Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20160926005937/@comment-24674051-20160926174240

Ok, after just the first viewing, here is my thoughts.

Likes:

1. Nice set up for the rest of the season. People may complain that there was a bunch of stuff, and there was, but this was the first chapter of the season 6 book. It's about setting the stage for what is to come.

2. 3 minutes of Aladdin and Jafar. We're finally getting the Aladdin story onto the main show. We didn't see much here, but there is more on the way, based on the snips in the post episode promo.

3. Emma's prophetic visions. We did see a glimpse of her prophetic visions when she saw the tornado that brought Ruby to the UW, so that was not totally out of the blue. Nice to see them developing that power a little more (even if the visions  themselves are somewhat dark)

4. Belle's awakening. Nice twists there with that storyline. First that Belle remembers her time with Rumple as Dark (as she should). second, that Rumple was able to remind them both of the brighter times of their relationship. Third, that Belle does not want to go back to that life with her and her baby. and finally, Morpheus (or whatever he really is) being (possibly) the RumpBelle child. I have my doubts on that last one, though with a little suspension of reality I can see where they got the idea.

5. The full-on return of Snow White, complete with carrying a Bow and Quiver around SB.

6. the Mother-Daughter moment with Snow and Regina. That scene was touching.

7. The return of Archie.

dislikes:

1. lack of relevence for Henry, David, or Killian. Though I will wager that we'll see more from these guys later in the season.

2. Morpheus is Rumple and Belle's child. Ok, he administered TLK in the dream world, so there is at least some support for this, but I'm having difficulty completely buying that story.

3. Emma - specifically her withdrawing back inside her walls and lying to everyone. Hopefully, she will get some much-needed counselling for her issues. A few sessions with Archie would do her (and the rest of SB for that matter) some good.

4. And speaking of Emma - the hand tremors? really?

Stray thoughts:

The Oracle. We saw her in the beginning acting as Aladdin's administrative assistant, and the Red Bird was in a cage. She got smacked really hard by Jafar. As others have pointed out, I think that the oracle that Emma met was a disguised Jafar. and the Red Parrot was Iago, maybe? And I will go further to suggest that the staff with the red eyes was Aladdin, suffering the same fate as Amara suffered in Wonderland.

Emma's vision. Not random, as we know that she has limited prophetic vision from when she saw Ruby's arrival in the UW. And I will accept that she has a dangerous confrontation with some cloaked figure (to me was reminiscent of Nimue) that will try to kill her, but the presence of her family in the scene seems to speak to the fact that there is hope.

And someone mentioned Red Smoke in the Magic. Regina is Purple, Zelena is Green, Emma, even as the Dark One, was always White or Gray. Rumple is also purple. So who do we know that had Red smoke. Some of the other Dark ones did, including Killian when he was a DO. But they are gone. and if it is someone that we've met before, I can think of one person, thogh it would be a stretch to say that we've met her. That would be Anastasia. Now, I don't know if we would see her in SB or not, and I definitly don't think Ana would try to kill Emma on her own initiative. But under the right circumstances (say being controlled by Jafar or the EQ), I think she could, and she does possess the magic skills, and the red smoke, to match the scene.

Overall, I thought is was a good premiere, and am wanting to see where they take this new batch of stories.