I’ve now come to the last few episodes of Once Upon a Time’s first season. As with the rest of the series to date, they’re a mixed bag, but the good tends to outweigh the bad.

“The Stable Boy”:

As we near the end of the first season, we finally learn a key piece of the backstory to Once Upon a Time: the source of Regina’s enmity towards Snow White.

It all happened when Snow White was a little girl. Regina entrusted her with the secret of her affair with a stable boy, but Regina’s mother, a cruel dark sorceress, was able to pry the truth from Snow, with terrible consequences.

Meanwhile, in Storybrook, Emma continues to try to exonerate Mary Margaret and continues to fail miserably, and August continues to be all mysterious and vaguely creepy.

I found this episode slightly unsatisfying, though I’m not sure why. It hits a good balance of giving Regina a good reason to be angry without compromising Snow’s identity as a person of pure heart.

I guess after all the build-up around Regina and Snow’s rivalry, there was no way the truth would live up to the hype. That’s the danger in delaying these things too long.

The ending is a bit interesting, but it also threatens to resolve the Mary Margaret situation through a deus ex machina, which isn’t the best solution.

Overall rating: 6.7/10

“The Return”:

At last, we get some attention toward Storybrook’s mysterious newcomer, August. It’s overdue.

All indications are that he is in fact Rumpelstiltskin’s son, who came to our world long before the curse. However, the truth may be more complicated.

This is a hard episode to rate. On the one hand, lots of Robert Carlyle, and we finally understand why Rumpelstiltskin forged the curse in the first place. I also like the twist that August isn’t his son after all, because that was feeling a little too obvious.

However, I’m also disappointed that we still haven’t figure out who August actually is. It’s starting to feel a bit like being strung along. Clearly he’s from the fantasy world, or at least somehow gained knowledge of it. The fact he’s immune to the curse seems important.

Overall rating: 7.8/10

“The Stranger”:

Here’s another of one of those times when I have really conflicted feelings on Once Upon a Time.

I didn’t have to deal with my disappoint over the continued mystery of August’s identity for long. He was Pinocchio, and like Emma, he managed to escape the curse before it consumed the land. Now, the curse has disrupted his own magic (or something like that), and he’s turning back into wood.

His only hope is to convince Emma to embrace her destiny… but this is Emma we’re talking about.

Meanwhile, Regina once again tries to get to Snow/Mary Margaret, this time through David/Charming.

There’s a lot to like about this episode. It answers a lot of questions, and it’s one of the times where Once Upon a Time manages to be quite emotional without laying it on too thick. Pinocchio’s story is very touching, a tale of flawed people trying to do their best and not always succeeding.

They managed to erase about ten episodes worth of dislike for August/Pinocchio and actually make me like him, which is no mean feat. I also really enjoyed Tony Amendola’s performance as Geppetto; dude’s got some acting chops.

But there are two blemishes on this otherwise fine episode.

The first, as usual, is Emma. Her continued and utter denial of all evidence of her fantastical origins is getting downright torturous. Maybe it is realistic — I don’t even care at this point. The fact is we as viewers have known she’s wrong for a very long time, and we know she’s going to find out at some point. Stop stringing us along and get to the point already.

The other is David once again proving himself to be an utter and complete schmuck. I guess I know where Emma gets it from.

Overall rating: 7.9/10 The good outweighs the bad.

“An Apple Red as Blood”:

We’re now in the final two episodes of the first season, and these are both episodes that I’d seen before.

As one would expect, events are coming to a head. In the fantasy world, Snow White calls upon all her allies — the Seven Dwarfs, Red, Granny, and the Blue Fairy — to launch a daring strike to rescue Prince Charming… only to find Regina once again one step ahead. This allows Regina to carry out her ultimate revenge on Snow.

In Storybrook, Regina is growing increasingly desperate to find a solution to the Emma situation. She forms a plan with Jefferson the Mad Hatter to use her last scrap of magic to defeat Emma once and for all, taking her past plan to deal with Snow White as inspiration.

I think I actually liked this episode better when I didn’t have the context for everything, though it’s still pretty good.

The main problem is that — now that I know the full story — Regina’s desperate fear of Emma seems oddly baseless. She’s defeated Emma at every turn, to the point where Emma is pretty much giving up at this point, and it’s now painfully clear Emma wouldn’t believe in the curse or try to fight it if it clubbed her over the head.

That niggle aside, “An Apple Red as Blood” is pretty solid. The fantasy side of the story is swashbuckling fun, and the Storybrook side sets the stage for the finale quite well. Emma has finally been forced to confront the curse — she wouldn’t believe if it clubbed her over the head, but now that it’s clubbed Henry over the head, she has no choice.

Overall rating: 7.8/10

“A Land Without Magic” (season finale):

And so we come to the end of the first season of Once Upon a Time. It’s been a somewhat mixed ride, but it ends on a mostly strong note.

Henry has fallen into a deathly coma, forcing Emma and Regina to work together just as they hate each other more than ever.

Rumpelstiltskin, of course, has the answer. He secreted away a bottle of potent magic that can save Henry.

In a dragon.

So that’s fun.

But Rumpelstiltskin has an ulterior motive, as always, and it will change Storybrook irrevocably.

This is a very good ending to the first season. It resolves the issue of the curse, at least partially, while providing a cliffhanger that promises new challenges down the line. I did really enjoy seeing the characters reawaken to their true selves. And we got lots of Rumpelstiltskin, so that’s always good.

It is now clear that everything since before the casting of the curse has been part of some elaborate scheme of Rumpelstiltskin’s, but his purpose remains unclear. He wanted to create the curse so it could be broken? Seems a little convoluted. I’d say it was a scheme to get Belle back, but he seemed genuinely surprised to learn she was still alive — which was another good scene.

I guess it will all be explained at some point.

Something else I greatly appreciated was Regina’s performance in this episode. Her grief over what happened to Henry was quite moving, and it was great to once again see her human side. When I first saw this episode, that level of nuance to Regina’s character was one of the things that got me interested in Once Upon a Time.

My only major complaint, once again, comes from Emma, and I remember ranting about it back when I first saw the show — I think it may have been the origin for my low opinion of her.

If you are fighting a dragon, and your choices of weapons are a legendary sword from an enchanted kingdom and an ordinary pistol, why would you choose the pistol?

On the plus side, that foolishness aside, Emma actually puts on a rare good performance in this episode. Her rage toward Regina is quite a thing to see.

Overall rating: 8/10

Moving right along with my Once Upon a Time binge watch. This remains a very inconsistent show, but… I’m still watching.

“What Happened to Frederick:”

You recall how I said the “will they/won’t they” saga of David and Mary Margaret was equivalent to a story masturbating?

I think they’re risking friction burn at this point.

Not much else to say beyond that. I am finding myself rather confused by David’s character. In the fantasy world, he’s awesome, but in Storybrook, he’s such a slimy, spineless wimp I just want to shove him down a flight of stairs. I’m not sure whether to interpret this as effects of the curse, poor writing, or what, but David is nothing like Prince Charming, despite ostensibly being the same person.

Thankfully, this episode isn’t totally without its saving graces. Mainly, the fantasy storyline is pretty entertaining. It features Charming doing battle with a siren in order to save the true love of Abigail, his arranged fiance and his Storybrook wife. It shows Charming at his most selfless and heroic, a stark contrast to the scumbag he is in Storybrook.

Overall rating: 6.1/10

“Dreamy”:

Grumpy is one of my favourite characters on this show, so it gives me great pleasure to say the spotlight is on him in this episode.

In the fantasy realm, we discover that he wasn’t always Grumpy. He was once called Dreamy, and true to his name, he dreamed of a life beyond toil in the mines, a life spent with a fairy who had captured his heart. But this isn’t one of those fairytales with a happy ending.

On the Storybrook side, Mary Margaret tries to sell candles to support the local convent, but her reputation as a tramp is making everyone avoid her like the plague. A chance meeting with a nun — who was the fairy back in the land of magic — inspires Leroy/Grumpy to help Mary Margaret, despite his being the only other person in town as unpopular as her.

Meanwhile, Emma investigates the disappearance of David’s wife. There’s some suspicion around David himself, but I’d be shocked if all the evidence doesn’t turn out to have been fabricated by Regina. She’s probably behind the disappearance, too.

A large majority of what makes this episode so strong is just how awesome Grumpy/Leroy is. He’s this perfect blend of gruffness, gravitas, humour, and heartfelt emotion. He’s one of the most well-rounded characters of the series, and the actor does a fantastic job.

On the other hand, Nova/Astrid was a weak point. Her constant buffoonery and ditziness quickly stopped being endearing. It’s not easy for a woman that beautiful to be irritating, but she managed.

The events that drove Nova and Dreamy apart were a bit weak, too. I would have liked to have seen them come up with something better than the fairy godmother saying “You’re not right for each other” and Dreamy just giving up. I even buy the idea that a Dwarf and a Fairy just couldn’t work,* but it could have done with a bit more showing and a bit less telling.

*(What an odd thing to say.)

But Grumpy is awesome, and there’s a good emotional heft to the episode. I’ve got a soft spot for unrequited love stories, and this one was mostly well done, especially on the Storybrook side.

Overall rating: 7.9/10

“Red-Handed”:

Here’s a small milestone: This is the first episode I’d seen before. If memory serves, it was the first episode of Once Upon a Time I saw, and that’s probably a good thing, because it’s a very strong episode.

The focus this time is on Ruby, whose true identity is Red Riding Hood.

In the fantasy realm, she chafes under the over-protection of Granny as the town is terrorized by a terrible wolf. She longs to run away with her lover, Peter.

A chance meeting gains her a friend in Snow White — under the alias of Mary Margaret — and Red convinces her to help find and slay the wolf. They soon discover this is no ordinary wolf, but a shapeshifter, and all evidence points to Peter as the culprit. The ladies hatch a scheme to protect the townsfolk from Peter, and Peter from the townsfolk.

But their theory proves terribly, tragically wrong. Peter isn’t the wolf. Red is.

In Storybrook, Ruby is similarly restless, and she quits her job as a waitress at Granny’s Diner. She ends up working for Emma, and when David disappears in the forest, apparently losing touch with reality, Ruby proves instrumental in tracking him down, her enhanced senses as a werewolf having transferred to the real world.

Red is another character I’m very fond of, and it was nice to see her get her moment in the sun. She’s a character with more depth than it seems at first glance, and like many Once Upon a Time characters, she has a very pure heart.

Granny is awesome, too. Fiction has a lot of badass old men, but it’s not so often you find a badass old woman.

I’m also impressed by how dark this episode gets. Having Red kill and eat her beloved through a tragic misunderstanding is pretty damn shocking, especially for a show that’s usually so sugar sweet.

Similarly, the Storybrook side of things goes to some pretty dark places. A box with a human heart in it? A box covered in Mary Margaret’s fingerprints? That’s fairly shocking.

Now, I don’t doubt she’s innocent, but that’s a pretty good predicament to stick the characters in.

In a show that is often hit and miss, “Red-Handed” is most definitely a hit.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

“Heart of Darkness”:

Things aren’t looking very good for Mary Margaret. The evidence just keeps piling up to indicate that she murdered David’s wife. We as viewers know she must be innocent, but Emma and her other friends will have an uphill battle to prove it.

The only source of hope is Mr. Gold, who inexplicably offers to serve as her legal defense. But his aid is always a double-edged sword at best.

On the fantasy side of things, Snow goes on a brutal quest for vengeance against the queen, having forgotten Charming through Rumpelstiltskin’s magic.

The continued trials of Snow and Charming is starting to feel a bit repetitive — I wish they’d just get together already — but at least it’s still a lot more interesting than their Storybrook plot. This version has magic and swords, after all.

This was overall an interesting episode, with good tension and some decent emotional beats, but it didn’t really do much to advance the story. Mary Margaret was in trouble before; now she’s just in slightly more trouble. Feels like just set-up for the future.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

“Hat Trick”:

Here we have an odd little tangent of an episode.

While pursuing the escaped Mary Margaret, Emma is kidnapped by a deranged fellow named Jefferson. He turns out to be one of the few people in Storybrook who remembers their past self. He was the Mad Hatter, though his story is a bit different in this version of things. He was a devoted father driven mad by being separated from his daughter.

His existence in Storybrook keeps him forever apart from his beloved daughter, and he is desperate to find an escape. He believes Emma can open the way for him, what with the whole “Chosen One” thing and all.

Jefferson himself was entertaining enough, and it was a decent twist on the traditional Mad Hatter story. But it was an episode focused almost entirely on Emma, and that’s never a good thing.

At this point, Emma’s utter rejection of Storybrook’s true nature is just making her come across as exceedingly dense. I get it’s outlandish and all, but the evidence just keeps piling on.

The ending seems to hint she’s finally getting suspicious, but we’ll see. I’ve been disappointed before.

Foolishness may also run in the family, as I don’t understand what Mary Margaret hoped to accomplish by breaking out of jail. I understand no one wants to be tried for murder, but what was running aimlessly through the woods with no help and no plan going to do, exactly?

Overall rating: 6/10