Season 3, Episode 10:
The New Neverland
The residents of Storybrooke are overjoyed upon the return of Henry and our heroes from Neverland. But unbeknownst to them, a plan is secretly being put into place by a well-hidden Pan that will shake up the very lives of the townspeople.
Meanwhile, in the Fairy Tale Land that was, Snow White and Prince Charming’s honeymoon turns out to be anything but romantic when they go in search of a mythical being that could stop Regina cold in her tracks.
Tropes
- As Long as There Is Evil: Subverted; Snow White acknowledges that not only will Regina always be out there, but that even if she were gone there would be other evils to take her place...but that is no reason not to live for the moment, enjoy life while you can, and bring good and happiness and family into the world. Emma, on the other hand...
- The Bad Guy Wins: Although Emma and everyone else eventually found out that Pan and Henry switched bodies, Pan tricked Regina while he was in Henry's body into letting him into her vault so he could steal the curse that caused Storybrooke to be created.
- Continuity Nod: After Charming gets Taken for Granite: "Now I know how Frederick felt."
- Couch Gag: The title card features Medusa.
- Cutting the Knot: Gold solves the problem with David and the magic waters of Neverland by creating a potion to make them permanent once they get back to Storybrooke; he could do this when there had never been a cure for Dreamshade before because, as he stated two episodes prior, he had the poison Hook used on him to experiment with and only needed some of the magic water as the last ingredient.
- Foregone Conclusion: David and Snow's quest to get Medusa's head is doomed to fail. For that matter David will not stay as a statue for long.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Aside from the things she did in the past to make the viewers dislike her (most recently learning of what she did to Tinker Bell), as soon as she meets Tink again the Blue Fairy dismisses her because she doesn't have enough belief in herself to make the pixie dust work "and if you can't believe in yourself, how can I?" The next time we see her, she's being killed by having Pan's Shadow rip hers away.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: In the flashback, Regina taunting Snow through the reflection on the shield tells her how to defeat Medusa, both with the reflection itself and her observation about "defeating herself."
- Not Himself: Henry was acting different from the way he usually does. Emma was the first to notice something was wrong.
- Sadly Mythtaken: On the one hand, the stories that one can cut off Medusa's head turn out to be wrong (unless only special magical weapons can do it); on the other hand it turns out she isn't immune to her own gaze. And that turning it back on her also undoes the stone curse on her victims, or at least the most recent.
- Something Only They Would Say: In a mirror image to the previous episode with Pan and Felix, Henry tries hard to convince his family that he really is Henry and not Pan by doing this.
- Title Drop: Done courtesy of Pan himself.
- We Need a Distraction: Villainous version, also courtesy of Pan—he releases the Shadow and sends it to kill the Mother Superior, then uses this renewed danger (and the fact Pan seems able to control his shadow even from inside the box) to justify him being kept in Regina's vault for safety. While this does make Emma suspicious to the point she gets Gold to let Henry out of the box, all Pan needs is enough time to knock out Regina, take the curse scroll, and break Felix out of jail.
- The World Is Always Doomed: Emma has come to believe this, at least about Storybrooke and her role as the Savior.Emma: The price of being the Savior is...I don't get a day off.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: In utter contrast to how she wanted to turn her to stone in the Enchanted Forest, here it is Snow White who thanks Regina for all the help she gave them in Neverland and welcomes her into the celebration. Then she gets what seems to be her wildest dreams come true, Henry wanting to spend time with her, stay with her, and seek her love and protection instead of Emma's...but it's all a mask since he was really Pan using her. Subverted somewhat in the end when Henry, in Pan's body, tells her he does love her and want all those things from her, but the pain of what Pan did to her is surely still there and not gotten over so quickly.
