User:Schroeswald/Ghosts of the Past

”Ghosts of the Past” is the ninth episode of Season Eight of ABC’s Once Upon a Time. It was written and directed by Schroeswald. It is the one hundred and sixty-fourth episode of the series overall, it premiered on August 30, 2018.

Synopsis
In this double-length episode Regina and Ivy go on a desperate quest to try to awake Ivy. Wish Hook and Lady Tremaine go on a quest to defeat Gothel. In the present wake of pretty much everyone else leaving David and Killian defend storybrooke against Black Beard. Hyperion Heights is attacked and an old villain helps Sabine to defend it. Leota meets a traveler to the New Enchanted Forest in the past. Snow starts to learn who her captors are while Moana stakes out someone for her coven.

Recap
Regina and Ivy are by one of the gates with Anastasia in a box like her old coffin. Regina says goodbye to Henry, Killian and David and entrusts them with making sure that Storybrooke isn’t invaded or anything crazy like that. They roll the coffin out through the gate and disappear.

Killian and David are walking through the streets of Storybrooke by the docks with Hope in her father’s arms and Neal walking with them. They talk about how their wives have disappeared on them and how no one seems to care about Storybrooke anymore when a boat appears on the horizon. The boat sails into Storybrooke where Black Beard hops off the hull and tells them that in addition to the debt of the Jolly Roger he and his new crew will be taking Storybrook as several other ships arrive all around Storybrooke. Pirates jump out of all of them and run through the city.

The fully formed Leota is running out of a mining town in the New Enchanted Forest several hundred years ago and into the bayou where she starts to rest next to an abandoned shack that she decides to move into it and adds a sign saying Memento Mori and starts to make her magical items appear there. In the forest outside Pocahontas walks through a portal holding a small plant in dirt and seeing that it looks fertile plants it into the grand and whispers, grow Grandma Willow, grow.

In the present Leota is packing her bags in Hyperion Heights and is dragging her suitcases through her front door. Suddenly Remy comes running through the streets yelling about an invasion and Leota curses under her breath while Tiana leads several soldiers including Jeremiah to fight them off and Leota slips in and stuffs absorbing the life out of any attackers who she can get close to.

Regina and Ivy drag the coffin through the New Enchanted Forest until they see Lady Tremaine and hide. She dips down to Drizella and tells her daughter that she’ll be back from the business trip in a few hours and then commands Ella to take care of her before leaving. Ivy starts to remember what happened and how Ella was a bossy jerk to her all day. They then sneak inside their house and watch as Drizella tries to command Ella to do everything for her even though they both got chores.

Lady Tremaine is riding in her carriage when an older Wish Hook crashes into her cart and holds a sword to her neck and tells her that he was looking for her. He says that he knows that Gothel has hurt her and that she has hurt him and his daughter and wants her help. He says that he has heard of an orb that has powerful magic that can kill anyone if channelled correctly. Tremaine knocks him off her cart but then invites him up to join her on the trip to kill Gothel and he accepts.

Grimm Robin clangs a loud pan at Snow which wakes her up. Grimm Regina asks why the former princess is in a rich carriage and Snow explains that she is not from their realm. She serves the Good Queen of the United Realms and is touring the kingdoms of the realm. They decide that it doesn’t matter, Queen Snow has a bounty on the head of her daughter and if they can drop her off maybe their bounty will be gotten rid of.

Tiana and her forces retreat to the troll where they set up barricades and tries to call a council of war but only Leota comes to join it. Tiana tells her that with everyone else in the United Realms they can’t hold back the government and asks her to open the gates to the United Realms while she and her army hold back the government. Leota agrees and begins to speak gibberish and magic spews from her hands and a gate begins to form.

Killian and David drop their children off at the convent before running around trying to fight any pirates they see but they realize it's a losing battle and retreat back into the convent with whoever they can find. David hops onto a platform and gives a speech to the people saying that they need to defend their home and leads them out of the convent except for Marco who takes care of Neal, Hope and his new boy named Ragazzo.

Leota is running through the forest chasing somebody and every living thing around her starts to die and she then tackles the person who fades into dust. The magic that is killing everything stops and Leota tries to return to her shop until she runs into Willow which is larger than it was before and starts to stop her. She says that Leota has destroyed life throughout the forest but Leota grabs her and makes her decay into dust. Pocahontas jumps from another tree after that and attacks her.

Zelena is leading a war council as they try to plan their push when Emma brings down the wall and Moana says that she knows someone who could spy for them and they ask her to communicate to him and she agrees before fading into water. She reemerges in a pool in Munchkin Country and calls for Wilhelm. He and Rumpelstiltskin poof next to her and she asks to make a deal. She neither of them to interfere with the plans of the others and they all agree.

Drizella starts to whine to Ella demanding that she do her chores for her and when she tries to stand her ground she grabs a stick and threatens to hit herself with it and say that Ella did it if she didn’t do her chores. Ella slinks off to clean out the fireplaces and when she gets soot on her Drizella laughs and calls her Cinder-Ella. Regina and Ivy watch this and Ivy realizes that she was an annoying brat back then, her mother may not have cared for her but Cinderella definitely endured more. They find where Tremaine is hiding Anastasia’s coffin and replace it with their own.

Tremaine and Wish Hook are travelling through the forest when they roll up to Memento Mori and see how overgrown with flowers everywhere except for the immediate vicinity of the shop. Hook uses his cutlass to break through the vines and into the shop. They see Madame Leota in her crystal ball spinning around and run towards it but have to deal with lasers randomly blasting at them but Hook is able to grab it.

In the past Leota starts throwing spells at Pocahontas who in turn is using every life magic she can to try to defeat her. Eventually they each launch at her other and grab the other. Magic is flowing between each of them and they are unable to get an advantage until they stumble onto Willow’s dust. This powers Pocahontas enough that she floods her life magic into Leota which oddly decays her. Before she fully dies her arm reaches out her spirit and jumps into a crystal ball in Memento Mori which starts to spin in circles.

Leota is about to finish the completion of the spell and the gateway when Moana appears from a puddle on the ground. She says that she is forming a new coven and wants her to be apart of it. Leota looks around at who she has befriended and decides that Moana and a new coven is a better fit. The doorway is completed but only Moana and Leota go through it. They appear at the Castle of the Curse and when Leota notices the empty glass of water Moana explains that they contained her memories of the future. They sit at a table which sits on the markings of the coven and Moana begins to explain her plan.

Killian and David make it to Blackbeard and try to fight him. They are able to defeat him and soon the people of Storybrooke have defeated his pirates. They realize that the Storybrooke jail can’t hold them all so they keep Blackbeard and a few of his lieutenants in it for Wish Henry to take care of and send the rest on ships to different realms.

Snow is dragged by Robin and Regina into a throne room where she sees Queen Snow. She is a broken woman slumped into her chair, her feet look like they are held together by sheer force of will but she pulls herself up and demands to know what Regina and Robin are doing with her daughter. They say that they are returning her and instead of the bounty they want a pardon, she waves her hand and gives it to them. She orders her guards to lock her up and they do.

Alice and Margot are sitting in their cell when the Queen of Hearts walks up to them. She tells them to give up as their friends are losing and will have no time to save them and then uses a looking glass to show all the failures of the episode including the government locking up Hyperion Heights.

Wish Hook and Tremaine haul Leota’s crystal ball into a garden where Gothel is talking with Seraphina. They throw Leota at Gothel hoping it would kill her but Gothel catches her and laughs at them for thinking they could defeat her. She thanks them for bringing her a friend and sends them away to Lady Tremaine’s house. They are depressed about their defeat but Wish Hook tries to kiss Tremaine to which she responds by punching him. She returns to where she is keeping Anastasia and kisses her after complaining about everything else, but nothing happens. Ivy screams no, them covers her mouth, but no one notices it. Before she and Regina can figure out what happened Tremaine walks right through them and they realize that the past cursed people can’t do anything, they are just ghosts doing exactly what they had done before.

Starring

 * Lana Parrilla as Regina/The Good Queen and
 * Colin O’Donoghue as Killian Jones and Hook (Wish Realm)
 * Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan
 * Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White
 * Rebecca Mader as Zelena
 * Andrew J. West as Henry Mills
 * Rose Reynolds as Alice/Tilly
 * Tiera Skovbye as Robin/Margot
 * Adelaide Kane as Drizella/Ivy
 * Daniel Brühl as

Guest Starring

 * Azra Akin as
 * Josh Dallas as David Nolan
 * Mekia Cox as Tiana/Sabine
 * Dania Ramirez as Ella
 * Suzy Joachim as Madame Leota
 * Yael Yurman as Anastasia
 * Robert Carlyle as
 * Sean Maguire as
 * Cate Blanchett as
 * Zendaya as
 * Charles Mesure as Black Beard
 * Meghan Ory as Ruby/Red
 * Chloe Bennet as Jinjur
 * Teri Reeves as Dorothy
 * Jamie Chung as Mulan
 * Keegan Connor Tracy as Mother Superior
 * Raphael Sbarge as Archie Hopper
 * Eion Bailey as August Booth
 * Tony Amendola as Marco
 * Jeff Pierre as Naveen/Drew
 * Beverley Elliott as Granny
 * Naika Toussaint as Seraphina
 * Lupita Nyong'o as

Special Guest Starring

 * Emma Booth as Gothel
 * Gabrielle Anwar as Lady Tremaine
 * Jared S. Gilmore as Henry (Wish Realm)

Co-Starring

 * Linda Hunter as Willow
 * Anna Cathcart as Teen Drizella
 * Trevor Roberts as Remy
 * Richard Newman as Jeremiah
 * Jacob Tremblay as Neal
 * Jack Davies as Ragazzo

Trivia

 * -|Production Notes=

Trivia

 * The title card features Madame Leota in the O of Once with ghosts surrounding the title in the woods of Storybrooke.
 * -|Episode Conections=

Episode Chronology

 * The United Realms events are set a few days after Ivy Sea. The New Enchanted Forest events are set hundred of years before One Little Tear and thousands of years after Flower Child.