‘Once Upon a Time’ season 3, episode 11 review: Death, departure, and a storied Storybrooke

Dear “Once Upon a Time,” where have you been for most of this season? What we had tonight in “Going Home” may be one of the greatest episodes of the entire series, mostly because it largely took away some of the sappiness that we’ve seen on the show, and put us in a very different sort of position moving forward.

The biggest thing worth noting here is just where everyone stands: Segmented. Thanks to Regina reversing the curse in order to save everyone’s lives, the town of Storybrooke is no more. Instead, the cast of characters are going to be back in the fairytale world once again, though it does appear as though they are going to have their memories largely intact based on what we saw from Captain Hook at the very end of the hour.

But the consequences of this are severe. In order to stay alive, Emma and Henry left Storybrooke, and were given the opportunity to start over with a new and very happy life. In the year since their departure (via flash-forward), that’s precisely what they had. But times have changed dramatically for everyone else, as evidenced by Hook arriving at her door and asking for her help … even if she has no clue who he is. This was all incredibly well done, including Hook trying to kiss her in hopes (maybe) that it would bring her memory back.

As for everything else that matters in the aftermath of Regina’s move, Peter Pan and Rumpelstiltskin were both seemingly killed off as Rumple sacrificed himself to rid the group of Pan. But, we don’t think that Rumple is dead, given what we’ve heard already. This guy is like a cockroach, after all. But if he survives, does that mean that Pan did, also?

This entire episode was in the end a thrill ride that contained shocker after shocker, from Pan managing to get so close to completing his mission to Belle sobbing at the thought of losing the man she loves. We’re mostly excited to see everything that has transpired in the past year, and if Regina has gone back to her evil ways now that she is back in her old world. Grade: A.

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Photo: ABC