‘Once Upon a Time’ season 2 finale review: Hook, Neverland, and Peter Pan?
Anytime that you go into a season finale of a show, the word game-changer tends to come to mind more often than not. Not only did a show like “Once Upon a Time” have the enormous challenge this week of tying together multiple storylines and creating shocking moments, but there was also the question of dropping that massive hook (pun very much intended) to keep you invested in what should be a very interesting third season.
Let’s start with the past, since that is in many ways what ended up mattering the most here. In the flashbacks, we finally had an opportunity to see what in the world was going on with Captain Hook and Baelfire, which turned out to be an interesting, strange, soap-opera. Hook wanted to see the boy as his son given the relationship with his mother, but once the young Baelfire learned the dreadful truth about how he was being used for a revenge plot that he wanted no part of whatsoever, he wanted to get the heck off that ship.
Hook’s move to ship Baelfire off to the Lost Boys was long-expected, but what lovely work in here from Colin O’Donoghue in the process.
Back in Storybrooke, there is little questioning that the objective was rather simple: To just find a way to stay alive, and not have Storybrooke blown into smithereens. Was the end predictable here? Sure! Working together yields good results, and Emma and Regina saved the day! Sadly, they still encountered an oh-so tragic problem that came courtesy of Tamara and Greg, who decided that if they were unable to get everything that they wanted from destroying the town’s magic, they would take something (or someone) else which was Henry.
In conclusion, the show literally and figuratively charted a course for the new season. The Charming family, including Hook and Regina, all took off on the ship in order to find Henry, who went through a portal to another world. Thankfully, they had Hook deciding at the last minute to join them as a measure of redemption.
Now, there’s that epic cliffhanger: Neverland is in sight, and it is a place that Hook surely knows well. However, it turns out that the Peter Pan that you know would be absolutely terrified by the Peter Pan we’re about to seriously deal with. Be afraid, but be bouncing-off-the-walls excited.
What’s your immediate emotional reaction to the “Once Upon a Time” finale? We want to hear some of your thoughts on this very matter below! While there may not be a whole lot of scoop out there on season 3 of the show, there are still a few things that you can check out over here.
Photo: ABC
faith
May 13, 2013 @ 4:45 am
I do not like the twist. the show is losing its direction.
Colin Warnecke
May 13, 2013 @ 5:28 am
I don’t know if this show ever had a single direction. Knowing the past works of these writers, even if it did, we won’t know it until the series finale. They are blending several disparate fairy tales together, crossing character lines and blending characters together. The unfortunate nature of what they have created is the constant need to introduce new characters to keep the story fresh. Unlike Lost, UOAT is composed of characters that are familiar to most, all but eliminating serious character development for the bulk of the cast. It makes for some dysfunctional story telling, but I have faith that it will all blend together in the end.
Colin Warnecke
May 13, 2013 @ 2:03 am
I am sure this won’t be the only time that people misread what was in the finale, but Peter Pan is not the one that Hook or Rumple is frightened of. Although not mentioned on this site, Bae is also not Peter Pan. Several times in the finale a reference is made to “him/he” and this is the new villain that we have yet to be introduced to. This is the new villain that has commanded the lost boys to find Henry. The tall blond is Peter Pan and his “shadow” is the tool he uses to take children from the “real world”. Peter isn’t the only one looking though, as we find out in the finale. Tamara and Greg are also obviously looking for Henry. Why they wanted to destroy magic, per the villain’s command is still a bit mysterious.
So the real cliffhangers for this season are
– How does Bae escape Neverland? This explains how Bae ends up in Emma’s timeline which is decades or longer after his own (from the fairytale timescale).
– How will Bae and the Charmings (et al) reunite?
– and most importantly, Who is this villain behind the proverbial curtain and why is Henry so important to him?
Tim Graves
May 13, 2013 @ 1:12 am
I cannot believe we are about to see a version of Peter Pan that even has Gold frightened.
Colin Warnecke
May 13, 2013 @ 2:41 am
You aren’t. Rewatch the episode and pay attention. Peter Pan is NOT the villain that is behind all of this. Peter Pan is the tall blond, leader of the lost boys. Watch the last scene. They refer to him/he and who he is looking for. Peter states that it could take a long time but that Peter Pan never fails (he is speaking of himself in the second person). Peter as an uber-villain wouldn’t make sense anyway. Peter Pan is a lost boy himself, not a villain. All the villains, to date, have been villains in the originals.
In addition, you must remember that the same writers that brought us Lost are now bringing us UOAT. Major story lines are not going to be spoon fed to the audience. For those that think Peter Pan is somehow the major villain are being misdirected and falling prey to simplistic interpretations.
Melissa Centeno
May 13, 2013 @ 3:52 am
Wow what you said makes complete sense and it is too simplistic to think that they would go against fairy tale tradition and make Peter Pan a Villian considering he is a lost boy himself although technically Ruby a.k.a Red/wolf ended up being both the innocent victim and villain all in one lol (as far as her original story goes). Either way, I can’t wait to see who is REALLY behind everything and why Henry plays such a central role in it all. (:
Colin Warnecke
May 13, 2013 @ 4:34 am
In regards to Red/Wolf, I understood, when I wrote my comment, that there was some question as to the nature of the character as villain or innocent. The interesting thing that the writers did here is to blend historic and modern variations of the tale as well as blending the two characters. This allowed them to tell a tale of dichotomy in a single character, which has been a constant undercurrent with Regina from the beginning as well. There are versions of the Little Red Riding Hood tale that do involve a blending of the protagonist and antagonist and this is what the writers have used. It should also be mentioned that Ruby still has an edge to her character, and while not a “villain”, she is anything but innocent.
I do have a guess at the Henry issue. Henry is the only character (that we know of), born of two imaginary/magical world beings in the “real” world. We have seen that Emma has magic in her and possibly so does Henry. He is the only character truly part of both worlds. All other explanations that I can come up with fall apart under scrutiny.
Another interesting twist that we hopefully will get answered is how Tamara and Greg come to know about the magical worlds and how they are being instructed. They are getting their commands from somewhere, as are the lost boys (although so far the time frames are decades, if not longer, apart).