ABC’s "Once Upon A Time" aired its fifth season on September 27, 2015. At the beginning of season five, the show received almost six million views, but fell short for viewers, dipping to approximately four million views by the last episode airing on May 15.
This is probably because of the incorporation of mythology within the story as season five dealt with more realms than just Storybrooke. The cast ventured their way through Camelot and The Underworld, fighting with more villains than in previous seasons. I thought that this, at first, hurt the show because Camelot and the Underworld are not your typical “fairytale” storylines like in previous seasons, including more popular princes and princesses. However, the show did a very nice job of sticking with the main characters, despite the intertwining of stories of King Arthur, Merlin and Hades. I found that no matter what realm they were all in, Emma and Hook remained in love, Regina dealt with being a part of the heroes and Rumplestiltskin still managed to stir up some trouble. We never lost sight of Emma and her family, which is why I found this season to be somewhat successful.
We did see Emma Swan as the Dark One, and it was very hard to get used to. The first episode of the season made me think there was still hope the darkness wouldn’t completely take over Emma. However, eventually it did, which left me super upset. I didn’t know how to feel now that things had completely changed. I wasn’t too fond of her in Camelot when she broke her own son's heart. After that scam of hers, Swan became a character I had wanted to return back to her red leather-jacketed self. But I kept watching because after four seasons of becoming attached to a fictional character, I cared about Emma's well being. I had high hopes she would never turn full dark throughout any of the show. But finally my stress was relieved when her family figured out a way to get the Savior Emma back — even if it was with the unknown help of Rumple looking to save Belle. I was extremely happy that they had saved her because now I wasn’t biting all my fingernails off.
But like past seasons, with good situations always comes a price to pay. Rumple became the Dark One (again) and handed over Storybrooke to Mr. Hyde. This, I was very fond of. Rumple having his dark magic back added a little familiarity to what I was used to from past seasons. However, with him really screwing over Storybook this time made me question the direction of season six. We also don’t even know if Rumple woke up Belle from the sleeping curse she put on herself, and now it’s all very stressful again. This season’s ending put me at a higher stress level than past ones, which means I will definitely be tuning in for the next season's premiere.
The inclusion of the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was very well done because of its subtle introduction to a new story with new fairytale characters. Considering that the show has already introduced several other popular storylines, it was time for completely new characters. I thought that the subtle hint at the story of Jekyll and Hyde was a great representation of Regina and the Evil Queen inside of her. Though I am not too familiar with the story of Jekyll and Hyde, after serious investigation and cramming of summaries, it soon made sense and reminded me of Regina’s situation.
Throughout the season, I was not quite sure how it would end and where we would be thrown off. With Hyde now in control over Storybrooke, it will be interesting to see how the heroes can wiggle themselves out of this one. This season caused me the most stress of them all, but I'm excited to see where it goes.
I thought there was a great transition at the end and a great inclusion of multiple realms. I would have liked to see shorter time periods in Camelot and the Underworld, but I thought Emma’s transition from good to bad and then bad to good was fun to watch. Overall, I give this season a 7/10.
