Once Upon a Time
Season 5 Episodes 22 & 23: “Only You” & “An Untold Story”
Directed by Romeo Tirone (5.22) & Dean White (5.23)
Written by Andrew Chambliss, David H. Goodman (5.22) & Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis (5.23)
Created by Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz
Starring Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parrilla, Josh Dallas, Emilie de Ravin, Colin O’Donoghue, Jared Gilmore, Robert Carlyle, Rebecca Mader
ABC
Air Date: Sunday, May 15th, 2016, 8:00pm

This season, Once Upon A Time went from Camelot to the Greek Underworld, from King Arthur to Hades with a bunch of Dark Ones thrown in. Half the characters were dead with unfinished business, and the show explored how darkness can overcome the best of heroes. The season was filled with the usual-yet-oh-so-successful formula of bad magic + bad deals + bad love… hmmm… these fairy tales don’t ever really have happy endings.

But that’s what makes it so entertaining, right? There are no limits – any realm, any time, any character, any story, any creature… can pop up to challenge our heroes.

Last week, we lost Robin Hood (Sean Maguire – nooo!!!!) and Hades (Greg Germann – meh), but Zelena and Regina (Rebecca Mader and Lana Parilla) were finally and completely united in sisterhood, and Hook and Emma (Colin O’Donoghue and Jennifer Morrison) were reunited in love.

Spoilers below.

Once Upon A Time 5.22 “Only You” & 5.23 “An Untold Story” (Finale) review: Regina is feeling so lost, but she does have her sister. Henry is really worried about her. Emma wants to break the news about Hook’s return carefully, but that doesn’t work out to no one’s surprise. Gold, seeking more power to bring Belle back, casts a tethering spell attaching Storybrooke’s magic to the crystal. Emma tells Regina to sit this one out.

Henry wants to run away to fix this – to destroy magic forever. Violet goes with him. Regina, Emma, and Gold are on his tail. But it’s making magic all wonky. There’s magic in the regular world now, and the magic of Storybrooke sucks The Charmings, Hook, and Zelena to another land. They come upon a groundsman and ask him where they are, but his boss comes, and zaps them unconscious. When they awaken, they are in a weird cage held by Sam Witwer (Being Human). They are in the land of untold stories – refugees of all the lands come here.

Emma and Regina are three steps behind Henry, and are in Neal’s old apt. Regina finds a letter from Robin, and Regina explains how torn she is every day trying to be good when it gets her nowhere.

“I’d rather suffer than see that pain in the people I care about.”

The groundsman sneaks in to help the trapped heroes. He takes the wand to fix it as long as they promise to bring him home with them. He gets caught by the servant, who changes Dr. Jekyll (groundsman) into Mr Hyde (Witwer)

Henry and Violet find the twin of the holy grail the end of all magic, but Gold finds them soon enough and takes the crystal back.

Regina goes to Gold and pretends to want to be the evil queen, but he is not fooled. He is about to destroy Emma and Regina when Henry comes and sucks all the magic away,

There is one hope. An ancient dragon says Regina is waging a noble battle inside. They go to make wishes in the fountain. Henry somehow rallies the people of NYC to make wishes to restore magic. In a scene that even I have a hard time believing (think Zooey Deschenal getting everyone to believe in Christmas cheer in Elf), it works. But they lost Rumplestiltskin. He slipped away to get Belle, and made a deal with Mr. Hyde.

There is enough serum to split Regina from the Evil Queen. It works and Regina crushes the Evil Queen’s dark heart. They all go back home, and Emma tells Hook without imminent death (for once) that she loves him.

Regina and Henry untether the magic from the crystal. And then Hyde walks up, who hints that darkness cannot be snuffed out.

Two seconds later, the Evil Queen shows up in the dragon’s store in New York City and takes his heart.

It seems as if season 6 will stay in Storybrooke, as the “Untold Story” people hitched a ride with Mr. Hyde. But you never know. We could see how Arthur is doing ruling the Underworld, how Robin’s son is doing, or go back to Dr. Jekyll’s world. You really just never know.

This was a satisfying finale (except for Robin Hood). I keep hoping Gold will learn his damn lesson already, but that is probably futile. The Henry/ Violet thing is kinda cute. I am looking forward to seeing the havoc the Evil Queen creates, as well as the new fairy tale or mythical characters this darkly whimsical show can bring forth.

See you for season 6, Once Upon A Time!

ABC’s synopsis:

Episode 22 “Only You”
In the first hour of the special two-hour season finale, Regina reels from the death of Robin Hood, and everyone tries to give her room to grieve, but when the heroes discover Gold has stolen Hades’ Olympian Crystal and tethered all of Storybrooke’s magic to it, they set out to stop him. Henry decides he no longer can stand all the pain magic has caused his family, so he goes rogue, with Violet in tow, to destroy magic once and for all. Meanwhile, Zelena, Snow, David and Hook attempt to open a portal that will return Merida and the other Storybrooke guests to their homes, but things go awry, and the group winds up in a deranged new world.

Episode 23 AN Untold Story”
In the second hour, with the possibility of magic being destroyed and the fate of Storybrooke hanging in the balance, it’s a race for Emma and Regina to track down Henry before Gold can find him first. Regina continues to struggle with her frustrations over her former evil-self and, elsewhere, Snow, David, Hook and Zelena are imprisoned and must contend with very two very disturbed individuals that may give Gold a run for his money.

Image Gallery

Video

Henry Finds The Holy Grail – Once Upon A Time

Henry (Jared S. Gilmore) finds the holy grail of magic on a new mission.

Emma Is Worried About Regina – Once Upon A Time

The heroes have created a plan to take down Rumple but Emma (Jennifer Morrison) is concerned about Regina’s (Lana Parrilla) well-being and encourages her to sit this mission out.