Once Upon a Time - S3E1 - The Heart of the Truest Believer
Before we jump into the third season premiere of Once Upon a Time, we’ll just let you know a little about the previous two seasons of the show. It’s basically a drama series which takes its premise from “fairy tales”; the show it populated by characters from various fairy tales who have been cursed and transported to the real world, the fictional town of Storybrooke, Maine. The first and second seasons are available on home media. Now, onto the recap of “The Heart of the Truest Believer”, Once Upon a Time‘s third season premiere.
The last we saw our flawed fairytale friends:
Henry had been whisked away to Neverland by Tamara and Greg.
After falling into a portal, Neal washed up on the shores of the Enchanted Forest greeted by Mulan, Aurora and Philip?
Belle and Red were left to defend Storybrooke from what? We don’t know.
Emma, Snow, Gold, Hook, Regina and Charming set sail on the Jolly Roger in a quest to find an save Henry from Pan.
Emma is shown delivering Henry under the watchful eye of a prison guard. The electricity is flashing and sizzling during her final push. The doctor offers to show Henry to her, she refuses and says she can’t ever be a mother.
Shortly after arriving in Neverland, our precocious Henry begins asking the questions his captors should have been asking.
Who are you following? Where is the home office? How are you going to get back to home?
Tamara has a face, like these are some good questions. Greg is all shut up kid, let me break out my trusty communicator… Heyyy it’s not working, let’s check the batteries. It’s full of sand. There must be a mistake.
No honey. The joke is on you.
After a short walk into the Jungle, the trio is surrounded by the Lost Boys who reveal themselves as home office. Greg still the believer remains confused. They ask for the kid, Greg and Tamara refuse.
Pan takes his shadow, Henry runs and an arrow shoots Tamara. Henry meets up with another cloaked boy who claims to be running away from Pan because he stole some fairy dust. He says he can lead him to a place where the Lost Boys can’t travel. Ever trusting Henry agrees to go with him and they run off.
Emma, Snow, Gold, Hook, Regina and Charming have made their way to the sea surrounding Neverland. Hook knows these waters well, and wants to plan a sneak attack by venturing to the back of the island and heading in through the river. Regina reluctantly agrees. They share a moment when contemplating if evil can ever have a happy ending. They both hope it is not true. Gold appears and he is decked out in his Bad Ass Rumple Gear, with a flick of the wrists he leaves his shipmates aboard the Jolly Roger and goes in search of Henry.
Emma is very stoic as she stares into the moonlit sky. Snow and Charming come over to offer her words of solace. Emma is having a 14-year-old moment: I blame you for everything Mom and Dad! You know nothing! You ruined my life. (Emma this isn’t really the time for you to go stomping off to your room to go cry into your Tiger Beat magazine) Snow and Charming tell her they have to stay positive because as soon as they don’t evil will win. Emma eventually stomps off into the ship to work off some frustration. Hook finds her doing pull-ups, they share a drink and some sentiment over Bael/Neal. They both care about him for different reasons. He gives her Bael’s sword.
The ship starts to toss. Emma and Hook head to the deck to find they are being attacked by vicious, glowing.. Mermaids. Regina makes quick work of the finned nuisance by using a few fireballs into the water. Emma and Snow cast a net and pull one of them out. She is an ornery half-fish, and refuses to cooperate. According to Hook mermaids are liars who cannot be trusted. The mermaid smirks reaches down and blows into a conch shell.
Regina wants to kill her, Snow wants to play nice, Charming puts a knife to her throat and Emma is just screaming nonsense. A storm is upon them and they realize it was called upon by Ariel’s cousin, Regina waves her hand and turns the mermaid to wood.
The storm rages as the Jolly Roger approaches a wall of water. Regina and Snow are in the middle of a hair-pulling fight. Lightening. Charming and Hook exchange punches. Thunder. Emma is at the helm of the ship and realizes the fighting is what is feeding the storm. In order to distract the crew she jumps into the sea. The team pulls together to retrieve her from the briney depths.
The 5 Musketeers row their way to shore and Emma gives her best Braveheart speech. Part of which is her accepting she is a mother and the leader of this rag tag group and that is her greatest strength. They head into the jungle in search of Henry.
Neal wakes up and is immediately interrogated by Mulan. He gives the short version of events and Aurora offers to use her sleep-sense to find Emma. She can’t find her because she hasn’t fallen asleep since everything happened. Neal insists his father would have left something magical at his castle. Neal and Mulan go to the Dark One’s castle only to meet up with our new Robin Hood portrayed by Sean Maguire(solid casting choice). Robin states that the place has been ransacked and there is nothing of value left. Neal knows that just means he has to look harder. Rumple’s walking stick is on the floor, he picks it up, swishes it around martial arts style, revealing a cabinet door. The cabinet is full of magical items, he chooses a small crystal ball. It shows Emma on the shores of Neverland.
Gold is having a one on one with Felix(the head Lost Boy). He tells him, if you are here for the Boy then you are Pan’s enemy. Gold says then I guess nothing has changed. Felix slinks off.
Henry and the cloaked kid are still running from the Lost Boys, they reach the cliff’s edge. Henry grabs the pixie dust, tells the cloaked kid that he believes it works and they E.T. their way across the sky. They land in what appears to be a secluded area of the jungle. The cloaked kid uses Henry’s name. He is Peter Pan and he has been looking for the Heart of the Truest Believer, and he found it in Henry. The Lost Boys come out from the surrounding jungle. Last words from Pan: Let’s Play.
We literally just finished season 2 on Friday before the S3 premier on Sunday. Both my husband and I enjoyed the first episode of S3. We were not waiting as long as the fans who watched the previous seasons live. The only thing that drives me crazy is how predictable this show can be. I think that this is hard to avoid for those of us so familiar with fairy tales. We have so far been able to call who is who before the fairy tale character is revealed. This episode was no different, and my husband guessed right away that Henrys new friend was Peter.
The creepy shadow/soul thief is terrifying to me. I love that this show gives such a different spin into the characters that I fell in love with as a child.
That is one con to binge watching shows. When you watch them live, I don’t think you notice as much, or you are less focused on the predictability. You get 5 shows and a 3 week break and 2 shows then a 4 week break during the holidays. I also think they make guessing the characters easy to appeal to all audiences. A nice surprise would be introducing a character that with NO clues to who he or she not even his job in Storybrooke.