Now that Once Upon a Time season 5 is over, we look back at how the show went from its best storytelling, to some of its worst and look ahead at season 6.
Season 5 of Once Upon a Time is finally over. The Underworld intentionally cast a harsher light on Once Upon a Time for aesthetic purposes. But the storytelling took a hit as well. While it may not have successfully achieved a clear course of action to pull the season 5 narrative together, it did lay some interesting groundwork for season 6.
Pinpointing where the show began to unravel is difficult. It likely lands somewhere in the range of the mid-season finale and the spring premiere where the tone of the show shifted from a well-executed exploration into the darkness that exists inside every character to procedural style storytelling where the stakes for the season got lost.
There was no urgency for the heroes to get back to Storybrooke. In fact, the Underworld felt more like a vacation than an arc that would change the characters. If anything, the backend of season 5 did more to regress its characters (namely Regina, Gold, Belle, Henry, and Emma) than give any of them development. Did we finally reach the zenith of everyone’s story? Is there nothing left to tell? Nowhere for them to grow? It sure felt that way with fan-favorites, Pan, Cruella, and Zelena stopping by for what seemed like a distraction from the arcs of these characters.
It is no secret that I thought season 5 plummeted into the Underworld and lost everything that once made the show great. Especially after I sang Once Upon a Time‘s praises and even dubbed season 5’s opening arc as a rebirth of the show. When the show returned for the big episode 100, however, it immediately fell from grace. Characters were cheated out of conclusive storylines, children were abandoned for heinous love affairs, and guest star characters seemed to be chosen from a hat and dealt with after the fact rather than written in cohesively. One needs to look no further than Peter Pan and Hercules’ involvement.
Speaking earlier this year about where the series could ultimately end, creator Edward Kitsis said to EW, “We could change our minds in a few months, but right now we’re just trying to get out of [season] 5. We have plans for season 6. Listen, there’s a time and a place where, at a certain point, characters either need to find their happiness or not, and we are aware of that. We’re just not ready to answer that question yet.” And get out of season 5 they did. I’m not one to suggest tone on the printed word, but the choice of “get out” of season 5 felt as a viewer of the show something they wrote themselves into and had to find a way out.
In the penultimate episode of the season, matters took a turn for the worse with the death of Robin Hood. How could the writers justify this one? With all the death and undoing of death in the series, it looked like Robin might make a miraculous return just like Hook. But alas, the Olympian Crystal’s power is to send someone to a place where there is no purgatory, no dead friends to help pass the time, no unfinished business. In other words, for Robin Hood to come back it will take some serious loophole inventing (not to mention contract negotiations) to bring back this dead archer.
Too soon, Sean. Too soon.
With all of the weight of season 5 bringing Once Upon a Time down, it seemed as if the finale would only lead to more disappointment and maybe even inspire some fans, including myself, to write off the show for season 6. But something strange happened. A doctor and his alter monster ego entered the scene, Henry took a stand, and Regina’s story arc went in another direction. Needless to say, Once Upon a Time threw out a life jacket and I grabbed onto it.
This does not discount anything that season 5B did. I watched Hades become the a horrible imagining of a beloved Disney villain. I sat through Emma and Hook ignoring their deep emotional issues for the sake of a “happy ending.” I watched Rumpel become to the worst version of himself, which is truly saying something. But the show dug deep for the two hours it had left to give and resurrected a show from the Underworld it sent it to in January. It may be dirty and carry the scent of death, but season 6 will serve as the Jekyll to season 5’s Hyde. Now separated, it is time to focus on the future of the series as it battles the ramifications of its past.
Here are some of the highest highs and lowest lows of season 5.
The best of ‘Once Upon a Time’ season 5
- Emma’s turn as the Dark One
- Hook’s sacrifice to set the world free of the Dark One
- Merlin and Merida’s introduction
- Henry’s first date
- Discovering more of Hook’s backstory
- Regina’s final confrontation with her father
- The reveal of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The worst of ‘Once Upon a Time’ season 5
- Hades and Zelena’s love story
- Rumpel’s refusal to give Belle the attention and love she deserves
- Robin’s death
- Hercules, Megara, Liam, and Pan being underutilized
- The recycling of storylines: time travel spell, portals, flashbacks to the Evil Queen and Snow
- The fate of Camelot
- The fact that it took 11 episodes to get to a great season finale
Watch Once Upon a Time season 5, episode 17, “Her Handsome Hero,” Sunday April 10 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.
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