Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26159109-20150722160646/@comment-24674051-20150722170344

Jump the shark (JTS) - reach a point at which far-fetched events are included merely for the sake of novelty, indicative of a decline in quality.

With that definition in mind, let's look at the list and the show as a whole.

1. Emma breaking the curse - Not far fetched, but actually a target of the entire narrative. If anything, it would be Gold dumping the potion in the well, and that was not far-fetched either, it was necessary to set up season 2.

2. Greg & Tamara - Storybrooke is in Maine. with the curse gone, having outsiders find the little hamlet did not seem far fetched. The whole "Home Office" was a little lame, but I don't call that jumping the shark, I call that bad writing. Emma, Henry, and Lily are not fairy tale characters, and I like them.

3. Regina undoing the curse - Had Going Home been the Series Finale, it would have been good. It was not a JTS moment. They just did not handle what they have done afterward as well as could be expected.

4. Neal's death - again, not really JTS material, just mishandled narrative. It was poorly set up (actually, it was barely set up at all), and poorly executed. I could see killing Neal be a meaningful plot, but it was just thrown in for no really apparant reason.

5. Snowing's one heart - Ok, this one could qualify. They wanted Snow to be the one to cast the curse (why, I have no idea), and everyone knows that, by the rules of the curse, David would have to lose his heart and die. So they came up with the idea of sharing a heart, used it to ressurect David immediately, and then basically forgot about it.

6. Frozen - Definitely JTS material. It's not necessarily far fetched to have Elsa and co interact. as characters go, they actually fit in rather well. But because of the restrictions, they had no leeway to grow the characters, meaining they never really got more than 2 dimensional. It was a marketing ploy, pure and simple.

7. Marian/Zelena - Marian's whole purpose in Season 4 was to add angst into the Robin/Regina relationship. I think the fact that a lot of fans called this one before it was leaked that Bex was returning tells me that this was not necessarily jumping the shark as much as just, again, poor writing.

Of all the ones listed, Frozen seems like the most likely JTS moment. However, it remains to be seen if that is the moment that started the downfall of the series. Emma becoming the Dark One could bring new life to the show (IF they handle it correctly).