The Final Battle (Once Upon a Time)
| "The Final Battle" | |
|---|---|
| Once Upon a Time episodes | |
| Episode nos. | Season 6 Episodes 21/22 |
| Directed by |
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| Written by | Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz |
| Production code | 621/622 |
| Original air date | May 14, 2017 |
| Guest appearances | |
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"The Final Battle" is the twenty-first and twenty-second episode, and the two hour sixth season finale of the American fantasy drama series Once Upon a Time, which aired on May 14, 2017.
Plot
 | This episode's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. (May 2017) |
Opening sequence
The giant beanstalk springs from the ground in the forest. (Part 1)
The Seattle Monorail is seen in the forest. (Part 2)
Event Chronology
The Storybrooke events take place after the current events of "The Song in Your Heart," while the current events in the Enchanted Forest occur after "Mother's Little Helper".
The future events depicted in both Part 1 and Part 2 occur after the current events taking place in Storybrooke and the Enchanted Forest, with the future events in the Enchanted Forest depicted in Part 1 occurring some time before the future events in Seattle depicted in Part 2.
Part 1
In The Enchanted Forest (During the future)
"Enchanted Forest: A time of great upheaval..."
In the woods, a man is seen running away from a beast. He reaches a cabin and sends his daughter Lucy away with the "Once Upon A Time" storybook, telling her to keep it safe as he fights off the creature.
In Storybrooke, the Enchanted Forest and other realms during Fiona’s Curse
It has been hours after Fiona enacted her curse on the entire town that engulfed everyone after the wedding. However, Henry, who is spared thanks to being the Author and having the heart of the truest believer, wakes up with the storybook in his hands, and starts searching for his family. After running into Archie, he tells Henry that Emma is at the hospital, where she has been committed to a psychiatric ward for the past two years. While visiting Emma, he learns that with Fiona's curse, Regina's original curse was never broken, and Emma had stopped believing him. He asks her where Snow, Hook and David are, but the new curse now has Emma believing that these events never existed, citing that she has made so much progress and can’t go back, then tells Henry to stop telling her about these stories. Suddenly Fiona (who is now the Mayor and Henry's mother) arrives and takes the book from Henry, but before he leaves he whispers in Emma's ear to tell her to resist as the Final Battle is coming.
At the same time in the Enchanted Forest, Snow, David, Hook and Regina wake up and discover they have returned to the place where the events that lead to the first curse began.They discover it is a prison for them and is tied to the book. Fiona, who is using this to banish Emma's family forever, tells Emma that she must burn the storybook if she wants to be released from the hospital, but Emma refuses. Back in the Enchanted Forest, everyone realizes that the final battle is over Emma's soul and belief. Fiona is trying to get Emma to stop believing so the realm of stories will be consumed by darkness. When Zelena shows up with the Mad Hatter hat, they transport to a portal of doors, where Zelena's realm has disappeared. By succeeding, Fiona can make Emma destroy all the realms, prompting them to come up with a plan to save Emma. At the same time in Storybrooke, Fiona brings lunch to Gold and asks that he fix her watch, as it appears that she is now the primary support in the wake of Belle's "disappearance."
It appears that Emma is starting to lose her faith, as the realms start to disappear, and it's forcing everyone to take shelter in the castle, even bringing Aladdin and Jasmine after Agrabah disappeared. Outside, Hook and David climb a beanstalk in hopes of finding a magic bean that will get everyone back to Storybrooke. At the same time, Henry breaks Emma out of the hospital and takes his mother to the rooftop in hopes that she will remember her wedding to Killian. She has glimpses of her memories, but Emma has doubts and tells Henry she wants to return to Boston for fear that Fiona will put her back in the psychiatric ward. Henry decides to help her. Meanwhile, Gideon is extremely upset with Belle deserting him and now sees Fiona as more of a mother than Belle, and even Gold's attempts to console his son don't help either.
Back In the Enchanted Forest, Regina and Zelena try to work on a potion but most of her ingredients are gone, when The Evil Queen arrives and offers to help. In Storybrooke hours later, Henry attempts to steal the storybook back from Fiona but she catches him, and believes that she can use him to control Emma. But as Henry escapes, Fiona pushes him down the stairs before he takes off.
Moments later, Gold asks Fiona to reopen the investigation into Belle’s disappearance. As Fiona tries to talk him out of it, she shows him pictures of Belle enjoying life in other countries, and wants Gold to move on from Belle. Back in the Enchanted Forest, Hook and David began their search for the magic beans and Hook finds one, only to encounter a dragon. The creature chases them down the stalk after they take the bean. At the hospital, Henry wakes up and discovers that Fiona is manipulating Emma during their visit. Afterwards, Fiona finally succeeds in convincing Emma to burn the storybook in the furnace as Fiona tells Emma it's the only way to keep Henry safe and to end the delusions. Thanks to Fiona's scheme, all of the realms depicted in the book are consumed by darkness which leads up to the beginning of the second episode, where the young girl returns to her home and discovers everything destroyed until Tiger Lily shows up and tells her to take the book to her mother.
Part 2
Back in Storybrooke, Fiona, convinced that she has succeeded, brings what was left of the book to Henry and gloats that Emma has lost her faith. Emma leaves Storybrooke to return to Boston. When she arrives home she discovers that Henry left her a hand-drawn storybook in order to make her remember their past. Meanwhile, as the realms are starting to collapse, David and Hook continue to escape the dragon but while climbing down the beanstalk they lose their balance and fall. Regina and the Evil Queen discover that they don’t have enough magic left in them to connect with Emma to help her remember. When Snow finds an unconscious David, she kisses him and as it wakes him he tells her that darkness never wins.
In Storybrooke, Henry goes to the pawnshop and meets with Gold who attempts to feign ignorance of the curse. But Henry goes to the back and uncovers Gold's potions, proving that Gold remembers his past. Gold acknowledges Henry's cleverness, but also refuses to help Henry as his primary concern is finding and waking Belle. Henry decides that he should take on Fiona himself, and he takes David and Emma's sword from the shop. Back in the Enchanted Forest, the Evil Queen uses the last of her magic to protect the castle while everyone else joins together in the courtyard. They soon discover that Henry is their only hope and when he arrives at the Mayor's office, Emma arrives out of nowhere. She tells Henry that while she doesn't remember being who Henry tells her she is, she does believe that she can be that person with his help. Her renewed belief stops the destruction of the Enchanted Forest just in time to save the others. At the same time, Gold uses a spell tracker on "Her Handsome Hero" to find Belle, who was hiding from Fiona and she tells him about Fiona's deception. Fiona stops by the shop to see Gideon, where it turns out she reclaimed Gideon's heart and is using him to find a wand that she'll use to decipher the mysterious writings that Henry created in the book now that Emma has regained her memory. When Gold confronts Fiona about her plans, she tells her son that once the Final Battle is over the curse will be lifted and that they can be a family again. She also tells Gold that she will have so much power that the laws of magic won't apply and she can bring back the dead. She tells him her plan is to bring back his first born son, Baelfire, for him. Gold refuses to pay the price for what Fiona is doing and he ends up killing his mother with the wand. Before she dies, Fiona tells Gold what she deciphered from Henry's writing. Darkness cannot destroy light since darkness isn't strong enough. However, light can destroy light. She explains she gave Gideon one final command; to kill Emma. As expected, Gideon confronts Emma and is ready to face off against her.
With Fiona's death the Dark Curse is lifted as Belle returns to Gold. Together they set off to search for Gideon's heart. Henry helps Emma escape from Gideon (knocking him out with a fire extinguisher) with Emma placing a protection spell to contain him temporarily. The broken curse also brings Snow, David, Regina, Hook, and Zelena back to Storybrooke to help Emma and Henry. They realize that Fiona has crafted the perfect trap: If Gideon kills Emma, light will be destroyed. And if Emma kills Gideon, she will turn dark and light will still be destroyed. Regina consoles Emma and encourages her to find another way like she always does. Emma attempts to hold off Gideon as Gold finds Gideon's heart. Gold is tempted by an image of Rumplestiltskin to let Gideon kill Emma so he can finally have it all; power and love. Gold resists and chooses to do the right thing and tries to use Gideon's heart to stop him from killing Emma but Fiona's spell is too strong. Emma and Gideon fight with Emma acknowledging her role as the Savior to protect those she loves and spread light and hope no matter what the cost. Realizing what she must do, Emma throws down her sword and Gideon kills her, releasing an enormous shock-wave of light magic. As everyone gathers around Emma's body Henry, using true love's kiss, brings her back to life. Gold and Belle discover to their shock that Gideon is once again a baby. Realizing that this is a new start as a family and possibly a happy ending, Belle tells Gold that this is their happy beginning. Snow then sees the "Once Upon a Time" storybook reappeared. Henry looks at the final page of the storybook that suddenly writes itself with the words "When both good and evil did the right thing, faith was restored and the final battle was won." Snow reminds everyone that the story isn’t over. With the stories and realms restored, the Enchanted Forest, Neverland, Wonderland, Agrabah, Arendelle, the Land of Oz and all the other realms resume their happy beginnings as does everyone in Storybrooke. Emma and Hook patrol as the town Sheriffs, Henry goes to school, Regina returns to her role as Mayor, David farms with young Neil, Zelena spends time with baby Robin, Gold and Belle renew their relationship and raise their son together, Snow White becomes a teacher once again and the Evil Queen is later proposed to by Robin. They all gather together at Granny's to celebrate their lives together.
In the Future
Many "Years Later" in Seattle, Lucy arrives at the man's apartment by train. Lucy tells the man, who is revealed to be an adult Henry, that she is his daughter and that his family needs him.
Production
"The Final Battle" marks the last appearances as regulars of six of the cast: Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas, Jared S. Gilmore, Emilie de Ravin, and Rebecca Mader. The episodes' bookends set up new timelines that will continue in the seventh season. However, Gilmore's character, Henry Mills, will be played by Andrew J. West, who along with newcomer Allison Fernandez became series regulars starting with this episode.
Sean Maguire does not appear in the episode, but is credited, as he lends his voice for a few seconds in a scene with the Evil Queen.
This also marks the series' final Sunday night airing after six seasons, as ABC announced on May 16, 2017 that Once Upon a Time would move to Friday nights starting in the Fall of 2017.[1]
Reception
Ratings
Despite a 25% drop from the fifth season's finale, the episode saw an increase from the previous outing, scoring a 0.9/4 among 18-49s with 2.93 million viewers tuning in.[2]
Reviews
- Christine Laskodi of TV Fantic gave the episode full marks: 5.0 out of 5.0[3]
- Entertainment Weekly gave the episode an A.[4]
- The AV Club gave it a B.[5]
References
- ^ "ABC 2017-18 Fall Schedule: Comedies Shuffle, ‘Marvel’s Inhumans’ to Friday, Sunday Loads Up Unscripted" from Variety (May 16, 2017)
- ^ "TV Ratings Sunday: ‘Once Upon a Time,’ ‘Chicago Justice,’ ‘NCIS: LA’ finales tick up, Miss USA slips" from TV By The Numbers/Zap2It (May 15, 2017)
- ^ "Once Upon a Time Review: The Final Battle " from TV Fanatic (May 14, 2017)
- ^ "Once Upon a Time recap: The Final Battle" from Entertainment Weekly (May 14, 2017)
- ^ "This Once Upon A Time not-finale would have made a great finale" from the AV Club (May 15, 2017)