OUAT: Family Always Finds Each Other

Because after four seasons, you do realize that’s one of the messages of the show, right?

Last time on “Once:” When Regina tried to appoint Sidney the new sheriff, Emma decided that she wanted to be sheriff and ran against him. Gold offered to be her benefactor but after saving Regina from a fire, Emma realized that that might include things she wasn’t too happy about when she suspected he set the fire. Emma just wanted to be a hero for Henry, who took Graham’s death hard. In the end, Emma won the job though she may not be free from Gold just yet.

In the Enchanted Forest, we met Rumpelstiltskin, the town coward with a teenage son he wanted to protect from the Ogre War. He listened to Wormtongue and went to steal the Dark One’s dagger from the Duke. After stabbing the Dark One, Rumple learned it was Wormtongue and that he was now the Dark One. Using his powers, Rumple got revenge on the soldiers who mocked him and kept his son safe. Except Bae didn’t look too thrilled with dear old dad’s new powers.

Got it?

Good.


We open with Henry as he reads a comic book. A young girl comes up and starts talking to her. Her name is Ava and she goes to school with Henry. She introduces her brother, Nicholas, and they decide to go hang out. Henry’s down with that, no doubt excited to have some real damn friends.
But before they can make it out the door, the shop owner stops them and says he knows they stole from him. He sneezes as Ava and Nicholas exchange looks. Sneezy (because come on, that’s who he is) demands that Henry give him his backpack and he goes through it, finding stolen items. Dejected, Henry turned to his so-called friends and realizes they used him.

(Busted)

In the Enchanted Forest, Ava and Nicholas are now Gretel and Hansel. They help their father as he cuts down some trees. He sends them off to collect some branches, giving Gretel his compass so she can find her way back to him. Because family means no one gets left behind.

Except when Gretel and Hansel return, their father is nowhere to be seen. Looks like he left them behind. They try to find him and end up on a road, where they are nearly run over by the Black Guard. Gretel falls and the compass ends up cracked. The guards grab the siblings as someone emerges from the carriage. It’s the Evil Queen, who wonders what they are doing in her woods.

Uh oh.

Regina looks over the items Sneezy found in her son’s bag and declares that Henry doesn’t eat candy, so this couldn’t have been his. She takes Henry home, leaving Nicholas and Ava in the care of just arriving Emma. She tries to ask how Henry is but Regina shuts it down, hurrying the boy out of the store.

(She's just a tad possessive)

Emma approaches Ava and Nicholas, looking over the stuff they stole and asks them what’s going on. Ava says that their parents have fallen on hard times, money’s tight and they were just trying to help them out. Emma feels bad and I think pays for the items because they have them when they’re in the back of the sheriff’s car.

She pulls up to a house and offers to walk them inside. But Ava insists that their parents would be embarrassed if the sheriff brought them home. Emma’s eyes narrow and she leans closer. “Did Henry tell you about my superpower?” she asked. They shake their head and she tells them she can tell when people are lying to her. She asks them again if their parents are inside. They say yes and she lets them go. Ava and Nicholas wave until she rounds the corner.

They then run to another rundown house and let themselves in. Unloading their goods, Nicholas and Ava settle down…until they hear a sound. Turning around, they discover Emma has snuck in. She asks them where their parents really are and so Ava finally says they don’t have any.

(Busted!)

Emma takes the two back to the loft and talks with Mary Margaret. She says she’s seen the kids in school but never knew they were alone. But she remembers their mother Dorie died a few years back and they have no father. So who did everyone think they were living with? Santa Claus? The Tooth Fairy? The wolf since he still seems to be the only responsible being in this town?

Mary Margaret asks Emma what social services has said and can tell by the blonde’s look that she didn’t call them. Emma doesn’t want to put them into the system because she had an awful experience. She recalls being nothing more than a paycheck to most families and doesn’t want that for them. Nor does she want them to be separated.

(Mary Margaret keeps learning so much about Emma. And most of it is not pretty)

Ava appears behind her, upset at the thought of being separated from her brother. Emma promises that she will keep them together and says she’s going to find their father.

Emma goes down to the town’s record department. A humorless clerk has her fill out three forms in order to get Ava’s and Nicholas’ birth certificates. But he then says someone else already requisitioned them and Emma asks who.

Emma goes to Regina’s office and the mayor reveals that the birth certificate doesn’t list a father. Emma feels someone has to know something in such a small town but Regina’s like “Nope. Nothing.” She says she called the state and that there are group homes willing to take the kids in down in Boston. There was nowhere else in Maine? Really? Anyway, she tells Emma to take them there that night but Emma balks when she realizes they will be split. Regina tells her she shouldn’t have made promises she couldn’t keep and orders her to do her job.

(Gotta love the apples in the foreground) 

Let’s go see how Hansel and Gretel are faring against the Evil Queen in the Enchanted Forest. Pretty much they slip past the guards and run away. But Regina uses her magic to stop their pursuit. I quite like that outfit on her, though the hat may be too much. Anyway, she tells the children that she’s going to help them find their father. Gretel wonders what’s in it for her and Regina’s very glad she asked that question.

She takes them through the woods and says she needs them to retrieve something for her. That a witch stole it from her and she needs to get it back. But that while the witch is blind, she’ll recognize Regina. So she needs them to wait until the witch is asleep and then they can get the black satchel containing the item Regina needs. But she warns them that they mustn’t eat anything in the house, no matter how tempting. They agree as she pushes away the trees to reveal the cottage made of sweets.

Yum.

Emma goes back to the Sheriff’s office and tries to figure out her next steps. Henry comes to visit and asks her about his own father. 

(About to lie through her teeth)

Emma tells him that when she got out of the system, she got a job as a waitress working nights at some diner. That Henry’s father was a firefighter in training who would come to the diner and they got along pretty well. They spent some time together but nothing much came out of it, except Henry, obviously. Henry asks where his dad is now. Emma says that she found out he died in a fire, saving a family. Henry asks if she has anything of his and she says she doesn’t. But she does get an idea.

Emma goes to Nicholas and Ava holding a blanket. She tells them it’s her baby blanket and she’s held onto it all these years because it’s the only thing she has of her biological parents. Emma tells them that she’s held onto it and that she knows children like them, like her, always hold on to things. So she wants to know—what do they have of their father?

(That blanket!)

Ava has something. She pulls out the broken compass and gives it to Emma. She tells Emma to get it back to her and Emma nods, determined to help the two.

Hansel and Gretel break into the witch’s house as the woman sleeps in a rocking chair by the fire. Hansel wonders if she’s really asleep but the snores seem to convince them she is. Gretel spots the queen’s black satchel and she creeps over to it after reminding Hansel not to eat anything. But as she retrieves the satchel, temptation proves too great. She turns back in time to see her brother bite into a cupcake. The witch wakes up and says she smells dinner.

(I then had to go on IMDb to figure out why the witch looked so familiar. It’s Emma Caulfield, AKA Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Also, how cool that they didn’t go with the hag we usually see in Hansel and Gretel but with a young, beautiful witch).

Emma goes into Gold and shows him the compass. She wonders if he might have any leads about where it came from. Gold says it was sold in his shop and he might have the records still. She watches as he goes through his documents, revealing that the owner is named Michael Tillman. Emma thanks him and leaves. The camera pans to the paper to reveal it’s blank.

(Plot twist!)

She goes to the local garage and finds Michael. He looks at a picture of Nicholas and Ava but is in denial. He says he remembers Dorie but that it was just a one time thing. Emma reminds him that it’s all that matters. He starts to reminisce about a camping trip before saying he can’t take the children. She tells him that they need him and he’ll regret not stepping up. Michael reminds her that she gave up her son. And she says that she can’t have her son because of the law but he can have his children. Michael hands back the picture and heads back inside.

(Damn he's good-looking)

Emma calls Mary Margaret and asks her to meet her outside the apartment. She tells Mary Margaret all about how Michael doesn’t want the children. Mary Margaret realizes this means that she’ll have to take Nicholas and Ava to Boston and split them up. Emma feels awful about it. She also feels awful because she admits to Mary Margaret that she lied to Henry about his father.

Before they could further deal with that, Regina comes up. She wants to know why Emma is still standing on a Storybrooke sidewalk and not halfway to Boston with Nicholas and Ava. Emma tries to plead one more time but Regina tells her that she needs to do her job and do what’s best for the children.

The Blind Witch throws the children into the chokey from Matilda. She feels them up and decides Hansel will be eaten first. As she checks her oven, she asks if she should baste him in butter or gravy. No one answers as Gretel pushes Hansel behind her. She puffs out her cheeks as if that’s going to make her feel plumper to the Blind Witch but it apparently works as the woman pulls her out and decides to use butter. Gretel and Hansel push her in inside and close the door. As she screams for them to let her out, they run for the hills.

Regina watches from her palace and sends a fireball through her magic mirror to roast the Blind Witch. She says she would’ve gone with gravy.

(Hope you like your witch extra crispy)

Hansel and Gretel return to the palace and Regina asks them for her satchel. Gretel hands it over, asking what’s in it. Regina pulls out a bright red apple, saying she’s been trying to get it for a long time. Hansel wants to know why she wanted an apple so bad and Regina reveals that it’s a weapon to be used against someone who doesn’t know she’s in danger.

(Have a poisoned apple, dearie?)

Gretel then asks about their father and Regina says she has another offer for them. She says they’ve impressed her because she’s sent many children into Emma Caulfield’s House o’ Treats and they are the first ones to come out. So as a reward, Regina will let them live in the palace with her. She will give them everything their hearts’ desire and Hansel definitely seems down with that. But Gretel snaps that they don’t want to live with someone as awful as her. So Regina uses her magic to send them away.

It’s night and Emma finally loads Ava and Nicholas into her sheriff’s car as Regina and Henry watch. Henry pleads with Emma not to take them out of Storybrooke or else something bad will happen to them. Emma says she has no choice and that they need to go somewhere. She pulls away as Henry watches, Regina lurking behind him.

As Emma heads toward the town line, she keeps looking at the forlorn preteens in her backseat. But there’s not much she can say to comfort them. Instead, she has to focus on her car as it begins to stall. Bad things do happen when people approach the town line after all. Emma pulls over and tells the two she’s calling for help.

The Evil Queen watches Snow White as she walks in the woods with the Seven Dwarves and is baffled by her stepdaughter’s choice in companions. Her guards interrupt her spying, bringing the Woodcutter to her. He demands to know where his children are and Regina says she saw them. She tells him that she offered them a lifetime of luxury with her and they turned her down, choosing the man who by all appearances abandoned them in the woods. She asks him why they would do that and he tells her that they are family. And family always sticks together, always finds each other. Regina orders him released and says he can reunite with his children…once he finds them.

("You're crazy")

Hansel and Gretel wake up back in the forest. Gretel holds the compass as they hold hands, going through the forest. We pan up to reveal it’s a great expanse and wolves are howling in the distance.
Good thing we know they turn up alive and well in Storybrooke.

Michael gets out of the tow truck and meets up with Emma. He can clearly see Ava and Nicholas in the backseat. She says she wanted him to at least look at them before deciding to give them up for good. Michael asks if anything is really wrong with the car and her silence is answer enough. He stares at them and says they aren’t going anywhere. He’s taking them in and he goes to reunite with his children.

Happy ending all around!

Suck it, Regina.

(I still love you, though).

Emma returns home and Mary Margaret guesses Michael claimed the children. The blonde nods before collapsing onto her roomie’s bed. Mary Margaret wonders if it’ll happen for Emma but she thinks it might be better to just give up. That if they wanted to find her, they’d make it easier. Mary Margaret tells her not to give up because maybe her parents have a good reason. Emma tells her that Henry says she was put into a magical tree to escape the cure. And that Mary Margaret is supposedly her mother since she’s supposed to be Snow White. Mary Margaret gets a distant look in her eye before laughing it off.

Emma stands and says she’s going out, that she needs some fresh air. Mary Margaret says she’ll save some leftovers for her. She then spies Emma’s baby blanket and she holds it close. The distant look comes back before she shakes her head and goes on her way.

(Memories?)

Henry finds Emma and offers her some pumpkin pie. She gets out of the car and enjoys the slice with him. Emma starts to tell Henry about his father but changes her mind when she sees his cherubic face. Henry hugs her as they hear the roar of a motorcycle. It stops in front of them and the person gets off. He’ll be credited as “The Stranger” but since we’re about to begin Season 5, we know it’s August. He’s in town and looking for a room. Emma points him to Granny’s. He drives off without giving his name and she turns to Henry, saying she thought strangers didn’t come to this town. He says they don’t and is clearly as baffled as her.

(Hi, August!)

Quite the spin on Hansel and Gretel! No evil stepmother! Dad didn’t abandon them! The Blind Witch! I do wonder if Hansel would’ve stayed with Regina and what might’ve been different if he had. Hmm…

Can’t wait to see more from August!

Next time: Snow White and Prince Charming! Mary Margaret and David!

Screen caps from here.