Finale Forecast: How ‘Once Upon a Time’ could have most magical ending possible
The fifth season of “Once Upon a Time” has certainly been a trip if there ever was one. For the entirety of the Dark Swan arc, we had frustrations over pacing, narrative twists, and a guest cast that was much too big for its own good.
Somehow, though, the ABC series has managed to correct some of that for the second part of the season, which has been focused almost entirely on the Underworld. This stretch has been quite possibly one of our favorite arcs in an extremely long time. We never knew how much we liked the procedural element to the show until we missed it, and it works really well now that we know these characters so well. We get to see people from their past influence their present, and that’s fascinating.
With that said, we are not staying in the Underworld forever, and it’s our job in this CarterMatt Finale Forecast article to figure out what is next.
What could happen – Hades will almost surely be defeated, and with that we’ll have some sort of happy ending with our heroes returning to Storybrooke, where another shocker or two could await them. We’re sure that at least one bad thing will probably happen before we make it there, relationships will be tested, and we’ll get a setup for what season 6 will be. In that way, this show is fairly formulaic.
What should happen – We do agree that they have to say goodbye to the Underworld at the end of this season, but what else can they bring to the table? We’d be curious to see the show really goes for an emotional angle as they say goodbye to this place that has held so many memories of the departed, and not really try to shock us with any big reveal. The strength of this part of the season has been the character relationships and the writing more so than anything else, and we do really hope that this lasts. We’d also like to see the Dark One story finally resolved in some way; either Rumpelstiltskin just is the Dark One, or it’s gone and we move on to something else. There’s no sense dwelling on it more.
Also, can the first part of season 6 be adventurous and fun? Since we’re in an arc right now that is pretty dark, the show needs it.