#OUaTrevisit: S5:E21/22

This will be posted to my Mastodon account; don’t forget to read my fellow Revisitors Katie’s and Cindy’s posts too!

This week: the writers decide they’ve had enough of Hades, and set up next season’s Big Bad. We lose a hero and gain a family relationship. And we visit Vancouver again!

S5:E21 Last Rites

“Danger looms as Hades grows more powerful.”
Airdate: May 8, 2016

• “Snow White still thinks I’m a villain,” (which he is, obviously)
• Zelena has been taking lessons from Belle in “I can change him.”
• Arthur, meet Hades. Goodbye, Arthur.

I can defeat you with one hand holding a baby!

• Sleepy was on guard duty! Merida didn’t have much to choose from.
• We all made it back! Except for Hook.
• Dead Arthur is now in the Underworld.
• “Denial, grief, anger, can we just get to acceptance?”

Anachronistic from Killian, but perfect.

• Gotta balance the books somehow. Let’s go on a quest!
• David is so useless when he tries to be fatherly.
• Gullible Zelena, again. Ridiculous.
• Why does Hades have his brother’s crystal?
• Robin makes some good points here.
• “Game of Thorns” flower shop.
• Did Emilie de Ravin take some time off at the end of S5, is that why she’s “under a sleeping curse”?
• Hidden in the throne, look at that. Nice work, Arthur.
• Too bad the ghost phone was removed.
• If “Stubble sandwich” is really the very last we’re going to see of Cruella, well, I’ll be sad.

Hard to see how they might bring her back now that we’ve (finally) moved on from The Underworld.

• Emma’s writing in this episode is kind of odd, as is her makeup.
• Hades is literally telling Zelena that she’s just a means to an end. And she doesn’t want to believe it.
• The call was from a flip phone to a landline.
• Good show, Robin. Except I just got a premonition about this plot: Usually, the next thing after making an emotional leap and finding your destiny is being tragically killed.
• Magic book is magic!
• Always with the swords. Didn’t these people learn anything from Excalibur?
• Hades strides past without looking. Helpful!
• As I thought. Too bad. But now Hades will face the power of this fully operational battle station, I mean, Regina.

He’ll be back as a Force Ghost, I assume.

• Boom! Zelena does it!

I saw this coming from the scene blocking but it was still a shock.

• But with Hades gone, the position of God of Death is vacant.
• Was that going to be enough for Arthur to move on? And Killian too?
• Is this… Zeus?
• Where exactly does Killian belong? I think I know.
• Oh, Robin’s funeral is just heartbreaking. 🏹
• 😭 Robin is a good name for the baby. 😭
• “This is not your fault.” “(Didn’t really think it was, but okay.)”
• Aha, I knew it! (Maybe remove the headstone, awkward.)
• Now, what’s Rumple going to do with the pile of dust formerly known as Hades?
• Ah, the shard from the crystal (that’s a different movie).

Once more, he will replenish himself.

S5:E22 Only You

“Regina reels from the loss of Robin Hood.”
Airdate: May 15, 2016

• Shockingly, the producers did not use the Yazoo song in this episode, despite the title.
• Why a dirigible in the opening sequence? From Oz, perhaps?
• David and Snow are the worst at comforting. Just the worst. Mostly David though.
• Okay, if Killian’s resurrection “pushes Regina over the edge” into returning to evil, I’m gonna be depressed.
• “Delicate as always” … at least she didn’t flip out right away.

Wince!

• Emma blew it. Regina was ready to go.
• Henry knows the combo to the safe, that’s convenient.
• While pointing to objects in the shop, Henry just recounted the plots of three or four Disney movies.
• “Operation Mixtape” 🤦🏼‍♂️

Wince!

• Henry did the thing 🖋️ he said he’d never do. And now he’s once again “trying to destroy magic.”
• Everyone in town is supported and enlivened by magic in some way! If he destroys it, they all die.
• I’m cautiously optimistic that Regina will not make a heel turn. She’s grumpy, obviously and understandably, but she’s working with Emma to find Henry.
• Oh good, it’s time for another round of “spot the Vancouver landmarks in ‘New York’!”
• Zelena but good, I like it.

Good thing we still have a very powerful magic-user in the party.

• Oops! All sucked through the portal and back to… uh, somewhere?
• New York is where he’d rather stay.
• “Welcome to New York, it’ll be $15.” “You don’t need my $15.” “I don’t need your $15.”

The Force has a strong influence on the weak-minded.

• (The tollbooth has been placed on a subterranean ramp outside Vancouver’s Waterfront Station.)
• (Right behind Violet and Henry is a great burger place named Vera’s, now sadly closed; to the right is my favorite pub in the world: Six Acres.)
• Broken wand. “Do you have any duct tape?” I don’t like how they’re taking Zelena for granted.
• Hmm, I think I’ve seen the guy in the brown jacket before. Is this a jail for magic users?

My character brief was “nervous scientist.” Nailed it.

• Very steampunk. I think the groundsman and the warden are Jekyll and Hyde.
• I forgot Robin and Zelena-as-Marian were living here, in Neal’s old place. Who’s been paying the rent on this “New York” apartment?
• Oh, a letter from Robin! 😭
• This is a very powerful scene. “I hate doing good.”

I’m not crying you’re crying.

• (Also Regina’s outfit is 🔥🔥🔥)
• The Rare Reading Room is all green screen.
• Some stories from OUaT Volume II: Gulliver’s Travels, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Don Quixote, Paul Bunyan… and the land where the heroes landed.
• Jekyll and Hyde confirmed. And Poole, in the book, was Jekyll’s butler.
• “This is a bad plan,” says David, who knows a bad plan when he comes up with one.

No no it’s fine.

• (crash) “Oh!” That was needlessly destructive, Henry. You could have unlocked the case.
• “All too easy.”
• Hyde goes through more jackets that way.
• The actor playing Hyde is very familiar: Sam Witwer.

Sam has a really impressive voice-acting resume.

• Steampunkland looks beautiful! Kinda like Tomorrowland ’97 was supposed to look before the budgets were slashed.

Remember when the Observatron actually worked?

• Henry is ascribing a lot of conscious motivation to a natural force. The magic “wants” to do things? Does it take action?
• Very swanky hotel. RumpleGold has good taste. I wonder if he’s getting Bonvoy points.
• Rumple: I can show you the world. Shining, shimmering, splendid.
• The portal took the box. And Rumple lost it because he always tries to save his power (the crystal) first.
• How does Hyde know about Belle in the box? How in fact does Hyde seem to know all these details about our heroes?

Next week: The season five finale! And then a four-week hiatus! During which time I will be in the frozen wasteland of A̶r̶e̶n̶d̶e̶l̶l̶e Antarctica!

Not on the itinerary as far as I know.