‘Once Upon a Time’ Recap: Magic is Back, But What Has Changed?

Once Upon a Time’s season premiere, “Broken,” has brought magic to the town of Storybrooke—and many questions to fans of the show.

Last season, Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) helped push the show to completely new territory, breaking the curse cast by Evil Queen Regina (Lana Parrilla) by waking Henry (Jared S. Gilmore) from a magical sleep, thanks to “true love’s kiss.” Unfortunately for the townsfolk, Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle) had his own plans, bringing a purple haze of magic to our world—only it doesn’t quite work the way it did in the fairytale realm.

“Broken” opens with the town still in shock from regaining their memories—and understandably angry with Regina for her curse and the fact that they didn’t return to their land (according to the Queen, the fairytale land and all the other worlds were supposedly destroyed due to the curse). While Dr. Whale—whose fairytale identity is still unknown—leads the mob to Regina for revenge, Emma, Mary Margaret/Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and David/Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) vow to stop them, as killing her would be stooping to her level.

Gold, meanwhile, has concocted a plan to exact his revenge on Regina for the curse as well as for Regina locking up Belle (Emilie de Ravin). He sends a wraith—a “soul sucker”—to do Regina in. The team, however, battles the wraith and, with the aid of Regina and Mad Hatter/Jefferson’s hat, they send it back to the fairytale realm, supposedly lost forever since it technically shouldn’t exist. Unfortunately, Emma and Snow are also sucked into the portal, leaving Charming and Henry alone in our world.

The fairytale side story this week involves Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Prince Philip and, oddly enough, Mulan. While the Beauty story is somewhat true to form—Philip wakes Aurora with a kiss—we soon learn that the wraith is also after Philip and Mulan has become his travel companion. Ultimately, Philip sacrifices himself to the wraith to protect Aurora and Mulan, but we quickly learn that the wraith’s presence was caused by Emma and Snow, who brought the creature with them through the portal. Mulan explains that much of the world has changed since Regina’s curse and a small corner of it still exists—meaning 28 years have also passed since most of the fairytale land was transported to our world. Also, Mulan and Aurora blame Emma and Snow for the wraith’s appearance, which may prove bad for our heroines.

A few interesting things happened, however, that may have gone unnoticed. First off, when Emma asks Regina about why she has Jefferson’s hat, Regina is confused as to who he is—though we all know that she should know him. Also, though Regina seems powerless at first, she still allegedly has enough magic to ensnare Charming in branches that emerge from her walls. While her weakened powers may not be a façade, it’s interesting that she didn’t use her magic until that moment—and it took Emma touching her to get the hat to work. Could Emma actually have magic? Also, along the lines of Regina and Henry, is she actually upset that he doesn’t want to see her anymore, or is she simply jealous that she can never have true happiness? She will definitely be an interesting character this season, especially with all the layers we’ve been seeing.

Another interesting thing to ponder is the man from the beginning, who is seemingly just another random person living in New York City—but he soon receives a postcard from Storybrooke with one word on it: “Broken.” He will obviously prove to be important in the near future, but who could he be?

So far, we know we will definitely see Captain Hook as well as Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk. Who else is in store for the upcoming season? Aladdin’s name has been thrown around, and we know at some point Jefferson (Sebastian Stan) will return. Will August/Pinnochio (Eion Bailey) be back as well? How about the Huntsman/Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan)? Rumors of Emma developing a relationship have been floating around, and these men—or perhaps a new character—could fill that role.

Hopefully now that the curse is broken, the writers will explore more how magic works in our world as well as speed up the storylines a bit to make room for more interesting adventures for our heroes.