Board Thread:Fanon: Season 8 & Beyond/@comment-25551215-20191204022821/@comment-25551215-20191213033802

Once Upon a Time is back, and we have more questions than answers

Disney+ released the first episode of the Once Upon a Time revival last night, and we're all honestly clamoring to figure out what in the hell happened. The episode threw us into a mystery, and the core returning characters – Regina, Rogers, Tilly, Margot, Sabine, and recurring special guest Zelena – are as clueless as we are.

The episode opens up with Regina and Zelena filing papers in Regina's mayoral office, six years after the merging of the realms in "Leaving Storybrooke". There's also a festival, but apparently, that never ends up actually happening – a plot hole, or is something dark at work? We then cut to a scene – which, as we are now learning from showrunner Hugo Schriftsteller, is a flashback set before even the first Dark Curse. It's between two boys, who we later find out are and, a gay version of Romeo and Juliet, who seem to be on the run. The scene cuts back to Storybrooke, where a mother – The Scarlet Letter protagonist – watches her daughter  play. She sees a raven fly by and is alarmed, telling her they need to go – leading the show right into its iconic title card sequence.

When we open back up, we see Regina and Zelena still filing papers (is that all the Queen of the United Realms and her formerly wicked sister do these days?) when they receive a call. It's from Rogers, Tilly, and Margot, who report murder in the Land of Untold Stories near Tiana's food truck, Rollin' Bayou. Regina and Zelena say their heroic little "we're gonna fix this!" pieces and poof out, taking us back to Hester, who's in Belle's former house (from "The Final Battle Part 2") with her daughter. Hester looks out at the A, telling Pearl it's not safe – before using a magic mirror, which shows her her evil husband plotting with two other men (later revealed to be  and  and the, who is quite possibly the eeriest villain ever on the show – seriously, just seeing that creepy raven mask gives us the chills, and apparently we're not alone in thinking this, because Chillingworth and the Raven look right at the mirror, and Hester waves away the magic.

Regina and Zelena investigate the Land of Untold Stories, but they can't even figure out where to begin – they have no leads, no suspects, and virtually no information. They pass by an alley, and the focus shifts to Romeo, who's alone and still running – when he runs into his father and, who are suspiciously not fighting. Montague tries to get Romeo to go home, but he refuses – True Love waits for no man, and he needs to find his before it's too late. Or something. Whatever it is, he's defiant AF, and Montague backs off with a chilling warning (after some outdated homophobic remarks).

We cut to Sabine (finally!), who finds a heck ton of blood that smells suspiciously not like blood at her food truck. She calls Rogers, but instead, Wish Henry, Storybrooke's sheriff (wait, what? Did Emma and David really quit, or are all three of them sheriffs? Neither this episode nor the series finale ever explained that.) picks up. Henry's understandably disturbed by everything that's gone on, so he calls Rogers, who's at a family dinner with Margot and Tilly. He says there's trouble (ofc), and everyone is confused.

Elsewhere, Chillingworth and Montague meet up with Dorian Gray, who asks if the plan's in motion. Chillingworth says yes – the Raven's ready to make his next move. Dorian smiles into a painting of himself creepily.

Cut back to Regina and Zelena. Zelena asks what they're going to do, and Regina says they'll wait and gather information. Zelena asks if they can defeat them, cuing Regina's typical end-of-season hope speech and montage duo. We see Hester and Pearl packing, Sabine working on fixing her food truck when she hears the creepy caw of ravens (seriously, what is it with this episode and ravens? An Edgar Allan Poe tie-in, perhaps?), Rogers walking with Margot and Tilly, who seem to be married (yassss!), and Wish Henry dropping off a book on Regina's coffee table. Regina closes this book as the Author's Pen starts writing by itself (I hope they explain that, because that needs some kind of explanation), and we see its cover - Once Upon a Time, Volume 3.

So naturally, we've got questions. How did Hester get a magic mirror? How does she know the Raven? Who is the Raven? How did Montague, Dorian, and Chillingworth meet each other? What happened to Julian (and Romeo)? What the hell is going on?

For answers, we went to Hugo Schriftsteller himself, and he had a few vague answers to our questions – namely, be patient, because these things are going to be covered in coming episodes. He did give us some scoop, though – the entire Shadow Raven arc will span the entire season, and we'll find out their identity by the end of the seventh episode – and the Raven's connected to all of the new stories this year. Episodes two and three are slated to give us some answers, especially about Romeo and Julian's stories and Hester's storyline. We're excited to see how this season will go.

Episode two is slated to be released next week, with a promo set to be released by week's end.