WARNING: SPOILERS ‘ROUND THE BEND!!
Peter Pan greets Emma and hands her a map that will tell her where he’s hiding Henry. The map turns out to be a piece of blank parchment. Emma is told by Pan that the map will reveal itself once she stops denying who she is. Elsewhere, Gold uses the magic of the Dagger of the Dark One to cut away his shadow and command it to hide the dagger where no one, not even he, can find it. While continuing his search for Henry, someone steals the doll that was given to him. Gold chases the thief who turns out to be Belle. Emma tells everyone about the map Pan handed her. Sensing the possibility of a trap, Regina refuses to play Pan’s game and wants to use magic to find him. However, David quickly objects. Hook agrees and adds that Pan is in charge and that the whole island is a trap. Emma believes that revealing who her parents are and that she is a “savior” will unlock it. Sadly, this doesn’t work. Frustrated, Regina casts a spell on the map which leads them to Peter Pan and into an ambush. They battle the Lost Boys until Pan calls them off, stating that they have to play by his rules or they’ll never find Henry. Finally Emma confesses her true feeling about being an orphan and her buried resentment towards her parents for abandoning her. On a high cliff, Gold makes a confession of his own to the apparition of Belle. He is still afraid of being a coward like his father who deserted him as a child for the same reason. Belle tells him that the only way for him to move forward is to let go of the past. The doll he was handed is his from when he was young. Holding it drudged up old memories of his past. If he wants to find his grandson, Gold has to let go of the past. He casts the doll of the cliff; however, it turns up later in his hands. He burns it to ash only to have it returned to him again.
In the Enchanted Forest, Snow White rallies her people together to overthrow Regina but she loses hope when a villager is put in danger by Regina who makes Snow White ultimatum. Snow White has to give up her kingdom or Regina will kill a person each day she has to wait. Feeling like she failed the people of her kingdom, Snow is willing to take Regina’s offer and live in exile. Prince Charming refuses to allow her. The dwarves defend Snow, accusing Charming of willing to be with Snow for her kingdom more so than love. The Prince seeks out Rumplestiltskin for a spell that will aid Snow White in the fight against Regina. Rumplestiltskin tells the Prince that for Snow White to win against Regina, she has to believe in herself. However, he does reveal that there is a weapon that may help her. Prince Charming takes Snow White to the fabled sword Excalibur which he says will help her defeat Regina. With Excalibur, Snow White stands against Regina when the Queen meets them to hear their answer. She manages to nick Regina on her cheek and then refuses her offer, stating the she will fight for her kingdom. Later, Snow White speaks with Charming after learning that the Excalibur sword is a fake. Charming tells Snow that he had to plant the sword to make her believe in herself again and lead the charge in the fight for her kingdom. Snow White realizes that her true self is the rightful ruler of the kingdom. In Neverland, Emma realizes her true self is that of an orphan, not a savior. This is a fact that she has to accept if she wants to save Henry.
“Yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it, you can either run from…or learn from it” ~ Rafiki-Lion King.
That is the lesson both Emma and Snow White must learn in tonight’s episode. Ever since she broke the curse Regina placed on Storybrooke, Emma has been hailed the savior. However, she hasn’t been feeling up to the task lately. Since, things have gone awry. She and her mother Snow White/Mary Margaret were sent to the enchanted forest where they battled giants, wraiths and ogres. They return back home only to be followed by Cora and Hook who don’t give them a moment’s rest and then toss in the fact that two people who want to destroy magic have come to Storybrooke and end up kidnapping her son and take him to Neverland. Emma’s not really feeling it. She has done her best to try and patch things up with Henry ever since she found him after she gave him up for adoption. Now she is walking in Mr. Gold’s shoes as she is on a mission to find him. However, she hasn’t realized how much harder her quest will be when Pan presents a parchment with a map that can only be revealed when she accepts who she is. At first, she thought she had to accept that she is the savior everyone wants her to be but this turns out to not be true. For so long, Emma has buried her emotions deep until recently when she lashed out at Mary Margaret/Snow White and Prince Charming/David Nolan for the recent series of unfortunate events that have occurred since the curse was broken. She seemingly has not forgiven them for abandoning her. This made more evident when she finally opens up to her mother about how she felt about her parents leaving her and that she is an orphan. By confessing her true feelings, the map appears. Pan pays her visit later to tell her that Henry has the same feeling toward her. Emma, of course, refuses to believe this. But keep in mind; she did lie to Henry about his father. No doubt Pan will use this to his advantage once he figures it out, if he hasn’t already. She will find her son but can she forgive her parents in the process?
This realization of one’s true self carries over with Emma’s mother Snow White in the Enchanted Forest. After being woken by Prince Charming from the sleep spell placed upon her, Snow White tries to rally the people of her kingdom together to overthrow Queen Regina. This, unfortunately, doesn’t go well when Regina appears and endangers on of the villagers. Snow charges at the Evil Queen but Regina vanishes. Regina appears before them again to issue an ultimatum. Snow White must give her kingdom or Regina will ravage it. After Regina leaves giving her time to think about it with the added fact that Regina said she will kill a person for each day she has to wait, Snow White feels like she has failed the people of her kingdom. It hasn’t been easy for her since her mother died. Snow White left the kingdom and became a bandit. This is clearly not the life her mother envisioned for her. Snow stole and deceived people in order to survive, which goes against her mother’s teachings. She was taught to always keep goodness in her heart. Well what sort of goodness come from thievery. Snow realizes that she has betrayed her mother and the lesson she has tried to teach her and thus she doesn’t feel up to the task of ruling the kingdom that is rightfully hers. After the bravado, she is ready to throw in the towel. Charming, who is not born of royal blood, is accused of wanting to help Snow White fight for her kingdom solely for the crown by the dwarves. He quickly denies this and sees he has to not only win their trust but also get Snow White to accept who she is. With help from Rumplestiltskin, he takes Snow to retrieve the fabled Excalibur which is said to have the power to defeat Regina. Now Snow has something that will aid her. Or so she thinks. When they encounter Regina again, Snow succeeds in drawing blood from her stepmother as she stands firm and declares her fight to save her kingdom. Later, she learns that the Excalibur sword is a fake planted by Charming to coax her into standing up for herself. She needed that extra push to get her to believe in herself.
Emma needed that same push. She needed some way to believe in herself that she can save Henry. If confessing how she truly felt about her life after she was abandoned which could (and most likely) result in hurting her parents’ feelings is her push then so be it. She’s a mother who lost her child twice, both willingly and unwillingly, and she will stop at nothing to get him back.
Mr. Gold is still struggling with his one and only fear—of being a coward. This manifests into an apparition of Belle. Being the one person whom he loves and loves him in return, Gold confesses to Belle his fear of being a coward again, along with the fact that his father left him at a young age for the same reason. This would be sympathy for the devil but Gold/Rumplestiltskin is not really a devil. He is a man so afraid of himself that he was willing to do anything to get rid of that fear, even if meant taking the Dark One’s title. Sadly, with the loss of Henry and Bealfire, again, Gold has come to realize that he will always be a coward as long as he holds on to past that still haunts him. The doll that was given to him is his from when he was a child. Old memories of how his father deserted him were drudged up by it. Belle tells him the only for him to end his fear of being like his father is to let the past go. Gold drops the doll of a cliff seemingly to absolve his fears. However, letting go of the past is harder than he thought. While continuing his search for Henry, the doll drops from the sky. Gold then sets fire to it, again thinking that he has cleaned himself. And again, the doll returns to him unharmed. Gold can try to erase the past but he has to truly let go if he wishes to completely forgive himself. The same goes for Emma as well. She may have accepted herself but can she forgive her parents for letting her go? It would seem that Mr. Gold and Emma have a lot of baggage to unload in order to move on.
