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This article focuses on the London character Michael Darling.
For the Seattle character, see Michael Griffiths.
For the Storybrooke character, see Michael Tillman.


Michael Darling, also known as Keychain,[1] is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. He débuts in the twenty-first episode of the second season and is portrayed by guest stars Benjamin Cook and James Immekus.

Michael Darling is based on the character of the same name from Peter Pan story, and the character of the same name from the Disney film Peter Pan.

History

Before First Curse

Michael lives in London, England with his parents, George and Mary Darling, as well as his siblings John and Wendy. Their family welcomes a house guest when Wendy hides a homeless orphan named Baelfire in the nursery, to which he is allowed by their mother to stay. During one night, John and Michael overhear Baelfire warning Wendy against thinking magic is fun since it destroyed his family. Despite her fascination with a creature called the Shadow, he makes Wendy promise never to open the window for it. She disobeys him and is whisked off for an adventure in Neverland, but returns with troubling news as the Shadow wants to take away one of her brothers permanently. Baelfire promises to protect them. They arm themselves with makeshift weapons on the night the Shadow breaks into the nursery and run into the cubby-hole to hide except for Michael, so Baelfire dashes out to ask the Shadow to take him instead. The Darling siblings bolt to the window to watch as Baelfire is pulled away by the Shadow and disappears into the sky. ("Second Star to the Right")

In a bid to save Baelfire, Wendy travels back to Neverland as Michael and John follow in order to bring her home. Instead, Wendy is captured as a prisoner while her brothers must do Peter Pan's every bidding to keep her alive. When Michael and John age to adulthood, Pan keeps them from getting any older by halting their aging. They work for him for over a century-long as members of the Home Office. ("Dark Hollow")

During First Curse
On one such mission, Michael and John, now adults, arrive in Boston to apply as the next-in-line potential parents in a closed adoption for an infant boy whom Pan wants. However, the plan falls through when the woman who previously adopted the boy decides to keep him. Once they learn of this, Michael and John leave the adoption agency in a hurried rush as they mull over how disappointed Pan will be. ("Save Henry")

After First Curse

After a century-long as Pan's henchman, Michael and his brother have since been halted from aging further. They are sent into the town of Storybrooke by Pan, and the two make it in just before a barrier, which was enacted to keep them out, seals off outside entry. They spy on a mermaid, Ariel, who arrived from Neverland, intending to help Mr. Gold find an item to destroy Pan. When Ariel and her accomplice Belle find a certain box, Michael and John enter to threaten them with guns and binds both women up. An interrogation to learn more about the box is unsuccessful until John moves to shoot them, to which Belle admits that the item is full of magic. Despite that Belle is under the impression they don't know who they are actually working for, John makes it perfectly clear their employee is Peter Pan. They leave to get rid of the box in the mines. As John prepares to smash it with a dwarf ax, their plans are foiled by Ariel and Belle. Both Michael and John are knocked off their feet when Belle activates a runaway mine cart. She snatches the box back as the two brothers beg and plead for her not to help Mr. Gold. Eventually, they admit to being Pan's accomplices only because he has their sister, Wendy, in Neverland. Belle convinces them that the way to get Wendy out safe and sound is to follow Mr. Gold's plan so Pan will be finished for good. Hesitant at first, they agree shortly after. ("Dark Hollow")

After a ship ascends down to the dock from the sky, Michael and John wait anxiously in the crowd of townspeople as the passengers on board begin stepping down. Finally, they spot Wendy and have long awaited happy reunion with her. She reintroduces them to the grown-up Baelfire, now under the name Neal, and they all share a group hug. Now reunited as a family, Wendy and her brothers decide it's finally time for the three of them to go home. ("The New Neverland")

Family

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Mary Darling
 
George Darling
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Wendy
 
John
 
Michael
 
 

Notes:

  • Solid lines denote blood parent-child relationship
  • Dashed lines denote marriage relationships that result in offspring

Trivia

Disney

Appearances

Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.

See also

References

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