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Wednesday 20 April 2016

Once Upon A Time 5.11 "Swan Song" Review

                                                Image result for once upon a time swan song photos
Regina (Lana Parilla) having confronted Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) about his secret she knew when he was a pirate and when she used him as a test when she wanted her mother killed by him, reminds him here that the secret is what he needs to face.  As they stand poised at the lakeside and Hook going to send Emma's (Jennifer Morrison) whole family to hell.  In fact it was all to do with the Dark Ones alighting their ferry and going through the town marking people which meant the Dark Ones would each take over a living person's soul.  As Rumple (Robert Carlyle) explained how they'd be ferried to the underworld when the moon was full. This included Rumple too and as he gave Belle (Emilie de Ravin) her dream ticket out of Storybrooke, he said she should leave, live her dream and see the world, cos there's a whole world out there.  Well there's plenty of worlds out there in all sorts of realms.

Emma decided the only one she could save everyone was if she took all of the Dark Ones powers into the sword and then killed herself with it, making the ultimate sacrifice to save everyone.  Which was a bad idea, but she knew Regina would understand and even help her.  She decides to leave a note for her family when they're all meant to be having a farewell meal at the the diner, sort of a last family supper together and doesn't turn up, and heck they didn't even notice.  That's cos Snow (Gennifer Goodwin) decided she didn't want to stick their last moments together into a book and would rather spend it with her family.  Wondering who would look after baby Neal, well Emma would still be around, left holding the baby.  Somehow couldn't picture that.  Rumple even gave Emma the sword, no questions asked, adding she was brave (wrong film/show) and he would part with it cos he wouldn't have to make any such sacrifices.

We get a flashback to Hook when he was a wee lad by the name of Killian and how his father told him he needs to make a choice of the sort of man he wants to be.  Before deserting his two sons and basically selling them off to slave away on a ship.  As Regina takes Hook to the inn where she tells him there's a man he needs to take care of first.  Whereupon he's confronted by a tall man who she knocks down with a spell.  It's the barkeep, none other than his worthless father.  He wants revenge on him too, seems his whole life is one chapter fuelled and filled by revenge after another and it probably started the moment he was sold as a worthless piece of meat, or "soiled" goods!!  Anyway father has a sob story of how he's learned his lesson after falling foul of a sleeping curse, is a changed man and how the woman who nursed him changed him and became his wife, then succumbed to a plague.  They have a son now and Hook ensures safe passage for him and his son by getting them letters of transmit.  For a moment there I thought were magically portalled to Casablanca here!!  Ha.  "Save me Rick..." we need those letters of transit.

As Hook brings them by, he overhears his father tell his son the same thing he told Hook and also hears him call him Liam, which he says was out of honour for his brother and not a betrayal.  Hook can stand his lies no more and actually kills him!  This is the secret he and Regina shared all those years and she tells him not to do the same again.  Not to sacrifice Emma's family like that.  Anyway why did Regina need Hook to kill Cora when she had magic and could've done it herself and as I recall didn't Hook have a thang for Regina too!

In Storybrooke Regina does one final thing in ridding her sister and sending her back to Oz, using that "withered knob of that sad, old man" aka the sorcerer's apprentice, language Zelena!!  (Rebecca Mader) As she tried to cling onto the clock tower for dear life, see everything happens in that clock tower, it may as well be labelled the foreshadowing tower instead or something.

Anyway back at the lake, Hook still wanted revenge on Emma for how she changed him and for saving his life, even when she said she loved him, but that was what he used to say, not so much actually.  Hook then realizes what he's doing wrong and he decides to make the sacrifice himself by taking all of the Dark Ones into the sword and then Emma stabbed him with it.  Kind of defeating the purpose of her saving him to begin with, when all this could've been avoided and heck Merlin would still be around too.  Proving her actions to save her lost love were hasty and pointless (no pun!)  Then Emma transformed back and lost that awful hair, as the paramedics arrived and didn't wonder how he got that gaping wound in his neck which ultimately killed him!  (Again!)

Belle returns and realizes what Gold was doing in sending her away before they had a stint of making up to do.  Emma confronting Gold about what he did when he admits he took apart Excalibur with a spell and still has the dagger, thus becoming the Dark One again, cos it's always about power and never about love and no you can't have both, Gold wanting to remain the Dark One, so much for his pure heart, which he just needed to be saved so he could go back to his evil ways again.  Emma agrees to keep his secret if he takes them to hell,  so she can do a rehash of what Snow did for David (Josh Dallas) by giving him half his heart and bring back Hook to life.

It was good to see how evil Hook was as a pirate cos what's the ultimate thing he could've done to become like that (or even more darker) he got revenge on his father for deserting his children.  A little aside to how Rumple deserted Bae too in the hopes of becoming the Dark One and for power.  Hook's descent into darkness could be understood better with this flashback since he had already killed his father and on top of that we can see why it was so easy for him to have also killed Merlin when he was dark.  Consequently, it was also easy to see why he sacrificed himself, cos killing wasn't an honourable thing to do especially when he had come so far in his transition.  Thus the sacrifice was his one final act of redemption and in turn saving not only Emma but her family too.

The downside of this was that Hook didn't have to make that sacrifice after all and Gold was back as Rumple, though a tad confusing.  His descent from hero to villain once again was as dramatic and as fast as Hook becoming dark.  Hook had his reasons and Gold just wanted power cos he saw what being powerless really meant and how vulnerable he was, at everyone's mercy.

An interesting ending though Emma once again has to suffer Hook dying and as for wielding the sword, this was something she would've wanted Regina to do with the dagger, only she ended up doing that herself.

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