Awake

"Well, Snow White and Prince Charming may be awake. But the rest of this town is very much asleep."

- Mr. Gold to Mary Margaret and David

"Awake" is the seventeenth episode of Season Six of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Andrew Chambliss and Leah Fong, and directed by Sharat Raju. It is the one hundredth and twenty-eighth episode of the series overall, and premiered on April 16, 2017.

Synopsis
Still trapped in Neverland, Hook aligns himself with Tiger Lily, hoping to find a way back to Emma. Back in Storybrooke, Regina works to break the sleeping curse that David and Snow are under, and Gold denies The Black Fairy, which brings the two of them to a fearsome impasse. In flashbacks, we learn what Snow and Charming sacrificed in order for Emma to fulfill her destiny as the Savior.

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 French
 * Colin O'Donoghue as Hook
 * Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills
 * Rebecca Mader as Zelena
 * Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold

Guest Starring

 * Tony Amendola as Marco
 * Lee Arenberg as Grumpy*/Leroy
 * Beverley Elliott as Granny
 * Eric Keenleyside (Press release only)
 * Giles Matthey as Gideon
 * Jaime Murray as Black Fairy
 * Raphael Sbarge as Archie Hopper
 * Sara Tomko as Native American Woman/Tiger Lily

Co-Starring

 * David Avalon as Doc*/Doc
 * Faustino di Bauda as Sleepy*/Walter
 * Mckenna Grace as Young Emma
 * Gabe Khouth as Sneezy*/Mr. Clark
 * Ayden Turpel-Stewart as Lost Boy #1
 * Mathew Bittroff as Lost Boy #2

Uncredited

 * Cinder as Pongo
 * Mig Macario as Bashful*
 * Michael Coleman as Happy*
 * Jeffrey Kaiser as Dopey*
 * James Bamford as Black Knight*

Trivia

 * -|Production Notes=

Production Notes

 * The title card features a closing magic door.
 * This episode has the lowest ratings of the entire series.
 * The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on January 18, 2017.
 * This is the first episode since "I'll Be Your Mirror" that every main cast member appear.
 * Several mistakes were made on the press release of this episode:
 * Storybrooke is misspelled as "Storybook" in the episode synopsis.
 * David Avalon is credited as "David-Paul Grove", his previous credit name until "Strange Case".
 * Geppetto's name is misspelled "Gepetto".
 * In the episode script, Leroy winks at Mary Margaret after telling her, "If you change your mind, you know where to find me.", and David asks, "Was Grumpy... flirting with you?" This exchange is not in the final episode.
 * According to Ginnifer Goodwin, it was hard for her to relate to Mary Margaret in real life because, as she has children now, she would have just taken care of herself and her immediate family. So, she had to find "a more generous place" in her spirit, as she finds what Mary Margaret did to be "of the utmost integrity and very Snow White-esque; very in keeping with her character".
 * Before Marco drinks from the Sleeping Curse goblet, he says, "Cent'anni", an Italian toast which wishes all the clinkers 100 years. This is fitting, as The Adventures of Pinocchio is of Italian origin and Marco is known to speak with an Italian accent.


 * -|Episode Connections=

Event Chronology

 * The Storybrooke events take place after "Mother's Little Helper" and before "Where Bluebirds Fly".
 * The Storybrooke flashbacks take place ten years after "Welcome to Storybrooke", three years after "Tougher Than the Rest", and a couple of years before "Snow Drifts". It also takes place 18 years prior to the events of "Pilot".
 * The Neverland events take place after "Mother's Little Helper".

Episode Connections

 * Hook ended up in Neverland in "Mother's Little Helper".
 * Mary Margaret and David's heart was put under a Sleeping Curse in "Heartless".
 * Regina shows Emma Henry's notebook from "Mother's Little Helper".
 * David says that this isn't the first Sleeping Curse he and Mary Margaret have been woken up from. Snow White was awoken from a Sleeping Curse in "Pilot" and "A Land Without Magic", while David was awoken from his first Sleeping Curse in "Queen of Hearts".
 * While Mary Margaret is under the sleeping curse, clips from "Pilot", "A Land Without Magic" and "Going Home" are shown.
 * Pixie Dust was first used to lead somewhere to their True Love in "Quite a Common Fairy".
 * Pixie Dust Flowers first appeared in "Think Lovely Thoughts".
 * David awakens from his coma again in "Snow Falls", this time for good.
 * After David wakes up from his coma, he says that the Evil Queen's guards stabbed him and he passed out, referring to events in "Pilot".
 * David and Mary Margaret regain their memories permanently when the Dark Curse is broken in "A Land Without Magic.
 * The Black Fairy arrived in Storybrooke in "Mother's Little Helper".
 * Mr. Gold regains his Enchanted Forest memories upon hearing Emma's name, and remarks, "Emma. What a lovely name.", just like in "Pilot".
 * Hook removes his Shadow from his body, just like Mr. Gold did in "Lost Girl".
 * The book read by young Emma is The Golden Age Compendium of Children's Fairy Tales, the same book she was reading three years earlier in "Tougher Than the Rest".
 * Before they lose their memories once more, David and Mary Margaret say that one day, Emma will find them. Emma finds them in "Pilot", and the family is reunited in "Broken".
 * Hook says to Emma that he should never have considered running away from her, referring to events in "Page 23".
 * Hook asks David if Emma told him about what he did to to David's father, and David says she did. Emma told David about this in "A Wondrous Place", while the murder of David's father took place in "Murder Most Foul".


 * -|Cultural References=

Fairytales and Folklore

 * This episode features Captain Hook, Tiger Lily, and the Lost Boys from the Peter Pan story and the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story.
 * After being captured by Tiger Lily, Hook asks her if this is about what happened at Skull Rock, and Tiger Lily answer that if this was about Skull Rock, she would have left him to be gutted by the Lost Boys - a nod to the events of the novel, where Captain Hook and his pirates brought Tiger Lily to Marooners' Rock (re-named Skull Rock for the Disney film) and left her there to drown in the rising tides.

Lost

 * During the Dark Curse, the Storybrooke clock tower is frozen at 8:15, a reference to Oceanic Flight 815.
 * There is a close-up of David's eyes as he awakens from the coma, and another close-up of Mary Margaret's eye as she awakens from the Sleeping Curse, a recurring theme on Lost.

Popular Culture

 * Young Emma has an audio cassette by the British new wave musical group Wang Chung on her bed (seen upside-down).


 * -|Set Notes=

Props Notes

 * The story read by young Emma is "The Nightingale" by Hans Christian Andersen.

Costume Notes

 * Belle is wearing a RED Valentino Heart Print Shirt. Her coat is a Aritzia Babaton Spencer Coat.
 * During the time of the Dark Curse, Mary Margaret is wearing a Club Monaco 'Sogand' Coat and a Club Monaco 'Ashta' Sweater.
 * Regina's gray coat from the 1993 flashbacks is a Wool Cashmere Melton Military Coat from Burberry (no longer available). She wore the same coat in the Season Three episodes "Going Home", "Quiet Minds" and "Bleeding Through" (note that the latter, Regina is wearing a scarf over the coat, hiding most of the details).
 * In keeping with the many Peter Pan elements featured in this episode, Emma is wearing a sweater with a Peter Pan collar. The Peter Pan collar is a style of clothing collar named after the collar of stage actress Maude Adams's costume in her 1905 role as Peter Pan, although similar styles had been worn before this date.


 * -|Goofs=

Goofs

 * In the 1993 flashbacks, the business known as Duperre & Hughes can be seen next to Granny's Diner. However, as seen in the Season Two premiere "Broken", Duperre & Hughes did not move into these premises until after the Dark Curse was broken in 2012. Before that, these premises were occupied by the restaurant known as LaTandoor. This is most likely because LaTandoor, a real life business in Steveston Village which has since been closed down, could not be used when Steveston Village was redressed as Storybrooke for the 1993 flashback, so they had to use a fictional business instead.


 * -|Other Notes=

Filming Locations

 * The forests of Vancouver double as the Storybrooke Wilderness Park for the flashback scenes from the Dark Curse.