Once Upon a Loose End

I've been a fan of Once Upon a Time since about episode four of season one. I love all the little nods to Disney movies and I think they've done a clever job of telling these fairytales in a fresh way. That being said, I will be the first to admit that the writers often bite off more than they can chew and end up with some loose ends. So today I'm going to address ten loose ends that I'd like resolved (my list goes longer than ten, but we'll start here).

1.    Maleficent and Briar Rose: Season 4B resurrected Maleficent and we got to see her reunite with her long lost daughter and we got to see in flashback how she and Regina became friends. However, I'm still questioning why she cursed Briar Rose (Aurora's mother) in the first place. Is it because she wasn't invited to a party? Or is there some deeper reason? I'd like to know why and with Maleficent still in Storybrooke, I'm hoping that we'll find out at some point.

2.    Will Scarlet in Storybrooke: Season 4 made Will Scarlet (aka the Knave of Hearts) from the Wonderland spin-off a main character. They promised to explain why he was there after his happy ending with Anastasia in the finale of the spin-off and yet all I got from him being in Storybrooke was him being a petty thief, a drunk, a replace to for Little John, and a rebound boyfriend for Belle. I was sorely disappointed with his use (or lack thereof) since I loved his character in Wonderland. He's so clever and witty and they missed out on properly using him. What happened to Anastasia? How did Will get back to Storybrooke? I'd like to know.

3.    Tinkerbell in Neverland: In Season 3A we saw Tinkerbell helping Regina in the Enchanted Forest and then we have a gap in her timeline until she encounters Hook in Neverland in the mid-season finale flashback. How did she get to Neverland? What did she do for Pan? We didn't really get much there other than a bunch of vague implications. Unfortunately, the actress who plays Tink is busy, so we won't likely get to that one any time soon.

4.    Ursula, sea witch or teen drama queen: Season 4B gave us Ursula the Sea Witch, who was apparently evil enough to match wits with Maleficent and Cruella. However, all we really saw of her past as a villain before becoming one of the Queens of Darkness was being rebellious and running away from home. Does turning herself into a squid and running away from her helicopter parent of a father really qualify her to be considered "evil"? I'm sure there's more to it, but I'd like to see why exactly we were supposed to fear her.

5.    The Red King forgotten: So it's from the spin-off, but I'd like to see what happened to the Red King. Last we saw of him, he was marrying Anastasia (who had just agreed to learn magic from Cora, the Queen of Hearts). There were implications that something would happen to him, but the next thing to happen with Anastasia chronologically was that she was working with Jafar to capture Cyrus. Did Anastasia do him in? Did Cora crush his heart?

6.    Cruella DeVil in the Enchanted Forest: I have several questions about Cruella. First off, how did she get to the Enchanted Forest? Somehow between killing her mother (and her dogs) and forming the Queens of Darkness, she got from 1920s England to the Enchanted Forest. My best guess is that Rumplestiltskin sent Jefferson to retrieve her shortly before the flashbacks in the Season 4B mid-season premiere.

7.    Cruella the Grieved Villain: In the Season 4A mid-season finale, we see that the Queens of Darkness are sick of losing. I've already addressed that we know next to nothing about Ursula's past, but what about Cruella? Last we saw of her before meeting her new girlfriends, she was pretty victorious, having manipulated Isaac into giving her magic and subsequently killing her mother. Was losing her ability to kill really that big of a deal to her that she'd consider herself among the villains who were sick of losing to heroes? I get that she's crazy, but she's clever enough to manipulate people into doing the killing for her. Was that really not satisfying enough for her or did something else happen to get her to that place?

8.    Queen of Hearts and her Ex: At some point before Regina manipulated Jefferson into taking her to Wonderland to rescue her father, Cora captured Henry and held him hostage. We know she wasn't in love with him, so the purpose of that capture is kind of ambiguous (Regina claimed the Queen of Hearts saw her as a threat, but Regina was a compulsive liar, so I'll take that with a grain of salt). Why did Cora kidnap Henry? Under what circumstances? Was she trying to keep him hostage in order to use him as leverage to get back to the Enchanted Forest?

9.    The Lady of the Lake: Towards the end of Season 5A, we saw Lancelot leave Camelot to seek help from his mother, the Lady of the Lake. Presumably this meant he, like the people of DunBroch, were not caught up in the curse. That being said, I'd be really disappointed if it was simply a throwaway line to get Lancelot away from the curse. It just seems like it'd be a waste.

10.  King Arthur of Camelot: In Season 5A we saw Arthur and his kingdom of Camelot brought to Storybrooke by Hook's curse. Arthur gave our heroes some trouble, but last we saw of him, he was locked up in jail. The writers have said (if I remember correctly) that we'll see more of them and that we'll get Camelot resolved more later. However, they also promised that with Will Scarlet, so we'll see. Just seems like a waste in a way to have brought them to Storybrooke. That being said, that's kind of how I feel about Season 5A in general. We seem to be right back where we started before Emma became the Dark One. But that's a rant for another time.

Like I said, I'm sure there are more loose ends that I could come up with, but those are the first ten that come to mind. I'm probably awfully pessimistic in that I don't expect them to tie these all up. However, they'd all require the right opportunity and the right circumstances to resolve and based on what these writers did with Lost, it's not likely they'll tie everything up (and I was actually fine with how Lost ended). Still, I can hope that they'll address some of these at least. I think the writers think they can do more than they can (like biting off more than they could chew with the Queens of Darkness), but hopefully they can keep the show alive long enough to give us a good conclusion to the story.