Source: OUAT / ABC Network
So here we are, at the final two episodes of Once Upon A Time season five. This season so far has been a bit of a mixed bag and frankly, I did expect to have the defeat of Hades be the ending, but no. There are two more episodes here presumably to set up for season six.
Rumple plans to use the crystal he took from the pile of Hades-Dust to tether all of Storybrooke’s magic to it and use that to wake up Belle from the sleeping curse. Something I do not currently understand but sure, of course. He does this at the top of the clock tower while the heroes are at Granny’s attending Robin’s wake. Because anything of any importance in Storybrooke happens in the clock tower or Granny’s diner. Rumple’s magic causes the ground to shake and Hook bursts into the diner while Emma is trying to slightly more delicately tell Regina that he’s back. So yeah, that went well.
Zelena is apparently able to sense the aura of the crystal. Because… reasons? Emma makes the bad decision to try to tell Regina to sit this out in case she goes all evil queen on them again. Because that’s going to put her in a good mood. After Regina leaves, Emma also tries to tell Henry to sit out. This never works. No one listens to Emma telling them not to get involved in the dangerous thing. What’s the fun in that?
So now the main thing in The World Without Magic is set into motion. Henry decides that he’s going to use his power as the author to steal the crystal and take it out of Storybrooke so that he can find a way to destroy all the magic that’s tethered to it. Violet agrees to go with him and thus, Operation Mixtape is go!
While Regina and Emma try to find Henry before Gold does, the other heroes decide that it’s high time everyone went home, particularly as Gold has told them that the destruction of magic could lead to Storybrooke itself being destroyed. Zelena uses the Sorcerer’s Wand to create a portal home but before she can close it, something happens which drags Zelena, Hook, Snow and David into another world. Granny and baby Robin are the only people left in Storybrooke now.
Emma has tracked the GPS on Henry’s phone to Boston, however being a sneaky teenager, Henry had just stashed his phone under one of the seats. Instead he’s gone to New York and they use the fact Emma is his mother to use her blood on a map to trace him, having discovered that magic now exists in the real world by Regina accidentally setting Henry’s phone on fire when they discover he’s tricked them.
Apparently while he was living in New York, Neal was researching how he could destroy magic and so Henry is now following in Daddy’s footsteps in order to do the same thing, absolutely determined to succeed. Considering Neal did all this research and then used magic to save Rumple and died in the process, I’m not entirely sure that he would be pleased with this endeavor.
Meanwhile, the heroes discover that the wand is now broken and they are trapped in this other world. They come across someone who seems to be a gardener trimming hedges. They talk to him but he is terrified of The Warden coming across them. They are interrupted and the heroes are taken prisoner.
The Warden comes to visit them. He’s tall and creepy as hell. I like him. He accuses them of being sent by the Dark One, though it is unclear as to what his relationship with Rumple is. The Warden tries to choke Hook and Snow blurts out the whole story of how they go there. The Warden leaves them alone for now. Though is it just me or does he seem a lot like The Master from Doctor Who. The older versions, before he went insane. Plus the main weapon in this world so far seems to be something that reminds me a lot of the Tissue Compression Eliminator that the Master has. I mean it’s not going to be him, but I can see some similarities at the moment. Particularly as the other man is referred to just as “The Doctor”.
Emma and Regina trail Henry to Neal’s old apartment. Which no one else has started living in, in all of the time Neal’s been gone. Henry has been there and conveniently left a laptop open which Emma can track his browsing history of and therefore find out where he is. Why the laptop is left there, I have no idea. This just seems to be a theme of conveniently left devices that tell the heroes everything that they currently need to know.
Regina also finds a book that Robin left there when he and Zelena/Marian were living in this apartment. In this book there’s a hidden note from him to Regina that he never sent. Regina reads it and this leads to her to admit to Emma how exhausting it is for her to constantly be fighting the battle against darkness within her. She knows that doing good is right but she keeps losing the people she cares most about. Regina’s overarching story is my favourite in this whole series, seeing the development from Evil Queen into a hero and friend is fantastic in terms of character development.
Emma tells Regina that Henry is at the library, and oh look, Rumple is outside. Clearly he’s just been following them because he knows that Emma is the one most likely to discover where Henry is.
So, the Doctor goes to talk to the heroes. I don’t know who he is and I don’t entirely trust him. But Snow does and agrees to take him back to Storybrooke with them. He takes the wand to his lab and uses some sort of magic alchemy to fix it. A guard turns up and force feeds him a blue liquid and at that point it becomes painfully clear who the Doctor and the Warden are. None other than the glorious Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. And at this point the Doctor has all my sympathy even though Hyde is cool and brilliantly creepy. He has a plan to take all of the people in this land with him to Storybooke.
While this has happened, Henry and Violet have found that the rare reading room in the library is filled with books like his own story book, but all stories of different realms and worlds. They also realise that Neal failed to destroy magic because he has never been to Camelot and therefore hasn’t seen the Holy Grail. Its twin, the Dark Grail, is housed in this library and Henry takes it. As they’re leaving, Gold turns up, knocks them out and takes the crystal back. Not long after, Emma and Regina arrive, wake up the teenagers and they conclude that because they can’t currently use magic, Gold must want all of it for himself. Somehow. Not sure the logic there is exactly sound.
Hyde uses the wand in order to take something that he needs from our world. Pandora’s Box which contains Belle. His plan is to blackmail Rumple. Oh this is totally going to go well, Mr Hyde.
Considering the distinct lack of epic cliffhanger at the end of this episode, it’s probably fairly good that it does go straight into the next one. As much as Jekyll and Hyde are amazing, there’s no real big thing that grips me. Though it is very well done having two different people play the two men, making them completely different and hiding that they are in fact the same until the main reveal.
Jekyll comes to his senses in a strait jacket and he announces that Hyde isn’t as clever as he thinks he is, considering he’s just left him in the lab with all of his tools. He breaks out and goes to rescue the heroes, telling them that there is a dangerous way to defeat The Warden. Hook tells him that he’s been to hell and back, and I would like to point out that it wasn’t technically hell he went to. Just the underworld. They make their way through the Land of Untold Stories, where a lot of people end up, to Jekyll’s house.
Regina and Emma have gone off to try to stop Gold and left Henry and Violet behind. Sullen teenager Henry decides to follow them and obviously Gold is in the building with the massive purple clouds over it.
Gold is trying to use magic to get to Belle back. Regina goes to him and says she’s turned back to evil so that Emma can get in. Obviously this plan doesn’t work. Henry then turns up just in time to suck away all the magic using the Dark Grail, only finding out afterwards that he has single handedly trapped his family in another world and he leaves to find somewhere to mope.
Jekyll completes the serum to separate himself from Hyde but the guard guy forces him to become Hyde again, at which point Snow realises who they are. Zelena tries to shoot magic at Hyde who just absorbs it. The heroes run and Hyde injects himself with the serum so that he and Jekyll separate. He then throttles his good self. Hook turns up and saves him and they flee.
They go see the Dragon guy who helped August. He tells them how important it is that Regina wins over the Evil Queen and that there is magic in this world if you know how to find it. Henry realises that he’s talking about the wishing fountain and they all go there to wish for their family back. Gradually the crystal starts to glow with magic again and Henry gives a rousing speech to the crowds to get them to also believe in magic and make wishes into the fountain. The pennies from the fountain gradually start to trickle through into the Land of Untold Stories, making a portal to bring everyone home. Apart from Hyde. He can stay there. Even though he is awesome and evil. Mostly awesome.
Regina uses some leftover serum to separate herself from the Evil Queen and rips out her evil self’s heart, crushing it. The Queen dissolves into dust and blows away. This isn’t going to end up going well.
Gold has slipped through the portal and ends up making some kind of deal with Hyde, they bring all the people from the other land into Storybrooke as Regina returns the magic from the crystal to the town. Jekyll is not going to be happy about this. And the Evil Queen is still alive and has the Dragon’s heart.
Season Six is shaping up to be very good if what we’ve had this season is anything to go by. I definitely want more of Jekyll and Hyde, though all the other characters being gone means we won’t get to have Doctors Jekyll and Whale exchanging crazy scientist techniques. But I am very excited. There’s a lot of new promises for the future of the show. And hopefully the new magic story books will appear when needed and come in handy. Otherwise things aren’t going to go that well in terms of Henry’s powers.
