   
|
For the next episode, see "The Final Battle Part 2." For the actual battle, see the Final Battle. For the special, see The Final Battle Begins. |
"The Final Battle Part 1" is the twenty-first episode of Season Six of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz, and directed by Steve Pearlman. It is the one hundred and thirty-second episode of the series overall, and premiered on May 14, 2017.
This episode is the first part of the season six finale.
Synopsis
Henry awakens to a cursed Storybrooke and discovers Emma has been in the mental hospital, and the Black Fairy is the new mayor. Henry attempts to help Emma regain her memory while Gold tries to find out what has really happened to Belle. Meanwhile, Snow, Charming, Regina, Zelena and Hook are trapped in a crumbling Fairy Tale Land and desperately try to figure out a way to be reunited with Emma and Henry.[2]
Recap
This section is a detailed recap of this episode. There are major spoilers. Click to expand.
In the woods, a man is seen running away from a beast. He reaches a cabin and sends his daughter away with the Once Upon a Time storybook, telling her to keep it safe as he fights off a creature.
Fiona enacted her curse on the entire town, engulfing everyone after the wedding. However, Henry, who is spared, wakes up with his storybook in his hands, and starts searching for his family. After running into Archie, he tells Henry that Emma is at the hospital, where she has been committed to a psychiatric ward for the past two years. While visiting Emma, he learns that with Fiona's curse, Regina's original curse was never broken, and Emma had stopped believing him. He asks her where Snow, Hook and David are, but the new curse now has Emma believing that these events never happened. Fiona, who is now the Mayor and Henry's "mother", arrives and takes the book from Henry. Fiona tells Henry to go to school. He agrees and gives Emma a hug, but whispers privately not to do whatever Fiona wants her to.
Fiona, who is using this to banish Emma's family, tells Emma that she must burn the storybook if she wants to be released from the hospital, but Emma refuses. At the same time in Storybrooke, Fiona brings lunch to Gold and asks that he fixes her watch, as it appears that she is now his primary support in the wake of Belle's "disappearance".
Henry breaks Emma out of the hospital and takes his mother to the rooftop where she was married, in hopes that she will remember her wedding to Hook. She has glimpses of her memories, but Emma has doubts and tells Henry that she wants to return to Boston, for fear that Fiona will put her back in the psychiatric ward. Meanwhile, Gideon is extremely upset with Belle "deserting" him and now sees Fiona as more of a mother than Belle, and Gold's attempts to console his son don't help either. When Gold searches through his belongings, he also discovers that most of his magic potions have been removed by Fiona's curse.
Henry attempts to steal the storybook back from Fiona but she catches him, and believes that she can use him to control Emma. As Henry escapes, Fiona uses her magic to push him down the stairs. Moments later, Gold asks Fiona to reopen the investigation into Belle's disappearance. As Fiona tries to talk him out of it, she shows him pictures of Belle enjoying life in other countries, and wants Gold to move on.
At the hospital, Henry wakes up and discovers that Fiona is manipulating Emma during their visit, and eventually succeeds in convincing Emma to burn the storybook. Most of the realms depicted in the book begins to be consumed by the curse, which arrives on the outskirts of the Enchanted Forest in the form of a massive storm of dark magic. As the book is burning, the pages flip to a picture of Hook, and Emma stares at his image as the flames consume the page.
Snow, David, Hook and Regina wake up and find themselves back in the Enchanted Forest, specifically at the palace where the events that led to the first curse began. They discover it is a prison for them and is tied to the book.
Back in the Enchanted Forest, everyone realizes that Fiona banished them away so they wouldn't be there for Emma because the Final Battle is over Emma's soul and belief. Fiona is trying to get Emma to stop believing so that the realms of story will cease to exist. When Zelena shows up with one of Jefferson's hats, they use it to reach a hallway of portals, where they find Oz disappeared.
The realms start to crumble under Fiona's curse, forcing all of its survivors to take shelter in the Evil Queen's Palace, including Aladdin and Jasmine. Outside, Hook and David return to the magic beanstalk, in hopes of finding a magic bean that will get everyone back to Storybrooke.
Regina and Zelena try to work on a potion but find most of the ingredients missing, when the Queen arrives and offers to help, having been forced to flee from the Wish Realm with that realm's Robin due to its residents' hostility.
Deleted Scenes
Henry and Archie: Extended
An extended version of the scene where Henry runs up to Dr. Hopper in the street. This version features additional elements: Granny driving Ruby's car and sitting with Archie while Leroy is walking past, and members of the Sisters of Saint Meissa walking in the street.[3]
Cast[2]
Starring
Guest Starring |
Co-Starring
Uncredited
|
Note:
*: Only in archive footage.
Trivia
Title
- The original title card, used in the original airing and the Blu-ray/DVD release, features the Seattle Center Monorail.[5] The same title card was used for the streaming/iTunes version of "The Final Battle Part 2."[6]
- The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on March 15, 2017.[8]
Production Notes
- Colin O'Donoghue suffered an injury during the filming of "The Song in Your Heart"[9] and filmed this episode with a broken foot, while Deniz Akdeniz filmed the episode with a broken leg after a car crash.[10]
- HIDDEN DETAILS: The edges of the floor in Jefferson's hat is decorated with traditional playing card symbols;[11] a reference to the living playing cards in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, from which the hat originates.
Event Chronology
- The Storybrooke events take place after "The Song in Your Heart and before "The Final Battle Part 2." (For more details, see the Land Without Magic timeline)
- The Enchanted Forest events take place after "Mother's Little Helper" and before "The Final Battle Part 2." (For more details, see the Enchanted Forest timeline)
- The New Enchanted Forest events take place after Henry introduces Lucy to Tiger Lily in "The Eighth Witch," and before "The Final Battle Part 2."
- These scenes are also included in the flashback events of "The Eighth Witch."
Episode Connections
- The "darkness" that Henry escapes from is revealed in "The Eighth Witch."
- The scene early in the episode where the Black Fairy's curse envelops Storybrooke during Emma and Hook's wedding is the final scene from "The Song in Your Heart."
- The time on the clock tower is stuck at 6 PM, the same as when the curse struck in the previous episode.[12] The clock was also frozen during the first curse, which was seen in "Pilot," "The Thing You Love Most," "Welcome to Storybrooke" and "Awake."
- Archie makes a reference to his psychiatry sessions with Henry, which took place throughout Season One.
- Cursed Emma believes that she was admitted to the Storybrooke Sanitarium after Henry tried to prove that fairy tales were real by eating a poisoned apple turnover, referring to events from "An Apple Red as Blood."
- Henry reminds his mother that she woke him with true love's kiss and fought a dragon, which took place in "A Land Without Magic."
- The mysterious page that Henry shows Emma is the page that he wrote in "Mother's Little Helper."
- Snow White and Regina both mention that they are standing where Snow White and Prince Charming were married. Their wedding was shown in "Pilot," "The Thing You Love Most" and "The New Neverland."
- Fiona mentions how Emma had a lovely apartment in Boston, the place where Emma was living in "Pilot."
- The photograph of Emma and Henry that is pinned to Emma's wall,[13] which Fiona notices, was one of the photographs that Henry showed the Hostess while searching for his missing family in "Operation Mongoose Part 1."[14]
- The crumbling worlds are restored in "The Final Battle Part 2."
- Regina is surprised to see the Mad Hatter's hat and asks, "Wasn't it destroyed?" referring to how Albert Spencer burned the first hat in "Child of the Moon."
- When the heroes meet Aladdin and Jasmine, the couple have just fled Agrabah. How they ended up there was shown in "A Wondrous Place."
- Zelena correctly states that the Mad Hatter's hat can't make a passage to a land without magic. This was also explained by Rumplestiltskin in "The Doctor."
- Emma can be seen doing pull-ups to pass the time, just like she did in "The Heart of the Truest Believer."
- Hook recalls his first adventure and how they climbed the Beanstalk together, referring to events from "Tallahassee."
- David points out that Hook tried to kill Emma and Mary Margaret, referring to how Hook and Cora left them in Rumplestiltskin's Cell in "Queen of Hearts."
- Emma states that her parents gave her away when she was a baby, referring to events from "Pilot."
- When Emma starts to remember her wedding, clips from "The Song in Your Heart" are shown.
- When Mr. Gold opens Her Handsome Hero, he sees the message that Belle wrote for Gideon, which was first seen when Fiona opened the book in "Mother's Little Helper."
- The Regina and her serum version discuss how the serum queen and Robin of Locksley were sent to the Wish Realm, an event that took place in "Page 23."
- Regina's serum counterpart points out that Regina neglected to mention that the latter killed King David and Queen Snow and Sir Henry was seeking revenge for the murder of his grandparents. These event took place in "Wish You Were Here."
- The last time Hook visited the giants' lair was when he and Emma broke in to steal an Enchanted Compass in "Tallahassee."
- Henry tries to make Emma remember by asking her to touch the storybook. Touching the book is what made Emma and Henry remember in "A Land Without Magic" and "A Curious Thing," respectively. Unfortunately, it doesn't work this time, because it also requires the person believing in magic, something that was alluded to in "A Land Without Magic" and confirmed in "A Curious Thing."
- Emma says, "Just because you believe something does not make it true," the same words that she spoke to Henry in "Pilot," and Hook in "New York City Serenade."
- The storybook, which Emma burns in this episode, is restored in "The Final Battle Part 2."
- STORYBOOK CONTENT: When Emma burns the storybook, an illustration of Hook from a scene in "The Crocodile" is seen.[15]
Disney
- Aladdin wears[16] similar prince attire to his counterpart from the Disney film.
Fairy Tales and Folklore
- This episode features the ugly duckling from the titular fairy tale, Snow White, the prince, the wicked fairy from the Villeneuve version of the "Beauty and the Beast" fairy tale (who is also the Beast's mother from the same story), the evil queen from the "Snow White" fairy tale, Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story, the Wicked Witch of the West and Munchkins from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story, Pongo from The Hundred and One Dalmatians story, and Aladdin and the princess from the One Thousand and One Nights story.
- When Henry visits Emma at the Storybrooke Sanitarium, she is painting a swan,[17] a reference to the fairy tale of "The Ugly Duckling."
- Regina is surprised to see Jefferson's hat because it was destroyed, prompting Zelena to say, "He was a hatter; he had multiples." This is a reference to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, where the King of Hearts orders the Hatter to take off his hat, and when the Hatter states that the hat isn't his, the King of Hearts concludes that it must be stolen, prompting the Hatter to explain that he keeps his hats to sell and has no hats of his own, because he is a hatter.
- The room of doors at the bottom of Jefferson's hat is based on the hall of doors from the novel.
- The magic bean and the beanstalk are from the story of "Jack and the Beanstalk," while the giants from the same story receive a mention.
- STORYBOOK CONTENT: Excerpts from the fairy tale of "The Golden Bird"[18][19][20] and "Snow-White and Rose-Red"[21] can be seen when Emma burns Henry's storybook.
- The same excerpts appear in several episodes; read the trivia section in the article for Henry's storybook for more information and a transcript.
- STORYBOOK CONTENT: Next to Hook's illustration in the storybook, an excerpt from "Rinconete and Cortadillo," a short story by Miguel de Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, can be seen.[22] The story is from the 1612 novella collection Novelas ejemplares ("Exemplary Novels"). The translation is taken from The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes,[23] an English edition published by George Bell and Sons in 1881. The excerpt reads (text set in fuchsia is off-screen):
respect to this of yours; we are now in the first country |
Popular Culture
- This episode features Nurse Ratched and Chief Bromden from the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Both characters' looks are modeled on the 1975 movie of the same name.
- The segment where Emma is doing pull-ups in the mental institution directly mirrors the scene where Sarah Connor is doing pull-ups in a mental institution in the 1991 movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day: Both are doing pull-ups from their upturned hospital bed in front of their room window, while the bedding and the mattress are sitting in the right hand corner; both are wearing grey sweatpants and a white tank top, and both receive a visitor and stop what they're doing and turn around and greet them.
Emma doing pull-ups
Sarah Connor doing pull-ups
Emma greets her visitor
Sarah greets her visitor
- Henry names his latest operation Operation Cuckoo's Nest, a reference to the famous 1975 movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the book of the same name. Emma is less enthusiastic and points out that although she hasn't seen that movie in a long time, it ended with a lobotomy; a reference to the main protagonist's fate. Henry's name is fitting, as Emma is now a patient at a mental institution where Nurse Ratched works, and the Chief is one of the fellow patients; both are central characters from the story.
- BOOKS AS SET DRESSING: When Mr. Gold is searching his pawnshop for Belle's book, The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare,[24] two old volumes of Encyclopedia Americana[25] and the novel The New Tenant by E. Phillips Oppenheim are sitting on the shelf.[25]
- When Fiona shows Mr. Gold the fake photographs of Belle traveling the world, Belle can be seen in front of the Eiffel Tower[26] and Big Ben.[27]
Props Notes
- HIDDEN DETAILS: When Henry is walking down the street after waking up, Ruby's car[28] from the Season One episode "The Price of Gold," the Season Two premiere "Broken" and the Once Upon a Time in Wonderland episode "Heart of the Matter," pulls up next to Granny's Diner.[29]
- HIDDEN DETAILS: The Black Fairy, who is the mayor of Storybrooke during the new curse, is driving the car[30] that belongs to the real mayor, Regina.[31]
- HIDDEN DETAILS: Colin O'Donoghue who plays Hook, fractured his foot during the filming of the "The Song in Your Heart."[9] As a result, he had to wear a foot brace during the filming of this episode.[32] It is mostly noticeable during the scene where Hook and Prince Charming are about to climb the beanstalk.[33]
- PAUSE AND READ: When Mr. Gold opens Her Handsome Hero, one page contains[34] a variant of Lorem ipsum,[35] a filler text commonly used as mock-content when testing a given page layout or font. Lorem ipsum consists of badly garbled Latin, based on sections 1.10.32 and 1.10.33 of De finibus bonorum et malorum ("On the ends of good and evil"), a philosophical work by the Roman philosopher Cicero. Lorem isum is often used when previewing the layout of a document, as the use of more understandable text could easily distract the user from the layout being examined.[36]
- STORYBOOK CONTENT: When Emma burns the storybook, illustrations by the famous British illustrator Arthur Rackham can be seen:
- An illustration[18] from Grimm's Fairy Tales - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham (1909) (note that some pages are missing from the digitized edition), later re-published as Snowdrop & Other Tales By the Brothers Grimm (1920). It depicts a scene from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale of "The Seven Ravens."
- REUSED ILLUSTRATION: The same picture can be seen among the numerous fairy tale illustrations pinned to the wall in Henry's room in the Season One episode "Pilot."[37] It could also be seen among the pages that August took out of the book (before putting it back together again) in the Season One episode "What Happened to Frederick."[38]
- If you watch in slow motion, you can see part of "The Paradise of Children,"[39] a watercolor painting from 1922, based on a drawing of the same name from a 1922 edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's children's book A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys (link to page). It depicts a scene from the story "The Paradise of Children."
- "When she got to the wood, she met a Wolf"[19] from the fairy tale of "Little Red Riding Hood," from the 1909 fairy tale collection The Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm (note that this illustration, and several others, are missing from the digitized edition due to missing pages).
- "The waiting maid sprang down first and Maid Maleen followed"[20] from the fairy tale collection Little Brother & Little Sister and Other Tales By The Brothers Grimm (1917) (link to page) It depicts a scene from the Grimm fairy tale "Maid Maleen."
Set Dressing
- HIDDEN DETAILS: Among the hand-painted pictures pinned to the wall in Emma's room at the Storybrooke Sanitarium is a landscape painting with two ships, a reference to her husband's pirate ship, the Jolly Roger.[13]
- REUSED ILLUSTRATION: There is a calendar with an illustration of the Storybrooke clock tower in Emma's room at the Sanitarium.[40] It is the same illustration that appears on Neal's postcard in the Season Two premiere "Broken."[41]
- HIDDEN DETAILS: One of the doors inside Jefferson's hat features the same motif as the floor in Hades' lair in Season Five:[42] A pentacle with pitchforks at the edges.[43]
- The triangle pattern door[44] greatly resembles the triangle patterns on the domes and walls of Jasmine's palace in Agrabah.[45]
- ARTWORKS: The painting Bend in the River at Morrow[46] by the American artist Mary Jean Weber can be seen in Archie's office.[47]
Costume Notes
- SECONDHAND CLOTHING: Prince Neal is wearing[48] the same cap worn by his big sister Emma in Prince Charming's vision in the Season Four episode "Best Laid Plans."[49] He wears the same cap in "The Final Battle Part 2."[50]
- BRAND INFO: Fiona is wearing[51] a Club Monaco Trench Coat.[52] She continues to wear the trench coat in "The Final Battle Part 2."[53]
- USE IT AGAIN: The trench coat is also worn by Regina Mills in the Season One episodes "Snow Falls,"[54] "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter"[55] and "7:15 A.M.,"[56] the Season Two episodes "Queen of Hearts,"[57] "Welcome to Storybrooke,"[58] "Lacey"[59] and "And Straight On 'Til Morning"[60] and the Season Three episodes "The Heart of the Truest Believer,"[61] "Think Lovely Thoughts,"[62] "Save Henry"[63] and "The New Neverland"[64] and by Victoria Belfrey in the Season Seven episodes "One Little Tear,"[65] "The Eighth Witch"[66] and "Secret Garden."[67]
- BRAND INFO: When Henry comes to break Emma out of the Sanitarium, she is wearing[68] a Vince High Neck Tank Top.[69]
- USE IT AGAIN: The serum queen is wearing the same dress, albeit with a different necklace, hairstyle and an added cape, that she wore in "Page 23" when she fought with Regina and when she was sent to the Wish Realm for a fresh start.[70]
- The cape is the black cape with red feathers worn by the real queen when the latter interrupted Snow White and Prince Charming's wedding in "Pilot,"[71] "The Thing You Love Most"[72] and "The New Neverland"; indicating that the serum queen found it when she moved into Regina's palace.
Filming Locations
- The scenes inside Regina's palace[73] and the scene with Emma and Henry on the roof,[74] all filmed on a blue-screen set at The Bridge Studios. The scene with Hook and Charming's climb up the beanstalk was also filmed in a blue-screen-clad studio.[32]
- For the scene with Emma and Henry, the dais they were sitting on was real, as was some of the surrounding vegetation.[74] The Storybrooke back-drop was added digitally in post-production.
- For the scenes with Hook and Charming, the beanstalk was real,[32] while the background was added digitally in post-production.
- The scene where the Black Fairy pushed Henry down the stairs were filmed on a set at The Bridge Studios.[75] The stairs were covered in green-screen material,[75] which were digitally transformed into a real staircase during post-production.
Goofs
- Prince Neal was born in "Kansas," which takes place in 2013, when Henry was twelve. However, according to the Black Fairy, Henry is fourteen years old in this episode ("Now, thanks to you, I have a 14-year-old boy, who still believes in fairy tales"). By this time, Neal should be already a two-year old toddler, while he is still just a baby at this point of "The Final Battle Part 1," just like he has been for the entire season.
- In addition, according to Archie Hopper's cursed memories, Emma has been at the mental institution for two years, while according to Emma's cursed memories, she's been there ever since Henry ate the poisoned apple turnover. However, this incident took place 28 years after the first curse began in 1983 (this is proven in an episode that takes place after "An Apple Red as Blood," "Queen of Hearts," where a title card states that the episode takes place 28 years after the casting of the curse), while Henry was still ten years old.
International Titles
| International Titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Language | Title | Translation |
| French | "La Bataille Finale - 1re Partie" | "The Final Battle - 1st Part" |
| German | "Ohne Vergangenheit, Glauben und Hoffnung (Teil 1)" | "Without the Past, Faith and Hope (Part 1)" |
| Italian | "La battaglia finale (1ª parte)" | "The Final Battle (1st Part)" |
| Portuguese | "A Batalha Final" | "The Final Battle" |
Videos
6x21 and 6x22 - The Final Battle Part 1 and 2 - Promo
6x21 and 6x22 - The Final Battle Part 1 and 2 - Promo 2
6x21 and 6x22 - The Final Battle Part 1 and 2 - Sneak Peek 1
6x21 and 6x22 - The Final Battle Part 1 and 2 - Sneak Peek 2
References
|
