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Sunday 20 May 2018

Once Upon A Time 7.22 "Leaving Storybrooke" Review

                                          Image result for once upon a time leaving storybrooke
Alice (Rose Reynolds) and Robin (Tiera Skovbye) drive into Storybrooke and think they will just blindly accept them, they're strangers after all.  As Granny's (Beverley Elliott) prepared lunch for the Dwarfs.  Grumpy (Lee Arenberg) of course is almost run over and leads the charge against them as they run away.  Robin finds Zelena (Rebecca Mader) with her five year old self in the car and knows she doesn't have magic otherwise she wouldn't be driving Reggie's (Lana Parrilla) car.  She tells them they need help and to get the magic bean she's been hiding.  Ella (Dania Ramirez)and Lucy (Alison Fernandez) are in a house with some heat as Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) and Rumples (Robert Carlyle) also arrive.  Hook refuses to give up as there's always some way out and they try to break the glass, Rumples now being mortal.  As they try, Hook finds a real hook in the snow, shattering the glass.  Hook asks why Rumples didn't kill him when he had all those chances and he replies cos he was the only friend he had.  Hook had brains which is why he kept him as his partner.

Reggie attempts to plead with Henry (Jared S Gilmore) telling him that she's a changed person and didn't mean to kill his grandparents, but he refuses to listen.  Stubborn like his other mother, Emma (Jennifer Morrison).  He reminds her that in this realm stories are written in blood and he will do the same tomorrow, as he cuts her hand with the blade.  He will fight her and get his happy ending culminating in her death.  As Reggie is locked away she dreams about her Robin (Sean Maguire) as he serves her a drink in the tavern.   She tells him about Henry and he reminds her of how he saw the good in her once too and how "no one's path is set."  Their story she says was so short, but he says it was still "epic" as they kiss.  She wakes to find a feather in eher hand.  With Henry finding he can use Reggie's blood as ink, Rumpelstiltskin has new plans and has magicked up stories for all of his enemies with far from happy endings: all being alone.  There's one for everyone we know and begins his revenge with vanquishing the Blue Fairy (Connor Keegan Tracy) to her own dark world through the book.

Rumples picks up a dreamcatcher and recalls a happy moment with Belle (Emilie de Ravin).  Coming to terms with not being able tot see her.  Hook and Robin attempt to remove the guards from the castle gate to rescue Reggie and Robin asks him a question but doesn't think it's an apt time.  Hook tells her it may be the only time she has.  She asks for his blessing to marry Alice, which of course he gives.  Henry (Andrew J West) rescues Reggie but is confronted by a guard.  However there are two other guards there who help him in the form of Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Charming (Josh Dallas).  They have a discussion around their round table on ways of defeating Rumpelstiltskin.  Charming mentions the books that he found with all of their names and as they look at their destines he's weaved out for them (no pun, well on second thoughts!)  Reggie comments on how they're all alone in there and Snow mentions her usual line of how she and Charming always found each other.

Rumples has found some magic Rumpelstiltskin had been saving for a rainy day and hatches a plan to defeat him.  He sprinkles it on his hand and decides he will rip his heart out.  Reggie faces off with Henry in their duel and he doesn't want to listen to her telling him she's a different person now.  Though when it comes to actually killing her, he can't go through with it and drops his sword, as she tell him she will face death if he knows he is loved and doesn't need Rumpelstiltskin.  Rumpelstiltskin opens the portals for the others to meet their fates and all hold onto the table.  But Alice can't hold on much longer.  Didn't she have magic she could've used to help herself first and maybe the others too, or did the writers forget that plot device, in favour of getting Hook to grab hold of her no matter the consequences for him.

Their portals vanish and Hook lies dying on the floor.  Rumples can't get to Rumpelstiltskin to use the magic and rips his own heart out, so he makes the ultimate sacrifice and rips out his heart, placing it inside Hook's chest.  The ultimate sacrifice for a friend.  Hence their earlier conversation in the globe.  Saying "you don't do the right thing for a reward, you do it because it's right."  As Hook is saved, Reggie walks in but is too late to save Rumples.  Hook tells her he saved him.  But Rumpelstiltskin also meets his demise and is no more.  Reggie wishes Rumples peace and is saddened.  However he finally gets his reunion with Belle which is what he wanted all along.  He gets his happy ending with Belle after proving that he has changed and saved everyone from the darkness, not just Hook.
                                      Image result for once upon a time leaving storybrooke
                                         Image result for once upon a time leaving storybrooke
Regina tells the two Henry's that she's going to cast another curse.  This time she will need a piece of everyone's heart and hopefully she can reunite all the realms so everyone comes together in one place, in one Storybrooke and not be alone.  Reggie is surprised as the two Henry's accompany her to her coronation.  By unanimous vote she has been elected Queen of the realm.  The "Good Queen."  She accepts this and as Emma arrives with the real Hook and baby Hope, fashionably late.  Reggie in her final speech says of how they will be happy, sad, suffer losses but they will still have adventures.  As we see flashbacks to past eps to accompany her words.  (Epic speech!)

"I thought my story came to an end a long time ago, and then you people came into my life, people who gave me a second chance. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me next, or for everyone.  I refuse to believe there won’t be more adventures, more love, more family, and yes, there will be more loss. Because that’s just a part of life. And in the end, we can get past it all. With hope." 
(Yeah baby Hope! ha).

                                                                     The End

It may not have been what we expected but in the end they all got their happy endings and as Emma put it, their "new beginnings."  But rather it went Reggie's way with her preferring to call it a "second chance."  A new concept in a show that took our fave fairytales and weaved new life and magic into them, transforming them into a modern arena.  It may have been a little bit of a letdown in certain places, but you can't deny that in the end, it gave us seven years of enjoyment and entertainment in its own way and with its versions of characters old and new, that we grew to love and will miss!  Including the cast who played them. 
Leaving Storybrooke for the last ever time!!  A helluva fairytale ride!

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