Last night's finale wasn't as epic as Season 4's Operation Mongoose Parts 1 and 2, but it was still very solid, and reminded me very much of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 4 finale, "Restless".
I love the story of Jekyll & Hyde, but wasn't expecting them to go that route with the show, so kudos to them for that. It did surprise me that they cast two actors to bring the role to life (since that's not traditionally how the character(s) have been handled), but it makes practical sense given that they ended up successfully separating the two entities from one another (nice twist on the story, BTW, writers).
Separating Regina's darkness from her goodness was also an interesting narrative decision, although I'm not really sure where they're heading with that given that they've already got a really interesting villain set up in Hyde. I will say, though, that they really need to tone down the severity of Queenie's* makeup, because it was too 'loud'.
I don't know about anyone else, but I really like Violet, and thus enjoyed her and Henry's questing. It was nice to see the return of The Dragon (of course Rumple would know what Tamara had done to him), and seeing magic in New York was fun. The Wishing Fountain thing was admittedly a little weird, especially since I wasn't expecting it to actually work, but the visual of the coins falling into the Land of Untold Stories was neat, as was the water from the fountain turning into a giant funnel cloud.
I also have to give a shout-out to the writers for the offhanded revelation of Violet's dad being the titular character of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, as it pretty much made my day (as did Regina and Emma's reactions to her and Henry kissing).
My excitement and anticipation level isn't quite where it was at the end of Season 4 last year, but I'm intrigued to see where they go next, so bring on Season 6.
* My name for Dark!Regina
