Once Upon A Time: A Recap of the Last Three Episodes and the Finale*

* These recaps are terribly, terribly late due to finals.

The Evil Queen
So in this episode the whole Fairytale Lane got super dark when Regina legit massacred an entire village for helping Snow White hide out for a bit. They refused to give her up so bam! All of them. Dead. Then she wonders why her people don’t love her the way the did Snow White and wants to know how she can make them lover her as their queen. So she dresses up as a commoner and wanders about the market until she’s arrested and nearly put to death in the square by her own douchebag guards. But of course she can’t die. So Snow shows up to rescue her and they wander about together for a while and talk. Snow says she could forgive Regina… until they find that massacred town. Then she’s like, “ERMAGHERD SHE’S BEYOND SAVING AND NEEDS TO DIE.” Without realizing that this commoner is Regina. Yeahhhhh. Regina was so close to seeking redemption and then Snow just had to go and mess it all up.

Meanwhile in Storybrooke Regina has decided that the only way to keep the Charming family from taking Henry away from her and back to the magic world without her is to kill everyone by activating a fail-safe trigger she installed into the curse. Which basically erases everyone from existence as if the curse never happened. She won’t die, of course. Her plan is to use one of the magic beans David, Tiny, and the dwarves were growing to take them back. Of course, she destroyed all the other beans because she’s a terrible person. Speaking of terrible people, Emma basically has Tamara pegged as evil and is trying to convince Neal of that. Henry is totally on board with reopening ‘Operation Cobra’ and proving that she’s evil so that his parents can get back together. But everyone else pretty much just thinks Emma’s jealous. Which is stupid because later Tamara and Greg jump Regina and steal the fail-safe trigger. So. yeah. C’mon, Neal.

Second Star to the Right
In this episode we find out that Neal definitely has something to do with the Peter Pan lore pretty much like everyone had already guessed. But he’s not actually Peter Pan, it seems. After falling through the portal Baelfire found himself in Victorian London alone. So in true Dickensian fashion he took to the streets and lived as a petty thief and pickpocket for a while. One day he broke into a home to take some bread when he was caught by a girl his own age named Wendy Darling who gave him the bread and brought him in to her home, hiding her in a crawlspace in the nursery she shared with her two little brothers. When her parents find out they her mother refuses to kick him out and the family takes him in. Unfortunately, magic comes to ruin things for Bae again.

A shadowy figure comes to take Wendy away to Neverland – a place full of magic, mermaids, and adventure. But she came back because at night all the children who were stolen away would always cry. And, anyway, the shadow didn’t want her because she was a girl. It was coming back that night for one of her little brothers. In order to protect the Darlings who had taken him in, Bae goes in their place. Which wouldn’t have been necessary if Wendy had just listened to Bae tell her that magic is bad and that it always come with a price. He went with the shadow to keep her family from being destroyed like his had been. But before he is able to be taken to Neverland proper he fights his way free from the shadow and falls into the ocean below where he is lucky enough to be fished out by none other than Captain Hook.

In Storybrooke, Tamara and Greg have Regina still and are basically interrogating her and torturing her for information. Hook walks away because all he cares about is killing Rumpelstiltskin. Emma is still trying to prove to Neal that Tamara is evil – and failing. Meanwhile David and Mary Margaret try to find Regina but can’t so they go to Gold for help. He does a spell that lets Mary  Margaret feel whatever Regina is feeling and she realizes that Regina is being tortured and figures out where. They tell Emma who is with Neal and all four go to this cannery where they are holding Regina. Tamara tries to leave while Greg keeps torturing Regina trying to find out where his father is and, ultimately, she tells him that she killed his father right after he ran away from Storybrooke. Snow and David rescue Regina and take her home to care for her and fix her up which Regina can’t even begin to understand considering how evil she is and what not. And Emma and Neal have a moment where they sort of accept that Tamara isn’t evil… before Tamara shows up, attacks them, shoots Neal, and then throws a magic bean that opens up a portal that sucks Neal in and nearly sucks Emma in, too. Before he disappears Neal begs with her to let him go and to take care of Henry before he tells her that he loves her and always has. They both tell each other that they love the other and then he falls into whatever magical land the bean leads to and – likely – his death. Meanwhile, in the woods, Greg digs up his father’s bones and realizes that he really is dead. Then he and Tamara go off to plot the end of the town or something.

And Straight on ‘Til Morning
We pick up with Bae and Hook first in this season’s finale. Brought about Hook’s ship, Bae offers an interesting bargaining chip for Hook. By giving the boy back to the shadow figure he can hopefully gain an upper hand in Neverland and use the shadow’s good graces to make life easier for him, his crew, and his search for vengeance. At first the two of them don’t really seem to get along which is understandable because as far as Bae knows it was a pirate who killed his mother. Over time the two of them warm up to each other, though, and seem to form a fairly close bond.

Back in Storybrooke in the present, Bae’s own father seems about ready to kill his son, Henry. As Henry is swinging on a rope swing Rumple is using magic to gently fray away the rope. At least he is until Emma, David, and Mary Margaret come up to him. Emma goes to tell Henry that Neal is probably dead and the others tell Rumple. They also beg for his help in stopping Tamara and Greg but at firs the refuses because he feels like he deserves to die. Because he never got to reconcile with Bae or say goodbye and he was just about to kill Henry.

Word gets out that everyone is going to die. The dwarves come to Gold’s place to take back their friend who lost his memories of the magical world’s goblet or something that he had in the shop. Apparently the Blue Fairy just happeend to figure out how to bring back his memories recently (you know that bitch was holding out) and they want him to remember who he is and spend time with his family before they all disappear. Gold does the same to Belle using the shards from the broken teacup and she gets her memories back. Meanwhile Greg and Tamara start the failsafe process in the mines under the clock tower while Hook watches on mortified.

Because it turns out Hook is not that bad of a guy. When he realizes that Bae is the Dark One’s son and his old girlfriend’s son he decides that he’s going a.) possibly use him to get at the Dark One and b.) take care of like his mother would have wanted. He hides him from the shadow’s minions, teaches him things, and refuses to turn him in even though Smee tells him to repeatedly. Unfortunately Bae finds the drawing of his mother Hook keeps in his cabin and attacks him, thinking that he killed her. Hook explains that it was really Bae’s father and that his mother always wanted to go back to get Bae. Hook tells him that they can be family now but Bae refuses because he thinks Hook is only keeping him around for his own gain. And then the Lost Boys – the shadow’s minions – arrive to take Bae because apparently Hook did sell him out in the end. Sad times.

So there’s that.

In the present, Hook rushes to tell David, Emma, and Mary Margaret what is going on. Regina – now rescued by Snow White and realizing that maybe she has been a bitch – goes to help them try to stop the fail safe from triggering. Hook and David try to stop Greg and Tamara but fail to stop them – but Hook does find a magic bean. Regina, consulted about what to do, decides that she can control the power long enough for everyone to jump through the portal into the magical world. Except that doing so will require all her energy and it will kill her. She basically finally realized that she’s never going to be anything more than the evil queen and that this is the best way for Henry to see what she can be. David and Mary Margaret, though, are like “NO! YOU CAN’T DO THAT.” Because they are stupid. They decide instead to try throwing the fail safe through the portal like they did the wraith. Hook, thinking it’s stupid, takes off on his ship.

While everyone in town huddles up with their loved ones (because apparently the whole town is some how okay with ‘trying’ to save Regina instead of definitely saving EVERYONE by using the bean to get the hell out of there) Davd, Emma,  Mary Margaret, Henry, and Regina all are down in the tunnel. Emma uses her own magic and helps Regina destroy the fail safe instead because Hook took off with the magic bean. Because of course he did. Storybrooke is saved but some how during all of this Greg and Tamara sneak into the tunnel and kidnap Henry. They take him through a portal into another world. Devestated, everyone tries to figure out how to get him back. But Rumple says there is no way. Then Hook shows up with his bean and is like, “Hell, let’s go find him.”

Hook is like the flip-floppiest character in this damn show.

Emma, David, Mary Margaret, Regina, Rumple and Hook all get on his ship to go find Henry. Rumple goes along because he’s finally feeling all this regret, too, and now that Belle is actually Belle again and not Lacey he feels like he again needs to try to redeem himself. He says goodbye to her on the docks and gives her a protection spell for the town to cloak it from any of Tamara and Greg’s friends. But he also doesn’t think he’ll come back because Henry is meant to be his undoing and at this point he’s accepted he can’t kill him. He owes that to Bae/Neal.

Using magic, Rumple finds that Henry has been taken to Neverland. So they set sail and get sucked into the portal. In the past, when the Lost Boys bring Bae to shore they have a picture that they compare his face to and while they admit that it looks a lot like him they say Bae is not the boy they are looking for and take him away to join the rest of the Lost Boys. Then, as he’s walking away, the viewers get to see that the drawing is actually of Henry.

And, before the episode ends, we also find out Neal’s fate. Aurora, Mulan and Phillip(!?!?!) find Neal washed up on a beach back in the fairytale world where he began. Some how it seems that Aurora and Mulan used the information Cora gave them to go rescue Phillip at some point between that last time we saw them and now.

So this basically sets the stage for the locations for next season. We’re likely going to be in Neverland – past and present, the Fairytale world, and possibly Storybrooke on occasion seeing how the others handle being alone without Emma, David, Mary Margaret or even Regina for guidance.

But it won’t just be Once Upon A Time next season.

ABC is also going to be taking us back to Wonderland. Recasting the Mad Hatter since Sebastian Stan is awesome and has other stuff to do – and also the Red Queen, it seems –  we’re going to be exploring one other worlds in this potentially ill fated spin-off. Not just Wonderland but other places, too. Also, they seem to be tying in the whole Arabian Nights mythology, too.

Apparently they are going with the whole everyone thinks “Alice is crazy” and her stories are all fantasies thing before whisking her away and back into Wonderland. So we’re probably going to have some past Wonderland, present day insane asylum, and present day Wonderland time jumps through out the series. Also probably some even further back past Wonderland memories for other characters besides Alice.

Honestly, it doesn’t seem like it will be that bad of a show. It seems like it’s got potential.

I just don’t know how well it will fair when it’s sort of competing against the story in Once Upon A Time. I don’t know if viewers are quite so interested in having two very similar shows on the same network. I could see some people worrying that Wonderland would take away from Once Upon A Time and use stories and worlds that should have been saved for the original series to explore.

You can check out the first trailer below and see what you think.