Season 7, Episode 2:
A Pirate's Life
When Henry finds himself in trouble, he calls upon his Storybrooke family for help, and together they set off on a mission to find Cinderella. Along the way, Hook is confronted by an unexpected foe who threatens the group’s success. In Hyperion Heights, Jacinda searches for a way to see Lucy with some unwelcome assistance from Henry, while Victoria Belfrey enlists the help of Rogers and Weaver to push Henry out of the neighborhood.
Tropes
- Bait-and-Switch:
- We're set up to believe that Weaver is in Victoria's pocket and doing something to his partners. In fact, he's actually a good guy.
- It looks like the reason Hook is lying to Henry about Emma is something terrible happened to her. It turns out instead she's pregnant and just didn't want Henry to give up his dreams to come live with her for the baby.
- Blood Magic: Lady Tremaine uses some of our Hook's blood to make Wish Hook resemble his younger self.
- Book Ends: Emma's first and last scenes of the series have her going through a magic portal to our world, this time with her family in tow.
- The Chessmaster: Weaver, of course, being Rumplebloodystiltskin is playing Victoria for a fiddle and even played Wish!Hook in a good way.
- Couch Gag: The title card features a swan.
- Cryptic Background Reference: Wish!Hook and Lady Tremaine are implied to have had a prior history with each other, but any details about what happened between them have yet to be revealed.
- Dirty Cop: Subverted as it turns out Weaver only plays at being corrupt but is actually a good cop (albeit with edges) and is playing a long game against Victoria.
- Evil Is Petty: Victoria goes back on her promise to give Jacinda a free ticket to Lucy's ballet recital, citing the need to raise funds for charity. And sets the ticket price at just above Jacinda's paycheck.
- Exact Words: When Henry uses a message in the bottle addressed to Captain Hook, it goes to both Hooks (since Wish Hook happened to be in the same realm).
- Fighter, Mage, Thief: Henry's adventuring party in the "New" Enchanted Forest evolves into this: he's the fighter, Regina's the mage, and Wish Hook is the thief.
- Foreshadowing: Hook tells Weaver "I'm not the man you think I am." It turns out that he's not the man the viewer thinks he is at all, since he's not the same Hook we all know from the Enchanted Forest. Doubles as Leaning on the Fourth Wall.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Rumple/Weaver subverts this, for once: his Heel–Face Turn from last season seems to have stuck.
- Heel–Face Turn: Wish Hook intends to impersonate Hook without caring what happens to him, but changes his mind upon finding out that Emma is pregnant, not wanting Hook and his child to be separated as he and his daughter were.
- I Choose to Stay: Regina doesn't go back to Storybrooke with Emma and Hook, instead staying with Henry and Wish Hook in order to finally find her own happy ending. Before that, Henry insists to Emma that he will stay in the New Enchanted Forest as part of finding his story, and Emma makes sure he sticks to it by banning him (in jest) from coming home until he does.
- Mama Bear: Regina and Hook are summoned to Henry's side just in time to see Drizella stood over Henry with a knife; in retaliation for attempting to harm her son, Regina smashes her into a wall with such force that Drizella is knocked unconscious.
- Message in a Bottle: A unique version as Henry uses a magical bottle, pouring out the water, speaking into it that he's about to be captured and dropping the bottle to get a message to Emma, Regina and Hook and let them know he's in trouble.
- Noodle Incident: Lady Tremaine has an unspecified grievance with Wish Hook.
- Operation: [Blank]: When Regina tags along with Henry, in the goal of finally finishing her own story, he dubs it "Operation Next Chapter".
- Playing Drunk: Wish Hook appears to be slurring and swaying to the disgust of Hook. However, he suddenly states "I haven't touched a drop of rum in years" before knocking Hook out.
- The Power of Love: Emma has trouble making her powers work in the New Enchanted Forest, so when Wish Hook's fight with Hook ends up with the former fatally stabbed, she gets them to work so she can heal him by believing in the goodness inside him, the same as the man she fell in love with... and by getting him to believe, too, by focusing on his love for his daughter.
- Plot Parallel: Both the flashbacks and the Hyperion Heights plotline end with Henry, Regina, and Hook teaming up against Lady Tremaine.
- Put on a Bus: Emma and her Killian head back to Storybrooke to raise their child.
- The Reveal:
- The Hook going by Officer Rogers in Hyperion Heights under this new curse is the one from the Wish Realm. Furthermore, he was looking for his daughter at the time of the curse, whom he had been separated from thanks to a poison curse on his heart.
- The reason why Emma didn't show up with Regina and Hook at first when all three were summoned by Henry's message? She was pregnant.
- Secret Test of Character: Weaver gives Rogers Victoria's bracelet, with the apparent intent of having him plant it on Henry. When Rogers refuses, Weaver reveals that he wanted a partner with "moral fiber".
- Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Subverted: Rumple (a.k.a. Weaver) isn't on board with Victoria's plot.
- Unwanted Assistance: Jacinda tries to tell Henry not to help her get to Lucy. He does so anyway.
