Henry begins an adventure to find his own story and ends up trapped in a curse. How did we get here? Full recap of Once Upon a Time Season 7 premiere “Hyperion Heights” (first aired Friday, October 6 at 8pm ET|PT on ABC).
Once Upon a Time premiered on Friday, and I admit that going into it, I had a lot of questions about the status of all our faves from the previous seasons, especially Emma Swan. While the episode didn’t provide all tof he answers, I was sufficiently intrigued by Henry’s story and the circumstances that would bring him, Cinderella/Jacinda, and Lucy together. I’ll definitely be back for the rest of the season…
“Hyperion Heights” opens with us learning that, once again, a curse has struck and wiped out the memories of fairy tale characters and trapped them in a new city…
We begin with Henry (Jared S. Gilmore) and Regina in Storybrooke. He’s a little bit older and has made an important decision. As Author, Henry has written and observed so many stories, but he’s never part of them. It’s time to depart from home in order to find his own story. Back at the Sorcerer’s mansion he finds hundreds of other fairy take books with the stories we think we’re familiar with, but told in so many different ways. The possibilities are endless. So Henry kisses Regina goodbye, gets on his motorcycle, makes a portal with a magic bean, and rides on through to his adventure.
Several years later, older Henry (Andrew J. West) is in a New Realm and riding his motorcycle through the forest. A carriage comes out of nowhere, and as they swerve to avoid one another, the carriage careens and falls on it’s side. Henry gets off his bike and approaches the young woman who’s now unconcious in a bed of hyacinths. We recognize that iconic blue dress and glass slippers–it’s Cinderella (and she’s Afro-Latina, YAS!). Henry helps Cinderella up who is highly upset that his headless horse got in the way of her plans. How is she supposed to get to the ball to meet the Prince? Henry promises to take Cinderella on the back of his motorcycle. He even teaches her how to ride. And just when it seems like we’re watching the beginning of a new relationship (could Henry be her prince???), Cinderella punches Henry in the face and rides off. YIKES!
Lady Tremaine has kidnapped Cinderella’s godmother. Since she wants her own daughter, Drizella, to marry the Prince, Lady Tremaine takes the godmother’s wand, cuts off her wings, and turns her into dust. No more interferance there.
Cinderella arrives at the ball, but is trying to hide from her Step-Mother and Step-Sister. Incidentally, we meet Princess Tiana, who’s also at the ball. Before Cinderella can approach the Prince, Henry cuts her off and asks for a dance. He even gies her a hyacinth for her hair…but it turns out that the motorcycle isn’t the only thing Cinderella took. She steals Henry’s dagger too and plans to use it to kill the Prince as revenge for killing her father and taking away her chance for a HEA. Henry tries to convince Cinderella not to throw her life away. She can even run away with Henry to another realm to start over. Cinderella declines and runs to meet the Prince. Before Henry can go after her, he becomes dizzy and keels over.
When he wakes up, he’s tied to a tree by Alice (from Wonderland and other places, lol). Apparently she knows he’s Henry Mills and brings a message from Rumple, that he’s watching out for Henry… Alice warns that since this isn’t his story, bad things will happen. Henry should forget Cinderella and go home. But as far as he’s concerned, Henry wants to help when he can.
Cinderella eventually makes her move to kill the Prince, but can’t go through with it. Unfortunately, Lady Tremaine takes that moment to stab the Prince in the back. It seems the Prince’s younger brother is taken with Drizella, so she can now be princess, then a queen. Lady Tremaine then blames Cinderella for the Prince’s death and calls the guards. Cinderella runs away and even gets help from Henry, who holds off the guards. (Henry and Cinderella make a great sword-fighting team, and I have so many CaptainSwan and Snowing feels!) The plan is that they meet at midnight at the portal.
Henry makes it to the portal just as it opens, but Cinderella isn’t there. He glances down and sees one of her glass slippers. In that moment, he decides to stay: “Operation Glass Slipper is a go!”
In Seattle, we follow Henry has he’s living his life in the present-day. As his day job, Henry is a Swift (Uber) driver and gets to interact with tons of people. But by night, he’s an author struggling to write his next novel. As he sits at his laptop, Henry hears a knock at the door. And we pick up exactly where Season 6 ends. In an EPIC full circle moment, this young girl introduces herself to Henry as his daughter. But because he’s been cursed, he doesn’t recognize or remember her. Henry lets Lucy in, but he’s highly skeptical. He doesn’t have a daughter and as far as he’s concerned, alllllll of the events of Once Upon a Time Seasons 1 – 6 are part of a fictional book he wrote. And that’s it. Yet, Lucy knows he’s an author and even has a Fairy Tale book of her own. If only Henry would come home with her to Hyperion Heights, he would meet his family, his true love (Lucy’s mother, Cinderella), and break the curse. Accorder to Lucy, her Step-Grandma is trying to change Hyperion Heights so all the fairy tale characters leave and become separated forever. Henry denies it all and sends Lucy on her way.
The next day, Henry realizes that Lucy has kidnapped his laptop and demanded that he come to a place named Roni’s. Henry makes his way to Hyperion Heights where he briefly meets a young-ish blonde woman (Alice!). Henry finds Roni’s which is a bar. And the proprietor is Roni AKA Regina! Interestingly, this is the last day the bar will be Roni’s. It’s been bought out by Victoria Belfrey/Lady Tremaine (Lucy’s Grandma) and Roni confirms that the neighborhood is changing. Henry has a drink and makes a joke about being her son.
We catch up with Lucy’s mom, Jacinda/Cinderella is late for work at a fast-food restaurant. Unfortunately, she’s fired for standing up to her boss Louie for being a jerk to another co-worker. Jacinda returns home where she lives with her and roommate (Princess Tiana). From their conversation, it’s clear that Jacinda’s Step-Mother has been giving her a hard time, even threatening to take custody of Lucy. When Jacinda goes to wake up Lucy to get her ready to visit her Grandma, Jacinda realizes she’s missing.
Jacinda finds Lucy at an abandoned lot that apparently used to be a graden. Lucy uses a quarter she finds to make a wish and then leaves with her mom to get ready for ballet class. When Jacinda asks Lucy where she’s been, Lucy tells the truth that she went to see her dad. After Lucy’s confession, Jacinda reclaims Henry’s laptop and brings it to Henry at Roni’s. Henry is definitely thunderstruck by Jacinda. They share a drink and some laughs. Jacinda talks about being a single mom, running away to a lighhouse on an island in the middle of the bay. They’re interrupted when Victoria Belfrey arrives and makes accusations of Jacinda letting Lucy run away to strange men (Henry) and being a bad mother. As of tomorrow, Victoria plans to take Lucy permanently.
Henry tries to leave shortly after that, but realizes his car has been stolen. He doesn’t get much help until an Officer Rogers steps in. Yes, Oncers, Killian Jones is a cop! Henry leaves the police station and finds Lucy at the empty lot. She’s disappointed that Henry doesn’t believe. He even claims that he did have a wife and child, but both died in a fires. Lucy tries to argue again that those are just the memories from the curse. Plus, it even took awhile for Emma to believe too. Lucy begs Henry to believe her: “…no story is perfect; it just needs to start.” But Henry leaves.
Jacinda has other plans too and tries to run away with Lucy. Lucy refuses to go without Henry and breaking the curse. Just when Jacinda convinces Lucy to believe in her, they’re interrupted by Officer Rogers and Victoria’s assistant/Drizella. When Victoria realizes Jacinda and Lucy are missing, she shows up at the police station and convinces Henry to tell her what he knows in exchange for getting his car back. Henry tells everything about the island in the bay. (BOO!) Drizella takes the Fairy Tale book from Lucy and tells Officer Rogers to get rid of it. But he opens it up and sees something that catches his attention…
Elsewhere, after seeing Henry in Hyperion Heights, Alice runs to tell “Weaver”… who is Rumple… and also torturing a guy by holding his head down in a barrel of water.
Jacinda finds Henry as his car has been recovered. Apparently he resents being brought into her family drama. Jacinda wishes Henry a pretty harsh goodbye and good luck on his book.
When Officer Rogers returns to the precint, he finds he’s been promoted to detective and his new partner is this Weaver guy. (Of course Rumple would be a dirty cop. OF COURSE.)
In the end:
–Roni decides not to sell the bar to Victoria.
–Jacinda goes back to her job at Mr. Cluck’s. While sweeping, she finds a coin, and returns to the empty lot to make a wish in the well. And a hyacinth grows.
–Officer Rogers stares into the Fairy Tale book at an image of Emma.
–Henry starts to notice gaps in his memories (like the location of where his family is supposedly buried). He returns home and writes the first line of his new book (“Once upon a time…”).
We have a sneak peek from next week’s Once Upon a Time episode, “A Pirate’s Life” (below), and it looks like we’ll learn more about Officer Rogers/Killian and what in the world happened to CaptainSwan!
#CaptainSwan have their happily ever after, but it's time for Henry's. Watch @jenmorrisonlive's return to #OnceUponATime TONIGHT at 8|7c! pic.twitter.com/l4PEjuzIuq
— Once Upon A Time (@OnceABC) October 13, 2017
Once Upon a Time airs Fridays at 8p/7c on ABC.
