Once Upon a Time: The Song in Your Heart (6x20)

Last week, I said that musical episodes are usually either really bad, or really good, and almost never fall in between. I'm forced to go back on that now, because this was... an okay musical episode. It had some high moments, a few cringe-y moments, and some shrug moments.

Cons:

The music in this episode comes from the Blue Fairy granting Snow's wish to find a way to help her daughter. Everybody bursts into uncontrollable song, and the idea is that this music will permeate into Emma's life and help her realize she's not alone when she faces the final battle years later. Okay, good enough as far as excuses for singing go. But because of this, the music should have been kept to the flash-backs. When Emma finally sings at the end, it doesn't really work, despite Jennifer Morrison having a good voice, and the song at Emma and Hook's wedding at the end is the epitome of too cheesy, and could have been cut entirely.

Of the songs in the flashbacks, all of them were surprisingly a lot of fun. The one weak link was Regina's song "Love Doesn't Stand a Chance." It wasn't awful, but it was a tad cringe-y. Lana Parrilla, woman of many talents, doesn't have much vocal skill, and this song was tailored for a low register and didn't have enough going for it. Again, not the worst thing ever, but it was definitely the weakest of the bunch.

So, when Emma realizes (with Henry's help) that the power of her family's music has been within her the whole time, she sings a song that releases her family from the Black Fairy's frozen spell. While Emma is singing, her heart is just lying there on the ground because the Black Fairy wasn't able to crush it for some unexplained reason, and the Black Fairy is just kind of standing there waiting for Emma to finish singing so she can react. It was pretty darn clumsy.

This is a small and stupid detail, but Emma's makeup and hair did not look good at her wedding. She has this beautiful long hair, but it was pulled back severely and covered by a head piece, which would be fine, but then she had barely any eye makeup and this very, very red lipstick on, and she just looked kind of weird. Jennifer Morrison is gorgeous, and while I actually did like the old-fashioned wedding dress, I don't think she looked her best for her wedding.

The Black Fairy doesn't kill Emma, but she does set up a curse... and everybody just kind of shows up for Emma's wedding and sings a big song about "happy beginnings," and then when the curse is enacted, everybody's like: "oh yeah. We have to deal with that, don't we?" It felt odd and out of character that everybody would just sort of forget the curse for the sake of the wedding.

Pros:

The nice thing about a cheesy show like this is that you can get away with a certain amount of teeth-rotting adorableness. Evidence? Snow and Charming's opening song about love being the most powerful magic of all. It was really sweet. Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin both actually sounded really, really good! I was surprised! It's a catchy little tune and I kind of liked it.

Hook's flashback song "Revenge" was similarly fun. A really catchy tune, and Colin O'Donoghue has an awesome voice. I was uncomfortably attracted to him in that number, honestly. Nice falsetto, funny lyrics ("Just wait for the second verse, love."), all in all, a great little number.

But by far the best number in the episode is "Wicked Always Wins," sung by Rebecca Mader. That girl can sing. Damn. And that song was just the perfect blend of powerful, cheesy, funny, and sexy. "What they call green with envy, I just call looking good." Ha!

I do rather love that there were three villain songs in this episode. Seemingly, Once Upon a Time is attempting to make up for Disney's recent drought of villain numbers!

In the present-day, there were a lot of little details and moments that I enjoyed, even if I think the Black Fairy story-line is not being executed very well.

When Emma realizes that the Black Fairy is still at large, she goes to Hook to tell him what's going on, and insist on finishing this by herself. Hook deduces that Emma is here to say goodbye in case it doesn't work and she's defeated. He says, in an anguished voice "let me help!" A great performance from O'Donoghue in this moment. He respects that Emma is powerful and can take care of herself, but the idea of letting her go is utterly terrifying. Also, whenever I hear somebody say "let me help," it makes me think of the beautiful sentiment from Star Trek in "The City at the Edge of Forever." God, I love that episode.

Also, I admit that the wedding was the perfect kind of sappy. Emma and Killian both had personal vows to each other, and the whole town was there to support them, and they put the rings on, and they shared a beautiful kiss. It was just the kind of sappiness that the doctor ordered. I wasn't totally thrilled with everybody bursting into song after the wedding, but, I did like seeing everybody in their own kind of "happy beginning." Obviously Snow and Charming are together and in love, Emma and Killian are starting out their married life, and we see Regina and Zelena holding hands and dancing together, united both through grief at the losses of their True Loves, but also through a new sibling love and respect.

As the curse is about to hit them, Hook asks Emma where she thinks they're going. Emma responds: "Doesn't matter. Wherever we end up, we're gonna win." This is a great sentiment, because it shows how much Emma has grown as the Savior. She believes in herself and her family now. She knows they can beat the odds.

The announcement that Jennifer Morrison will not be returning to the show puts me in the interesting position of suddenly hoping that Once Upon a Time does not get renewed. I have no interest in watching Hook without Emma; I have no interest in watching the show without Snow, Charming, Emma, and Hook in it... and if they're all not there, then Henry better be gone too or else it's too sad. Am I supposed to watch an entire season of Rumple and Belle? No thanks. It's sad, but suddenly I feel like this should probably be the end. Emma defeats the Black Fairy, and everybody rides off into the sunset. God knows these characters have earned it by now. In any case, I'm looking forward to next week's finale not knowing if it's the last we'll see of these characters. It's a bittersweet feeling for sure!

7/10