Well, the season finale has come and gone, and I’m left with more questions than answers! Is this what it felt like to be at the end of the various seasons of “Lost” and not know what was going on?
The Fairy Tale Land plot is a little bit secondary to the Storybrooke plot, but some major things do happen–Prince Charming is helped out of the Evil Queen’s castle by our friend, the Huntsman! It’s good to see him again, but it’s only very briefly. We later find Prince Charming trapped in the Infinite Forest by the Evil Queen, but is once again helped, this time by Rumpelstiltskin. Rumple creates an enchantment for Charming’s mother’s ring, which will alert Charming to Snow White’s whereabouts. The catch is that Charming has to do a chore for Rumple–stick the potion for True Love inside the “belly of the beast,” Maleficent in dragon form.
Charming is able to complete this seemingly-impossible task and finally makes her way to Snow White (Rumple is obviously very adamant that he find her), but the dwarves tell him he’s too late–Snow is already “dead.” We know how the story goes from there, right? But in the end, after Snow and Charming are together, they decide to take the kingdom back from the Evil Queen.
Back in Storybrooke, Henry is in the hospital, in critical condition. Emma is at her wits’ end about what could have caused his ailment, and she’s left with the only logical conclusion, even if it’s the most improbable (yes, I referenced Sherlock Holmes). Upon touching Henry’s book of fairy tales, Emma instantly remembers everything about her storybook life. Now armed with this new knowledge, she is set down the path of having to work with Regina and Mr. Gold in order to retrieve the True Love potion, which involves Emma killing Maleficent to get the potion.
Meanwhile, Regina has abruptly ended her deal with Jefferson to deliver his daughter to her. She also insults him, saying he doesn’t have the guts to kill her. Tired of being used by Regina, he decides to give the upper hand to Rumpelstiltskin by releasing Belle from her hospital prison and telling her to find Mr. Gold. He specifically instructs her to tell him that Regina trapped her. This news, of course, gets to Mr. Gold, and I think this knowledge spurred him on to formulate his new plan, to unleash a new curse on Storybrooke, bringing magic into this world.
The biggest news of the episode, however, is Henry’s declining health. Eventually, he slips away into death, leading Emma to give one last goodbye in the form of a kiss on the forehead. This kiss–True Love’s Kiss (the true love a mother has for her son, that is)–ends the curse, causing everyone to remember their true selves. However, Rumple begins to exact his plan, causing time to stop at 8:15. For some reason, Regina is happy about this new curse–I don’t know why, since Rumple seems to want to not only bring magic back to Storybrooke, but to exact some revenge. I’m actually intrigued to see what this new curse brings, but I just hope everyone remembers who they are. I don’t think I can take another season of denial.
What do you think about the season finale? Give your opinions in the comments section below.
(Photo credit: David Gray/ABC)