Once Upon a Time series finale: The Evil Queen becomes the Good Queen

Death within the world of Once Upon a Time can mean many different things, but at times, it can mean peace. That was our takeaway from what was the biggest death of all over the course of the year.

After battling the evil version of himself, we finally saw the end for Rumpelstiltskin — he had battled such great evil but on the other side of it, he found peace, happiness, and everything that he could finally want. He also found Belle on the other side of death, in the iconic yellow dress from Beauty and the Beast, waiting for him. If that one moment didn’t make you melt into tears, what would?

Beyond Rumple’s death there were many other lovely moments over the course of the episode, including Robin’s desire to marry Alice, a lovely Sean Maguire cameo, and getting to see two Henrys in the same room. Regina also found a way bring Storybrooke to all of its magic and glory, where characters could understand themselves past and present. Think of this as operation “We Are Both.” The realms were united and as it turned out, Regina was going to be declared the person to watch over them. She started the show as the evil queen and in the end, she was the good queen.

We know that the series finale could have easily been a parade of cameos and we know that there were many sprinkled in (hooray for a Sean Maguire and Jennifer Morrison sighting near the very ending) — yet, somewhere along the way the writers struck the perfect balance between giving us a few of these and also offering closure to the stories that mattered in the moment. There were certainly others we wish Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis got to, but not every story ultimately gets an ending. Such is life. (We will say this though — Lily’s father is Zorro. Seriously?!)

What did you think about the Once Upon a Time series finale? Share right now in the comments.