‘Once Upon a Time’ season 3 spoilers: Peter Pan, Rumpelstiltskin, and a showdown

You have been likely waiting to see this happen slowly and surely over the past several weeks, but on Sunday night’s “Once Upon a Time” season 3 episode, it is finally here: The long-awaited showdown between Peter Pan and some of Storybrooke’s residents. While you may not see a full conclusion to this story yet, you are at least going to finally see some signs that the journey to Neverland is starting to wind down, and our characters are thinking more and more about their ultimate return to the town in which they love (except for maybe David, who is doomed to live in the land of Pan forever).

Sunday’s episode, in the event that you haven’t heard yet, is entitled “Think Lovely Thoughts,” which is the sort of name that suggests that it is the ripe time to get a Pan origin story so we know what exactly made this “ancient kid” the way in which he is. However, the synopsis below from ABC does make it sound almost like we’re looking more at a story geared entirely around Rumpelstiltskin that Robbie Kay’s character:

“Pan leads Henry to a secret cave, where he has convinced the boy that he alone can save magic and Neverland itself. But a showdown between good and evil is about to go down as Emma, Mary Margaret, David, Regina, Mr. Gold and Hook find themselves directly on a path to Pan in an effort to save Henry. Meanwhile, back in the Fairy Tale Land that was, young Rumpelstiltskin is given a magical item that could help him make a fresh start with his father — who has been anything but a good dad.”

If nothing else, learning about Rumple’s “dear” ol’ dad should give us a little bit of a better idea as to why is the man that he is … which is not always a good man at all. But he was constantly afraid of coming across as a coward, and in doing this story, we could figure out a little more in the way of just what sort of cowardly behavior was done to him in order to make him feel that way. It had to at least be something fairly tragic.

What do you think is going to be coming on this episode? Share your theories below, and click here if you want to watch a promo for it.

Photo: ABC