BWW Spoiler Alert!: 5 Major Takeaways from this Week's ONCE UPON A TIME

Welcome to BWW Spoiler Alert! In this new column, I am going to share five questions and takeaways from the most buzzworthy television episodes of the week (a.k.a. whatever shows I watch). By definition, these columns will contain Spoilers if you have yet to see the episode in question, so don't say that I didn't warn you!

On Sunday night, ABC aired ONCE UPON A TIMES' penultimate Season 3 episode, "Kansas." In it we saw the culmination of a villain's transformation to hero and a whole lot of resolution that makes me wonder what exactly is left to do in the two-hour finale next week.

SPOILER ALERT! I will be discussing things that actually happen in this episode, so if you haven't gotten around to watching it yet, go read our BWW TV recap by Danielle DeSisto, or click on another one of my interesting articles instead; like this, this, or this.

1) I don't understand why characters that have magical abilities forget to use them in the direst of circumstances. We saw it Friday night with Adalind on GRIMM, and now Emma, the presumed "Savior," instead of using magic, gives Hook mouth-to-mouth which she knows will result in her losing her powers. She could have flicked her wrist or wiggled her nose at least once to try and save him with magic, but that would have gotten in the way of tonight's major plot point of Regina becoming a "hero." This is emblematic of a lot of the ONCE storytelling; routinely ignoring well-established facts that temporarily get in the way of the story. I would understand if they showed her making a conscious decision to give up her magic, but that is not how the scene was played; magic wasn't even considered.

2) I was glad that they finally addressed the melting-issue tonight. Even though we learned that Zelena won't melt when doused with water, this half of the season has felt odd that we never explored that well known fact. Even if the Enchanted Forrest residents had never heard the story of "The Wizard of Oz," clearly Henry and Emma have, so why they never took Dorthy's lead and threw a bucket of water on the Wicked Witch, I don't understand. I guess I shouldn't expect too much given what I said in the paragraph above.

3) With Regina harnessing the power of Light Magic to finally defeat her half-sister, we witnessed the conclusion of the complete evolution of the Evil Queen. While Jennifer Morrison might be the bigger name, Lana Parrilla is, and always has been, the star of this show. While she did caution her sister that she perhaps might only be a hero today, I am hoping that we finally see her on the same side as the Charmings for the foreseeable future, and we can move on to a new evil force in Storybrooke.

4) For my fourth takeaway, I am going to turn it over to fellow ONCE fan, and BroadwayWorld's own Robert Lawler (@ElderPoptart on Twitter):

5) Ok, I did see the big swirling vortex that just opened in Storybrooke. Apparently that is going to lead into the realm that will be home for Season 4, but getting rid of this half-season's Big Bad makes the season finale feel a bit anticlimactic. I purposely avoid plot spoilers of shows that I watch, so I don't know where they are going next week, but I really hope that they don't spend the entire final two hours of the season simply setting up the next season. A season finale needs to provide some sembelance of closure for the viewers who have been along for the ride the entire season. I'm afraid all of our closure happened tonight.

So, what did you think of the episode? Is the Let me know what you think in the comments below, and on Twitter @BWWMatt.