minute or two in the crypt with Emma that made him inoffensive - and that's high praise indeed!
The episode is frankly a bit all over the place. It does a great job once again of making room and time for everyone to some degree. It's a little worrying that it's all the better for having no Aladdin or Jasmine in it. It's convenient along the way, it's repetitive when it means to be nostalgic, and it doesn't know whether to be an integral piece of the puzzle or more standalone fare. But it does have a good twist at the end, it does deliver some great character moments once more, it does keep you guessing as to where the season is bound, it builds upon the momentum, it respects the continuity and above all it really does have its heart in the right place.
That's not how the shears work. They merely separate you from your destiny as in Aladdin no longer being a saviour. They don't split your personality.
But then what is Rumple's destiny? If Emma had left Storybrooke and never come back in Season 1 would she have been the saviour still? She chose to remain the Saviour, and in that sense was the master of her own destiny. The same is true of Rumple. He chose to become the Dark One, and you could argue that he too is the master of that destiny. I quite like the idea... it gives the characters more free will and steps away from any notion that this is all determined by some higher being, or a sky fairy of some description.
I think it would be interesting to see Rumple's history mirror itself for him. Hypothetically..
- In the past, Rumple had a family. He went to fight in the Ogre Wars, in part to protect and honour them. After encountering a seer who prophecises his child will be fatherless, he acts of his own free will and makes a tremendous sacrifice to return to his family, breaking his leg and making himself weaker. Despite his actions, and sacrifices to be a good father, he was branded a coward. He subsequently lost his wife, and later his son as well. He lost everything and was content with only power and darkness.
- In the present, Mr Gold has a family. He has been fighting himself now that he's the biggest threat going. After a prophetic dream that says his child will disown him, he acts of his own free will and makes a tremendous sacrifice to return to his family, breaking his ties to his power and making himself weaker. These actions, and his sacrifice to be a good father, mean he is branded as heroic. He then gets to fight the battle he never fought (though now it's likely the seperated Rumplestiltskin) to try and regain his wife, and later his son as well. He will triumph and will be content with his family and their love.
Rumple basically gets a happy ending, or at least the opportunity to build one for himself (don't hand it to him on a plate after all he's done, but give the man a chance). It's thematically relevant to the alter ego vibe from Season 6, and I think it'd make a good mid-season cliffhanger. I don't know whether the back half of the season would benefit from having Evil Queen AND Rumple as villains, or whether the two halves could focus on each villain... but I love the idea that this could be where it goes. They mirror eachother brilliantly.
But then what is Rumple's destiny? If Emma had left Storybrooke and never come back in Season 1 would she have been the saviour still? She chose to remain the Saviour, and in that sense was the master of her own destiny. The same is true of Rumple. He chose to become the Dark One, and you could argue that he too is the master of that destiny. I quite like the idea... it gives the characters more free will and steps away from any notion that this is all determined by some higher being, or a sky fairy of some description.
I think it would be interesting to see Rumple's history mirror itself for him. Hypothetically..
- In the past, Rumple had a family. He went to fight in the Ogre Wars, in part to protect and honour them. After encountering a seer who prophecises his child will be fatherless, he acts of his own free will and makes a tremendous sacrifice to return to his family, breaking his leg and making himself weaker. Despite his actions, and sacrifices to be a good father, he was branded a coward. He subsequently lost his wife, and later his son as well. He lost everything and was content with only power and darkness.
- In the present, Mr Gold has a family. He has been fighting himself now that he's the biggest threat going. After a prophetic dream that says his child will disown him, he acts of his own free will and makes a tremendous sacrifice to return to his family, breaking his ties to his power and making himself weaker. These actions, and his sacrifice to be a good father, mean he is branded as heroic. He then gets to fight the battle he never fought (though now it's likely the seperated Rumplestiltskin) to try and regain his wife, and later his son as well. He will triumph and will be content with his family and their love.
Rumple basically gets a happy ending, or at least the opportunity to build one for himself (don't hand it to him on a plate after all he's done, but give the man a chance). It's thematically relevant to the alter ego vibe from Season 6, and I think it'd make a good mid-season cliffhanger. I don't know whether the back half of the season would benefit from having Evil Queen AND Rumple as villains, or whether the two halves could focus on each villain... but I love the idea that this could be where it goes. They mirror eachother brilliantly.
My thoughts exactly. If I was in charge of the show, this would be the direction I would take it, that Rumple (or Belle) would use the shears to separate Rumple from his Dark One destiny - but I am not sure that even that would 'mend' Rumbelle - I think the damage is too great, and Belle is past caring.
I am also semi-convinced that Belle's child will be a daughter, and 'Morpheus' is just a creation of Belle's distrust of Rumple, or even worse a manifestation of either Pan or Hades. I know we thought both were dead, but that seems to mean nothing in this show.
Another enjoyable one. I liked the split time thingy with Snow and Charming in this episode.
Emma and Regina trapped in the mirror world didn't feel too dragged out and I did like the use of the Dragon.
Sick bucket is required for every Evil Queen/Rumple scene and Rumple wanting Zelena dead seemed to floor Evil Queen a little bit. I did like the reminder of Zelena's previous deal with Rumple.
Rumple putting that bracelet on Belle was disturbed as well.
Aladdin isn't a great thief in this version, is he?
Henry/Violet stuff was a little better than expected, 7/10
The Saviour - 7/10
A Bitter Draught - 8/10
The Other Shoe - 8/10
Strange Case - 8/10
Street Rats - 6/10
Dark Waters - 7/10
Heartless - 7/10 I'll Be Your Mirror - 7/10
Of all the episodes so far I'll Be Your Mirror is perhaps the most difficult to pin down with a specific identity. Whilst the episode isn't remotely lacking on good character moments, it does unfortunately fail where every episode until now has succeeded this season, and that's by not having a distinct and coherent focus. Here we get a bit of Emma, a bit of Regina, a bit of Rumple, a bit of Zelena, a bit of Aladdin, a bit of Belle... and so on. Nearly everyone who's anyone gets a moment or two in this episode, and maybe with such an extensive cast an episode like this is needed from time to time, but it does cost it a clear sense of identity. At best it tries to wedge The Dragon in there, as a means to try and stand out as something a bit unique from the other episodes so far, but the incredibly fragmented nature of the episode (perhaps appropriately given all the broken mirrors in it too!) means it comes across as the kind of story that's above all else functional, and it actually has a lot less time to do anything particularly creative.
This is made obvious very quickly, with a cute and effective opening montage showing Snow and Charming sharing their new sleeping curse. It's a nice moment of reflection on the events of the previous episode, but seems to set up a notion that it's going to be an integral part of the episode ahead - it wasn't. In fact the two are consigned to the background for the most part and so the montage, as good as it is, proves to be the first fragment in the very fragmented bigger picture.
Henry is perhaps the closest thing this episode has to a main character, owing to the fact he has his own story going on which then overlaps with that of other characters. His story with Violet is as predictably clichéd as it ever was, and whilst the writers have done much better in Season 6 overall, it's proof once again that they don't really know what to do with Henry. He's not the wide-eyed-wonder child any more, but they continue to give him overly cheesy monologue moments and this episode was no exception (even if his little speech about family was one of his less embarassing moments). They don't seem to write adult men very well either, and given he's not quite an adult either Henry really does draw the short straw when it comes to characters most likely to be well-crafted. Generally though, he's inoffensive in I'll Be Your Mirror, his dating angst gives Emma a great moment of parenting (it's odd but brilliant to see a boy being told he shouldn't compromise who he is for a girl, rather than the other way around - both are true of course, but it's seldom brought up in the media from this gender perspective) and for a moment the dilemma he was put in by the Evil Queen was genuinely intriguing.
Elsewhere, Season 6 is really shaping up to be about the Storybrooke power struggle. Hyde might be out of the picture, but Rumple's actions in this episode towards Zelena and Belle, as well as his continued allegiance to the Evil Queen put him firmly back in Big Bad territory. The Evil Queen continues to impress by being relentlessly effective as a villain - seriously, so few shows manage to deliver such a repeatedly aggressive and effective bad guy and yet the Evil Queen is giving all she has got with different schemes each and every week. Zelena remains painfully sat on the sidelines now, but there was a brief hint of hope as her actions upon her return back in Season 4 were put to good use and she's another potentially devasting power at work. What's really working is how allegiances are all over the place, but at the same time there is complete and utter respect for the continuity right now. It's in the little details - Emma having legitimate reasons for not wanting Regina to risk her life to stop the Queen, Zelena reminding Rumple of the deal made back in Season 4...this is the stuff good characters are made of. This episode offered it all in little chunks, small fragments of greatness hinting of greater things to come. With that in mind it was again a very functional episode, putting all the characters into play for whatever is coming up - but it does it rather well.
Less effective once again were Aladdin and Jasmine who have so far shaped up to be the only potential weak link in this season so far. Jasmine's first line was once again harping on about how Aladdin needs to save Agrabah and it just smacked of functional but characterless dialogue for her. Aladdin himself remains relatively simple and dull, and his thief skills weren't particularly effective after all either. It's worrying that the Aladdin story is the one being threaded through the season as a potential bigger plot to come. There's potential there - Jafar may well be another character to mix in with that power struggle going on which could be intriguing. But besides that right now the whole thing isn't particularly interesting - the only Aladdin-centric episode of the season so far happened to be its weakest, whilst his scenes in subsequent episodes tend to be the weak links too. Hopefully it can be turned around sooner rather than later.
All in all the episode was a solid one. It was great in places, but it had so many places to it that it lacked coherency. It felt like the scraps left over from each characters story so far, meshed together into a single episode so that things are a bit tidier from here on out. There's nothing wrong with that of course, and what it did bring to the table it did well, but it does make the episode the hardest to pin down so far. It feels perhaps the most filler-esque because of that, in spite of many great moments. On the plus side though it manages to remain entertaining and certainly isn't the weakest episode of the season... if this is what an average episode is for Season 6, then it's still doing rather well!
The Saviour - 7/10
A Bitter Draught - 8/10
The Other Shoe - 8/10
Strange Case - 8/10
Street Rats - 6/10
Dark Waters - 7/10
Heartless - 7/10
I'll Be Your Mirror - 7/10 Changelings - 6/10
Changelings is what happens when you have about five decent concepts, but none fleshed out enough to make a decent episode out of them. Evidently bundling those concepts into an episode together doesn't quite work either - the end result is ultimately a bit of a mess, frustrating because it's full of brilliant ideas but none of them executed particularly well.
Belle is the centre of this story, and Emilie De Ravin as always does her best to make something worthwhile with the character - but ultimately gets very little to actually work with. The inevitable speeding up of her pregnancy somehow felt abrupt in an episode that didn't really know what it was doing for a long while, taking ages to get going. When it finally happens, it's all over fairly quickly. The biggest problem is that it is all done in a way that is crafted to evoke an emotional response in the moment - but it's not been earned. It's very hard to care for Belle, or her baby at this point. There is a strong scene between her and Gold before she has the baby, but that was largely down to Robert Carlyle giving it his all - as he's been doing a little bit more this season. He stands out as especially good in places here, whilst Belle's rebellion against Rumple is growing evermore frustrating now, and the Blue Fairy serves as convenient Storybrooke resident of the week (after a few weeks with Archie, it seems Blue must now turn up weekly for a little while).
The flashbacks in this episode were overly convoluted for their purpose. They largely revolve around Rumple, but confusingly are viewed through the eyes of Belle - and to add to the confusion all build up to the introduction of a new character, namely Rumple's mother...the Black Fairy. There was some hope that the Black Fairy would be Maleficent - a character who is supposedly in Storybrooke whom we never actually see anymore. Instead though the episode chucks in the introduction of Rumple's mother. On the one hand this is very interesting - yet another powerful character thrown into the mix during a season that seems to be enjoying itself a bit of a Storybrooke power play. But on the other hand, these flashbacks don't really go anywhere, the ties to the contemporary story aren't as strong as the episode likes to think they are, and it's just another part of an episode made up of decent parts, but an incoherent and unsatisfying whole.
Elsewhere, the episode teases a confrontation between Zelena and the Evil Queen. Zelena has been sidelined for much of Season 6 so far, but she's a powerful character and better still one who has a strong emotional storyline behind her (well done Rebecca Mader). After a brief hint of that powerful character coming centre stage in the previous episode, the confrontation here looked set to finally make her a major player again. Instead though it amounted to nothing - Zelena didn't fight back at all (in spite of having more reason than ever to do so) and it was a terrible break of character serving only to big up the strength of the Evil Queen, and to also steer the Zelena-Regina storyline again. There's no two ways about it - this was sloppy. It was frustratingly sloppy. Zelena deserves better as a main character than this - she's gone from the sidelines to now being completely undermined. It's not enough to drag the season down as a whole, but after she was one of the biggest (and only) strengths of Season 5 it'd be a shame to see such a demotion so quickly. They need to give her more to do, and quickly. Her later talk with Regina was the kind of long game emotional story that suits the character well, but it came off as somewhat forced given that Zelena literally did nothing in the so-called fight with the Evil Queen. It also taints the notion that Storybrooke is now full of all these powerful, unpredictable characters - what Changelings might give in the form of the Black Fairy as yet another powerful character, it might also be taking away as it mishandles Zelena entirely.
And as the footnote to the episode was Aladdin and Jasmine - the two most functional, and the two least personable characters Once Upon A Time has had in a long while. Jasmine's first line in this episode was about finding Agrabah. Her first line in the previous episode was about finding Agrabah. She gets very few lines, and so spouting your sole purpose does very little in the way of character development, and turns you into a walking, talking plot device. It's frustrating, and worse still it's dull. It's dull because it's so incredibly hard to care about Aladdin or Jasmine... and it's hard to care about Agrabah either given it's appeared briefly in just one episode (which happened to be the weakest of the season as well). The Aladdin story was frustrating before because it was getting drawn out across the whole season - spanning more time than better storylines (i.e. Jekyll/Hyde) that were getting wrapped up much more quickly. It's now frustrating because it fills the gaps in episodes that are much more interesting when they focus on literally anything else. Aladdin and Jasmine literally plug the gap, make up the minutes - they're a non-entity that show up every week in scenes that amount to even less than your standard b-plot. And they're totally boring. Having Aladdin become the genie could have been an inventive take on the story, but it's hard to care about any of it - especially when the Storybrooke stuff is as good as it has been as well.
Belle is one of the weaker characters in the show, and here is an episode that gives her the spotlight. It throws in filler-Aladdin characters for good measure, undermines one of its more interesting villains and also alludes once again to Emma and Hook's dilemma of the season - which whilst not a bad aspect of the show, really hasn't gone anywhere so far either. It's difficult with all this in mind to consider this episode one of the better ones of the season... in fact it falls short of the usual quality now. More positively it has a few good ideas in there that may yet amount to something satisfying, and whilst it's frustratingly fragmented there is still potential and signs of promise along the way - which in fairness cannot be taken for granted in any show that's in its sixth year. Hopefully this one is more of a blip than a sign that the mid-season is going to collapse under the weight of expectation... after all, the expectations needn't be that high, and there are very clear ways which could serve this season well.
I don't usually watch anymore but decided to because Emma was in the EF without Hook and it was a wish about her not being the saviour. The best bit for Swanfire fans like me was to see the huge picture of Bae as a knight on the wall. I was thinking they might come up with something which made Hook the dad.
You can see the whole set up is so tired. I was shocked how worn JM looks. Aladdin and Jasmine had pretty much nothing to do. The show has gone fractional again with a 0.9 which is pretty bad for a mid session finale. It is generally the case ratings dip in spring so it will be interesting to see how low they will go.
The Saviour - 7/10
A Bitter Draught - 8/10
The Other Shoe - 8/10
Strange Case - 8/10
Street Rats - 6/10
Dark Waters - 7/10
Heartless - 7/10
I'll Be Your Mirror - 7/10
Changelings - 6/10 Wish You Were Here - 8/10
The decision to get rid of the half-season arcs benefits Season 6 massively at this point, as the mid-season finale manages to pack a decent amount in without having to wrap everything up very well. Wish You Were Here leaves a lot of loose ends, some more interesting than others, but all in all keeping the show very busy and perhaps the most focused it has been in a long while.
The episode pulls the 'alternate reality' trick - not to quite the same degree as the finale to Season 4 did a couple of years earlier, but much more concisely and effectively. In fact the episode does a brilliant job at not making things overly confusing, which is all the more impressive given Regina is slipping in and out of her Evil Queen outfits whilst the actual Evil Queen is also running about. It's a testament to Lana Parrilla once more, but also a sign of more decent writing in a season that has been delivering a fair amount of it already. Granted a lot of this episode retreads ground from earlier seasons in a lot of ways, but it does it in an interesting enough way and it keeps the stakes quite high throughout.
Perhaps most interestingly of all is just how the show is really building up a roster of formidable villains. The same has been true all season, but Wish You Were Here really opens up that can of worms even more. Going into the second half of Season 6, we still have the Evil Queen who isn't likely to remain a snake forever, we have Gideon being revealed as a rather powerful entity and the one beneath a cloak (whether he'll be the one Emma has to fight isn't yet free of some further twist), we have Zelena still in Storybrooke and minus a brief undermining of her character a week before she remains a formidable morally ambiguous character, we have the Black Fairy who was conveniently dropped in an episode earlier and now seems to be another villainous contender, we have Jafar out there and he's likely about to enter the foray given Aladdin and Jasmine are finally off to Agrabah, then there's also the issue of a plotting and scheming pre-Gold Rumplestiltskin in a world that Emma and Regina have yet to escape - just as it seems Gold himself is shifting towards the side of good once more. All bets are off as to which of these could possibly end up stealing the limelight in the end, but you wouldn't want to be a magic-less resident of Storybrooke right about now. It's definitely the most interesting thing going on in Season 6 right now, and it has to be said that so far it's managing to juggle all of these different elements incredibly well.
Aladdin and Jasmine ended up being slaves to the larger plot here which is the most interesting thing they've done all season so far. It has to be hoped things will pick up for them in the second half, as they have consistently been the weak link in this first half. Elsewhere it was a shame that Zelena was completely missing in action, though it was likely best to preserve her moral ambiguity in this story and not overcrowd it. It was also great that David had something to do for once, even if brief. And even Henry had something more to work with in the alternate reality than he's had to work with in Storybrooke for a long time. Finally the Robin Hood return worked relatively well too - playing up to the emotional loss Regina has suffered without completely undermining her story so far. A long game is in play and it won't be until the very end when we see whether bringing back the Evil Queen was worth all this, but so far it's been well handled and so the writers have earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Robin Hood as well - who knows, they may give him something to actually do now?!
It's not the strongest mid-season episode the show has ever delivered (Season 3's Going Home is arguably my favourite episode... it would have been a fantastic albeit tragic conclusion to the show overall. And Season 4's mid-season finale was strong as well) but it's up there at least, and that's owing to the decision to run with an ongoing story, and frankly because the level of quality has really upped itself since the previous season. I don't think the back half of the season is necessarily suggesting any huge shake-up to the status quo, but right now Season 6 has plenty going for it. A show definitely matured into its later and even likely final years, but one that is still inventive enough when the writing, acting, and interest come together nicely.
Thought the latest episode of Once is probably one of the best in recent memory. One of my favourite episodes ever, perhaps!
I hope Jafar makes his appearance soon, though! I was under the impression that he was to be one of the seasons main villains, but with Jasmine and Aladdin gone, I imagine that he'll make an appearance towards the end in preparation for next season...
Thought the latest episode of Once is probably one of the best in recent memory. One of my favourite episodes ever, perhaps!
I hope Jafar makes his appearance soon, though! I was under the impression that he was to be one of the seasons main villains, but with Jasmine and Aladdin gone, I imagine that he'll make an appearance towards the end in preparation for next season...
That is strange because the diehard fans seem to hate sweet princess Emma. They seem to think that Snow and Charming would not raise her like that. As a wish realm I think their backstory never happened so no need to raise her to be a warrior. Anyway just read
the writers say Hook will have his wish realm and Emma will see him as a pirate. Hopefully she will run a mile but that is my wish realm!
That is strange because the diehard fans seem to hate sweet princess Emma. They seem to think that Snow and Charming would not raise her like that. As a wish realm I think their backstory never happened so no need to raise her to be a warrior. Anyway just read
the writers say Hook will have his wish realm and Emma will see him as a pirate. Hopefully she will run a mile but that is my wish realm!
Yes, considering in the wish realm there was no evil - Charming (or was it Snow?) even commented that there was no need for Henry to be a knight for this reason. So Emma was brought up in complete safety in the wish realm.
Oh well.
I hope the same. Completely bored with Hook now...
Not a bad mid-season finale but eh, the ending slightly annoyed.
I'm not surprised Regina relented for Robin Hood but it was still a little annoying, especially after the extremes she went in order to get Emma back in the first place.
The alternate Enchanted Forest I guess is here to stay there.
Gideon showing up at the end after turning the Evil Queen into a cobra. I guess the Black Fairy influence is going to play out in the second half of the season.
Jasmine and Aladdin were wasted this season so far and I missed Zelena this week, 7/10
Yes, considering in the wish realm there was no evil - Charming (or was it Snow?) even commented that there was no need for Henry to be a knight for this reason. So Emma was brought up in complete safety in the wish realm.
Oh well.
I hope the same. Completely bored with Hook now...
The CS fans have complained so much that the writers had to explain the wish world is from the evil Queens Head. They will try and placate them as our friend Hook
will ask her to marry him. Not sure I said that they are going to give us the wish world from Hook so Emma will see the pirate
It seems ABC has an elite selective forum and are trying to find out why the ratings have tanked. It seems CS fans blame the writers for putting too much weight onto the evil queen and the lack of Hook. The writers seem to believe the CS fans will increase ratings somehow. The general audience don't give two hoots for this pairing and more will leave if the promise of a CS feast comes to pass.
Good returning episode. Liked the Emma/August flashbacks, even if once again we've seen that August is kind of a crappy big brother and whatnot.
Regina getting her own Robin again seemed a little too convenient but I guess maybe we'll see some problems with the pair further down the line.
Gideon might need to up his game if he's going to be the main threat for the second half of this season. He's just tepid so far. Did like Emma kicking his ass though.
The Saviour - 7/10
A Bitter Draught - 8/10
The Other Shoe - 8/10
Strange Case - 8/10
Street Rats - 6/10
Dark Waters - 7/10
Heartless - 7/10
I'll Be Your Mirror - 7/10
Changelings - 6/10
Wish You Were Here - 8/10
Tougher Than The Rest - 7/10
Here we go again kicking off another run of episodes, and this opening one feels very much like classic Once Upon A Time in a lot of ways - a mix of characters all playing a significant part, no particularly weak links like Aladdin/Jasmine to weigh it down and for the first time, and quite rightly at this point, a clearer idea of where the season is headed. In traditional storytelling terms Season 6 has delivered a largely solid beginning, it's currently processing a promising and fluid middle and setting up what could be a very promising end - possibly even to the show itself. If Rumple's final words in this episode are anything to go by then the previous allusions to a power struggle in Storybrooke might indeed be where this season is headed... and all out fairytale war is coming
Most of the episode takes place in the Wish Universe that the previous episode set up and collectively they function as a bit of a two-parter in the middle of quite a serialised series where the plot successfully carries on through all the episodes - akin to the earlier seasons of the show again. The structure doesn't let up here and a few minor shoehorned in references to remind us where we are aside, Tougher Than The Rest does a competent job at getting the ball rolling again - even if it does nothing particularly groundbreaking.
Regina and Emma are at the heart of the story still and it works brilliantly. Regina in particular has been the standout of this season just as she was a few seasons ago. A few forgiven misteps aside they're still doing a brilliant job at playing the long game with her redemption and there is no doubt the show is at its best when it sees itself as being Emma and Regina's story. At the end of Season 5 the show boldly took Regina's character to a dark place - she isn't a happy woman but she doesn't give in to her worse nature because she has grown to love others and wouldn't inflict it on them ever, and so has become quite tormented by living with this pain. Here we get a bit of an extension of that in the rather touching letter she leaves for Emma - in which she says she is going to figure out if anyone actually ever wanted or needed her. Regina is the centre of the best character writing the show has - she's gone from heartless villain through to confident hero and now she's levelling out at the consequences between the two. She's vulnerable though not weak, and this is explored brilliantly. It means it just about works when she gets to bring Robin Hood back from the Wish universe. Any lesser character would not be deserving of that opportunity but they just about make it satisfying enough.
The means by which Emma, Regina and AltRobin return to Storybrooke was largely convenient. Seeing Pinocchio again was a nice addition, though he follows Archie and the Blue Fairy as convenient past-character returning just when they're needed - only likely to not be seen again for a while if ever. Will we see Maleficient brought back out when they randomly need someone else in a few weeks? It is of course nice that the show can depend on a rich backlog of interesting and diverse characters it has shaped for itself, but a shame again that Season 4 and Season 5 neglected this so much that it's now a source of mere convenience when familiar faces show up.
On the subject of convenience, whilst having AltRumple rescue Regina and AltRobin works narratively it was very weak that he decides to set them free only to put them in his own prison that they then escape from - and manage to go unnoticed for so long that they escape this entire Wish universe without him noticing. I am only hoping that the point of this was to remind us of the presence of this AltRumple... as there's still potentially a door through to Storybrooke and having a fully fledged dangerous Rumple on the loose in Storybrooke is something I'm surprised hasn't happened sooner in the show.
It might also fit with Rumple's closing claim that Storybrooke might be facing some kind of war very soon. That power struggle I've mentioned in several previous posts was more or less alluded to here for the first time. In addition to AltRumple, there was the threat of Gideon, the possibly even greater threat of the Black Fairy, Zelena and Jafar still being major players, and the still snakey Evil Queen who definitely isn't gone for good either. The identity of the hooded figure that kills Emma wasn't necessarily revealed here either and there's plenty of room for more twists in that story which is just about sustaining itself as interesting thanks to everything else going on.
Tougher Than The Rest was about as functional as any opening episode. It has a bit of fun along the way too (special mention to AltHook who was somewhat cringeworthy-levels of hilarious) but it's definitely setting up the stakes to be the highest they've been in the show so far whilst also keeping it clear where things stand. It's much more involved than Season 5 was, and far better in quality too. If it can sustain that for another half a season then this could well be an example of 'back to form' that actually lives up to that claim. It doesn't quite feel utterly exhausted yet so if these various plot threads can all pay off, and this episode teases ideas that they might, then it could be the best the show has been in considerable time.
Comments
A Bitter Draught - 8/10
The Other Shoe - 8/10
Strange Case - 8/10
Street Rats - 6/10
Dark Waters - 7/10
Season 6 is really shaping up to be a very competent season, and perhaps no episode so far sums up why more than Dark Waters does. Any show in its sixth season can be excused for not bringing much new to the table, as very few shows that last this long are able to - even fewer do it well. But a show that accepts and embraces that fact can still deliver fun episodes and plots worth following. And so whilst Dark Waters doesn't set the world alight with new ideas or anything that stands out beyond the creative norm for the show's premise it nonetheless has a bit of fun, and manages to avoid the pitfalls of dullness and filler material.
So far the six episodes of the season are all very varied. In the same way that episodes were from the earliest seasons, you can pick the episodes from a crowd because they each do a sufficient job at offering something different - focusing on different characters, different stories, different fairy tales and fictions. They're then also borrowing from the more serial nature of later seasons and making sure we have an ongoing story with the main characters that is worth investing in. All in all it makes for a season that's feeling less standalone and 'filler' than early seasons sometimes felt, and less intense and overblown than later seasons have felt. By finding this crucial balancing act and perfecting it somewhat it makes even the most infuriating characers bearable - partly because they're less imposing in smaller doses, and partly because the writing sufficiently involves them throughout and simply brings them front and centre when the story calls for it. So well done for that.
This is particularly relevant with Dark Waters, a story that takes on the challenge of focusing on Hook and Henry - an ambitious challenge given that the show has form for not writing its male characters effectively. Season 5 took every teenage cliché as it failed to figure out what to do with Henry as he's grown older. It turned it all into The Hook Show, as it disappered up its own behind with a convoluted Dark One mythology. It practically forgot Prince Charming existed, and even the superior acting talents of Robert Carlyle couldn't excuse the dullness of Rumple's character - even he seemed bored. It's refreshing then that Hook gets a story that is about Hook, and generously weaves in the story of Captain Nemo as well. Whilst Nemo currently feels like a disposable or forgettable character it was all the same admirable to see the show continue its pursuit of exploring different stories, and allowing Hook to do something other than fawn over Emma without taking it anywhere.
In fact the episode was on fine form with advancing Hook and Emma's story, making it perhaps the most bearable it's been so far. The frustrating cliffhanger at the end of the previous episode (coincidentally the weakest episode of the season so far) was resolved within minutes of this episode and used as a means to explore the dynamics between Hook and Henry, and also Henry and the Evil Queen. The best way to put it is that the writers narrowly dodged a bullet here, and so whilst Nemo and his submarine didn't make for a particularly engaging story it nonetheless served the series better than the Agrobah stuff has so far, and was a platform to explore characters we might actually need to care about a little more (Aladdin is so far a complete non-entity, and Jasmine - I knew I'd seen her somewhere before, namely Waterloo Road!).
Hook was more in the guise of his former piratey-self, and whilst the episode delivered a decent enough commentary on how he's largely put his vengeful past behind him, it perhaps inadvertently highlighted how dull the character is compared to how he used to be. Still, acceptable if he doesn't repeatedly sit front and centre of the show as he did in the previous season.
Henry came across as a bit of a spoiled brat, frankly, and was largely unlikeable in the story. But also frankly, that's not a bad thing. Better to feel something about Henry than nothing at all and it was nice to give him something integral to do again that didn't involve the also-up-it's-own-behind author mythology.
It perhaps also helped to have the episode make time for other characters too. Hopping back and forth between characters makes the world feel far larger and more involved. The Evil Queen is busy at work messing everyone around, and effectively so. And whilst it will remain to be seen if there is genuine pay off for the Regina split, it's certainly keeping Regina relevant and she remains one of the consistently strong things about the show. Emma and Aladdin's scenes were less effective, mainly as the latter remains utterly unengaging. And it's a shame to see Zelena still criminally underused, sitting around doing very little - she's perhaps the weak link in a season that has otherwise even made a bit more time for the major players (even Snow and Charming to some degree!) which is surprising given how much of an asset she was to Season 5, ultimately one of the few very good things about it. A Zelena-centric episode must surely be on the horizon soon?
On a final note, the Rumple and Evil Queen scene at the end was suitably creepy and beyond disturbing in its own way. What makes it work though is that Rumple's exact motives are continually illusive, and it's made the character more interesting than he's been in seasons (I am wondering if he's planning to use the scissors of doom to cut the Dark One out of himself... given the 'alter ego' theme this season has been following...imagine a second half to season six where a scaly Rumple and an Evil Queen were both running around in Storybrooke!).
All in all, Dark Waters isn't the best episode of Season 6 so far. But it's enjoyable enough for a show in its sixth season, and as a final aside the effects were superb for this show as well. It was good enough on all fronts, and made two less interesting main characters carry an episode rather effectively. If there were more episodes of this quality then it wouldn't be a bad thing, and even if there are a few shortfalls they are largely excusable when the final product is this enjoyable.
He needed it to play the older Begbie in the new Trainspotting movie.:)
A couple of thoughts: Mr Hyde is resistant to magic, but we've seen Regina enhance her own physical strength and speed many times in the past. Surely she could have tried that against him?
Who is the mystery hooded swordsman/woman in Emma's vision? At present I'm thinking Dante, but it could well be evil-Regina or Jafar.
Much will soon be revealed!
Easily S6's weakest episode to date. I struggled to keep attention with this one.
Any intimate scene with Evil Queen and Rumple is one of the sick bucket. Stop this thing at once.
Another week, another moment where Belle just lectures her estranged hubby on his crappy behaviour. I did find Zelena's jealousy amusing enough even if Belle put a target on her there.
Evil Queen finally came up with an effective sleeping curse for both Snow and Charming, good twist, 7/10
I am heartily sick and tired of Belle. All she ever does is shout at Rumple with that unbecoming sneer on her miserable face.
Rumple needs to cut his losses and just leave her to cope alone - she clearly doesn't want him any more (unless as a hate-figure to endlessly nag). I can't see any way back for this couple.
Eventually he might take the drastic step of using the shears to separate Gold from Rumple just to please her. It would be amusing to see sparkly Rumple and the Evil Queen causing mischief together, while Gold allies with Regina and co. to try and stop them.
As far as Rumbelle goes, Belle's just not worth the effort IMO and is turning into another miserable scold - just like Milah.
Poor Rumple.
That's not how the shears work. They merely separate you from your destiny as in Aladdin no longer being a saviour. They don't split your personality.
A Bitter Draught - 8/10
The Other Shoe - 8/10
Strange Case - 8/10
Street Rats - 6/10
Dark Waters - 7/10
Heartless - 7/10
Rather ironically, Heartless is the episode of Season 6 that emphasises more than any other so far how this is a season with its heart in the right place. It's very much trying to do the right thing - righting the wrongs and getting back on track after a previous season that threatened to see the entire premise disappear up its own rear end. And for the most part it's doing an admirable job as well.
Another thing that Season 6 is doing well is keeping viewers on their toes in regards to what the end game might be. There's no half-season arc here, no clear direction. Each episode has so far worked to carve out its own identity and stand out distinctly, whilst each may very well be building upon whatever it is the season is ultimately building to. It's a refreshing change of pace, and Heartless does a good job at keeping up that pacy, unpredictable tone. There's so many dangerous and powerful players all converging at once - the Evil Queen sits front and centre, but so too did Hyde before his untimely demise. Zelena is there and also very much powerful, Gold is still around and becoming more unpredictable by the week, Jafar is still presumably out there lurking in the shadows. This is how you do a multitude of villains at once, rather than the more tacky Season 4 approach of combining the likes of Cruella, Ursula and Maleficent (who were all individually great, but collectively just a random mess). It adds an air of mystery, and that very much taps into that Season 1 vibe when nobody quite knew the scale of what was going on.
Heartless is a Snow White and Charming story, and it's about time they got a bit more focus - given how much time they've hung around only to be left in the background. The problem is that their source material has been largely exhausted, and whilst the episodes of Season 6 are all quite distinct and unique - even including this one - it is too familiar in tone to nearly every Snow and Charming story we've seen previously. The episode even gives us a handy flashback sequence that proves it. Their encounters are repetitive to the point it's a plot point, but that should mean that six seasons in we're not getting more of those repetitive encounters as main stories. The two warrant a Snow/Charming-centric story, but something new rather than nostalgic would be preferential. And it does something odd to the episode - because on the one hand the Evil Queen makes this huge power-grabbing climatic move, but on the other hand it's wrapped in a package that feels quite 'filler' and as if we're in 'been-here-before' territory.
The issues don't end there with this main premise. There are a fair few instances in the story that depend on sheer convenience. The Blue Fairy suddenly being relevant again is shoehorned in after a long absence. Again, the show's heart is in the right place as it tries to make time for the Storybrooke ensemble characters. But she's wedged in more forcefully than Archie, or Granny, or Dr Whale were. It doesn't detriment the episode to see her, and it probably does help to make the whole town feel bigger than just the core cast as well, but it is convenient. What's also convenient is the plant that is at the centre of the story - it's convenient that this plant was able to exist at all, it's then convenient that they now suddenly think it might be in Storybrooke, and then ultimately it's irrelevant anyway so doesn't even get to be the deux ex machina it looked to be. It's hard to tell whether that makes it better or worse, but ultimately it doesn't help make the episode feel any less 'filler' when the artefact at its centre is made redundant. The best thing to come from it was the Blue Fairy listing away the powerful people in Storybrooke right now... that mass assemblage of potential big bads all with their own motives. It was satisfying to see the show addressing that at least.
So with the Enchanted Forest sequences being overly repetitive rather than nostalgic, did the Snow/Charming story have anything going for it? Ultimately, whilst the Evil Queen's decision not to kill Snow White was yet another convenience of the story, it's one that can be forgiven because it does deliver something of an interesting twist. The new sleeping curse that forces one to sleep whilst another wakes rather confusingly gives pay-off to the previous convenience that was seperating Snow's heart into two in the first place, and now making it a plot point that's had actual consequences. It's good to see attention has been paid to the continuity of the show here, and whilst it does trade off one convenience for another, this one seems to have more potential for interesting storytelling. There might be a decent Snow/Charming story yet!
The Evil Queen herself is shaping up to be brilliant. As is true every week, the decision to split Regina and the Queen in half remains a questionable direction to go in that will depend very much on the pay-off that Season 6 eventually delivers with it. But the Queen herself has been a reliable and genuine threat, with her plot in Heartless being the darkest and most brutal she's been yet. It's impressive how much momentum is kept behind the character, and one of the hardest things for a fantasy show to do is to signpost your antagonist early on and keep them interesting throughout. Thinking of a show like Buffy which had impossibly powerful villains - who simply went into 'remission' from time to time when the writers couldn't think of ways to keep them relevant or interesting for very long. It is genuinely impressive that the Queen is as relentless this season as she is, with credit to the writers and to Lana Parrilla - who has the difficult job of playing not two different characters but two interpretations of the same character. She does it effortlessly and is so far the best thing the show has going for it this season...
Not that Heartless is let down elsewhere. Whilst it's slowgoing there was a bit more of a tense move from Zelena. She's been consigned to the background so far this season but she's a powerful character, and Rebecca Mader capable of tremendous range. It's promising that she's breaking out of her shell a bit more here. Gold's story is similarly slowgoing, but much more satisfying than it's been in seasons - with his inner-turmoil clearly still a major issue for him. Belle's impatience with him is understandable, but the character has possibly inherited the frustrating traits that Gold had previously... she's just not fun or interesting to watch. Hook gets a brief moment that dares to make the character slightly likeable again - it ends up descending into fairytale-cheesiness, but there was something for a minute or two in the crypt with Emma that made him inoffensive - and that's high praise indeed!
The episode is frankly a bit all over the place. It does a great job once again of making room and time for everyone to some degree. It's a little worrying that it's all the better for having no Aladdin or Jasmine in it. It's convenient along the way, it's repetitive when it means to be nostalgic, and it doesn't know whether to be an integral piece of the puzzle or more standalone fare. But it does have a good twist at the end, it does deliver some great character moments once more, it does keep you guessing as to where the season is bound, it builds upon the momentum, it respects the continuity and above all it really does have its heart in the right place.
But then what is Rumple's destiny? If Emma had left Storybrooke and never come back in Season 1 would she have been the saviour still? She chose to remain the Saviour, and in that sense was the master of her own destiny. The same is true of Rumple. He chose to become the Dark One, and you could argue that he too is the master of that destiny. I quite like the idea... it gives the characters more free will and steps away from any notion that this is all determined by some higher being, or a sky fairy of some description.
I think it would be interesting to see Rumple's history mirror itself for him. Hypothetically..
- In the past, Rumple had a family. He went to fight in the Ogre Wars, in part to protect and honour them. After encountering a seer who prophecises his child will be fatherless, he acts of his own free will and makes a tremendous sacrifice to return to his family, breaking his leg and making himself weaker. Despite his actions, and sacrifices to be a good father, he was branded a coward. He subsequently lost his wife, and later his son as well. He lost everything and was content with only power and darkness.
- In the present, Mr Gold has a family. He has been fighting himself now that he's the biggest threat going. After a prophetic dream that says his child will disown him, he acts of his own free will and makes a tremendous sacrifice to return to his family, breaking his ties to his power and making himself weaker. These actions, and his sacrifice to be a good father, mean he is branded as heroic. He then gets to fight the battle he never fought (though now it's likely the seperated Rumplestiltskin) to try and regain his wife, and later his son as well. He will triumph and will be content with his family and their love.
Rumple basically gets a happy ending, or at least the opportunity to build one for himself (don't hand it to him on a plate after all he's done, but give the man a chance). It's thematically relevant to the alter ego vibe from Season 6, and I think it'd make a good mid-season cliffhanger. I don't know whether the back half of the season would benefit from having Evil Queen AND Rumple as villains, or whether the two halves could focus on each villain... but I love the idea that this could be where it goes. They mirror eachother brilliantly.
My thoughts exactly. If I was in charge of the show, this would be the direction I would take it, that Rumple (or Belle) would use the shears to separate Rumple from his Dark One destiny - but I am not sure that even that would 'mend' Rumbelle - I think the damage is too great, and Belle is past caring.
I am also semi-convinced that Belle's child will be a daughter, and 'Morpheus' is just a creation of Belle's distrust of Rumple, or even worse a manifestation of either Pan or Hades. I know we thought both were dead, but that seems to mean nothing in this show.
Emma and Regina trapped in the mirror world didn't feel too dragged out and I did like the use of the Dragon.
Sick bucket is required for every Evil Queen/Rumple scene and Rumple wanting Zelena dead seemed to floor Evil Queen a little bit. I did like the reminder of Zelena's previous deal with Rumple.
Rumple putting that bracelet on Belle was disturbed as well.
Aladdin isn't a great thief in this version, is he?
Henry/Violet stuff was a little better than expected, 7/10
A Bitter Draught - 8/10
The Other Shoe - 8/10
Strange Case - 8/10
Street Rats - 6/10
Dark Waters - 7/10
Heartless - 7/10
I'll Be Your Mirror - 7/10
Of all the episodes so far I'll Be Your Mirror is perhaps the most difficult to pin down with a specific identity. Whilst the episode isn't remotely lacking on good character moments, it does unfortunately fail where every episode until now has succeeded this season, and that's by not having a distinct and coherent focus. Here we get a bit of Emma, a bit of Regina, a bit of Rumple, a bit of Zelena, a bit of Aladdin, a bit of Belle... and so on. Nearly everyone who's anyone gets a moment or two in this episode, and maybe with such an extensive cast an episode like this is needed from time to time, but it does cost it a clear sense of identity. At best it tries to wedge The Dragon in there, as a means to try and stand out as something a bit unique from the other episodes so far, but the incredibly fragmented nature of the episode (perhaps appropriately given all the broken mirrors in it too!) means it comes across as the kind of story that's above all else functional, and it actually has a lot less time to do anything particularly creative.
This is made obvious very quickly, with a cute and effective opening montage showing Snow and Charming sharing their new sleeping curse. It's a nice moment of reflection on the events of the previous episode, but seems to set up a notion that it's going to be an integral part of the episode ahead - it wasn't. In fact the two are consigned to the background for the most part and so the montage, as good as it is, proves to be the first fragment in the very fragmented bigger picture.
Henry is perhaps the closest thing this episode has to a main character, owing to the fact he has his own story going on which then overlaps with that of other characters. His story with Violet is as predictably clichéd as it ever was, and whilst the writers have done much better in Season 6 overall, it's proof once again that they don't really know what to do with Henry. He's not the wide-eyed-wonder child any more, but they continue to give him overly cheesy monologue moments and this episode was no exception (even if his little speech about family was one of his less embarassing moments). They don't seem to write adult men very well either, and given he's not quite an adult either Henry really does draw the short straw when it comes to characters most likely to be well-crafted. Generally though, he's inoffensive in I'll Be Your Mirror, his dating angst gives Emma a great moment of parenting (it's odd but brilliant to see a boy being told he shouldn't compromise who he is for a girl, rather than the other way around - both are true of course, but it's seldom brought up in the media from this gender perspective) and for a moment the dilemma he was put in by the Evil Queen was genuinely intriguing.
Elsewhere, Season 6 is really shaping up to be about the Storybrooke power struggle. Hyde might be out of the picture, but Rumple's actions in this episode towards Zelena and Belle, as well as his continued allegiance to the Evil Queen put him firmly back in Big Bad territory. The Evil Queen continues to impress by being relentlessly effective as a villain - seriously, so few shows manage to deliver such a repeatedly aggressive and effective bad guy and yet the Evil Queen is giving all she has got with different schemes each and every week. Zelena remains painfully sat on the sidelines now, but there was a brief hint of hope as her actions upon her return back in Season 4 were put to good use and she's another potentially devasting power at work. What's really working is how allegiances are all over the place, but at the same time there is complete and utter respect for the continuity right now. It's in the little details - Emma having legitimate reasons for not wanting Regina to risk her life to stop the Queen, Zelena reminding Rumple of the deal made back in Season 4...this is the stuff good characters are made of. This episode offered it all in little chunks, small fragments of greatness hinting of greater things to come. With that in mind it was again a very functional episode, putting all the characters into play for whatever is coming up - but it does it rather well.
Less effective once again were Aladdin and Jasmine who have so far shaped up to be the only potential weak link in this season so far. Jasmine's first line was once again harping on about how Aladdin needs to save Agrabah and it just smacked of functional but characterless dialogue for her. Aladdin himself remains relatively simple and dull, and his thief skills weren't particularly effective after all either. It's worrying that the Aladdin story is the one being threaded through the season as a potential bigger plot to come. There's potential there - Jafar may well be another character to mix in with that power struggle going on which could be intriguing. But besides that right now the whole thing isn't particularly interesting - the only Aladdin-centric episode of the season so far happened to be its weakest, whilst his scenes in subsequent episodes tend to be the weak links too. Hopefully it can be turned around sooner rather than later.
All in all the episode was a solid one. It was great in places, but it had so many places to it that it lacked coherency. It felt like the scraps left over from each characters story so far, meshed together into a single episode so that things are a bit tidier from here on out. There's nothing wrong with that of course, and what it did bring to the table it did well, but it does make the episode the hardest to pin down so far. It feels perhaps the most filler-esque because of that, in spite of many great moments. On the plus side though it manages to remain entertaining and certainly isn't the weakest episode of the season... if this is what an average episode is for Season 6, then it's still doing rather well!
Belle's speedy pregnancy and sending her baby into hiding I think we saw all coming. I feel bad for Belle but less so for Rumple.
And the Rumple/Evil Queen thing came to a fortunate end. I can't wait for next week to be done with Evil Queen now.
Regina was a total hypocrite over Zelena to be honest.
Aladdin is now a genie? Ugh. I'm hoping him and Jasmine have better stuff in the second half of the season.
It's about time we find out who is about to kill Emma properly now, 7/10
What's wrong with that? Nicely handled tie-in with the Wonderland series, I thought.
A Bitter Draught - 8/10
The Other Shoe - 8/10
Strange Case - 8/10
Street Rats - 6/10
Dark Waters - 7/10
Heartless - 7/10
I'll Be Your Mirror - 7/10
Changelings - 6/10
Changelings is what happens when you have about five decent concepts, but none fleshed out enough to make a decent episode out of them. Evidently bundling those concepts into an episode together doesn't quite work either - the end result is ultimately a bit of a mess, frustrating because it's full of brilliant ideas but none of them executed particularly well.
Belle is the centre of this story, and Emilie De Ravin as always does her best to make something worthwhile with the character - but ultimately gets very little to actually work with. The inevitable speeding up of her pregnancy somehow felt abrupt in an episode that didn't really know what it was doing for a long while, taking ages to get going. When it finally happens, it's all over fairly quickly. The biggest problem is that it is all done in a way that is crafted to evoke an emotional response in the moment - but it's not been earned. It's very hard to care for Belle, or her baby at this point. There is a strong scene between her and Gold before she has the baby, but that was largely down to Robert Carlyle giving it his all - as he's been doing a little bit more this season. He stands out as especially good in places here, whilst Belle's rebellion against Rumple is growing evermore frustrating now, and the Blue Fairy serves as convenient Storybrooke resident of the week (after a few weeks with Archie, it seems Blue must now turn up weekly for a little while).
The flashbacks in this episode were overly convoluted for their purpose. They largely revolve around Rumple, but confusingly are viewed through the eyes of Belle - and to add to the confusion all build up to the introduction of a new character, namely Rumple's mother...the Black Fairy. There was some hope that the Black Fairy would be Maleficent - a character who is supposedly in Storybrooke whom we never actually see anymore. Instead though the episode chucks in the introduction of Rumple's mother. On the one hand this is very interesting - yet another powerful character thrown into the mix during a season that seems to be enjoying itself a bit of a Storybrooke power play. But on the other hand, these flashbacks don't really go anywhere, the ties to the contemporary story aren't as strong as the episode likes to think they are, and it's just another part of an episode made up of decent parts, but an incoherent and unsatisfying whole.
Elsewhere, the episode teases a confrontation between Zelena and the Evil Queen. Zelena has been sidelined for much of Season 6 so far, but she's a powerful character and better still one who has a strong emotional storyline behind her (well done Rebecca Mader). After a brief hint of that powerful character coming centre stage in the previous episode, the confrontation here looked set to finally make her a major player again. Instead though it amounted to nothing - Zelena didn't fight back at all (in spite of having more reason than ever to do so) and it was a terrible break of character serving only to big up the strength of the Evil Queen, and to also steer the Zelena-Regina storyline again. There's no two ways about it - this was sloppy. It was frustratingly sloppy. Zelena deserves better as a main character than this - she's gone from the sidelines to now being completely undermined. It's not enough to drag the season down as a whole, but after she was one of the biggest (and only) strengths of Season 5 it'd be a shame to see such a demotion so quickly. They need to give her more to do, and quickly. Her later talk with Regina was the kind of long game emotional story that suits the character well, but it came off as somewhat forced given that Zelena literally did nothing in the so-called fight with the Evil Queen. It also taints the notion that Storybrooke is now full of all these powerful, unpredictable characters - what Changelings might give in the form of the Black Fairy as yet another powerful character, it might also be taking away as it mishandles Zelena entirely.
And as the footnote to the episode was Aladdin and Jasmine - the two most functional, and the two least personable characters Once Upon A Time has had in a long while. Jasmine's first line in this episode was about finding Agrabah. Her first line in the previous episode was about finding Agrabah. She gets very few lines, and so spouting your sole purpose does very little in the way of character development, and turns you into a walking, talking plot device. It's frustrating, and worse still it's dull. It's dull because it's so incredibly hard to care about Aladdin or Jasmine... and it's hard to care about Agrabah either given it's appeared briefly in just one episode (which happened to be the weakest of the season as well). The Aladdin story was frustrating before because it was getting drawn out across the whole season - spanning more time than better storylines (i.e. Jekyll/Hyde) that were getting wrapped up much more quickly. It's now frustrating because it fills the gaps in episodes that are much more interesting when they focus on literally anything else. Aladdin and Jasmine literally plug the gap, make up the minutes - they're a non-entity that show up every week in scenes that amount to even less than your standard b-plot. And they're totally boring. Having Aladdin become the genie could have been an inventive take on the story, but it's hard to care about any of it - especially when the Storybrooke stuff is as good as it has been as well.
Belle is one of the weaker characters in the show, and here is an episode that gives her the spotlight. It throws in filler-Aladdin characters for good measure, undermines one of its more interesting villains and also alludes once again to Emma and Hook's dilemma of the season - which whilst not a bad aspect of the show, really hasn't gone anywhere so far either. It's difficult with all this in mind to consider this episode one of the better ones of the season... in fact it falls short of the usual quality now. More positively it has a few good ideas in there that may yet amount to something satisfying, and whilst it's frustratingly fragmented there is still potential and signs of promise along the way - which in fairness cannot be taken for granted in any show that's in its sixth year. Hopefully this one is more of a blip than a sign that the mid-season is going to collapse under the weight of expectation... after all, the expectations needn't be that high, and there are very clear ways which could serve this season well.
You can see the whole set up is so tired. I was shocked how worn JM looks. Aladdin and Jasmine had pretty much nothing to do. The show has gone fractional again with a 0.9 which is pretty bad for a mid session finale. It is generally the case ratings dip in spring so it will be interesting to see how low they will go.
A Bitter Draught - 8/10
The Other Shoe - 8/10
Strange Case - 8/10
Street Rats - 6/10
Dark Waters - 7/10
Heartless - 7/10
I'll Be Your Mirror - 7/10
Changelings - 6/10
Wish You Were Here - 8/10
The decision to get rid of the half-season arcs benefits Season 6 massively at this point, as the mid-season finale manages to pack a decent amount in without having to wrap everything up very well. Wish You Were Here leaves a lot of loose ends, some more interesting than others, but all in all keeping the show very busy and perhaps the most focused it has been in a long while.
The episode pulls the 'alternate reality' trick - not to quite the same degree as the finale to Season 4 did a couple of years earlier, but much more concisely and effectively. In fact the episode does a brilliant job at not making things overly confusing, which is all the more impressive given Regina is slipping in and out of her Evil Queen outfits whilst the actual Evil Queen is also running about. It's a testament to Lana Parrilla once more, but also a sign of more decent writing in a season that has been delivering a fair amount of it already. Granted a lot of this episode retreads ground from earlier seasons in a lot of ways, but it does it in an interesting enough way and it keeps the stakes quite high throughout.
Perhaps most interestingly of all is just how the show is really building up a roster of formidable villains. The same has been true all season, but Wish You Were Here really opens up that can of worms even more. Going into the second half of Season 6, we still have the Evil Queen who isn't likely to remain a snake forever, we have Gideon being revealed as a rather powerful entity and the one beneath a cloak (whether he'll be the one Emma has to fight isn't yet free of some further twist), we have Zelena still in Storybrooke and minus a brief undermining of her character a week before she remains a formidable morally ambiguous character, we have the Black Fairy who was conveniently dropped in an episode earlier and now seems to be another villainous contender, we have Jafar out there and he's likely about to enter the foray given Aladdin and Jasmine are finally off to Agrabah, then there's also the issue of a plotting and scheming pre-Gold Rumplestiltskin in a world that Emma and Regina have yet to escape - just as it seems Gold himself is shifting towards the side of good once more. All bets are off as to which of these could possibly end up stealing the limelight in the end, but you wouldn't want to be a magic-less resident of Storybrooke right about now. It's definitely the most interesting thing going on in Season 6 right now, and it has to be said that so far it's managing to juggle all of these different elements incredibly well.
Aladdin and Jasmine ended up being slaves to the larger plot here which is the most interesting thing they've done all season so far. It has to be hoped things will pick up for them in the second half, as they have consistently been the weak link in this first half. Elsewhere it was a shame that Zelena was completely missing in action, though it was likely best to preserve her moral ambiguity in this story and not overcrowd it. It was also great that David had something to do for once, even if brief. And even Henry had something more to work with in the alternate reality than he's had to work with in Storybrooke for a long time. Finally the Robin Hood return worked relatively well too - playing up to the emotional loss Regina has suffered without completely undermining her story so far. A long game is in play and it won't be until the very end when we see whether bringing back the Evil Queen was worth all this, but so far it's been well handled and so the writers have earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Robin Hood as well - who knows, they may give him something to actually do now?!
It's not the strongest mid-season episode the show has ever delivered (Season 3's Going Home is arguably my favourite episode... it would have been a fantastic albeit tragic conclusion to the show overall. And Season 4's mid-season finale was strong as well) but it's up there at least, and that's owing to the decision to run with an ongoing story, and frankly because the level of quality has really upped itself since the previous season. I don't think the back half of the season is necessarily suggesting any huge shake-up to the status quo, but right now Season 6 has plenty going for it. A show definitely matured into its later and even likely final years, but one that is still inventive enough when the writing, acting, and interest come together nicely.
I hope Jafar makes his appearance soon, though! I was under the impression that he was to be one of the seasons main villains, but with Jasmine and Aladdin gone, I imagine that he'll make an appearance towards the end in preparation for next season...
That is strange because the diehard fans seem to hate sweet princess Emma. They seem to think that Snow and Charming would not raise her like that. As a wish realm I think their backstory never happened so no need to raise her to be a warrior. Anyway just read
Yes, considering in the wish realm there was no evil - Charming (or was it Snow?) even commented that there was no need for Henry to be a knight for this reason. So Emma was brought up in complete safety in the wish realm.
Oh well.
I'm not surprised Regina relented for Robin Hood but it was still a little annoying, especially after the extremes she went in order to get Emma back in the first place.
The alternate Enchanted Forest I guess is here to stay there.
Gideon showing up at the end after turning the Evil Queen into a cobra. I guess the Black Fairy influence is going to play out in the second half of the season.
Jasmine and Aladdin were wasted this season so far and I missed Zelena this week, 7/10
Regina getting her own Robin again seemed a little too convenient but I guess maybe we'll see some problems with the pair further down the line.
Gideon might need to up his game if he's going to be the main threat for the second half of this season. He's just tepid so far. Did like Emma kicking his ass though.
Alternative Hook was funny though, 7/10
A Bitter Draught - 8/10
The Other Shoe - 8/10
Strange Case - 8/10
Street Rats - 6/10
Dark Waters - 7/10
Heartless - 7/10
I'll Be Your Mirror - 7/10
Changelings - 6/10
Wish You Were Here - 8/10
Tougher Than The Rest - 7/10
Here we go again kicking off another run of episodes, and this opening one feels very much like classic Once Upon A Time in a lot of ways - a mix of characters all playing a significant part, no particularly weak links like Aladdin/Jasmine to weigh it down and for the first time, and quite rightly at this point, a clearer idea of where the season is headed. In traditional storytelling terms Season 6 has delivered a largely solid beginning, it's currently processing a promising and fluid middle and setting up what could be a very promising end - possibly even to the show itself. If Rumple's final words in this episode are anything to go by then the previous allusions to a power struggle in Storybrooke might indeed be where this season is headed... and all out fairytale war is coming
Most of the episode takes place in the Wish Universe that the previous episode set up and collectively they function as a bit of a two-parter in the middle of quite a serialised series where the plot successfully carries on through all the episodes - akin to the earlier seasons of the show again. The structure doesn't let up here and a few minor shoehorned in references to remind us where we are aside, Tougher Than The Rest does a competent job at getting the ball rolling again - even if it does nothing particularly groundbreaking.
Regina and Emma are at the heart of the story still and it works brilliantly. Regina in particular has been the standout of this season just as she was a few seasons ago. A few forgiven misteps aside they're still doing a brilliant job at playing the long game with her redemption and there is no doubt the show is at its best when it sees itself as being Emma and Regina's story. At the end of Season 5 the show boldly took Regina's character to a dark place - she isn't a happy woman but she doesn't give in to her worse nature because she has grown to love others and wouldn't inflict it on them ever, and so has become quite tormented by living with this pain. Here we get a bit of an extension of that in the rather touching letter she leaves for Emma - in which she says she is going to figure out if anyone actually ever wanted or needed her. Regina is the centre of the best character writing the show has - she's gone from heartless villain through to confident hero and now she's levelling out at the consequences between the two. She's vulnerable though not weak, and this is explored brilliantly. It means it just about works when she gets to bring Robin Hood back from the Wish universe. Any lesser character would not be deserving of that opportunity but they just about make it satisfying enough.
The means by which Emma, Regina and AltRobin return to Storybrooke was largely convenient. Seeing Pinocchio again was a nice addition, though he follows Archie and the Blue Fairy as convenient past-character returning just when they're needed - only likely to not be seen again for a while if ever. Will we see Maleficient brought back out when they randomly need someone else in a few weeks? It is of course nice that the show can depend on a rich backlog of interesting and diverse characters it has shaped for itself, but a shame again that Season 4 and Season 5 neglected this so much that it's now a source of mere convenience when familiar faces show up.
On the subject of convenience, whilst having AltRumple rescue Regina and AltRobin works narratively it was very weak that he decides to set them free only to put them in his own prison that they then escape from - and manage to go unnoticed for so long that they escape this entire Wish universe without him noticing. I am only hoping that the point of this was to remind us of the presence of this AltRumple... as there's still potentially a door through to Storybrooke and having a fully fledged dangerous Rumple on the loose in Storybrooke is something I'm surprised hasn't happened sooner in the show.
It might also fit with Rumple's closing claim that Storybrooke might be facing some kind of war very soon. That power struggle I've mentioned in several previous posts was more or less alluded to here for the first time. In addition to AltRumple, there was the threat of Gideon, the possibly even greater threat of the Black Fairy, Zelena and Jafar still being major players, and the still snakey Evil Queen who definitely isn't gone for good either. The identity of the hooded figure that kills Emma wasn't necessarily revealed here either and there's plenty of room for more twists in that story which is just about sustaining itself as interesting thanks to everything else going on.
Tougher Than The Rest was about as functional as any opening episode. It has a bit of fun along the way too (special mention to AltHook who was somewhat cringeworthy-levels of hilarious) but it's definitely setting up the stakes to be the highest they've been in the show so far whilst also keeping it clear where things stand. It's much more involved than Season 5 was, and far better in quality too. If it can sustain that for another half a season then this could well be an example of 'back to form' that actually lives up to that claim. It doesn't quite feel utterly exhausted yet so if these various plot threads can all pay off, and this episode teases ideas that they might, then it could be the best the show has been in considerable time.
Hook,
Regina
Gold
Link