In the Enchanted Past, Regina presents post-sleeping curse Snow with a deal. If Snow and Charming willingly slink off into exile, Regina will let them live out their days in peace. Should they refuse, she'll kill off Snow's supporters one by one. Snow wants to accept Regina's terms but David thinks they should fight for what's right. When the Dwarfs accuse him of being a gold digger, he asks Rumpy for help but is refused. Left to his own devices, David sticks a sword in a stone and tells Snow the legend of Excalibur. When she's able to free the sword, Snow embraces her role of leader. In a confrontation with Regina, she manages to cut the Queen. Later, Rumpy reveals the fake out. Snow is angry at first, but after talking with David, she realizes that even without the real Excalibur, she was able to wound Regina and decides that while she would be happy living out her days as a shepherd's wife, she needs to fight for her people.
Neverland. Rumpy is off in his own so he conjures up Belle (or a vision thereof) to talk him into doing what is right. He tells Belle that the straw doll is the last thing his father, Coward Senior, gave him before abandoning him. He also reveals that if he abandons his quest to find Henry, the boy doesn't have to be his undoing. Belle talks Rumpy into doing the right thing, and as a sign of good faith, he drops the doll off a cliff. Later, it falls out of the sky and right on his head, so he magics up a fireball, like you do, sets the doll ablaze, and stomps on it for good measure, only to find it moments later in perfect condition. This time, Rumpy pockets the doll. Dun dun dun!
Meanwhile, Pan presents Emma with a map and says it will lead her to Henry. The only problem is, the map is blank (all right, so he presents her with a piece of paper). Pan says once Emma acknowledges who she is, the map part of the map will appear. Holding the still mapless map, Emma says all the different things she is -- a mother, a bail bonds person, a sheriff, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, the savior -- all to no avail. Regina gets all, "Ain't nobody got time for that," and casts a locator spell on the mapless map. It floats through the jungle until it leads the crew to an empty camp. The Lost Boys surround them. Pan accuses Emma of cheating at the game, and a light battle ensues. Charming is wounded by a sword. Emma bests one of the Lost Boys, but when she looks at his face, she freezes. Pan calls off his minions and they allow our ragtag team of heroes to live to fight another day. Snow wants to look at Charming's wound, but he lies and says only his jacket was cut. Goober. Later we see it, and things do not look good for our fair prince.
Alone with Emma, Snow asks why she froze during battle. Emma admits that when she looked at the boy's face, she saw herself. Since Archie is presumably still back in Storybrooke, Snow plays therapist and gets Emma to speak the one identity she ignored in her earlier attempt to uncover the map: she is an orphan. After tears from both mother and daughter, the map appears. Later, Pan congratulates Emma on admitting she's a Lost Girl and says just as she has abandonment issues where her parents are concerned, Henry has issues with her; by the time she gets to him, he'll never want to go back to her. And? She'll lose her own parents in the process.
As a single episode, "Lost Girl" isn't Once Upon A Time's best. The scenes are fine on their own, but the whole hour feels a bit cobbled together. That said, in terms of the larger narrative, "Lost Girl" is excellent and builds on the promise evident in the season premiere. What better place than Neverland for Emma to work through her feelings about her family and her past, and for Henry to do the same.
I'll be back with the full recap, ASAP. In the meantime, please join us on the boards, where we're going to tend to Charming's wound, and then bop him over the head for being such a dunce.