Once Upon a Time: Going Home (3x11)

I was a mess after I watched this. Seriously, it was pretty emotionally gutting. And surprising! Things happened in this episode that I would not have expected. As always, Once Upon a Time pushes the envelope and never lets any of its tricks get stale. Whenever you feel like you're starting to understand the game, they change the rules. And I love that. Let's talk about the plot.

In the character's pasts, we got tons of little bits and pieces. For example, we see Snow and Charming worrying about the impending curse. The Blue Fairy says she has faith that things will somehow be okay, but Snow says the only thing she still has hope for is that Emma will have happiness. In Neverland, Smee is knocked out by Tinker Bell. A surprised Hook converses with the fairy, revealing that he wants a way off of the island to find revenge on Rumplestiltskin. It's all he cares about. In Rumplestiltskin's castle, Belle catches Rumple lighting a candle in Bae's honor for his birthday. Belle says that maybe it's not too late for him to find his son, but Rumple expresses his doubts. In Storybrooke's past, we see Henry expressing his impatience with the repetitive world around him. He talks to Mary Margaret about it, and she says she has something for him - suddenly, a book appeared in her closet that she had never seen before - Once Upon a Time, the book of fairy tales that caused Henry to go find Emma in the first place.

Alright, so at first as I was watching these flashbacks I found myself having some of the complaints I often have about this show, which is that they are very often repetitive. However, when looking at the episode as a whole, these flashbacks were extremely strong. Each one of them provided a setup that was then played upon in the main plot of the episode. Snow gives up her daughter for hope at a good future, and then in the course of the episode she must give up her daughter again, this time for Emma's sake instead of her and her husband's. Hook tells Tinker Bell he cares for nothing but revenge, but in the course of the episode he manages to risk his life to save the group, and he expresses how much he cares for Emma. Rumple says he has little hope of seeing Bae again, but by the end of the episode he has made the ultimate sacrifice for his son, who expresses great pride in him. And Henry is given the storybook that starts everything, and by the end Storybrooke itself is no more, the curse broken and Henry's life completely changed. These flashbacks did a wonderful job of highlighting the emotional poignancy of a lot of what happened in the main plot.

Speaking of that main plot... let's get to it. First of all, Pan enacts his special curse, which will wipe everyone's memories of who they are once more. In order to do so, he has to sacrifice the person he loves the most, which it turns out is Felix. Meanwhile, Rumple tells Regina that she's the only one who can stop the curse from happening, but of course it will come with a price. So how do they stop the curse? Well, the first step is to switch Henry and Pan back into their correct bodies. Then, Henry will have possession of the physical paper with the Curse on it, which will allow Regina to stop it.

In order to switch Henry and Pan, they need the wand of the Black Fairy, apparently. Blue had it before she died, but when the gang go to try and get it, Pan's shadow turns up. In order to defeat the shadow, Hook nearly sacrifices his life, but Tinker Bell is the one to save the day. With the shadow gone, Blue comes back from the dead and gives them the wand that they need. Rumple puts a cuff on Pan's body that will stop him from using magic once he's returned to his proper body. The switch occurs, and Henry, now in his own body again, reunites happily with his family, the Curse in hand.

So, Rumple waits with his father. When Pan wakes up, he reveals that the magic-blocking cuff doesn't work on him, since he created it. He incapacitates Rumple and leaves to find the others. Regina realizes what she has to do to stop the curse, and the price is indeed heavy. As Pan shows up to taunt them all, it seems for a moment as if all hope is lost. But, Rumple shows up, finally willing to do what it takes to defeat Pan. He stabs himself and Pan together, and they both die.

Regina now tells everyone what she must do to stop Pan's curse - she has to give up the thing she loves the most, which is of course Henry. When she undoes the Curse, it will send everyone back to where they are supposed to go, and Storybrooke will cease to exist. Henry can't go to the fairy tale world because he was born in this world, but Emma can stay with him. Regina even gives Emma and Henry a lifetime of happy memories together, which means they forget everything about their old family.

Flash forward one year, to see Emma and Henry living in a very nice apartment (unrealistically nice, actually) when Hook shows up at the door. Emma of course has no idea who he is, and when he tries to make her remember by kissing her, she still doesn't know what's going on. Hook tells Emma that her family is in trouble, which of course makes no sense to Emma.

And thus endeth the plot. We're now on hiatus until March. I gotta say, I was pretty impressed with this one. I'll start with the negative stuff, because yeah, of course I've got some complaints.

The main complaint is actually... the pacing. A lot of really heartfelt moments happened in this episode, but what ended up taking place was that most of the important moments were just... people standing around talking for a really long time. For example, when Pan shows up and confronts everyone at the end, he makes a typical villain speech, where he talks on way too long before getting to his evil business. And then Rumple shows up, and the two of them talk on and on before the actual death thing happens. And then when Emma and Henry are saying goodbye to everyone, it's very repetitive, and very slow. Regina says goodbye to Emma and Henry. Emma and Henry say goodbye to Mary Margaret and David. Emma and Henry say goodbye to Neal. Emma says goodbye to Hook. Everyone is hugging and crying and it's all very touching, but it's also very slow.

The other element I found rather stupid was the thing with the Black Fairy and all that. I was happy to see Tinker Bell come into her own and save the day, but I thought it was extremely indulgent and stupid that Blue was able to come back to life when the shadow died. Really? This show apparently doesn't shy away from death, given that we've now apparently lost Rumple. A character like the Blue Fairy would have been a good one to kill off, actually - it would be sad to lose her, but not an insurmountable loss. Instead, they brought her back. Ultimately, this whole fight against Pan's shadow was good for the character development it offered Tinker Bell and Hook, but on a plot level it was rather silly.

Now let's turn to the stuff that I do like. Even though the timing was a bit awkward during all of the goodbyes, a lot of these moments were really powerful in terms of acting. For example, when Regina took Emma aside and offered to give her a lifetime of good memories... oh my word. That was just too sweet. And Belle's reaction to Rumple's death nearly had me in tears. All of the hugs and the emotions and... yeah, wow, it was pretty great.

I also loved the two big twists that came in this episode. First of all, Rumple's death. If Robert Carlyle is really gone for good I'll be really upset of course, but it was such an amazing scene for his character. He has grown and changed quite a lot since we first met him, and the progression from the villain to the hero was very well paced and his death was quite dramatic, even if there seemed to be a lot of extra talk.

The other big twist was the one-year-later bit, which I think is a fantastic decision. This show obviously gives us a lot of the past, and giving us a piece of the future was a fantastic way to go out with a bang before hiatus. I just can't believe we have to wait until March to see what happens next!

8/10