The Art of Mastering the Finale - ONCE UPON A TIME

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.