‘Once Upon A Time’ Season 7, Episode 21 ‘Homecoming’ Recap: The Deal Maker’s Wish [SPOILERS]

With only an episode left before “The End,” our heroes in “Once Upon A Time” are facing their last foe to get to their happy ending. Gold’s evil self from the wish realm has broken loose, and he’s not just out to get Facilier’s blood. He’s a dealmaker, a businessman of sorts, and he’s out to get everybody he could profit from.

In “Homecoming,” Rumplestiltskin has set his eyes on Henry’s recently reunited family. And though he’s mainly tormenting Henry (Andrew J. West), it all ties back to his quest for his happy ending. After all, isn’t that what everyone is after, fairytale or not? Even if some happy endings actually lead to more trouble than good.

Reunion To Trouble

Tonight’s episode of “Once Upon A Time” begins with a look back to young Henry (Jared Gilmore) trying to save Sleeping Beauty. His hardships are thrown to the side, however, when prince charming arrives and saves Sleeping Beauty as it was told. Henry’s only consolation is Aurora’s thanks for his “support.” Evil Rumple (Robert Carlyle) greets him outside the cave and offers him a deal for a happy ending. As expected, young Henry firmly rejects it.

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Back to present time, Regina’s whole family is celebrating in her bar. Meanwhile, Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) is heading back home. Tilly (Rose Reynolds) rings him up, and he turns around to see her standing across the street, knowing that if she steps any closer, she might send him back to the hospital. With a look of longing on both their faces, Hook promises his daughter that he’ll find a way for them to be together again. (I think they deserve the happy ending more than anyone.)

Regina (Lana Parrilla) visits Facilier’s office. And there she finds Gold trapped behind the zen waterfall wall. After she releases him, Gold tells Regina about his alter ego paying a visit and putting a quick jab to Facilier’s life. Speaking of evil Rumple, he’s gone off to Henry, and he whisks away Henry’s family from their sweet little celebration. In return for them, he strikes a deal with Henry. All Henry has to do is take the Dark One Dagger from Gold.

Henry rushes to the precinct and finds Regina, Gold, and Hook already starting the plan against Rumple. To get to the wish realm, Hook volunteers to provide the way and declares that Captain Hook is ready to go home.

One Wish Away

There’s another person who’s not into the celebrations, and that person is Tiana (Mekia Cox). Drew (Jeff Pierre) finds her stress cooking. And she explains that she doesn’t seem to know who she is anymore. The breaking of the curse has opened Sabine’s eyes to the life she once had, and now, she’s just lost. Luckily, Naveen and his sweet words manage to get Tiana’s doubts out of her head.

Meanwhile, Regina arrives with Tilly’s cracked looking glass. Despite the danger it poses, the team (Henry, Hook, Gold, and Regina) continue to use it to transport themselves to the wish realm.

Henry and Regina end up in a dark castle full of human bones. There they find Rumple’s father, Peter Pan, imprisoned and miserable. Though he offers little help, he warns the mother and son about Rumple. On the other hand, Gold and Hook end up in Gold’s old home. As Gold recounts that he never wanted to see the place ever again, he realizes that Rumple’s pushing his buttons. He looks to the side and sees a mallet. It’s the very same mallet he used to cripple himself to avoid fighting in a war in the past. It’s a reminder of his cowardice.

Before Gold could do anything irrational, Hook proposes another way. He takes Gold to his cave abode and calls on Ariel (JoAnna Garcia Swisher). Hook asks for some squid ink, and without hesitation, Ariel throws him a clam filled with a few drops of it.

Back in Rumple’s castle, Regina and Henry meet Cruella De Vil (Victoria Smurfit). Henry defeats her in a sword duel, and Regina sends her back inside her cage. Begrudgingly, Cruella tells them that Lucy and Ella are in Rumple’s basement.

Rumple’s Prophecy

Henry and Regina find Ella (Dania Ramirez) and Lucy (Alison Fernandez) trapped in a snowglobe in Rumple’s basement. The culprit pops in and reminds Henry of his task. However, Henry refuses to take the Dark One Dagger from his grandfather. He refuses to trade Gold’s happy ending for his. To motivate him, Rumple sprinkles in a blizzard of snow into Lucy and Ella’s prison. And no one can get them out of there except for Rumple himself.

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Later on, Gold arrives with Hook bearing the upper hand with the squid ink. Regina tails Gold to make sure he keeps his side honest while she sends the boys to get up to the library to search for any spells that might help Ella and Lucy.

Gold heads back to his old Shack where Rumple awaits him. To Rumple’s surprise, Gold decides to hand over the Dark One Dagger. Gold does a compelling speech of how he’s given up trying to do it the right way. To rid himself of the burdens and finally get the happy ending he so terribly desires, he’s decided to let go.

Shocked but delighted, Rumple takes the dagger but, finds himself frozen in place. As soon as his fingers wrapped around the knife, the squid ink took effect. As Gold prepares to kill his evil half, Rumple reminds him that by doing so, Gold will never be reunited with Belle. However, for the sake of good, Gold relinquishes his wish. Before Gold completes his mission, Regina barges in. The squid ink loses effect, and Rumple knocks Regina unconscious.

With Gold at his mercy, Rumple reminds his twin of a prophecy delivered to them by a seer the day they crippled themselves. According to the prophecy, the boy will be Gold’s undoing, and Rumple is there to make sure it comes to pass.

The True Author

In the library, the boys fail to find any spells that might help. However, one black quill gives Henry a new idea. Hook refuses to let Henry go off on is own, so Henry knocks him out with a candle holder. He apologizes to his unconscious friend and explains that he wouldn’t let him go where he needs to go if he knew what Henry was thinking.

Henry goes into the forest in search of the Author’s Pen. After looking into Henry’s heart and seeing the stories he’s woven, the pen’s guardian hands over the pen to Henry. Before he leaves, the guardian reminds Henry that a true author records the story instead of creating it. He tells Henry to choose wisely each time he uses the pen.

Henry goes back to Rumple’s castle and extracts some of Cruella’s darkness to make ink for the pen. But, before Henry could write a single word, Rumple takes the pen away. Henry realizes that Rumple was after the pen this whole time. As he swears never to write a word for the villain, wish realm young Henry steps out from the shadows and offers his services.

Henry tries to remind his other self of his principles. And in reply, young Henry points out their difference. Unlike adult Henry, young Henry’s wishes didn’t come true which led him to make a deal with Rumple. When Rumple said that Henry couldn’t get his happy ending without him, he was actually referring to this version of Henry.

Henry Writes A New ‘Once Upon A Time’

Hook, Regina, and Gold arrive just in time to find young Henry’s new pen hovering above a clean page in the book. This Henry greets Regina coldly and asks her if she’s come to finish off the rest of the family. Adult Henry explains how the Author’s Pen got there and apologized but, Regina and Gold could only look down in disappointment.

Gold tries to convince young Henry not to honor the deal and find a loophole instead but, young Henry makes it clear that he’s already made up his mind. Adult Henry tries his luck but, to no avail. For his first wish, Rumple rips off the powers of the guardian. With a stroke of the pen, young Henry makes his dream come true. After that, Rumple whisks everyone away to the snow globe except for Regina. He’s leaving young Henry to deal with her.

Back in Hyperion Heights, Tilly feels the loss of her guardian status. Together with Margot (Tiera Skovbye), they ask Tiana for help. Tiana obliges and proceeds to ask help from her subjects. But, on her first try, her confidence hunkers down. Again, with Drew’s help, she manages to get her subjects to listen to her. By the end of her speech, she has fully taken her title back as queen from her doubt.

Inspired by Tiana’s speech, one of her subjects surrenders his magic bean. Riding Tiana’s truck, Tilly and Margot use the bean to travel back to Storybrooke to get a little bit of help from some friends.

“Once Upon A Time” continues next Friday, May 18th, with the Season 6 finale, titled “Leaving Storybrooke” at 8/7c on ABC.