Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A+ | 384 USERS: A+ YOU GRADE IT PANic And PANcakes
By Cindy McLennan | Season 3 | Episode 11 | Aired on 12.15.2013
After the break, Belle is still on the ground, sobbing. Neal blinks back the tears. When Regina picks up the scroll, Mary Margaret asks if she's okay. Hello, what about Belle and Neal, people? Regina says she's fine and since she doesn't pass out this time, I guess she's right. Emma approaches Neal from behind, lays her hands on his arms and says, "I'm so sorry." Still no one goes to Belle. Neal says, "My father... did what he had to do." He forces himself to smile. "He saved us." Even Hook is dumbfounded by Gold's heroism. Regina looks at the last spot where Gold stood. Once Upon A Time, he taught her how to be a villain. Now he's taught her how to be a hero.
Neal says, "Regina, don't let him die for nothing." When she doesn't respond, he repeats her name. Regina says, "What?" Hook says, "We're here for a reason, love. Pan?" Regina says, "He's dead." Hook says Pan's curse remains. "Can you stop it, or should we all start preparing our souls, 'cause mine's going to take some time." You and me both, Killian. We cut to the...
Woods. The thick green smoke of Pan's curse flows out of the well and through the forest. Back in town, Grumpy runs down the street shouting, "It's here. The curse! It's here! It's coming from all sides. There's no escape." Now, when he says it's coming from all sides, that makes me think that it's closing in on them from the town's borders, but that's not what is happening. It's flowing out of the well in all directions. I just mention that for those of you who are, as I am, stupidly pedantic about this stuff. You normal people can roll your eyes at us and move on.
Neal puts his arm around Henry. Charming asks Regina if they can still stop it. She's still out of it, so he too has to repeat her name before she can respond, "Yes." As Regina musters her courage, Emma asks what their price is to undo the curse. Regina says, "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." Emma realizes she means Henry. He leaves his father for his mothers. Emma puts her arm around their boy and strokes his hair.
Regina says, "I can never see him again. I have no choice. I have to undo what I started." She has to undo the curse that created Storybrooke. "It doesn't belong here and neither do any of us." Charming states the obvious. Regina confirms the town will wink out of existence as though it were never here, "...and everyone will go back to where they're from -- prevented from ever returning." Emma says, "You'll go back to the Enchanted Forest." She really is Daddy's girl, isn't she? Regina is notably patient with these slowpokes. "All of us, except Henry. He will stay here because he was born here."