By John Keegan
As the first part of a massive season finale, it's a bit difficult to evaluate this in isolation. There are plenty of items that will likely see resolution in the finale proper, and might even spill over into the beginning of the fifth and final season. Even so, I think it's possible to look at this episode alone and still come away with a number of highlights.

By John Keegan

I'll give the writers credit for being relatively clever; the characters constantly joke about how their prom activities don't exactly match the typical teenage experience. And for that matter, they talk about how they are ultimately outsiders that will never have a normal life. I'd be tempted to invite them to Mystic Falls, where they would blend in just fine.

By John Keegan and Henry Tran

It must be intentional on the writers' part to de-emphasize Rex and the world where he lives on instead of Hannah. He's absent yet again in this episode, and that means Michael focuses on a routine double homicide investigation. I mean, the case has a nice initial fake-out with who the intended target of the shooter was supposed to be, but it proves inconsequential to the show's overall arc.

By John Keegan

I'm not sure what I was expecting coming into this episode, but whatever it was, what we got was not it. And I mean that in a generally good way. Alaric's first actions as Esther's vampire assassin were just about as brutal as it gets, and things definitely look to be changing in Mystic Falls. (Which only makes the official fourth season pickup all the better!)

By John Keegan and Edmund Boys

With three episodes left in the season, the time has come for “Once Upon A Time” to start resolving some of its mysteries. After “The Stranger”, I only hope they step up their game in the final two. I get the sense the producers expected the events depicted here to be revelatory. Instead, I found them predictable and underwhelming. What makes this a shame is that, just as Robert Carlyle suffered through some sub-par episodes, this one wasted a fine performance from Tony Amendola as Geppetto.

By John Keegan and Gregg Wright

As the final part of a three-episode saga, "Force Quit" has the task of resolving the "Matrix" situation completely and getting everything back to normal. And in addition, it also effectively wraps up the arc that began with the second half of season 4, when Senator Wen first arrived on the scene and the Astraeus project was commissioned. In that respect, the episode, and this 3-part arc, have been relatively successful. I still think that it's a bit of a let-down that the Astraeus's grand voyage ended up amounting to little more than a plot to kidnap Eureka scientists, in the aim of furthering their perpetually ambiguous goals.

By John Keegan and Henry Tran

This felt like a really odd season finale. I expected this given what occurred in the previous episode, and is so often the case with this show, it delivered pretty much on what was promised. The episode's title of "The Dream Team" has sports connotations to myself personally, and the plot eerily follows suit in that way. It's more of an all-star highlights approach of most of the little subplots that have been building throughout this season.

By John Keegan

I've come to the conclusion that Neil Jordan, having looked back on the first season, decided that sticking to historical events wouldn't be nearly so much fun as simply playing in the Borgia sandbox. And I'm wondering if that's why the show feels a bit more interesting this season; there's no telling which events will be rearranged to keep the drama flowing and the audience on its toes.