September 27th has now arrived and ABC aired the first episode of Once Upon a Time's season five. In a previous entry, we discussed the art of mastering the finale, but perfecting the premiere of a season is just as important as ending a season. For the past four seasons of Once, the show has dazzled us with great returns, including a great beginning. There is nothing more important in a television series than a pilot episode. The pilot episode is always what networks call a test-run episode to see how the ratings go on the show and get a feel for whether or not that particular series is worth picking up. Thankfully, Once did an excellent job at coming into the network's radar.
In season one, the introduction was written in a standard pilot fashion. There was an obvious plot point introduced of a witch casting a curse on a town and making everyone of the fairy tale characters forget who they were. The pilot episode starts with Prince Charming kissing Snow White in her coffin and awakening her with true love's kiss. At the wedding, the evil queen, Regina, makes an appearance and threatens to destroy all of their happiness. Snow White is pregnant, but she has to give up her baby, Emma, and send her through a wardrobe to save her life because there is a prophecy told that she will be the savior and break the curse on her 28th birthday. In true pilot fashion, the writers also introduce Emma on her 28th birthday nonetheless as a bail bondsperson on a blind date with her target. Emma Swan is this strong and confident woman with a hint of abandonment issues as most kids are who don't know their real parents.
Emma meets her son who she gave up, Henry who then takes her to a small town called Storybrooke because he believes she is meant to break the curse. Therefore, the adventure begins. In season two, the premiere episode introduced the breaking of the curse and the return of magic. Immediately, Emma and Snow are thrown into a portal to the Enchanted Forest and begins that adventure. It was a nice premiere to go into season two because after a whole season of spending most of the show being in Storybrooke with Emma and the other characters, there were only flashbacks of how the curse came about and backstory flashbacks to each character. For the fans, it was a refreshing change of pace to actually have Emma and Snow White fall back to The Enchanted Forest in present time. In season three, the writers came into the new season immediately in Neverland which was a nice change of pace because this time the motivation was Henry and they did a wonderful job of uniting heroes and villains in this particular episode. The writers also introduced an admirable foe heading into the new season.
After falling through the time portal and bringing back the vase holding Elsa, season four premiere did a fantastic job at introducing the Frozen story. This particular season premiere was written well because they were planning for a unique story arc to add towards the end of the season involving Emma turning dark. You can immediately feel that foreshadowing of Merlin and the Camelot vibes irradiating the moment Rumplestiltskin is in the sorcerer's house near the sorcerer's hat. A truly good season premiere leaves a nice hint of what's to come even farther in the future.
Going into the season five, there were a lot of questions that needed to be answered and in true premiere fashion, there are still questions that need to be answered from last season
plus more questions for this season already. The premiere began with a flashback of when Emma was a young girl watching the Sword and the Stone in the movie theater and what we can assume was Merlin pretending to be an attendant was talking to Emma about not touching Excalibur and trying to pull it from the stone when she was older. Then, we head to Camelot where King Arthur and his two knights ride to the stone to free Excalibur because of a prophecy that Merlin told Arthur. When a fellow knight friend tries to steal the power for himself, the sword vanquishes him into dust. Arthur steps up to the stone in true lore fashion and pulls the sword from the stone only to discover there is a piece of the sword missing on the end of it.
Taking a look at the design of Excalibur, notice it is designed similar to The Dark One's dagger. So the Dark One's dagger is made from a piece of Excalibur! Point for the writers on that one again! Safe to assume, maybe the darkness can disappear in part when the final piece is reunited with Excalibur then there is no dagger to tether the darkness to anymore. We can see why Merlin did that.
Back in Storybrooke, just after Emma disappeared, Hook grabs the dagger in hopes of trying to summon her back. Emma, in the Enchanted Forest, manifests out of the chamber that holds The Dark One. Last season, Rumple was left in a preserved state, but fear not. The writers found a creative way to keep our beloved Rumple in the show already. He becomes the "voice in Emma's head". We see Rumple appears near Emma the moment she surfaces and she realizes he is the image of the darkness inside of her,
trying to help her hone in on that power. Talk about having a bad conscience. Emma wants to find Merlin to help her remove the darkness out of her since she knows she is in the Enchanted Forest, so we are aware at this moment Emma doesn't want to be evil. The good is still in Emma, but we know she might be tempted from time to time which we also see when the premiere introduces a fiery lass named Merida. Emma and Merida are in search of the whisp for two different motivations. Merida is trying to rescue her brothers. Emma wants to find Merlin.
Now back in Storybrooke, Hook suggests to Regina to have the Wicked Witch, Zelena help them create a portal to find Emma. The apprentice gives them a wand that has to be yielded by someone both light and dark, but Regina finds out she can't use it because she is no longer dark. Zelena wants to help but only if Regina removes the bracelet that is keeping her from using magic. Regina refuses but Hook asks Henry to help him break Zelena free from her prison. When Zelena steals a knife from Hook, she cuts off her hand to remove the bracelet and puts her hand back on. Zelena escapes the prison.
Merida overhears Emma talking to herself, or "Rumple, voice of reason". Rumple tries to
convince Emma that she needs to remove Merida's heart to get the whisp because once the person who whispers to it does so, the whisp belongs to them. Merida has left the campsite and Emma follows her to the Hill of Stones and tries to steal the whisp back, but the only way Rumple thinks this will work is if Emma rips her heart out. He is slowly trying to get Emma to take in her darkness.
Meanwhile, Regina and Zelena go toe-to-toe in the street after Zelena tricked Robin Hood by pretending to be Regina. Zelena gets the wand from Regina, but Regina has cursed it. The gang goes to Granny's Diner to prepare to travel through the portal created, in the form of a twister, to find Emma. Regina uses Emma's baby blanket to change the location of the portal and the twister sweeps the diner up, taking them to the Enchanted Forest.
Emma is at the Hill of Stones with Merida, hearing voices in her head, meaning Rumple, and Emma rips Merida's heart out once convinced. Just as she is about to crush it, Hook's
voice comes from the background and Emma stops. Hook, Snow, Regina, Robin Hood, Henry, and Charming rush to Emma's side to show they have found her and want to help her. Hook stands by Emma while she hesitates to give Merida her heart back and Emma wants to remove the darkness or she will hurt the people she loves. Hook manages to talk her down and Emma returns Merida her heart. Emma and Hook embrace in a hug as Emma is relieved that he's there and she didn't kill Merida. When Snow and the others try to give Emma the dagger so she had control over herself, Emma gives the dagger to Regina to protect her and to do what needs to be done if Emma ever goes dark.
To end the return episode, Emma and the others go to Granny's Diner where it apparently had dropped in the middle of the forest. Before, Merida thanked Emma for showing her that darkness is a part of her as well and that she would show mercy to her enemies once she found her brothers.
The knights of Camelot ride up with Arthur because Arthur knew they were coming. He
informs Emma and the others Merlin saw a vision of them coming. It was up to Emma to help them find Merlin. Arthur takes Emma and her friends to Camelot, but once they enter the castle territory, we are taken back to six weeks later. The diner drops back in Storybrooke and the entire group is back in dresses and weird costumes from Camelot. Once again, they have no memory of what happened over the past six weeks.
What we do see however, is Emma Swan. The Dark One. The others see Emma standing in the diner and she is dressed in all black with an evil look in her eye. She informs them that they failed to find Merlin and remove the darkness in her, so now she has become the Dark One and she turns one of the dwarves to stone. Regina threatens her, but Emma now also has her dagger back somehow. Emma threatens all of them that she will make them pay for what they did.
Here is the flaw with this premiere. Once Upon a Time has done a fabulous job at doing finales and premieres. However, I find already that the memory loss storyline has been played out for the past four seasons. The show started out with no memories, season three ended up having a memory loss story arc. The villains that keep casting curses for them to lose their memories aren't being very creative at all if they want to confuse the heroes. Regina was the first one to do it, then her sister did.
We're still left with a few questions and now a whole bunch more. Rumple was shown to us once in Storybrooke, still in his comatose state. Also, Robin Hood isn't looking as heroic as I expect him to because he seems to get taken advantage of a lot lately especially after Zelena revealed herself as Marian. In the end of season four, I feared the male leads were starting to get downplayed a lot and the women were outshining the heroic men of the show.
Hook is not as clever as he used to be, which I think he will have to be in order to get Emma back. Robin Hood is kind of walked all over by witches lately and Charming kind of takes a back seat to Snow sometimes. The good thing about the show is that the women on the show are strongly written which is a nice thing, but what was great about it beforehand is the men were challenging the women. Emma and Hook were constantly sharing witty banter and Hook always seems to bring out a fighter in Emma, which was excellent. Snow and Charming were a tag team in all their endeavors. Robin Hood and Regina started out as this intense, fiery relationship, but all of the scenarios have changed. So far, the good character transformation is Henry, but the other difficulty with this is there are a lot of characters on this show which makes it hard to focus on one when each of them play in a scene together as a group.
We still have yet to see Lily or how that's going to play out and it's also been confirmed that Mulan is returning to the show. My guess is either she joins them in the first half or becomes part of Season 5B somehow.
Once season five gets going farther in, the transformation on Emma's darkness might reveal the effects on each character soon. The addition of Merida is excellent. The addition of King Arthur is even better and once Merlin gets in that will add a nice dynamic for Emma.
It's still the first episode and we've got a lot more coming, so I'm counting on the writers to take the fans on an epic journey because they've always been fantastic at it. Though season five's opener wasn't as strong as their previous ones, I feel like the season will be strong overall once they pick up momentum.
Once Upon a Time airs on ABC at 8/7c.
Once Upon a Time has some pretty great characters when it comes to their show, but perhaps one of the best characters to come upon the Storybrooke town was none other than Captain Hook, also known as Killian Jones on Once, played by the handsome devil Colin O'Donoghue.
Like most of the fairy tale characters in the show, there are variations in each story. To young kids, Captain Hook is the villain in Peter Pan with a perm and a bad mustache who is constantly trying to stop Pan from saving the children in Neverland. However, in the original tale, Hook was considered a good guy. Peter Pan was abducting children and taking them to Neverland. In Once Upon a Time, Killian Jones is a dashing pirate who can smooth talk his way out of most situations, but also quite the troublemaker much like pirates are. Originally, the character wasn't intended to be a series regular but the fans adored Colin's take on the pirate so much that the creators decided to keep him permanently and he has been an excellent addition to the team ever since.
Killian Jones' backstory on Once started as early as when he was a part of his brother's ship in the Royal Navy. When the crew thought they were sailing to an island called Neverland to retrieve what was to heal their soldiers in battle turned out to be the poison Dreamshade where Jones & his brother met Peter Pan. When Jones' brother is poisoned by the Dreamshade, Pan aids him in giving him the water from the mountain but it doesn't come without a price. His brother dies on the ship the moment he leaves the island. After the loss of his brother, that was the moment Jones took over the crew, renamed the ship the Jolly Roger, and decided to become a pirate. The fans know little of Jones' parents, but he was close with his brother. For the writers to write in a loss of someone close to him was an important character shift for Killian. Among all of the pillage and plundering, there was a heart underneath the dear Captain and the fans got to catch a glimpse of it when the writers had him meet the first Storybrooke character, Rumplestiltskin.
The first time fans were officially introduced to Killian in the show ever was Season 2's "The Crocodile" episode where Rumplestiltskin was aboard his ship trying to find his wife, Milah. Rumple was a coward and Jones challenges him to a duel in order to get his wife back. In the original fairy tale, Hook lost his hand to a crocodile, but in Once Rumple returns to the ship for a magic bean after discovering Milah ran away with Jones because she was in love with him. Angered by this, Rumple kills Milah by crushing her heart and cutting off Jones' hand with a sword, giving him the official label of Captain Hook.
Hook then comes into the scene and meets Emma Swan for the first time in "The Doctor" episode where he pretends to be an innocent blacksmith in order to gain her trust so he can find a way to Storybrooke. Fans automatically could sense the chemistry and passion between these two characters as they went on an adventure together to climb the beanstalk and find a compass to take them back to Storybrooke. There is an epic battle between Emma and Hook and the fans got a taste of the heat that was about to unfold in hopes Hook and Emma would be more than just enemies in the long run. Hook's charm wasn't something he could use to fool Emma as she was immune to his wit and devilish smile, but both of them had a lot in common already. Hook could read Emma instantly and understood who she was, both of them having lost important parts of their past.
Hook and Emma share a common friend: Neal Cassidy. Hook at one point, fans discovered, took Neal under his wing. The writers had a nice twist on this story because Emma knew Neal as not just her friend, but love interest. Hook knew a side of Neal that Emma didn't get to know, which was his younger self, Baelfire. Hook taught Baelfire how to sail and how to be a pirate, so he was more of a mentor to Neal. The connection was beautiful because going into season three, Hook has that sense of respect for Neal, agreeing to stand aside so Neal can try to have a relationship with Emma. In the beginning of season three, after all of Hook's shenanigans and being on the side of evil, he turned over a new leaf. Fans found out Hook fell for someone again and Emma became the woman that stole his heart. Once Neal was gone, Hook stepped up to help Emma as she tried to figure out where she belonged and how to use her magic. In season four, the writers finally explored thoroughly the relationship of Emma and Hook.
After Hook and Emma fell back in time in the end of season three, their bond grew stronger as they watched Snow White and Prince Charming's love unfold while trying to fix what they messed up in the timeline. Through this adventure, Emma learned where her home was and the fans discovered after the wicked witch cast the curse, what happened to Hook's ship: He traded it for Emma. Once Emma found out that Hook gave his ship up for Emma, the relationship was ready to be built from that moment. Writers went into season four knowing it was time to dive deeper into the chemistry between these two and fans got a chance to enjoy that in Season Four when Hook takes Emma out on an official date. We definitely can say that Hook is quite a gentleman at heart over a pirate. Though we do love watching Hook be his dashing and rapscallion self, it was nice to see a different side to the character.
Fans might've been worried a little in the middle of season four when Rumple steals Hook's heart and uses Hook to do his bidding. When Emma somehow finds a way to figure that out, there was worry over whether or not Rumple would kill Hook, but Hook was able to get his heart back thanks to Belle and Emma restored it to his chest. There are usually characters who are written in with no clear purpose at all and then there are other characters written into a show with clear intention. When looking at Captain Hook, a character who started out as a foe of Emma's, once given the chance to transform into the seasons, a new clear intention comes to mind. For every hero in a show, there comes the characters that are specifically written to motivate the hero. Like Snow White has Charming, Emma has a strong counterpart to motivate her.
Hook is a great motivation for Emma Swan. In the end of season three, Hook is there to help her realize where her home is and that magic is a part of who she is. Through season four, when Emma starts to doubt her abilities, Hook assures her that he loves every part of her, including her powers. The reason that Captain Hook works so well for Emma is because both of them lost a lot in their past. While Hook has spent centuries seeking revenge on Rumple, Emma has spent just a few years seeking a home. Typically, it is that of a character like Hook to bring out the best in Emma and vice versa, which both of them do for each other.
While Hook transformed mostly through his love for Emma, it's a curious thing to think going into season five after Emma took in the darkness, that all of that transformation will pay off in the end. Hook fell in love with the good inside of Emma and who she was prior to The Dark One, and because of that love, it transformed who he was. If Emma was willing to love Hook for the good and the bad, always choosing to see the best in him, Hook was willing to do the same for her. Though Emma will struggle with the darkness in her going into season five, Hook now has to learn to love the bad just as much as the good he fell in love with as well.
Once succeeded at taking a regular fairy tale character like Captain Hook and writing him into their beautiful story, but giving him a new fate. Emma Swan wasn't a part of any fairy tale; she was written into the show on her own. She serves a different purpose for the writers, but because of that, they were able to help transform Captain Hook and making him into a successful motivational protagonist for the show's hero. Through that method, it makes for a compelling, epic love story between Captain Hook and Emma Swan. It's no wonder the fans are hooked on Hook. After centuries of revenge, finally finding the one love of your life, your happy ending, there isn't anything in the world you wouldn't do to protect that. Not only did Hook finally realize it, but Emma finally realized her love in the season four finale. Cora once told Emma that love is weakness, but Emma responded with "No. It's strength."
Let's see what Hook and Emma's love can do in season five.
Season Five of Once Upon a Time airs on September 27, 2015 on ABC at 8/7c.
In every television show, one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish is how a season's story arc wraps up. One of the even more difficult tasks is how a series' story wraps up.
Thankfully, some of the best television shows on air have wrapped up their series quite nicely, but for those who haven't finished yet, fans are still entertained on a regular basis by those very shows. For now, the only difficult task for the shows still on air is becoming a master at the finale of a season.
Once Upon a Time has mastered the finale for the past four seasons, which is even harder to do for some shows. Sometimes a finale doesn't always end the way you want them to. Once has mastered their finales with grace and panache from Season 1 to Season 4.
In Season 1, the show focused on the story arc of getting their main character, Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) to believe in magic by using the main character, Henry Mills (Jared S. Gilmore) as her guide. The reason Once succeeded in its first season finale is because the writers didn't create a massive, explosive beginning, giving away all of the magnificence and potential that the show had. Already, the series had to build on fairy tale characters fans
grew up watching in alternate versions, so the show had to be careful with what they did with these characters. The key in a show's first season is not to make the story arc too grand that every season that follows after it isn't as great. Emma believed in magic. She reunited with her parents. Magic returned to the real world. It was subtle and it left a good platform to build off of for season two.
Now heading into Season 2, Once did something that they are now known for which is creating two parts to a season. In Season 2A, Emma and her mother, Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) were trapped in the Enchanted Forest, introducing Mulan (Jamie Chung), Aurora (Sarah Boelger), Regina's mother, Cora (Barbara Hershey), and Captain Hook (Colin O'Donoghue). So elegantly, the writers have all these moving pieces in the first half of the season and it's important not to confuse the fans. The writers did a wonderful job
of wrapping up Season 2A by having Emma & Snow return to Storybrooke, but Hook & Cora followed them back. Go into Season 2B, the writers bring in another interesting moving piece, Neal Cassidy/Baelfire (Michael-Raymond James). Once again, this particular story arc led up to a solid cliffhanger with Henry being kidnapped and taken to Neverland. Once is also great at leaving questions at the end of each season, so for season two, fans got to sit on a few cliffhangers for a whole summer. Neal fell through a portal and ended up somewhere else, but not Neverland. There was a prophecy foreshadowing the end of Rumpelstiltskin and Henry was responsible for his undoing.
Once again, the Season 2 finale wasn't grand, but it was stronger than Season 1 because the writers were smart enough to not outdo themselves already in the Season 1 finale. With Season 2, that did mean the writers had to upstage in Season 3 because it's important to always grow, but not ruin the shot to grow in the next season. In Season 3A, Emma & the cast were in Neverland for the first half of it. For that particular midseason finale, Pan (Robbie Kay) casts a curse that puts all the characters back in the Enchanted Forest and Emma and Henry end up in New York without their memories of Storybrooke. There also remain moving pieces when Rumpelstiltskin sacrifices himself, Hook manages to make it to New York to bring Emma back, and Neal has gone missing. Someone else cast the dark curse to return everyone to Storybrooke. In Season 3B, the heroes deal with Zelena (Rebecca Mader, the Wicked Witch. All of the moving pieces are finalized, but towards the end, the writers decide to open a time portal to the past and bring back a vase with a magical being inside of it.
Once Upon a Time mastered the return and finale in Season 4 out of all of their seasons. In
Season 4A, they answered who was in the vase: Elsa (Georgina Haig) who comes to Storybrooke looking for her sister, Anna (Elizabeth Lail). Emma and Elsa go up against the Snow Queen (Elizabeth Mitchell) in the first half of the season. A lot of the beginning parts of season four tell an origin story of Emma Swan's life, which was a lineup for the season finale. Most of the origin characters' stories were in the first two seasons as fans got to know Rumpelstiltskin, Snow White, Charming, and Regina. In season four, the writers focused their attention on Emma and her powers. In the midseason finale, the writers lined it up for the second half of the season bringing in Cruella De Vil (Victoria Smurfit), Ursula (Merrin Dungey), and Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten).
Throughout the series, Once lined up moving pieces for this particular ending. Regina went on a search for her happy ending at the beginning of the season and it played a major part in the ending. In season 4B's finale, an author came into play and altered the reality of the heroes and villains by making the characters switch roles. Emma Swan was able to reverse what the author did with Henry's help, but in the end, Emma sacrificed herself to save Regina's happiness by taking in the darkness and becoming the Dark One leaving one of the best cliffhangers on television. Now, for season 5, the characters must search for Emma and together, they must go on a quest to Camelot to find the sorcerer, Merlin, who is the only one who can destroy the darkness permanently.
For the particular season finale, Once left a lot of moving parts, but in a good way.
Rumpelstiltskin lost all of his dark magic and the Apprentice was seen putting a light heart back into his chest, but leaving him in a preserved state. Fans will now wonder whether Rumpelstiltskin has light magic in him or not and what will his new role be in season five. In Henry's case, Henry was given the great destiny of becoming the new author, but he broke the quill. Now that his mother is The Dark One, is there a chance Henry will try to find a way to alter her fate to get her back? Regina still has to deal with a pregnant Zelena and the fans now have to wonder whether that will still affect Robin Hood (Sean Maguire) and Regina's future. Lily (Agnes Bruckner) is in search of her father now. There is already speculation on who her father could possibly be since Maleficent doesn't know him in human form.
Emma Swan is now The Dark One. However, Rumpelstiltskin was still capable of loving Belle (Emilie de Ravin) even with his darkness. It's still possible for Emma to be a hero even with darkness in her and love Hook as well as Henry. She will, however, still struggle with the darkness.
Once Upon a Time has successfully built it's show up gracefully in each season, mastering the art of the finale each time. With its' successful writing chops, there is no telling how Season 5 will go, but with all of the moving pieces in the air, fans are sure to enjoy an exciting year introducing characters such as Merida, King Arthur, Merlin and the return of Lancelot.
To Camelot we go!
Season 5 of Once Upon a Time airs on September 27th at 8/7c on ABC.
Emma meets her son who she gave up, Henry who then takes her to a small town called Storybrooke because he believes she is meant to break the curse. Therefore, the adventure begins. In season two, the premiere episode introduced the breaking of the curse and the return of magic. Immediately, Emma and Snow are thrown into a portal to the Enchanted Forest and begins that adventure. It was a nice premiere to go into season two because after a whole season of spending most of the show being in Storybrooke with Emma and the other characters, there were only flashbacks of how the curse came about and backstory flashbacks to each character. For the fans, it was a refreshing change of pace to actually have Emma and Snow White fall back to The Enchanted Forest in present time. In season three, the writers came into the new season immediately in Neverland which was a nice change of pace because this time the motivation was Henry and they did a wonderful job of uniting heroes and villains in this particular episode. The writers also introduced an admirable foe heading into the new season.
