Why Once Upon a Time Should Follow Jennifer Morrison's Lead & End With Season 6

It's time for the final "happily ever after"...

By Billy Nilles May 08, 2017 4:47 PMTags

The Savior's days are officially numbered. 

Much to the surprise of Once Upon a Time fans everywhere, Jennifer Morrison has announced that she won't be returning to the ABC fantasy series should it earn itself a seventh season order in the coming weeks. And while co-creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis may have figured out how to keep the series alive in the absence of its central character, we've got a proposition that may not be popular, but might be necessary: Let Once Upon a Time leave the air along with Emma Swan.

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The future of the series has been in question for much of this season, with rumors of a reinvention of sorts coming our way should the ratings-challenged show eke out a renewal. However, central to all those rumors was Morrison herself, whom all reports indicated would be along for the new ride, along with co-stars Colin O'Donoghue, Lana Parrilla and Robert Carlyle. Now that Morrison's Emma Swan can't possibly be a part of the equation moving forward, the threads of story that once seemed possible in the future suddenly aren't. After all, last night's fantastic musical episode finally saw Emma and O'Donoghue's Hook tie the knot. He can't possibly stay around without his new bride, can he?

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Jennifer Morrison Leaving Once Upon a Time After Season 6

Of course, the easiest answer to all of this is to just have poor Emma meet her end in much-discussed Final Battle against the Black Fairy (Jaime Murray) in the upcoming season six finale, sacrificing herself for the future of Storybrooke and all those she loves. It would certainly be a fitting, if not tragic, ending to the life of the Savior. After all, what has Emma's life been if not one sacrifice after the other in the name of for the greater good? But if that's the way Horowitz and Kitsis have decided to write their heroine out, that's a finale fitting for a series, not a season.

"I think the way we sort of look at it is these are stories for these characters and there are set end points to different stories but that doesn't mean that there aren't new stories for different characters," Horowitz recently told press. "So I think that by the end of the season finale, a lot of what we've been doing for the last six years is wrapped up in a very satisfying way and then we move forward in a way that at the end of it, hopefully you'll see what we're hoping to do in season seven."

While we salute Horowitz and Kitsis' attempt to keep the beloved series alive, is anyone really clamoring for new stories for different characters? We're not so sure.

Morrison is hardly the first star to depart a hit series, upending the story in the process. We've got a gallery of shocking exits that's full of actors and actresses who've done this exact thing. But she might be one of the few whose series might not be able to survive her absence. And that doesn't have to be a bad thing. In fact, it just might be the "happily ever after" Once Upon a Time truly deserves.

Do you think OUAT can survive Morrison's departure? Should it? Sound off in the comments below!

Once Upon a Time's two-hour season six finale airs Sunday, May 14 at 8 p.m. on ABC.