Once Upon a Time (TV Series) The Final Battle: Part 2 (2017) User Reviews

Great series finale but...

[songod-95003 · 8/10 · 16 May 2017]

It is not! Truly this would have been the end the show deserved had this been the final episode.

Apparently it was written as such until the show was renewed BUT with most of the cast moving on contractually already! Yes, a wrap around\ tag on scene\tale opens the show up to an all new reset of the beginning, only with a now adult Henry being approached by his unknown to him daughter (about the same age Henry was when he found Emma in ep 1 season 1)! She says he must go with her cause "his family needs him". Sound familiar? It would seem Henry, like Emma in that ep, is clueless and so another forgetting spell was cast. Or whatever!

For those who do not know, the next season will no longer have the following characters\actors: Emma Swan, Snow White, Prince Charming, Belle, young Henry, and I am sure I am forgetting one other. The core will be the now adult Henry, Hook, Gold, and the evil queen\not evil anymore.

How the show intends to carry on or explain where everyone missing has gone (yes there was a time jump in the tag on scene of several years) will be interesting to see, but I frankly have little hope for the continued success of the show. It was all about Emma, Snow, Charming, and how everything revolved around them. Without those characters I think it will be a rebooted show trying to be it's old self but simply unable to.

I mean everyone is together, happy, sitting down to a thanksgiving like meal in this ep's natural end! Somehow along the way all that is torn apart? Is the ultimate lesson learned to be that there are no happy endings or happy beginnings because even in a fantasy world life sucks? Crap happens to the best of people regardless of what they have overcome to get to a place of stability?

This should have been the end; a fitting finale.

Would be a 10....

[Pnkprinses309 · 9/10 · 25 April 2020]

If it were the series finale. It was a perfect FINALE. The last season wasn't needed. This was perfect. It wrapped up all the seasons into a tight little package. They should have left the Henry adult part out.

Fighting emotions

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 30 May 2019]

'Once Upon a Time' was very addictive when it first began. What really intrigued me into seeing it in the first place was its fascinating and creative premise of turning fairy tales and characters on their head and putting own interpretations on them. Good premises always do intrigue me and that or talented casts, or both, are usually my main reasons in my interest in watching something. Liked to loved a vast majority of Seasons 1-4 and found a lot to like about Season 5, despite reservations with the second half of it.

Season 6 was for me more hit and miss, leaning generally towards the disappointing. Personally thought that the first three episodes of the season were very good to great, especially "The Other Shoe". It was from "Strange Case" onward when the problems began and things got somewhat pear-shaped, when there was an increasing lack of new ideas and magic, increasing too were the campiness and soap opera, the over-stuffing and less interesting characterisation. It did get significantly better though towards the end of the season, but between "The Other Shoe" and "Page 23" the season was very uneven, though never unwatchable.

"The Final Battle", both parts, is a great episode and one of the season's best. Also one of the best episodes of the latter (meaning Seasons 5, or at least the second half of it, -7) seasons, and we are not talking marginally. It worked incredibly well as a season finale, one of the show's season finales, and actually would have worked equally brilliantly as an ending to the show.

Found the second part to be even better than the first part. It contains all the strengths of the previous part, though with different story elements, while having new great things as well. It has even more tension and emotion than before and contains a few nice surprises, also thought that it worked much better with all the action being set in Storybrooke with enchanted forest elements.

Didn't find the very beginning and ending bookends quite as interesting, though they weren't pointless or tacked on. Did think that it was a little dangerous ending the episode suggesting a new season was to follow (which it did do and it was an underwhelming one), in case the show was suddenly cancelled for whatever reason (whether low ratings, being too expensive to make anymore, schedule conflicts etc.).

So much to love though however. What was striking about "The Final Battle", both parts, was how it returned to its roots and came back to what we already knew, but instead going round in circles it played around with it without contradicting. It was very affectionately nostalgic, though one is reminded somewhat of how 'Once Upon a Time' progressed so much since it first started on the whole, and packed a big emotional punch (really felt for both Emma and Gold). A lot happens here, yet unlike most of the other episodes of Season 6 it didn't feel over-stuffed or rushed with it being spaced out over two parts. It to me didn't feel muddled and comprehension was not a problem. The end with the cast was a lovely touch, not cheesy or cloying at all (both potential problems individually or even worse together) and instead charming, moving and affectionate. Makes one sad about saying goodbye to six characters though, but at least one knows why the characters would no longer be there.

What is also great is the character interaction and how the characters were written. Even with deliberately different takes on some of them, the characters are still very interesting and engaging, some being the most interesting they've been all season with being too out of character. In Belle's case actually it is the most interesting she's been for the whole show, speaking as someone who never was the biggest fan of her but here her chemistry with Gold and Emilie De Ravin's performance were surprisingly heartfelt. Actually really cared about all of them. Loved the character interactions, with the tense one between Gold and Fiona being especially great. Emma and Gideon being close behind. Gideon and especially Fiona are very effective antagonists, while Gold's story here is very moving and really cared for Gold more so than any of the previous Season 6 episodes.

Even with the playing around and returning to the roots, the story grips and intrigues, while the dialogue is amusing, thought-provoking, heartfelt and intense, balanced very well. Less soap, corn and camp here. The production values have a lot of beauty and atmosphere, nothing drab or gaudy here, while being attractively photographed. The music doesn't ever sound cheap or out-of-kilter, fitting well with the mood and never found myself questioning its placement. The main theme is still memorable. Robert Carlyle and Jaime Murray take the episode's acting honours, though Giles Matthey's sinister Gideon and Jennifer Morrison are not far off.

Altogether, great season finale and actually would have been effective as a show finale. 9/10