SPOILER ALERT!
This is a review on Episode 1 "The Savior" of Once Upon a Time's Sixth Season Premiere. If you have not seen the episode, do not read further!!!
Welcome back Oncers! It's fall season on the television front which means all of the television shows new and old return to the networks. Among those shows is the ABC series, Once Upon a Time. Last season, we saw Emma Swan become the Dark One and then, Captain Hook turned into the Dark One. Captain Hook sacrificed himself, landing him in the Underworld with Hades, forcing Emma to drag all of her friends and family down to the Underworld to save him. As a result, Robin Hood's life was taken from Hades.
In the season five finale, Charming, Snow White, Zelena, and Hook ended up in another world where they met Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It was called the Land of Untold Stories. Meanwhile, Emma and Regina went on a mission to find Rumple and Henry when Henry stole the crystal that held all of Storybrooke's magic. Rumple set out to free Belle from the sleeping curse. Hyde made a deal with Rumple and gave him Storybrooke. Regina separated herself from her darker half, The Evil Queen.
Now, welcome back to Season Six! In the hour long premiere episode, the writers decided to open with a scene that took place years ago in the desert. This particular scene introduced Aladdin and Jafar. According to the scene, Aladdin was a savior just like Emma was and Jafar had explained that the fate of saviors is a dark one. Come into the next scene, Hook and Emma are making out until a flying giant blimp if you will flies over Storybrooke. Hyde threatens Emma and the town, informing them that Storybrooke belongs to him now.
Rumple goes into Belle's dreams and meets Morpheus. His goal is to wake Belle up by making her fall in love with him again.
Meanwhile, Emma Swan is having problems throughout the episode having visions of a dark future and constant tremors in her hands.
Now, typically, I'm all for some action and some new characters, but as of last season's writing complications, the premiere did not do it for me. I'm sure I'll receive some arguments on this. There were some highlights of the premiere. However, I will mention that once again, I am a huge fan of Once and I'm still loyal to the show.
Let's talk about this for a second.
The premiere episode was rushed into. For starters, Belle took that sleeping curse to protect her child from Rumple. Belle is no longer trusting Rumple and it becomes his goal to wake her up by making her fall in love with him again. There is a flaw in his plan. Belle already loves him, but she won't believe in him. Rumple uses trickery to get her to try and fall for him, but it doesn't work. Morpheus sees Belle trusting her instincts as a good sign and wakes her up. Why? Because Morpheus informs Belle and Rumple that he is their future son. What? No way! Yes way!
Belle is already awake in the first episode. Flaw there. Here's why. Rumplestiltskin had a backwards character arc in season five. He was written in to start out the season in a preservative state and given a clean slate of a heart. He had the chance to become a good person and then took in all the powers of the Dark Ones again. So for his character development, it was a bad idea. Now, in season six, he has the chance to redeem himself when challenged with waking Belle up, but once again, rather than giving Rumple a challenge, they make it easy for him. There is no obstacle really for him to overcome.
Belle sees Rumple for who he truly is. Therefore, Rumple finds it impossible to give up the darkness and wants Belle to accept him for it. If Belle will no longer believe in him, I only think it would be interesting if another character came along and bonded with him to transform his soul. If someone else came into Rumple's life to help guide him on the path to that transformation, it would've been a more interesting story. But instead, Rumple and Belle's obstacle was cut short in the first episode.
Now, it's absolutely great that Regina and Zelena are attempting to get along. There was also a nice bonding moment when Zelena had clutter in Regina's house, trying to unpack her stuff to move in. My biggest issue, however, is that Zelena and Regina argued in Regina's office about Robin Hood's death last season. Zelena felt like she lost someone (Hades) in that same event, but Regina blames Zelena for Robin's death. Yes, it was Zelena's fault. Zelena was selfish and got Robin Hood killed. Rather than apologizing to Regina, Zelena got mad at Regina for separating herself from her evil half because apparently it was the part of Regina that she could most relate to.
While I do love a good Hook and Emma story, the keeping things bottled up and hidden from Hook is getting old. Emma has become the Dark One, saved Hook from the Underworld, and essentially been through enough to trust him, yet she still keeps secrets from him. I think the couple has been through enough to actually communicate with each other. Emma Swan's character transformation should've extended past her lone wolf phase, but it hasn't. Hyde knows something you don't know, Emma. One of the added storylines to this season is that the savior supposedly has a dark fate in store for her and no matter what she does she can't change it.
On top of Hyde, Emma's dark fate, Rumple and Belle, there is also Regina's evil half, The Evil Queen, coming to wreak havoc in the end. Oh. And they captured Hyde and shoved him in a padded cell way too soon! That villain became easy to imprison.
It seems the only beneficial moments to some of the episode involved David and Mary Margaret when they had an old-fashioned adventure in the woods together. Henry and Regina had a heart-to-heart. Rumple and Belle got to dance to the Beauty and the Beast theme song again in Belle's dreams and Snow White and Regina also had a good heart-to-heart at the end after six seasons, Regina finally apologized to Snow for being a terrible person to her all those years. It's good to see that Regina wants to start fresh as a hero and move on from her villain half. That is something to look forward to.
Now while this post seems a bit critical, keep in mind that it's only the first episode, so my opinions could change once I see how far the writers take the show. My biggest concern is that there are so many balls in the air and I'm not sure how the writers are going to handle every single arc.
Here's to hoping for a redeeming season six Oncers!
Once Upon a Time airs on ABC Sundays at 8/7c.
