Board Thread:News and Announcements/@comment-29413451-20160802114940/@comment-25926288-20170101044830

It's a bit more complex. For example, Robin's death and Hook's ressurection have no correlation, just a small snippet to get Serum EQ out. (Robin was pretty much doomed to die to be continuously offscreen.) Hook is glorified by some fans, but others glorify whomever is their favorite, but if you wipe that away all the characters are pretty much in worse boat than they appear.

Piling alot on and whittling a masterpiece is a tactic they use and it's very common across all TV. Jekyll and Hyde's arc was pretty solid (only Jekyll lacked any sort of character development for half of his arc). They did it right. The job is to tell a cohesive story, not go with what fans think are right. It's better to end a good story early than to drag it into oblivion (like EQ, who was a little interesting, but she was like Rumple of 4B who aimlessly stumbled into lucky victories).

The ratings show that Once is pretty much the only thing that's afloat in its niche. Decline of ratings is a tricky topic as there are numerous factors. (Oh, and Jane write/cowrote those episodes so that's probably why you like them. She does character and small plot justice.)