We open in Storybrooke as “Henry” and Felix are talking about recasting the curse. “Henry” has the scroll and drops the other ingredients into the well. “Henry” tells Felix that once the curse is recast everyone will be at his mercy and not remember who they were. “Death is final, their suffering will be eternal,” “Henry” tells Felix.
The gang talks about the curse being recast. Gold says the last curse was created to serve the Queen’s will, this will serve Pan’s. Regina says it can’t be stopped but Gold says it can. “It can only be undone by the person who used the scroll. That’s you Regina.”
“Henry” tells Felix that the Queen’s curse will be “child’s play” compared to his. Felix reiterates his complete faith in Pan.
Gold tells Regina that she must destroy the scroll, “but there will be a price…a steep one,” he tells Regina. He then says she must bring the scroll to him, then he can cast a spell to return Henry and Pan to their rightful bodies.
“Henry” then tells Felix that to complete the curse he needs “the thing I love most.” Felix thinks he means Rumplestiltskin’s heart, but “Henry” says he never loved him. “Love can mean many things Felix. It doesn’t just come from romance or family. It can also come from loyalty and friendship. Only one person has always believed in Pan.” Felix then realizes that’s him, but “Henry” then tells Felix “not to be afraid, you should be flattered” and then “Henry” reaches into Felix’s chest, rips out his heart, crushes it and throws the remnants into the well.
“Pan” then says once he’s back in his own body, he can bring the scroll to Gold. Regina doesn’t think Gold is powerful enough to cast such a spell. Gold says he needs the Black Fairy’s wand. Tinkerbell then explains that the Black Fairy was the most powerful fairy that ever existed but the Blue Fairy exiled her for using black magic, but before she did, she took her wand. Gold assumes Mother Superior (the Blue Fairy) hid it at her house. David wants to go there right away. Tinkerbell wants to come to pay her respects to the Blue Fairy. Gold then says the rest of them should go to his shop and prepare “Pan” for the spell. Meanwhile, Pan’s shadow has heard their plan and flies away.
“Henry” watches and smiles as the recast spell billows up from the well with green smoke.
Back to the fairy tale land in the past. Snow is pregnant with Emma and is asking the Blue Fairy how they can be sure the magic wardrobe will protect the baby from the Queen’s curse. The Blue Fairy tells Snow and Charming to have faith that their baby will break the curse. After the Blue Fairy leaves, Snow looks at the baby’s crib with a unicorn mobile hanging over it. She tells Charming, “We had such plans. This curse has destroyed every dream this family ever had.” Charming replies that they don’t know what the future holds for them. “Life is full of twists and turns you never see coming. This curse, it’s just a turn.” Still, Snow insists that their happy ending is gone, but Charming says they can find another happy ending, “an unexpected one.” Snow then says she has hope.
Back in Storybrooke, at Gold’s shop, Mary-Margaret looks at the crystal Unicorn mobile in his shop. She tells Emma that exact mobile hung over her crib. “It was supposed to hang over your crib,” she corrects herself. Emma replies that she likes the unicorns. Mary-Margaret then tells Emma that giving her up was the hardest thing she ever had to. Emma reiterates that she gave up Henry to “give him his best chance. Things would have been very different if I’d kept him. We would have had a life together, back in Boston or someplace else, but I guess all that just wasn’t meant to be.” Then, “Pan” and the others come in and prepare for Gold’s spell. “Pan” says, “I’m ready to be me again.” Gold then says once he has the wand “all will be as it should.”
Fellow nuns are paying their respects to the Blue Fairy as she lies in a coffin. David, Neal, Tinkerbell and Hook enter and tell them they need their help to find the Black Fairy’s wand. They don’t want to tell them but Tinkerbell says they must tell them where it is because “what’s coming is worse.” Then, Pan’s shadow starts slamming on the windows trying to get in. It must want the wand and David tells the nuns to run. Pan’s shadow gets in and David, Neal, Tinkerbell and Hook take cover.
Shoot to Neverland…a long time ago. Hook is going through the Dark Forest with Smee, who wants to go back to the ship but Hook says, “Not until I find a way off this accursed island.” Then, someone knocks out Smee. It’s Tinkerbell, who holds a knife to Hook’s throat. She asks him who he is and why he’s there. He tells her that he’s looking for a way back to his land. He asks Tinkerbell if she has any magic, she replies, “Fresh out.” Hook doesn’t believe her and knows she’s a fairy. She replies that she knows he’s a pirate. He admits it and asks Tinkerbell if she can help him. She tells him she was a fairy but her wings were taken away. Hook takes out his flask of rum and offers her a sip. She takes one and asks him what’s so important back in his land. “The Dark One murdered the woman I loved and I intend to make him suffer for it,” he replies. “So, killing him is your happy ending even if by doing so, it ends your own existence?” Tinkerbell asks Hook. Hook replies that he’d risk his life for two things…love and revenge.
Back to Storybrooke. David asks Neal if they can trap Pan’s shadow with the candle again. He says they can but advises to kill it this time. Hook then says he’ll “draw its ire.” Tinkerbell asks Hook if he’s sure and he says if it’s the only way to stop the curse, he’s willing to take the risk. “I thought you only take risks for love or revenge,” Tinkerbell reminds Hook. He adds that he also takes risks for himself. He then goads Pan’s shadow, which knocks him down. David pulls Hook to safety as Neal says he needs to get higher to trap it. Neal reminds Tinkerbell that she has pixie dust, but she says it doesn’t work. David says she made it work once, so she could do it again. She pulls out the vial of pixie dust and opens it. It starts to glow and she inhales it. Neal then hands her the candle, she flies up and captures Pan’s shadow. Neal, Hook and David all smile as she descends down. She then throws the candle into the fire and the shadow screeches as it dies. They all congratulate her and she tells Hook that she knows why he risked his life, “It wasn’t for love or revenge. It was for Emma.” Then, the Blue Fairy come back to life and congratulates Tinkerbell. She explains that when the shadow died, her shadow was returned and she was revived. She then tells Tinkerbell that she can have her wings back. She thanks her. Then, the Blue Fairy gives Neal the Black Fairy’s wand and tells him “to go save us all.”
David, Neal, Tinkerbell and Hook take the wand to Gold and David tells everyone how the Blue Fairy was revived. Gold then says they just need one more item, something he managed to get from Greg and Tamara before they left for Neverland. It’s a sleeve “that renders anyone with magic utterly powerless.” He puts in on “Pan’s” wrist and says, “I want to make sure when I awaken dear old dad, he’s weakened. This will block his powers.” Gold says he’ll now enact the spell and “Pan” will fall into a deep sleep and when he wakes up he’ll be back in his own body. Regina then tells “Pan” to bring the scroll to them. He apologizes for giving his heart to the real Pan but they say he has nothing to be sorry for. “Pan” lies down and Gold casts the spell. “Pan” starts to convulse, which Gold says means the body transfer is taking place. He stops convulsing and Emma says they need to find Henry. Gold stays behind because he says he has “unfinished family business.”
Shoot to Storybrooke, October 2011. Henry is outside at school, Mary-Margaret comes up to him and asks him why he didn’t turn in his homework again. He tells her, “My birth mom didn’t love me. Regina says she does, but she doesn’t. I don’t belong here.” Mary-Margaret replies that he does and that he is loved. She then gives him the storybook, which she says she found mysteriously when she was cleaning and that she’d never seen it before. She then tells him to hold on to hope that things will get better. She tells him that he can keep the storybook and he thanks her. He flips to the page where Snow is holding her baby in a blanket with the name, “Emma.”
The gang finds Henry in his right body and he, Emma, Regina have a big group hug. He gives Regina the scroll and then Emma tells her, “It’s up to you now,” but suddenly, Regina collapses.
Pan awakens in his right body with Gold right by his side. Pan sees the sleeve and knows why Gold is so calm. Gold tells Pan that he wants him to see what he’s done. Pan then says all Gold ever did was “pull away my time and my money. Pulling away any hope of making my life something better…you wanted to eat my dreams alive and never stop. Can’t I be free of you?” Gold then pulls out a sword and says that he can be. But, then Pan rips off the sleeve, tells Gold that he made it so it doesn’t work on him. He then knocks Gold down with magic and then puts the sleeve on Gold. Pan then tells Gold that “soon that green smoke will fill their lungs and cloud their brains. I’m not just going to take their memories. Because of their special meaning to you, I’m going to take their lives and you can’t do a thing to stop me because without magic, you’re right back where you started…the village coward.” Then, Pan leaves as Gold desperately tries to get the sleeve off.
Back in fairy tale land in the past, Rumplestiltskin is celebrating Baelfire’s birthday by lighting a candle. Belle walks in and he tells her to go away. He then tells Belle that Balefire isn’t dead, he’s just lost. Rumplestiltskin then tells Belle that it’s Balefire’s birthday and he should be with him celebrating and that they had a chance to be happy together but he was afraid. Belle thinks it isn’t too late and he says he hopes not.
Back in Storybrooke. Gold sees the sword and picks it up, it looks like he’s going to cut his arm off.
Regina awakens and says when she touched the scroll she “saw what needed to be done.” Henry asks her if she’ll be okay. She replies that the important thing is that he will be. Then, Pan appears and says none of them will be okay. Pan then freezes everyone and now has the scroll.
Gold prepares to cut his arm off.
Pan then says he’ll kill Belle and Neal first as they stand frozen. Then, Gold appears and tells Pan to stay away from them. He then tells Pan, “I have a job to finish and I have to do it, whatever it takes. No loopholes and what needs to be done has a price. A price I’m finally willing to pay.” He then turns to a frozen Neal and tells him that he used the curse to “find you, to tell you I made a mistake and to make sure you had a chance at happiness and that happiness is possible…just not with me. I accept that. I love you, Bae. And I love you Belle, you made me stronger.” Gold then tells Pan that he doesn’t need magic. He then tells Pan that he too lost his shadow and “I sent it away with something to hide,” then Gold’s shadow appears with the dagger, which it gives it to Gold. Gold then grabs Pan and says, “The only way for you to die is if we both die and now…I’m ready.” He then stabs Pan with the dagger. Black smoke encircles them and when it dissipates, Pan is old again. He begs him to stop and remove the dagger. “We can start over. Have our happy ending,” he tells Gold, who replies that he’s a villain, “and villains don’t get happy endings.” He then plunges the dagger deeper into his father and it starts to glow. Gold hugs him as a light envelops them and they disappear, leaving only the scroll behind. Then, everyone unfreezes. They all saw what happened and Neal is in shock as Belle falls to her knees, weeping.
Regina picks up the scroll. Neal says that his father saved them, with a broken voice and tells Regina not to let him die for nothing. Hook then asks Regina if she can stop Pan’s curse. Suddenly, Leroy (Grumpy) appears and starts screaming that the curse is “coming from all sides. There’s no escape.” Regina says she can stop it but Emma remembers that Gold said there would be a price and asks what it is. “It’s not our price, it’s mine. It’s what I felt when I first held it. I have to say goodbye to the thing I love most,” Regina replies. Emma has Henry go to Regina, who says she can never see him again and that she has to undo what she started. “The curse that created Storybrooke doesn’t belong here and neither do any of us.” “Breaking the curse destroys the town,” David says. “It will wink out of existence as if it were never here and everyone would go back to where they’re from, prevented from ever returning,” replies Regina. Everyone will go back to The Enchanted Forest…except Henry, he’ll stay there because he was born there. Regina adds that Emma will take him because she’s the savior. “You were created to break the curse and once again, you can escape it,” but Emma says she doesn’t want to. Mary-Margaret tells Emma she has to go but she says, “I just found you. I’m supposed to bring back the happy endings.” “Happy endings aren’t always what we think they will be,” Mary-Margaret replies and adds that Emma has touched them all and made them a family. David then tells Emma that she and Henry can be happy like she always wished. Mary-Margaret then tells Emma to believe in herself and in hope. Regina then tells Emma that she wants Henry to be happy.
Shoot back to when Emma gave birth to Henry and she said she couldn’t be a mother.
Back to the Storybrooke town line with Emma’s yellow VW bug waiting to cross it. Everyone is there. Mary-Margaret, David, Emma and Henry hug. Then, Henry tells Regina that isn’t fair and that it’s his fault because if he hadn’t gone to get Emma, he could have lived under the curse with her and none of this would be happening. He then adds that he was wrong when he thought she didn’t love him. Regina then says she was wrong too, that it’s her fault and she’s the villain. “You’re not a villain, you’re my mom,” Henry replies, then they hug. Emma then tells Neal she’s sorry but he tells her not to be. They hug and Neal says, “This isn’t over. I’ll see you both again.” Hook then tells Emma, “There won’t be a day that goes by that I won’t think of you.” Emma replies, “Good.” Regina then tells Emma that the curse will send them all back, “nothing will be left behind…including your memories. Storybrooke will never have existed. So, these last years, will be gone from both your memories.” Regina then tells Emma to make new ones. “My gift to you is a good memories and a great life for you and Henry. You’ll never have given him up, you’ll always have been together,” Regina tells Emma and says that when they cross that town line, they’ll have the life she always dreamed of. Henry and Regina hug one more time and Mary-Margaret comes over and kisses Emma on the forehead before Emma and Henry get into the VW bug, both crying. The green smoke approaches the group as Regina rips the scroll. Emma and Henry drive just as Regina throws her magic at the green cloud, turning it purple as they cross the line. We see the purple smoke envelop Storybrooke and Henry’s storybook as they drive away.
Back to when Emma gave birth to Henry but this time she asks to hold him and doesn’t give him up.
One year later. Emma is making Henry and her breakfast in her apartment in Boston and they’re happy. Then, there’s a knock on the door. It’s Hook! She doesn’t recognize him. He tells her he needs her help because “something’s happened and your family is in danger.” “My family is right here and who are you,” she replies. “An old friend,” Hook says. He then kisses her in an attempt to get her to remember him but she just knees him in the groin. He begs to remember as she slams the door in his face. Henry asks who it was and Emma says she has no idea and they should continue eating breakfast.