Once Upon a Time: The Final Battle Part Two

First Aired May 14th, 2017.

The Black Fairy (played by Jamie Murray) shows Henry (played by Jared Gilmore) the burned storybook and revels in her victory. The beanstalk falls and Charming (played by Josh Dallas) is missing but Hook (played by Colin O’Donoghue) takes the bean to the others.

Emma, (played by Jennifer Morrison) now “cured,” leaves Storybrooke for Boston and resumes her old life, but finds pages from her old life drawn by Henry. Snow (played by Ginnifer Goodwin) finds Charming seemingly dead but a kiss wakes him (shown with a montage of the kiss he used to wake her). Henry asks Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold (played by Robert Carlyle) for help but Gold only wants to find Belle (played by Emilie de Ravin). Henry takes a sword from the shop and decides to confront the Black Fairy alone, which prompts Regina (played by Lana Parrilla) to take action. Regina sacrifices herself to hold off the magic heading for the castle so the (formerly) Evil Queen and the others can use the bean to escape to Storybrooke, but they’re all overtaken. Just before Henry can confront the Black Fairy, Emma returns, and, while she doesn’t have her memories, she is beginning to believe, which stops the Enchanted Forest from being completely erased.

We were teased with a few possible character deaths, but, in the end, it doesn’t look like any of the heroes will be denied their happy ending. The Charming/Snow scene was just a way to rehash the opening of the pilot and it was a fun and emotionally charged scene. Regina for a moment seemed to be a goner but she would have lived on regardless in the form of the Queen. Plus, there was always the sense that anyone erased would be restored whenever Emma remembers and/or wins the battle anyway. But, for any character to die, Regina would have been the toughest to swallow, because her journey has been one of the highlights of the series. Gold still manages to stay ahead of the curve and the Black Fairy underestimating him is part of her downfall. It was a testament to how Gold may never fully reform, but you can’t deny that he’s a survivor.

Gold finds Belle living as an agoraphobic and vows to get revenge on the Black Fairy. She tries to regain his trust by promising to resurrect his first son Baelfire, but Gold gets her wand. The Black Fairy reveals she translated the page Henry wrote and that only someone with light magic can kill the Savior. She forced Gideon (played by Giles Matthey) to fight Emma using his heart and, in response, Gold kills the Black Fairy. Once she dies, everyone gets their memories back and Emma is reunited with Hook, her parents, and Regina, who reveals that if Emma kills Gideon or vice versa, light will still be destroyed. Gold finds Gideon’s heart but his Dark One alter ego tries to convince him to let Gideon kill Emma, Gold tries to stop Gideon, but a spell prevents him. Emma throws down her sword refusing to fight and Gideon stabs her, but a kiss from Henry resurrects Emma. And Belle and Gold find Gideon reincarnated as a baby. The storybook is also restored, all the realms are recreated, and everyone enjoys their happy endings. Emma and her family resume their normal lives in Storybrooke, Gold, and Belle reunite, and the Queen gets engaged to Robin Hood (played by Sean Maguire).

Emma having to ultimately fight Gideon was a nice twist that turned the narrative upside down, but the Black Fairy was killed off too quickly. She was built up as the main antagonist and I felt there should have been a bigger pay off with her death: a fight scene or at least another confrontation with Emma. When Gold killed the Black Fairy, he made it look way too easy, which made it much less exciting. Speaking of too easy: Regina, Hook, and the Charmings went through hell trying to get home and literally appeared out of nowhere. In fact, when we last saw Regina, she was erased. But, there she was, happy like nothing happened. The biggest issue is how Emma allowed Gideon to “kill her” but True Love’s kiss was able to save the day AGAIN. Perhaps this was meant as another callback to the pilot, but this plot device was used so often it’s not exciting to see it back. But after six seasons of talking about happy endings, it does warm the heart to see all the characters finally get them and even learn to be a big happy family.

Interspersed throughout the episode, a young girl Lucy (played by Allison Hernandez) escapes from an evil force with the storybook. In an epilog set years later in Seattle, the girl takes the book (with stories of all the current characters) to an apartment. There she finds a much older Henry (played by Andrew J. West) and claims to be his daughter and tells him that his family needs him. The series has officially been rebooted with a new story, which is really the same story it began with. Obviously, we won’t be treated to a journey of Henry struggling to believe in magic, and, though it’s the biggest repetition the show could offer, there is a nostalgic appeal to Henry meeting his daughter this way. It’ll be interesting to see how the series will fare now that Henry will be the character at the center of the action.

Quotes/Thoughts

“Your family isn’t going to exist long enough to save themselves.”

I wonder if Gideon will grow up and remember that he basically lived about 20+ years already.

“I don’t remember all the crazy stuff you told me, but I believe it.”

I feel Once Upon a Time should have ended this season but I’m curious to see where Henry’s story will go. How does everyone else feel?

If you enjoyed Manny’s review, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.

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