In the second episode of season 7 of Once Upon a Time, titled “A Pirate’s Life,” Henry calls upon his family for help when he finds himself in a difficult situation, and this leads Hook to a surprising confrontation with a familiar face. In the present day, Jacinda gets an assist from Henry in order to see her daughter, and Victoria asks Weaver for help in getting rid of Henry. This episode also marks the return and exit of former series regular, Jennifer Morrison.
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Henry Reunites with His Family
The episode begins with a flashback to Storybrooke where young Henry is practicing his sword-fighting skills opposite Hook. After their lesson, Emma arrives and shares her concern about Henry going off on his own. Hook gives her a magic bottle that can be used to send a message across the realms. Emma then apparently gives the bottle to Henry so he always has a way to contact his family if he needs them.
In another realm, years later, adult Henry is still searching for Cinderella when Lady Tremaine and the royal guards catch up to him. Someone saw him with Cinderella’s glass slipper, but Henry says he buried it. As Lady Tremaine is about to take him into custody, Henry uses the magic bottle to send a message home, asking his family for aid.
Lady Tremaine tells her daughter, Drizella, is find out where Henry hid the slipper and then kill him. Henry tries talking to Drizella, believing that she is kinder than her mother. Drizella says he’s wrong about that, but before she can prove it, Regina and Hook arrive to save the day! Regina expresses surprise at how much Henry has grown, but there is no mention of how long he’s been gone from Storybrooke. Henry asks about why Emma didn’t appear, and Hook makes up some excuse about her dealing with a magical foe back home. Once Henry is out of ear-shot though, Regina asks why Hook lied to him and Hook says it’s what Emma wanted.
After Henry digs up the slipper, Regina tries to do a locator spell on it, but she can’t seem to get her magic to work in this realm. Hook somehow notices that the slipper smells of the sea so he decides to head to the port to look for Cinderella. Alas, instead of finding Cinderella, he finds…himself.
Hook is confronted by the old, drunk Hook from the wish realm. After meeting Emma in the wish realm and learning she fell in love with Hook, “Wish-Hook” decided he wanted that life for himself. He got the chance to take it when he got Henry’s message (apparently, the message went to both Hooks.) Wish-Hook then knocks Hook out so he can put his plan in motion.
Wish-Hook tracks down Lady Tremaine who is apparently also from the wish realm. They have a not-so-great history, but Wish-Hook tells her that he can help with her “Henry problem.” Lady T then uses a fairy wand to turn Wish-Hook into a look-a-like of Hook so he can pose as Emma’s true love.
Emma and Henry Say Goodbye
While this is going on, Henry is asking Regina about life back in Storybrooke. Apparently, things have been calm since everyone got their happy endings. Henry asks about Emma and Regina quickly changes the subject to Henry’s life and his search for Cinderella. Henry says he doesn’t know how Cinderella feels about him. Wish-Hook shows up just then and spins a tale about Cinderella buying passage on a ship and writing a goodbye message for Henry. Henry is clearly heartbroken about Cinderella’s supposed departure and Regina tells Wish-Hook to go make him feel better.
During their chat, Wish-Hook stumbles over his answers about Emma’s well-being, but is saved by Emma’s arrival. Emma says that she’s fine but Hook wanted her to stay behind to rest because she’s pregnant. Henry is happy for her and says she’ll be a great mom to the new baby. Wish-Hook is visibly upset when he learns about Emma’s pregnancy and he leaves in a rush, saying there is something he must do. He ends up going back to where he knocked out Hook and the two wind up getting into a fight. Wish-Hook gets mortally wounded and then explains that he was coming back for Hook because he can’t separate a father from his child. Wish-Hook then explains that everything he’s done has been for his daughter.
As Wish-Hook clings to life, Hook asks about his daughter. Apparently, a vengeful witch was keeping her prisoner and Hook was caught visiting her. Wish-Hook was then cursed so he could never save his daughter. He knew his best chance at a cure was true love so he spent years searching for it before he found Emma. He thought maybe Emma’s love with Hook would be enough to cure him of his curse. Just then, Emma arrives and Hook asks her to save his doppelganger. Emma gets Wish-Hook to believe in her and this is apparently enough for her to be able to use her magic to save him.
Henry and Emma chat, but even though Henry wants to come home, he says he can’t until he plays things out with Cinderella. Emma says she’ll miss him, but she needs to give him the chance he once gave her — to find where he belongs. Since Henry is off in search of Cinderella and Wish-Hook is looking for his daughter, Emma suggests they team up to help one another. Henry then asks Regina if she’ll come with them because he misses her and he knows her story isn’t over so maybe she’ll find it in this realm. Of course, Regina jumps at the chance to remain with her son. Emma and Hook leave to go back home to Storybrooke while Regina, Henry, and Wish-Hook stay behind to launch Operation Next Chapter.
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Victoria Has a Job for Rogers and Weaver
In present day Hyperion Heights, Rogers (aka Hook) stops by Henry’s apartment. Rogers tells Henry about the illustration of Emma that he saw in Henry’s book. He recognized the woman and asks if Henry based her on a real person, but Henry says he made her up. Henry then tells Rogers that he is trying to find out where his family is buried and Rogers says he’ll look into it. Henry asks after Jacinda and Lucy, and Rogers says they aren’t doing well after the events of the previous day.
Jacinda stops by Victoria’s office to pick up a ticket for Lucy’s ballet recital because that’s apparently the only way she can see Lucy. Victoria’s assistant Ivy (aka Drizella) says the ticket is now $550 and Jacinda cannot afford that on her weekly paycheck. Jacinda and her roommate are searching for part-time jobs so Jacinda can earn some quick cash in order to attend Lucy’s recital. Henry arrives and tries to apologize for his role in separating Jacinda from her daughter. Jacinda doesn’t want his apology, she just wants to find a way to earn the money so she can see her kid.
Rogers meets up with Weaver, aka Rumple. Weaver gives his new partner a hard time about being late and Rogers asks why Weaver wanted him as a partner. Weaver says that’s the real question. Rogers and Weaver get called to Victoria’s office. She has a job for them. Victoria (aka Lady Tremaine) wants them to find a way to get Henry out of town. Rogers starts to object to doing Victoria’s bidding, but Weaver silences him by saying that Rogers works for him.
Weaver goes to Roni (aka Regina) for help in finding Henry, but Roni won’t give up his location. Roni then takes the opportunity to warn Rogers about his new partner. Apparently, Weaver has had plenty of partners in the past and most of them don’t last long.
Henry Helps Jacinda
Since they’ve had no luck in finding Henry, Rogers and Weaver break into Henry’s apartment where they discover evidence that Henry once had a child. Weaver knows that Rogers stopped by Henry’s apartment earlier that day, but he hopes he can count on Rogers’ loyalty. Before they leave the apartment, Rogers picks up Henry’s swan key-chain.
Jacinda is still searching for a new job when a perfect one practically falls in her lap. It turns out they need more servers for Lucy’s recital. When Jacinda and her roommate arrive for the gig, Jacinda realizes that Henry arranged everything so she would get a chance to see her daughter. Henry says he feels awful for his role in their separation and he is just trying to make up for it.
Lucy is thrilled to see her mother and her excitement only increases when she realizes that Henry helped her get access to the recital. Lucy believes everything is working out as it should.
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Rogers is Told to Frame Henry
When Victoria spots Henry at the recital, she calls Weaver and tells him to take care of it. Victoria suggests he do this by framing Henry for something. Weaver then decides to “steal” Victoria’s bracelet and plant it on Henry, only he wants Rogers to do the actual planting in order to prove what kind of man he is. Rogers seemingly does just that and Weaver interrupts Victoria’s speech to announce that her bracelet has been “stolen.” He intends to seach all the employees first which does not sit well with Jacinda. Before she can get into something with Weaver, Henry steps in and Weaver decides to search him. Only, instead of finding the “stolen” bracelet, he finds a key-chain from Henry’s apartment. Apparently, Rogers decided not to frame an innocent man, even if that means putting his job in jeparody.
After all the chaos is over, Jacinda gives Henry a drink to thank him for helping her see her daughter. Like Jacinda’s roommate Sabine said earlier in the episode, it’s a start.
Needless to say, Victoria is not pleased that Weaver failed to frame Henry. Weaver isn’t concerned by her anger because she doesn’t control him. He says their interests have aligned up til now, but that could change.
A New Partnership is Formed
Rogers tells Weaver that he couldn’t bring himself to frame Henry and Weaver is surprisingly okay with this. Apparently, the reason he chose Rogers as his partner is that he saw some morality in him and that’s exactly what he was looking for.
Rogers tracks Henry down at Roni’s bar and gives him a list of local cemeteries where he might find his family. Rogers ends up telling Henry about a case he worked during his first year on the job. He was searching for a missing girl when he wound up getting shot and bleeding out in an alley. A woman appeared and helped him stay alive until the ambulance arrived. The woman who saved him looked exactly like the woman from Henry’s book.
Once he was given a second chance at life, Rogers says he became desperate to find that missing girl, to the point where he almost lost himself. His search for the girl has been nothing but dead ends and now he thinks it’s because someone is preventing him from finding her. Roni comes into the conversation just as Rogers explains that he thinks Victoria is behind his problems, as well as theirs and he thinks they should work together to do something about it. He can use his new role as a detective to dig into things, Roni can use her connections in the community to find people Victoria has threatened, and Henry can write it all down as they go. At Rogers’ suggestion, the three of them agree to team up to take Victoria down.
What did you think of this episode of Once Upon a Time season 7? How long do you think Henry was away from Storybrooke before reuniting with his family? What did you think of the way the show wrote out Jennifer Morrison’s Emma while still keeping Hook on the show? Do you like that the version of Hook trapped in Hyperion Heights is actually Wish-Hook? Does Rogers still have the chess piece that reminded Wish-Hook of his daughter? Are you excited about the Henry-Roni-Rogers team up? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Once Upon a Time airs Fridays at 8/7c on ABC. Want more news? Follow our Once Upon a Time Facebook page.
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Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
