The two-part season four finale of Once Upon a Time, consisting of both episodes “Operation Mongoose: Part 1” and “Part 2,” begins with a flashback to “Our World” in 1966, when the Author (Patrick Fischler), known then as Isaac, was a struggling writer trying to sell color televisions – until he gets a letter from Star Publishing saying that he is wanted for hire.
He arrives at Star Publishing to find a mostly empty room, with the Apprentice (Timothy Webber) at the desk. The Apprentice lays out a selection of different writing utensils, demanding that Isaac choose one, as a test. Isaac picks the magic quill, which seems to approve of him in turn. The Apprentice creates a magic door to another realm, and both he and the Author go through it.
Videos by ComicBook.com
In modern day Storybrooke, the good guys are at a loss, until they’re joined by August (Eion Bailey), who has a drawing of the Apprentice – someone who will know more about the Author. Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) suddenly realizes that he had imprisoned the Apprentice back when he was under of Gold’s spells. With the help of the fairies, they release the Apprentice, who immediately says that there’s “no time to waste.” They need to find the page with door as well as the matching key to lock the Author back up into the book.
The Apprentice, Emma (Jennifer Morrison), and Regina (Lana Parrilla) head to Gold’s, while Henry (Jared Gilmore) and the others go back to his home. Henry bolts upstairs to get the key, while the others look for the page with the door. Gold (Robert Carlyle), meanwhile, is clinging to life as the Author finishes up his new story. The Author writes “the end” – and suddenly there’s a bright light.
Once Henry grabs the key, he goes downstairs and finds that everyone is gone. He goes to Gold’s, which is also empty. Henry finds himself on a search through town, where he can’t find any of his family members. Eventually, he finds a best-selling book at a restaurant, “Heroes and Villains” by Isaac Heller.
Some time later, Henry locates Isaac at a gala book signing event, where he’s surrounded by fans. Henry pulls out the page with the door and the key, threatening Isaac to talk to him. He later explains that Henry’s family is alive, in a different realm inside his new book. However – Emma has no place in the new book, because his book “has no savior.”
Henry knocks Isaac over, grabbing the book, and using the key to send himself inside, with Isaac following. They find themselves in one of the book’s last chapters and are quickly attacked by an ogre. Isaac splits, but Henry is saved by the “Ogre Slayer” – Rumplestiltskin, who is a knight.
Next, Henry uses the book to get to Regina, and he does his best to convince her that he is her son. She obviously doesn’t believe him, and when he shows her the book, she throws it in the fire. Henry is only able to save one page. He tells Regina that he thinks everything will be fixed – if she finds Robin Hood, her true love, and kisses him. Regina says that Robin Hood is her main competitor, and if anything, he’ll get a punch on the nose.
With the ogre gone, Isaac searches for Henry, falling into a trap in the woods. He’s found by the queen’s goons, the dwarves – led by Grumpy (Lee Arenberg). They take him to the now-evil Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin), who literally holds Prince Charming’s (Josh Dallas) heart in her hand, commanding him. Just before they behead Isaac – he convinces them otherwise by explaining some of their secrets, which of course, he wrote. Isaac offers to write Snow a happy ending, if she will kill Henry and Regina in return.
Snow later hunts down Regina, and almost kills her, before Regina is saved by Robin Hood (Sean Maguire). He takes her back to his pub and tends to her wounds. The drink to “new friends” and just as Regina begins to fall for him, he explains that he’s looking to leave the thieving business – in honor of his bride-to-be, Zelena (Rebecca Mader).
Afterwards, Regina talks to Henry again, explaining the wedding. She asks about his other mother, Emma, and when he refers to Emma as “the savior,” Regina remembers that she does exist in their world and has been locked in a castle by the queen. Isaac lied about Emma not being in the book.
The now-good Rumple ends a long day by coming home to his loving wife, Belle (Emilie de Ravin), and their baby, but Isaac is there waiting. He tells Rumple everything, including the secrets he knows about Baelfire, his son. He adds that Regina will probably try to stop Robin Hood’s wedding, and threatens Rumple, saying that, if he doesn’t try to stop Regina, he’ll tell everyone the truth about Rumple’s first son.
Then, Henry goes to the Jolly Roger to recruit Hook, who now works for Captain Blackbeard. Henry manages to knock out Blackbeard, and he and Hook head towards the castle where Emma is locked away. They sneak past the guard, knocking him out too, and free Emma – who remembers everything. Part of her curse is that she knows the truth but is powerless to tell anyone about it.
They speed away as fast as they can on the boat, because, as Emma explains, the guard keeping her there was no ordinary guard – it was Lily, who can transform into a dragon. Emma and Hook get chatting on the way back, and their chemistry is clear.
They’re time together is interrupted by Snow and Charming, who don’t Emma when she calls herself their daughter. They plan to kill both her and Henry, so Hook offers to be a diversion, fighting them to the best of his now-limited ability, while she saves Henry. The alternate-realm Hook is no match from Charming, who kills him.
Henry returns to Regina again, this time with Emma, who asks to speak with her alone. Emma tells Regina that if she just tells Robin the truth about how she feels, everything will be fixed and they can both get their happy endings with the men they love. The three of them go to the wedding – and Regina is about to run in and kiss Robin – when Rumple appears to stop them.
Emma fights with Rumple, so Regina can stop the wedding. Before Robin says “I do,” he sees Regina in the doorway. Emma can’t hold off Rumple for long, and then Henry tries to fight him too. Rumple is about to cast the fatal blow to Henry, when Regina jumps in front of Henry, saving him instead of stopping the wedding.
The wedding lets out, and Robin rushes to Regina’s side. Emma demands that Isaac fixes everything, but because he broke the Authors’ code, the quill no longer works for him. Suddenly, Henry hears the quill whispering and picks it up. Henry is the new Author.
He uses the blood of the “light savior,” Regina, as ink and writes, “because of Regina’s sacrifice, Isaac’s work was undone.”
All of the characters wake up back in Storybrooke, exactly where they were when Isaac first finished “Heroes and Villains.” Emma runs to Hook, and at first, she cannot find him. Luckily he is still alive in this realm, despite his death earlier in the episode. It’s clear that she wants to tell him that she loves him, but she can’t.
Rumple wakes up in his shop, barely alive, and Isaac runs away. Belle finds Rumple on the ground, barely able to stand. The human part of him is about to die, and although Belle says she still loves him, he begs her to leave. Once the human part of him is gone, all that’s left will be the Dark One.
Isaac tries to skip town but is stopped by Mary Margaret and David. Isaac tells them that a lifetime of “bad bosses” and others who push people around inspired him to hate “heroes,” like them.
Later, the Apprentice tells Henry more about his new powers as the Author, which do not include the ability to resurrect his dead father, since Baelfire died in the real world. He urges Henry to resist the temptation of the quill – and in response, Henry snaps it in half, saying, “no one should have that much power.”
That night, the people of Storybrooke are all celebrating. Lily tells Emma that she wants to find the identity of her real father, and so she plans to stay in town during the search. Belle bursts through the door and tells everyone that Rumple’s human heart is about to be gone, leaving only the Dark One.
They rush to Rumple to find him unconscious. The Apprentice tries to pull the darkness out of him, placing it into the Sorcerer’s Hat container. He then puts a shiny, bright heart back into Rumple. Suddenly, the container starts to bounce around, and a swirly black force goes straight out of it and into the Apprentice.
Emma uses her magic to pull the darkness back out of the Apprentice, and sends it out the door. Before his dying breathe, the Apprentice explains that, long before their stories, the Sorcerer battled darkness, tethering it to a human soul that could be controlled with the dagger. The only person who can destroy the darkness, who they must now find, is the Sorcerer himself: Merlin.
Outside, the darkness starts to swarm around them, until it closes in on Regina, snuffing out her light. It needs to be tethered to someone, and Emma volunteers. She believes that Regina has worked too hard for her happiness to have it taken away now. Emma tells Hook that she loves him, and then she accepts the darkness within her.
The black torrent forms a cyclone around Emma, until she disappears. In her place is the Dagger, which now reads “Emma Swan.”
