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Reason: Everything after Broken Hearts

7 19 Magic, and magical creatures such as the Tree Nymphs, exist in this land. At some point, humans appear in this land.
There is a gap in the timeline here of an unknown amount of time.
7 19 Two Tree Nymphs, Gothel and Yarrow, are exploring the world one day. When they come across humans in a manor, they secretly observe them. When the humans leave, Gothel wants to go into their house in order to feel their dresses, however Yarrow is afraid, and returns to the Tree Nymphs' Grove. Gothel enters the house, and while examining one of the dresses, she uses magic to make a flower on one of them grow. However, the humans see her performing magic. However, rather than being frightened by her magic, they ask for her to teach them, give her a dress, and invite her to a party.

Gothel returns to the Tree Nymphs' Grove, and is confronted by Flora about being with the humans. She is then told that she has a choice: her family or the humans. Gothel decides to go to the party.

While at the party, Gothel is once again asked by Isla to teach the humans magic. They go to a greenhouse, where Gothel explains and demonstrates magic to them by growing a flower. However, Isla crushes the flower, before calling Gothel and magic an abomination, and dumping mud on her. The humans then steal Gothel's key to the Tree Nymph's Grove, before leaving her.

Gothel returns to the Tree Nymph's grove to find it destroyed by the humans, and most of the Tree Nymphs dead. Gothel find Flora dying, and Flora passes on the title of Mother to her, before instructing her to find a new place to grow. Gothel returns to the party, confronting Isla. She than starts to kill the humans, however when she attempts to kill Seraphina, she is stopped by the magic Seraphina has been hiding her whole life. Gothel and Seraphina then join together, killing every other human in the land. They then return to the Tree Nymph's Grove, and use a magic bean to travel to another land.

With the grove destroyed, the last vestiges of magic in this land were been destroyed, creating a Land Without Magic.

There is a gap in the timeline here of an unknown amount of time.
7 19 At some point, humans once again come to this land. They would go on to create the civilizations seen in this land today.
There is a gap in the timeline here of an unknown amount of time.
2 22 After his father, Rumplestiltskin, lets go of his hand, Baelfire falls through a portal into 19th century London.[1]
There is a gap in the timeline here of six months.
2 22 Baelfire spends a fair amount of time wandering the streets for leftover bits of food. One day, he sees an opportunity to sneak into a house, and gorges on a table with many loaves of bread. One of the house residents, Wendy, is startled by the intruder, but warms up to him after she recognizes he is starving for food. Feeling sympathy for the stranger, she hides Baelfire in the cubby hole of her nursery and for weeks takes up as much food she can to feed him. One night, she is caught by her parents, but her mother graciously allows Baelfire to move into the nursery as a house guest.

Wendy develops an interest in a creature called the Shadow that appears outside the nursery window from time to time. Against Baelfire's warnings that things associated with magic are of no good, she allows the Shadow to whisk her away to Neverland. She returns in the morning with terrible news—the Shadow wishes to bring a boy to Neverland, and wants to steal one of her brothers. Baelfire won't allow it to happen and forms a plan to outsmart the Shadow. The next night, the Shadow arrives and Wendy, Baelfire and John run into the cubby hole to hide from it. Only Michael remains unmoving and unaware he is in danger, so Baelfire gives himself up to the Shadow so Wendy's family will not be broken up. He is taken away from London to Neverland.

Wendy and her brothers go after Baelfire, but Wendy is kidnapped by Peter Pan and held prisoner in Neverland. Her brothers are forced to do Pan's bidding to keep Wendy from harm. Wendy remains Pan's prisoner for more than a century. (mentioned in "Dark Hollow", "Think Lovely Thoughts")
There is a gap in the timeline that lasts approximately one century.[2]
4 21 In December 1966, a self professed storyteller named Isaac gets a letter from a book publishing company asking to see him. Once there, he unknowingly meets the Apprentice, who bestows upon him the position as the next Author. The Apprentice opens a door to another realm, intending to take Isaac there.
There is a gap in the timeline here of sixteen years.
4 08 Ingrid, the Snow Queen, is on a quest to find a person with magic powers who will become her new sister. She steps through a portal door to another realm, and enters the Land Without Magic in the year of 1982. The city is called Boston.
4 10 Immediately after her arrival, Ingrid finds a psychic shop run by a fortune teller named Madame Faustina. She tries to receive her fortune, only to learn that the "sorceress" is a charlatan. Ingrid leaves, vowing to wait as long as it takes to find her new sister, whose name will be Emma.
4 16 In the Enchanted Forest, Maleficent's child is banished to Minnesota[3] in the Land Without Magic along with Cruella and Ursula. Cruella and Ursula choose to leave Maleficent's child in the woods to die, and use her dragon egg to prevent themselves from aging for thirty years.
4 19 The child is found and taken in by the social services. She is later adopted and named Lily.
On a Sunday, around August 14, 1983,[4] Lily is baptized.(mentioned in "Lily")
1 01 In October 1983,[5] all cursed Enchanted Forest inhabitants land in a land that exists without magic, and are given new personas in the created town of Storybrooke, Maine, with a complete memory wipe of their previous lives. During that night, Kurt and his son, Owen, are camping in the woods. They witness a strange purplish cloud pass through their area and hide inside the tent for the supposed storm to pass.
2 17
1 20 At the same time, a young boy, Pinocchio and infant girl, Emma are sent to the Land Without Magic by the magic wardrobe, and are found outside of Storybrooke.[6] Pinocchio retains his memories from the Enchanted Forest, but Emma is only minutes old.
2 17 On October 23. 1983,[5] Regina experiences the very first day since the casting of the Dark Curse. She is satisfied things turned out as she hoped with everyone in town living miserable lives with no memories of their previous selves.

A tree falls on Kurt's car, so they can only walk. They take what they can carry in backpacks, and Kurt uses a map as a guide to lead them on foot to a highway with the possibility of hitching a ride.

Before they can do that, Owen notices a town in the distance. Kurt is in disbelief because they drove through the same area the day prior, and there was no town in sight. In the town, Sheriff Graham helps them to meet town mayor Regina Mills, who is less than pleased to see outsiders. She pushes to have Kurt's car fixed in a week so they can leave sooner. As the days pass, the euphoria of living in a town where everyone acts the way they do because the curse makes them; not because they actually want to, makes Regina extremely bitter.

Lonely and wanting a change for once, she invites Kurt and Owen over for dinner. Regina takes a shine to Owen and wishes for the father-son duo to move and stay in Storybrooke. When Kurt rejects the idea, Regina tries to find a way to stall their leaving. As a last attempt, she takes out Graham's heart and commands him to arrest Kurt for charges of drunk driving. Unfortunately, Kurt overhears and hurries out of town with Owen in his car, but Graham's police car blocks the border. While Kurt willingly surrenders himself to be arrested, he urges Owen to run. Regina pleas for Owen to stay with her, but he doesn't want to, and she reluctantly lets him go as she knows forcing him to stay wouldn't make it real. Owen brings policemen to where Storybrooke's border is and insists his father is trapped in it, but to outsiders, the town is no longer visible.

After Owen is gone, Regina murders Kurt and buries him at the old site where he and his son once camped. (mentioned in "Second Star to the Right")
1 20 After weeks of searching for her parents, baby Emma is remanded to the foster system.[7] She ends up in a foster home, the same as Pinocchio, in Boston.
1 20 Estimated time when Pinocchio, who now goes by the name August Booth, leaves the foster home with other fellow orphans.
There is a gap in the timeline here of maximum six years.
In 1986 – 1987, a three-year-old Emma is adopted by a family, but her new parents abandon her when they get their own child. (mentioned in "Pilot")
5 01 In 1989, a young Emma goes to a movie theatre to see The Sword in the Stone, when a mysterious man approaches her. He cryptically tells her that one day, she will have the opportunity to remove Excalibur from the stone. He warns her to never do it.
There is a gap in the timeline here of five years
3 21 In 1995,[8] at eleven years of age,[8][9] Emma is living in a group home in Boston. Emma and the other kids watch as a little girl leaves the others for a new home with her adoptive parents. Even as the vehicle pulls away, Emma continues to stare longingly as she, too, desires a family.
There is a gap in the timeline here of three years, in which Emma grows up from a child into a teenager.
4 05 In 1998, Emma runs away from the group home after realizing that no one is going to adopt her. In Hopkins, Minnesota, she meets a young girl named Lily, who claims to be a runaway orphan just like herself. The two become friends, and break into an empty house to crash there for the night. However, when the girls are found by a man who turns out to be Lily's father. Emma realizes that Lily has been lying to her, and breaks off their friendship. Emma is taken into custody by Social Services.
There is a gap in the timeline here of approximately one year.
4 19 In 1999, Emma is living a happy life with a new foster family, when Lily tracks her down, pleading that she needs her old friend's help. Emma discovers that Lily is wanted for armed robbery, and tries to get Lily to leave, but Lily tells her she can't leave town without her beloved necklace, the only thing she has of her birth mother. To get Lily out of her foster family's house, Emma agrees to get the necklace. While Emma is gone, Lily steals the foster family's vacation money. After being confronted by her foster parents, Emma flees the house. Lily begs Emma to run away with her, but Emma is done with Lily. While on the bus, Lily sits next to a mysterious man, the Apprentice, who informs her about her past and her mother.
The flashbacks with Emma and Ingrid from "Shattered Sight" take place either before or after the events of "Lily".
4 05 The same year, Emma is placed in another foster home in Richfield, Minnesota.[10] A woman named Ingrid, also known as the Snow Queen, becomes her new foster mother. On the first night in Ingrid's home, Emma tries to run away, but Ingrid talks her out of it.
4 06
4 10
A gap in the timeline of six months.[11] ("Family Business")
4 10 Ingrid and Emma bond with each other, and Ingrid files to adopt Emma. Between August 26. and September 1.[12] Ingrid and her foster daughter visit a funfair together. When a claw crane sparks, Ingrid believes it to be proof of Emma's magical talent. The week after they visited the fair, Ingrid attempts to test Emma's powers by throwing the both of them in front of an oncoming car. Emma, shaken and disillusioned, runs away.
A gap in the timeline of two years.
4 10 At an unspecified time in the year 2001, Ingrid uses a prophecy scroll given to her by the Apprentice back in 1982, a scroll which will lead her to Emma. Her journey takes her to Storybrooke, Maine, where she settles down, waiting for Emma to arrive.
2 06 In 2001,[13] at seventeen years of age,[14] Emma meets Neal while attempting to steal a car in Portland. They go to an amusement park after closing time, where Neal picks a lock and the two sneak in. While they're sitting in a carousel, having their first date, Neal opens up to her about his past and his home.
3 22
2 06 Emma and Neal become a couple and survive by stealing. Neal later tells Emma he is wanted for stealing expensive watches. She helps Neal retrieve the watches while Neal runs to find someone to sell them to, but he is cornered by August, who insists he must let Emma go because she is meant for a greater fate. To convince Neal magic is real, he shows him a typewriter with the printed words, "I know you're Baelfire." This shows August knows Neal's secret, which is that he, too, is from the Enchanted Forest, and that "Neal Cassidy" is nothing more than an alias name. Neal agrees to disappear from Emma's life. He allows Emma to be arrested for stealing the watches, to which she is sentenced to a jail in Phoenix, Arizona for her crime.
2 14
Another gap here of two months.
2 06 August and Neal meet up again. Neal finds out Emma's fate, and hands over the swan keychain, keys to the old car and a large sum of money that he wants her to have. Via mail sent from Phuket, Thailand by August, Emma receives the keychain and car keys, but not the money. While in jail, she also learns she is pregnant.
Another gap of several months.
3 01 On August 15,[15] 2001, Emma gives birth to a baby boy, and gives him up for a chance at a better life.
3 11
3 09 The Evil Queen feels a void in her heart that Rumplestiltskin warned her about. She talks to Dr. Hopper, and discovers that what she wants is a child. She goes to Mr. Gold and tells him she would like to adopt a child, and he procures the future Henry Mills for her. Regina goes to the agency and gets Henry, who is three weeks old.[16] She names him after her father, and brings him back to Storybrooke. When Henry won't stop crying, she asks Sidney to get information on Henry's birth parents. She finds out that Henry's mother is Emma, the savior. She gets angry at Mr. Gold, then attempts to return Henry, but decides not to, saying he is the only one in all the realms that believes in her. Back in Storybrooke, Regina drinks a potion to forget that Emma is the savior.
There is a gap in the timeline of ten years between Henry's arrival and Emma's. ("Pilot")
3 11 In October 2011, Henry receives a fairytale book from his teacher, Ms. Blanchard. The book changes his perception about Storybrooke and the residents.
Another gap here of approximately three weeks.[17]
1 01 Emma pursues a career as a bail bonds woman. On October 23, 2011, on her 28th birthday, she tracks down an embezzler named Ryan in Boston. In Storybrooke, Henry skips his usual therapy sessions with Dr. Hopper and steals Mary Margaret's credit card to find out from a website the exact current location of his birth mother. He arrives in Boston to surprise her in her apartment. She drives him back home to Storybrooke and returns him to Regina. Shortly after 3 A.M.,[18] on October 23, Emma crashes her car while leaving town and is knocked unconscious.

Emma wakes up in the sheriff's office jail cell for drunk driving. She forms an unexpected bond with Henry, though is skeptical of his claims about a curse and his mother being the Evil Queen. Annoyed at the presence of Henry's birth mother, Regina does her best to warn Emma to leave as soon as possible. Unwilling to back down, Emma takes Henry's earlier advice and checks into the local bed and breakfast for a one-week stay. While there, she encounters Mr. Gold, whose Enchanted Forest memories return when he hears her name.[19] At 8:15 PM, Henry looks out his bedroom window to see the clock tower move forward one minute to signal time is moving forward due to Emma's presence.

1 02
2 18 That very same moment,[20] at 8:15 A.M. on October 24. in the time zone of Phuket, Thailand, August wakes up to see he is turning back into wood.
1 02 On October 25, the day after the clock unfroze, Regina tries to embarrass Emma by exposing her ugly past. When that doesn't deter her, Regina has her arrested for "stealing" Henry's psychiatric records file when in actuality Emma was given the file by Dr. Hopper. Lastly, she manipulates a situation in which Henry overhears Emma call him "crazy". Emma apologizes to Henry and plays along with his curse theory in saying she only said those things to throw Regina off track from "Operation Cobra", which is the name for their plan in defeating the Evil Queen.
2 18 In October 2011, August goes to the hospital in Hong Kong, but the doctor is unable to see his wooden leg. August hears of a healer called "The Dragon" who can treat magical aliments, and meets him. He is given the chance to have a potion that will cure him of returning to wood for a large sum of money. Completely broke, August meets by chance a woman who also visited The Dragon was a patient. Her name is Tamara, and she claims to have cancer. While she is busy, he steals her money and uses it to exchange for the potion. August loses the potion and Tamara takes it. She revisits The Dragon and demands to know if he really possesses magic. In fact, she is a magic seeker, and faked her cancer illness to procure more information about The Dragon. With evidence of magic in the potion, Tamara electrically tasers The Dragon to death so no one else can find him. The next day, August comes back to beg The Dragon to give him another cure, but is puzzled to find the man dead.
1 03 Henry persuades Mary Margaret to read to John Doe, the coma patient. John Doe awakens and wanders off into the forest. Emma, Mary Margaret and Sheriff Graham find and return him to the hospital. Regina informs John Doe's wife, Kathryn, of her husband's whereabouts. It is learned John Doe's real name is David Nolan. Emma becomes more suspicious of Regina's motives and ability to love Henry. Emma accepts Mary Margaret's invitation to move into the apartment with her.
1 04 Emma makes a deal with Mr. Gold to keep him from taking Ashley’s baby. Mr. Gold accepts and in return asks for a favor in the future. Sheriff Graham hires Emma to become sheriff's deputy.
4 10 In November 2011, Emma wanders into Ingrid's ice cream shop, and recognizes Ingrid. Ingrid uses a memory stone to remove all memories of herself from Emma's mind.[21]
1 05 Regina gets Archie to crush Henry's theory about the fairytale curse by talking to Henry and showing him what he believes in is just a "delusion". Henry rebels by going into the collapsing mines to find proof of the curse. Henry finds a shard of glass, but discards it. Regina finds another shard and dumps it into the mines knowing it is part of Snow White's coffin which rests below Storybrooke.
1 06 David is released from the hospital. He has amnesia and only Mary Margaret seems real to him in his new surroundings. David decides he wants to be with Mary Margaret instead of his “wife.” They decided to meet at the Toll Bridge where she found him after he woke from the coma. On his way to the bridge, his “memory” comes back while in Mr. Gold's pawn shop. He sees a windmill that triggers his cursed memories of his life in Storybrooke, and decides he has to stay with Kathryn. Mary Margaret is heartbroken and takes up with Dr. Whale. Emma is patrolling the streets at night when she sees a figure jumping down from the second story of Regina's house. She apprehends the thief only to find it is Sheriff Graham. Emma is disgusted to find out he and Regina are sleeping together.
1 07 Emma avoids Graham, but he receives flashes of his old life as Huntsman after kissing her. He becomes fixated on finding his heart, and believes it's not in his chest. Though Emma doesn't believe him, she tries to help him look, though they do not find it. Regina sees Graham is slowly turning against her and with no more use for a person not on her side, she takes his heart and crushes it to dust. Graham dies, which is later dubbed a sudden heart attack.
Another gap here of two weeks. ("Desperate Souls")
1 08 Emma is fired by Regina from her position as sheriff's deputy, but runs in an election to become the new sheriff. She faces Sidney Glass as her competitor, and receives unlikely help from Mr. Gold to cheat her way into winning the election. However, Emma is unwilling to be victor by dishonest means, and publicly indicts Mr. Gold during her election debate speech. The townspeople are impressed she has guts to stand up to Mr. Gold, and thus Emma becomes the new sheriff of Storybrooke.
2 18 Estimated time of August revisiting Neal in November 2011, just before he heads off to Storybrooke to help Emma break the curse. Neal now resides in New York City. He is worried if the curse breaks his father will come looking for him again, but August states he will also have a chance to see Emma once more. From a few feet away, Tamara is eavesdropping on their conversation. After August rides off on his motorcycle, Tamara purposely bumps right into Neal and causes her cup of coffee to spill all over her clothes. Neal offers his scarf to cover up the stains. The two make an acquaintance and exchange phone numbers.
1 09 A month after she arrived in Storybrooke, Emma helps bring together a lost family, and reunite Nicholas and Ava Zimmer with their biological father, Michael Tillman. Henry wants to know about his biological father, but Emma lies about who he is because she believes he is a man Henry should never know. Emma tells Mary Margaret about Henry's theory that she is her mother. Later, Mary Margaret seems transfixed by Emma's baby blanket, but has no idea why. A stranger comes to town on his motorcycle.
1 10 Mary Margaret, in her growing infatuation with David, begins to stalk him by appearing at the diner 7:15 A.M. each morning. Unknown to her, he does the same. The two come to grips they have feelings for one another that cannot be suppressed and begin an affair. After a small interrogation, Emma finds out the stranger, whose name is August Wayne Booth, is a writer.
1 11 Three weeks after Emma is elected sheriff, Henry's book goes missing, though August is in possession of it. Sidney Glass is double crossing Emma, and spying on her for Regina.
1 12 On February 13. 2012, Mr. Gold's confiscates Moe French truck, since Moe can't pay the rent. On Valentine's Day, Moe, after some subtle suggestions from Regina, steals various valuables from Mr. Gold's home, resulting in Mr. Gold taking matters into his own hands. He kidnaps Moe and beats him nearly to death in the belief he drove Belle to her death. Gold refuses to talk to Emma about the reasons behind the attack and is arrested and jailed for battery assault charges. Mr. Gold admits to Regina his name is Rumplestiltskin and he remembers everything—just like her. Secretly, Regina keeps Belle, who Mr. Gold thinks died in the Enchanted Forest, locked up in the psychiatric ward of the hospital.
1 18 Mr. Gold visits Regina in her office, and asks for her assistance in having the charges of assault, on Moe French, dropped. In return, he offers his help with Regina's problem with Mary Margaret and David Nolan. Together, they come up with a plan, which involves the disappearance of David's wife, Kathryn.
1 13 Mary Margaret wants David to come clean to Kathryn about their affair. Not wanting to hurt anyone's feelings, David lies and said he did when no such thing happened. Regina informs Kathryn about David's ongoing relationship with Mary Margaret. Kathryn confronts Mary Margaret about having an affair with her husband. Hurt and confused over David's lie, she breaks up with him for good.

The next day, on February 19. approximately,[22] Kathryn decides to wish David and Mary Margaret well, and leaves a letter behind for him. She leaves town for a Boston law school and goes missing while driving near the border. August adds new pages to Henry's fairytale book and helps Emma to accidentally find it under her car.

1 14 Leroy falls in love with a nun named Astrid and teams up with Mary Margaret to win her heart. In the evening, Kathryn has been missing for 24 hours, and David is taken in for questioning about her disappearance.[23]
1 15 Ruby leaves her employment at the diner. She is hired by Emma as an assistant. David is found unconscious in the woods by Ruby and Emma. He has no recollection of how he got there. Ruby helps Emma look around the Toll Bridge, and under a wooden plank she finds a box containing a human heart. Mary Margaret's fingerprints are all over the box, so she is arrested for murder. Shaken up from seeing a human heart, Ruby returns to Granny. They make up and Ruby is given back her old job.
1 17 On the next day, the afternoon edition of the Storybrooke Daily Mirror publishes an article on Mary Margaret's arrest.[24]
1 18
1 16 Emma searches Mary Margaret's apartment for signs of forced entry, but instead finds a hunting dagger in the floor vent. August inspires Henry to help Emma find proof Regina framed Mary Margaret by looking in his fairytale book. Mary Margaret hires Mr. Gold as her attorney. David is having "dreams" about the Enchanted Forest and Snow White. He goes to Archie Hopper for help. David recalls Snow White trying to murder someone, but misinterprets the memory as Mary Margaret's intent to kill Kathryn. Emma gives Mary Margaret bad news—the human heart is a match for Kathryn's DNA. Mary Margaret finds a key to open her jail cell and runs away in the middle of the night.
1 17 Emma goes looking Mary Margaret only to find Jefferson, who drugs her for some unknown purpose. Jefferson forces Emma to stay in his house and make him a magic hat so he can go back to his world. He claims to be the Mad Hatter, and that his daughter Grace does not remember him. Emma finds Mary Margaret locked up in Jefferson's house after wandering around. They break free and Mary Margaret uses a croquet mallet to knock Jefferson out the window. He disappears, and only his hat remains on the ground. Mary Margaret decides to fight Regina on this murder charge with Emma's help and returns to her jail cell. Regina and Mr. Gold planned for Mary Margaret to escape so that she could be framed. Emma starts becoming curious about Henry's fairytale theory because his book tells about Jefferson's story.
1 18 One week after Mr. Gold sought her out, Regina reveals to Mary Margaret she is intentionally framing her. Emma and August go back to the Toll Bridge where Ruby found the box with the human heart, and find a chipped off piece of a shovel. The shovel piece is a perfect fit on a shovel in Regina's garage. But, Regina switches the shovel with a new one the next day when Emma comes with a search warrant. Emma suspects August of working together with Regina, but apologizes after finding a spying bug device in the flower vase Sidney Glass gave her. Kathryn is found alive behind the diner.
1 19 Mary Margaret is released from jail due to Kathryn being alive, and also because of lack of evidence linking her to the crime. August wakes up in the morning with shooting pain in his leg. He calls Henry and says they need to "speed up the plan". He sends Henry into Mr. Gold's pawnshop has a decoy while August himself goes through the back to search for a certain item, which he does not find. Emma goes to visit Kathryn who is recovering in the hospital. She recalls being surrounded in darkness and having food and water being present for her, but little of anything else. Regina thinks Mr. Gold broke their deal about incriminating Mary Margaret for Kathryn's murder. Instead, he states the actual wording of the deal was that something horrible would happen to Kathryn, which did not clearly indicate it meant Regina wanted Kathryn dead. In shock, she realizes all the forged evidence of the crime will trace back to herself.

Mary Margaret is welcomed home with a party in her apartment the whole town shows up for. Mr. Gold is suspicious of August while Emma is suspicious Mr. Gold had something to do with Kathryn's disappearance. Later, Mr. Gold breaks into August's bed and breakfast room to discover a drawing of the Dark One's dagger. He becomes convinced the man is his son Baelfire after Mother Superior discloses the conversation she had with August in which he spoke of his father. With some help from Archie, Mr. Gold musters up his courage to speak with August and apologizes for their past broken deal. When August is given the dagger, he attempts to use it to manipulate Mr. Gold, who is shocked at being duped. Despite the urge to kill him, Mr. Gold only allows August to live knowing he is terminally ill as it is.

1 20 Henry notices there is a new story in his fairytale book that is not finished yet. August says the story is about Pinocchio. Mary Margaret is aware Regina is behind framing her for Kathryn's murder and forgives her for it. August shows Mr. Gold his wooden leg. He is turning back to wood as Pinocchio. Regina attempts to seduce David. She feigns a broken down car, which he graciously comes to help her fix, and carries her groceries home. He stays for dinner after Regina is left alone without Henry for the evening, but her seduction fails. August brings Emma to the roadside lobster house where she was found as an infant. He tells her his story as Pinocchio, and how he promised his father he would protect her until her time came to break the curse. Emma refuses to believe in the curse and her role as savior, and her denial clouds her from seeing the actual state of August's wooden leg. August reunites with his father, Marco. Emma calls Henry and he sneaks out of the house to see her. She asks him if he would like to live with her. After Henry is buckled in, she drives off to leave Storybrooke with him.
1 21 Regina has a nightmare in which the whole town remembers their Enchanted Forest memories, and cut off her head in vengeance. Henry stops Emma from leaving Storybrooke. Regina's apple tree begins to wither. It is a sign the curse is weakening. Mr. Gold and Regina are shown to be aware Emma is the savior, and that the curse will break if Emma should die. Regina leaves a rabbit card on Jefferson's daughter's bike. Jefferson is still alive and Regina wants his help to use his hat to retrieve an item from the Enchanted Forest's past so she can get rid of Emma without killing her. Regina reveals that she has a little magic in the things she brought with her. She gives up the engagement ring Daniel gave her for the hat to work. The poisoned apple is retrieved from the Enchanted Forest. Regina bakes it into an apple turnover so Emma will eat it and fall into a deep sleep for eternity. Emma plans to leave town after a talk with Regina. Regina gives her the apple turnover. Henry intercepts and eats it instead; falling into a deep coma.
1 22 Emma touches Henry's fairytale book and a rush of Enchanted Forest memories flood her. She confronts Regina about the Sleeping Curse. Jefferson wants his daughter back; as per the deal he made with Regina in helping her get the poisoned apple. She refuses and considers the deal null and void because Henry ate the apple turnover instead. Emma must defeat a dragon in the library to retrieve the true love potion Prince Charming had planted in the dragon in Enchanted Forest for Rumplestiltskin. Emma retrieves the potion and gives it to Mr. Gold, who takes for it for his own means. August turns into solid wood. Henry's heart monitor flat lines and he dies.[25] Jefferson releases Belle from the hospital's psychiatric ward. He asks her to find Mr. Gold, and tell him Regina locked her up. Belle reunites with Mr. Gold. He takes her to Storybrooke Wishing Well with him. Emma gives Henry a farewell kiss. The power of true love's kiss revives Henry and breaks the curse. All inhabitants of Storybrooke regain their Enchanted Forest memories. Regina is forced into hiding after the inhabitants recall her as the Evil Queen. Mr. Gold enacts a new curse; mixing the waters of the wishing well with the true love potion, which brings magic back to Storybrooke with a purple fog sweeping across town. The clock strikes 8:15 A.M. as the fog engulfs all of Storybrooke.
2 01 August sends Neal a postcard from Storybrooke. The purple fog clears, and Mary Margaret and David reunite as Snow White and Prince Charming. Mary Margaret and David are ecstatic at finally being together with their daughter, Emma. Ruby, Granny and the seven dwarves regroup with the trio to stop Dr. Whale and other townspeople from killing Regina as Henry does not want her harmed. To keep Regina safe, she is locked up at the sheriff's office jail cell. To get revenge against Regina for locking up Belle, he summons a Wraith to suck out her soul after marking her with the creature's symbol.
2 01 During the storm the creature provokes,[26] the White Rabbit shows up at Granny's Diner to team up with the Knave of Hearts in order to rescue Alice from another world. They enter a portal and leave Storybrooke. Meanwhile, Emma, David, and Mary Margaret save Regina from the Wraith and form a plan to get rid of it permanently by sending it back to non-existent Enchanted Forest with a magical hat. Belle is very upset at Mr. Gold for breaking his promise of not seeking vengeance in Regina. She leaves his pawn shop. Emma recognizes the hat as belonging to Jefferson. Regina feigns ignorance. The hat does not work until Emma touches Regina. The Wraith is sucked in while grabbing Emma and forcing her into the vortex. Mary Margaret jumps in after her. David and Regina are left behind. Henry blames Regina for the loss of Emma and Mary Margaret, and goes to live wit David at the apartment. Belle returns to Mr. Gold. She decides to stay with him despite what he did.
W 01
2 02 The dwarves discover that if anyone crosses the Storybrooke town border, they lose their memory of their Enchanted Forest selves. Henry reveals the hat belongs to the Mad Hatter, but he does not know who or where he is in town. David gets a potion from Mr. Gold to use on the hat to find the Mad Hatter. The hat guides him to an overturned car where he rescues Jefferson from underneath. Jefferson tells David the Enchanted Forest still exists, and that is where Emma and Mary Margaret are currently. Regina takes back an old spell book of her mother's and regains magic. She uses it to terrify the townspeople into returning Henry to her. Later, she realizes she cannot force Henry to stay with her, and allows him to leave with David. Regina contemplates throwing the spell book into the furnace, but decides to put it away on a shelf.
2 03 The week after Emma broke the curse, Henry ditches Operation Cobra for Operation Scorpion. He convinces Jefferson to find his daughter again. Jefferson has a long-awaited family reunion with Paige. David teaches Henry sword fighting. Albert Spencer bitterly watches from his car.
2 04 Belle leaves Mr. Gold again because he is still using magic. Belle stays at Granny's and befriends Ruby who tells her she could open up the library again. Belle's father kidnaps her and tries to force her over the border so she will lose her Enchanted Forest memories. Mr. Gold saves Belle just in time. Later, he gives her key to the library. Finally, he decides to be truthful with Belle about why he needs magic—to find his son, Baelfire. He claims to not know how to live without magic, but Belle is willing to start over with Mr. Gold. Mr. Gold bullies Smee into having him find Captain Hook; Smee says the pirate never came to Storybrooke.
2 05 In annoyance that he can't go back to his own world, Dr. Whale brings Regina's deceased true love, Daniel, back to life using one of her enchanted hearts. Daniel terrorizes Dr. Whale by ripping off his arm, and puts up a fight against Regina and David. Despite Daniel being back, he is not truly himself, and pleas with Regina to let him go because he can't live like this. Just as he lunges to harm her, Regina freezes and makes him disappear forever. Dr. Whale gets Mr. Gold to reattach his torn off arm with magic.
2 06 Henry wakes up from a nightmare induced from the after effects of the Sleeping Curse.
2 07 A few months after Mary Margaret was suspected of murdering Kathryn Nolan, diamonds are found in the mines, which may be used to create fairy dust. David believes this will allow him to find Emma and Mary Margaret through the use of Jefferson's hat. The town celebrates at the diner. Ruby goes through the first wolfs time in Storybrooke since the curse broke. She wakes up in the woods the next morning with no memory of how she got there. Billy's body is found torn in half. The townspeople suspect Ruby of the crime. Albert Spencer leads a mob of people demanding Ruby be locked up. Ruby shape shifts into a wolf during the night as the mob hunt her. David and Granny find Spencer's car that contains a bloody hatchet and Ruby's cloak. Albert Spencer planned the whole thing to make Ruby look guilty so he could get back at David. Spencer is about to shoot Ruby just as David is able to coax her into stopping. He gives her back the cloak enabling her to transform back into a human. Spencer burns Jefferson's hat over a fire. Henry continues to have nightmares. Mr. Gold gives him a special necklace to can help him control the nightmares.
2 08 Henry is able to calm the fires in the dream, and sees Princess Aurora. They communicate with each other, and Henry learns she is from the Enchanted Forest as well as currently in the company of Mary Margaret and Emma. He relays this information back to Regina, David and Mr. Gold, but Henry suffers from physical burns as a result of his constant return to the Netherworld. David volunteers to undergo the Sleeping Curse to talk to Mary Margaret instead. While under the curse's effects, he does not wake as planned since true love's kiss doesn't work in the Netherworld.
2 09 Twenty-eight years after the curse was cast, Regina and Mr. Gold are anxious over the possible arrival of Cora, who they both don't want in Storybrooke for different reasons. They go to the Storybrooke mines and use the Fairy Godmother's wand to absorb the power of the diamonds there. The wand is used to create a green vortex over the wishing well so anyone attempting to come through the portal will be killed. After finding out about the missing diamonds, Henry and Ruby go to the wishing well to stop them. Regina is convinced by Henry to remove the green vortex and immediately afterwards Emma and Mary Margaret emerge. The group travels to Mr. Gold's shop and Mary Margaret awakens David with true love's kiss. In celebration of their reunion, the group travels to Granny's for lunch, notably without Regina. Hook's ship sails through the gloom towards Storybrooke with Cora aboard.
2 10 Hook and Cora set foot at the dock of Storybrooke. To keep the ship from sight, Cora cloaks it in invisibility. That night, the diner is holding a celebration for Emma and Mary Margaret's return. As thanks, Regina is invited to the party by Emma. Outside of the diner, Emma shares with Regina she has been speaking with Archie and he has told her the changes she is willing to make for Henry. The next day, Regina confronts Archie because she feels he has shared private information with Emma, and Ruby witnesses this harsh confrontation. Later that evening, Cora disguises herself as Regina and enters Archie's office to kill him. Pongo bears witness to the murder, though the person killed is only someone wearing Archie's mask. The real Archie is kidnapped by Cora and placed aboard the Jolly Roger.
2 11 At the town line, Mr. Gold uses William Smee as his test subject by pouring a potion on his hat, putting it back on, and pushes him to go over the town line. The potion works, and Smee does not lose his memories. In Mr. Gold's shop, Belle is given the news the potion to cross the border works, and he plans to use it on a shawl Baelfire once owned. Belle goes to the library and has a frightening encounter with Hook. She hides in the elevator until Mr. Gold comes to get her. They return to the shop to find Baelfire's shawl missing. Mr. Gold goes after Hook, but finds William Smee. As punishment, he turns him into a rat. Belle discovers a magical barrier onto the ship, and goes below deck to cut Archie free. She takes the stolen shawl back, but Hook blocks her escape. Once she manages to run onto the deck, Mr. Gold appears and in his fury begins to beat Hook. Belle convinces him to leave with her. Mr. Gold and Belle go to the town line. He uses the potion on the shawl and crosses the town line. His memories stay intact, and Belle is ecstatic for him. Just as they kiss, the moment is interrupted by the sound of gunshot. The bullet hits Belle on her shoulder as she topples into Mr. Gold's arms over the town line and loses her Enchanted Forest memories. Hook is the culprit. Mr. Gold prepares to throw a fireball when an out of control car speeds into the town line, runs over Hook and crashes into the bank.
2 12 An amnesiac Belle, critically injured Hook and the stranger of the car are all taken to the hospital for treatment. Mary Margaret, David, Leroy and Ruby gain access to the outsider's phone in order to learn more about the mysterious man, who appears to be just a normal outsider named Greg Mendell. The group waits for the surgery to be over with, but Dr. Whale is not seen. Ruby uses the scent on the coat to track him down. At the docks, the doctor attempts to commit suicide, but is saved by Ruby. They discuss their shared heartaches; him with the misunderstood Frankenstein name, and her as a ferocious wolf that killed her boyfriend. The present is a fresh start for both of them. They go back to the hospital, and Dr. Whale operates on Greg. The surgery is a success. Sheriff Swan goes in to speak to Greg about what he saw.[27] He says his car crashed when he looked down at a text message, but after she leaves the room, he makes a phone call to "Her", who is actually Tamara, and shares what he saw just before he crashed the car.

Mr. Gold is visited by Cora, who presents him with a globe to find his son. In exchange, she wants whereabouts of her daughter, and seals the deal with a kiss. Mr. Gold pricks a drop of blood on the globe and it shows him his son's location in New York City. He demands Emma use the favor she owes him and help him find his son and swears if anything happens to Belle while he is gone, he will kill them all.

2 13 Emma journeys with Mr. Gold to New York and also brings Henry along to keep him out of town and safe from Cora's hands. David, Mary Margaret and Leroy discharge Hook from the hospital. He takes them on his ship and unveils a prisoner Cora brought to Storybrooke—a shrunken human sized giant named Anton. The giant appears to recognize David and attempts to harm him, but when forced to stop, he vows revenge. David comes to realize the giant has mistaken him for his twin brother, James. Regina finds out from Hook the giant from the ship escaped and decides to use it to her advantage. She gives a magic mushroom to Anton, which makes him grow back to his old size. He takes out his hatred for humans on the town, though David tries to explain the misunderstanding. The effects of the mushroom wear off and Anton accepts David's help in pulling him to safety. He shows the townspeople the stem of a bean stalk that can grow magic beans and with the assistance of the seven dwarves, they begin to dig into the soil with pickaxes to plant it.
The events of "Heart of the Matter" take place at an unspecified time, sometime after Will Scarlet leaves Storybrooke in "Broken", and after a hole in the road (from the Wraith's attack - not to be confused with the rabbit hole that the White Rabbit makes[28]) situated between Granny's Diner and Storybrooke Country Bread (as seen in "We Are Both" and "Lady of the Lake") has been repaired (which it has by the time of "The Doctor"). The area in front of Granny's can be glimpsed in the background when Alice and her friends visit Storybrooke, and the hole[28] is no longer there, meaning that this episode takes place some time after "Lady of the Lake", and before Will Scarlet returns to Storybrooke more than a year later in "Rocky Road". Since the episode offers no other clues about where this story falls into the timeline,[28] it is placed midway through the events of Season Two quite arbitrarily.
W 11 Alice, Cyrus, and the White Rabbit travel from Wonderland to Storybrooke and arrive in front of The Rabbit Hole pub at 9:25 pm, creating a gigantic hole in the ground at their exit point.[28] The trio head off to Will's Storybrooke apartment to retrieve his heart, discovering it hidden in a hole in the wall behind a drawing of Anastasia that he's been using as a dart board.
2 14 Mr. Gold, Emma and Henry arrive in New York and take a cab to a Manhattan apartment complex. Emma picks out apartment #407 as a possible room his son is occupying, and in turn she chases the man down when he flees to discover he is her ex-boyfriend, Neal Cassidy. After getting some answers about why he left her all those years ago, Neal pleas to not let his father find him, and Emma complies. She tells Mr. Gold his son got away. Mr. Gold breaks into his son's apartment. He suspects Emma is withholding information from him and becomes violent, but Neal stops him in time. To Neal's shock, he finds out he is Henry's father. While Emma consoles an upset Henry, Mr. Gold apologizes to his son for breaking their promise. Despite wanting to make it up, Neal wants nothing more to do with him and instead focuses his attention on getting to know Henry. Warily, Mr. Gold watches the two and remembers the very last prophecy the Seer gave of a young boy leading him to his son, but also being his undoing.

Back in Storybrooke, Regina procures the library shelf number of where the Dark One's dagger's location is hidden via Belle's purse, but all that is found is some kind of map. Hook easily translates it to show the current location of the dagger, but once he is of no further use, Cora knocks him out so she and her daughter can get the dagger. At the hospital, Greg is discharged and free to leave town, but stays. Earlier on, he secretly recorded the magic Regina used in Belle's room. While conversing on the phone with Tamara, he sends her the footage.

2 15 On the day of Mary Margaret's birthday, an old friend, Johanna leaves a present outside her apartment door. Mary Margaret is in mourning for the anniversary of her mother's death when she opens the box to find the tiara she once wore as a princess. Following an emotional reunion with Johanna, she spies on Cora and Regina in the woods searching for Mr. Gold's dagger. At the sheriff's office, Hook knocks out David and steals back his hook. Using a map, he travels on his invisible ship to New York. Mary Margaret gives David the news about Cora and Regina's plans, and calls Regina to the diner to have a talk. Regina refuses to play on the side of good as no one will ever fully accept her.

In the streets of New York, Neal and Henry are spending an increased amount of time together while Emma and Mr. Gold awkwardly tag along. Later, they go back to Neal's apartment, and as Emma and Mr. Gold wait in the lobby, Hook bursts in and stabs Mr. Gold with his poison laced hook. Emma knocks him out and later locks him in a storage closet. The only way to save Mr. Gold's life is to get back to Storybrooke as soon as possible. Emma receives news from Mary Margaret and David via phone about Regina and Cora's search for the dagger. She convinces Mr. Gold to give up the location of the dagger before his enemies find it.

Mary Margaret and David enlist Mother Superior to assist them in breaking into Mr. Gold's shop so they can retrieve the dagger, but nothing works. Mary Margaret reminds her of the past in which she did once use dark magic, though Mother Superior has no idea what she is talking about. David is called back by Emma and given the exact location of the dagger that is hidden behind the clock tower face's minute hand. They hurry to grab it, but are confronted by Regina and Cora. They use Johanna's life as leverage to make Mary Margaret hand over the dagger, but Cora ends up throwing Johanna out the clockface to her death anyway.

Emma and Neal are in a rush to start a car so they can drive to where Hook's ship is currently anchored. Neal's fiancée, Tamara, stops by to say hello and meets Emma for the very first time.

2 16 Emma learns to harness her inner magic in creating protective barriers while Mr. Gold gives Mary Margaret the opportunity to use the enchanted candle to destroy Cora for good. As Cora and Regina storm the pawnshop, Mary Margaret slips away into the vault and uses the candle on Cora's heart. Regina ushers off to the vault to keep her mother's heart safe while Cora breaks down the barrier so she can reach Mr. Gold. Mary Margaret manipulates Regina into giving the heart back to Cora. She knows what Regina desires more than anything is her mother's love and respect, and by returning the heart she just might finally get it. As Mr. Gold lays dying, he asks to know if Cora truly ever loved him, to which she affirms it to be true. With the dagger raised, she prepares to kill the Dark One, but is interrupted by Regina shoving the heart back into her chest. For a brief moment, Cora feels genuine love for her daughter, but ultimately she dies as Mr. Gold's wound completely disappears.
2 17 Two days after Neal and Henry first met in New York,[29] Regina plots to murder Mary Margaret for her mother's death with the curse of the empty-hearted, in which one of the main ingredients for enacting it will be her nemesis' heart. The curse will also make her believe Henry loves her. Mr. Gold believes the only way to end a feud is to shed more blood, though Henry is against the idea of Regina being harmed. Henry steals some dynamite and attempts to blow up the wishing well so magic will disappear completely as it is ruining the lives of everyone he cares about. He pleas for Regina not to go through with the curse, and she listens by burning the spell page to ash. Still reeling in guilt, Mary Margaret pays a visit to Regina and asks to be killed for what she did. Instead, Regina pulls out her heart and shows Mary Margaret the darkness accumulating in it that will only grow with time. After shoving the heart back in, Regina slams the door. From nearby, Greg recorded the entire scene on film as more evidence of magic. He returns to his car and vows to find his father Kurt; showing he is the grown up Owen Flynn who escaped Storybrooke all those years ago.
2 18 Mary Margaret is depressed since her visit to Regina, and the implication the darkness in her heart is getting bigger. She tries to get her mind off of it by practicing archery in the woods and instead comes across a wooden but mobile August hiding in an abandoned trailer.

Neal invites Tamara to come to Storybrooke so she can properly meet and speak with Emma and Henry. They have an awkward breakfast together, but the conversation turns to the story of how Neal and Tamara met. After the couple are left alone, Neal tries to explain to his fiancée his actual origins from the Enchanted Forest. She thinks Neal is making up lies to drive her away so he can get back together with Emma. Annoyed, she leaves to cool off at the diner.

Greg had a run-in with Regina at the diner. She cannot seem to understand why he is so familiar to her, but shows up at his guest room with the realization he is Owen. Demanding to know where his father is, Regina plays it off that she let Kurt leave town and never saw him again. He doesn't believe her.

On his way out of town, August realizes he is being tricked and hurries to the sheriff's office. Emma is not there, but he calls to warn her, but the phone line goes dead due to Tamara's interference. August demonstrates courage and selflessness for the first time in years and promises to let everyone know about her. He is severely incapacitated from doing so after he is tased and collapses in the arms of Marco. Using his last breaths, August struggles to divulge information about Tamara, but passes away. Mother Superior uses her wand to revive August because he has shown himself to be selfless, brave and true. He reverts to the child Pinocchio. When Emma asks him what August was trying to tell her, Pinocchio cannot recall; much to Tamara's relief.

While Neal is occupied, Tamara meets up with Greg in his room. The two are in a relationship, though Tamara is only pretending to be with Neal for the sake of their mission to expose magic.

2 19 Charming and the Dwarves have been growing magic beans for the past couple of weeks, whereas Regina is furious in learning that not only is Mr. Gold's Henry's grandfather, but his own son Neal is Henry's father. She perceives he knew this was going to happen and to spite him, Regina brings out Belle's cursed memories along with her cursed persona, "Lacey".

Mr. Gold is shocked Lacey is the complete opposite of Belle, but ensures Regina he will win back her heart. With David's advice, he asks Lacey out on a date at Granny's. Mr. Gold makes an effort to show Lacey the good man Belle loved, but later she admits to her disdain in their date after he catches her making out with Keith. Frustrated that being good is not getting him anywhere, he takes out his anger on Keith. Under Lacey's watchful eye, she becomes attracted to the dark side of Mr. Gold and encourages him to continue.

2 20 Regina discovers David and Mary Margaret's plan to use the magic beans so gets Hook to help her to get a trigger that will take her and Henry back to the Enchanted Forest and destroy Storybrooke. Emma is suspicious of Tamara and investigates her room with Henry but is discovered by an angry Neal. As Hook battle Maleficent, Regina gets the trigger and emerges from the lair to be greeted by Greg and Tamara who reveal that Hook has allied with them and that she is now powerless.
2 21 David, Emma, Henry and Mary Margaret discover that Regina is missing and Emma is suspicious of Tamara. Emma investigates whilst David and Mary Margaret use a potion from Mr. Gold to discover that Regina is being electrocuted by Greg. Along with Emma and Neal, David and Mary Margaret search the seafood cannery and they free Regina whilst Neal and Emma confront Tamara who opens a portal that Neal falls through. A heartbroken Emma is comforted by her parents and Tamara and Greg discover the purpose of the trigger. Meanwhile, Lacey discovers Mr. Gold's magic and wants to become immortal so she can live with him forever.
2 22 Regina tries to postpone the destruction of the town whilst Hook and David get a magic bean so they can send the trigger through a portal. Meanwhile, Leroy gives Mr. Gold Mother Superior's potion that can bring back Mr. Clark and Belle's memories of the Enchanted Forest. Although the town has a solution, Hook steals the bean and the town's only hope is if Regina and Emma can absorb the power of the trigger. After the trigger is diffused, Greg and Tamara kidnap Henry and take him to Neverland whilst Mr. Gold, Mary Margaret, David, Emma, Regina and Hook use the last bean to rescue Henry. The residents of Storybrooke activate a cloaking spell around the city limits; however, two mysterious strangers arriving from Minnesota in a convertible manage to cross the town border just in time.
3 07
3 07 Five days later, a mermaid known as Ariel emerges from the ocean. She has been sent on a mission by Mr. Gold, to retrieve a magical weapon from his pawnshop. Ariel seeks out Belle, and together, they find what Ariel is looking for: Pandora's Box. Before Ariel is able to leave with the item, the two strangers, who are revealed to be John and Michael Darling, overpower the women and steals Pandora's Box from them. Fortunately, Ariel and Belle are able to break free, just in time to stop the brothers from destroying Gold's weapon. After she hears their story, Belle convinces the brothers that the box is the only way to stop Peter Pan and free their sister, Wendy Darling, who has been Pan's prisoner for over a century. Ariel leaves for Neverland, taking Pandora's Box with her.
3 10 Ariel returns to Storybrooke. As the mermaid is reunited with her lost love, Prince Eric, Henry and the rest of the crew return from Neverland, along with Tinker Bell, Wendy Darling and the Lost Boys. Unbeknownst to everyone, Pan has switched bodies with Henry, who is now trapped inside Pandora's Box. "Henry" spends the night in his adoptive mother's house. At midnight, Pan summons the Shadow, which Regina trapped in the sails of the Jolly Roger, in order to make the ship fly. The next day, the Shadow attacks Mother Superior and kills her. Emma suspects that Pan is somehow controlling the shadow, and has Gold release "Pan" (Henry) from Pandora's box outside the town line. Emma prepares to shoot him down, but Henry manages to convince everyone who he really is, by telling her about the time he and Emma first bonded. Meanwhile, Pan, who is still in Henry's body, tricks Regina into letting him into her vault, where he knocks her out and steals the scroll that contains the Dark Curse. As Pan and one of his Lost Boys, Felix, look over the entire town, Pan reveals that once they enact the Dark Curse, the residents will once again lose their memories and Pan will turn their hometown into "the new Neverland."
3 11 Shortly afterward, Pan activates the Dark Curse. Regina learns that in order to undo Pan's curse, she must destroy the scroll. The next day, Tinker Bell kills the Shadow, which brings Mother Superior back to life. Mr. Gold, who has been revealed to be Pan's son, manages to return Henry and Pan to their respective bodies, by using the wand of the Black Fairy. However, Pan has one last trick up his sleeve, and quickly overpowers Gold. In order to save his family, Gold kills his father by stabbing him with the Dark One's Dagger, sacrificing his own life in the process.

As Pan's curse approaches, Regina realizes that destroying the scroll comes at a heavy price: Storybrooke will be erased from the map, and everyone will be transported back to the Enchanted Forest, prevented from ever returning — except Emma and Henry. At the town border, Emma and Henry say their goodbyes to their friends and family. Regina tells Emma that when the curse is undone, the memories Emma and Henry have from Storybrooke will be gone. She gives Emma a gift: New memories of a happy life, where Emma never gave up Henry for adoption, so they'll have always been together. Emma and her son drive across the town border just as the magic fog closes in on their family. Storybrooke vanishes from the world.[30]

3 11 Directly after driving out of Storybrooke, Emma and Henry obtain false memories of their life together. As Emma recalls, a fire broke out in her apartment in Boston, which causes the mother-son pair to start afresh in New York.
3 12
There is a gap in the timeline here of one year.
Eight months before the new curse is cast, Emma meets Walsh, and they begin dating. (mentioned in "New York City Serenade")
3 19 A new Dark Curse is cast by Snow White, bringing the Enchanted Forest inhabitants back to Storybrooke. However, the Wicked Witch of the West adds her own special ingredient in the form of a forgetting potion to the concoction, and everyone's memories of the past year is erased.
As the new curse approaches, Captain Hook receives a messenger bird, attached with a vial of memory potion, as well as a note asking him to seek out Emma. He abandons his crew and sails the Jolly Roger as far as he can outside the curse's purview. Now that the curse has been cast, transportation between worlds is possible again, so Hook trades his ship for a magic bean and opens a portal to the Land Without Magic. (mentioned in "Witch Hunt", "There's No Place Like Home")
3 13 In Storybrooke, Zelena imprisons a resurrected Mr. Gold, courtesy of Neal, who previously used a key on the vault of the Dark One to bring back his father. As a price of opening the vault, Neal was supposed to die, but just before he perished, Mr. Gold absorbed him into his own body.
3 18
3 11 Henry and Emma are happily living in an apartment in New York City. One morning, Emma receives an unexpected visit from Hook, who attempts to convince her that her family is in danger. Emma, however, does not remember him, and his plea for help falls on deaf ears. Hook, believing that "true love's kiss" will bring her memories back, attempts to kiss her, resulting in Emma giving him a knee in the groin and slamming the door in his face.
3 12 Hook seeks out Emma at a restaurant, where she's on a date with her new boyfriend, Walsh. He apologizes for kissing her, and tries to convince her that his story is true. He gives her the address to Neal's old apartment. After Hook leaves, Walsh proposes to Emma, who tells him that she needs time to think.

The next day, Emma breaks into Neal's apartment, and is confounded when she finds a camera with Henry's name on it. She meets up with Hook in Central Park, and demands an explanation. However, she still refuses to buy his story about her fake memories, and has him arrested for assaulting her. Later that day, she has the photos from Henry's camera developed, and finds pictures of herself and Henry in Storybrooke. Sensing that something is off, she bails Hook out of jail. Hook gives her the memory potion, which restores her memory. Back in her apartment, Hook tells Emma about the events of the past year. They are interrupted when Walsh arrives. Emma leads Walsh onto the rooftop, and tells him that she can't marry him, but Walsh reveals his true intentions when he tells her that he wishes she hadn't drunk the potion. He then shows his true form as a flying monkey and attacks her, which forces Emma to beat him with a pipe. Walsh falls from the rooftop, and vanishes in a puff of smoke.

The next morning, Emma tells Henry, who still has his false memories, that she's working on a new case, and that they're going away on a trip. When Hook arrives, Emma introduces him to Henry as Killian, a client from work. Shortly after, the three travel via car to Storybrooke, where Emma seeks out her parents. After an emotional reunion, David and Mary Margaret tell Emma that they are trapped in Storybrooke again and do not remember the past year. Emma sees that Mary Margaret is heavily pregnant.

3 13 The situation grows more complicated when people learn that flying monkeys are watching the town border, and everyone who attempt to leave Storybrooke are also turned into flying monkeys. To draw out the apparent caster of the new curse, Emma sets up a town hall meeting, where everyone begins believing Regina is responsible. Regina plays along by causing a building tremor, convincing everyone of her "guilt". Zelena, pleased that no one is onto her, watches the situation with interest. Under the disguise of a midwife, she strikes up conversation with Mary Margaret at Granny's Diner. The mother-to-be is ecstatic to have found someone who has expertise in childbirth.

As part of the act, Emma lets word spread in town that the mayor is close to concocting a memory potion so whoever drinks it will remember who cursed them. Emma and Regina wait for the curse caster to break into Regina's office and burst in to apprehend the suspect, but the person disappears in a puff of green smoke. Regina puts two and two together, and deduces that the Wicked Witch of the West is now living among them.

3 14 David, Emma and Hook return to the office searching for any evidence the culprit left behind. David discovers holly berries on the ground and pinpoints the plant's growing location to be in the northwest region past the Toll Bridge. Emma and Hook go looking for the witch, while Mary Margaret introduces her new "midwife" to David. Zelena spikes David's tea with night root, later causing him to fight a physical manifestation of himself as his greatest fear. He manages to kill it with his own sword hilt, which Zelena magically pockets in her handbag. Emma and Hook find Zelena's farm house, and call for backup. With the aid of David and Regina, they investigate Zelena's storm cellar, which was locked, but is now mysteriously open. Inside, the cell's occupant is gone, but a spinning wheel with strands of spun gold litter the floor. They realize that Mr. Gold is alive.
3 15 The next day, about a week after Emma got her memories back,[31] Neal, still within Mr. Gold's body, helps his father resist Zelena's orders. Neal later regains control, though unaware he and his father are in the same body. He passes out after breaking into his father's pawnshop and is taken to the hospital, where his palm is discovered to have a strange marking. After being reunited with his friends and Emma, he escapes from the hospital. He runs into Emma. As they comb the woods together, Emma is notified by Belle that Neal's palm marking is a symbol from a key which opens the vault of the Dark One; meaning he must have used it at some point to bring Mr. Gold back. However, only the Dark One can be restored while the latter will perish. Neal persuades Emma to use her magic to separate him and his father, sacrificing his life for the people he loves, so that his father can reveal the Wicked Witch's identity. After Neal dies in Emma's arms, Emma and David go to Mary Margaret's apartment to arrest Zelena (who is still posing as a midwife), but she is gone.
3 16 The funeral for Neal is held the next day. Zelena reveals that she is actually Regina's half-sister, and challenges Regina to a duel. Belle and her friends attempt to free Mr. Gold, but fail; he is still under Zelena's control. Regina discovers that Zelena is telling the truth about them being sisters. Before meeting up with Zelena, she rips her own heart out, and gives it to Robin Hood for safekeeping. Regina and Zelena face off old west style in Main Street after sundown. Zelena quickly gets the upper hand, and throws her sister into the clock tower. She tries to rip Regina's heart out, only to discover that it is not in her chest. Zelena warns Regina that she will have her heart, and vanishes.
3 17 The day after the duel, Regina begins teaching Emma magic, believing that together, the two of them might defeat the Wicked Witch. Zelena puts a curse on Hook's lips, so that the next time his lips touch Emma's, her magic will be taken. She warns him that if he does not kiss Emma, she will kill her friends and family.
3 18 While Zelena is keeping her sister distracted, the Dark One steals Regina's heart from Robin Hood. Regina casts a spell so that she can speak to her dead mother, Cora. Cora's ghost possesses Mary Margaret, and shows her why she gave up Zelena. Belle discovers that Zelena is planning to use Regina's heart, David's courage and Mr. Gold's brain to create a time travel spell: She plans to back in time and kill Mary Margaret's mother, who was partially responsible for Cora giving Zelena up. This means that Mary Margaret will never have been born, and Emma, Henry, and most likely Regina, will no longer exist.
3 19 Zelena grows tired of waiting, and warns Hook for the last time to get a move on her plan to eliminate Emma's magic, or Henry will pay the price. When Hook attempts to take Henry out of Storybrooke in secret, Zelena sends several flying monkeys after them, but all are destroyed. Henry's memory loss is cured by touching the fairytale storybook, but Zelena shows up and attempts to choke him. Emma uses magic to scald her, and she lets go of Henry and retreat from the fight. After the battle, Regina breaks the new curse by giving Henry a kiss of true love.

After the second curse is broken by Regina, everyone regains their previously lost memories of the past year in the Enchanted Forest. Mary Margaret goes into labor.

3 20 Mary Margaret is rushed to the hospital, while Zelena makes the last preparations to cast the time spell. She uses the strands of gold that Mr. Gold spins, and transforms them into a golden brain. They then put the ingredients (heart, sword and brain) in a circle. When Emma and Hook arrive at the farm to stop Zelena, Zelena drowns Hook, which forces Emma to revive him with mouth-to-mouth, and lose her magic.

At the hospital, Mary Margaret gives birth to a baby boy, but Zelena, with Mr. Gold in tow, breaks into the hospital to claim the last ingredient for her time spell. She takes the baby from Mary Margaret's arms, and vanishes in a puff of smoke. As she prepares to enact the ritual inside a barn, David, Emma, Hook, Regina and Robin Hood arrive to put an end to her plans. Regina overpowers her with light magic, and snatches Zelena's pendant; rendering her powerless without magic, and returning the flying monkeys to human form. The baby is unharmed, and Zelena is put in a jail cell. Later, Mr. Gold, wielding the dagger and seeking payback for his son's death, stabs Zelena to death. Her body transforms into a statue, which he shatters into pieces. Unbeknownst to him, Zelena's life force flees her body before it shatters, and activates the time spell.

4 17
3 21 An all-out town diner festivity commences as peace resumes in Storybrooke, or so everyone believes. At Granny's, everyone witnesses the activation of Zelena's time spell, which was secretly due to Mr. Gold killing the witch. When Emma and Hook go to investigate, they are sucked into the time portal, and end up recreating the very first meeting between Prince Charming and Snow White to ensure the future is unchanged. Emma regains her powers in the process. They return to the present, merely seconds after they left, along with Marian, Robin Hood's wife, who was believed to be dead. However, Marian is really Zelena, who followed Emma and Hook though the time portal, and killed the real Marian and took her form in order to hitch a ride back to the future. As the festivities continue, Belle and Mr. Gold are married in a private ceremony. Ruby admits she feels out of place being the only kind of her species in Storybrooke, and plans to go back to the Enchanted Forest by using a magic bean.
3 22
4 17
5 09
3 22 Unbeknownst to everyone, a stowaway has followed Emma and Hook through the time portal: Elsa, the Ice Queen, has arrived in Storybrooke. Leaving a trail of ice behind her, she emerges from the barn and slowly makes her way into the town.
4 01
4 01 The next day, Emma and Hook follow Elsa's trail to a warehouse, but before they can close in on her, she conjures up an ice monster. Regina finds out the hard way that "Marian"'s arrival now means the end of Regina's new relationship with Robin Hood. She releases Sidney Glass from the psychiatric ward, and transforms him back into a Magic Mirror. Meanwhile, the ice monster stomps through town, and Emma attempt at using magic to it only makes the monster angry. Regina shows up in the nick of time and destroys the monster by burning it from within. She then tasks Sidney with finding "the writer" of Henry's storybook so she can make her, the villain, have a happy ending.
4 01 Mr. Gold and Belle, happily oblivious to everything that's going on, are spending their honeymoon in an old mansion, where Gold finds a mysterious sorcerer's hat. Unbeknownst to him, Elsa has broken into his pawn shop, where she finds a necklace which belonged to her sister Anna. She vows to find her sister.
4 02
4 02 As Elsa leaves the shop, she decides to take matters into her own hands. Until she is reunited with her sister, no one is allowed to leave this town. She conjures up a wall of ice which isolates Storybrooke from the world. Mary Margaret takes on the mantle as the new Mayor of Storybrooke. Elsa is startled when Emma shows up to investigate, and accidentally traps them both inside an ice cave, with the frozen temperature placing Emma's life in peril. After some encouragement from David, Elsa finds the strength to control her powers and breach the ice wall.

It's a new day, and Elsa tries to bring down the ice wall, but to no avail. Elsa wonders why she is unable to, since she is supposed to be the only one with who has these powers. Unbeknownst to everyone, a mysterious woman known as the Snow Queen, who has powers similar to Elsa, is in Storybrooke, working at an ice-cream shop.

4 03 The Snow Queen casts a freezing spell on "Marian", in order to frame Elsa. As Emma and David search for the real culprit, they encounter former Merry Man Will Scarlet, who has mysteriously returned from Wonderland. A tracking spell from Mr. Gold leads Hook and Elsa straight to the Snow Queen, who unleashes her deadly ice powers on Hook. Emma arrives just in time to save him. Emma and Elsa are both shocked to hear that the Snow Queen already knows both of them. Meanwhile, "Marian" is slowly, and literally, freezing to death. Regina saves her life by removing "Marian"'s heart from her inert body. She promises Robin that she will find a cure for his wife.
4 04 The next day, Emma asks her boyfriend, Hook, out on a date, which he happily agrees to. Hook blackmails Mr. Gold into reattaching his lost hand so he can embrace Emma with both hands instead of one. Mr. Gold warns him that the hand, once reattached, will reignite his old personality, but Hook believes he is bluffing. The date is a success, but a couple of aggressive encounters with Will Scarlet makes Hook suspect that Mr. Gold is right. He agrees to make another deal with Mr. Gold so he can be rid of the hand. The following day, Hook helps subdue an old man, the Apprentice, who Mr. Gold absorbs into the sorcerer's hat. Only then, his hooked hand is restored. However, Mr. Gold turns the tables on Hook and blackmails him, with a security tape from the old man's house, which implicates Hook. Even more so, Mr. Gold erases himself from the tape, and he reveals the hand was never cursed, so Hook's fits of anger is his darkness coming to light. Will Scarlet is taken into custody after breaking into the library in order to steal a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
4 05 Emma finds an old picture taken by Sidney shortly after she arrived in Storybrooke, where she is seen talking to the Snow Queen, even though Emma doesn't remember the incident. She offers to help Regina revive "Marian", and the two go hunting for the Snow Queen together. Sidney, still trapped in mirror form, leads Regina and Emma to her, but it is all a trap for the women. Fortunately for them, Elsa comes to their aid and saves them. Regina is shocked when she discovers that Sidney is now working for the Snow Queen, who steals Regina's mirror and frees Sidney. Standing before a wall mirror with broken fitted pieces and one empty slot, the Snow Queen shatters Sidney's old mirror, and takes a piece and places it the remaining hole. The mirror's reflection dissolves its cracks. The Snow Queen believes that this will give her her deepest wish—a family that loves her.

In the meantime, Will has escaped from the sheriff department, and Mary Margaret finds him digging for a map near the shore. Emma and Hook look at an old video recording from Emma's childhood, which includes footage that Emma has no recollection of. The recording shows herself and the Snow Queen, who is revealed to be Emma's foster mother.

4 06 Emma searches the Snow Queen's ice cream truck, and finds a file that the Snow Queen has kept of Emma since her arrival in the real world. She also discovers a scroll that contains cryptic readings. The Snow Queen meets up with Mr. Gold and explains that she wanted Emma to find out about their past, as part of her plan. Unbeknownst to everyone, Belle once met Elsa's sister Anna in the past and let her down. Guilt-ridden, she goes into the Snow Queen's lair in order to get information from her, but finds the Snow Queen's mirror instead. Elsa and Emma discover a family album, which shows that the Snow Queen is Elsa's Aunt, Ingrid. Elsa reads the scroll, revealing a prophecy about a savior named Emma, who will become Ingrid's sister. Belle reveals to Elsa how Anna was captured by the Snow Queen in the past. Relating knowledge about Ingrid's mirror, Belle explains it's key for casting a spell of Shattered Sight, which will make everyone in town turn on each other.
4 07 The Snow Queen allows herself to be captured by Emma. She brings Ingrid in for questioning at the sheriff's station, but Ingrid merely uses the arrest to play mind games with her former foster daughter, before escaping. Emma struggles to contain her own magic powers, and accidentally causes a wall at the station to blast open, and causes a telephone pole to fall on David. Afraid of harming anyone else, Emma gets into her car and drives off.
4 08 After spending the night in her car, Emma seeks out Mr. Gold for help. He offers to cast a spell to take away her magic, and Emma agrees. Hook realizes that Mr. Gold actually plans to end Emma's life by trapping her in the hat, like he did with the Apprentice, in order to harness enough magic to break free from the power of the Dark One Dagger. Emma's former foster mother, the Snow Queen, also finds out about his plan, but Gold traps Ingrid in a force field to stop her from interfering.

Emma meets up with Mr. Gold in the mysterious mansion where Gold and Belle spent their honeymoon. Gold sets up the hat to suck Emma and her powers away in a closed room. As Emma ponders about opening the door, Hook shows up to warn her, but Gold uses magic to tie him to the fence outside. However, Elsa tracks Emma down, and persuades her to not follow through with the ritual. Having just discovered the key to controlling her own powers, she teaches Emma how to do the same. Mr. Gold is furious over his failed attempt to take Emma's power, and rips out Hook's heart, in order to make him his puppet and use Hook to get what he wants.

Meanwhile, Robin Hood takes it upon himself to help Regina find the storybook's origins, and recruits Will Scarlet. As they search the library, a mysterious page appears in Robin bag, which features an alternate version of a page in the storybook. It shows Robin and Regina together in the Enchanted Forest long before the casting of the first Dark Curse; in reality, they almost met after the fairy Tinker Bell lead Regina to her soul mate, who was actually Robin Hood, but Regina was too afraid to approach him, and ran away.

Emma and Elsa notice yellow ribbons on their left wrists, which they cannot remove. Neither of them know that the ribbons were magically placed there by the Snow Queen in order to harness their power. She releases the spell of Shattered Sight, which will make everyone in Storybrooke turn on each other.

4 09 As the spell is inching its way toward the little town, the citizens of Storybrooke prepare for the worst. An impregnable ice wall is blocking every exit out of town, so escaping is out of the question. Only Emma and Elsa are immune to the spell's effects. Belle and the nuns/fairies work together on an antidote, but are unable to finish it in time. Mr. Gold, who is still controlling Hook's heart, forces Hook to do his dirty work and absorb Mother Superior and the other fairies into the magic hat.

Elsa uses a locator spell to track down her sister Anna. It leads her to the beach. In the Enchanted Forest, Anna and her fiancé, Kristoff, are about to drown inside a locked coffer resting at the bottom of the sea. Due to the power of Elsa's belief in finding her sister, and her possession of Anna's necklace, which is actually a wishing star, Anna and Kristoff are transported to the shores of Storybrooke, along with a message in a bottle. There, they reunite with Elsa. At sunset, Ingrid's curse of Shattered Sight hits Storybrooke.

4 10 The curse of Shattered Sight turns everyone against each other, and the citizens of Storybrooke fight, argue and bicker among themselves the whole night. Emma and Elsa discover that the magic ribbons on their wrists prevent them from using magic on the Snow Queen. After finding a way to remove them, they enter Ingrid's Snow Lair, prepared to kill the Snow Queen, as this is the only way to stop the curse. Anna finds the message in a bottle, and rushes to the Snow Queen's lair, where she presents Ingrid with the letter. The letter contains the last message from Gerda, Anna and Elsa's mother, and Ingrid's sister, who perished at sea years ago. When Ingrid reads her sister's dying words, and touches a memory stone attached to the letter, she is filled with regret. After returning Emma and Elsa's memories of her, Ingrid takes the curse into herself, sacrificing her own life in order to save the town.
4 11 Elsa is finally able to bring down the ice wall surrounding the town, but Ingrid's spell, which isolates Storybrooke from the rest of the world, is still intact: Anyone who crosses the border, will never be able to return. With the Snow Queen dead, "Maid Marian" is cured. Unfortunately, the spell quickly resurfaces, forcing Robin Hood, "Marian" and Roland to cross the town line and leave town for good.

Elsa, Anna and Kristoff, eager to get back to Arendelle, leave the Land Without Magic by using a hidden portal door in the Sorcerer's house. Upon realizing that Mr. Gold is up to something, Emma and her mother race to the clock tower, where Mr. Gold is enacting a ritual to free himself from the power of the dagger, a ritual which involves the Sorcerer's Hat and the crushing of Hook's heart. Emma and Mary Margaret try to intervene, but Gold stops them. Just as he is about to crush Hook's heart to dust, Belle sneaks up on him and grabs the real dagger, commanding her husband to stop. Belle, heartbroken that Gold has lied to her and once again chosen power of her, uses the power of the dagger to banish her husband from Storybrooke.

Later that evening, Henry has news to share: The mansion where Belle and Mr. Gold spent their honeymoon, which actually belongs to the Sorcerer, has a secret library filled with blank books, all with a cover similar to Henry's storybook. Regina is pleased, knowing that she is one step closer to finding the author of the storybook.

Mother Superior, who was trapped inside the hat along with the rest of the Storybrooke nuns, is reported missing on November 6.[32] (mentioned in "Darkness on the Edge of Town")
4 17 Robin Hood and his family arrive in New York City, and move into Neal Cassidy's old apartment. Mr. Gold arrives in New York at the same time, and experiences a heart attack, which stems from the poison of the Dark One's deeds.[33] Mr. Gold coerces Robin Hood into helping him, and asks the thief to retrieve the Elixir of the Wounded Heart from Walsh's furniture store. Zelena continues to pretend to be Marian and secretly switches out the elixir with a fake, before revealing her true form to Mr. Gold. She makes a deal with him involving the Author.
4 11 Six weeks after he was banished, Mr. Gold has a score to settle with the "heroes" who ran him out of town, and tracks down an old acquaintance from the Enchanted Forest: The sea witch Ursula, who accepts his offer to join forces.
4 12 After six weeks of searching, Belle finds a way to liberate the nuns from the sorcerer's hat. As the nuns are set free, a fearsome demon known as Chernabog is released from the hat, and goes after the heart with the greatest potential for darkness. In New York City, Mr. Gold and Ursula have enlisted Cruella De Vil to join their cause, and travel to Storybrooke. Emma and Regina manage to destroy the winged demon, using the magic power of the town line. Employing a combination of deception and subterfuge, Mr. Gold and his allies are able to cross the town line and enter Storybrooke.
4 13 Less than two days after they arrived,[34] Cruella and Ursula lure Mary Margaret and David into a trap in order to use their blood to resurrect Maleficent from her ashes beneath the clock tower. With the Queens of Darkness re-united once more, Mary Margaret, wishing for old secrets to remain hidden, asks Regina to go undercover and infiltrate them.
4 14 Regina meets with the Queens of Darkness, and convinces them that she is still a villain. The group kidnaps young Pinocchio, and brings him to an abandoned cabin. Regina intends to keep the boy safe; however, Mr. Gold, who is once again in possession of the dagger, thanks to deception and a glamor spell, turns Pinocchio back into his adult self. The group intends to torture August for information about the mysterious author.
4 15 The next day, under questioning, August admits the sorcerer trapped the author behind a door. Emma and her parents rescue August, who tells them that the door is in an illustration taken from Henry's storybook, and can be opened to free the author. Ursula betrays her former allies after Hook helps her get her singing voice back, and reveals that Mr. Gold intends to fill Emma's heart with darkness. As Ursula explains, Emma gave everyone their happy endings in this world, and once she is not the savior anymore, only then the author can give the villains what they want.
4 16 Henry notices a light that begins to shine from the door of the illustration, and it shines a light to a desk drawer that reveals a key. Regina gives Gold and his allies a fake illustration forged by Emma. Mr. Gold, however, sees through the forgery, and Regina's cover is blown. Emma opens the door with the key, and the mysterious author emerges, who is revealed to be the peddler. Unfortunately, he escapes before he can answer Emma's questions.
4 17 Emma and the others search the woods for the author. Unfortunately for them, Mr. Gold finds him first, and strikes a deal with him. It's now been nine weeks since Gold discovered that Zelena was alive. Gold has Regina call Robin Hood's phone, in which she discovers Zelena is alive and has been masquerading as Marian this whole time. With this shocking truth, Mr. Gold hopes to blackmail Regina into helping them with the Author.
4 18 Gold's plan to coerce Regina into doing his bidding fails, but Cruella de Vil kidnaps Henry, then delivers to his mothers an ultimatum: Kill the Author, or Henry dies. David and Mary Margaret find out that the situation is merely a ploy in Mr. Gold's plan to turn Emma dark, and race off to warn Emma, but it is too late: Emma and Cruella face off at a cliffside, where Emma uses her magic powers to knock Cruella off the cliff, and fall to her death.
4 19 Emma offers to track down Maleficent's lost daughter, Lily, and Emma and Regina go on a roadtrip. Before they rescue Robin Hood from New York, the pair head to Massachusetts, where they find Emma's childhood friend, and convince her to come back to Storybrooke with them. The trio then find Robin Hood in New York, but even after Zelena reveals her true self, he refuses to leave her behind because she is pregnant with his child.
4 20 Returning to town, Emma and Regina not only bring Lily, but Robin Hood and Zelena as well. Maleficent is re-united with her long lost daughter, while Zelena put under house arrest. With Regina's help, Isaac, the Author, gets hold of the magic ink needed for his Enchanted pen, so that he can write Regina's happy ending. However, when Regina backs out of the plan, Isaac betrays her and decides to fulfill the deal he made with Mr. Gold. Mr. Gold conjures an entirely new storybook titled, "Heroes and Villains". With his magic quill, Isaac begins to fill in the blank pages, by writing a new story for Mr. Gold, where the villains get their happy ending.
4 21 With Mother Superior's help, the Apprentice is freed from the Sorcerer's Hat. In a race to stop Isaac from changing their stories, Emma, Regina and the Apprentice run to the pawnshop to confront the Author. However, Isaac rewrites new lives for everyone in his book, "Heroes and Villains", before they can stop him. Henry finds himself completely alone in Storybrooke. Desperate, he searches for his family outside of town and eventually tracks down Isaac, and learns from him that everyone is another storybook. Henry uses the door illustration key on the "Heroes and Villains storybook", and both are sucked into the story.
4 22 Henry undoes Isaac's story and reverts everything to normal. Henry becomes the new author, but after realizing that the power to change reality is too much for anyone to have, Henry snaps the magic quill in half. With Mr. Gold's near demise, the Apprentice absorbs the darkness in his heart and traps it in the hat, but the dark power escapes. To save everyone, Emma allows the darkness into her body, causing her to become the new Dark One.
5 01 Emma is transported to the Enchanted Forest, while the Apprentice succumbs to his injuries, and dies. Emma's friends and loved ones travel to the Enchanted Forest via cyclone to be reunited with her and help her battle the darkness within.
There is a gap in the timeline here of six weeks.[35]
5 01 Six weeks after they left, the group is mysteriously transported back to Storybrooke, with few memories about what transpired there. They are shocked to discover that Emma has succumbed to the darkness within and officially embraced her role as the new Dark One.
5 02 The next day, the citizens of Storybrooke find out that the new Dark One has cast a new curse over the town: Anyone who steps over the town line, are turned into a tree. Regina assumes the mantle as the new savior, while King Arthur and his subjects, who were taken to Storybrooke by Emma's curse, set up camp in the woods. Suddenly and unexpectedly, a Fury, hoping to collect the price for unpaid magic, shows up and abducts Robin Hood. As the moon reaches zenith, a portal opens, and the demon prepares to drag his soul to the Underworld. Regina, David, Mary Margaret, King Arthur and Leroy band together to save him, and the Fury backs off.
5 03 Arthur tells David, the town sheriff, that the reliquary, a box of magical relics collected by the Knights of the Round Table has been robbed. David arrests the thief, Grif, who is Arthur's squire. However, it is all a ruse orchestrated by Arthur, who orders Grif to drink poison to keep the secret hidden. Emma needs someone to pull Excalibur, which is hidden in her basement, from the stone. She uses magic to wake up Mr. Gold from his coma, and tells him that she is going to turn him into a hero.
5 04 Emma ties up Mr. Gold in her basement, and rips out the heart of Merida, who was also brought to Storybrooke by Emma's curse. Emma commands Merida to train Mr. Gold and make him brave.
5 05 Merida begins training Mr. Gold, while Hook, Robin Hood, Regina and Belle break into Emma's house and discovers that she has Excalibur. Regina uses a dreamcatcher from Emma's house and discovers that back in Camelot, Emma forced a girl named Violet Morgan to break Henry's heart. Henry overhear this, and is heartbroken.
5 06 Mr. Gold escapes and reunites with Belle. In order to force Mr. Gold into becoming the hero she needs, Emma uses uses Merida's heart to command her to put an arrow through Belle's heart. When the plan fails, Emma forces Merida to drink a potion which transforms her into large bear that chases after Belle. Gold arrives just in time to save Belle, and defeats Merida by using magic from his shop to transform her back. Gold makes a deal with Emma, and pulls Excalibur from the stone, in exchange for the return of Merida's heart.

Meanwhile, Regina has found a way to use a magic mushroom called the Crimson Crown to communicate with the sorcerer known as Merlin. However, when the heroes make contact, they only receive a message he left. It says that Nimue is the only one who can destroy the Darkness. However, the message is interrupted before before he can finish explaining what they need to do.

5 07 With two halves of Excalibur - the sword and the dagger - in her possession, Emma uses the last ember from Prometheus' fire to make Excalibur whole again.
5 08 Emma uses dark magic to accelerate Zelena's pregnancy. Immediately after Zelena gives birth to a baby girl, Emma shows up and abducts her, intending to get rid of the Darkness once and for all by transferring it into Zelena and cut her down with Excalibur. However, Zelena escapes, and gets her revenge by revealing to Hook what Emma has been hiding from him: To save his life in Camelot, Emma used dark magic to transform Hook into a second Dark One.
5 10 With his memories returned, Hook challenges Mr. Gold to a duel on the Jolly Roger, so that he can finally get his revenge. Hook wounds him during the duel, but Mr. Gold gets the upper hand, though he chooses not to kill Hook. By using her dreamcatchers, Emma returns the memories she took from her friends and family in the Enchanted Forest. Hook uses Mr. Gold's blood to open a portal to the Underworld. A boat appears in the Storybrooke Heritage Park duck pond, carrying all of the past Dark Ones, in the flesh. They have come to snuff out the light.
5 11 The Dark Ones arrive in Storybrooke and brand Emma's family, Regina, Mr. Gold and Robin with the Mark of Charon. When the moon reaches its zenith, they will be dragged to the Underworld and the Dark Ones will stay in their place. Mr. Gold sends Belle over the town line to safety, while Regina banishes Zelena back to Oz. Emma comes up with a plan to absorb the darkness into herself to destroy it but Hook steals Excalibur from her. At the pond, Hook absorbs all the Dark Ones into himself and allows Emma to stab him with Excalibur, killing him. Emma later learns that Gold used a potion to allow the darkness to be transferred to him, becoming the Dark One again. She then blackmails him into helping her rescue Hook from the Underworld.

Notes and references

  1. The chimes of Big Ben are heard, which means that Baelfire lands in London after the tower was completed in 1859. The bell's strikes were heard for the first time on July 11. that year. (http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/big-ben/)
  2. In "Second Star to the Right", the chimes of Big Ben can be heard when Baelfire arrives in London (Adam Horowitz has stated that the Darling family are from the Land Without Magic's real-life London, and not Victorian England's fictional London (https://twitter.com/AdamHorowitzLA/status/343817341953519617)). The bell's strikes were heard for the first time on July 11. 1859, the year that Big Ben was completed. Six months after Baelfire's arrival, he becomes part of the Darling family, and spends at least "a few weeks" with them (according to Wendy), meaning that Baelfire could not have left the Land Without Magic any earlier than 1860, and the gap in the timeline lasts for 106 years at the very most. In addition, in "Going Home", Peter Pan estimates that Baelfire's father, Rumplestiltskin, is a "couple hundred" years old, indicating that he was born some time in the early eighteen hundreds. In "Family Business", Hook, who traveled from the Enchanted Forest to Neverland not long before Baelfire did, says that he is approximately two hundred years old.
  3. Maleficent: "Just what the Dark One showed me... That she was banished to this world thirty years ago, to a place called Minnesota, where she was adopted by a couple." ("Lily)" |- |colspan="2" style="background:rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.4);text-align:center;"| |
  4. File:419Newspaper.png
  5. 5.0 5.1 File:217DailyMirror.png
  6. "Save Henry", Once Upon a Time, ABC
  7. File:109Articles.png
  8. 8.0 8.1 In "The Tower", which takes place in 2013, David states that it's been almost 30 years since Emma was born. This means that Emma, who was born in October 1983 ("Selfless, Brave and True", newspaper (217DailyMirror.png) from "Welcome to Storybrooke"), has not turned 30 yet. The flashback takes place 18 years earlier, meaning 1995.
  9. Note that Abby Ross, who plays young Emma, was much older – sixteen or seventeen – when this episode was filmed (http://web.poptower.com/abby-ross.htm)
  10. Note that in "Family Business", Emma says that she is "thirteen, maybe fourteen" in a video recording from the time she spent with Ingrid, but since "Shattered Sight" establishes that the recording was made in 1999, Emma would actually have been fifteen or sixteen at the time
  11. "Family Business": Emma: "According to this, she was my foster parent for six months. (...) That's the longest I was ever in one spot, but I don't remember a second of it."
  12. File:410TraumaticExperience.png
    File:410ThatIHad.png
  13. "There's No Place Like Home"
  14. The Land Without Magic flashbacks from "Tallahassee" (where Emma meets Neal and is arrested) and "The Heart of the Truest Believer" (where she gives birth to Henry) take place in the same year, and Emma's birthday is in October ("Selfless, Brave and True", newspaper front page (217DailyMirror.png) in "Welcome to Storybrooke"); also, in "Desperate Souls", Emma's juvenile records are printed in the newspaper, even though the documents were supposed to be sealed, meaning that she was under the age of eighteen when she committed the crime
  15. In "The Dark Swan", Henry mentions that Regina uses his birthday for all of her passwords, including the one for the entrance to the psychiatric ward. In "A Tale of Two Sisters", Regina types 815 as password for the psychiatric ward, meaning that Henry's birthday is August 15. Henry is ten years old in "Pilot", eleven in "The Cricket Game" and twelve in "The Jolly Roger".
  16. "Pilot": Regina says to Emma, "When I adopted him, he was only three weeks old."
  17. In "The Thing You Love Most", which takes place two days after Emma arrived in Storybrooke, Emma says to Archie that Henry got the storybook "a month ago". Since Emma arrived on October 22., and Henry got the book from Mary Margaret that very same month, this means about a month, but less than thirty days.
  18. File:102EmmaOnFrontPage.png
  19. http://www.wetpaint.com/once-upon-a-time/articles/when-did-mr-gold-regain-his-rumplestiltskin-memories-on-once-upon-a-time
  20. "The Stranger"
  21. Emma's reunion with Ingrid takes place in November 2011, between "The Price of Gold" (where Emma's blue leather jacket arrives with the rest of her things: File:104KnockOnDoor.png), and "That Still Small Voice", where Emma becomes deputy sheriff (Emma is about to call Sheriff Graham to have him arrest Ingrid; if she was already a deputy, she would have the power to arrest Ingrid herself).
  22. According to Kathryn's phone records, she disappeared on Sunday 19. (114PhoneRecords2.png). In 2012, the only Sundays that fell on 19 were in February and August (http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=2012&country=1). The fact that "Skin Deep" takes place on Valentine's Day, the weather is cold, and Kathryn has applied to law school, suggests that Kathryn's disappearance must take place in February.
    Goof: However, Kathryn could not have disappeared on a Sunday, since "What Happened to Frederick" shows that the day she disappears, and the day before, is a school day. In the U.S., school classes are not in session during weekends.
  23. Goof: David tells Emma that he last spoke to Kathryn "yesterday afternoon" (and stresses that he is telling the truth), but also says that he hasn't spoken to her since he ended their relationship. However, "What Happened to Frederick" shows that David broke up with Kathryn the day before she disappeared. In addition, Emma says to Sidney that David told her that he didn't speak to Kathryn the day she disappeared, which, in fact, he said he did.
  24. File:117Reading.png
    File:118EveryTime.png
  25. Goof: The monitor over Henry's hospital bed shows the date November 10, 2008.(122BeyondHope.png). However, the episode takes place after "Skin Deep", which happens in February 2012 (Valentine's Day). Additionally, this cannot mean November 2012, because "Queen of Hearts" establishes that Mary Margaret and Emma return from the Enchanted Forest 28 years after the Dark Curse was cast in October 1983, meaning that the show didn't reach October 2012 yet at that point.
  26. http://www.tvguide.com/news/mega-buzz-true-blood-spoilers-1066122/
  27. Goof: According to the monitor screen over Greg's hospital bed,(212OhMyGod.png) Emma questions him on July 4. 2009, but this episode takes place several months after Emma came to Storybrooke, which was in October 2011. It can't even be July because the episode takes place before "The Queen Is Dead, which happens during winter (Mary Margaret's birthday).
  28. 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 The hole in the road in "We Are Both" (202Aftermath.png) and "Lady of the Lake"(203HoleInTheRoad.png) is not the same hole that Alice, Cyrus and the White Rabbit came through. The hole seen on "Once Upon a Time" is situated outside Granny's Diner, between the diner and Standard Clocks (203HoleInTheRoad.png), but the White Rabbit and his companions come through a hole outside the entrance to the clock tower (111HoleInTheRoad.png).
  29. Neal says, "Not bad for day three as a dad if I do say so myself"
  30. Emma then returns to Storybrooke a year later. In "The Tower", which takes place in 2013, David states that it's been almost 30 years since Emma was born. This means that less than a year passes between "Pilot", where Emma, in October 2011 ("Selfless, Brave and True"), turns 28, and "Going Home"; even though Regina says that "these last years" in Storybrooke will be gone from Emma and Henry's memories (although this would be correct when it comes to Henry, who has been living in Storybrooke for his whole life).
  31. Emma says to Neal, "What does [Henry] know about his father? What I knew until about a week ago, which was that you let me go to jail and never came back for us."
  32. File:412Missing.png
  33. Goof: The date on the heart monitor screen over Mr. Gold's hospital bed is "25 Dec 14"; (417HeartGivesOut.png) however, according to the timeline of the show, the episode takes place in 2013. Nor could the flashback take place in December 2013, because the episode clearly states that both the scene where Robin Hood an his family leave Storybrooke, and the New York City flashback, take place nine weeks before the frame story. However, "Heroes and Villains" establishes that Robin left town shortly after Mother Superior's disappearance in "Fall", and according to the missing person form in "Darkness on the Edge of Town", Mother Superior was reported missing on November 6.(412Missing.png)
  34. Mary Margaret says, "Ursula and Cruella haven't been in town for two days, and we've already lied to Emma more times than I can even count."
  35. "The Dark Swan"


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