← Once Upon a Time Revisit

#OUaTrevisit: S5:E21/22

Originally published on Medium.

#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.

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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?”

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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.

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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.

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap He’ll be back as a Force Ghost, I assume.

  • Boom! Zelena does it!

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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).

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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.

Screenshot from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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” 🤦🏼‍♂️

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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.

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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.”

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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?

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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.”

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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.

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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.

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap Sam has a really impressive voice-acting resume.

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

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap 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!

Reaction GIF from Once Upon a Time Season 5 recap Not on the itinerary as far as I know.