Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20180505005808/@comment-25926288-20180505112715

Gothel was a neat villain. Not the best, not the worst.

Pluses for the episode includes:

1. Magic being pretty useful. I felt Alice’s shrinking spell was unfinished CGI, but I guess it’s a thematic aspect to show a difference between LWM and web they actually do have magic because they brought out the magic blasts at the end. Magic in LWM (limited) was mostly just flashes of light and cuts, which saves money but also shows a difference.

2. The end of villains. All branches were found. The redemptive sacrifice, the second-second chance, the death, and the fate worst than death.

2a. Gothel’s defeat—It was simple and well rounded with a nice speech. They foreshadowed it many times with the Guardian being a great hero, incorruptible, etc. plus, Gothel is still alive and it’s a fate worst than death simply because she’s immortal. No last minute macguffin. And the magic battle though “crossing streams” was brief, it was effective—and like everyone is stronger than Regina these days. But it kept anyone from killing and propped up a newbie.

2b. Facilier had no where to go as dark as his heart was and I foresaw that. What I sensed but didn’t realize to now is that maybe old Witch Doctor was foretelling his death the whole time. Gives reason to want the power of the Dark One.

3. Henry and Alice shined. If there was a season 8, just have Henry on one side and Tilly on the other because they are the newbies that ended up getting the most out of this season.

4. Wish Rumple was a lose end and this being Bobby’s last season regardless (unless he would have decided to renew), they couldn’t resist using the best actor they have to finish off things. And you can blame Regina (and somewhat Emma) for letting him out and not carin as he razed villages to the ground.