Going Home (Once Upon a Time)

Emma Swan's yellow Volkswagen Beetle drives through the Enchanted Forest.

As the Curse prepares to take place within hours, Snow White and Prince Charming tell the Blue Fairy that they are worried about the Curse. The Fairy tells them that there was nothing she can do except try to save the baby and that someday everything will be okay... someday. This was not the answer that Snow wanted, but Charming keeps on assuring her that everything will be okay. Snow looks at Emma's crib and believes the only thing her daughter will have is hope.

While he and Mr. Smee attempt to find a way off the island, Hook is unaware that someone has been following them, and uses a branch that takes Smee out. Hook looks at his unconscious mate and is surprised by Tinker Bell, who pulls out a knife in front of him. However, Hook, figuring out that Tinker Bell is a fairy, tells her that he has only one thing on his mind, which is to seek revenge on Rumplestilskin. He offers her a bottle of rum.

At Rumplestiltskin's castle, Rumple is marking Baelfire's birthday, and Belle approaches him. She says that maybe Rumple and his son can someday be together again, but Rumple, who did not want Belle to bother him, doubts that will ever happen.

In the days prior to Emma's arrival to break the Curse, Henry is talking to Mary Margaret, saying that he is frustrated that no one else in Storybrooke can see that their lives are just following a predictable pattern, referring to the entire town repeating everything since he arrived. As a way to get Henry to believe in himself, Mary Margaret gives him a large book called Once Upon a Time, which will set things up for Henry to bring his birth mother to Storybrooke, after Henry starts seeing Mary Margaret as Snow White.

Real – In the prison hospital, Emma gives birth to Henry, when she is asked by the doctor if she wants to see the baby, Emma declines. When the doctor tells her it isn't too late to change her mind, Emma says she can't be a mother.

New – In 2001, Emma finally gives birth to Henry at the prison hospital. However, the outcome takes a different twist: Instead of giving up Henry, she decides to keep him instead after she sees her son for the first time and she holds him, thus altering the outcome of her destiny thanks to Regina's spell.

At the well, Pan (who still occupies Henry's body) and Felix are talking about casting the Curse, as Pan drops the ingredients he took from Regina's vault in the well. He takes the final element needed to enact it, which was Felix's heart, because of his loyalty to Pan. Pan rips out Felix's heart, crushes it, and drops the ashes into the well. Back at the Vault, Gold explains that the only person who can stop it is Regina, but she will need the scroll to do it and since she was the one who enacted it in the first place, Regina is only one who can destroy the scroll. However, Gold warns Regina there will be a price. Gold also tells the others that he may be able to switch Henry and Pan's bodies back, but he needs the one thing that will reverse it, which is the wand of the Black Fairy. As everyone involved begins the search, Snow talks to Emma, lamenting that she never got to raise her daughter as Emma expresses empathy how she hasn't done the same for Henry, while at the church (where the other fairies/nuns are gathering for Mother Superior's wake), David, Tinker Bell, Hook, and Neal are looking for the wand, unaware that another individual is also looking for it as well: Pan's Shadow. Hook spots the Shadow but fails to stop it, prompting Tinker Bell to come to his aid by using some of her Pixie Dust to fly up to the Shadow, trapping and throwing it into a nearby fire, apparently killing it. Her actions also bring Mother Superior, whose shadow was taken by Pan's Shadow, back to life. She restores Tinker Bell as a real fairy and gives them the Black Fairy's wand.

Back at Gold's pawn shop, everyone gathers again to plan another course of action as Gold puts a special bracelet on Henry (who is occupying Peter Pan's body) so that when they swap bodies again, Pan will not have any magic. Gold then uses the wand and swaps Pan and Henry's bodies back. After they see Peter Pan back in his original body, Gold stands over his unconscious and powerless father, saying that he has some "unfinished family business" as everyone leaves to find Henry and the scroll. They find Henry (now in his original body) at the library, but as he hands the scroll over to Regina, a flash of light comes over her and she is knocked out. Around the same time at the shop, and as Pan wakes up, Gold taunts him because he wants Pan to see a bit of what life could have been like if they had just been father and son, but Pan wants none of it, telling Gold how horrible it was having a child that crushed his dreams. Gold picks up a sword and approaches Pan, who is aware that he is able to remove the bracelet (since Pan created the device) and places it on Gold, rendering him powerless, and then blasts Gold across the room, leaving his son cowering in the corner. Gold attempts to find a way to regain his powers, and the only way he can break free of the bracelet is by chopping off his hand.

Later at the street, Regina wakes up and says she knows what must be done to stop the Curse, however, Pan shows up to retrieve the scroll and freezes all of them. Pan decides to take out his grandson Neal, only to be thwarted by Gold, who shows up to stop him. After vowing to Neal and Belle that he is finally ready to pay the price to keep them safe knowing that means killing himself, Gold's shadow appears, carrying the Dark One's Dagger and hands it to Gold, who stabs both Pan in the back and himself in the chest at the same time. Pan transforms back into his true form and identity, Malcolm, who urges Gold to remove the dagger so they can start over and have a happy ending, but Gold tells his father "Ah, but, I am a villain, and villains don't get happy endings." He twists the knife and both men vanish in a burst of light. As Belle cries after they disappear, Neal asks a hesitant Regina if there is a way to stop the Curse, to which Regina replies that the only way to stop it is to give up the one thing she loved the most: Henry. As the Curse approaches, Regina tells Emma that she and Henry will have to leave Storybrooke forever because once the Curse takes place everyone will return to the Enchanted Forest and since Henry was born in the Land Without Magic, he won't be able to go back with them, but Emma will be able to stay with him because she's the savior and the only one who can escape it. Everyone gathers at the town line to say goodbye to Emma and Henry. Hook tells Emma that he will think of her every day; she smiles and says good. Regina casts a spell that will give Emma and Henry a lifetime of good memories, but they will forget everything that happened in Storybrooke. As Emma and Henry drive away, Regina destroys the scrolls, the Curse consumes everyone, and Storybrooke disappears.

One year later in New York City, Emma and Henry are in an apartment, and as she makes breakfast for Henry, she receives a knock on the door. When she opens it, she sees Hook standing outside, saying that he needs her help. This time around Hook warns Emma that her family is in trouble, but she has no idea who Hook is or what he is talking about. Hook, believing that "true love's kiss" will bring her memories back, attempts to kiss Emma, but the shock results in Emma kicking Hook, pushing him away, and violently slamming the door in his face. When Henry asks Emma who was at the door, she tells him that she doesn't know.

During an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Robbie Kay, who portrayed Peter Pan, talked about the body-switching plot and venturing to Storybrooke, saying "so there's an environmental shift so that character is not in his own court, if you will. So he's adapting to a new environment and obviously in the most recent episodes there was also a character shift. So I'm playing Henry and Jared [Gilmore] is playing Pan. That again was crazy, but a lot of fun."^[4]