Once Upon a Time: The Savior (6x01)

Is it just me, or are we retreading familiar ground here? It's too early to say for certain, but there's a part of me that's mighty concerned about what I just watched. Let's get started.

Cons:

Basically, my main complaint here is that many of the characters seem to be reverting.

Emma starts getting tremors in her hands, and strange flashes of a mysterious battle. Hyde seems to know something about it, and Emma visits him in jail where she and the other heroes have captured him. She then follows a red bird, per Hyde's suggestion, to a woman in the woods who calls herself an oracle, who tells her that her visions are of her own future. She sees herself fighting a cloaked figure, and being stabbed and killed. Honestly there were things to like about this, but Emma hiding stuff from Hook and her family is so old hat. I'm tired of hearing about how Emma's walls are up and then she lets them down because of her family and Hook, and then she puts the walls back up again when something unexpected happens. It's tiresome.

Rumple, with the help of Morpheus, travels into Belle's dreams and discovers that in her mind, she is back in Rumple's castle, his servant and prisoner. Rumple vows to make Belle fall in love with him again, in order to wake her up. This plot thread actually turns out okay, but I didn't like all the buildup to it. Seeing Rumple trying to woo Belle by deceiving her again isn't at all interesting. Rumple isn't interesting anymore. I think the key here is that word "again." Even more than with Emma and her repetitive character arcs, Rumple has gone through the same emotional journey like a dozen times over the five seasons of this show so far. I don't want to watch it again.

Regina and Zelena are adjusting to their life together, but Regina admits that she blames Zelena for Robin's death. Zelena then reveals that she's furious with Regina for ripping out her evil half, because she was getting rid of the part of herself that was most like Zelena. This was another plot thread with promise that ended up disappointing me. I'm all for an exploration of the tensions between Zelena and Regina, but I can't stand the thought of Zelena reverting back into the same bitter villain we've seen since the character was first introduced. By the end of this episode, Zelena has discovered the Evil Queen, aka the sister that Zelena always wanted. I'm just not interested in watching these two get up to more evil shenanigans. Enough is enough.

Pros:

To pick up Rumple and Belle's story, I actually rather liked the plot twist. Basically, it turns out that "Morpheus" was actually a future version of Belle and Rumple's unborn child. This child warns Belle not to let Rumple ruin their lives, the way he ruined his last family. He kisses Belle on the forehead, waking her up with True Love's Kiss. Belle heeds her child's warning, going back to Storybrooke and declaring her intentions to stay well away from Rumple. I love the idea of Belle standing up for herself. I hope and pray that it actually sticks this time. It seems like she's got the right idea - she loves Rumple, and Rumple loves Belle, but that's not enough. Belle is finally wising up to the fact that Rumple hasn't changed. All these years. All these broken promises. Belle and her baby are both done with it. Hell yeah!

Regina's story had a lot of good stuff in it. I'm annoyed with Zelena and Regina being so immediately on the outs again, because I thought it would have been good to explore the complexities of their sisterly relationship. However, Regina seems to be coming to grips with her past and her feelings in new and healthy ways. I know that eventually the two halves of Regina are going to have to meet up, and Regina is going to have to take ownership of the Evil Queen's actions. But here, we saw Regina have lovely heart-to-hearts with Henry and with Snow. Henry encourages Regina to have hope. Just because Hades said that Robin's soul was "obliterated" doesn't mean it's really true. Maybe he did find peace. Regina also talks to Snow, in what I consider to be the best scene in the episode. She says that she needs to start a new story and have faith that this story will have a better ending than the last one. She knows she's been a villain to many people, and a hero to many more, but now is the time to choose hope, just as Snow White did all those years ago when she was on the run. Regina even apologizes for being a terrible step-mother! The two hold hands, and then get up and walk away arm-in-arm. Regina and Snow's developing friendship and love for one another has been one of the very surprising highlights of the last season or so. I can't wait for more!

And then there's the A-plot. Turns out, Saviors are destined to be defeated. This might sound cliche, but I actually see a lot of promise here. So much of Emma's character development has been about accepting her place. She had to be the Savior. It was foretold. She had to let Hook go. He was returned to her in part because she did the right thing and let him go. Now, we see through Emma's visions that doing the right thing and protecting her family is going to end up killing her. It'll be interesting to see this show grapple with the idea of thwarting destiny a bit. We've seen it play out with many villains, and now it's Emma's turn, in a sense.

I liked the brief glance we got of Aladdin, who was also a Savior, as well as Jafar. I can only assume we'll develop that more as we go. I like the idea of Emma learning more about what it means to be a Savior, and Aladdin's story could be a cool way of doing that. Also, Archie gets the surprising honor of being MVP this week. He tells Emma that letting her guard down also means letting all the pain in. She will need to get through that pain and all of the horrible things that have happened in her life in order to come out the other side a stronger version of herself. I'm all for Emma and Archie counseling sessions this year! Emma needs some help. (Funniest line of the episode goes to Emma in this exchange with Archie. He indicates that Emma's family thought she might need some help, to which Emma replies: "From a cricket?!" and then: "Sorry, I didn't mean that like I was anti-cricket.")

Conceptually speaking, I'm also really hyped about Jekyll and Hyde, and all the untold stories. The idea of these people hiding out because they don't want their stories told is intriguing. Much like in the Underworld setup, we have a chance here for multiple mini-arcs with different characters coming to terms with their own baggage and coming out happier for it. Since this is what Emma needs to keep practicing at, it'll be a good way to incorporate new faces while focusing thematically on our leads. Hyde is an appropriately menacing bad guy, for all that his growl-y voice is a little on the nose. Jekyll is your typical helpful nerd, but I think the actor is very likable, so we'll see how that goes as well.

Hook and Emma Update: I was annoyed at Emma for hiding the truth from Hook, but I have hope that the secret won't last for too long. We got a make-out scene at the beginning of this episode, and we also got lots of Hook being worried for Emma, so overall I'm happy.

That's what I've got! I'll be interested to see what Hyde does with Storybrooke, now that he supposedly owns it (thanks a lot, Rumple). He's behind bars already, which was a pleasant subversion of expectations, but something tells me he's still got a few tricks up his sleeve!

7/10