Once Upon A Time – Hyperion Heights

By starrymag | October 13, 2017

By: Tara Donahue

 

 

We left off with a flashforward teaser at the end of Season Six, showing us a near exact reenactment of the pilot when a young Henry Mills (Jared S. Gilmore) showed up at the door of Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) telling her he was her son. This was the beginning of a beautiful, sometimes tragic, often dramatic story about a powerful curse that had trapped fairytale characters in a city with no magic with no memory of who they truly were. Except now it’s Season Seven and now it’s an adult Henry (Andrew J. West) cast in the role of the non-believer when his own daughter, Lucy (Alison Fernandez), shows up at his door. She has come across the country to Seattle, announcing she’s his and telling him about a curse that’s made him forget who he truly was.

 

Things kick off with a flashback of a more grown Henry, having just graduated high school and having decided not to go to college. Regina (Lana Parilla) is trying to understand as he explains that Operation Cobra is now over and everyone has their happy endings, but he’s still the author and he’s only ever written everyone else’s stories. But there are hundreds of other books, stories he thought he knew but they were told differently and he’s not in any of them. He’s the only him and it’s time he finds out where he belongs. Tossing his magic bean, he creates a portal and drives his motorcycle through it. Years later, in a whole new realm, we see an adult Henry still driving his motorcycle as he collides with a carriage carrying Cinderella (Dania Ramirez).

 

Back to present day Seattle, where we see Henry driving this show’s version of Uber, called Swyft. After a small montage of fares, he goes back home, tossing his keys with the swan keychain down and soon after comes the knock at the door. This is the scene from last season’s ending teaser with Lucy. Henry protests because he doesn’t have a daughter, but Lucy knows the curse has changed all his memories. She tries to explain it’s like Storybrooke, from his book Once Upon A Time, which she knows is true. But Henry tells her none of those things are true. Lucy tries to tell him it’s her grandmother, Lady Tremaine (Gabrielle Anwar), Cinderella’s stepmother, who’s behind it. She’s trying to bring people into Hyperion Heights to force all the fairytale characters out and force them to be separated.

 

Across town, Jacinda (a/k/a/ Cinderella) is running late for work. Her boss isn’t pleased, it’s a common occurrence. They argue and Jacinda (Dania Ramirez) calls him a jerk, to which he demands an apology because he knows she needs the job. It’s the best she can do so she has to apologize, except she doesn’t and quits instead. Back in fairytale land, Henry is trying to help an unconscious Cinderella after he caused her carriage to crash and her horse to run off. He wants to help her fix her story and offers her a ride to the ball on his motorcycle.

 

Present day Henry is looking his laptop, but finds a ransom note from Lucy instead. If he wants it back, he has to come to a place called Roni’s. He follows her directions and as he gets out of his car a mysterious blonde girl jumps down from the roof and just smirks at him before disappearing. He goes inside and we learn that Roni is actually Regina Mills, though she doesn’t know that. It seems Lucy might have been right about this curse after all. Roni tells Henry it’s the last day she’ll have the bar. As of midnight, it will belong to Victoria Belfry (a/k/a Lady Tremaine).

 

In the past, we rejoin Henry who is teaching Cinderella how to ride the motorcycle. She learns quickly and soon punches him in the face and steals it, heading off to the ball alone. Jacinda comes home and her roommate, Sabine (a/k/a Princess Tiana [Mekia Cox]) is concerned when she learns she’s quit her job. They discuss how Victoria is going to be upset, but Jacinda has no plans on telling her stepmother. But for now, she needs to get Lucy ready to go spend the night with her grandmother. She goes into the girl’s room only to find pillows in the bed and Lucy gone.

 

In the other realm, Lady Tremaine has kidnapped Cinderella’s fairy godmother (Jillian Fargey) and cut off her wings as a teaching moment for her daughter, Drizella (Adelaide Kane). If she’s going to be a princess, she needs to understand what real power looks like. But she should never rely on magic. Magic isn’t power because it can be taken, but fear lasts forever. To prove her point and, because there’s no harm in using the wand once, she turns the fairy godmother into dust for Cinderella to clean up later.

 

Jacinda finds Lucy in an abandoned lot that her daughter insists used to be a garden. She found a quarter there and feels it’s a sign so she throws it in the well to make a wish and tells her mother she found her dad today.

 

At Roni’s, Jacinda brings Henry back his computer and as he looks at her, he’s visibly smitten. He tells her he would remember meeting her. Roni gives them drinks on the house as an icebreaker.

 

At the ball, Cinderella is trying to keep her stepmother and stepsister from seeing her, but Henry finds her. He’s brought her a hyacinth, her favorite flower, and asks her to dance. He knows she stole his dagger and she admits she came to kill the prince (Liam Hall). He killed her father and took everything from her. Henry feels that maybe him crashing into her carriage was a sign, but she doesn’t believe in signs. He tries to talk her out of her plans to kill the prince, attempting to convince her to return to his world with him and start over, but Cinderella can’t let her revenge go. Before Henry can stop her, she approaches the prince and things start going blurry for Henry, who falls to the floor. The mysterious blonde from outside Roni’s winks at him just as he passes out. He wakes some time later and she introduces herself as Alice (Rose Reynolds) and tells him he should be careful of what he drinks.

 

Present day, we see Tilly/Alice in a warehouse. She’s come to tell Weaver (a/k/a Rumplestiltskin [Robert Carlyle]} there’s someone new in town.

 

Henry and Jacinda are still talking over drinks at Roni’s. He asks her what she would change about her story and she tells him about an island in the bay and how she would love to make a home there with Lucy. Somewhere people go to live quiet, happy lives. Henry thinks it sounds perfect.

 

Victoria shows up and announces that as of tomorrow, she’s taking Lucy to live with her permanently. Jacinda leaves and Victoria tells Henry he has no place there and should leave as well. He tries to take that advice, but his car is gone and he goes to the police station to report it. Officer Rogers, otherwise known as Captain Hook and/or Killian Jones (Colin O’Donoghue), is the cop willing to help him.

 

Back in the cave, Henry asks Alice if she’s Alice from Wonderland. “And other places! You have one weird trip and it’s all anyone knows about you,” she answers. Henry has to get back, but Alice tells him he can’t, this isn’t his story. She doesn’t know him, but Rumplestiltskin does. His grandfather knows everyone and he’s watching out for Henry. She tells him when it’s not his story, bad things happen. He needs to forget Cinderella and go home, but that isn’t who Henry is. When someone needs help, he helps them.

 

Lucy is throwing seeds into the empty flower boxes when Henry finds her, asking her if she had anything to do with his car being stolen. He wants to find it and go home, but she tells him he is home. Henry doesn’t believe, just as Emma didn’t, at first. But Henry tells her there is no curse and she isn’t his daughter. He had a wife and daughter, but they died in a fire. Lucy tries to tell him they’re cursed memories and it’s why he can’t write. He’s waiting for the perfect first sentence, but Henry disagrees.

 

Jacinda picks Lucy up just after Henry leaves so they can go live their story, but her car breaks down soon after. It’s the curse, Lucy tells her, trying to keep them there.

 

Cinderella is alone with the prince and pulls the dagger on him, but he doesn’t recognize her even as she tells him how he destroyed everything. She can’t kill him, but Lady Tremaine can and she does, all because he rejected Drizella. She calls for the guards, blaming it on Cinderella. Henry comes to her rescue, telling her to run, but this Cinderella is no damsel in distress and grabs a sword, fighting her way out.

 

Officer Rogers and Henry haven’t found the car, but Victoria shows up and needs help finding Lucy and Jacinda instead. She knows what Henry thinks of her, but she does care about her girls. She knows Jacinda makes mistakes, but she can’t build a better life by running away and asks Henry to tell her what he knows.

 

At the ferry, Lucy sits down on the bench, she doesn’t want to go. Jacinda tells her about Victoria plans to take her from her and about the island and how it’s where their story begins. They can have a fresh start. She knows Lucy has a big imagination and she gets why she needs to believe in fairytales, but right now she needs her to believe in her. Lucy does believe in her.

 

Before they can go anywhere, Officer Rogers shows up with Ivy/Drizella. She tells them Henry told them about the island and then takes Henry’s book from Lucy’s backpack, giving it to Rogers to get rid of.

 

Henry’s car was found and he’s leaving, but Jacinda isn’t happy that he told Victoria where they were. Alice is watching from a distance as they say goodbye.

 

In the forest, Henry looks for Cinderella as the portal opens, but she isn’t there. He finds her shoe instead and lets the portal close, choosing to stay behind. “Operation Glass Slipper is a go.”

 

In Hyperion Heights, Officer Rogers has been promoted to detective and is introduced to his new partner, Detective Weaver.

 

Roni changes her mind about selling her bar to Victoria, telling her she was inspired by her stepdaughter not giving in to her. Jacinda goes back to Mr. Cluck’s to get her job back. While across town, Henry takes a bouquet of Hyacinths to the cemetery only to discover it wasn’t there. A lady tells him she’s never known of one there and he seems confused.

 

Rogers is looking through Henry’s book and he seems fixated on a picture that we see is Emma. Does he recognize her?

 

Jacinda finds a quarter while sweeping and takes it to the well, tossing it in and making a wish.

 

Henry, finally back at his own apartment, opens his laptop and starts to write. “Once upon a time…”

 

In the garden where Lucy planted seeds, a hyacinth starts to grow.

 

Roni rips up the contract and Victoria tells her she’ll regret it. “Regret is not really my thing.” She tells her as the episode ends.

 

It will be interesting to watch Operation Glass Slipper play out and I can’t wait to see where they go with this!