Before you settle in for tonight’s Once Upon a Time season 4 premiere, revisit season 3 with Hypable’s refresher!

From “The Heart of the Truest Believer” to “There’s No Place Like Home,” Once Upon a Time spent 22 episodes trekking through Neverland and battling the wickedness that hails from the West. Not only did the twisted family tree expand, but the villains from Regina, to Rumplestiltskin, to Captain Hook, each grew in their own way. Perhaps everyone does deserve a happy ending!

Neverland

Our journey in season 3 began with a magic bean and pirate ship making way to the land where imagination runs wild.

Meanwhile, across the realms, Neal wakes up in the care of Mulan, Aurora, and Prince Philip. Neal stumbles upon Robin Hood who is guarding Rumplestiltskin’s castle. While looking for some relic enchanted with blood magic to use as a portal he meets Roland and uses the boy as bait to gain passage to Neverland when Pan’s shadow arrives.

The crew of Emma, Hook, Mary Margaret, David, and Regina travel around the island, trusting Hook to lead them. Henry meets Peter Pan and proves that he contains the “heart of the truest believer.” The most manipulative boy ever to exist, Pan works his way into Henry’s mind, convincing him to give up all hope of rescue from the island.

Neverland, as it turns out, was an extremely dangerous therapy session for the entire crew.

Rumplestiltskin, choosing to work alone, prepares to sacrifice himself to save Henry. The consistent reminder of his own father’s abandonment in the form of a straw doll forces his past into the present. Baelfire’s return leads Rumple to believe it is his past creeping up to haunt him yet again. Overjoyed that he has his son back, Neal does not feel the same way when Pan says that Rumple plans to kill the boy.

Along the journey we met some new characters that help the story along. First up is Tinker Bell, who was never quiet so good with the “dust rules” and has a (shocker!) twisted past with Regina.

Next we meet Ariel, a mermaid who lost her love, Prince Eric. Regina, again, had a hand in her unhappiness after imitating the sea witch Ursula to trick Ariel into giving up Snow White. Her ability to swim between worlds helps the search party communicate with Grumpy and Storybrooke.

The path to Pan is a treacherous one and Dream Shade, a deadly poison, takes its first victim when David is nicked by an arrow laced with the liquid. Hook sees David’s demise as an opportunity to win favor with Emma.

As David’s sole confidant, Hook shares the tale of his brother’s mission to the land to bring back the poison and obliterate the King’s enemies. Bad form! Pan tells Hook the way to cure his brother’s ailments, however all magic comes with a price. When Killian’s brother dies, the good form of the sailor falls away and the vengeful captain is born.

David takes Hook’s magic water, understanding that the ruse to find the sexton was a folly and that once he ingests it, he cannot leave the island. Emma is… um… grateful?

Back on Henry’s paternal side, Neal’s past in Neverland is further explored when Rumple remembers the night Neal slipped away to join the Lost Boys. In the forest, the Pied Piper played his pipe and called those who felt lost to hear it’s tune, Rumple included. Rumple’s father, who entrusted his care to the spinster sisters, is none other than the boy who refused to grow up, Pan.

In the Echo Cave even more secrets are revealed. Hook confesses that he never thought he could love another woman until he met Emma, Mary Margaret wants another child, David cannot leave the island, and Emma was happy to learn that Neal was dead to avoid confronting her buried feelings once again.

Speeding along, Henry rips out his heart to “save magic,” but his family ends that plan, capturing Pan in Pandora’s Box and using his shadow to guide their ship back to Storybrooke. However, Pan switched bodies with Henry and is now planning to unleash a curse on Storybrooke that will send them all back to the Enchanted Forest.

All plans fail to stop the curse, but the ultimate sacrifice to save them all from Pan comes from Rumplestiltskin. Rumple summons his dagger killing himself and Pan.

Emma and Henry must leave before the curse reaches them. They are not a part of the Enchanted Forest world and their memories of Storybrooke will be erased, replaced with years of happiness thanks to Regina.

But nothing is easy for the Savior…

Next page: The Wonderful Land of Oz

GIF credit: Brittany Lovely

Something Wicked this way comes…

One year later, Hook arrives to bring Emma back to Storybrooke. It takes some convincing, and a night in prison, to get Emma to drink a potion that will restore her memory.

Emma’s fiancé, as it turns out, is not the wonderful man she thought he was, but rather a flying monkey sent to keep an eye on the Savior. Heart broken yet again, Hook, Emma, and Henry go back to Storybrooke to find David and Mary Margaret who did not waste time getting pregnant in the Enchanted Forest. The entire town does not remember the last year and slowly people are disappearing. The cause of the destruction:

Hidden in plain sight as the midwife, Zelena, the Wicked Witch has a foot in the door in Storybrooke. Working her way through the town, she keeps an eye on Snow’s baby after first capturing David’s courage in the form of his sword. She is after a heart, but the mind she has already brought back with her…

In the year that was, Regina struggled to keep her heart from breaking after losing Henry. She tried ripping it out, concocting sleep potions, but it was her mission to fight Zelena (and perhaps a budding friendship with Robin Hood) that kept her going. Back in Storybrooke, Henry’s lack of memory proves to be even more heart breaking as he looks at her like a stranger.

In the lost year, Neal made it his mission to revive his father and find passage back to Emma, and arrives with the help of Lumiére.

It turns out that Zelena has a desire to bring Rumple back, but the dark magic to do so comes at a cost. Neal’s body is absorbed into Rumple’s and the two minds fight inside. When Neal does find his way back to Storybrooke, it is only due to a fleeting moment of freedom from his father’s control.

In order to stop Zelena, Neal sacrifices his life so that his father may live to save Henry, Emma, and the town. Neal dies a hero, a lesson that his father taught him. (Grab a tissue…)

With Neal gone, Hook takes Henry to teach him about the stars, and share stories that will help Henry cope with the loss of a father he does not remember and for Killian to bid farewell to a friend. The town, meanwhile, has to deal with the intruder Zelena.

While looking for clues to decode Zelena’s plan, Regina makes a shocking discovery on the forearm of Robin. The lion tattoo that is the mark of her true love.

Regina, knowing Zelena needs her heart, entrusts it to Robin. Belle begins to search the books, while the rest of the search party tries to discover what Zelena loves the most and sacrificed to cast the curse.

Emma is itching to end this battle and take Henry back to their old life in New York, saving him from the confusion Storybrooke is putting him through. But as Disney… ahem, Hook, reminds everyone, you must “Keep moving forward.”

There is quiet a lot to know about Zelena’s past to understand her plans for the future. As the half sister of Regina, Zelena was abandoned by Cora when she realized that Zelena would never give her the life of royalty she desired. Princess Eva (Snow’s mother) ruined Cora’s chances by revealing her pregnancy and therefore Zelena’s plan is to return to the past and kill Eva.

Thrown into a cyclone, Zelena fulfills the prophecy that she is the force from the West that can complete Glinda’s powerful circle. However, Zelena’s jealousy gets the best of her and when Dorothy drops in, it is clear that Zelena was never meant to fill the innocent space on the council. Nor was she good enough to help Rumple cast the curse.

One final problem stands in Zelena’s way, Emma’s powers. In order to remove them, Zelena tricks Hook into confessing his love for Emma and enchants his lips with a spell. When Rumple nearly drowns Hook, Emma revives him, but when her lips meet his, her powers are gone. It will take Henry to remember the past and Regina to change her powers from dark magic to light magic to save the town now.

The book helps Henry remember and the curse is broken, stripping Zelena of her magic. It turns out that the initial curse was cast by Snow when she ripped out Charming’s heart. Regina was able to save them by ripping Snow’s heart in half and placing a piece in each of them. When the town gets their memories back, one question still remains; Who told Hook to save Emma?

Everything seems okay now! Right? We had some fun meeting Blackbeard and Rapunzel along the way.

But Zelena’s magic extends from beyond the grave opening a portal that goes back in time to the moment that Emma’s parents are destined to meet.

In the past, Emma and Hook must be careful not to disrupt the timeline in any way or the future as they know it will cease to exist. They hit a few bumps on the road, including a run in with past Hook, nearly killing Snow, and saving Marian from certain death. Oh, they also went to a ball as Princess Leia and Prince Charles.

When all is said and done, the pair escape the threat of the still evil Regina and make their way back to Rumplestiltskin’s castle to build a passage back to Storybrooke. With Marian in tow, Emma realizes that what she misses most, is her life with her mother, her father, and her son. She misses her home, in Storybrooke.

With the future restored and Prince Neal named, the couples begin to pair off. David and Mary Margaret hold their son, Hook reveals to Emma that he traded his ship for her, Robin and Regina welcome an unexpected guest, and Belle and Rumple wed in the forest.

But down the road…

See you TONIGHT for the return of Once Upon a Time season 4, episode 1 “A Tale of Two Sisters” on ABC!

GIF credit: Brittany Lovely