Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-3038174-20131122121540/@comment-24674051-20160810174848

In full context from the pilot, Here is the line that Rumple speaks:

''Get the child to safety and on its twenty-eighth birthday, the child will return. The child will find you—and the final battle will begin!''

Now, here is my thought. The final battle does not begin when the curse is broken, but when the Savior returns. Emma returned on her 28th birthday, spent the night in Jail after crashing into the city limit sign (since she didn't choose to stay, there was no impact to the curse), Met Mary Margaret the next day during the search for a runaway Henry, decided to stay a week. And THAT's when the curse weakened enough to allow people to not have the "repeating day loop". The act of choosing to stay is what signifies the beginning of the final battle, which was between Emma and Regina, and culminates with Emma defeating Regina and restoring everyone's memories in the season finale.

That's my headcanon on the matter. feel free to disagree.