#OUaTrevisit: S7: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!

Well, #OUaTrevisit friends, this is it. We've reached the end. It’s been nearly two years of two-episodes-per-week stream-of-consciousness summaries; now, that’s right, the last two #OnceUponATime episodes.

Cindy, Katie, and I started this in November of 2021 on the service formerly known as Twitter (I abandoned Twitter as a response to the new owner reinstating the criminal former president, among other outrages). We didn’t have any specific rules about format or description, but this was meant to be a “revisit” rather than a “rewatch” — interestingly, none of us had watched the series to completion during its initial run on ABC.

The only guidelines were: Watch two episodes per week. Write something about what we thought. Post it on Wednesday night. With a few breaks (for vacations, family stuff, etc) we’ve kept it up for 155 episodes over almost two years.

I used Twitter threads for a while, just one tweet after another. Later, I found this neat tool that lets you draft and schedule threads. Eventually, I moved my revisits here to Medium and used Buffer to schedule a post to Mastodon.

With that bit of historical context, let’s dive into our last revisit!

Dive in, get it?

S7:E21 Homecoming

“Henry and family go on a mission to the Wish Realm.”
Airdate: May 11, 2018

• Where’d Graduate Henry get the fantasy gear? Wait, this isn’t Graduate Henry, is it?
• This feels like a quest from someone else’s story. And who are these people?
• (Dearie)
• I’ll be there for you

• A little party at the bar for all the people who woke up.
• “Starfish”
• Thanks, adult Henry, for the reminder about why we’re in season 7.
• Wish noise!
• This is confirmation that the Henry we saw in the first scene is not Graduate Henry. Probably altHenry, I guess.
• “We don’t negotiate with villains.”
• TianaSabine seems to be not thrilled about the broken curse.
• “Amongst other things…”
• “We’re all with you ’til the end… which is next week.”
• Pan??
• Brutal flashback.
• I love altHook’s hideout! Looks straight out of PotC (the Disneyland version, thank you).
• Who’s the good friend? Ariel!!

I’m just glad we got one more visit from JoAnna García Swisher before the end.

• Queen Ariel? She has the Trident.
• Cruella?! She was in Hell, but I guess this is wishCruella.
• The dungeon has a Foosball table.
• Kind of a low blow from Henry. Sure he’s upset, but don’t be mean. We don’t need to be mean.

• The library scene looks like the Stephen J. Cannell Productions tag.

If you remember this, well, it’s time for bed.

• “I didn’t come here to revisit” (looks at Katie and Cindy)
• WeaverRumple has a good point. WishRumple taking the Dagger makes sense.
• Oops, it was a trap for WishRumple. That’s why WeaverRumple needed the squid ink.
• And then Regina messed it up!
• Hey, remember the Seer from season 1? With the creepy eye-hands.
• Henry, that probably killed AltHook or gave him permanent brain damage.
• Hello, Apprentice.
• “The timelines alone would make one’s head spin.” You aren’t kidding!
• True Rewards Await Those Who Choose Wisely

If you remember this, well, it’s time for your back pain pills.

• “Dalmatian is a bitch to clean”
• Wow, he harvested her hair color! Cruella’s black hair was colored with magic ink. Okay, sure.
• This is the Henry from Regina’s Wish Realm. I frankly was not expecting that twist.
• The powers of the Guardian are no more. Did we ever know who the Guardian actually was? Wasn’t it TillyAlice?
• “If it comes with a built-in Margot, that’s all I need.” ❤️
• Remy comes through with a magic bean. Deus ex Culina, you might say.
• We need to get help from some friends. In Storybrooke!

It’s time for the final episode! Cindy, Katie, and I are watching this together, via Disney+ GroupWatch.

S7:E22 Leaving Storybrooke

“Wish Rumple’s evil plan is revealed.”
Airdate: May 18, 2018

• Didn’t Tilly and Margot use their one bean to get back to Storybrooke? How do they plan to transit to Wish Realm?
• “We’ve been through this before,” says Grumpy, who hasn’t changed a bit.

• Adult Robin and child Robin meeting.
• Good thing there’s a cabin in the snow globe?
• Regina killed wishSnow and wishCharming when she thought the Wish Realm wouldn’t last. But it did. Oops, in retrospect.
• Dark Henry is not buying it.
• Dad Robin?!
• “I’m also in here.” (cops a feel)
• I remember this scene from the Simpsons Movie.

• Maui’s hook? I’ve actually forgotten who had that.
• Oh dear, what’s going to happen to Blue?
• Everybody gets their own book. Belle would be happy.
• MargotRobin asks AltHook for TillyAlice’s hand. ❤️
• AltHook: Leeroy Jenkins!!

• Are they having their war council in WishHenry’s castle? I missed when Ben Stone and Judy Hopps, I mean Charming and Snow, won that battle.
• (Where is Emma?)
• Good thing this Rumple saved another piece of magic for emergencies.
• Everyone going to their own private dungeon. Seems bad. We need a bonus hero.
• Regina’s speech convinced Dark Henry to not kill her, so his heart isn’t darkened, so the spell failed.
• Are we saying the whole seven-season series is about Rumple’s redemption?? And Regina’s, I guess?
• A heart transplant from Rumple to altHook. Well played. Redeeming himself in the end.
• “Mr. Stark, I don’t feel so good.” (Important: In our group chat, Katie and I said this exact thing at the exact same time.)

Spoilers for a movie from 2018 I guess?

• Rumple finally gets the happy ending with Belle.
• The Henries are now working together?
• We can all be together including all the ones who are at war with each other. That should be fine.
• Lily’s father is Zorro??!! Just a random cute throwaway line.

• Young Henry is the Sheriff of Combobrooke.
• Is everyone who has ever been in the show in this room? Except Emma.
• Elected Queen. A peaceful transfer of power. Imagine that.
• There’s Emma and Captain Guyliner! And baby Hope.
• “This isn’t an ending…” because we’re gonna do season 8! (No)
• Previously, on Once Upon A Time… everything happened.
• And… We’re out. Thanks, everyone!

Well. That was a journey. Knowing what I know now, am I sorry I watched the entire series, including the sixth and seventh seasons I’d skipped the first time around? No, I’m definitely not sorry. There was real, good, solid storytelling and character development. But of course, there were also plenty of nonsensical writing and plot choices. And the very unnecessary “land of purgatory” and “land of untold stories” diversions were regrettable.
But, again, I am glad we did it. I’d had a little bit of regret about bailing on the series after season five, and I enjoyed revisiting the best parts of those first five seasons as well as seeing how the stories resolved by the end of season six. And there was also season seven, for some reason.

Thank you to everyone who has followed along for nearly two years.

Thank you, Katie and Cindy, for being the best Revisit team members I could ask for.

None of us were worthy to lift the hammer, er, Excalibur

Thank you to my wife Jen for watching nearly every episode with me, for putting up with my grumbling about dumb plots and my rewinding to catch easter eggs, for catching up on episodes when one or the other of us was traveling so we wouldn’t be out of sync, and for generally being the Emma to my Neal.