Once Upon A Time Season 4 Episode 16 Recap With Spoilers: Best Laid Plans

“Best Laid Plans” begins in a flashback, with Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) after they’ve been told by Maleficent that Snow is pregnant. They find a unicorn and touch its horn to see the future. While Charming sees a happy baby girl, Snow sees a sullen young Emma, who rips out her mother’s heart and crushes it into dust.

They run into a merchant in the woods who tells him that Maleficent turned into a dragon and laid an egg. He advises that they go down a certain path to a man in a cottage, who will help them on their way. The find the Apprentice (Timothy Webber), who welcomes them inside.

In the present, August cannot wake up from a deep sleep, having been “changed by magic too many times.” Regina (Lana Parrilla) can’t return to the villains empty-handed, so she takes a cell phone picture of the page with the door. Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) also tells Emma (Jennifer Morrison) that the villains are planning to turn her heart dark, so that she’s no longer the savior.

When Regina shows the cell photo to Rumple (Robert Carlyle), Maleficent (Kristin Bauer van Straten), and Cruella (Victoria Smurfit), there is a strange “glare” on the image, which indicates to Rumple that the door picture is magical. He knows that the Author is hidden in the actual page.

Maleficent puts a sleeping curse over all of Storybrooke, stopping everyone in their tracks, so that the villains can go steal the page with the door. She knows she’s a necessary asset to Rumple and bargains with him. For her help, she requires the knowledge of what happened to her child after Snow and Charming “got rid of it.”

David and Mary Margaret realize that they’re immune to the sleeping curse that’s hit the entire town, since they’ve had sleeping curses put upon them before. The villains arrive where Emma and Hook are asleep to steal the page but cannot find it. Rumple reasons that Henry probably took it – since he’s protective of the Book and is probably immune to the curse as well.

Henry (Jared Gilmore) calls David and Mary Margaret to tell them that he’s hiding in the Sorcerer’s mansion with the page. David thinks that they should destroy the page. Though it might trap the Author forever, there would be no way for the villains to turn Emma dark. 

The flashback with Snow and Charming continues, at the Apprentice’s cottage. He believes that either of their premonitions could come true, and explains that it’s possible to banish the potential for darkness in a child. Unfortunately, they will have to fill another vessel with that darkness instead. Snow thinks of Maleficent’s egg to possibly be their vessel, reasoning that her child would probably be evil anyway. 

They pass the guards protecting the egg, Cruella and Ursula, before they attempt to steal the egg from a cave, where it appears to be nestled into a pile of rocks. The nest is actually the tail of Maleficent in dragon-form, though she won’t attack them while they’re holding the egg. She pleads, mother to mother, but they take the egg anyway.

Snow and Charming bring the egg to the Sorcerer, who uses a magic curse to do more than just transfer the darkness to the egg. Suddenly, a portal opens in the Earth. Cruella and Ursula appear, furious at them for what they’ve done. The portal sucks in the egg, Cruella, and Ursula, to some other realm where they will never be able to hurt anyone, according to the Sorcerer.

In the present at the mansion, Henry is hiding under a table with the page, when suddenly, a light begins to shine from the door and onto a desk. He opens the desk’s drawer and finds a key. Regina enters, followed by Cruella and Maleficent, looking for the page. Henry hands his mother a forged page that Emma whipped up earlier.

Mary Margaret and David make it to the mansion, where Henry is excited to free the Author with the key. David insists that he leave and give them the key, with Mary Margaret becoming increasingly upset with how frequently they lie.

Rumple goes to the pawnshop, where Belle is asleep because of the curse. He explains to her sleeping form that he is going to have to change the world to ever be in a safe, non-villain position. He says that he will come back for her if he can and meet Regina outside. When she gives him the page, Rumple can immediately tell that it’s fake. He sees it as proof that Regina isn’t on their side, and Maleficent puts her to sleep.

Meanwhile, David is about to toss the page into the fire, but Mary Margaret decides that they can’t destroy everyone’s chance of a happy ending. She says that heroes do what’s right, not what’s easy, and they decide to tell Emma the truth about what they did to Maleficent’s baby.

Emma is deeply disappointed when they confirm her suspicion that they’ve been lying to her. She angrily leaves to go reflect alone. Once August wakes up, Hook goes to find Emma to share the news.

The flashback continues, with Snow still so torn up about what they did that she won’t accept a unicorn-themed mobile for their baby’s room. She wonders if they can ever be considered heroes again, but David thinks they can prove themselves somehow by being the best possible people that they can be.

Since Maleficent didn’t retrieve the page and hold up her side of the deal, Rumple doesn’t want to reveal the information about her child. He says that the pain she has would only become worse if she knew the truth. She begs him, and he complies, showing her what happened 30 years ago.

A man holds Maleficent’s daughter in his arms for the first time as her adoptive father. He says he will name her “Lily.” 

Emma runs to show August the page with the corresponding key to free the Author, who might know everything about Emma’s past. August reveals that there was more than one Author and that the one who wrote down the stories in their Book, who is locked behind the door, was just the last. He manipulated the stories, causing the Sorcerer and the Apprentice to condemn him into the Book. 

With the key, Emma unlocks the door and the Author (Patrick Fischler) comes out. He is the same man that Snow and Charming met on the road long ago, the one who sent them to the Apprentice’s cottage. He identifies himself as “the Peddler,” and runs away.