Season 3, Episode 9:
Save Henry
While Henry's life hangs in the balance, the race is on to stop Pan from gaining full magical powers from the heart of the truest believer. Meanwhile, in Storybrooke of the past, Regina decides to fill a void in her life and, with Mr. Gold's help, sets out to adopt a baby.
Tropes
- The Bad Guy Wins:
- Although Henry has been saved and taken away from Neverland, Peter Pan switched bodies with him just before he was about to be sucked into Pandora's Box and has now taken control of Henry's body.
- Almost happened eleven years ago as well: if Regina hadn't changed her mind about Henry, John and Michael would have received him instead and taken him straight to Pan.
- In a way, Regina - she's not exactly "evil" or "good", in fact she's probably somewhere in between, but the fact that she has tortured and murdered millions and it means absolutely nothing to her is enough to break Pan's "regret tree" and let her unleash all hell on Pan and win the day.
- Slightly subverted, however, in the fact that Regina would never have gotten the chance to do this (nor could they have retrieved the heart and saved Henry) if Emma hadn't been able to appeal to the Lost Boys as a fellow orphan and offer them homes and loving families, so that one told them about the pixie dust tree.
- Blind Obedience: Felix, Pan's Dragon is loyal beyond all reason to him. He literally believes Pan is always right and that Pan always wins. When all the Lost Boys are given a chance to go home by Emma, they all take it except for Felix who calls them out as traitors.
- Body Snatcher: Pan switched bodies with Henry before being sucked into Pandora's Box by Rumplestilskin. Foreshadowed in episode 2 when Emma and the others found what they thought was Henry and it turned out to be Peter wearing some of his clothes.
- Continuity Nod: Not only do the flashbacks reveal that even from the beginning, Archie was trying to offer therapy and kindness to Regina, it turns out he was the one who gave her the idea to adopt Henry and encouraged her to keep him while focusing on the present, not the past or future. It's also clear he already cares for the boy, as he will in the years to come.
- Contrived Coincidence: The baby Gold found for Regina just happened to be Emma's. (Per Word of God, Gold didn't have his memory until he heard Emma's name.) Regina calls it fate and destiny.
- Couch Gag: The title card features Pan's Shadow.
- Double-Meaning Title: Apart from the obvious "it's about saving Henry" meaning of the title of the episode, it can be also read with "save" meaning "except", as in "[everyone] save Henry [comes back]". Which is also very fitting.
- Dramatic Irony:
- Regina takes a forgetfulness potion so she won't remember who Henry's birth mother is and thus waste all her time worrying about her coming to Storybrooke and breaking the curse...but it's entirely likely that also forgetting the sacrifice she was making (keeping Henry meant there was a chance her Revenge would one day be undone), or else the fact she was giving up those memories for selfish reasons, or just the way memory potions work (see what happened to Snow White), also cost her the ability to be a good mother.
- Another case is Regina's rant to Mr. Gold as she realizes just who Henry's mother is, and what Rumplestiltskin's plan was—and Mr. Gold, who doesn't have his memory back, has absolutely no idea what she's talking about.
- And finally there's the fact that despite Regina taking the potion, it's likely the fact that Sidney doing the digging to unseal Emma's records is how Henry, eleven years later, was able to find her with the parent-seeking website in the pilot—which again thanks to the potion, Regina had no idea was possible until it was too late.
- Enemy Mine: Emma and Regina having to work together ever since the season started to save Henry comes to a head in an interesting way—Emma acts heroically, by appealing to love, family, and their commonality as orphans, to get one of the Lost Boys to tell them where Pan has gone, and then Regina acts villainously by refusing to regret any of her past atrocities because they got her Henry, thus allowing her to break free of the tree and get Henry's heart back from Pan.
- Evil-Detecting Baby: Baby Henry cries incessantly around Regina but stops the second Mary Margaret touches him.
- Evil Versus Evil: Regina gets her chance to shine against Pan.
- "Freaky Friday" Flip: Henry and Peter Pan at the end of the episode. Unlike most television examples of this trope, this lasts for the next two episodes.
- Mandatory Twist Ending: It seems like everything is fine and our heroes' mission is complete, until "Henry" reveals that he is Peter Pan in Henry's body.
- Mama Bear: Regina, Emma and Mary Margaret are tied to a tree that traps them in their regret with its own vines. Regina rips the vines apart and takes back control by stealing Henry's heart out of Pan's body. To be clear, Regina has tortured and murdered millions, but because it got her the one thing in her life she loves - her son - she regrets nothing.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- Pan ties Emma, Mary Margaret and Regina to a tree that traps them in their regret. Unfortunately for Pan, Regina is not very bothered about the people she has tortured and murdered because it got her the one thing she does, unconditionally, love - Henry. Thanks to this, she is able to break free and unleash all on the person who has harmed her son - in this case, Pan himself.
- Cora, despite being dead, actually manages to help. Regina places the spell she used to stop people taking a heart on Henry, so his heart is perpetually safe from Pan.
- No-Sell: On Pan taking Henry's heart again, because it was enchanted by Regina with with same spell used by Cora.
- Nothing Can Stop Us Now!: Nearly word for word by Regina after she casts the curse. Then Peter Pan in the present day, after he gets Henry's heart.
- Place of Power: Because it is where he made his deal with the Shadow and cast away Rumple to become Pan, the pixie dust tree has become this for Peter, allowing him to snare others with their regrets as well as shield himself until he has fully absorbed the magic from Henry's heart.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Peter gives one to Emma, Snow and Regina for their failure as mothers, which is absolutely horrendous coming from him. Fortunately, no regrets are given by Regina.
- Something Only They Would Say: How Peter shows Felix that he swapped bodies with Henry.
- Title Drop: Twice by Regina. She not only states the episode title, but drops the "Once Upon a Time" series title when she tells her story to Henry.
- Undercover as Lovers: John and Michael Darling might have posed as a gay married couple in hopes of adopting Henry. Keep in mind they are brothers (not that the adoption agency would have known this). Alternatively, one of them is there as the official adopting parent and the other is there for support.
- Wham Line: How do we know Pan and Henry have swapped bodies? He finishes Felix's quote.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
- Rumple seems to agree with the "Not So Different" Remark from Peter Pan in the previous episode about the fact they both abandoned their son, to which Neal replies that's not the case because he came back for him.
- Tink also has a quiet moment like this with Regina where she not only expresses happiness that Henry got rescued, but points out the Evil Queen did find love after all and thus proved she still had good in her. Which leads Regina to turn it back on her when they see the pixie dust glowing, revealing the former fairy believes again.
