A Mother’s Love and the Journey Home!! Once Upon a Time S3 Ep.9 Recap!!

WARNING: SPOILER ALERTS!!

Emma, Regina and Neal try to revive Henry. Pan tells them the Rumplestiltskin is trapped in Pandora’s Box. In the past, Regina speaks with Archie Hopper who tells her that her life is empty. She then speaks with Gold about adopting a child. Regina places a preservation spell on Henry. Neal is uncertain that they’ll be able to stop Pan until Regina points out the blood on Emma’s sword. They meet up with David and Mary Margaret where they are told that the spell Regina placed with fade in an hour. Regina demands to know where Pan is. Emma reasons with the Lost Boys but Felix fights hard to keep the rest of the Lost Boys from revealing Pan’s location. They tell Emma that Pan is at his thinking tree. Neal stays with Henry, Hook and the Lost Boys while Emma, Regina, and Mary Margaret head to the Pixie Wood to find Pan. The girls find the tree and Pandora’s Box. However, they are captured by Pan. Pan reveals that he is Rumplestiltskin’s father and that the tree they are tied to will trap anyone who has regret. Regina manages to free her and Emma and Mary Margaret after revealing that she has no regret for everything that she has done. She seizes the opportunity to remove Henry’s heart from Pan and take Pandora’s Box. Aboard the Jolly Roger, Regina places Henry’s heart back into his body. Henry is resting in the captain’s quarters on the Jolly Roger. Regina places a spell that will prevent anyone from taking his heart again. Soon after she leaves, Pan appears in the room. Neal frees Gold from Pandora’s Box and they are reunited on good terms. Pan tries to remove Henry’s shadow until Gold traps him inside Pandora’s Box. All seems well now that the threat of Peter Pan is over until Henry offers food to Felix and shows that he is not the same.

Regina thought she could have it all when she invoked the curse that transported everyone in the Enchanted Forest to Storybrooke. However, her heart was empty until she adopted a child with the hope of filling the void. But motherhood is not easy for Regina. It’s easy for her to command others to do her biding but a baby proves more difficult. To add to the situation, Regina is greatly concern when she finds out the baby’s birth mother and rightfully so. Emma Swan broke the curse and restored the memories of the citizens who live there. Since then, Regina has been fighting to get Henry back and that fight continues in Neverland. We get a look at the fight Regina put up to adopt Henry years ago and the fight she is in now to get him back. She adopted Henry to fill the emptiness she is feeling. Cleary, the curse did not grant her a happy ending. She acquired the child with help from Gold who tells her about him. As it was revealed last season, Gold knew that Emma would one day break the curse while he was in his cell back in the Enchanted Forest. The extent of Gold/Rumplestiltskin’s abilities is displayed when he tells Regina shortly after she unleashed the curse that she will come to him when she needs him. He called the ball on that one when Regina does in fact come to him about Henry and then again about Henry’s birth mother, accusing him of setting the adoption up so Emma can come to Storybrooke and break the curse. Obviously, his plan worked.

But Regina’s plan is almost as elaborate. While she was tied to a tree along with Emma and Mary Margaret/Snow White, she drops a major bombshell. For all the evil she has caused, the people she has tortured, the curse she unleashed, Regina holds no regrets for any of it. Yeah, that is not going to sit well with Mary Margaret and Emma. This just may ruin the new light they saw Regina in now that they know she has zero remorse for anyone she has hurt in the past and who she may hurt in the future. Well, hopefully Regina can behave herself now that she has Henry back.

Emma steps up to the plate big as she manages to unite everyone together to rescue Henry. She doesn’t see herself as much of a leader even though she has come through on numerous occasions. Like her mother, she serves as the voice of reason when she talks to the Lost Boys about the joy of having a mother as Wendy did in the original story while her father’s side fuels her bravery as she confronts Pan with Regina and her mother Mary Margaret/Snow White. If it weren’t for Emma, this mission would have gone awry. Luckily, she was able to get everyone to put their differences aside. Now, will this alliance carry over when they return to Storybrooke?

Regina and Gold/Rumplestiltskin are both very cunning but the one person who is craftier than them is Rumplestiltskin’s father Colin. Colin has outwitted his son and trapped him in Pandora’s Box. He has even less remorse than Regina when it comes to the safety of others. He tricked the Lost Boys into believing in him and got Henry to do the same. In the end, he cared nothing for the Lost Boys. Everything he has done over the last century has been solely for himself. and he will continue to do so as he heads to Storybrooke inside Henry’s body.