BWW Recap: The Curse is Finally Broken on ABC's ONCE UPON A TIME!

As the episode begins, we find ourselves once again revisiting the events of the missing year in the Enchanted Forest. Regina, the Charmings, Robin Hood, Aurora, and Phillip debate the Witch's intentions toward terrorizing them, but fail to see what the Witch the could want from them. Belle arrives and informs the group of her and Neil's quest the revive Rumpelstiltskin; although they succeeded, the Witch forced Neil's mind to be trapped within Rumpelstiltskin's body, and now has Rumpel's dagger in her possession. Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip then reveal that the Witch came to them and threatened the safety of their unborn child unless they informed her of Snow and Charming's arrival to the kingdom, for she desires the Charmings' baby for an unknown reason. They apologize for betraying their friends just before the Wicked Witch abruptly appears, and promptly turns the prince and princess into flying monkeys despite their compliance to her desires. The Witch freezes Snow where she stands with magic, and with Snow paralyzed, touches her pregnant belly. The Witch seems elated, and announces that the baby will be very important one day, as she suspected.

After the Witch departs from the castle, everyone is in agreement that she must be stopped. Keeping in mind Rumpelstilskin's help in outsmarting Regina's former curse, they decide to break into Rumpel's Castle and consult the recently revived Dark One.

Back in Storybrooke, Regina and Robin Hood are seen kissing. Looks like Regina has finally given in to Robin's advances! In a sweet moment, Regina asks what he could possibly see in her, and Robin replies, "A second chance". Henry interrupts this exchange, and awkwardly apologies before exiting. Regina is slightly embarrassed, but it is clear that we are now getting a taste of her sensitive side!

Meanwhile, our heroes speculate that they must have figured something important out about the Witch during the missing year, causing her to curse the former residents of the Enchanted Forest back into Storybrooke before they could override her evil plans. Because Emma previously saved the town from succumbing to Regina's original curse through her belief in magic and displaying an act of love by kissing her son Henry on the forehead, everyone believes they could break the current curse through similar means. They scheme to make Henry believe in magic once again, and hopefully regain the memories of the missing year and remember what the Witch's weaknesses are.

Rumpelstiltskin and the Witch meet on the side of a highway in Storybrooke, and Rumpel opens the trunk of his car to reveal that Hook is tied up in the backseat. The Witch reminds him that he must kiss Emma, thus taking her magic due to his cursed lips. The Witch threatens that if he fails to kiss Emma before the Charmings' baby arrives, she will begin killing people.

In a flashback to the missing year in the Enchanted Forest, the Charmings, Regina, Robin Hood, and Belle break into Rumpel's castle, and find the Dark One locked in a cage and evidently going mad. Nevertheless, they inquire as to how to stop the Wicked Witch. After some prodding from Belle, Rumpel instructs them to seek out The Good Witch of the South, Galinda.

The Charmings, accompanied by Regina, search the woods for the Good Witch. They discover a portal shaped like a door of sorts, and Snow and Charming go through. Regina fails to go through the portal because one must be pure at heart to enter. On the other end of the portal is a beautiful winter wonderland, and luckily, the Good Witch. When Snow asks why the Galinda resides in the North, she admits that she was banished from the South. Galinda also reveals that she and Wicked Witch were once good friends, and she gave her a pendent in which all her magic resides. Apparently, the Witch can only be defeated by 'light magic', which is the magic of love. Since Emma is the product of true love, she would be the best candidate for defeating the Witch, but Snow and Charming have no way of reaching her.

The Charmings return to Regina with this information and try to develop a plan. They decided they would need a to cast another dark curse similar to Regina's first curse in order to cross realms and contact Emma, but the curse calls for the sacrifice of the thing the caster loved most. Regina loves Henry more than anything, and even if she were up for sacrificing him, he is in another realm as well, so Regina cannot be the one to cast the curse. Boldly, Charming suggests that Snow kill him and crush his heart, thus fulfilling the curse's requirements.

Back in Storybrooke, the gang decides the best way to make Henry believe in fairytales once again would be the show him his former book of stories. They decide to search for the book in Emma and Henry's apartment. To excuse her absence, Emma tells Henry she needs to hunt down a new lead for work, but Henry doesn't believe her; he demands to know what she is truly up to, especially if it involves the murderer of his father. Emma scolds him, claiming she is his mother and knows what's best for him, and refuses to tell him of her plans. Henry asks for the keys to the apartment so he can retrieve his gameboy if he was going to be alone for the afternoon, and Emma complies.

Henry ventures up to the apartment, and retrieves Emma's car keys rather than his gameboy; just as he finds Emma's car and attempts to open it, Hook catches him in the act. Hook coerces Henry into admitting that he was planning to go to the bus station to head back home to New York. Hook offers to help him get back home.

Meanwhile, the others begin to search Emma and Henry's apartment for the book of stories. Emma looks in a trunk and cannot find anything, but Snow looks in the same trunk and uncovers the book. No one is sure why Snow could locate the book before everyone else.

Soon, Emma realizes Henry is missing; she uses GPS on his phone to find out Henry is at the dock. It turns out Hook brought Henry to meet Mr. Smee at the dock, where they planned to take Henry back to New York. However, a flying monkey appears, and the three take cover to an abandoned building near the dock.

The Charmings, Regina, and Emma go to the dock in search of Henry, and discover Hook, Smee, and Henry in the abandoned building running from the flying monkey. Regina uses magic to burn the creature, and Emma shoots at it with her gun. Once the creature is defeated, Emma gives Henry the story book, and insists that his reading it will make him understand everything, as long as he chooses to believe in magic. As soon as Henry touches the book, his memories come flooding back to him, and he recalls everything he once forgot. As per usual, the Witch saunters into the building, and grabs Henry in a chokehold, nearly killing him. Regina tries to stop her, but the Witch strikes her with magic, and she falls to the ground, unconscious. Emma uses maid to burn the Witch's hands, causing her to release the boy. The Witch threatens that she will be back for Henry, but flies off.

Henry rushes to Regina's side and tries to wake her up; after stalling a moment, she eventually comes into consciousness. Regina promises never to leave him again, and kisses his forehead. Through her act of love, the curse is lifted, and the memories of the past year are returned to everyone once cursed.

In the Enchanted Forest, Charming continues to persuade Snow into crushing his heart so they can cast the dark curse. Snow argues that their baby will never know their father that way, but Charming insists they will in a way, for Charming and Snow have shared one heart since the day they met and fell in love. Snow reluctantly agrees to crush Charming's heart, for she knows it is the only way to stop the Wicked Witch. After an emotional goodbye kiss, Regina rips Charming's heart from his chest, and Snow tearily pronounces her love for him before crushing his heart into the cauldron containing the dark curse. Just then, the Witch flies overhead, and adds some memory potion of her own to the cauldron; she announces that no one will be able to remember why they wanted to go to Storybrooke in the first place once they get there, for the memory potion will rob them of their memories.

After the Witch leaves, Snow comes up with a plan; she begs Regina to split her heart and place one half in Charming's dead body with the hopes of reviving him, for she is confident their love was strong enough to become one heart. Regina complies, placing one half of Snow's heart in each of their bodies. Luckily, Snow's plan works, and Charming is fully revived.

Back in our world, with the Charmings' memories restored, they recall that they were the ones who put the curse in place, and inform Emma that she must be the one to defeat the Wicked Witch. In addition, Hook admits to Emma that he was trying to help Henry get out of the town, for he knew the Witch was after him. However, Snow and Charming aren't quick to trust him, for they never remember sending him the original memory potion that he used to restore Emma's memories back in New York.

A flashback reveals that the Witch gave Rumpel some memory potion before the curse was cast, that way he could remember his son's 'death'. Just before he drank the potion, Neil (who has been trapped within Rumpel's mind) breaks free of Rumpel's body, and gives the potion to a bird to take to Captain Hook. Therefore, Neil must have known the potion would help lead Emma back to Storybrooke.

In the final scene, The Charmings, Emma, and Henry visit Neil's grave. Emma and Henry are still heavily grieving Neil's death. But in a startling cliffhanger, Snow goes into labor, meaning the next product of true love will be arriving on next week's episode! The long awaited birth of Snow and Charming's baby is sure to shake up Storybrooke even further.

(ABC/Jack Rowand

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