In terms of the Flashback storyline with Rumple and Alice, it was very good. Dr Faciler did feel a little shoehorned in there but it was ok because we got to see more of his character.
However the pay off in the Hyperion heights storyline of Rumples missing dagger wasn't the best. The story doesn't seem to be moving a long enough.
I very much enjoyed seeing Alice with her powers and I'm glad of rumples decision and filling in the plot point of why Rumple was scaly in "The Eighth Witch".
This episode didn't do much to move things forward in Hyperion Heights, besides Henry's discovery.
The flashbacks very much felt like "Beauty"(episode 4) part 2 which is great because that was brilliant episode.
The preview for next ep looks promising and I want to see Gothel back in action.
I really don't know how they will fit in the storylines of finding out Gothels backstory, Faciliers Backstory and motive, how Facilier and Regina started off, and wrapping up the entire series as a whole in just a few eps.
I have hopes but I feel it will be rushed and it will end with a lot of unanswered questions and storylines.
2 Reviews
"The Guardian" - Flashback Great, Events of H Town not so much
samialchoudhury22 April 2018
Warning: Spoilers
The lukewarm guardian
TheLittleSongbird5 October 2020
Despite loving Regina and Rumpelstiltskin, always high points regardless of how everything else in the episode fared, and liking Alice very much (one of the better characters of this season easily), the last two seasons but especially the last were very problematic. Henry and Jacinda as a couple and Jacinda herself, getting my vote as the show's worst ever character, never did anything for me, and Samdi/Facilier was not much better. Convolution, erratic pacing and trying to do too much were also common problems.
That can all be seen in "The Guardian". Not one of the season's or show's worst episodes but also not one of the best, more one of the difficult to make of episodes. "Hyperion Heights", "A Taste of the Heights" and "Breadcrumbs" being the season's worst and the best being "Beauty", "Is This Henry Mills" and "Leaving Storybrooke". Some great things here but also the usual suspect flaws seen throughout Season 7, even the best episodes weren't exempt from them.
Will start with what works in "The Guardian". The production values are still fine, especially the photography, and the music and memorable main theme likewise. The past/fairytale flashbacks sections fare much better than any of those happening in the present in Hyperion Heights, they weren't perfect but the tension and emotion were there (which was not the case with the present day scenes). It did help that it did focus primarily on Alice and Rumpelstiltskin, Alice being a likeable character and one of the season's bright spots and Rumpelstiltskin being one of the main reasons as to why 'Once Upon a Time' was still stuck with when it declined.
Both are interesting characters and bring degrees of freshness in an episode and season overall that lacked that in general. Regina's role was also effective, as was the sincere chemistry between her and Rumpelstiltskin. Rumpelstiltskin's jab at her regarding Samdi was one of his best lines in a while. At least Facilier's character and story advance here and his motives made clearer. Have nothing to fault the performances of Lana Parrilla, Rose Reynolds and Robert Carlyle, the best performance coming from Carlyle.
A lot lets "The Guardian" down though and almost all the flaws are again general problems with the season. There is too much going on in the Hyperion Heights scenes, too much of the episode feels rushed through from cramming too much in and jumpy with not much developed. Meaning that the present day storytelling felt convoluted and actually outside of two or three revelations/major events in terms of turning points and such there is not much here. So there is a tediousness at times as well.
Henry and Jacinda's subplot is focused on too much and it is as soap-operatic and painfully derivative of existing romantic plot lines as they come. Also serving little point compared to everything else going on and would have fared better belonging in another episode on its own, but preferably more compellingly, with more subtlety and with characters that aren't one-dimensional or get on your nerves. The dialogue mostly lacks nuance.
Overall, not bad but left me lukewarm. 5/10
That can all be seen in "The Guardian". Not one of the season's or show's worst episodes but also not one of the best, more one of the difficult to make of episodes. "Hyperion Heights", "A Taste of the Heights" and "Breadcrumbs" being the season's worst and the best being "Beauty", "Is This Henry Mills" and "Leaving Storybrooke". Some great things here but also the usual suspect flaws seen throughout Season 7, even the best episodes weren't exempt from them.
Will start with what works in "The Guardian". The production values are still fine, especially the photography, and the music and memorable main theme likewise. The past/fairytale flashbacks sections fare much better than any of those happening in the present in Hyperion Heights, they weren't perfect but the tension and emotion were there (which was not the case with the present day scenes). It did help that it did focus primarily on Alice and Rumpelstiltskin, Alice being a likeable character and one of the season's bright spots and Rumpelstiltskin being one of the main reasons as to why 'Once Upon a Time' was still stuck with when it declined.
Both are interesting characters and bring degrees of freshness in an episode and season overall that lacked that in general. Regina's role was also effective, as was the sincere chemistry between her and Rumpelstiltskin. Rumpelstiltskin's jab at her regarding Samdi was one of his best lines in a while. At least Facilier's character and story advance here and his motives made clearer. Have nothing to fault the performances of Lana Parrilla, Rose Reynolds and Robert Carlyle, the best performance coming from Carlyle.
A lot lets "The Guardian" down though and almost all the flaws are again general problems with the season. There is too much going on in the Hyperion Heights scenes, too much of the episode feels rushed through from cramming too much in and jumpy with not much developed. Meaning that the present day storytelling felt convoluted and actually outside of two or three revelations/major events in terms of turning points and such there is not much here. So there is a tediousness at times as well.
Henry and Jacinda's subplot is focused on too much and it is as soap-operatic and painfully derivative of existing romantic plot lines as they come. Also serving little point compared to everything else going on and would have fared better belonging in another episode on its own, but preferably more compellingly, with more subtlety and with characters that aren't one-dimensional or get on your nerves. The dialogue mostly lacks nuance.
Overall, not bad but left me lukewarm. 5/10
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