Once Upon a Time Season 5 Episode 12 “Souls of the Departed” Review
Once Upon a Time is back with its 100th episode, entitled “Souls of the Departed”. We take a turn away from the King Arthur and Camelot story as it has come to a head and has been more about Emma, and then Hook, becoming the Dark One. But now it is off to the Underworld for our heroes, to save the soul of one who has sacrificed himself for the good of everyone, and died too soon…
There are two stories taking place in this episode, but they have a lot to do with each other. They mostly circle around Regina’s father, Henry. So the story will be told in two parts, first in the world of present-day, and then the one in the Enchanted Forest.
After we discover that Hook made his sacrifice in vein, thanks to Mr. Gold, Emma and the gang decide to travel down to the Underworld to regain their fallen comrade. But there are a couple obstacles in the way. First, they need to find Hook, and second, they need to avoid anyone and everyone they sent down to the Underworld in the first place. For example, Mary Margaret runs into David’s twin brother James, and Rumpelstiltskin runs into his father, Peter Pan. Regina faces her worst fear as her mother threatens her father’s life if she does not return to Storybrooke as soon as possible. However, because they are in the Underworld, Cora cannot exactly kill Henry; she will just send him to a worse place where he will be constantly tortured. Seeing his daughter on the side of good and that she let go her want of vengeance against Snow White, Henry lets go of his unfinished business, and ascends to a “better place”. Learning that souls can be saved and sent to a better afterlife, Emma, Regina and the rest of the group, apart from Gold, decide that finding Hook is their first priority. But their second priority is going to be freeing all of the condemned souls, even those who have hurt each and every one of the heroes in the past. We are introduced to a new face in this episode; one that is ruling the Underworld. It is not revealed who he is, but the blue hair and quirky attitude leans towards the Disney rendition of the Greek god Hades. But we shall see.
In the Enchanted Forest it is Regina’s birthday, several years ago, and she is about to receive the one thing she has always wanted, Snow White’s heart. Hoping that she could help Regina get away from the want of revenge, her father Henry retrieves Cora from Neverland using the magic mirror. Cora, tired of waiting, retrieves Snow White’s heart and delivers it to Regina. But wait, did her father betray her? When Henry returns the heart to Snow White and Regina sees it through the mirror, she is enraged. She shrinks her father down and puts him in a box. When Regina sends her mother back to Wonderland, Cora grabs the box and drags Henry with her. Sadly the portals are closed and there is no way to get Henry back. But wait, chronologically this is before she unleashes the Dark Curse, and Regina needs her father’s heart to do so, so perhaps we shall see how she gets her father back from her mother.
An interesting thing about this episode was that it was a bit of a twist. With the title and the promo, we were lead to believe that it was going to be an Emma – Hook episode, but apart from the reason for going down to the Underworld, we only see Hook at the graveyard, and Emma seems to just be tagging along for the ride. We are introduced once again to David’s brother, James, and Rumpelstiltskin’s father Peter Pan, but the story does not go much farther with these characters. This is all foreshadowing for later in the season. The real story is with Regina and her mother Cora. This was a great red herring, and it led to an even better surprise.
Even though it was a bit cheesy, the scene where Henry finally meets his namesake grandfather as Regina's father ascends into the better place, it was one of those feel good moments. For the entire show we have seen old Henry in the supportive role with his daughter as the Evil Queen, but really he has been trying to sway her away from the role of vengeance, and into the light. When he finally sees her as a hero, he knows he can be at peace. This gives the character, and Regina, a bit of closure and ends a great story. We know that everything Henry has done for his daughter has been for her own good and for the good of her future.
Even though the idea of going to the Underworld was great, the layout was merely Storybrooke lighted with an orange hue. This showed somewhat a lack of imagination on the writers' parts, but it worked in the sense of giving us something to relate to. Sadly, even though it is mentioned several times in the episode that it’s the exact same, it does give us a frame of mind to work with, and the characters have an easier time getting around.
When they first arrived in the Underworld, Rumpelstiltskin mentioned that everyone they were likely to meet in the Underworld had been put there because of our heroes. And yet, we run into the blind witch, Prince James, and Peter Pan; none of which attempt to harm our heroes. We get a mention of Cruella DeVille, but our heroes seem to be able to walk around without a problem. A way of improving this issue could have been them having to hide or flee from one villain or another during their pursuit of Hook.
It is interesting that they speak of the Underworld, but then they talk of a “better place” and a “worse place”. They do not speak of Heaven or Hell, but they touch on the imagery and symbolism of both. Also, if Hades is just in the Underworld, then who is in charge of both of these other places? And what is going to happen to our heroes as they attempt to save other souls? Perhaps we shall see more about this in the next few episodes.
Now that we have dealt with Regina’s situation with her mother, it is to be expected that each character will have a demon or two to face in this land. Rumple will have to deal with his father at some point, David will have to deal with his brother, and in turn Mary Margaret will do the same. It is unclear what kinds of demons Henry or Emma will face, but it is certainly going to be an interesting couple of episodes.
It is expected that we will spend some time in the Underworld. We know our heroes are going to search for Hook, but it seems they have taken on a new crusade; saving the souls of the people trapped here. Rumple’s protests did not go unheard by the audience, most of the souls they want to save are not their “dearly departed” but some of the worst people our heroes have dealt with. It is not going to be easy helping them overcome their “unfinished business”, and are some of them even going to want to be saved, especially by our heroes?
We will see more of the Hades character in the future, as he is beginning to notice that souls are being lost to the “better place”, and he does not like to lose things. So it will be interesting to see what happens as Emma and her friends begin to save the souls of other people living here. Perhaps this will be the demon that Emma is going to have to face; she is the Savior once again.
It is predicted that they will find Hook, but because of that they saw of him in this episode, it is doubtful that saving him will be easy. When we saw him at the grave, it appeared that he was being tortured in the “worse place” and so perhaps one of our heroes, and you can guess who, is going to have to go to that place to retrieve Hook.
These are just some predictions, but I am interested to hear what you think will happen in the episodes to come. Please leave a comment or send us a message with your thoughts. While we watch the next few episodes I will be working on the season reviews for Once Upon a Time seasons 1 through 4, and then a final season review for season 5 when it has finished. So you will have plenty of Once Upon a Time discussion to read.
