TV Review: Once Upon a Time (4×22) “Operation Mongoose”

If I had to use one word to describe this season finale, it would be this: Ugh. To be honest, I am emotionally exhausted from probably the most intense episode of Once Upon a Time to ever be aired. This episode cannot and will not be topped by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. (Our Once writers), and I commend them 100% for such originality and intensity, but I also hate them for making me cry.

Just a warning, this review does contain spoilers, so if you haven’t watched the episode and hate those as much as I do, don’t read on.

In the episode before the finale, our author begins to write a completely different book. The book is according to Asshole (oops I meant Rumpelstiltskin) and in it, the villains and heroes switch places so-to-speak. It was pretty cool to see our characters act like completely opposite people. Snow White killed innocent people, Regina was innocent, Hook wasn’t a captain—instead he scrubbed floors and didn’t know how to use a sword or defend himself. He was a total loser, and it was kind of hot. Emma though wasn’t included in the new book, and therefore was locked up in some place that was almost impossible to get to.

Henry, being the only one who was born in the real world, must save the day by getting himself in the new book and warning the peeps. Regina thinks he’s crazy, Snow White and Charming try to murder him, Hook helps him even though he doesn’t even know how to not be scared, and surprisingly Emma remembers him and everything. So mom and son both set out to convince everyone.

I guess now is a good time to bring up the scene that pretty much sent me into hyperventilation. Let me set the scene. We have Hook, who doesn’t know how to use a sword and is afraid confront the powerful and terrible Snow White. Because he’s Hook, he tells Emma to go save Henry, and so he’s left to fight alone. He’s doing pretty alright; that is until he gets STABBED in the back by Charming. By stabbed, I mean to DEATH. He dies, and if you guys know me, you know that I definitely not-so-shamefully cried. For a whole 30 minutes, it was like what I imagine the death of Patrick Dempsey’s Grey’s character to be like for fans of that show.

I’m not going to lie, I spent a lot of the episode thinking about Hook and wondering if it can really be true. Colin O’ Donoghue, who plays Hook, ended his Twitter spree early, and it really made me believe that his character was dead, so he was trying to avoid his replies. Thankfully, all the characters got back to StoryBrooke, and they were ALIVE. I was disappointed though, when Emma confessed her love to dead Hook but couldn’t confess her love to real Hook, when she found out he was alive.

One of my favorite parts of the finale was when we find out that Henry is the next author. I absolutely loved that for some reason. It was thanks to him that everyone was able to get back. Regina and Robin are together, the Charming’s are apologizing to Hook for killing him, and Henry is rejoicing in his new found power.

Much to my dismay, Rumple still wont die. Instead, his dark magic was preserved outside of his body. Instead of a normal happy ending though, the dark magic comes and tries to get inside of people. It tries Regina, but Emma being a hero and all, saves her and gets the dark magic inside of her instead. Right before that, while everyone tries to stop her, she finally admits to Killian/Hook that she loves him, and it was perfect and beautiful.

Our last scene is Emma disappearing with the dark magic and the sword that controls the dark one, now changing its name from Rumpelstiltskin to Emma Swan. So completely unexpected, but Emma is now the dark one, and I’m guessing that’s what season 5 will focus on.

Overall, the season finale made me happy that I held on during the more boring episodes. I’m excited and nervous to see what season 5 has in store, but mostly excited.

See you in the fall, peeps.