Once Upon a Time: Ranking all 7 seasons
By Leah Smith
6. Season 7
Bringing back Once Upon a Time without much of the main cast was always going to be an uphill battle for the show. For the most part, the reboot season was half decent. But it never really felt like the same show. And when it did feel like the old show, it was because plot points from earlier seasons were being repeated.
What worked: Thanks to the Wish Realm from season 6, Once Upon a Time was able to come up with a creative way to include Hook without Emma and still keep their happy ending intact. Giving Wish Hook a daughter in Alice provided a great new character and the perfect way to differentiate between the Hooks when they inevitably meet in the series finale.
Sticking with Alice, her relationship with Robin is a highlight of this season, especially as Henry and Jacinda never really had all that much chemistry. It would have been a cool twist if Robin kissing Alice to break Gothel’s weird tree spell had been what broken the curse. Instead, Once went with what it knows and had it be Henry and Regina’s mother/son true love break another curse.
What did not work: All of the villains leading up to the series finale. Lady Tremaine, Ivy, Mother Gothel, Hansel and Dr. Facilier. Turns out they were all just place holders until the true final villain, Rumple (again). Somehow, regular Rumple wanting to rid himself of the Dark One dagger will erase Wish Rumple as well. Not really sure how that works, but it is the driving force behind the finale. And it has no connection to the rest of the season.
Then there is the overly confusing timeline that takes until two episodes before the finale to explain. Henry left Storybrooke, found his happy ending and started a family with Cinderella. Years later, a new curse, once again cast by Regina, sends them back to our world and also back in time to 2017. It explains why no one from Storybrooke has come looking for them, but it raises a lot of other questions.
How has Regina not aged? What happens when they meet up with their younger selves in the finale? Are they doomed to repeat this same time loop? Or will the Hyperion Heights crew undo all the events of the reboot season? And if the latter is true, what was the point of anything this season other than the last three episodes?