Following one of the most epic season finales of Once Upon a Time, the season six premiere fails to carry the momentum from the previous season into the next.
In the season five finale, Oncers — the shows fanbase — were introduced to the Land of Untold Stories. In this mysterious land, we met Dr. Jekyll (Hank Harris) and Mr. Hyde (Sam Witwer), who return in the season six premiere.
The episode, “The Savior,” opens by taking the audience back many years ago to a wide-open plain and a person riding a horse. Behind the person, flying on a magic carpet, is another character who is shooting lightning at the person on the horse. The man riding the horse finds safety in a little sand hut. When he enters he asks to talk to the Savior, whose face is hidden. The other man, who is revealed as Jafar (Oded Fehr), enters and turns the man who rode the horse to dust. He now addresses the Savior: “Look at the great Aladdin now.” Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) has become weak and is unable to do anything. Jafar is unimpressed, but not surprised, by the man Aladdin has become. “That’s why you never hear these words about a savior: they lived happily ever after.” Early on, it becomes clear the story of Aladdin is going to be a parallel to Emma’s savior story.
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The next scene takes place in present-day Storybrooke. Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) and Emma (Jennifer Morrison) are reconnecting by taking part in a make out session, but it is interrupted when the ground starts shaking. The couple leave Emma’s house to see a ship from the Land of Untold Stories flying through the air. Everyone is Storybrooke comes to an open clearing to watch the blimp-like structure. Mr. Hyde comes into the frame and says Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) gave him the town of Storybrooke. Hyde, who anticipates confrontation, turns to leave, but before he can, Emma and Regina (Lana Parrilla) try to use magic on him. Their attempt fails because Hyde is too powerful. Before he exits, he gives everyone a warning: “Nothing is more dangerous than an untold story, and the people who don’t want them told.” At this point, Hyde seems to be full of empty threats.
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When the ship falls to the ground in the forest, Emma, Hook, Regina, Prince Charming (Josh Dallas), Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Jekyll visit the shipwreck, but the passengers are nowhere in sight. Dr. Jekyll tells the group he might know a way to debilitate Hyde — the Orderly’s Baton used in the Land of Untold Stories. While looking for the baton, a clanging of two metal plates causes Emma to have a vision of her fighting someone. When she comes back to her senses, her hand starts shaking. Everyone around her is concerned, but she says she’s “fine,” which is code for “I am definitely not alright.”
In meantime Rumplestiltskin is traveling through the forest using a map Hyde gave him that leads to to the Temple of Morpheus. Located at the temple are sands that will allow Rumple to walk in Belle’s (Emilie de Ravine) dreams and wake her. When Rumple gets to the temple, he takes Belle out of Pandora’s Box and puts sand over top of her. Rumple goes into the dream and finds a man, Morpheus (Giles Matthey), standing there.
Somehow, Jekyll found the baton back in Storybrooke and restored its powers. The plan is to use Jekyll as bait to distract Hyde so Emma can shoot Hyde with the magic from the baton. The plan goes well until Emma has to use the baton because she stalls and has another vision. When she snaps out of it, the magic comes bursting out of the baton and hits Hyde. He is sent flying and is handcuffed the second he lands on a car parked in front of City Hall. Before he is put in the sheriff's car, Hyde tells Emma he knows what is going on with her and the visions she is seeing.
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After the incident at City Hall, Emma goes to Hyde to see what he knows. “I know about your battle,” Hyde says. “The one in your mind’s eye.” Hyde is reluctant to tell Emma exactly what he knows, so he tells her to follow the red bird in the forest and asks, “Are you ready to follow your own story, Savior?”
While Emma is trying to figure out what is wrong with her, Rumple and Morpheus continue their journey through Belle’s dream. Their path ends at Rumple’s castle from the Enchanted Forest, where he kept Belle captive for quite some time. When he enters, Belle sees him as the Dark One again and not as the man she loves. Rumple has one hour to wake Belle up and he is going to do it by making her fall in love with him again. Rumple is determined to get Belle back and change Belle’s perceptions of when the time she spent in captivity, so he enlists Belle’s help with preparing for a ball. Rumple drops the needle on an old record player and “Beauty and the Beast” starts playing. Rumple transforms Belle’s ratty dress into a beautiful yellow ball gown and they proceed to dance. Even if you’re not a fan of Rumple, you have to admit his moves are pretty smooth.
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In Storybrooke, Regina goes to the mayor’s office for the first time since Robin Hood’s death. Zelena (Rebecca Mader) shows up, which angers Regina. Earlier in the episode, a scene revealed that Regina and Zelena are living together. There are tensions between the two already because Zelena lost a gift from Robin’s son — a feather from one of Robin’s arrows. This just hides the fact Regina blames Zelena for Robin’s death. Zelena is also upset with Regina because she got rid of her evil side, the part that was most like Zelena. The fight leads to irreconcilable differences, and Zelena says she will be moving out of Regina’s home.
The next scene shows Snow and Charming walking through the woods trying to locate people from the Land of Untold Stories. Snow does what she does best — gives a speech — and people start emerging from the depths of the forest. Snow tells them to go to Granny’s, the local diner, if they need help. The camera cuts to Hook and Emma, who have just received word about the people from the new land. A bird flies by and Emma asks Hook to leave so she can look for more people, when in reality she wants to follow the bird as instructed by Hyde. Hook is hesitant to leave but does anyway. Emma runs after the bird which takes her to a girl sitting in the forest. The girl informs Emma the visions tell a story — “The story of your future.”
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In attempt to wake his wife from inside her dreams, Rumple opens up to Belle about the struggles he had before he became the Dark One. He tells Belle he wants to change for her and become a better person. Belle believes every word and they share a kiss. Belle pulls back in confusion and says, “We’ve done this before.” Belle is aware that Rumple is trying to wake her up, which was against her wishes. Belle says she can’t trust him and that’s when Morpheus appears. It turns out Morpheus is actually a future version of Belle and Rumple’s son. Morpheus wanted to hear Belle say she didn’t trust Rumple so he could give Belle true love’s kiss. While in the dream, Morpheus warns Belle not to let Rumple “destroy us like he destroyed his last family.” When they exit the dream world, Rumple and Belle remember everything that happened. Belle is going to stay true to her unborn son’s wishes and stay away from Rumple. Rumple may not make the wisest decisions, but I feel bad for the guy. He deserves a happy ending, but for villains, happy endings are hard to come by.
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In the forest, Emma is talking to the girl, who is an oracle. The oracle tells Emma to look into the bird’s eyes to see what the future has in store for Emma. She sees herself in battle with a hooded figure. When Emma loses her sword, the hooded person stabs her in the abdomen. The oracle tells Emma this fate is inevitable: “You can change the path to the destination, but not the destination itself.” I don’t believe that for one second. Many people on this show have escaped death. And the vision didn’t show her dying — it showed her being stabbed. I refuse to give up hope.
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While Emma is keeping her challenges bottled up, Regina and Snow share their personal struggles. Regina seeks advice from Snow about how to stay strong during tough times. Snow tells her to never give up. Regina says she wants to start a new story, “one where the Evil Queen doesn’t get a part” and a happy ending is delivered to her. When Snow and Regina leave, a feather — one can only assume it’s Robin’s feather — floats down from the sky. Perhaps this is a sign that Regina will finally get her happy ending.
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The season premiere ends with Zelena returning to her own home in the country. When she enters, she hears a voice similar to Regina’s — it’s the Evil Queen. “It’s time for some sisterly bonding,” the Evil Queen says.
“The Savior” only gives a taste of what’s to come in the season. The premiere falls flat in comparison to the season five finale, which was a nail-biting, action-packed episode. Hopefully the show will get better as new characters are introduced.
Rating: 2.5/5
