Once Upon a Timeline - Episode Segments in Order

This page represents my best effort at putting the events shown to date in chronological order, complete through Season 6. It includes guesses about timing intervals and editorial comments.

Note: For numbering purposes, I have treated the two-hour episode in 4a as a single episode.

Note: The dates assigned to past events in Camelot make no sense to me (see my "spacetime in the EF is elastic" theory). I have mostly ignored them, therefore, and put the ones I could guess at in logical order. 

Eons ago:

5.16 Hades and Zeus have a bit of an argument. Zeus ends up ruling Olympus; Hades ends up “ruling” the Underworld with a heart that doesn’t beat, unable to feel any of the kinder emotions.

1,000+ years ago:

5.07 Merlin escapes from somewhere and finds the Holy Grail in the desert. He drinks from it (politely), gains magic and immortality. A small community gathers there, where he provides help to those in need. (During this time, presumably, the legend of The Sorcerer takes root.) Five hundred years later (maybe), a refugee named Nimue arrives, and they fall in love. Merlin determines to turn the Grail into a sword that can remove his magic, so that he can live a normal lifetime with her. On the way, Nimue secretly drinks from the Grail. After using the fire of Prometheus to forge Excalibur, they encounter the man who destroyed her village. Nimue crushes his heart and becomes the first Dark One. She breaks the sword. Merlin uses the dagger part to prevent her doing any further harm. (Events are referenced elliptically in 4.22; the Apprentice was a boy when this happened.). Merlin puts what’s left of the sword in the stone for safekeeping.

5.05 Merlin faces the Dark One (later revealed as Nimue), accuses her of destroying the woman he loved, but does not destroy her. She gets the dagger from him, uses it and one of Merlin’s tears to turn him into a tree.

“Centuries” ago, per Rumple's statement on how long he has possessed the dagger (Hook's comment on his own age in S4 suggests 200+ years; interview comments have skewed from 300 to nearly 400 years):

6.19 Fiona and Malcolm have a son. Upon discovering that he is fated to be a Savior who will die defeating "a great evil", Fiona steals a fairy wand and becomes a fairy herself. Determined to protect her son, she creates the Dark Curse and becomes the Black Fairy. All realize that she is herself the great evil. She uses the Shears of Destiny to de-Savior the baby rather than give up her own power, and is banished by Blue. Malcolm blames their son for his wife's presumed demise, and names him Rumplestiltskin. 

3.08 Young Rumplestiltskin gets a magic bean from a pair of creepy spinsters. He visits Neverland with his scoundrel of a father, who abandons him to become Peter Pan. Rumple is taken in by the spinsters (possibly this was before the Giants' War, so maybe magic beans were easy to come by).

 4.04 Zoso attempts to acquire the Sorcerer's Hat, but is defeated by the Apprentice.

5.11 A wanted thief by the name of Jones trades his two kids into indentured servitude for a boat in which to escape pursuit. He is found and placed under a sleeping curse (by whom, and why?).

2.14 Rumplestiltskin is drafted into the Ogres' War, encounters the Seer, and wounds himself permanently to get out of fighting. Milah is pregnant when he leaves but doesn't know yet. She has given birth to Bae by the time he gets back.

5.15 The Jones brothers are almost ready to buy their freedom and get jobs in the Navy when, er, Killian fucks up. Liam refuses to abandon him. Their captain sails the ship into a storm in search of a magical gem sought by the king. Liam and Killian lead a mutiny. Hades offers Liam a deal: keep going, let the ship sink, and Liam and Killian will survive and get the gem. This he does. The two are picked up by The Jewel of the Realm.

3.05 The Jewel of the Realm travels to Neverland, encounters Pan and the magic spring that keeps Neverlanders young. Liam's death, Killian's conversion to piracy, shattering of countless hearts. 

5.14 When Baelfire is bitten by a snake and the healer wants 100 gold pieces for the antidote, Rumple and Milah plan to kill him. Milah meets Killian. At the last minute, Rumple backs out and makes a deal with the healer: the antidote in exchange for his own second-born child. If he never has one, everything will be fine.

2.04 Milah runs off with Killian. Bae looks like he's around seven.

1.08 Bae is 14 and subject to the draft. Rumple becomes The Dark One. The First Ogre War is still ongoing.

6.13 Rumple kills every ogre in the army with magic; the only witness is Beowulf, wielder of a sword blessed with Light Magic. Rumple's neighbors are uneasy with the new Dark One. Rumple promises Baelfire not to use magic again. Villagers ask Rumple to find Beowulf, who went hunting Grendel and did not return. Bae thinks will allow Rumple to prove himself a hero without using magic. Alas, it is a trap set by Beowulf, who is still bitter about the Victory via Dark Magic thing and intends to frame Rumple for the slain villagers. There's a lot of moving around and threats, and Baelfire uses the dagger and makes Rumple kill Beowulf. Bae is clearly falling under the dagger's lure, so Rumple makes him some forgetting potion. Bae ends up thinking that Rumple killed Beowulf for his own monstrous reasons.

3.04 Bae is seduced away by Peter Pan as he forms the Lost Boys. Rumple gets him back, but Bae's unhappiness is increasing. They were still living in an upgraded version of their old house; after Bae left, Rumple changed up to a fortress.

1.19 Bae acquires a magic bean from the Blue Fairy and goes through the portal. Rumple holds back at the last moment and regrets it immediately. His subsequent talk with the Blue Fairy suggests to him the idea of using a curse to traverse realms.

2.21 Bae lands in London and is taken in by the Darlings. (I assume that “London” is actually another world, because otherwise the timing is borked.) He spends six months with them, so this next bit happens quickly.

2.04 Searching for a magic bean, Rumple kills Milah and takes Killian's hand. Killian returns to Neverland vowing revenge.

2.14 Rumple finds the Seer again. She tells him the search for Bae will take years and require “a curse powerful enough to rip everyone from this land.” He acquires her problematic ability to see the future. She gives him the prophecy about his undoing and dies. (I'm putting this one after 2.4 because it is presumably what altered Rumple's portal strategy away from beans.)

2.21 Wendy Darling goes to Neverland, returns. When the Shadow comes for one of her brothers, Bae goes in his place. He fights free of the Shadow, lands in the water, and is picked up by Hook. What a crazy random happenstance.

2.22 Hook finds out who Bae is and refrains from selling him to Pan. Bae spends an unspecified period of time aboard the Jolly Roger.

2.22 Bae realizes who Hook is, turns on him, and is handed over to the Lost Boys. (Placement uncertain. I initially assumed that the “deal” referenced in 3.04 was this one, but that now seems unlikely given the timeframe.)

4.15 A century into his Neverland stay, Hook has a run-in with Poseidon and Ursula that ends with him in possession of the seashell that contains Ursula’s singing voice, but without the squid ink she stole for him to use on Rumplestiltskin. Ursula (who is named after the sea goddess) uses Poseidon’s trident to gain powerful magic and promises that he will fear her. I assume that this happened after the business with Baelfire went down, as Hook is explicitly working for Pan at this point.

1.05 Jiminy Cricket's backstory.

 1.15 The 2nd Ogre War, referenced by Granny.

4.21 In the LWM of 1966, the previous Author (Walt Disney) dies. An unsuccessful TV salesman and wannabe writer, Isaac Heller, is chosen by the Apprentice as the next Author.

4.07 In Arendelle, Ingrid discovers her powers in the course of foiling a kidnapping attempt. She and her sisters Helga and Gerda swear to support one another and to conceal her powers, but as the years pass, she becomes more isolated. Finally the sisters go to Rumplestiltskin; he gives them the urn in exchange for the ribbons they use to mark their promise to each other. In the course of fending off an unwanted advance from the Duke of Weaselton, Ingrid accidentally kills Helga. Gerda traps Ingrid in the urn and asks Grand Pabbie to erase all memory of her sisters from everyone in Arendelle.

4.14 Maleficent burns down a forest near the Forbidden Fotress. One tree remains alight “half a lifetime later.” (What an annoyingly vague unit of time.) This may have been related to Briar Rose escaping her revenge when Stefan broke the sleeping curse on her. The origin of the enmity is unknown, although Regina alluded to Maleficent having “lost someone.”

3.18 Cora seduced by a rake, ends up pregnant and spurned, is briefly engaged to Leopold (yes, the guy she later married her daughter to), breaking his engagement to Eva. Eva eavesdrops and tattles about her pregnancy; bye, Leopold. Cora gives birth to Zelena secretly (April 15th) and abandons her.

3.17 Baby Zelena picked up by a twister and transported to Oz, where she is found by a kindly woman and her less-kind husband and immediately shows magic.

2.16 Cora is mistreated by Princess Eva, learns magic from Rumplestiltskin, and finagles her way into a betrothal to Prince Henry.

5.14 In an attempt to avoid the deal he made for the antidote that would save Baelfire, Rumple kills the healer (why was the guy still alive? magic I guess....).

2.16 When she develops feelings for Rumple that would hamper her ambition, she removes her own heart. Marries Henry, gives birth to Regina.

6.12 David and James born to Ruth and Robert; deal made with Rumplestiltskin in which James is adopted by King George in order to buy medicine for the babies. (Presumably Snow was born around here as well.)

6.12 Six years later, James runs away. Robert makes a second deal, and goes in search of James on Pleasure Island. James is restored, but Robert is killed by Hook. David thinks his father died in a drunk carting accident.

Pinocchio was "alive" but still a puppet at this point. 

5.19 An accident with Cora’s wand renders Regina unconscious. She can only be healed by magic. Cora fetches Zelena, who heals her. The two quickly grow close and discover that they are sisters. Cora gives both of them some forgetting potion and returns Zelena to Oz.

2.15 Snow gets lessons in Goodness from Queen Eva, who falls deathly ill on Snow's birthday eve (poisoned by Cora, intent on providing a royal widower for Regina to marry and also some payback). Cora tries to trick Snow into killing someone else to save her mother's life, destroying her soul as well as her family, but she does not.

1.18 Regina saves Snow from a runaway horse (arranged by Cora). Cora kills Daniel. Regina becomes engaged to King Leopold.

2.02 Regina traps Cora in Wonderland, and starts to learn magic from Rumple.

3.16 Zelena finds out that she's adopted, leaves her abusive father (her mother having died) to see the Wizard.

6.18 On her way to the city, Zelena befriends a young woodsman named Stanum, who defends her from bullies and does not fear her magic.

3.16 The Wizard shows Zelena Cora; Regina, now queen; and Rumplestiltskin. Gives her the traveling slippers. She goes to Regina's place, meets Rumple there, begins to learn magic. When she finds out that he's still training Regina, she starts turning green. She determines to create a time travel spell, goes back to Oz, finds out that the wizard is a fraud and turns him into a flying monkey (and later into Emma's fiance).

3.20 Zelena meets Glinda, becomes part of the Witch Compass and gets a magic pendant, but her deep-set insecurities are threatened by Dorothy's arrival, and she goes back to wickedness. Overlaps w/2.5 because we see the unicorn. Zelena gets melted, but it doesn't stick. She sends Dorothy back to Kansas and Glinda to the Enchanted Forest.

2.05 Regina meets Jefferson, who introduces her to Dr Frankenstein. He pretends to try to revive Daniel from the dead, a ruse of Rumplestiltskin's. When the effort fails, Regina dedicates herself to evil. Episode notable for Seb Stan's facial expressions.

2.12 In the black and white universe, Victor Frankenstein raises his brother from the dead. Gerhardt kills their father. Overlaps with 2.5. (Gerhardt did not come over with the curse. Where is he?)

3.03 Queen Regina meets Tinkerbell, who uses stolen pixie dust to lead her to her soulmate. Regina wimps out of meeting him, so she only sees the Plantagenet lion tattooed on his arm, and rejects Tinkerbell's friendship. Tinkerbell gets thrown out of the fairy cohort. (Not shown how she got to Neverland, but appears that her overlap with Hook there was brief.)

4.14 Impatient with the pace of Rumple’s teaching and her continued lack of revenge on Snow (now a prize-winning equestrienne), Regina goes to see Maleficent, who has been sunk in despair ever since the failure of her own revenge against Briar Rose and King Stefan. Regina peps her up and gets her dragonfire back. Maleficent puts Aurora under the sleeping curse and mentions her plan to curse Prince Philip as well. Regina maliciously uses some sleeping curse on Snow’s horse.

5.13 Regina hires some bandits to terrorize the villagers in an attempt to discredit teenage Snow’s leadership abilities while Leopold is away. Snow meets up with Hercules for adorable flirtation, lessons in How to Stand Up To Mean People, archery. She sends the bandits packing and gets her first kiss. Unknown to her, Hercules, went on to face his final labor of defeating Cerberus and got killed. 

3.11 Hook meets Tinkerbell. They have a drink and a lovely talk about vengeance. Suicidal Killian was v pretty, but I think we're all happier these days.

4.1 The queen of Arendelle puts a message in a bottle for her daughters as their ship is about to sink. Five years after their parents' death, Elsa finds a diary entry and learns from the trolls that their parents were on their way to the Enchanted Forest when the storm sank their ship. Anna leaves Arendelle for the same destination.

4.02 Anna visits David's farm (he knows Kristoff), gives him sword-fighting lessons and strength of heart to fight back against Bo Peep's extortion. Looking for someone who knows about magic, Anna is directed to Rumplestiltskin by Ruth.

4.03 Anna missing, Southern Isles are poised to invade Arendelle. Hans thinks he can defeat Elsa by using a magic urn to capture her, but instead he frees its previous captive, the Snow Queen. She freezes Hans and tells Elsa that she is her mother's sister.

4.04 Anna encounters Rumplestiltskin and is tricked into retrieving the box that contains the Sorcerer's Hat. She gets the dagger from him and demands that he send her home (with the box), having learned that her parents did visit him looking for a means to remove Elsa's powers.

5.17 Ogres are massing on the northern border. Belle’s parents want her to marry Gaston. On a get-to-know-you walk, she and Gaston find a young ogre. Belle keeps Gaston from killing him. The ogres later attack in force. Belle becomes engaged to Gaston, whose kingdom has a powerful army.

4.6 Belle's mother is killed by ogres. Anna returns to Arendelle, does not tell Elsa what she learned. Belle journeys there to try to retrieve a repressed memory of her mother's death. Anna takes her to trolls, who retrieve her memory in the form of a stone. The stone is shattered when the Snow Queen attacks Anna and Belle. The Snow Queen takes Anna prisoner and is now in possession of the hat box. Belle returns home and suggests asking for aid from Rumplestiltskin in the war.

4.8 Under the Spell of Shattered sight, Anna puts Elsa in the urn while Ingrid tries to goad Elsa into using her powers against Anna. Rumple takes the urn. Anna and Kristoff are frozen, along with all of Arendelle. The Apprentice regains the Hat in exchange for sending Ingrid to Earth with the prophecy, which will guide her to Emma, and promises that she will find Elsa again as well. Sorcerer appears a morally ambiguous figure. The year is given as 1982.

4.17 (Provisional placement.) Retired thief and current tavern keeper Robin of Locksley is hired by Rumple to visit Oz and steal the Elixer of Wounded Hearts. This will allow Robin to pay his back taxes. He steals it, but gives it to new acquaintance Will Scarlet, who is still mourning his sister. He also acquires his magic bow. When Nottingham shows up to cart him off to prison, the newly reconvened Merry Men rob the sheriff instead. Now Robin Hood, Robin is back in the game, but will only steal from the rich.

4.20 Cora uses the White Rabbit to visit Regina. Repenting of having killed her daughter’s love and having had a talk with Tinkerbell at some time previous, she claims that she wants to help find Robin Hood for Regina. Finds Nottingham instead and has him pretend to be Robin. Nottingham tells Regina that Cora wants her to have a child. Cora insists that she does mean well but Robin’s a sap so she found Regina a better guy. Tells Regina that she is her own worst enemy, but Regina doesn’t trust her motives and drinks an infertility potion. (Goes after 4.17 b/c Robin is using the Hood name.)

4.12 (Provisional placement.) Rumplestiltskin assembles Ursula, Maleficent, and Cruella in order to help him acquire a (the?) "dark curse" from Bald Mountain, where it is guarded by many dangers and Chernabog. "It seeks out the heart with the greatest potential for evil and devours it." He leaves the three of them there and waltzes off with the curse. Chernabog chooses Maleficent; the other two save her.

6.05 (Provisional placement, I honestly have no idea when this happens -- all that we know is that it was before the Dark Curse.) Jafar's war against Agrabah results in Aladdin using the Shears of Destiny Severance on himself and fleeing to the Enchanted Forest. Jasmine ends up in the Land of Untold Stories.

1.12 Belle goes to live with Rumple. Ogre War is ongoing. (Belle's home is near the Frontlands? Is her father a descendant of the duke who who would have drafted Bae?)

4.11 Rumple acquires a magic glove from Camelot (previously seen in 5.04, but I am not sure when that happened relative to anything else), which can be used to identify someone's greatest weakness. It seems to work, since Belle is briefly kidnapped by Cruella de Ville, Ursula, and Maleficent, who want the glove. Rumple deals with them handily and insists he doesn't care about Belle.

6.04 Determined to extinguish his budding feelings for his housemaid, Rumple visits the Victorian London realm and helps Dr Jekyll create his separation serum. It proves ineffective for Rumple's means. Jekyll kills Hyde's lover, Mary. Rumple sends Jekyll/Hyde to the Land of Untold Stories. 

2.19 Robin Hood steals a magic wand from Rumple; Belle intervenes to save him from vengeance. (Timing uncertain, but this appears to be early in her stay with Rumple. Marian was pregnant with Roland. He looks about 4 in S3; two years have passed since the first curse broke, putting this point at curse-minus-two-years. That gives us roughly a year of Snow being on the run, and a year post-wedding.) Rumple shows Belle the library.

6.09 (The library is there, so must go after 2.19.) Rumple kidnaps a baby in order to summon the Black Fairy and ask why she abandoned him. Their confrontation is inconclusive. (At some point after this, apparently, the Blue Fairy defeats the Black Fairy and takes her wand.)

1.11 Leopold frees the Genie. Regina and the Genie murder Leopold. Genie trapped in the mirror.

3.11 Belle walks in on Rumple remembering Bae on his birthday. Placement uncertain but not terribly important in this instance.

1.07 Regina sends Snow off with the Huntsman, who is to kill her. He lets her go. Snow writes Regina a forgiving letter and goes on the run.

1.15 Snow meets Red; wolf time. Red's traumatic origin story. The two women go on the run together.

2.7 Red parts from Snow, meets her werewolf family and earns additional traumatic backstory.

6.07 Snow plans to leave the kingdom and is tracked by a bounty hunter called The Woodcutter (usually a werewolf hunter, which I thought was a nice touch). She is captured by him but saved by Charming, who is on his way to town to sell his mother's farm. Snow gives him all her money and considers banditry as a means to sustain herself. Charming never sees her face, as she doesn't want to expose him to danger.

2.20 Regina adopts black as her color and hunts Snow White under magical disguise. Snow ends up saving her, and they almost bond a little bit until that “slaughtered villagers” thing gets between them. Regina cuts off trade with George's realm at Rumple's request – he wants George bankrupt.

5.02 Sometime around here, Percival is a small boy living in the Enchanted Forest when his village is destroyed by a gleeful Regina.

6.14  Regina uses a magic arrow to locate the person she hates the most, and it turns out to be herself. (Placement uncertain.)

1.17 Regina employs Jefferson to help get her father Henry back from Wonderland. (How did he get there? Placement uncertain, but Cora was in Wonderland, so it must go before 2.9, and Regina was in black, so it must have been after Leopold's death.)

2.13 Prince James and “Jack” make friends with Anton, betray him, and kill his family. King George is in debt to Midas. The bean fields are destroyed, leaving only one cutting. Placement uncertain, as the only related marker is James' death. (Wait, the beans are harvested once a century?)

1.06 David must replace his late twin brother James and fight a dragon for Midas; gets engaged to Abigail. Rumple's payment from George for setting this up is the whereabouts of the fairy he kills in 1.4.

4.18 (I’m placing this here under the assumption that their story happened just before the Author turned his attention to Snowing.) In the 1920′s London Realm, Isaac the Author meets Cruella, falls for her tale of woe, gives her magic, and learns to his horror that she is a multiple murderess. With a stroke of his magic pen, he removes her ability to kill -- the thing she values most. The magic ink gets spilled on her in the struggle, changing her hair color.

6.05 Aladdin saves Jasmine and finds out that he's the Savior of Agrabah. He goes off to fight Jafar; Jasmine cites duty and remains in the city. Some time later (6.01), weak from ceaseless fighting, he is told that Saviors never get happy endings. 

3.21/22 Emma and Hook travel back to this point and mess up her parents' meeting. They fix most of it, get fuckstruck, and even have some fun before getting back to their own time. Overwrites 1.03.

 4.17 Her “essence” having followed them back through the time portal, in the ten seconds an unconscious Marian was left unattended by Emma and Hook, Zelena murders her and takes her form, accompanying them back to the present in hopes of screwing with her sister’s happiness by getting Robin to fall in love with her.

3.22 Emma and Hook bring Marian-but-really-Zelena forward with them rather than leaving her to be executed. Emma has a journey of self-acceptance and gets her magic back. Overwrites 1.03.

1.03 David and Snow meet, hate each other, meet again, fall in love.

3.06 Snow meets Ariel, tries to help her get together with Prince Eric. They meet, dance, fall in love, but Regina interferes, taking Ariel’s voice away. Eric goes off on a tour of the lands, alone and sad.

6.15 Searching for Eric, Ariel lands in Agrabah, where she encounters Jasmine (and Jafar, who disguises himself as Eric for reasons I'm not certain about). With Aladdin defeated and under Jafar's threat, Jasmine agrees to marry him, only to find that his demand was a ruse to get her ring, part of the royal regalia. He uses it to curse the city, which vanishes. Jasmine (presumably) goes to the Land of Untold Stories at this point. 

5.09 King Fergus hires Mulan to train Merida. He is killed by King Arthur, who had been questing for the magic helmet Fergus got from the witch of DunBroch. Merida spends the next two years struggling with the clans.

1.12 Regina tries to manipulate Belle into breaking the Dark One's curse, but Rumple casts Belle out. Overlaps 3.6 - Regina wants Rumple's help in dealing with "a certain mermaid." Happens after the early season 4 stuff, because the Ogre War is ongoing then.

1.14 Grumpy's tale of woe.

2.11 Belle meets Mulan, frees Prince Philip from a curse placed on him by Maleficent. Belle captured by Regina, who tells Rumple that she's dead. Overlap with 1.14; Grumpy is still Dreamy and planning to run away with Nova when he talks to Belle.

1.10 Snow goes to meet David, gets captured, meets Grumpy, tells David she doesn't love him (else George will kill him) and goes home with the dwarves. David goes in search of her, but by the time that news arrives, she has taken Rumple's forgetting potion.

1.09 Regina acquires the special apple she needs to curse Snow. Overlap w/1.10 because she's watching the dwarves in her mirror.

 1.13 David flees his and Abigail's wedding, kills the Lake Nostos siren, and revives Frederick, who can now marry Abigail.

1.16 Snow tries to kill Regina; Charming intervenes. TLK breaks the forgetting spell, but David is captured by George.

1.21 Snow and the dwarves try to rescue David, but he has been handed off to Regina as her captive. Snow eats the cursed apple and falls under the sleeping curse.

1.22 David escapes, hides the love potion inside Maleficent's dragon form, finds Snow with assistance from Rumple, and frees Snow from sleeping curse.

3.2 Regina offers Snow and Charming a deal: renounce Snow's claim to the throne and go into exile, or she will kill one of their subjects per day. Thanks to a Dumbo-like confidence-boosting move on David's part, Snow stands her ground. There will be war.

5.12 After he interferes with Cora’s attempt to give her Snow’s heart as a birthday present, Regina shrinks her father. Cora snatches him on her way back to Wonderland.

2.03 Snow and David battle King George's troops, who kill David's mom. Snow is briefly cursed with infertility but cured by Lake Nostos. Lancelot performs a wedding.

2.10 Snow and David rout George's armies and capture Regina. After she proves herself unrepentant, they let her go into exile. Thanks to a spell from Rumple, she cannot physically harm them in the Enchanted Forest.

6.02 Regina destroys a village and hires the Count of Monte Cristo to assassinate Snow and Charming. He finds his way into the inner circle, but changes his mind about poisoning them at the last minute. Rumple has been magically prevented from harming the count, but he poisons Snow's handmaiden, Charlotte, who reminds said Count of his lost love, and allows Edmond to take her to the Land of Untold Stories to keep him out of the way.

1.04/6.03 Rumple makes a deal for Cinderella's firstborn, sending her to the ball where she meets her prince. Cinderella's stepmother (Lady Tremaine) and stepsister (Clorinda) end up in the Land of Untold Stories. Snow and Charming are together at her wedding, not sure if they themselves are married yet.

1.01. Snow and David are married, have Emma; Regina curses kingdom(s). The year in the LWM is 1983.

Episodes that take place in the year or so between the events shown in 1.01:

1.02 Regina gets the curse from Maleficent.

3.10 Snow and Charming go on their honeymoon, fight a gorgon that represents all of Snow's fears about their future.

4.13 Cruella, Ursula, and Maleficent visit Snow and Charming. They suggest teaming up to stop Regina from casting the Dark Curse. This involves a visit to the Tree of Wisdom, which might have a solution for their mutual problem but will only respond to TWO true heroes. The Tree won't talk; Maleficent thinks that it's because Snow is pregnant, and no one knows whether the baby will be a hero or a villain. She visits Snow again privately later, says that she is pregnant herself, and asks again that they work together, but Snow does not want to risk associating with villains and (I guess) dooming Emma to villainy.

4.16 Snow and Charming visit a unicorn and see conflicting visions of Emma’s future. The Peddlar (Author) directs them to the Apprentice. In order to ensure their own child’s future as a hero, they steal Maleficent’s egg. The Author forces the Apprentice to send Emma’s potential darkness into Maleficent’s child, and then sends the hatchling/baby to Earth along with Ursula and Cruella as they attempted a rescue. Snow and Charming are consumed by regret (GOOD) and determine that they must work hard to redeem themselves and never ever KIDNAP AN UNBORN BABY ever again FFS what is wrong with you two. An extremely POed Apprentice repossesses the Author’s magic pen and puts him in the book to teach him a lesson about screwing with people like that.

 4.19 The Apprentice consults the Sorcerer (who appears only as swirling colored mists) about his run-in with the Author. The spell did have a real effect, and there is nothing to be done about it; the girls’ fates will remain intertwined.

2.09 Hook breaks into Regina's castle to find Belle, who might be able to tell him how to kill the Dark One. No dice. Regina interrupts and decides to send him to kill Cora. Regina herself is almost ready to do the curse.

5.11 Regina decides to test Hook’s ruthlessness before sending him on his mission, so she takes him to confront his dad. Who is conveniently still alive thanks to having been under a sleeping curse, only to have been awakened by True Love, with whom he later had a son, and who regrets everything enormously (oooookay). Killian is planning to arrange for the two of them to escape and somehow lie to Regina until he hears Dad a) reassuring the boy using the same speech he gave Killian before vanishing, and b) that he named the kid Liam. Hook kills him.

2.09 Regina uses Jefferson’s hat and sends Hook to Wonderland to kill Cora. This does not go as planned; he ends up working for her, kinda-sorta voluntarily after she explains that Regina lied, and that he would have no memories or revenge under her curse.

1.04 Rumple is trapped and imprisoned with the help of the Blue Fairy.

6.20 Snow makes a wish that results in everyone in the kingdom (except Rumple, who declines) being briefly forced to communicate in song, and hope they can use this magic to defeat Regina. Regina steals the song. The Blue Fairy explains that the song is actually for currently-fetal Emma to use in a battle later. Everyone forgets about the singing. 

1.20 Gepetto builds the wardrobe and sends Pinocchio with Emma.

1.02 Regina  visits Rumple in jail, and murders Henry, Sr. to get the final ingredient.

3.09 Regina visits Rumple again to gloat about her impending victory. He reminds her about the Savior. “Now there's a hole in your heart, and someday... you will come to me to fill it.”

3.11 A pregnant Snow gets a pep talk from the Blue Fairy.

28 years pass, during which the depopulated Enchanted Forest is ravaged by ogres. A small group of humans in a coastal area are preserved in magical stasis by Cora.
 
Episodes that take place during the 28-year curse period:

6.18 (Because she was working on the curse.) Stanum approaches Zelena for help in lifting a curse that is turning him to tin. When the price for saving her would-be friend turns out to be losing her magic, Zelena abandons him to his fate.

5.16 (Placement very dubious. I think this bit must have happened after Regina cast the curse.) Zelena has figured out the parameters for her time travel spell, and wants to use the Scarecrow’s brain for it. She clashes with Dorothy and meets Hades, who takes a shine to her, but Zelena doesn’t trust him and goes it alone to get her revenge. Commence epic and very weird pining from the Lord of the Underworld. Zelena gets her brain, but evidently the spell still needs some work.

2.09 -28 years, Cora casts her counter-spell, preserving a chunk of the Enchanted Forest against Regina's curse but leaving them all frozen in time for 28 years. These include her, Hook, Robin Hood & Co., Aurora (already under a sleeping curse), Mulan, Lancelot (?), and Philip.

2.17 -28 years, recently widowed camper Kurt and his son Owen find the newly-appeared town of Storybrooke. Bored by her total victory, Regina tries to force them to stay. Owen gets away and vows to find his father again.

5.01 1989 (Minneapolis) Emma goes to the movies (”The Sword in the Stone”), steals a candy bar, and receives a cryptic warning from Merlin: When you do something that you’re not supposed to do, even if you do it for the right reasons, bad things will happen, Emma. One day you will have the opportunity to remove Excalibur from its stone, but you mustn’t. Leave the sword alone.

6.11 1990 (Minneapolis) Runaway Emma is living on the streets when August finds her and convinces her approach the local social services. She impulsively gives the name Emma Swan based on the Ugly Duckling story she talked about with August. 

6.16 1993 An encounter with a pixie flower allows Snow and Charming to wake from the curse and to locate Emma. They decide to take memory potions and stay to wait for her to become the savior rather than risking everyone in town remaining under the curse forever.

(no episode) -22 years, Neal escapes from Neverland and reaches TLWM.

4.5 1998 - Emma runs away from her group home, meets and befriends Lily. Upon finding out that Lily was actually adopted and not still in The System, Emma feels betrayed and severs their friendship.

4.19 1999 - Emma is with a new foster family when Lily shows up, fresh from committing armed robbery with a boyfriend. She regains Emma’s trust and then steals from them. The two meet again at a bus station. Lily tells Emma that she feels like she’s cursed. Emma walks away. The Apprentice (motivated by his sense of responsibility for what happened?) approaches Lily on the bus and begins telling her some things about herself. 

4.10 Emma lives with Ingrid, who plans to adopt her. When Emma shows a hint of her magical power, Ingrid tries to prompt more out of her by putting Emma in front of a moving car. Emma runs away. Ingrid goes to Storybrooke to wait for her. The year is given as 2001.

2.06, 2.14 -11 years, Emma meets Neal. August talks to Neal, knows who he is. Neal leaves Emma to take the fall for his theft.

3.01, 3.11 -10 years, Emma gives birth to Henry. All hearts break, and then break all over again for different reasons in the reprised false-memory version.

3.09 -10 years; Regina adopts Henry on Archie's well-meant advice. “A child can provide so much meaning.” I'm not sure that's good thinking, Archie. She almost gives Henry up, but changes her mind. Michael and John Darling: “Pan will not be pleased.”

5.20 2009 - Emma meets Cleo Fox, a bail bondsperson who dies but convinces Emma to turn her life around at last and start a new career the next year. (The year was given in the episode but seems very dodgy to me -- at 26 Emma is still a train wreck, and two years later she’s got it all locked down?)

3.11, referenced in 1.01 -1 month, Mary Margaret finds the storybook and gives it to Henry to be a source of hope for him.

 4.21 While in Phuket, August runs into the Apprentice, who tells him that he should learn everything he can about the storybook.

2.18 Simultaneous with Emma's arrival, August is turning into wood. He has an encounter with Tamara and totally fails the “selfless, brave, and true” test. Tamara kills a wizard in Hong Kong known as the Dragon, who later (5.23) turns out to not be dead after all.

1.01 On Emma's birthday, Henry goes to Boston and brings her back to Storybrooke. Her decision to spend the night produces the first alteration in the curse environment: the clock starts to tick. Oct 24, 2011 (per 2.18).

6.06 In the EF, Cora's time bubble breaks. Hook finds a new crew, gets kidnapped by Captain Nemo, encounters his younger brother (Liam II). Nemo is accidentally stabbed by Liam; the Nautilus goes to the Land of Untold Stories.

2.18 In New York, August notifies Neal that Emma is in Storybrooke, curse-breaking immanent. Neal not thrilled. Tamara, who has apparently been watching August since Hong Kong, targets Neal, and they eventually become engaged.

1.02 After dealing with Regina's hostility, Emma decides to stick around for a week and make sure Henry is really okay.

1.03 MM reads to Charming, who wakes up.

4.10 Emma encounters Ingrid in the ice cream shop. Ingrid removes Emma's memories.

1.04 Emma intervenes in Mr Gold's deal with Ashley Boyd/Cinderella, allowing her to keep her baby, but Emma will owe him a favor.

1.05 Emma becomes a deputy. Henry and Archie trapped in the mine, which has a collapse the moment she put on her badge. “You're changing things. You're weakening the curse.”

1.06 David's amnesia is replaced by curse memories thanks to Mr Gold's interference (why he cares is a mystery). Emma finds out that Graham is sleeping with Regina. MM has a one-night stand with Dr Whale.

1.07 Graham kisses Emma and gets his real memories back. Regina kills him.

1.08 Emma is elected sheriff after publicly aiding Regina and standing up to Gold.

1.09 Emma restores the Zimmer kids to their father's care. August arrives in Storybrooke.

1.10 Mary Margaret and David restore a pigeon to its flock. Henry's “castle” is damaged by a storm.

1.11 The "castle" is bulldozed, the book lost. Sidney (working for Regina) gets Emma in trouble when she thinks a land deal is suspicious, but it turns out to be a new playground; she is forbidden from seeing Henry. August has the book.

1.12 Emma intervenes when Gold attacks Moe French. Regina learns that Gold knows his EF identity. Belle is still alive and Regina's captive.

1.13 Emma goes to visit the Well with August; the storybook turns up again.

1.14 Dreamy and Nova. More shady business with Sidney, whom Emma does not yet suspect. Kathryn disappears.

1.15 Emma gives Ruby a job as an assistant (briefly). The heart is found.

1.16 The knife is found. MM is arrested, hires Gold as her lawyer. (Interpolated scene from 1.18 here – Gold is working with Regina to frame MM in exchange for getting the assault charge from the Moe French business dropped.) Key appears in MM's cell. She runs.

1.17 Emma and MM are held captive by Jefferson, escape. He disappears. Emma convinces MM to stay and face her arraignment.

1.18 Emma discovers Regina's involvement in the frame-up and Sidney's duplicity. Kathryn reappears, alive.

1.19 August tries to get control of Gold using the Dark One's knife. Sidney confesses to keeping Kathryn prisoner (under orders from Regina) and is institutionalized.

1.20 August tries to convince Emma of the truth about her origins (and his). Pinocchio's story has been added to the book. Regina tries to seduce Charming.

1.21 Emma decides to flee Storybrooke and take Henry with her; he persuades her to turn back. Regina gets Jefferson to help her retrieve the magic apple (sacrificing Daniel's ring) and makes a cursed apple tart. Henry eats it to prove to Emma that the curse is real, and falls under the sleeping spell.

1.22 Emma fights the dragon, retrieves the love potion, and kisses Henry back to wakefulness, breaking the curse over the whole town. Jefferson, who has not been paid for his aid by Regina, frees Belle and sends her to Gold, who uses the potion to bring magic to Storybrooke.

2.01 Phillip and Mulan find Aurora. Implied that Phillip has taken charge of the human survivors, with Cora/Lancelot as his lieutenant while Hook hangs around undercover. Phillip's soul taken by the wraith. In Storybrooke, Gold sics the wraith on Regina as payback for her treatment of Belle. Snow and Emma fall through the portal to the Enchanted Forest.

2.02 The effects of crossing the town line are discovered. Regina seizes Henry from David but repents of this, asserts willingness to change, makes a move toward burning her spellbook but locks it up instead. The dwarves mine for fairy dust. Pinocchio is missing. In the Enchanted Forest, Snow and Emma are locked up with Cora.

2.03 Snow's party hunts for the magical wardrobe, which is destroyed in a fight with Cora. She takes the ashes. Henry finds Regina's vault. Jefferson and Grace are reunited.

2.4 Moe kidnaps Belle and plans to send her across the town line so she'll forget Rumple. Saved at last moment.

2.5 Cora massacres the survivors in the EF. Daniel is brought back from the dead by Whale, but monstrous. Regina kills him.

2.06 Emma and Hook retrieve the magic compass from the giants' castle. She leaves Hook chained there with a promise from Anton to let him go later. Aurora dreams herself into the netherworld. (Implied: Soon afterward, Cora climbed the beanstalk herself and magicked Anton into submission and a more portable size.)

2.07 Fairy dust is found. Henry talks to Aurora in his dreams. George tries to whip up the town against Ruby, but is foiled. David refrains from shooting him for some reason.

2.08 Aurora grabbed by Cora's minions. David goes under a sleeping curse, tells Snow about squid ink. Hook snags Aurora's heart and lets her go. Rumple steals all the fairy dust so he can kill whoever comes back through the portal. Regina goes along with this.

2.09 Team Snow get the squid ink but have to use it to get out of a trap. Fight at Lake Nostos. Emma has magic. Snow and Emma return to Storybrooke; Henry convinces Regina to call off the killing-people plan. Mulan and Aurora set off to get Phillip's soul back. Cora and Hook arrive in Storybrooke.

2.10 Cora frames Regina for killing Archie, who has actually been handed off to Hook for interrogation. Emma's first conscious use of magic.

2.11 Belle finds and releases Archie. Smee becomes a rat. Hook confronts Rumple, shoots Belle, learns meaning of “instant karma” as Greg arrives in Storybrooke. Belle falls over the town line and loses her memories.

2.12 Cora forges a truce with Gold and gives him a magic implement to locate Bae. She seduces Regina into her camp, using her fear of losing Henry as a lever. Whale saves the badly-injured Greg after a pep talk from Ruby. Gold cashes in the favor Emma owes him (1.4) by taking her to New York. Greg talks to the mysterious Her.

2.13 Gold, Emma, and Henry depart for New York. Regina blames everyone but Cora for her problems, again. Anton rampages through Storybrooke, finds a home, and plants some beans. Greg talks to Belle. (How did the beans to grow from a tiny cutting to a whole field of mature plants in between here and the end of the season? As far as I can figure these events took at most three weeks.)

2.14 Emma locates Neal in Manhattan for a multi-dimensionally complicated reunion. Rumple realizes that Henry is the boy who is prophesied to be his undoing.

2.15 Hook finally hooks Rumple, who begins dying of poison (improbably fast sailing aside, how the hell did he find them?). Regina and Cora acquire his dagger and kill a hostage. Cora's murder of Snow's mother is revealed. Regina has doubts about the plan; now that it is known that they have the dagger, Henry will find out about it if she has Rumple kill anyone. Cora assures her that all will be well. Introduce Tamara.

2.16 Emma and the others return to Storybrooke on the Jolly Roger, stranding Hook in NYC. Snow kills Cora with the Cursed Candle, preserving Rumple's life in exchange.

2.17 Regina plans to cast a curse that will force Henry to think that he loves her, and which will require Snow's heart to cast, getting her everything she wants in one fell swoop. Henry decides to destroy magic by blowing up the well. Regina interferes. Confrontation. Henry stands between the two sides. Regina can't destroy magic, but she does burn the curse. Snow offers her heart (and her life) to Regina, unable to bear what she has done; her heart has been darkened by her killing Cora.

2.18 Snow kinda starts getting over her heart thing. Tamara turns out to be evil, and in Storybrooke for some magic-related reason. August dies trying to warn Emma, but the Blue Fairy brings him back as a little boy again because he fulfilled the magical conditions. He doesn't remember the warning he was trying to give. Owen and Tamara are in cahoots.

2.19 Belle → Lacey, falls back in love with Rumple because he's a vicious bastard underneath, and she likes that in a man. Regina discovers the bean field. Owen and Tarama bring Hook back to Storybrooke.

2.20 Regina overhears the Charmings discussing leaving and the choice they plan to offer her: life in prison in the Enchanted Forest, or remaining behind. She destroys the bean fields, keeping a few for herself. The existence of the “undo” button on the curse, which will unmake Storybrooke and kill everyone. Hook and Regina backstab each other. Regina and the undo button in O&T's hands.

2.21 Owen tortures Regina to find his father, learns that she killed him. Snow, Charming, Emma and Neal search for Regina, find the cannery. Neal gets shot and falls through a bean portal. O&T have the trigger and know what it does.

2.22 Doom is triggered, Belle gets her memories back, Hook takes off with the last magic bean, and Regina prepares to do a Darth Vader, but Emma's power joined with hers stops the spell. O&T kidnap Henry to Neverland; they are dupes of Peter Pan, who has mysterious interest in Henry. Hook comes back; Emma, Snow, Charming, Regina, and Rumple set off in pursuit of Henry.

3.07 The Darlings arrive in Storybrooke just as Belle casts the protective spell Rumple left her over the town.

3.01 Team arrives in Neverland, are attacked by mermaids, and almost kill themselves via intramural fighting. Rumple heads off solo. O&T killed by Lost Boy and Rumple. Henry meets Peter Pan. Neal is found by Phillip, Aurora, and Mulan, goes to his father's castle to look for useful items, runs into Robin Hood, finds out Emma is in Neverland. Rumple talks to a Lost Boy.

3.02 Pan gives Emma a magic map. Rumple cuts off his shadow, talks to a vision of Belle, afraid that he will let Henry die to save himself. (A few episodes ago you nearly killed him!) Team attacked by Lost Boys, David poisoned. Emma confronts her orphan-ness; the map works.

3.03 Things get Lord of the Flies with the Lost Boys. David's wound worsens. Neal uses Robin's son as Shadow-bait to get him to Neverland, is found by Felix. Mulan goes to profess her love to Aurora only to find that Aurora is pregnant; Mulan joins Robin Hood's gang instead (WTF, show?). Tinkerbell reluctantly agrees to help our team get to Pan. Robin Hood revealed as Regina's soulmate.

5.09 Mulan’s stay with the Merry Men appears to have been brief, as she is resorting to mercenary brigandage when she meets Merida again.

3.04 Neal escapes from Felix, runs into Rumple. They squid ink Pan, grab Henry, argue about the prophecy and Rumple's intentions. Neal squid inks Rumple, flees with Henry, and is promptly captured by Pan. Henry starts to hear Pan's music. Team Emma makes a plan, but Tinkerbell won't help them sneak in if they don't have an escape route. They find the coconut shell/presumed star-map, but the only person who can read the map is Neal. Who is dead.

3.05 More Lord of the Flies. Team captures a Lost Boy; Regina takes his heart and uses it to send Henry a message from his moms so he does not lose hope. Hook tricks David into going to find healing water. Using it means he can never leave Neverland, but at least he'll be alive. Emma kisses Hook. “You couldn't handle it” is right; that is one flustered-looking pirate. Pan drops by to tell him that Neal's alive.

3.06 Neal's survival revealed to all. Regina stalks off, runs into Rumple. The Belle he's been talking to is the Shadow. They send Ariel to retrieve Pandora's Box from Rumple's shop. Everyone else goes to Echo Cave to rescue Neal and reveal painful secrets in the process.

3.07 Ariel brings back Pandora's Box. Emma and her suitors get the coconut/Shadow trap and survive the boys being idiots long enough to use it. The Charmings go get Tinkerbell. Pan uses Wendy to convince Henry that renewing Neverland's magic is required to keep her from dying.

3.08 Reunion. Rumple can come up with an antidote, allowing Charming to leave Neverland. Wendy tells them about Pan's plan to use Henry's heart to make himself immortal. Team Magic-Users + Neal confronts Pan at Skull Rock. Rumple ends up trapped in the box. Henry hands over his heart to Pan.

3.09 Emma offers Lost Boys a home, gets information. She, Snow, and Regina leave the others to coordinate evacuation. End up bound to the Tree of Regret. Regina regrets nothing, takes Henry's heart out of Pan. Reconvene aboard the ship. Regina puts a spell on Henry so no one can ever take his heart. Pan attacks. Rumple is freed. Pan is trapped, but switches bodies with Henry. (Side note: When Hook says Emma defeated Pan, he is talking about this expedition, which would have failed if not for her leadership. Charming agrees with me.)

3.10 Return to Storybrooke. Rumple provides the antidote. Shadow kills Blue Fairy. “Pan” released from box, body switch confirmed. Pan steals the Dark Curse from Regina.

3.11 Pan casts the Dark Curse. Bodies swap back, Blue Fairy alive again, Tink a fairy again, Rumple kills Pan, both vanish, and breaking the curse will undo Storybrooke as if it never was (except for all those people Regina killed; they stay dead). No one from the EF can return. Farewells. Regina gives Emma and Henry happy new memories of a life together.

3.12 Return to the EF. Attacked by flying monkeys, Spiky Castle under a protection spell, meet up with Robin Hood. First look at the Wicked Witch.

3.13 Regina saves Roland from a flying monkey and sneaks into her old castle through the tunnels. Robin invites himself along. Regina wants ingredients for a sleeping potion to use on herself. She shuts down the protection spell. Zelena introduces herself to Regina as her sister and a former student of Rumple's, and leaves. Regina has a reason to live now: “someone to destroy.”

3.14 A few months pass? Snow is pregnant. David has lost his confidence. He fights his doppelganger and helps free Rapunzel from captivity by her own.

3.15 Neal and Belle find a way to bring back Rumpelstiltskin; the price is Neal's life. Rumple tries to save Neal, and the two of them end up sharing a body. Look, if you find yourself saying things like, “Now I need the dark part” of anyone, just STOP okay. Zelena gets the dagger and the Dark One.

3.17 Hook gets the gang back together for highway robbery and not sleeping with prostitutes, but he's missing his ship (and Emma, but...). Getting the Jolly Roger back means dueling Blackbeard, betraying Ariel's trust, leaving Prince Eric to die on whatever island Blackbeard left him on, and realizing that there is no going back to acting like a conscienceless bastard only after he has saddled his own with this epic fuck-up. (It turns out in 4.9 that Ariel saved Blackbeard anyway.)

3.19 Belle gives news of Neal/Rumple's fates. Zelena wants Snow's baby. She turns Philip and Aurora into flying monkeys for betraying her. They talk to Rumple (mad); a powerful witch far to the north (Glinda) might be of help. Glinda tells them about Zelena's pendent being the focus of her magic, and that only the purest of light magic can defeat her. That is presumably Emma, but the only way to get to her is for Snow to cast the Dark Curse using Charming's heart. That being incredibly fucked up, Snow has Regina break her heart in two and gives half to him so he doesn't die. Zelena flies by and adds the curse ingredient that wipes out memories. Neal surfaces out of Rumple long enough to send Hook the message and the potion for Emma.

4.15 Hook trades the Jolly Roger to Blackbeard (of all people) for a magic bean.

3.11 Emma opens her door in New York and finds Hook with news of fresh disaster. He learns the hard way that you can't kiss-break a memory curse.

3.12 Hook persuades Emma to take the memory-restoring potion. Her would-be fiance Walsh turns out to be a flying monkey (former Wizard of Oz), who vanishes in a puff when thrown off the roof (so... he's dead, evidently - in 4.17 Robin robs his store, which has remained untouched all this time). They go to Storybrooke. Emma talks to her parents, who don't remember anything since saying goodbye to her. Snow is super-pregnant.

3.13 People are disappearing, turning into flying monkeys. Emma stages a confrontation with Regina so they can work together unsuspected. Clues point to Wicked Witch. Zelena gets herself a position as Snow's midwife and has Rumplestiltskin in a cage, apparently mad.

3.14 Zelena visits Belle at Gold's shop and steals a magic ingredient. She makes tea with it and serves it to David, who encounters and defeats another doppelganger. His broken sword's hilt becomes a talisman of Courage, which Zelena acquires. Emma learns that Hook is hiding something that happened in the missing year. They find the farmhouse and investigate the root cellar, find Rumple's empty prison and spun gold.

3.15 Neal shows up at the shop. Regina and Robin meet (again), investigate the farmhouse; she sees his tattoo. Hook & Neal and THAT FUCKING HUG BROKE ME ALL RIGHT I made it through all the deaths and the sad partings and the happy reunions and I never teared up until that asshole hugged that other asshole.

Ahem. Neal joins search for his dad, their joint nature discovered. Emma's magic separates them. Neal dies. Hopefully the dumbassery that has destroyed three generations of this family ends with him, because if Henry goes down that path I will flip a table. Zelena's identity discovered, still has control of a now-sane Rumple.

3.16 Neal's funeral. Hook takes Henry-watch for the day and talks to him about his father. Zelena puts in an appearance at Granny's, announces herself as Regina's sister and arranges for a public fight. Regina finds an old letter of Cora's that proves the relationship. Lots of Robin and Regina. Witch showdown. Zelena wants Regina's heart, but she left it with Robin. Courage, heart, brains (Rumple) – ingredients for a spell.

3.17 Emma starts to learn magic from Regina. The Charmings take Henry for the day; hijinks ensue. Ariel shows up, looking for Eric. Hook confesses. She is appalled; he is regretful; she is Zelena, who puts a curse on him that will steal Emma's magic if he kisses her, and threatens Henry's life if he doesn't. (What is it with Mills women wanting to use Hook's body in their schemes.) The writers let him off with a warning, as Eric and the real Ariel are alive and happy on an island somewhere.

3.18 Rumple acquires Regina's heart from Robin. A séance contacts Cora to find out what Zelena could be after. Snow apologizes to Regina for killing Cora (ummm... why?). Zelena's plan revealed: travel to the past to kill Snow's mother, which would mean that Cora would never have had to give up Zelena. The baby is the key. Creepy seductive Zelena/Rumple scene, but she's wise to his tricks. Snow and Regina agree to leave their past behind. Snow, you're a better woman than I am. Regina/Robin kisses.

3.19 Breaking the town-wide memory curse requires Henry to believe in magic (not sure how that makes sense?). Find the storybook. Flying monkey attack. Henry takes book, gets memories back, Zelena nabs him. Emma overpowers her magic and gets him back (which is the time she defeated Zelena my god people, things don't only happen in finales). Regina kisses Henry, breaks the curse. Business with Zelena and Hook comes out. Snow goes into labor.

3.20 Emma goes to confront Zelena, has to give Hook CPR, removing her magic. Zelena nabs baby. Regina beats her using light magic, stops Rumple from killing her, and offers her a second chance. (“Because if you don't, I'll be right there to take your heart and crush it.” I'm not sure you've quite gotten the idea of this “good” thing, Regina.) The pendant goes in her vault. I'm sure we'll never see it again. Belle gives Rumple the dagger; he gives her a fake back and asks her to marry him. He never actually said that he wouldn't kill Zelena like Belle asked, which is good because he straight-up does.

3.21 Zelena's death puts her half-completed time-spell into “drive.” Robin and Regina go on a date, and she explains about their missed connection years ago. Rumple and Belle make wedding plans (this is going to hurt so good when she finds out). Baby-naming ceremony at Granny's. Zelena's death discovered, though not who was responsible. Emma still planning to go back to NYC, runs off to investigate the time portal. She and Hook end up in the past on the day of her parents' meeting.

3.22 Time travelers return, all is love and happiness. Belle and Rumple get married. Emma kisses Hook. Robin and Regina are happy. The new baby is named Neal. Then Marian gets introduced (again) to Regina, and reunited with Robin and Roland. Love and happiness evaporate from Regina's vicinity. Elsa, who had been stuck in a jar in Rumple's Vault of Very Dangerous Things in the past, shows up at the place where the portal was and sashays out into the world.

5.09 Ruby reveals that she and Anton/Tiny have grown one magic bean, which she uses to return to the Enchanted Forest in hopes of finding more werewolves. She ends up trapped in wolf form by the witch of DunBroch.

4.01 Elsa freezes a car and creates a snow monster that slightly rampages. She finds evidence that Anna is in Storybrooke and vows to find her. Robin must remain faithful to his wife. Regina puts Sidney back in the mirror, first planning to kill Marian, then decides to find the author of the Storybook and force them to give her a happy ending. Rumple and Belle honeymoon in a mysterious mansion; Rumple finds the Sorcerer's Hat. Emma asks Hook to be patient.

4.02 Regina wants to be left alone. Elsa erects an ice wall around Storybrooke and demands that Anna be located. Emma ends up trapped in a cave with her, freezing to death. Elsa can't control her powers well enough to free them both until Charming gives her a pep talk. Charming and Killian locate Bo Peep and her staff, which magically indicates that Anna is alive. Elsa proves unable to dismantle the ice wall; she believes that she is the only one with ice powers, so who could be keeping it intact?

4.03 The Snow Queen curses Marian; TLK fails to revive her. Regina removes her heart, which will keep her alive until a cure can be found. Hook realizes the dagger is a fake, and blackmails Rumple into helping them find the caster of the curse. Regina recruits Henry into "operation Mongoose" to get her happy ending from changing the storybook. The Snow Queen is identified and confronted. She tells Elsa that it was Anna who locked her in the urn, and she knows Emma from some previous encounter, although Emma does not recognize her.

4.04 Hook blackmails Rumple into reattaching his hand, then believes it to be cursed and wants it gone again. Rumple requires Hook to help him when he sucks the sorcerer's apprentice into the hat, then claims to have the incident on tape, which he will send to Emma unless Hook continues to do his bidding. Will Scarlet breaks into the library and ends up in jail. Hook and Emma go on a date. Henry asks Gold for a part-time job, on the theory since Rumple has his own happy ending, he must know how to manipulate the storybook.

4.05 A picture circa S1 is found of Emma talking to Snow Queen, but Emma has no memory of this or of her. Elsa follows an illusion of Anna and is trapped by the Snow Queen. Emma wants to be friends with Regina; Regina responds with epic bitchiness. Sidney leads Regina (and Emma) into a Snow Queen trap, but they are rescued by Elsa. Sidney is freed by the Snow Queen, who only wants the mirror he was trapped in, and to have a family that loves her. She uses a piece of it to finish making a larger mirror. Emma and Killian watch an old video of Emma's and find evidence that she once lived with the Snow Queen.

4.06 More evidence of Emma's time with the Snow Queen, that they were happy together. Ingrid's goal revealed: to replace her own lost sisters with Elsa and Emma. Also, there is a prophecy. Belle uses the fake dagger on Rumple, goes to look for the Snow Queen, looks into the mirror, part of the "spell of shattered sight" that could turn the town against itself. She confesses to Elsa about her prior encounter with Anna, but there's still no hint as to where she is. Regina tells Robin that if he wants to save his wife, he has to fall back in love with her; there is no magical cure.

4.07 Ingrid makes a decoy mirror and allows herself to be captured and questioned by Emma, then goads her into losing control of her powers. A panicked Emma withdraws to the edge of town. Robin continues to fail at life, goes to see Regina in her crypt and kisses her. Henry is working in Gold's shop. Ingrid makes a deal with Rumple: the ribbons she and her sisters gave him, in exchange for the information he needs to rid himself of the dagger's control. We still don't know where the hell Anna is.

4.08 Double episode. Rumple needs the heart of someone who knew him before he was the Dark One to free himself from the dagger, a pool that consists of exactly Hook. One heart: acquired. Elsa helps Emma gain control over her powers again, with what looks like True Love's Handholding, saving her from the hat trap Rumple laid for her. Ingrid puts the magic ribbons on Elsa and Emma and uses their powers to cast the Spell of Shattered Sight over Storybrooke. Also there was a lot of stuff about the Storybook and Regina, which gives her Hope. No one mentions the Mariansicle problem.

4.09 In Arendelle, everyone is unfrozen after 30 years have passed. Hans takes over. Anna and Kristoff are placed in a trunk and thrown into the sea by Blackbeard, who was saved by Ariel back in the missing year and has acquired the Jolly Roger. They are saved from drowning at the last minute when Elsa utters a wish that transports them to Storybrooke, apparently due to a previously unknown property of the pendant Elsa created for Anna.

In Storybrooke, there is hope that if they can find Anna, the fairies can create a counterspell from her hair to save everyone else from the curse. Unfortunately, Rumple (having secured his own immunity and safety for Belle and Henry from Ingrid) forces Hook to use the Sorcerer's Hat on all of the fairies. Tearful goodbyes are said, and everyone hunkers under a protection spell and/or locks themselves to something to keep themselves from hurting anyone. The curse arrives.

4.10 Emma and Elsa face Ingrid, but the ribbons prevent them from using their power against her. Emma decides that since love powers that spell, hatred will dispel it; they find Regina in her vault and provoke her into attacking, destroying the ribbons. Regina goes to the station, has a swordfight with Snow, and poofs Anna and Kristoff to the beach, where Anna finds the bottle that washed ashore with the trunk Blackbeard put them in. It contains her mother's letter (4.01). She finds Elsa and Emma at the Snow Queen's lair and reads the letter: confession/apology and instructions to free Ingrid from the urn and restore the memory of her sisters to the people of Arendelle. Upon finding that she was truly loved after all, Ingrid repents of her curse and reverses it, destroying herself.
Meanwhile, Rumple sends Hook to bring Henry to him, but Henry avoids him. Rumple will separate himself from the dagger tomorrow dawn, when "the stars align with the stars on the hat."

4.11 Elsa takes down the ice wall, but a curse lingers; anyone who crosses the town line can never return. First over are Marian (who also has a bit of curse stuck inside her, ready to freeze her again unless she leaves magic behind), Roland, and Robin after a tearful farewell to Regina. Rumple does not want Anna stuck in town, as she might expose him. He uncovers the portal back to Arendelle in the Mystery Mansion and makes Killian tell Emma about it. Emma knows something is wrong, but mysteriously prefers to escort the Arendelle folks up there to go home. A chance remark by Charming leads to the uncovering of Rumplestiltskin's lies anyway. Belle finds the magic weakness-detecting glove in the shop; it leads her to the real dagger. Hearbroken by the revelation of his true priorities, she uses it to stop him crushing Killian's heart, takes Rumple to the town line, and commands him to leave.

4.17 Robin, not!Marian, and Roland arrive in NYC, where Regina has given them keys to Neal’s old apartment. They set up housekeeping there. Rumple shows up, they argue over squatter’s rights, and he has a heart attack in the doorway. His long life of evil deeds has taken a physical toll on his heart, and he can no longer use magic to stave off the effects. He convinces Robin to break into Walsh the Flying Monkey’s shop and steal the Elixer of Wounded Hearts (again). Not!Marian switches bottles, reveals herself as Zelena to Rumple, and makes a deal with him: no more trying to kill each other, she gets her happy ending, and he gets his potion. Rumple convinces Robin to commit to making his life with not!Marian work.

4.11 Rumple locates Ursula in NYC.

4.15 Blackbeard annoys Elsa enough that she shrinks the Jolly Roger and puts it in a bottle, accidentally trapping Ariel in the process. (Blackbeard’s current whereabouts unknown.)

4.12 Rumple rounds up Ursula (living a meager life as an aquarium employee) and Cruella (subject to financial woes of her own) and convinces them to accompany him to SB. Regina is mayor, Mary Margaret back to teaching. Hook and Belle researching how to free the fairies, rely on experts from outside SB (lesson: do not trust anyone you meet on the Internet, because it might be the Dark One). The new spell releases nun/fairies and also Chernabog. Blue Fairy alarmed by the blank storybook, says that the Author and the Sorcerer are not the same, that the Author has been missing for some time, and may have left clues in their books. Henry goes to work.

Chernobog flies around town looking for a heart to eat. Everyone assumes Regina. She and Emma lure it across the town line, where it dissipates into smoke. Ursula and Cruella want a second chance and are allowed into town via Ingrid's scroll (from the Sorcerer), which they use to allow Rumple back in. He explains that they're going to revive Maleficent and that Chernabog was seeking Emma. Snow and Charming have a secret history with Cruella and Ursula, which Emma must not know.

4.13 Ursula and Cruella resurrect Maleficent, who vows suffering for Snow and Charming because of whatever they did to her. S&C nearly explain to Emma, but they catch her talking to Hook about how they've inspired her to see the best in people and wimp out. Snow asks Regina to go undercover with the Queens and find a way to stop them, and confesses that because of her and Charming, Maleficent lost her own child. Marco gives Regina August's saddlebags, which may have useful information about the book. Will and Belle appear to be an item now.

4.14 Regina gains the trust (?) of the QoD by kidnapping Pinocchio for them, and finds out that Rumple is back in town. Rumple regains possession of the dagger from Belle by shapeshifting to look like Hook, and questions her about Will. He tells the QoD that war is going to come to Storybrooke. Rumple re-ages Pinocchio to be August, amid threatening dialog.

4.15 Under duress, August says that the Sorcerer trapped the Author behind a door (pictured in the Storybook page Henry was poring over in 4.14) ), somewhere in Storybrooke. Gold’s impersonation of Hook discovered. Hook makes a deal with Ursula: information on Gold for her singing back. With assistance from Will and Ariel, the return of the Jolly Roger & a tear-jerking mermaid family reunion ensue. QoD down one. August is rescued. SIGNS and PORTENTS: Regina has an alarming dream about Robin and the Evil Queen, asks Emma to find a way to get in touch with him. August reveals that the Author is trapped IN the book. Ursula says that as long as there’s a Savior, the Author can’t change the endings, and that Rumple plans to fill Emma’s heart with darkness.

4.16 Regina was not fooling anyone, and Gold thinks he can make her do his bidding for reasons yet unknown. Gold seems to be working to change the endings according to a secret deadline that makes him sad. Snow and Charming were fooling Emma, who is very, very, angry when they explain their history with Maleficent and the Apprentice. August goes poetic af, explains history of Authors. The current Author is loosed from the page and does a runner. Maleficent gets Gold to show her a vision of her child when it was born; to the surprise of absolutely no one, it is Lily (see 4.05).

4.17 Emma (still pissed at her parents) and her family (chagrined) hunt for the Author, but Rumple finds him first. Rumple has his magic pen. They poof away. Rumple has Regina captive; he gets her to call Robin, but it’s Zelena who answers. With Robin’s life in Zelena’s hands, Rumple says that Regina will be key to his plan to turn Emma to “darkness”. We do not see Regina’s final answer.

4.18 Regina wants to go to NYC to rescue Robin. Emma gives her a gun. Regina takes Belle’s heart for surety that Rumple will not alert Zelena to her rescue mission. Rumple tells Belle that his heart will soon be entirely dark, and he will lose his ability to love entirely. Cruella kidnaps Henry and demands that Emma and Regina deliver the Author’s corpse in revenge for what he did to her. Snow and Charming find the Author (Isaac) and learn that he has previously removed Cruella’s ability to kill. Emma confronts and kills Cruella before they can find her to tell her this, all according to Rumple’s plan to darken Emma’s heart. He still needs to acquire some ink before he can make the magic pen work.

4.19 Cruella would be horrified by the plain coffin in which she is buried by Rumple and a legitimately sad Isaac. Maleficent asks Emma to find Lily; Emma realizes the connection; Regina convinces her that leaving Storybrooke would put a crimp in Gold’s plan to turn her evil. Snow and Charming apologize to Maleficent and swear to do whatever it takes to make up for what they did; Mal warns them that Lily may not be receptive.

Rumple distracts Maleficent and gets Will to retrieve Belle’s heart. Rumple returns it to her, declares himself unworthy of her, and leaves the two of them.

Regina and Emma find Lily with the help of a random wolf (no really). She knows much about her own past, and is bent on revenge against Emma’s parents. Car chase, tension ensues. Regina talks Emma down from shooting Lily, then gets word about Belle’s heart. They all go to New York and find Robin and “Marian”, who reveals herself as Zelena. Robin says that Zelena is pregnant.

4.20 I’m sorry these are getting so long, but there is so fucking much going on.

The away team returns to Storybooke with the Hoods. Zelena is cuffed and installed in Belle’s old cell under the hospital. The ink requires Emma’s blood, her “dark impulses” to do magic with it, but Emma has not done as expected. Mal and Lily have awkward reunion; Lily was hoping for a revenge spree, and Mal just wants to make up for lost time. Mal asks MM and Charming for advice. Rumple’s heart is on its last flicker; when it goes out, only the Dark One remains. Regina nabs Author and quill, finesses the Dark Savior thing by getting Lily pissed off and cutting her (as she contain Emma’s darkness, this works). Lily turns into a dragon and rampages, injures MM. Emma heals her. EVERYONE IS HAPPY.  EVEN REGINA IS HAPPY, having decided not to use the Author to destroy Zelena after all, but just to enjoy her own life like Mom told her to all those years ago.

And then Isaac zaps himself back to Rumple, who has him start writing a new book.

4.21/22 Rumple provides Isaac with an outline of what he wants his happy ending to look like; the new book is also informed by Isaac’s hatred of heroes, who remind him of his old bosses. He creates a new pocket universe in which Rumple is a valiant knight, Snow White is the Evil Queen and Charming her henchman, Regina the unwitting cause of the death of Snow’s true love James, Hook a twerpy deckhand serving under Blackbeard, etc. Emma is the only one with her real memories, but she has no magic and no Savior status and is locked in a tower. In the LWM, Isaac writes his own happy ending as a best-selling author with legions of adoring fans -- having done this, however, he forfeits his Author powers.

Henry is left alone in Storybrooke. He tracks down Isaac and enters the new book. The new story will only be made permanent when a villain achieves their happy ending -- Zelena has to marry Robin. The wedding goes off, because Regina was busy saving Henry’s life from Rumple, which empowers her blood with the savior-y energy needed for Henry to pick up Isaac’s quill and fix things.

That leaves them with the problem of Rumple and his heart’s last flicker. He gives Belle I don’t even know his fourth? fifth? speech about how he didn’t believe she could truly love him and therefore did all of this heinous stuff. The Apprentice pulls the darkness out of Rumple’s heart and puts it in the hat, but said hat is not strong enough to contain the power. The Dark One targets the Apprentice, but Emma shoves it back out of him. Before passing out, the Apprentice tells them that the Sorcerer is Merlin. The Dark One goes after Regina. Emma pulls the Dark One into herself and disappears; her name is on the dagger.

5.01 Emma emerges from the vault of the Dark One. The Darkness talks to her through a vision of Rumple, tempting her to use her new power. Determined to seek Merlin, she finds Merida and a will o’ the wisp. Rumple convinces her to take Merida’s heart to use the wisp herself, and she is on the brink of crushing it when everyone else arrives (via a cyclone that Zelena summoned and Regina redirected). Hook talks Emma down. Snow tries to give her the dagger, but Emma gives it to Regina in case someone needs to destroy her. Apparently the Apprenticed died after giving them the wand. 

5.02 Merlin is imprisoned in a tree. Regina claims to be the Savior and uses the dagger to silence Emma, claiming that no one would help them if they knew Emma was the Dark One. At a ball that night, Sir Percival identifies Regina as the Evil Queen who destroyed his home village. He tries to kill her, but Robin takes the blow, and then Charming kills Percival. Emma uses Dark Magic to save Robin, but without collecting a price, which should have been a life, much to “Rumple’s” glee; her skin starts changing.

5.03 Charming and Arthur quest for a toadstool that will allow them to communicate with Merlin. Charming retrieves it, but Arthur secretly steals it. He knights Charming and gives him the Siege Perilous at the Round Table. Regina threatens Zelena. Lancelot appears and tells Snow that Arthur is a villain.

5.04 Emma is having difficulty fending off “Rumple” and makes a try for the dagger. She and Hook go horseback riding; she tells him about vision!Rumple, and he shows her that she can make him stop appearing. Snow and Charming get together with Lancelot for a complicated scheme that exposes Arthur’s plan to get his hands on the dagger (and “snuff out the darkness”), but he turns the tables on them and places them under control of the Avalon sand. Lancelot is imprisoned and meets Merida.

5.05 Emma uses a dreamcatcher to read Merlin’s memories. She takes Violet’s heart (the girl Henry has a crush on) and forces her to friendzone him, breaking his heart and providing a tear necessary to free Merlin from the tree. After an inconclusive confrontation with Arthur, Merlin tells Emma that she must be willing to free herself.

5.06 Merlin, Charming, Hook, and Belle break Lancelot and Merida out of prison. Merida kidnaps Belle for a side quest to save her brothers, who are being held to force her to give up the crown. Their quest succeeds. Merlin reiterates the warning he gave to Emma as a child. Excalibur will return to the stone, and she shouldn’t touch it.

5.09 A witch interrupts Merida’s coronation; she wants a whole lot of gold or a magic helmet she made for Fergus, or else she’ll turn the whole kingdom into bears. (What is her deal with bears?)

5.07 Hook gives Emma one of his rings. Merlin and Emma retrieve the spark of Prometheus from Nimue; Emma successfully resists the Darkness. Everyone else tries to get Excalibur from Arthur, but the king and Zelena join forces to tether Merlin to Excalibur, allowing him to be controlled that way. 

5.08 Emma rescues her loved ones from Arthur and Zelena (and Merlin), although Killian takes a wound from Excalibur. They have all of the pieces, and all she needs to do is light Prometheus’ spark. She just has to want to get rid of the Darkness -- which she does once she gets over being nervous about moving in with Killian, who found them a possible house.

5.09 Arthur and Zelena are after the same magic helmet as Merida, hoping to use it to rally Arthur’s army against Merlin and Emma. Merida gives up, Mulan keeps going, finds Ruby, makes heart eyes, the clan leaders rally behind Merida, they get the helmet back from Arthur (who killed Merida’s father, quelle surprise), she gets crowned and gets one last hug from the spirit of her father. Mulan accompanies Ruby on her quest to find more of her people. Merida has some payback in mind for Camelot.

Emma is about to reforge the sword when Killian’s wound returns -- oops, did Merlin forget to mention that wounds made by Excalibur can’t be healed? Emma poof the two of them away, uses the spark to wipe Merlin’s name off the sword, and tethers Killian to it (over his protests) so he can’t die. Off he goes to the Vault of the Dark One. No intermediate gray garments here.

5.10 Merlin crafts his message telling the others to look for Nimue (we still don’t know why he would say that). Although things look okay for a little while, Killian takes about ten seconds to crack under “Rumple’s” manipulation tactics, puts the sword back in the stone so no can use it against him (as Emma unwisely did in order to find him), takes Merlin’s heart and uses it to cast the Dark Curse (because he’s kinda-sorta Nimue right now), taking them all back to Storybrooke so he can get revenge on the real Rumple finally. Emma takes away everyone’s memories to buy time for her to fix everything. Lancelot is off looking for help from his mom, the Lady of the Lake, so at least he’s not dead. Whew.

5.01 Granny’s returns to Storybrooke. Everyone is wearing EF clothes, and the last thing they remember is entering Camelot six weeks previously. Emma arrives in full Dark Swan mode, turns Sneezy to stone, accuses those present of failing her, and promises punishment.

5.02 A whole lot of Camelot people are also in Storybrooke; Exaclibur is missing. A Fury arrives to collect the price of magic, i.e. Robin. The only way to save him is for Regina to offer her own life. When she does (while Charon looks on?), Snow, Charming, and Grumpy stand with her, which seems to do the trick and drive off the Fury. Hook tries a TLK on Emma, which has no effect. She is keeping the stone with Excalibur stuck in it in her basement. She is unable to draw the sword, but Clippy!Rumple seems to think she just has something she needs to do first.

5.03 Arthur reports the theft of magical items from the camp, including a magic bean that could get the Camelot folk home. Charming helps him catch the thief, but the audience learns that Arthur staged the whole thing and was lying about the bean; he gives the thief (a loyal servant) poison to drink (which he does kind-of willingly) and declares that they will found a new Camelot in Storybrooke. Emma has a conversation with Hook; he loved her as she was before. Hook recruits Robin to help break into Emma’s Conspicuously Locked Basement. Emma kidnaps Rumple, wakes him, and plans to make him into a hero who can draw Excalibur from the stone.

5.04 Emma takes Merida’s heart again and plans to use her to make Rumple into a hero. She still has the flower Hook gave her on their ride.

5.05 Merida trains Rumple in swordsmanship. Emma helps Henry find Violet’s missing horse. Everyone else breaks into Emma’s house and finds a Excalibur and a dreamcatcher, which has Violet’s memories of her heart being taken.

5.06 Arthur pretends to try to contact Merlin using the Crimson Crown; his deception is discovered later. Henry uses it successfully, but only gets a cryptic warning via magical voice mail. Emma wants Zelena to do something in exchange for her freedom and protection, but Zelena refuses to help her. Emma succeeds in making Rumple into enough of a hero to draw Excalibur from the stone, and returns Merida’s heart. Newly heroic Rumple is determined to stop her.

5.07 Emma rejoins Excalibur. While a host of former Dark Ones look on approvingly, she disregards Merlin’s warning and takes hold of it.

5.08 To sum up: Arthur is confronted and ends up jailed. Zelena has her baby super-fast (magic!). Emma kidnaps Zelena. Hook frees Zelena, who finds his dreamcatcher, which returns his memories of Camelot and the whole “by the way, you’re supposed to be dead and also a Dark One now, too” thing. Emma’s plan was to put all of the Darkness into Zelena and then kill her.

5.10 Hook duels Rumple aboard the Jolly Roger, loses. Rumple declines to kill him in favor of gloating, but Hook has some of his blood, which he uses to open a portal to the motherfucking Netherworld, letting all former Dark Ones into Storybrooke “in the flesh” so they can get on with the Light-snuffing. Emma returns everyone’s memories and reconnects (tentatively) with her family. Belle needs some time away from Rumple to figure out what she wants. Zelena gets to hold the still-nameless baby.

5.11 The Dark Ones scamper through town putting the Mark of Charon on people. Those souls will be traded for their own, allowing them to return permanently to the land of the living. Rumple advises everyone to spend their last hour saying goodbye to their loved ones. He gives Belle his car and some magic, and suggests that she should get out of town, see the world like she always wanted to. Regina sends Zelena back to Oz, sans baby. Emma plans to take all of the Darkness into herself and then have Regina kill her, but Killian steals Excalibur. Everyone gathers at the pond/portal for doom, but at the last minute Killian takes all of the Darkness into himself and has Emma kill him with Excalibur, which appears to disintegrate. Three death scenes in twelve episodes this is getting a bit ridiculous. Later, Emma hears the dagger singing and finds out that Rumple pulled a fast one: instead of the cumulative Dark Ones being destroyed, all of their power is now his. Also, Belle came back to him. Yay! Emma has him open a portal to the Underworld so she can go find Killian, intending to do a heart-split like her parents to get him back.

5.18 Dorothy encounters Ruby and Mulan in Oz, where they have been led by their search for Ruby’s pack. Zelena returns, courtesy Regina, and the three join forces to oppose her. Ruby and Dorothy fall in love. When she goes to confront Zelena alone, Dorothy is placed under a sleeping curse, and Zelena takes her slippers.

5.12 Emma, her parents, Henry, Regina and Robin arrive in the Underworld, which has a least three parts; Good, Bad, and Unfinished business. Notable spirits encountered: Neal, who delivers a cryptic warning. James, who doesn’t seem to have changed at all. Hook, who is looking bad, but there is no communication. Cora, who tries to pressure Regina into leaving right away, at Hades’ orders, by threatening Henry Sr. Pan, who wants to trade places with a living soul and get back to the world. Henry Sr, who gets to move on to somewhere nicer after Regina says she’s sorry. Hades is miffed to have lost a soul.

5.13 Hook helps Megara escape Hades prison. Snow finds that her old friend Hercules is dead, and wants his help. Cruella wants Henry to use his Author powers to write her back to being alive. After some mutual “remember who you really are” stuff, Meg, Herc, and Snow defeat Cerberus together. Meg draws a map of the tunnels that will help them find Hook. Herc and Meg move to on Olympus. Hades is annoyed; for every soul who leaves his kingdom, he’s going to make Hook pick one from the Storybrooke team to take their place.

5.14 Hook refuses to pick anyone to stay. He gets chained up over the River of Lost Souls and slowly dropped toward it. Rumple finds out that Belle is pregnant. Regina has trouble with magic. Rumple finds Milah, who helps him and Emma get through Hades’ barriers against intrusion by the living. Hades wants Rumple to destroy the escape boat, trapping the rest of them in the UW, in exchange for being allowed to leave himself. He does, pushing Milah into the River of Lost Souls so she can’t tell anyone. Regina heals a horse and conjures a fireball. Emma rescues Hook. Rumple finds that Hades knows about Belle, and the contract for his second child is still in play; Rumple will work for Hades now. Regina tries to take out her heart to split, but can’t. In the UW cemetery, stones have appeared for Regina, Emma, and Snow.

5.15 Henry finds the quill and ink. Cruella reveals that James’s unfinished business is his brother. Liam wants Killian to move on rather than go home with Emma. Hades wants to find a storybook and remove his pages from it; he pressures Liam into helping, or he will reveal his secret to Killian. Liam follows orders and throws the pages down a well, where Hades retrieves them; he has a secret to do with Zelena. The drowned crew find Liam and Killian and plan to throw them into the burning river. Hades appears to gloat a bit. Liam tries to defend Killian, gets pushed over the edge, and for this act of atonement gets to move on along with the crew. Killian chooses to stay (duh) so that he and Emma can defeat Hades.

5.16 Zelena reappears in SB via slippers to retrieve her baby. Hades uses Rumple’s blood to open a portal to Storybrooke, also seeking the baby, and ends up bringing her, Zelena, and Belle through. Belle finds out about Rumple being the Dark One, her own pregnancy, and his deal with Hades in rapid succession and declares that she needs time. There’s some reverse hot potato with the still unnamed baby as Belle takes her, Zelena takes her, and Zelena gives her back (her magic is on the fritz, and she can’t protect her). Finally Zelena finds out that Hades is still (he says) pining for her and never intended to hurt the tyke at all. He’ll be waiting if she wants him.

5.17 Flowers are growing in the Underworld. Hades pines, sics Gaston on Rumple, and gives him some magic arrows. Belle forbids Rumple from harming Gaston and ends up pushing Gaston into the River of Lost Souls herself. Oops? Zelena tells Regina that Hades’ only known weakness is herself. Hmmm. Ruby arrives in the Underworld via Oz cyclone.

5.18 Ruby is searching for Dorothy, who disappeared in Oz. The sleeping curse is discovered. Auntie Em, who might be able to break it, is put into the River of Souls by Hades, who is still trying to get in good with Zelena. Zelena gives Regina to silver slippers. Hades has the Haunting Phone Booths ripped out to stop the spread of hope. Hook crosses Snow’s name off the tombstone and puts Charming’s on it, allowing Snow to leave with Ruby so she can get back to Neal. Ruby breaks the curse on Dorothy (whooo).  Belle puts herself under a sleeping curse so that Hades can’t accelerate her pregnancy and take her baby; she’s counting on Rumple to get her to her father to break it.

5.19 Hades puts everybody’s name on a headstone and wants to go to Storybrooke with Zelena to “make chaos.” She is tempted. Regina and Cora scheme to make Zelena forget her beau, but Zelena is too smart for this. Cora realizes that her unfinished business was with both of them. She returns their memories of their early sisterly bonding and goes to the bridge to face her fate, passing on to a better place. James replaces Charming in a bid to get Zelena’s baby as a hostage, but ends up in the River of Souls. Pan and Rumple kidnap Zelena.

5.20 The contract on the baby is ripped up; Zelena is freed and kisses Hades; his curse is broken. Hades, Zelena, and the baby return to Storybrooke. Rumple kills Pan (again) and returns to Storybrooke with Belle, who is both under the sleeping curse and inside Pandora’s Box now. Emma can’t split her heart with Killian because he’s been dead too long; their quest to find some ambrosia to bring him back proves that they are True Love but also that Hades is a liar, because it’s been gone for centuries. Emma and the others return to Storybrooke, leaving Hook behind. Henry leaves book pages behind for the Underbrooke folks to find with their unfinished business. Cruella and the Blind Witch plan to take the place over.

5.21 Zelena gives the baby to Hades while she goes off to find Regina and convince everyone that Hades has really changed now. Arthur escapes from prison, encounters Hades, gets his neck broken.
Rumple asks Moe to TLK Belle, but he refuses, believing her to be better off as she is. Emma ask Rumple for help again Hades; he refuses. Rumple offers Hades a deal: his help in exchange for a bit of that crystal; Hades refuses.  

In the UW, Hook recruits the newest citizen to help him find Hades’ weakness so that he himself can fulfill his promise to Emma and move on. This odd partnership bears fruit, and the lost pages of the Underworld Storybook show up in Emma’s copy. Meanwhile, Hades has used his new freedom to reunite the halves of the Olympian Crystal, which has the power to destroy even gods, all the while explaining to Zelena how they’ll have to take over Storybrooke to defend themselves.

 Emma goes solo to attack the mansion defenses. Zelena gets the book pages from her but refuses from believe that Hades is using her. Robin and Regina sneak into the office to retrieve the baby and are found by Hades. Robin jumps between Hades and Regina and is destroyed by the crystal. Zelena gets hold of it and stabs Hades with it, reducing him to dust. A beautiful funeral is held for Robin. Emma lingers behind. In a flash of light, Hook shows up, having been rewarded by Zeus for his help. Rumple gets his piece of the crystal from Hades’ remains.

5.22/23 Rather than try to recount all that happened in this largely-pointless mess of a finale, I will stick to final dispositions. Camelot/Merry Men/other EF people go home except for Violet and her dad, because he was actually the Connecticut Yankee and likes Storybrooke better. Jekyll & Hyde (who has a history with Rumple) and unknown others from a realm of “untold stories” are now in Storybrooke. Regina and the Evil Queen are now two separate physical beings. Regina crushed the Evil Queen’s heart, but she came back and ripped out the Dragon’s heart. Belle is still in a sleeping curse and a box and pregnant. Emma and Hook get a moment to be happy.

 6.01 An airship of people from the Land of Untold Stories crashes in Storybrooke. Hyde is imprisoned. Emma experiences visions, and also tremors in her hand; under Hyde's direction, she meets an Oracle, who completes the vision as being of Emma's own death. She conceals these troubles from Hook. Rumple visits Belle's dreams, but she receives a warning from their unborn son, who kisses her awake; she returns to Storybrooke determined to avoid Rumple. Regina's evil half visits Zelena.

6.02 Emma talks to Archie about her visions, but has yet to tell her family. Belle arrives in Storybrooke and is given a place to stay aboard the Jolly Roger. The EQ takes the Count of Monte Cristo's heart and sets a trap for her nicer half, forcing "Regina" to kill him to protect Snow and Charming, which "the EQ" believes will darken her heart. The EQ tests Zelena, who does not tell anyone about her return.  Evil Regina gives Charming a coin that was his father's.

6.03 Ashley saves her sister Clorinda from their stepmother and reunites her with her love. Evil Regina frees Hyde from prison. Charming makes a deal with Rumple for information about the coin and learns that his father didn't crash the cart; he was murdered. Snow urges him to set aside vengeful thoughts. Rumple discovers that Belle is aboard the Jolly Roger. Emma asks Hook to move in with her; kisses ensue.

6.04  Hyde's revenge plot against Rumple comes to a point, and involves Jekyll killing Belle while Rumple is helpless. This plan is foiled, largely by Hook, who kills Jekyll. Jekyll and Hyde's death provides the one foolproof means known so far of killing one's serum-created double. Belle and Rumple are even more on the outs than before. Princess Jasmine has come to Storybrooke from the Land of Untold Stories under the name Shirin. She is looking for Aladdin with the help of the Oracle.

6.05 Evil Regina kills the Oracle and impersonates Archie to force Emma to reveal her secret to her family, sowing more seeds of discord. Then she goes off to enjoy a spa day with her sister, who appears well ensnared by now. Shirin is discovered and revealed as Jasmine, searching for Aladdin. Believed to be dead for most of the episode, Aladdin is eventually found; he used the shears to save himself and fled to the EF before the curse hit, and has been living in Storybrooke all this time. He gives Emma the shears, but she does not want to use them. She asks Killian to throw them into the deep water of the harbor, which he says that he did, but actually he kept them.

6.06 Evil Regina informs Henry about the shears, hoping to use Hook's action to create a split in the family. Henry is about to angrily dispose of them himself when the Nautilus appears in the harbor. Liam II is captain, and now wants revenge on Hook for Brennan and Nemo's death. Snowing and Nice Regina rescue Archie from Zelena, exposing her link to Evil Regina. Hook and Henry get free, bond, and knock out Liam. In the hospital, he reconciles with Nemo, who was found bleeding out in the woods near Storybrooke but whose life was saved. Everyone is pretty happy. Belle has her first ultrasound and slides one of the pictures under Rumple's door. Meanwhile, Evil Regina gives him the shears and kisses him. He appears less than enthusiastic about the latter event.

6.07 Evil Regina's liaison with Gold continues and becomes public. Zelena is jealous. Belle is annoyed; she admonishes him for his weakness in even thinking about using the shears on their unborn child. Rumple conceives new ill intent toward Zelena. Evil Regina threatens to kill everyone in town unless Snow and Charming hand over their shared heart. They do so, and she returns the pieces with a new sleeping curse; when one of them is woken from it, the other falls asleep. Emma and Hook share a precious and beautiful moment.

6.08 Nice Regina comes up with a plan to trap Evil Regina in the world behind a mirror, but her evil half traps her and Emma there instead. They encounter the Dragon. Evil Regina impersonates Nice Regina in order to manipulate Henry, but he figures out the truth. Evil Regina tries to force him to kill the Dragon in order to save Emma and Nice Regina; he refuses and the two are freed from the mirror.

Belle wants to return to the Enchanted Forest. She convinces Zelena to help her, and Zelena convinces Aladdin to steal the Apprentice's wand from Rumple. He also takes a genie lamp from the shop. Rumple retrieves the wand from Zelena, but discovers that their deal back in S4 means that any time he hurts her, he feels the pain himself. He clamps a magical bracelet on Belle to allow him to find her anywhere. He asks Evil Regina to kill Zelena.

6.09 Belle visits with her baby in the dream world; he warns her that Rumple plans to cut the thread of his fate with the Shears of Destiny. After the genie lamp turns out to be empty, Aladdin becomes a genie in order to help Jasmine find Agrabah. Evil Regina tries to kill Zelena, but Nice Regina saves her and sows doubt in her evil half about Rumple's sincerity. For revenge, Evil Regina accelerates Belle's pregnancy, knowing that Belle will blame Rumple. Nice Regina refuses to forgive Zelena for Robin's death. Belle gives birth, names the baby Gideon, and gives him to Blue to take safely away from his father, who vows to find him. Emma has another vision, an in Gold's shop finds the sword that will be used to kill her.

6.10 Emma's new sword hurts Evil Regina. Evil Regina gets Aladdin's lamp, makes a wish that sends Emma to another world where she was never the Savior. Regina gets the lamp and goes after Emma. Charming gets the lamp and wishes for the Evil Queen to get what she deserves. Jasmine gets the lamp and wishes to go to Agrabah with Aladdin. Baby Gideon goes missing, abducted by the Black Fairy.

6.16 Gideon is raised to adulthood by the Black Fairy, who teaches his magic, but despite her best efforts, a spark of rebellion remains. When a fellow prisoner tells him about the Savior who can defeat the Black Fairy, Gideon tries to help the fellow, only to watch his "mother" make an example of him. She then takes Gideon's heart and sends him to kill Emma. 

6.10 Gideon shows up full-grown and turns the Evil Queen into a snake. In the wish-verse, Regina tries to make Emma remember that she is the Savior, kills Snow and Charming ("fake people"), and makes a deal with Fake Rumple for a magic bean. The portal goes unused when Fake Robin shows up.

6.11 Emma and Regina return from the Wish Realm with the help of Fake August. They bring Robin -- not Hood in that universe, but still Robin of Locksley, because he never married Marian and never made the change to being a thief with honor. Meanwhile, Gideon tells his parents about his terrible upbringing with the Black Fairy. He needs to kill Emma in order to become a Savior so he can free the Fairy's realm from her evil. Emma faces Gideon on the street more or less as in her vision, but her magic doesn't fail at the last moment, and she defeats him. The sword shatters. Gideon goes off to break windows and brood.

6.12 New Robin tries to kill Nottingham and steals stuff from Regina's vault. Regina frets. Hook and Charming Detect Things and find that King George ordered Charming's father killed; Hook dissuades Charming from carrying out vengeance.  Charming gives Killian his blessing to propose to Emma, but then Killian realizes that That One Guy He Killed Years Ago was Charming's dad. Oops.

6.13 Rumple kidnaps Gideon for a chat about how killing Emma won't make him a hero and so on. Gideon shrugs off a memory potion and gets the dagger from Rumple. Step 1 of fulfilling his destiny: fix the sword. For that they need the Blue Fairy's blood. His actual fairy godmother. Rumple gets her blood and fixes the sword, and Gideon returns the dagger. Belle is upset about the fairy-maiming, but Rumple explains that he can fix her after they stop Gideon, whose heart is not darkened and everything is Just Fine.

Meanwhile, New Robin makes a deal with Zelena; they both want to get out of town. The spell doesn't work, but Regina promises to help him leave if that's what he wants. The Snake EQ escapes, finds Robin, and bites him, which returns her to human form. Now SHE wants an alliance. Dude is in high demand in this realm.

Hook works himself up to tell Emma the truth about Robert, but his best intentions are derailed because she found the ring. The proposal is GO. (Also, angst.)

6.14 Regina and the Evil Queen hug and make up; the latter goes off to the wish!world to be with Robin Hood there thanks to Henry's pen. Emma finds out about Hook's secret and gives back the ring because he didn't tell her. Hook is about to leave town on the Nautilus, then changes his mind, but Gideon shows up and magically sends the submarine off somewhere anyway.  Zelena is just kind of around.

6.15 Trying to get back home, Hook meets up with Ariel, Aladdin, and Jasmine. They encounter Jafar. Agrabah is freed from its curse by Jasmine and Aladdin's kiss. Jafar is turned into a staff. In Storybrooke, Emma is Very Very Sad. Gideon gets one of her tears, and uses it to prevent Hook from getting back to Storybrooke (?), although he gets a message to Emma via shell phone.

6.16 Hook trades the Jolly Roger (again) for a magic bean from Blackbeard to get home, but the bean takes them to Neverland instead, where they are greeted by aggressive Lost Boys. Blackbeard rows off, abandoning Hook. In Storybrooke, Gideon uses an elaborate ruse and a giant spider to try again to kill Emma, whose power briefly infuses the magic sword; he uses it to open a passage to the Black Fairy's realm, allowing her to reach Storybrooke. Rumple comes to Emma's rescue and warns her that he'll protect his son.

6.17 Regina tries to fix the sleeping curse but makes it worse. In Neverland, Hook runs into Tiger Lily, who used to be a fairy and has part of a wand used to banish the Black Fairy. He sends it to Emma via shadow, nearly gets killed by Lost Boys, gets rescued by Emma using a pixie flower, and proposes to Emma again. She accepts. David forgives him for killing his dad. The sleeping curse is finally broken by a couple dozen other people taking it, too, which dilutes the magic enough for everyone to be awake I guess? It was a weird episode. Rumple knows that the Black Fairy has Gideon's heart, and she wants Rumple to be part of her family.

6.18 The Blue Fairy remains in a magical stasis, unable to tell them anything she might know about the Black Fairy. The Black Fairy approaches Zelena with an offer of alliance, but Zelena is interested only in destroying the new potential threat to her child. She tracks the BF in the mines, which are lousy with fairy crystals. This is a trap engineered by the BF in order to turn the crystals dark. Having done so using Zelena's magic, however, allows Zelena to return the crystals to their normal state by giving up her magic. Emma uses some of the crystal to restart the Blue Fairy's heart.

6.19 Regina tries to teach Zelena to drive, and asks her to flee to NYC with Henry if the Final Battle goes badly. Rumple uses the Sands of Morpheus in an effort to find out from Gideon where his heart is, but instead visits his own dream world and sees own early days and his mother's efforts to protect him.  The other piece of the wand is found. He takes it and goes to confront the Black Fairy. They have a long conversation about how similar they are. Rumple claims to the other characters that he has defeated her, but is secretly working with her at the end of the episode. Meanwhile, Hook asks Henry to be his best man, and with no more looming threat, the wedding is planned for the following day. 

6.20 The looming threat reappears. The Black Fairy will curse the town anew at 6:00 sharp. Rumple steals a potion from Regina to freeze Emma's family as hostages for the Black Fairy. Emma surrenders, but due to the song in her heart, it cannot be crushed. She finds new strength, defeats the Black Fairy, and marries Hook. The curse descends.

6.21/22 Most of the characters end up back in the Enchanted Forest and spend the finale looking for a way to get back. Those who remain have their memories changed. Emma believes herself to have been in a mental hospital ever since Henry ate the apple tart. Fiona is intent on destroying the last shred of Emma's belief and getting her to leave town, which will destroy all of the story-worlds (??). It is a close call, but she comes back before the last bit of the Enchanted Forest is destroyed. Rumple still has his memories and is unamused to find that his mom tried to lie to him about Belle's whereabouts. He kills Fiona and retrieves Gideon's heart, but the final order Fiona gave Gideon, to kill Emma, is still in place. Everyone else gets back from the Enchanted Forest. There is a repeat of the duel in Main Street. Emma refuses to kill Gideon, and he stabs her. She appears dead for a hot five seconds before Henry kisses her back to life.

Gideon is a baby again, Rumple and Belle are together. In the wish world, Robin gives Regina an engagement ring. Emma and Hook drive around town to fight crime together. Snow and Charming get a big house and a dog. Happy endings all around.