Once Upon A Time Recap: Save Henry

The curse rolled in over the kingdom, as Gold waited for Regina in the past. Gold asks Regina how it felt to kill everything that she ever loved, she believed that she did it to take her life back, but something was still missing. Like every curse, something can break it, Gold told her that one day she’d need a friend, one day she would come to Gold, because there’s a hole in her heart. She thought she’d never need to make another deal with Gold, boy she was wrong.

Now Henry is unconscious after giving his heart to Pan. Emma vows to take it back, but Pan taunts her. He doesn’t think she can do it, as Gold wasn’t able to and now he’s trapped. Emma cuts Pan, but it only scratches the surface, and off he flies.

Eleven years prior, Regina gets a visit from Dr. Hopper (Jiminy Cricket). Something is bothering her, she’s feeling nothing. He tells her that she’s feeling a hole in her life, dissatisfied. He asks her if she ever felt complete, and she tells him when Charles visited. She goes to Gold to help her find a child, but the waitlist is too long to adopt one. She wants him to use his persuasion to get her one immediately. He tells her he’ll get her a child, unsure if that will really fill the void.

Now. Regina puts in under a spell to preserve him. Regina drops the “our” thing. Emma has everything, and all Regina has is Henry, and she can’t bear the thought of losing him. For once, Emma asks Regina how she wants to go about saving Henry. Regina zeros in on Pan’s blood on Emma’s sword. She’s not playing around anymore.

The group gets together to see their options, they have maybe an hour. Regina is ready to torture Felix for the information, but Emma isn’t ready for that. She wants to offer them something more, a mother.

Past. Gold has news for Regina. A nearby adoption fell through, and Regina gets a baby in Boston. Her adoption application seems almost too good to be true, and she’s quickly approved, with the understanding that it’s a closed adoption. She accepts, and Henry is hers.

Emma tries to convince the kids that they’re safe, and tries to appeal to their hopes by sharing her story, how she was a lost girl, but she’s not alone. The boys tell her that Pan is the only family that they know, but Emma insists that they can bring them home, can give them everything that they’ve ever wanted, a family. Felix is dismayed as the children give up Pan when she promises to take them back with her.

Past, Regina brings Henry back to Granny’s in Storybrook, but she’s unable to get him to stop crying. Granny gives her some advice, to tell him a story, and he promptly spits up on her. She takes him to see Dr. Whale, thinking something is wrong, but the doctor cannot find anything wrong with him, that looking at the parental medical records may help. She puts in a call to Sydney to get just that, as she has Mary Margaret hold him. He stops crying for her, but resumes crying when Regina takes him back. The look on her face says it all, it’s not him, but her.

The group puts together a plan to save Henry and capture Pan. Emma, Snow and Regina set off to destroy Pan.

Regina fights with a fussy Henry, and finally gets him to quiet down. Sydney gets her the information that she asked for, and it’s the last thing that she wanted to hear. The mother was found outside Storybrook 18 years prior. Regina goes to Gold, and everything falls into place for her. Gold feigns innocence, but Regina knows what he did. She vows to send Henry back to protect all that she built.

The girls spot Gold’s box in the woods, and Snow goes to grab it, though Regina warns her off it. Vines captures the women, and although Pan is not surprised that they found him, he tells them that they’ll never see Henry again.

Regina goes to return Henry. The agency has no hard feelings over Regina’s change of heart, but Regina finds it harder to say goodbye than she thought. As she looks into his eyes, her heart changes, and she vows to keep him forever. The agency has to tell the Darling brothers the bad news, and they vow to find Henry for Pan. They’ve been waiting for him for a long time.

Pan reveals that Gold is his son. Regina calls him a fraud, tells him that he cannot hurt them or Gold, which is true until his power transfer is complete. They tree attacks regrets, and Emma is full of them Pan tells her. He turns his attention on Snow, taunting her about being a bad mother. Regina stops him, the tree cannot hold Regina because although she did some horrible things, all of them culminated to her getting Henry so she doesn’t have a single regret. The vines loosen, and Regina does a quick snatch, grabbing Pan’s heart. With the heart and box in hand there’s nothing left to stop her.  Which if that is true is kinda lame, because Pan didn’t put up much of a fight.

The girls return to Hook’s ship, and Regina restores Henry his heart. There’s a brief moment when they worry that it didn’t work but he wakes. He apologizes because he wanted to save magic, but there’s hugs all around.

Dr. Hopper is glad everything worked out for Regina and Henry. She fears that Emma will undo everything that she’s built for herself one day, but Hopper insists that she can’t. Regina begins telling Henry fairytales, her life story, their story. Even with her happiness at hand, she feared for her son, and made a forgetting potion, to make her forget her fears, thinking that they could be happy with them gone. She downed her potion, and away went the magic.

Current, Regina dotes on Henry. She uses her powers to protect his heart. She may have been the evil queen, but she did always love that child. She kisses him goodnight, and as she walks away Pan shows up. He apologizes that it has to come to this. Is Henry about to have his heart  cut out since Regina just spelled him from the magical grab? Doubtful, this isn’t that kind of show.

Gold is released and he and Neil make up. Blah blah. Have I ever said how much I hate Neil? Neil asks Gold why he never said that Pan was his father, because they were the same Gold claims. Neil tells him that they’re not. How heart warming. The Charmings deliver good news too, that The Prince is healed and they can all go home. So everyone gets what they want except Hook, who is stuck with a lopsided love triangle. Boo, can he at least hook-up with Tink? Gold feels a disturbance in the force. Pan still wants Henry’s heart, but he cannot get it, so he tries to steal his shadow. But Gold is there to stop him. He tells Pan that the box works both ways, and traps him. Regina panics over Henry, but he’s fine. They blast Pan’s shadow, and Regina binds it to the boat so they can all fly home. Charming delivers some feel good words with Emma about being united, that they all came to the island with their own agendas and roles (Villain, Pirate, Hero) and because of her they united and became a team. Wendy gives Tink a gift, the last bit of pixy dust. Tink tells her that she can’t get it to work because she lost her wings, but Wendy tells her that she believes in her. Neil worries over Henry, and tells him that he has a dad now and forever. Tink and Regina mend fences a little, and Regina notices Tink’s glowing dust, seems her magic is gone because of her lack of belief. Felix is still team Pan all the way, and refuses to eat, but Pan  is a tricksy one and did a little switcheroo. Felix takes the offered food from Henry/Pan, and the new game begins…