I will be the first to admit that I had my doubts. Outside of a daytime soap, I’ve never seen a show put so many threads in play at once. Essentially, Kitsis and Horowitz planned a season where the success or failure of the show rested entirely on how they pulled of this finale.
They succeeded.
Hugely!
Not only did they pull the necessary plot elements together, they gave a very important sense of closure to the season. They also left elements set up for the third season. Impressively, part of this was put in place as early as episode one this year.