OUAT: Fight the Power

Last time on “Once:” We said goodbye to Emma Swan, who revealed she was pregnant. That, along with saving Wish!Hook, was the extent of her farewell.

In the Enchanted Forest, Henry was captured by Lady Tremaine and called for help from Emma, Regina and Hook. Only Regina and Hook responded, with the latter being very evasive about where Emma was while the former hinted that he was keeping a Big Secret from Henry. Hook said Emma didn’t want him to tell Henry about the Big Secret and they were going to respect that.

Hook went into town to try to get information about Cinderella and ran into the overweight and drunken version of him from the Wish Realm. Wish!Hook was obsessed with finding Emma in hopes of finding the love he was denied and went as far as knocking Hook out. He then went to Lady Tremaine, who he knew, and got her to use the fairy godmother’s wand to make him young again and dressed like Hook so he could fool Emma.

However, when Emma showed up and told Henry she was pregnant, Wish!Hook had second thoughts. He went back to get Hook and the two fight. In the process, Wish!Hook was stabbed. He told Hook that he couldn’t come between a father and his child since he was searching for a daughter taken from him by a powerful witch. He said he wanted to find love to break the curse she placed on him that prevented him from finding his daughter and asked Hook to find her. But he got Emma to heal Wish!Hook.

Regina admitted she missed Henry and he said he missed her too, so he invited her to stay to find the next part of her story. Emma suggested that Wish!Hook should also stay with Henry and so she said goodbye to her son before she and Hook went back to Storybrooke. So yes, that’s Wish!Hook in Hyperion Heights.

Now onto the Hyperion Heights plot…

Victoria decided to make it nearly impossible for Jacinda to see her daughter, including turning Lucy’s ballet recital in a charity function and making everyone pay $550 to see their kid. For some reason, this got absolutely no pushback except from Jacinda. Henry felt guilty and wanted to help but she wanted nothing to do with him. But he did make it up to her when he managed to get hired at the venue where the ballet was being performed and also hired Jacinda and Sabine so they could see the ballet.

Lucy was ecstatic. Victoria less so.

Victoria ordered Weaver and Rogers to get Henry away from Jacinda and Lucy, wanting them to get dirt on him. Rogers figured there was no ers was dirRogt but Weaver figured out that Henry had a daughter who was no longer around. But he decided to frame him by having Rogers drop Victoria’s bracelet in his pocket at the ballet, testing Rogers in the process. But Rogers didn’t and while Victoria was pissed, Weaver was impressed.

Rogers was obsessed with one of the characters in Henry’s book—Emma Swan. He told the detective that he made Emma up, that she was just his idea of the perfect mother. Rogers admitted that the drawing reminded him of a woman who saved his life when he was shot during an investigation—trying to find a missing girl. He never found her and he’s been obsessed with solving the case. He suspected that Victoria had something to do with it and he teamed up with Roni and Henry to take her down.

Will they succeed? Find out!

In the Enchanted Forest, Cinderella takes the motorcycle back to where she met Henry and calls out for him. But a guard finds her instead. He calls her a murderer and she tries to protest her innocence. He actually plays the “That’s what a murderer would say!” card and Cinderella kicks his ass. She manages to knock him out and tries to go for his sword but another guard catches her. Thankfully, someone knocks him out and helps Cinderella up. It’s Tiana!

(Hi, Tiana!)

OUAT: Exeunt Emma Swan

Last time on “Once:” A strange sense of deja vu.

Henry decided to leave home after graduating high school in order to find his own story since he was in any of the storybooks he found in the Sorcerer’s mansion. Regina had her concerns but let him go, watching as he used a magic bean to drive his motorcycle off into another realm. We next saw him all grown up and now played by Andrew J. West as he caused a carriage on the road to crash. He ran over to check on the rider, surprised to find it was a new version of Cinderella.

He roused her and she was rightly pissed off that he destroyed her carriage and made her horse run off. She said she was late for the ball and Henry offered to give her a ride on his motorcycle. She had some doubts but she got in, letting him show her how it worked. Henry then told her about her story at her request, about how she falls in love with the prince but has to leave him a sign to find her—her shoe. Cinderella laughed, saying that was ridiculous. And she didn’t believe in signs anyway. She did believe in punching Henry and stealing his motorcycle, though.

He was clearly in love with her before he even hit the ground.

Henry pursued Cinderella to the ball, dancing with her as he tried to get his knife back from her. She confessed that she was really there to kill the prince because he killed her father. Henry tried to convince her to come with him to his land, to get a second chance. But she chose to get her revenge, running off with the prince. Henry tried to stop her but he ended up tripping and meeting Alice, who said she was asked to watch over him by his grandfather. She warned him that bad things happen when someone interferes in a story that isn’t their own and told him to go home. Henry said he helps people and stormed back to the ballroom.

Cinderella was about to kill the prince but had a change of heart. Unfortunately for him, Lady Tremaine killed him because he rejected Drizella while his own brother seemed to favor her. She then framed Cinderella and Henry helped her escape, telling her to take his motorcycle and meet him where they first met so they could go to his realm together. An epic fight scene ensued as Cinderella made a break for it.

Henry returned to the spot where het met Cinderella but she wasn’t there. He figured she took the bike and went somewhere else just as his portal home opened. But when Henry spotted her shoe, he knew she wanted her to find her. So he allowed the portal to close up and announced that Operation Glass Slipper was a go.

All of this was intercut with scenes in our world, focused on a town in Seattle called Hyperion Heights. Unsuccessful but published author Henry was drawn there after a young girl name Lucy knocked on his door and told him that she was his daughter. She told him his family was trapped in a curse and they needed to break it. Henry told her curses weren’t real and he just made up everything in his book.

Lucy stole his laptop to force him to journey out to her neighborhood and it worked. There, he met Roni—Regina’s cursed identity who owns a bar—and Jacinda, Lucy’s mother and Cinderella’s cursed identity. She had a bad day, getting fired from her minimum wage job and then losing Lucy. Her stepmother, Victoria Belfrey—Lady Tremaine—then ordered that Lucy live with her full time and Jacinda ran off as Roni glared at Victoria.

Meanwhile, Henry’s presence was reported by Alice’s cursed self to Rumple’s cursed self, Weaver. He seemed to be a shady character in the neighborhood. Keep that in mind.

Henry discovered his car was stolen and he reported it missing, meeting Hook’s cursed self, Officer Rogers. Afterward, he had a tense confrontation with Lucy where he told her that she wasn’t his daughter because he lost his real wife and daughter in a fire. She couldn’t convince him that was just part of the curse and he left as Jacinda pulled up and told Lucy they needed to go.

Victoria enlisted Officer Rogers’ and Henry’s help to find Jacinda and Lucy. Henry told her of an island Jacinda confessed she wanted to live on and Officer Rogers picked up Lucy. Ivy—Drizella’s cursed counterpart—took the book away from her and gave it to Rogers. He spotted something inside it but pushed it aside. Afterwards, Jacinda gave it to Henry and walked away as he got his car back.

Officer Rogers got a promotion to detective and was partnered with Weaver—who was doing shady things earlier if you remember. Roni decided not to sell her bar to Victoria, deciding to stand up to the town bully. Jacinda got her job back and then went to toss a quarter into the well. As she did so, Rogers continued to stare at the page in the book that enticed him earlier—a picture of Emma—and Henry discovered that there is no cemetery where he thought his family was buried. He then went home and started writing as a flower bloomed in the garden.

We open in Storybrooke, years ago…according to the title card. Hook fights young Henry on the Jolly Roger, the two clashing swords all over its deck until Henry gets the upperhand. Emma praises him, saying he fights as well as his grandfather. Henry starts to reply and Hook is able to introduce him to floor. He gives Henry some advice but Henry just goes off to sulk, saying he’ll never be good enough.

(Teen angst ahoy!)

Emma asks what’s going on with him and Hook tells her that Henry is growing. She realizes he’s going to leave and Hook agrees, saying it’s time. Emma, though, is worried. She says she missed so much and doesn’t know if she’ll get a second chance. Hook assures her she will have the time. He then pulls out a little bottle from a chest and she asks if it’s rum. He says it’s something he picked up during his troubles, explaining you speak a message into it, say the name of whoever you want it to go to and then drop it in the water. It’s then taken to that person. Emma realizes he’s going to give to Henry so he can stay in touch and she thanks him. Hook assures her that Henry will be fine, that he was lucky to have a mother like her. And she says Henry is lucky to have a pirate like Hook. They hug as they watch a brooding Henry continue to brood.

(Ridiculously happy)

OUAT: A Brand New Beginning…

I’m not going to do a “Last time on Once” here. The season 6 finale wrapped up several storylines. That story is over. In many ways, Once Upon a Time is over and this is a brand new reiteration…that just so happens to be season 7. So we’re going to start fresh.

(Actually text from the start of the episode. Sounds familiar, no?)


We open in the familiar sight of Storybrooke before returning to 108 Mifflin Street (AKA the Mills’ household). Regina and Henry (still Jared Gilmore, in a guest starring role) leave. He has a backpack on as well as a leather jacket and appears to have finally caught up with Jared’s real age. Regina asks if he really has to go and says she always thought he’d go to college after graduating high school. Henry says that college is always going to be there but he needs to do this. He says that Operation Cobra is over—everyone has their happy endings—and Regina says that it’s all the more reason to stay. Henry replies that he’s the author and he’s written everyone’s stories, returning the book to the Sorcerer’s mansion. He says he discovered hundreds of other books (though that’s been discovered a few times since Season 4) and there are different versions of all the fairy tale characters, like a French Snow White. But he’s not in any of them. He wants to find his story and to do that, he needs to leave. Regina nods, hugging him.

(My Regal Believer heart!)

Henry pulls away and heads to a motorcycle, getting on it. I guess August gave him lessons? He puts on his helmet before pulling out a magic bean, tossing it ahead of him. A portal opens as Regina watches, concerned. She points out that it’s his only bean which means getting back…”Will be an adventure,” he finishes. He tells her he loves her and she echoes the sentiments. With one more smile, Henry takes off and drives his motorcycle into the portal.

(Bye, Henry!)

We then open in “Another Realm Some Years” later. The motorcycle roars down a road and we focus on Henry, now played by Andrew J. West and no longer wearing a helmet. As he continues down, he spots a small carriage coming toward him. The woman inside seems to be having trouble with her horse even before he gets spooked as Henry swerves to avoid hitting them. The carriage is overturned, throwing the woman to the ground amongst several flowers, and the horse runs off. Henry hops off his motorcycle to check on the woman. She is wearing a beautiful blue-purple ballgown but what draws Henry’s attention are her shoes. They are glass slippers and he gasps out: “Cinderella?”

(The shoes are pretty much a dead giveaway)

(I saw this episode at New York Comic Con and afterwards, the moderator asked Adam and Eddy what Henry’s motorcycle is running on. Their answer: Magic. Best guess is that Regina enchanted it).