"There's No Place Like Home"

Title

• The title card features Zelena's time spell.^[4]
  • During the original airing, "Snow Drifts" and "There's No Place Like Home" were separated by a different title card featuring a swan.^[5] The manner in which the letters form to make the show logo is different from the other episodes, as is the musical accompaniment.
  • On the Blu-ray/DVD, the swan title card is used as a menu background.
• The title of this episode was announced by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on March 25, 2014.^[6]
• The title is a reference to the novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, where Dorothy tells the Scarecrow, "No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home."

Production Notes

• The Season Three finale was Jennifer Morrison and Colin O'Donoghue's favorite episodes to film.^[7]
• The flashback scene where Neal and Emma break into the fairground was originally scripted to be them breaking through the gate to a view of Portland at night. The production team found an abandoned amusement park, and felt that Neal showing this kind of place to Emma was something that the character would do.^[8]
• The "past" scenes with Snow White and Prince Charming were a mixture of reshoots and old footage from "Snow Falls".^[8][9]
• The show's producers asked Jamie Dornan to reprise his role as the Huntsman for the season finale, but he was unavailable due to his packed filming schedule for the movie Fifty Shades of Grey and the drama television series The Fall.^[10] He would have been spotted by Emma in the Evil Queen's dungeon and Emma would have felt tempted to reach out to him.^[11]
• For the scene where Snow White is trapped in the net, the new close-ups were shot by having Ginnifer Goodwin sitting on a chair, with a net around her.^[8]
• In order to keep the ending scene with Elsa a secret, Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis scripted an alternate ending, so that very few people knew about Elsa's appearance in the season finale.^[12] Only the show creators and a small crew that filmed the end scene, knew about the secret ending. The scripted ending featured the Sorcerer's hat coming out of the urn instead of Elsa.^[13]

Event Chronology

• The Land Without Magic flashbacks occur in the year 2001 between scenes in "Tallahassee". (For more details, see the Land Without Magic timeline)

• The Enchanted Forest events take place right after "Snow Drifts", concurrently with "Snow Falls", and before Belle is banished from Rumplestiltskin's castle in "Skin Deep".
  • The story also takes place concurrently with the scene where Zelena steals Marian's identity in "Heart of Gold". (For more details, see the Enchanted Forest timeline)
• The Storybrooke events take place after "Snow Drifts", concurrently with Ruby's Storybrooke flashback in "The Bear King" and before "A Tale of Two Sisters. (For more details, see the Land Without Magic timeline)

Episode Connections

• In the Portland flashback, Emma and Neal have the drink Neal suggested they have when they first met in "Tallahassee".
• Snow White was forced out of her castle in "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter".
• How Snow White ruined Regina's life was shown in "The Stable Boy".
• Prince Charming says his father is "making things quite difficult" for him, referring to events in "The Shepherd".
• Red Riding Hood learned to control her werewolf skills in "Child of the Moon".
• This is the second time Hook breaks into Regina's castle. The first time was when he seeking information on how to kill Rumplestiltskin in "Queen of Hearts".
• The death of Hook's brother took place in "Good Form".
• Hook tells Emma about his brother's death; something he refused to do in "Think Lovely Thoughts ".
• Scenes from "Snow Falls" are reused.
• Emma and Hook knock Marian out and later leave her after they go after Prince Charming and Snow White at the Troll Bridge. What happens during the time they are away is revealed in "Heart of Gold".
• Marian is abducted after Emma knocks her out with a rock. Merida does the same to Belle in "The Bear and the Bow".
• After Snow White escapes from her clutches, Regina says, "I shall destroy her happiness if it is the last thing I do", which is a spin on her signature line from "Pilot".
• The story behind the marionettes in Rumplestiltskin's castle was revealed in "That Still Small Voice".
• Rumplestiltskin's memory loss potion is the same kind Regina used on herself in "Save Henry". It is also the same one Rumplestiltskin gave to Snow White in "7:15 A.M.".
• How the mysterious urn ended up inside Rumplestiltskin's vault is revealed in "Smash the Mirror".
• Emma's habit of moving around and running was previously referred to in "The Thing You Love Most" and "The Price of Gold".
• Emma lost her magic in "Kansas".
• Zelena's death took place in "Kansas". It is shown to be fake in "Heart of Gold".
• Henry brought Emma to Storybrooke in "Pilot".
• Emma tells Rumplestiltskin that Neal died to save them all, which occurred in "Quiet Minds".
• Emma calls her parents mom and dad for the first time since "And Straight On 'Til Morning".
• The new curse was cast in "A Curious Thing".
• Hook refers to the kiss he and Emma shared in "Good Form".
• Emma thanks Hook for coming after her in New York; an event shown in "Going Home" and "New York City Serenade".
• The reason why magic beans are not easy to come by was alluded to in "Tallahassee", and shown in "Tiny".
• This episode reveals what happened to Hook's ship; something that was previously alluded to in "The Jolly Roger".
• Who Hook sold the ship to is revealed in "Poor Unfortunate Soul".
• What happened to Hook's ship after he sold it is revealed in "Fall".
• Hook gets his ship back in "Poor Unfortunate Soul".
• Hook finally succeeds in winning Emma's heart and fulfilling a promise he made in "Dark Hollow".
• During her wedding, Belle talks about all the times she's lost Mr. Gold; to darkness in "Skin Deep", to weakness in "The Crocodile", and to death in "Going Home".
• Mr. Gold talks about his first meeting with Belle, which occurred in "Skin Deep".
• Belle says that sometimes the best tea cup is chipped. This item was first featured in "Skin Deep".

Disney

• The dress and hairstyle of the woman who comes out of the urn is from the 2013 Disney film Frozen.
  • This episode contains a number of other references to Disney works. See the list of Disney references for more.

Lost

• Dopey is wearing a Geronimo Jackson shirt.^[14] Geronimo Jackson is a fictional band on Lost.
  • This episode contains a number of other references to ABC's Lost. See the list of Lost references for more.

Fairytales and Folkore

• This episode features Snow White, the prince and the evil queen from the "Snow White" fairytale, Red Riding Hood from the "Little Red Riding Hood" fairytale, Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story, the fairy with the turquoise air from The Adventures of Pinocchio, Robin Hood and Marian from the Robin Hood ballad, the princess from the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale, as well as Rumplestiltskin from the "Rumplestiltskin" fairytale.
  • Also featured is a group of trolls that inhabit a bridge. This concept is found in the fairytale "Three Billy Goats Gruff".

Popular Culture

• The opening scene with Emma and Neal at the fairground is an homage to the famous scene from the 1954 crime drama film On the Waterfront,^[8][15] where Marlon Brando is sitting in a swing in a children's park and handles a white glove dropped by Eva Marie Saint as they recall earlier days.
• Emma's alias in the Enchanted Forest is Princess Leia; a reference to one of the main protagonists of the original Star Wars trilogy. This reference is made especially interesting by the fact that Lucasfilm, the studio behind the series, was bought by Disney, the parent company of ABC, the network that airs Once Upon a Time.
• Hook's alias in the Enchanted Forest is Prince Charles; a reference to the current Prince of Wales, who is currently first-in-line to inherit the British throne.

Props Notes

• An excerpt from the fairy tale of "The Golden Bird" is seen next the illustration of Hook and Emma in the storybook.^[16]
• In the captain's quarters aboard the Jolly Roger in the previous episode, "Snow Drifts", there was an urn^[17] bearing an almost identical resemblance to the one Elsa comes out of in this episode;^[18] the only difference being the lid. Both props have been used in previous episodes in Season Two. They can be seen among Regina's wedding gifts in "We Are Both",^[19] and a recolored version of the urns are used to decorate Cora's heart vault in the Enchanted Forest in "The Doctor".^[20] The urns also appear in the Frankenstein Manor in "In the Name of the Brother".^[21]

Set Dressing

• In Rumplestiltskin's vault, there is a statue of Pazuzu,^[22] the demon from Assyrian and Babylonian mythology, and the antagonist from The Exorcist franchise.

Costume Notes

• The part where Neal handles Emma's glove was Michael Raymond-James and Jennifer Morrison's idea.^[8]
• Emma's prisoner dress^[23] is a white version of the gray dress that the Evil Queen wore when the latter was imprisoned in the Season Two episode "The Cricket Game".^[24] Emma wears the same gray dress when she emerges from the vault in the Season Five premiere "The Dark Swan".^[25]
• Belle's wedding hat was made by Canadian-based fine headwear maker Kelly Dunlap. The hat fabric is a very high quality millinery fur felt called Deco Cloche in Winter White. Fittingly, "cloche" means "bell" in French.^[26]
  • In the Season Five episode "Siege Perilous", the hat^[27] is on display behind the counter in the pawnshop,^[28] seemingly for sale.
  • Belle's wedding shoes^[29] are Dolly Spectator Platform Pumps from Charlotte Olympia^[30] (no longer available). Belle also wears the shoes on her honeymoon in the Season Four premiere "A Tale of Two Sisters".^[31]
  • The same shoes were worn by the character Kate McLean on the Friends with Better Lives episode "Cyrano de Trainer-Zac".^[32]

Goofs

• The wanted poster Prince Charming holds up, during the scene he traps Snow White in a net, does not have her name on it.^[33] However, in the next shot, when Snow White looks from above,^[34] and when the poster is pulled out from Prince Charming's bag by the Bridge Trolls on the Troll Bridge,^[35] the name Snow White is visible on the paper.
• When Snow White comes over to thank Prince Charming for saving her,^[36] you can clearly see that the one who comes over is not Ginnifer Goodwin, but her stunt double, Maja Aro, who served as the body double for a pregnant Ginnifer for the final episodes of Season Three.^[37]
• Prince Neal's announcement ceremony is mistakenly referred to as a "coronation". This mistake is also present in the episode synopsis released by ABC.^[2]

Filming Locations

• The opening scene with Emma and Neal at the Portland amusement park, was filmed in Vancouver's Playland amusement park. The carousel that Emma and Neal sit in, is called the Wave Swinger, while The Crazy Beach Party and the Wooden Roller Coaster are sitting next to it.^[38]
  • The scene with Ingrid and young Emma at the Minnesota funfair in the Season Four episode "Shattered Sight" was filmed in the same amusement park.^[39] It was also used as a background plate for Emma's dream/vision of Neal in the Season Five episode "Souls of the Departed"^[40] (the scene itself was filmed indoors on a soundstage^[41]).
• The exterior scenes in the Enchanted Forest were filmed in Burnaby's Central Park.^[42]