In the past month, I have watched every single episode of ABC’s hit fairytale extravaganza, Once Upon A Time. This wasn’t necessarily a deliberate decision. I’d watched the show as it aired until I lost all steam in the first episodes of the sixth season, when I heard rumors that Hook leaves (he actually did, but then he came back) and I just couldn’t handle one more episode where Rumplestiltskin betrays everyone. Again.
But then I heard that [Editor’s note: spoiler to follow, highlight if you want to read it!] Emma and Hook got married and I really wanted to experience that joy. I knew I couldn’t just jump in where I left off with the convoluted plots that Once throws at viewers, so I began again at the beginning. Here I am, one month later, absolutely and completely obsessed with this show that I had already watched previously in a way that past me could have never anticipated.
I could write at least six articles about this show, and I probably will, but first I want to talk about the much maligned seventh season, and why it’s not one you should sleep on. Is it even remotely as good as the next weakest season of the previous six? I’m not going to blow smoke up your butt, it really isn’t, and the saddest part about that is the show’s nosedive into obscurity just when it decided to go out and get its most diverse main cast.
Still, there are reasons to keep going, and I’m going to try to sell you on them.
Spoilers to follow, read at your own risk if you haven’t seen the show but want to.
If you’ve never watched the show, you’re probably not reading this article anyway, but just for clarity: season 7 reboots the franchise. Regina is still Regina from before, Henry has aged about ten years (and was completely recast except in the teenage flashbacks), Rumpelstiltskin is the same Rumpelstiltskin, but while Captain Hook (my main squeeze) is there, he’s actually from a different timeline, a Wish Realm introduced in season 6. This is so original Hook doesn’t have to leave his happy ending with Emma but Colin O’Donoghue could still be on the show.
The season begins with a throwback to the first episode of the first season with a little girl, Lucy, knocking on the door of a grown up Henry Mills, telling him that she’s his daughter and they’re under a curse.
The season asks a lot of you right from the jump, that you completely buy into this new curse, that you accept a grown up Henry, that you accept all the things you don’t know about why Regina, Rumple, and Hook are there, that you accept Lady Tremaine’s really truly terrible accent (the actress is actually British, I don’t understand why it was so bad). But if you push through the first few episodes, you arrive at the entire reason for this season to exist: the parent/child relationship drama that drove so much of the previous seasons.
First, you’ve got Regina waking up from the curse and remembering who she is and who Henry is, which is painful enough when you know you’re trapped somewhere and your son doesn’t know you. Top that with the inability to make him understand, and the knowledge that if you DO break the curse and make him remember, something really really bad is gonna happen to him. (No spoilers!) (I mean sort of a spoiler, but not really!)
Lucy loses both of her parents throughout the course of the season, before getting them back again. Lady Tremaine, as her step-grandmother, exerts control over Cinderella/Jacinda by taking Lucy from her at various times. And of course there’s Henry, who doesn’t remember who she is at all.
By far the most emotionally fraught parent/child storyline is Captain Hook and his child, who I’m not even going to gender at this point to avoid too many spoilers. Original Hook gave up his revenge when he met Emma and fell in love. Wish Hook gave up his revenge when he became a father, and honest to God it’s this storyline that kept me going in this season, I had to know how it ended. Gothel poisoned his heart in the past, so he can’t get within a few feet of his kid without it almost killing him, and by the time the curse hits he’s ready to die just to be able to hug them again. It’s PAINFUL, okay?
Hook hasn’t had a cursed persona before, having escaped all previous curses, and seeing him as a one-handed cop assigned to a cursed Rumpelstiltskin as a new detective was a special kind of delicious, knowing their history.
In addition to a racially diverse cast, this season also had the first multi-episode gay romance. The show has come a long way from Mulan’s unstated crush that had her running away from Aurora and Phillip in the third season. Season 5 had Ruby and Dorothy, but that whirlwind romance went from first meeting to True Love’s kiss in one episode. This romance slowly unfolds over the entire season and ends with asking for a parent’s blessing for a marriage proposal. To say I clutched my face in delight would be understating my actual reaction, but since I didn’t film it, that’s all you’re going to get.
If none of this is enough to make you want to catch up, there are also some truly delightful special guest spots from the erstwhile stars. Emma Swan and original Hook have appearances in two episodes. Zelena shows up for an extended stay in the middle, and is the star of an episode directed by Lana Parilla, who plays Regina. There’s finally an end to the Belle/Rumpelstiltskin storyline, though I’m still skeptical on whether or not he truly deserves it. And the finale features almost everyone who’s still alive in the universe, and one notable person who is not actually still alive but still on Regina’s mind.
Will I watch this season again? Maybe. I’ll certainly watch clips of this season. But I’m glad I powered through it once, and the finale especially is a really good cap to the show, even better than the finale of the sixth season. (The completely confusing timelines notwithstanding, and if you’ve watched this, you know what I’m talking about.)
Screencaps from kissthemgoodbye.net. Other images from Eonline.com.
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