It is always difficult to not expect a lot watching season/show finales, especially when it is a show that started off so strong. Which is why show finales such as those for the US 'House of Cards', 'Game of Thrones' and 'Criminal Minds' disappointed so much. The expectations weren't quite as high for 'Once Upon a Time in Wonderland's' finale "And They Lived", as the show didn't start off so great but did come on a long way from "Bad Blood" onwards.
"And They Lived" is an example of this big improvement, an improvement that quite frankly amazed me. As said for "To Catch a Thief", there were three great episodes (and two very good ones as well, the others were slightly above average to good, and one was average). "And They Lived" was one of them along with its previous two outings. The show at its best didn't ever reach the heights of 'Once Upon a Time' at its best, but its worst episode (for me that was "Home", which is probably not a popular opinion) was still better than its parent show at its worst which was its lesser Seasons 6 and 7 episodes.
'Once Upon a Time in Wonderland' never improved on one thing, one thing that was pretty bad in its first episode and was a noticeable weak link in all the episodes apart from "Who's Alice?" where there wasn't a lot. That component was the special effects, there were worse ones than here before but even White Rabbit looks pretty cheap here.
Everything else works great. 'Once Upon a Time in Wonderland' was always well shot with beautifully varied use of colour and that is true in "And They Lived", very true too to the style of its parent show 'Once Upon a Time'. The music suits the tone, which has a mix of the comedic and serious, of the story well. The writing has really come on, by post-"Home" it flowed a lot more naturally and a lot entertained and intrigued. Not many episodes of the show had this much tension and the more emotional moments don't get too sentimental.
Was a bit concerned about the story here, with the show early on tending to be over-plotted and muddled and there was a lot to tie up here. Luckily here, it is vastly entertaining, there is a lot more at stake and is at times, things are tied up satisfyingly without being too neat or head-scratching (for such a short-lived show there is actually a surprising sense of finality), the Victorian England parts were charming and not too pat or sugary and despite so much going on it didn't get muddled or incoherent.
Really connected with all the characters, even those that didn't do much for me before and the episode doesn't waste any of them. Red Queen/Anastasia was rootable this time, it was great to see Alice and Cyrus' chemistry really shining and Jafar actually poses a threat here. The performances are all fine, the biggest surprise being the huge improvement seen in Naveen Andrews as Jafar where here he has the menace and charisma that was not there for a fair share of the previous episodes.
To conclude, a more than satisfying end to an uneven show. 9/10.
