Once Upon a Time 5.22-23: Only You/An Untold Story

As I discussed in my review of ‘Last Rites’, the new tradition of closing out the season’s second major arc before the finale looked like it was set to continue. While there were no parallel universes, or time travelling escapades, ‘Only You’ and ‘An Untold Story’ were full of unexplored territory for Once, and provided a nice breath of fresh air after the tumultuous events of the Underworld arc.

Once Upon a Time 5.21: Last Rites

In order to tie up the many loose ends this season has left dangling to get things in place for the following finale, ‘Last Rites’ took a few liberties to make it happen. Those liberties ranged from confusing to downright silly, but the episode did pack enough of a punch to justify at least some of its flimsy means.

Once Upon a Time 5.20: Firebird

What I like most about the episodes that delve into Emma’s pre-Storybrooke past is that they always provide a welcome change from the usual escapades that are spent trudging around a monotonous green landscape, and show us a world where things are a little less idyllic and a bit rougher around the edges; not unlike Emma herself. ‘Firebird’, while somewhat flawed, gave us some interesting insight into what made Emma so tough in the first place. We also learned how Emma got her jacket. Maybe the second part was a little unnecessary?

Once Upon a Time 5.19: Sisters

Part of what made the opening salvo of the Underworld arc so great was that it was bolstered by strong character beats and interesting dynamics. ‘Sisters’ borrows a lot of that from ‘Souls of the Departed’, and manages to do something much more impactful, largely because what happened here felt earned.

Once Upon a Time 5.18: Ruby Slippers

Given how traditional the values of Once Upon a Time are, ‘Ruby Slippers’ went a long way towards taking those dated values apart, and rebuilding them for a modern audience. In light of the prejudicial developments of ‘Her Handsome Hero’, what transpired here was a relief.

Once Upon a Time 5.17: Her Handsome Hero

Belle was put through so many damaging moments in ‘Her Handsome Hero’. Most of those moments weren’t even her fault, but they insinuated that everything she stands for means absolutely nothing, and I honestly can’t figure out if that’s something that will be addressed in the future, or if we’re just supposed to accept that she’s an idiot for wanting to do things the right way.

Once Upon a Time 5.15: The Brothers Jones

We’ve watched Hook redeem himself over the last three seasons, and his transformation has been almost as dramatic as Regina’s. The guilt he’s been feeling over what he did as a result of Emma’s magical intervention has caused him to undermine everything that he’s done since he arrived in Storybrooke, which is understandable. What isn’t is his arrogance and dismissal of the forgiving and helping had that’s being shown to him even after all that’s happened. This episode relies heavily on that self loathing, and the fundamentally flawed reasons behind it and it suffers a lot because of it.

Once Upon a Time 5.14: Devil's Due

The most frustrating thing about Rumple is that he seems to make the same mistakes over and over again. Every time there’s an opportunity to pull him out of this cycle of cowardice and power seeking he just falls right back into it. It doesn’t help that he’s become a poster child for character assassination. There’s very little to like about him anymore, so what should we feel sorry for him?

Once Upon a Time 5.13: Labor of Love

The execution of this episode’s guest appearance was a little lacklustre, but I loved where that new character helped to take one of the series’ veterans, pulling them out of passivity and finally addressing their lack of contribution to the show at large.

Once Upon a Time 5.12: Souls of the Departed

‘Souls of the Departed’ surprised me. As a landmark episode it tried it’s hardest to pump in as much nostalgia as it could; we saw more than a few familiar faces, and a couple of subtle throwbacks to this show’s better days. But instead of a Snow and Charming clip show, or a Henry and Emma homage, we were instead treated to an affecting exploration of Regina’s troubled relationship with her parents. It’s a dynamic that didn’t necessarily have a huge impact when this show began, but with Regina’s incredible journey over the last few years, it’s wonderful that it was considered important enough to feature heavily in the 100th episode of this fun, camp, ridiculous and frequently embarrassing show.

Once Upon a Time 5.10: Broken Heart

The decision to change the game in ‘Birth’ is marred in this episode by a clumsy attempt to set things up for the following finale. There are some interesting ideas at play, both in regards to what Emma had to do in Camelot and what’s been happening in the present day, but the significance of all that is lost in favour of rushed character beats in order to get everything into place for a big finish.

Once Upon a Time 5.08: Birth

I think we’ve all been feeling Killian’s frustration for the past few episodes. Emma’s plan has been cloaked in so much secrecy that it’s made it hard to follow all of her plotting and scheming. ‘Birth’ finally pulled back the curtain on what happened in Camelot to turn her into the Dark One, and gave us some insight into what’s been motivating her to pull all these strings in the present. We can really get invested from here on out.

Once Upon a Time 5.11: Swan Song

Once Upon a Time’s main problem this season has been an over reliance on its increasingly complex mythology. Because of the nature of this season’s Dark One arc, the show has been forced to tackle the dense history of this being, which involves not just multiple characters, but a lot of rule bending and in some instances, revision of past events. While ‘Swan Song’ isn’t far removed from these problems, it succeeds in separating itself from them by focusing on the characters involved, and everything they’ve done to get to this point.

Once Upon a Time 5.09: The Bear King

What’s interesting about this episode is that it’s one of the rare instances of a show being able to rely on a new character to ground a story. It’s a bold move to put Merida front and centre, without the core cast there to give her fight for her kingdom some weight, but some links to heroes we’re already familiar with managed to carry ‘The Bear King’ in a way I didn’t expect.

Once Upon a Time 5.07: Nimue

As we dive into the origin story of the Dark One, we’re faced with some interesting moral complexities concerning what drives good people to do bad things. ‘Nimue’ is a wonderful exploration of that concept that’s incredibly heartbreaking, though not all that surprising.

Once Upon a Time 5.06: The Bear and the Bow

As a character in her own right, Belle is starting to become rather inconsequential. In almost every instance she’s used as a plot device to further character development separate to her own. We’ve seen that play out time and time again with Rumple. Here, she played that supporting role again, but it wasn’t just Rumple that she helped, she also played a part in helping Merida fulfil her own quest to save her family, but what about Belle herself?

Once Upon a Time 5.05: Dreamcatcher

For the first 30 minutes of ‘Dreamcatcher’ I was rolling my eyes and struggling to stay interested. Then the last 10 minutes happened and the whole episode was given a lot more weight and significance.

Once Upon a Time 5.04: The Broken Kingdom

‘The Broken Kingdom’ is full of contrived events and forced character beats. There’s very little about Arthur and Guinevere’s past that felt organic, and while the story itself is interesting, the execution of this week’s flashbacks left a lot to be desired.

Once Upon a Time 5.03: Siege Perilous

David is such an important character in theory. It’s his love story with Snow that started all of this, and the two of them hold the dysfunctional Once fam together. But when David’s thrust front and centre it never really works because he doesn’t stand out as an interesting character in his own right. Like so many Charming centric episodes before it, ‘Siege Perilous’ suffers because it’s all about David being a hero (and not a whole lot else) and there’s never really much to talk about. However, the episode attempts to combat that by using newer, less admirable characters to help beef out the plot, to mixed results.

Once Upon a Time 5.02: The Price

Given that we only got a glimpse of Present Day Emma last week, I wasn’t completely sold on this new version of the Dark One by the close of the premiere. In ‘The Price’ we got to see her in action, and I really liked what I saw. It looks like the Dark Swan saga could be a lot of fun, so long as the arc doesn’t crash and burn before it’s over.