Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20160509005929/@comment-24674051-20160509164406

Ok, here's my thoughts. Apologies in advance for the length.

Conceptually, I liked some of the ideas that they had. But the episode was poorly written. the plot points were disjointed, there was poor setup. Overall, it was just a mess of an episode.

Likes:

1. Hades and Arthur meeting. The Camelot arc is not forgotten, and the potential of Arthur trying to ingratiate himself to Hades as a means of exacting his own revenge had potential (which was immediately Lost).

2. Robin and Regina trying to convince Zelena that Hades is still the bad boy. The emotions were real, and it just felt right.

3. Robin sacrificing himself to save Regina. And really, the entire part of the episode between Hades, Zelena, Robin, and Regina. While I disliked the contrived setup and the magical macguffin, once I get past and accept that, the rest of the scene plays out rather spectacularly. Lana and Bex were so on point, and (again) the emotions seem real. Whether Zelena is fully redeemed remains to be seen, but I am really liking that Regina and Zelena are bonding as sisters, complete with the typical sibling bickering that is bound to happen, as well as the crying hugs when life (and death) comes crashing down all around them.

4. Robin forgiving Zelena, and agreeing to give Zelena a chance. The reason I like that is Sean's delivery made it seem like a reasoned, thought-out decision, not just a knee jerk response. And that scene also reminded the audience that he was fully aware of who Regina was, and chose to give her a second chance. Also, that whole scene gave us a better view of the quality of acting that has been sorely underused since Sean first joined the ensemble back in season 3. He deserved much better than he had been heretofore given.

5. Secret Passage beneath the courthouse. It shows a strong degree of consistency on Regina's part, since she had the same type of setup with her (Snow's) castle. The call back to Robin and Regina's very first adventure (in 3B) together was nice, and the scene served as a bit of foreshadowing of events to come. That part of the writing was well done, at least.

6. Emma was an emotional wreck. given everything that just happened, I say thank you to the writers. And Jennifer did a good job of being emotionally unhinged.

Dislikes:

1. Hades and Arthur meeting. potential was totally misplayed. Hades killing of Arthur did not really make sense based on the previous dialogue, or the demeanor of the scene. A more direct confrontation, something along the lines of Arthur trying the "Enemy of my Enemy" line, with Hades flat out rejecting Arthur, and then killing him after a bit more pleading conversation. That would have at least set up the meeting between Killian and Arthur, where the "Enemy of my Enemy" line could fall on friendlier ears, and might have helped the light-speed redemption.

2. Magical macguffin, aka Olympian Crystal. of course, this is a show heavily steeped in magic, so having magical items just randomly appear conviently is not uncommon. But an item that is THAT powerful shouldn't just come out of left field. And why would Zeus have given it to him? What is the story behind how Hades really acquired it? Why was it broken? (Please, don't remind me that my questions are pointless. I already know that. XD )

3. Arthur Redemption - I liked that he was redeemed. But his redemption was even more rushed than Dorothy and Red's relationship, and had even less setup. The entire part of the episode involving Arthur could have been scripted much better, so that that part of the story flowed naturally, instead of having to be coerced. I seriously felt that every part of the Arthur/Killian story shoved down my throat (and quite frankly did not fit with the other main storyline).

4. Putting Walter/Sleepy in charge of watching Arthur in the first place. I mean, seriously? First, Merida has to be smarter than that. And second, could someone (Leroy, Granny, or any other characters that are lost in the Off-Screen world) have just told Merida that putting a narcoleptic dwarf on guard duty was a bad idea?

5. Rumple & Moe - Moe definitly does not win Father-of-the-year awards. And I think that his whole reaction indicates that Belle is doomed to a longer nap. Not because he won't come wake her. But because he won't be able to administer TLK to his daughter.

6. Rumple is really setting himself up to be a huge problem. I'm not a fan of the way they pull his character whichever direction suits the story. Robert is an amazing actor, but he's been given a load of stable droppings in recent episodes.

7. Speaking of stable droppings, Rumple is being really stupid (imo) getting the shard from the Olympian Crystal. If that thing can kill a god, I'm sure it could send the dark one packing to oblivion. If I were him, I would have just brought in a broom, a dustpan, and just swept all the dust into oblivion. Taking the piece of Olympian Crystal is going to come back and bite him in the rear. (assuming that the writers remember that they did that). Of course, if the do the after effects of this action well, it could redeem the original action, but only time will tell there.

8. The biggest flaw, imo. Killian's return. I'm not against Killian returning, but how the writers contrived it was just wrong. Yes, Killian found the information, and managed (through a different deux a machina) to get it to Emma. But that entire plot did not even factor into the story. There was a disconnect the size of the Marianas Trench between the Killian/Arthur storyline and the Robin/Regina/Zelena/Hades Storyline, and it was never resolved. Killian really did nothing to deserve the gift that Zeus gave him. Which I could almost accept, except that Zeus specifically indicated that allowing Killian to return was a direct result of his involvment in destroying Hades. That was just bad scripting. and having him show up after Robin's funeral was just writing in poor taste (and the feeble effort they made to justify it fell flat).

9. Emma was not irrational. Yes, she was emotionally unhinged, and that was fine. But the writers kept trying to shove it in our face that Emma was irrational and not thinking clearly. Fact is, she knew (at some level) that Killian was still trapped in the UW unable to move on (and I'll chalk that up to true love), and she was trying desperately to find anything that would defeat Hades so that Killian could move on, and so that she could start grieving. I felt that she knew what needed to be done, even if she was hurting emotionally.

10. Overall, the storylines just did not join up well. It felt like one writer did the Regina/Zelena/Hades/Robin story, One writer did the Killian/Arthur story, someone else did the little bits of script for Snowing (the C story, such as it was), and then they just shoved it all together without considering how it all fit.