BWW Recap: No Rest for the Wicked on ABC's ONCE UPON A TIME

As the episode begins, we find Prince Charming wandering around a Castle in what appears to be the Enchanted Forest. The sound of a baby's cry startles him, and he runs toward the noise. He stumbles into what can only be a nursery, and is stunned to Turn around and find Emma before him, dressed in an exquisite ball gown. She tells her father how excited she is for her very first ball, and Charming playfully teaches her to dance in preparation for the big event. But, Emma admits that none of this is real, and Charming is inside a fantasy.

Quite suddenly, the room starts warping and a portal appears, which begins sucking Emma into its clutches. Charming grabs ahold of her and attempts to save her; while struggling to hold her, Emma warns him not to fail his next baby as he failed her. Emma is then sucked into the portal.

We then flash to Prince Charming and Snow White in their bedroom in the Enchanted Forest. Excitedly, Snow shares the news that she is pregnant, so this incident must have taken place during the missing year of memories we are still unaware of.

Back in Storybrooke, Emma, Regina, Hook, and the Charmings make plans to hunt down the Wicked Witch. They still remain clueless as to what her Storybrooke identity is. Regina offers to focus her attention on protecting Henry, who has no memories of the fairy tale characters at all.

Meanwhile, the Wicked Witch visits Rumpelstiltskin in his jail cell. We are unaware of how long the Witch has kept him down there, but he is clearly going mad. We discover that the Witch has Rumpel's daggar, so he is virtually powerless to her. Rumpel questions what she is truly seeking from their endeavor, and the Witch evilly states that she will find her heart's desire soon enough.

Afterwards, the Witch goes to Rumpel's old shop and pays a visit to Belle. The Witch distracts Belle by claiming she would like to purchase a baby gift for Snow White, but when Belle turns her back, the Witch freezes her with magic. She then breaks into Rumpel's safe and steals a rock of some sort from it.

Emma, Hook, and Charming search Regina's office, where the Witch was last spotted. They find a berry that can only grow on a certain bush in the woods, so they decide the woods are the best place to look for another clue. Charming then receives a text from Snow saying he should come home, for they have a meeting with their midwife. Little to their knowledge, their midwife is actually the Wicked Witch.

In the Enchanted Forest (and also within the forgotten year), Charming is seen drinking in the stables. Robin Hood wanders in, and the two have a conversation about Snow's impending pregnancy. Charming admits that he is scared to death of being a father due to the events with Emma, and is almost dreading the birth of the baby. Robin tells him of a mysterious 'night root' that can take away fears, and advises him to take him. However, the root can only be found a haunted part of the woods.

In Storybrooke, Snow and Charming meet with the Wicked Witch- their 'midwife'. The Witch offers to make them some tea, which she slips some sort of poison into one of the mugs, which she gives to Charming. The Witch assures them that the labor process will go smoothly, and that they have nothing to be afraid of. They then make a toast, and Charming drinks the poisoned tea.

Meanwhile, Charming finds the night root in the woods of the Enchanted Forest and eats it. Immediately afterwards, the prince hears a girl's cry, and he seeks out the voice. He discovers a tremendous tower, and skillfully climbs up the wall. He reaches the top, and climbs inside a window to discover a girl with incredibly long hair that introduces herself as Rapunzel. Charming questions her presence, and she informs him that she left her happy kingdom in search of night root herself, for she feared ruling her kingdom one day after the death of her older brother. However, after consuming the root, a witch of some sort appeared and chased her into the tower, and has not let her leave since.

We then flash to Regina and Henry eating ice cream back in Storybrooke. Henry admits to Regina that he believes Emma moved them to Maine because of something that happened between her and Walsh, her boyfriend. However, Henry is unaware that Walsh is actually a flying monkey, so Emma isn't exactly 'dating' him anymore!

In the woods of Storybrooke, Charming spots a strange hooded figure. He leaves a message on Emma's cell phone stating that he believes he has found the Wicked Witch, then turns to attack the figure. In parallel, the same hooded figure begins climbing up Rapunzel's tower in the Enchanted Forest. Charming tries to stop it before it enters Rapunzel's room, but fails; the enemy successfully enters the room and corners Rapunzel.

Meanwhile, Emma and Hook discover a house in the woods. Even more suspiciously, they stumble upon a storm cellar, which we as an audience recognize as the place in which the Wicked Witch is keeping Rumpelstiltskin. Emma wants to go down there, but Hook stops her, claiming that there could be monstrous creatures down there and that they should request backup. When Emma goes to call Regina, she sees the missed call from Charming, and she and Hook venture off to find him.

In our world, the hooded figure has began dueling with Charming, who rips off the hood to reveal its true identity- however, he sees his own face. We then flash back to Rapunzel's tower, where her own hooded enemy is revealed to be a model of herself as well. Enchanted-Forest-Charming realizes that the night root has encompassed all of Rapunzel's fears into the hooded person, and she must face those fears in order to make it go away. Rapunzel is too afraid, so Charming attempts to attack the enemy. He knocks it off the tower, but it begins to climb back up again via Rapunzel's hair. After some prodding and encouragement from Charming, Rapunzel decides to face her fears and cut off her hair, thus sending the enemy flying down towards the ground, where it disappears into thin air. Similarly, the Charming in our world finds courage of his own when he sees Emma's car approaching in the distance; he is suddenly filled with courage, and swears that though he is afraid of being a good father, he will not let that fear stop him from doing all he can for his child. He plunges his sword into his opponent, and his enemy and sword disappear.

Emma, Regina, and Hook run up to Charming, who tells them of his duel. Charming is confused as to why his sword disappears, but Regina explains that the enemy had taken the sword because it was filled with his courage. The gang informs Charming of the house they have found, and they all agree to make a visit to the storm cellar.

In the Enchanted Forest, Rapunzel is reunited with her parents. Snow asks Charming where he was off to all night, and Charming admits to his excursion for the night root. He finally tells Snow of his fears towards becoming a father, for he never got an opportunity to raise Emma and does not want to fail this child. Snow comforts him, and assures him that they will work together.

In the final scene, Emma, Regina, Hook, and Charming travel down the storm cellar- interestingly, the lock was broken. Regina senses dark magic as they travel down the stairs, which is quite suspicious. The gang finds Rumpel's cage, but he is not in it; we can safely assume that Rumpel has escaped. However, the group sees Rumpel's spinning wheel and some straw-turned-gold, so they know who has been encaged. Now that everyone knows Rumpel is alive, things are about to get even more topsy-turvy in Storybrooke.

Photo credit: ABC/Jack Rowand

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