Slight spoilers may be talked about below, so please be sure to watch the latest episode before reading on!
While it felt rushed, it was strangely satisfying to see everything come to ahead in “Is This Henry Mills?”.
The episode focused mainly on Henry and Regina, as Regina tried her hardest to wake up Henry from the curse. Regina tries everything from a potion Rumple gives her to make amends for his previous actions to even digging up Victoria’s grave to get the second book of “Once Upon A Time” in order to wake up Henry but to no avail. Henry can’t be woken up since he grew up and stopped believing in the optimism that he once had as a child and teen.
Elsewhere Hook managed to escape Gothel’s coven and find back up in the form of Rumple and Robin as he tried to free Alice from her tranced state. Still unsure of what is going on and if he’s in a drugged state, which Rumple says he isn’t and that everything that is happening is true, that Alice is indeed his daughter and that magic is real. Robin on the other hand just goes along with it all with little convincing by Hook or Rumple, and just wants to save Alice from Gothel.
Lastly, in flashbacks, young Henry is deciding on what he wants his future to be leading up to his high school graduation. Past-Regina insist that Henry goes to Storybrooke College — yes, Storybrooke has a college apparently — and stay in town, while Henry at first wants to go to other colleges across the country. However midway through, he instead wants to live for adventure and find his own story, which is exactly what he does at the premier episode of the season.
Photo Source: ABC
However, there is a massive twist revealed in the middle of the episode that snaps Henry from his cursed state and that is the fact that this whole current season was happening at the exact same time that season six ended last year! Gothel’s curse actually transported Regina, Henry and the others back in time to Hyperion Heights at the same exact point where Henry leaves Storybrooke halfway across the country. This explains why none of the Storybrooke characters like the Charmings, Emma, Hook etc. ever came to help at Hyperion Heights. The thing that finally wakes up Henry is when he calls his younger self confirming everything is true and reminding his younger self to go out there in the world and make his own story. This then sets into motion a chain of events that undo the curse for the heroes and gives them the edge against Gothel.
From that point on, it finally felt like the Once Upon A Time of days gone by and the show finally clicked. Hilariously though when the curse finally did break, the characters we couldn’t really care about this season were locked in a closet by Facilier. That kinda shows how important the show runners take those characters these days as the series winds down with two more episodes.
Honestly, if it wasn’t for this being the final season and the twist ending at the very last minute with Facilier and Rumple, “Is This Henry Mills?” could have been the perfect season final. Everything that was touched upon this season from the cursed characters being freed to Gothel’s coven finally got an ending and a nice resolution. But we still got a two-parter finale to catch and with the way this episode ended, I’m legit excited to see what the final big bad of the series will be up too!
