Once Upon a Time 1×22 ‘The Land without Magic’ recap: Fastest hour of my life!

Okay, wow. Did the first season of Once Upon a Time really end? I’m still trying to process the season finale; I’m still in shock. The finale was all kinds of epic: it was extremely satisfying even though it ended with a cliffhanger that will paralyze me until the show comes back in the fall. EVERYONE was in it. It was too good to be true.

Emma doesn’t need anyone other than Henry to believe the curse is real. (I was wrong). As she’s unpacking his backpack to see what she can do to help him wake up, she finds his book. And it all comes to her. FINALLY. She realizes the curse is real. And she realizes that it’s all because of Regina that Henry is this way. She wanted to kill her.

So she goes to her, and she tells her that she knows EVERYTHING. But Regina doesn’t deny it. Her son is in danger, and she doesn’t want to see him die. So she teams up with Emma to save Henry (One of my favorite things about this episode the fact that those two worked together! They let go of their differences just to save their son. If only Regina didn’t try to kill both of Emma’s parents.) and they go to Mr. Gold for help. Mr. Gold tells them that the only way Henry is going to wake up is through true love – and he has a potion created for that. The same potion he used on the Evil Queen’s curse. And that’s why Emma is the only savior – the true love in the potion is that of her parents, Prince Charming and Snow White.

But there’s a catch. There’s someone guarding that potion. Someone Regina doesn’t want to talk to. So she sends Emma, as naive as Emma is, to find that it’s a dragon – a dragon of Malificent. Thank God Mr. Gold gave her Prince Charming’s sword.

Back in fairytale, James is taken by the guards to be executed by the queen. But as they are in the woods, someone frees him and kills the other guard. Who? The huntsmen. Yep! We get to see just a glimpse of Graham. Oh, how much I missed him!

Rumpelstiltskin shows up out of nowhere and tells Charming that needs to fight the the dragon, so that Rumpelstiltskin would give him the ring that would lead him to Snow. Rumpelstiltskin wants Charming to hide the true love potion – the greatest magic of all – inside the dragon. (The same potion that Emma is fighting the dragon to get.) James & Emma are fighting the same dragon for the same reason. And the parallel of the two is beautiful. Her father is slaying the dragon to save his one true love, and she’s slaying the dragon to save her son.

Emma triumphs and gets the the potion. And she’s going up from the basement where the dragon was, the elevator gets stuck. And Mr. Gold tells her that Regina played her and that she needs to throw the potion to him. It’s all a trick, of course, because when she climbs up, she finds Regina tied up. I wanted to strangle Emma for giving Gold that potion!

As Emma & Regina are arguing, they get a call from the hospital.  So they rush to the hospital to see what’s going on. Henry’s gone. (I wanted to kill the writers so much at that moment. I truly thought Henry was dead.) Emma kneels in to tell him goodbye. “I love you, Henry,” she says as she kisses his forehead. And just like that, Henry wakes up. Just like Snow does when Charming kisses her back in fairytale.

But something happens in Storybrooke. The curse is broken. Everyone remembers who they really are. Even David and Mary Margaret. As David’s getting ready to leave Storybrooke on his own because MM told him she can’t be with him, he sees her. But not as Mary Margaret, as Snow.

And then they kiss. Yay to that! MAGIC is back!

However, Mr. Gold is still up to something especially after Belle comes to him. You see, Regina didn’t keep her promise to Jefferson that she’ll make him forget his daughter. So he decides to take matters into his own hands. He goes to Belle, frees her, and tells her to go to Mr. Gold and tell him she needs protection from Regina. Jefferson knows that Mr. Gold will do anything to protect Belle even if it means killing the queen.

When Mr. Gold a.k.a Rumpelstiltskin sees Belle, we get to see that soft side of him again. He’s happy to see her. And when the curse is broken, she remembers who he truly is and tells him she loves him. He loves her, too. But he has to do something first. He goes to the well in the woods and throws the true love potion.

And a purple smoke spreads in all of Storybrooke. He’s bringing magic back to the land of no magic.

What I loved about the episode is that we got to see what happens with everyone – not just with one character. It was so fulfilling. Every character got their own share of the episode. What wasn’t fulfilling? Seeing August transform into a wooden Pinocchio just as Emma is telling him that she finally believes. It was such a sad scene! I hope he’s back in season 2!

The guest stars made the episode all the more amazing! I mean it had Malificent, Mad Hatter, Belle, AND the Huntsman. It was really interesting to see them all in one episode – even though some had only a line or two.

What did you think of the season finale? What is everything you were hoping for?