Once Upon a Time is almost at its season finale and the feels are officially here. Just like everyone else, I am not ready to see all of my favourites go.
The episode begins with Lucy panicking over Henry and Jacinda’s kiss not breaking the curse. Everything seems even more doomed when the sky ignites with fire and Mother Gothel arrives to tell Lucy and Regina that the balance of nature is resetting and humanity will not survive it. Regina and her loved ones can escape if she agrees to be Gothel’s eighth witch, but Regina refuses. Regina still thinks Henry can pull them through, but Gothel assures her that her son doesn’t believe.
In a flashback to Storybrooke, Henry is off to his senior year of high school and decides he wants to apply to colleges outside of Storybrooke. He’s the only one in his class who isn’t a magical person from the Fairytale Land so he thinks he should give the outside world a chance.
Meanwhile in Hyperion Heights, Rumple has a change of mind and decides to help Henry. Although he doesn’t have any magic, he siphons off some memory juice from Nick in order to help Henry get his thoughts together. Rumple is worried that he’ll never return to Belle so he thinks that if he helps his family here, he won’t be alone.
Tilly is still working with Gothel even though Rogers tries his best to convince her to stop casting spells. One of the witches shrinks into a tree right in front of them and explains that she’s fulfilled her duty and awarded a place in the “Eternal Grove”. Rogers decides to grab Tilly and run, but he’s still cursed and unable to move her so he promises to come back for her and runs off to get help.
Back in Storybrooke, Regina brings Henry a bunch of college applications from outside of the area. She’s not very pleased when he suggests that he’s interested in going to film school in Los Angeles, but Regina says that “being a parent also means learning to let go”. Does Emma get no say in any of this? Little does this version of Regina know, that her other version is trying so hard not to let go of her child.
In Hyperion Heights, Roni is trying to jog Henry’s memory by offering him a grilled cheese sandwich and spiking his coffee with Rumple’s memory serum. She’s disappointed when nothing happens and he can see it on her face. He decides again, that they aren’t fairytale characters and he’s just going to live his life the way it is.
But Lucy is not and alerts Jacinda and Sabine who are currently worried about Drew being MIA. They think that Dr. Facilier might have something to do with his disappearance.
Back at the station, Rogers demands information from Rumple about what is happening as he knows Rumple knows everything. Rumple tells him, “Magic is real. All of it, everything you read in Henry Mills’ book. We are all from another realm.” Rogers is confused, but he can’t deny what he’s seen. His next question is which character is he? They pay a visit to Margot and ask her to help talk Tilly out of what she is doing.
Lucy joins Regina at the graveyard where Victoria is buried and Regina tells her that since the potion and memory juice didn’t work, she’s got another idea. She thinks he should see the book and maybe it’s the wake-up call he needs. But this proves to also not work as Henry’s mind is too set on his cursed sense of reality.
Storybrooke Henry is having a hard time with the fact that he’s gotten into every school he applied to except all his admissions essays had nothing to do with his actual life. Regina refuses to agree that he should stay home in Storybrooke and says he needs to get out into the world.
Meanwhile, despite Margot pleading with Tilly to give her a chance to turn this day into something else, she casts her aside leaving them to watch as the witches turn into saplings for the sake of Gothel’s ultimate plan.
When Sabine and Jacinda show up in Samdi’s office, they reunite with Drew, but also get locked into the same containment closet because of the magical voodoo doll he stabs to incapacitate Sabine. No one knows what Samdi wants from them including us.
Back at Jacinda’s house, Lucy melts down over Henry refusing to believe. She wishes he had never grown up and doesn’t want to be thought of as a stepdaughter or something of that sort. She locks herself in her room in a fit of frustration and he sees the adoption papers that Roni had sworn belonged to them in another lifetime. Henry decides to take a closer look at the evidence and beside his name, there’s a number which he dials.
Storybrooke Henry is readying himself for graduation when the phone rings. Upon answering, the sound of his own voice stirs up memories that adult Henry had lost. He remembers his mothers, time with Ella, his friends, family and experiences. Oh, and he remembers hearing a key piece of advice that he shares with his younger self, “Home isn’t a place. It’s the people in it. And they’ll always be with you.” Yes, I might have teared up a bit at this.
Regina has decided to fight Gothel one-on-one as she’s sure she has nothing left to lose due to her son not believing anything she’s told him. Regina has no magic, but she has her baseball bat and anger. Of course, she’s easily defeated until Henry arrives with his fully restored memory, he saves his mother with a kiss on the forehead. Since it’s technically true love’s kiss, the town’s curse is lifted!
Now, out of her trance, Tilly becomes Alice once again and Margot remembers herself to be Robin before sharing a kiss and it’s adorable! Rogers realises he’s Captain Hook and he’s been partners with the crocodile this whole time.
Unfortunately, there’s still work to be done. Gothel is transforming the two into her own little tree village and only Alice can stop her. Gothel thinks Alice is on her side, but Alice decides to fight her and says that she chooses love while her mother chose hate. The two fight like Harry Potter and Voldemort and it doesn’t take long for Alice to defeat her. Gothel is transformed into a dark, twisted, and ugly tree and Alice sprinkles the base with blue flowers before bidding her mother farewell.
Everyone reunites and the curse is broken. Storybrooke Henry leaves a lovely note for his mother that tells him his real personal essay. Sabine, Jacinda, and Drew reclaim their identities but can’t fight Facilier because he takes off. Jacinda reunites with Henry and Lucy as a family and Roni joins in. It’s an absolutely beautiful scene!
Rumple finds that his memory book has been stolen by the witch doctor and it has brought Rumplestiltskin back into the world so that Rumple can face his biggest enemy who turns out to be himself.
Final Thoughts?
I love how they broke the curse in this episode instead of the series finale. I loved Gothel as a villain and how everything wrapped up! I cannot believe that there are two more episodes left! I am so not ready for this show to end.
Once Upon A Time returns next week for its two-part series finale!
