Snow Drifts

"Snow Drifts" is the twenty-first episode of Season Three of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by David H. Goodman & Robert Hull and directed by Ron Underwood. It is sixty-fifth episode of the series overall, and premiered on May 11, 2014.

This episode is the first part of the season three finale, and premiered directly before "There's No Place Like Home".

Synopsis
While Mary Margaret and David celebrate the naming of their son at a coronation in Granny's Diner, Emma and Hook are pulled into Zelena's time portal and find themselves in the Enchanted Forest of the past. But in their quest to discover a way back, they must be careful not to change ANYTHING or risk altering the lives of their friends and family -- as well as their very own existence.

Starring

 * Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard
 * Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan
 * Lana Parrilla as Evil Queen/Regina Mills
 * Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David Nolan
 * Emilie de Ravin as Belle/Belle
 * Colin O'Donoghue as Hook
 * Michael Raymond-James (Credit only)
 * Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills
 * Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold

Guest Starring

 * Lee Arenberg as Leroy
 * Anastasia Griffith as Abigail/Kathryn Nolan
 * Tony Amendola as Geppetto/Marco
 * Meghan Ory as Ruby
 * Alex Zahara as King Midas
 * Beverley Elliott as Granny/Granny
 * Rebecca Mader as Zelena
 * Sean Maguire as Robin Hood
 * Christopher Gauthier as William Smee
 * Charles Mesure as Black Beard

Co-Starring

 * David-Paul Grove as Doc
 * Gabe Khouth as Mr. Clark
 * Faustino Di Bauda as Walter
 * Christie Laing as Marian
 * Abby Ross as young Emma

Uncredited

 * CGI Pinocchio
 * Unknown baby as Neal Nolan

Production Notes

 * The title card for this episode features Zelena's time spell.
 * At Midas' ball, Emma is wearing the diadem from her father's dream in "The Tower".

Event Chronology

 * The Enchanted Forest events take place concurrently with "Snow Falls", after "Lacey" and "The Shepherd", and right before "There's No Place Like Home". The story also takes place before Belle is banished from Rumplestiltskin's castle in "Skin Deep".
 * The Storybrooke events take place after "Kansas", and before "There's No Place Like Home".
 * The Land Without Magic flashback takes place eighteen years earlier, after "The Stranger" and "Welcome to Storybrooke", and before "Tallahassee".

Episode Connections

 * The baby crib from "The Jolly Roger" has been put together.
 * Henry started looking at apartments in "Kansas".
 * Mr. Gold mentions Moe kidnapping Belle, which happened in "The Crocodile".
 * Regina's heart was stolen in "Bleeding Through", and returned to her in "Kansas".
 * Scenes from "Snow Falls" are reused, and the episode is similarly named.
 * Belle's servitude as Rumplestiltskin's maid occurred due to a deal made in "Skin Deep".
 * The crystal ball used to spy on Snow White is the same one that was used by Neal in "The Heart of the Truest Believer".
 * Hook's ship is docked in the harbor where the encounter with Black Beard in "The Jolly Roger" took place.
 * It is also the very same harbor where the ship, then known as the Jewel of the Realm, was docked in "Good Form" (although the buildings look slightly different since the scene in "Good Form" takes place during the day).
 * The glamor spell Rumplestiltskin casts on Emma and Hook is the same one he used on Regina in "The Evil Queen".
 * Rumplestiltskin mentions giving King George a son, which is an event explored in "The Shepherd".

Disney

 * Emmamentions the 1994 Disney movie The Lion King as an example of a royal baby coronation.
 * Eighteen years ago, young Emma watched a woman give her new adoptive daughter a stuffed Mickey Mouse doll.

Fairytales and Folkore

 * This episode features Snow White, Prince Charming and the Evil Queen from the Snow White fairy tale, Red Riding Hood and Granny from the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, Captain Hook and Smee from the Peter Pan story, King Midas and his daughter from the Midas myth, Geppetto and Pinocchio from the Pinocchio story as well as Marian from the Robin Hood ballad, Belle from the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale and Rumplestiltskin from the Rumplestiltskin fairytale.

Popular Culture

 * David mentions that the security video tape is Beta.
 * Emma makes references to Marty McFly and the 1985 movie Back to the Future.
 * There are several scene similarities with Back to the Future such as Emma interfering with her parents' first meeting by causing one of them to fall from a tree just as Marty did with George McFly, the pictures in the storybook disappear as in the movie, and the family scene in the diner is a rewritten version of Marty and his family sitting at a dinner table.