The Savior – Once Upon A Time S6E1 Review

ONCE UPON A TIME - "The Savior" - As "Once Upon a Time" returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand) JOSH DALLAS, LANA PARRILLA, JARED S. GILMORE
ONCE UPON A TIME – “The Savior” – As “Once Upon a Time” returns to ABC for its sixth season, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on the ABC Television Network, so does its classic villain-the Evil Queen. (ABC/Jack Rowand)
JOSH DALLAS, LANA PARRILLA, JARED S. GILMORE

Once Upon A Time has premiered its sixth season, and it picks up right where it left off.  Mr. Hyde has taken over Storybrooke.  The Evil Queen has been expunged from Regina.  Where things begin to seem calm (because Hyde has not been discovered yet) it all goes south when a dirigible flies in from the Land of Untold Stories.  As the vehicle flies overhead and crashes, Hyde explains his takeover.  Emma and Regina blast him with magic to find out that he is impervious to it.  What Emma is also discovering are some visions that cause her hand to tremble.

Meanwhile, Zelena is living with Regina, though Regina is still saddened by Robin Hood’s passing.  The sisterly bonding actually causes Regina to be reminded too much, and even blame Zelena for Robin’s demise.  Regina sets out with the others, including Dr. Jekyll, to capture Hyde.  The group succeeds, though Hyde sees Emma’s hand tremors and says she can get answers from him.

Emma does visit and persuade Hyde to give her answers.  It comes in the form of visiting an oracle who allows her to see the full vision of the future through Jafar’s staff.  The vision shows Emma getting stabbed by a sword while battling an unknown villain.  When Emma confronts Hyde about this, he reveals there have been other saviors in other stories, and none live a happy ending.  All have faced a villain that kills them.

ouat_aladdin_jafarWhile all this is going on, Rumplestiltskin visits Morpheus’ temple to try to wake Belle.  She is trapped in a dream of when she served at Rumple’s castle.  Morpheus seems to be helping Rumple to wake Belle through this dream.  Though Rumple seems to succeed in having her fall in love with him again, which will have her wake, she ends up realizing that things will end in heartache.  Morpheus reveals himself to be their unborn son, and wakes Belle with his kiss.  Belle agrees to live with Rumple, but not to have things go back again.

Back in Storybrooke, Zelena returns to Regina’s house to find the Evil Queen.  She’s baaaaccckkk!

Review

The question with the season premiers is how does this make the season seem watchable?  I must say that this did its job in spades.  There are many mysteries and stories to uncover for this season.  And there are not one, but two seemingly unstoppable villains.  I’m also not counting they mystery one from Emma’s visions.

Hyde has a mystery surrounding him in regards to his ability to not be affected by magic.  He’s powerful in that regard, though still vulnerable to science and probably other fighting means.  The characters from the Untold Stories are yet to be fully seen, though we have gotten a glimpse of the oracle and Jekyll and Hyde.  Whether these people will be familiar to us or not is yet to be seen.

rumplestiltskin belle once upon a time season 6I like how the characters have matured in their roles.  Friendships are deeper.  Abilities have grown.  And, there’s still how it all plays out in Storybrooke.  Take Henry, for example.  He seems more confident in his author role, yet is still a kid.  He’s encouraging his mother, but is still her son.  It’s a nice touch to keep the show moving.

If there is any complaint with the evolving relationships and with this episode it’s how Regina and Zelena played out.  Their scenes felt more like soap opera than Once Upon A Time.  I feel like there could have been a different way to deal with them.  It didn’t completely subtract from the episode, though.  It was still enjoyable and makes for a lot of questions.  But, that’s what a season is for – to unfold the answers and keep us guessing.

The nice little touch that I’m surprised I liked was the playing of “Beauty and the Beast” during Belle and Rumple’s dance.  It made for a nice homage to the now classic animated movie.  And just in time for its anniversary.

The only thing I’m afraid of for the season is that they’re hitting on way too much in one half of the season.  Once has been having two plots per season, but this is a lot for one half.  Some might play out into the second half, but it’s hard to tell right now.

Considerations

  • Is the oracle Jafar?  Because she had his staff and that seems odd.
  • Is the mystery villain Aladdin?  He is shrouded, but seems like it could be

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