Who knew a dragon lived trapped underneath the village of Steveston for 28 years? That’s just one of the things we learned in the Once Upon a Time season finale.
To recap: young Henry’s adoptive Mom, Regina (Evil Queen), and real Mom, Emma (Saviour), team up to save his life after he purposefully ate the poisoned apple turnover that Regina intended for Emma. The two Moms go see Mr. Gold (Rumplestiltskin) seeking magic to save Henry. He directs them to the long-shuttered Storybrooke Library and gives Emma her father Charming’s sword. She’ll need it. A crowd of fans (on the right) watched them film the scene of Lana Parrilla’s Regina in a blue pant suit and Jennifer Morrison’s Emma in her signature kickass red leather jacket approaching the library entrance from opposite sides of the corner. What you can’t see in the photo is the sword, but it’s there.
Of course we didn’t see any of Emma’s green-screened sword fight with the dragon deep below the library or Mr. Gold taking the magic from her or Henry dying in hospital or Emma leaning over to kiss him and breaking the long curse.
What we did see in Steveston earlier that day were two key fairy tale characters suddenly remembering who they really are. “Snow!” yelled Josh Dallas’s David from one side of Main Street/Moncton Street. “Charming,” replied Ginnifer Goodwin’s Mary Margaret, as they half-run towards each other for the big kiss in the middle of an intersection. Goodwin later told TV Line’s Matt Mitovich that she’d suggested using a nonsense word like “Marming” instead of “Charming” and then dropping in the real names in post-production so that the surprise wouldn’t be ruined. But apparently the director and crew didn’t feel the large crowd of spectators could actually hear the names.
I can’t speak for everyone there, but I know that some of us heard the names and knew the curse was broken in the season finale but chose not to spoil it. Local Once Upon a Time fans are pretty protective of the show and recognize what a privilege it was to see this scene unfold.
Watching Once Upon a Time film in Steveston should be even more interesting in the second season if magic is coming to Storybrooke as the finale suggests. I expect to see stacks of green screens.