OUAT: Ready, (Re)set, Go?

Once Upon a Time’s Season 6 is coming to a close and so far it has been the only season that wasn’t divided into a part A in the fall and a part B in the spring. In recent interviews with Entertainment Weekly and TV Line,  the writers talked about a possible “reset” should there be a season 7 this upcoming fall.

There are many ways to look at what we’ve been seeing: reality, a dream, an alternate universe, or a story being narrated altogether. After all, the writers were also part of the team that wrote Lost, which was heavy on symbolism in itself. Recall where the island was actually located and what it represented in the end. Looking back on the previous five seasons of Once, here are some possible entry points (plot holes) for a reset in a not-so consistent timeline.

Before the Underworld

Remember when Emma was Dark One and Hook was Dark Two? After Hook’s (first) death in season five, we see Emma wake up in her house and she is in mourning. Back in her Emma Swan look, sans the gothic Dark One get-up, she started hearing voices. Confiding in Rumple she said, “I hear whispering, it’s the dagger, it’s calling to me.” Rumple in turn showed her the dagger with his name on it and they both agreed he’s once again the Dark One. Emma then embarked on a mission to save Hook from The Underworld.

And so The Dark Swan arc ends there and Underworld begins, but there have been times when the dagger was fake.

What if Emma dreamt the whole thing? Or what if we’re in a version of her reality where she gets to save Hook from death and the Underworld?

Prediction Possibility: Maybe (a little reaching)

After the Sacrifice

When Emma sacrificed herself in place of Regina, in the season 4 finale, after coming back from the alternate Enchanted Forest, we see her engulfed by the darkness. Fast forward to season 5 and Camelot (I, too, forgot that timeline ever happened) and we see everything fast-forwarded 6 weeks and then back again. What if the real Emma that was whisked away is still to this day hidden in the darkness and Dark One Emma is who we are seeing now?
Prediction Possibility: Maybe

Welcome to NY

When Hook searched for Emma in New York, he gave her a potion to remember her arrival in Storybrooke. What if that potion held something else, like a hidden wish (reaching again?) and we’re seeing everything through the lens of that wish by whoever cast that remembrance potion? So what if Emma never drank that potion?
Prediction Possibility: Likely

Going Home

Before Regina casts the curse that transports everyone back to the Enchanted Forest, and before she sent Emma and Henry to New York, she faints. When she wakes, to Emma’s shock, Regina says she must give up the thing she loves most (aka Henry right?). What if we go back to the time before returning to Enchanted Forest? Before Regina casts the curse? Are we in Regina’s vision?
Prediction Possibility: Quite Likely

The beginning

There’s possibly two beginnings: a) either it’s before Snow and Charming decide to hide Emma in the magic wardrobe as an infant and before the dark curse was cast or b) the beginning from the audience’s perspective: The Pilot.

We’ve already seen in the mid-season finale last December (6×10 “Wish You Were Here”) what would have happened if Emma was never given away by her parents.

So now, what if we go to the audience’s version of the beginning, when Emma and Henry meet? (Because of this released finale photo). There’s also the car accident when Emma’s bug hit the town sign and the story book starts flipping pages, starting the story. Are we in a book? Whose book? Can the beginning of season 7 be a start of another book with a different plot?
Prediction Possibility: Most likely

What do you guys think? Are we in a dream, a book, the book an alternate reality, someone’s wish, someone’s curse, or a cautionary tale? Questioning realities is important, guys! Nothing is as it seems. It is still after all a fairy tale show…I sometimes forget that too.

Once Upon a Time airs Sundays on ABC 8/7c

Images Courtesy: ABC