By John Keegan and Henry Tran

This was one of those patented busy episodes that this show does from time to time that could have easily ended up a mess. For the most part, the episode kept true to its busy, complicated schematic, with the subplot involving Kalinda keeping it from being a great one. It centered very much on Alicia and what she is able to handle.

By John Keegan and Edmund Boys

Once the smoke dissipated over Storybrooke, the question was which show would the producers of “Once Upon A Time” return with, having given themselves this massive purple reset button. Would it be the intriguing, surprisingly complex version of the first seven episodes, or the haphazard and inconsistent show that followed? The answer is quite a bit of the latter, with a final reveal that might lead to some of the former.

By John Keegan and Gregg Wright

It's funny to see a season premiere that ends with the type of moment that you'd typically see near the end of a season of "Dexter". If that had been the case, and Deb's discovery had occurred near the end of the season, then it probably would have coincided with the building momentum of a seasonal climax. Instead, the situation resolves itself fairly quickly, and something of a new status quo emerges. But there's the distinct feeling that everything could still fall apart at any moment.

By John Keegan

One of the first truly promising episodes of the series, back in the first season, introduced the character of Angelina, Monroe’s ridiculously hot redheaded biker ex-girlfriend. Her absence was keenly felt for the remainder of the first season, at least until Rosalee came along to give Monroe someone just as awesome to romance. So Angelina’s return in this episode was an automatic plus.

By John Keegan

With Audrey now on a deadline, or so it seems, the character dynamics have definitely shifted. Audrey feels a greater sense of urgency, and that means that she’s less willing to worry over little things like maintaining good relationships. What starts with Duke trying to get Audrey to live a little turns into something very ugly by the end.

By John Keegan

With the preliminaries over and done with between “Letters of Transit” and the fifth season premiere, the writers finally get down to the business of setting up the details of the final story arc. It’s a bit of a mixed bag, with some of the character beats overcoming the weaknesses of a rather tedious plot structure.

By John Keegan and Henry Tran

While I appreciated that "Blue On Blue" ran with some of the hanging plot threads from "Captain", it doesn't feel like a complete episode to me. The parts seem to still be coalescing into something interesting, but it's not quite there yet. Lines are being drawn amongst the crew of the USS Colorado and the grip Captain Chaplin has on the Sainte Marina island is tenuous at best. The episode contains a lot of talk about how difficult it's going to be when brothers in arms who should be friendly are forced to shoot and kill each other, yet the show then takes an abrupt turn to another direction, and the conflict is then dropped. It's very strange.