Once Upon a Time - There's No Place Like Home

The season finale offers a variation of events already presented as Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin), and Prince Charming's (Josh Dallas) early-days banter has begun, but this time around the pair is enlisted by Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) to help free Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) from Regina's (Lana Parrilla) dungeons and retrieve the missing ring. With the help of Red Riding Hood (Meghan Ory, who we might see more of next season with news that Intelligence has been cancelled), the group breaks into the dungeon in time to find Emma breaking out with a woman (Christie Laing) she decides to free laying the groundwork for new trouble next season.

There are more immediate ramifications for Snow White who is captured while attempting to use the Dark Fairy Dust on Regina only to be forced to use in on herself when Regina has her burned at the stake. After the Blue Fairy (Keegan Connor Tracy) restores Snow White back to human form Snow and Charming's story continues as it originally played out. However, Emma and Hook have their own problems when Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle) fails to open the portal and decides to stick both of them, and their new friend/hostage in his vault for safe keeping. Emma finally accepts Storybooke as her home, accepting her path and allowing her magic to return which also means reopening the portal and finding their way home.

The season end with the young babe earning an appropriate name, Emma learning exactly what Hook gave up to find her in New York and return her to Storybrooke and finally giving into her feelings for the pirate as Archie (Raphael Sbarge) officiates a small marriage ceremony for Rumpelstiltskin and Belle (Emilie de Ravin). Some don't get their happy endings as Regina's new love is crushed by the return of Robin's wife when its revealed the woman Emma brought back from the past is Marian (Laing). We'll have to wait to see just how this latest betrayal at the hands of Snow White's family will effect Regina going forward and whether the hard work spent to leave her villanous ways has all been undone with a single action. We'll also have to wait until next season to see just what impact the other person Emma inadvertently brought back will have on the sleepy New England town.