Recap / Once Upon a Time S7 E21 Homecoming

Season 7, Episode 21:

Homecoming

As the residents of Hyperion Heights celebrate the breaking of the curse, Henry is visited by Wish Rumple, who’s hatched an evil plan to use Ella and Lucy to keep Weaver from destroying the Dark One powers. In order to stop him, Henry, Roni, Weaver and Rogers must travel to the Wish Realm, home to versions of some of our most beloved and fearsome characters. In a flashback, a discouraged Young Henry is visited by Wish Rumple and offered a deal that could have tragic consequences.

Tropes

• Arc Words: Not only do "all magic comes with a price" and "Love Is a Weakness" come back once more, Wish Henry initially rejects Wish Rumple by describing how he preys on "desperate souls", convincing them when they are at their lowest that the wrong choice is the only one left to them. The phrase comes up again from both of them, when explaining to the real Henry why he made the deal with Rumple after all and how he maneuvered both Henrys into doing what he wanted, respectively.
• Bait-and-Switch: The episode opens with a double-header — first a dashingly dressed Henry comes into a cave to wake a sleeping princess and fight a dragon for her... only for the princess's actual true love to appear, kill the dragon, and wake her with True Love's Kiss (so she can declare Henry "like a brother to me"). Then, after Wish Rumple appears to him and tries to get him to make a deal, he turns him down, only to be told he will change his mind one day; the audience most likely assumed this was our Henry, having crossed to another realm, dressed to fit the part, and seeking out his own story as seen in this season's first episode. But it turns out this was the Wish Henry all along.
• Batman Gambit: Everything in this episode was according to Wish Rumple's plan. He knew the heroes would come after him, he obviously chose Cruella as a guard because Henry could get Author ink from her hair, etc.
• Big Damn Heroes: After Alice feels her Guardian powers disappear and realizes the others are in danger in the Wish Realm, she and Robin go to Tiana for help... and once she enables them to find a magic bean, they rush off to the rescue — via Storybrooke.
• Book Ends: The episode begins with a prince riding his horse through a forest, on his way to kiss awake a sleeping princess, just as it began in the pilot all those years ago.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Pan, Cruella, Ariel, and the Apprentice reappear via their Wish counterparts.
  • Wish Henry returns.
• Call-Back:
  • Hook having known Ariel carries over to the Wish Realm, where he can call on her (with a seashell) to once again obtain squid ink to trap the Dark One. Rather than having helped her find Eric (since that occurred between the first and second curses in Season 3), Wish Hook befriended her when, after he had given up on ever being with Alice again, she kept him from drinking himself to death or being Driven to Suicide.
  • The fact that Cruella has Author ink in her hair is a plot point.
  • Wish Henry mentions how Regina killed his grandparents during her last visit to the Wish Realm. And he still wants revenge for it.
• Cliffhanger: Alice and Robin, driving the beignet truck into Storybrooke to rally aid, while Hook, Rumple, and Henry are trapped in the snow globe with Ella and Lucy, and Regina is at Wish Henry's mercy.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Just as he and Neal trapped Pan with squid ink on an arrow shaft, Rumple traps Wish Rumple with squid ink on the Dark One dagger itself.
  • Wish Rumple mentions the Love Is a Weakness mantra when mocking Rumple for his desire to rejoin Belle; Rumple in turn savagely denounces him as the weak one by being "just a pathetic beast" without Belle or his son.
  • Rumple and Hook find themselves by the house where Rumple and Bae lived long ago, with the hammer outside that Rumple used to hobble himself during the Ogres' War.
  • The prophecy first mentioned in Season 2, that Henry would be Rumple's undoing, comes into play.
  • Henry references his mom celebrating her 28th birthday with a wish on a cupcake candle, and him knocking on the door to bring her to Storybrooke, which is how the series began.
• Couch Gag: The title card features the magic bean portal as the 'O'.
• Darkest Hour: Wish Rumple has pretty much completely won by the end of the episode. He has Ella, Lucy, Rumple, Hook, and Henry trapped in the snow globe, with him being the only one who can let them out; he has his counterpart's dagger; and his deal with Wish Henry and the Author's pen has eliminated Alice's Guardian powers so he can be the Dark One eternally. The only Hope Spot, other than whether Regina (or Emma?) can somehow get through to Wish Henry, is that Alice and Robin are on their way to try and rescue them, with help from Storybrooke.
• Deal with the Devil: Wish Henry agrees to use the Author's pen to remove Alice's Guardian powers (and thus her ability to take the dagger from the Rumples) in exchange for Wish Rumple giving him a chance for revenge on Regina.
• Dramatic Irony:
  • Rumple tells his counterpart he's the only enemy he can't beat, which is why he will give up the dagger to him... when it's giving him the dagger, with the squid ink on it, that will beat him. In the process he also proves that as much as Wish Rumple claims to know him and think like him, he doesn't, since he neither expects the deal to hand the dagger over, nor the squid ink.
    • Justified, as Wish Rumple has never changed; Wish Belle died in the tower while he was imprisoned, and with her, any chance at redemption, so he can't think the same way original Rumple does. Meanwhile, the original Rumple has been changed by the love and family of his Belle, Gideon, his grandson, great-granddaughter, and everyone else. But, he still knows how his old self thinks, and therefore is able to outsmart him.
  • Regina goes after Rumple when he goes to face his wish counterpart, instead of Hook, because she has magic and he doesn't. But if she'd let him go, he very likely would have happily let Rumple kill Wish Rumple, thus freeing Ella and Lucy... and if somehow Wish Rumple had escaped, Regina would have had the magic to face him when he returned (and would have been awake to do so, since Henry would not have knocked her out and she would likely have agreed to his plan with the Author's pen). So by her going instead, they played right into Wish Rumple's hands.
• "Eureka!" Moment: While researching in Wish Rumple's library, Henry looks at the quill he's using and suddenly realizes he can get the Wish Realm version of the Author's quill.
• Exact Words: When Wish Rumple says that Henry can only achieve his destiny with his help, he wasn't talking about Prime Henry:
  Wish Rumple: Poe-tay-toe, poe-tah-toe.
• Gondor Calls for Aid: What is Alice and Robin's plan to help, since they don't have any magic themselves? Go to Storybrooke to rally the heroes.
• I Have Your Wife: Wish Rumple abducting Ella and Lucy to manipulate Henry into doing what he wants.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Regina finds out about Facilier's death after going to his apartment and finding Rumple Bound and Gagged behind a wall.
  • Henry comes in to tell the others about Wish Rumple abducting Ella and Lucy. In the process he also learns about the above.
  • By touching Henry's heart, the Wish Apprentice is able to learn his entire story he lived and wrote, and that he is a True Author.
• Karma Houdini Warranty: After seemingly getting away for all this time with killing the Wish Realm Snow White and Charming, leaving with Emma (although she didn't kidnap her like Prince Henry thought), and freeing Wish Rumple, Regina is now being made to face the music by a vengeful Prince Henry... and thanks to what her wish counterpart did to Belle (and the fact the Dark Curse didn't get cast means he never made it back to Bae), this Rumple is more than happy to help him do so in return for his Dark One powers being made eternal.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: After learning of Henry's history by touching his heart (that is, of the whole seven seasons of the series), the Wish Apprentice comments that it is quite the story, and the chronology alone can get quite confusing.
• Loophole Abuse: Because he's from the Wish Realm, Hook is able to use the looking glass to lead the others to where Ella and Lucy are being held. Also, just as the Evil Queen and Regina being the same person let them both be master of the genie's lamp, Prince Henry can use the Author's quill just as Henry can, once he has reclaimed it.
• Manipulative Bastard: Wish Rumple plays everyone like a fiddle. He takes Ella and Lucy to force Henry's hand; breaks Alice's mirror so that when Regina, Rumple, Hook, and Henry use it he can divide them and send them where he likes; brings Cruella against them with a promise of a new coat (but which also, cleverly, provides the means to obtain the Author's ink); gets Rumple to confront him so he can claim the dagger; and pushes Henry into the desperate act of going for the Author's pen, all knowing that the deal he made with Wish Henry will let him use the pen to eliminate the Guardian's powers and let his darkness reign supreme.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • Regina bursts in on Rumple just as he's about to stab Wish Rumple with the Dark One's dagger, which would have freed Ella and Lucy as well as reunited him with Belle (since he'd be eliminating a great evil by doing so, and incidentally fulfilling his original Savior destiny). Because of this delay, Wish Rumple gets free of the squid ink, blasts her, and takes the dagger from Rumple before teleporting away.
  • Henry decides that getting the Author's quill will allow him to free his family and stop Wish Rumple without sacrificing Rumple's happiness. Not only does he knock out Hook to do this (thus keeping him from being there to do anything when Wish Rumple and Wish Henry return), but this plays right into Wish Rumple's hands by giving him the pen to give to Wish Henry. The Apprentice even warned Henry obliquely when stating he had to be careful what he wrote and why he wrote it, and that he can only record what happens, not create it.
  • Regina realizes that her accidental killing of the Wish versions of Snow and Charming helped set Wish Henry on this path to darkness in the first place.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Henry tries to warn his wish counterpart not to do what the Dark One wants, that he needs to find his destiny the right way, and that he must know this path is wrong. Wish Henry fires back that he already tried the right way and it didn't work, and so now he's desperate enough to use the pen to obtain what he wants. Both he and Wish Rumple then point out that Henry was willing to do the same thing, and had also been willing to betray Rumple to save his family. So both of them have the same darkness and flaws inside, when they are pushed to the edge.
• Not What It Looks Like: Rumple goes to the house where he lived with Bae and meets his counterpart there. Wish Rumple assumes that he's there to find some loophole to get out of the deal... but Rumple claims he doesn't know him as well as he thinks, declares he knows he's facing the one enemy he can never beat, and then says he will hand the dagger over because doing so would not be burdening or corrupting anyone, nor spreading the darkness any further than it already is. So he still gets to be with Belle, and everybody wins. But when he hands the dagger over, it turns out he put the squid ink on it to trap Wish Rumple.
• Revenge: After trying for years to find true love and a happy ending, Wish Henry has decided the only way he can get what he wants is to kill the Evil Queen for killing his grandparents and taking his mother away from him.
• Rousing Speech: When Robin and Alice need magic to get them to the Wish Realm, they appeal to Tiana... who in turn makes use of this trope to the people of Hyperion Heights/her kingdom, inspiring them to help. At first it seems they either have nothing or refuse to give it, but one finally comes forward — and he has a magic bean.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Wish Pan is kept locked up by his son, and has surprisingly mellowed/is terrified into submission by it. Couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow.
• Suddenly Always Knew That: Out of nowhere, Cruella proves able to sword fight — not that it does her much good against Henry, who's been trained by both Charming and Hook.
• Synchronization: Turns out, if Rumple gives away the dagger to Alice, it would remove Wish Rumple's magic too.
• Tempting Fate: After speaking of how Emma's wish on a cupcake brought him into her life so that eventually their whole family could be reunited, Henry claims he has nothing to wish for because he now has everything he wants. Cue Wish Rumple claiming he used the cupcake wish (surely just Trolling Henry) to spirit Ella and Lucy away to force him into a deal.
• Throw It In!: The kiss to Alice's shoulder, which was originally going to be a regular on-the-lips kiss. Tiera Skovbye was sick during the scene's filming, so she went with the shoulder instead for Rose Reynolds' benefit.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Cruella tries to fight Henry with a sword instead of sticking to her established forte of using magic to manipulate animals, even though the cage with a food bowl in it implied the existence of a large guard dog she could have summoned.
• When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Wish Rumple not only seals Ella and Lucy in a snow globe, but when Henry "cheats" by trying to find a way to defeat him instead of giving him the dagger, he starts filling the globe with actual snow; if they haven't been freed by midnight, they will freeze to death.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Drew/Naveen gives a speech like this to Sabine/Tiana, which turns out to be quite helpful when Alice and Robin need her help as a confident queen. Henry tries to give one to his wish counterpart, encouraging him to stay on the right path and work with them to find his happy ending instead of the Dark One, but it fails.

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