One of the downsides of having a large cast like Once Upon A Time does is that sometimes the characters’ storyline can get lost in the shuffle. That’s exactly what happened in “The Girl in the Tower.” The entire episode was bouncing between four different storylines, making it hard to really connect with what the characters’ were trying to accomplish this episode.
One storyline that seemed to be the strongest was the moment Alice met Robin. From previous episodes we know they fall in love, yet we have yet to see the moment they meet. The episode begins with Alice being saved from her magical tower by a troll.
Years later, while spying on Hook, she meets Robin, who is hunting the troll so she can live up to Robin Hood’s legacy. After being captured by angry hunters and escaping them, the two who originally butted heads become friends.
This is a storyline that could have carried the entire episode, especially since it’s titled “The Girl in the Tower,” but instead it was mixed in with more convoluted stories, one of which being what’s happening with Alice in Hyperion Heights. Hook and Henry try to help clear Alice’s name after she is found standing over a dead nurse’s body with a knife.
It’s a storyline that really doesn’t fit with the rest of the show. It feels as though the writers are trying to make something happen that really doesn’t need to. As a viewer, I wonder what the point of her storyline is. Everything they’ve tried to do with Alice’s storyline has honestly been a bit puzzling. It’s understandable they have to create new characters for this final season and time jump, but it’s become a bit excessive.
What the writers need to focus on is the main characters who have been a part of the series from the beginning, like Regina’s storyline. Regina reveals to Lucy at the end of “Knightfall” that she is awake. Regina and Lucy begin their plan to save her parents from Henry’s deathly demise. Regina uses her charm to get Dr. Facilier out of his apartment for a date while Lucy does some sleuthing. Because nothing can go Regina’s way, Zelena interrupts their “date,” ending it early and leaves Lucy to fend for herself in Facilier’s home.
Lucy discovers a death card which Facilier later reveals to Regina that it’s for The Dark One. While I think there is only room for one villain on this show, Facilier’s presence has brought a new era of mystery to the world of Hyperion Heights. He is the only new character who actually brings something to this magical world.
Maybe in the final episodes, the writers will be able to slow down and focus on the characters that matter instead of trying to rush to finish new stories they’ve only recently introduced. In a sense, this final season should be a goodbye to the characters viewers have followed for the last seven years instead of a hello to a batch of new ones.
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