Is This Henry Mills?

**Is This Henry Mills?** is the twentieth episode of the seventh season and the 153rd episode overall of the American fantasy-drama series Once Upon a Time. Written by Dana Horgan & Leah Fong, and directed by Ron Underwood, it premiered on ABC in the United States on May 4, 2018.

In the episode, Henry’s future and that of the residents of Hyperion Heights rests on finding the spell that will change everything as Gothel prepares to unleash a new wrath on the Land Without Magic, while Facilier’s plan to use Sabine and Weaver are sidetracked by unforeseen circumstances. In the past, Henry’s faces a tough decision as he prepares to graduate from high school.

## Plot

### **Event Chronology**

* The Storybrooke events occur after “The Final Battle” and "A Pirate's Life" and before the opening scene of “Hyperion Heights” .
* The Seattle events occur after “Flower Child”.

### **In the Characters' Past (the present day)**

In Storybrooke, Regina has Henry line up to a wall to measure his growth. As he leaves to school, Regina offered him her car. However, he isn't sure about colleges at this point. Later on, Regina surprise Henry with a bunch of brochures from universities for him to consider. Weeks later, Regina discovers that Henry was accepted to every university but Henry continues to have doubts about his future and isn't sure about what he wants.

The flashback reveals a twist in the story: as Henry goes upstairs to try on his cap and gown, he gets a surprise phone call from Regina's cellphone. When Henry answered it, it was the adult Henry on the other end, as the young Henry was the person would break the adult Henry's curse. The two, despite younger one didn't know to who he is talking to, made a short conversation. Before ending the call, the adult Henry told the young Henry where to find the box that was behind the dresser. When Henry does, it revealed a magic bean, which Henry will use on the day he leaves Storybrooke.

Later that night, Henry finally tells Regina that as he is ready to make a choice but would later let her know the following morning. The final moments have Henry writing his book called "Once Upon a Time" and narrates the opening tales about him and his family.

### **In The Present Day**

A dark storm cloud has circulated around Seattle, and as Lucy tells Regina about how Facilier saved Henry from the curse but it failed to ignite True Love's Kiss between him and Jacinda, the two are startled by Gothel, who offered Regina a chance to join her Coven and save her family as she tells them that Henry has lost his powers in believing. Regina turns her down. Later on, Weaver makes amends with Regina by offering a special potion to help Regina save Henry. He tells Regina he's doing this because of Belle. But the potion she later gave Henry at his apartment doesn't work. Regina and Lucy decided to use another approach, by using the "Once Upon a Time" book, but that doesn't work either. At this point, Henry still doesn't believe and wants Regina and Lucy to stop this nonsense, as Regina tells him that the curse Gothel created sent everyone back in time and that their past selves have yet to leave Storybrooke (thus revealing that the flashback and the current realm are actually occuring alongside each other). After they returned to Henry's apartment, and after Lucy told him she has given up on him, Henry discovers the adoption papers and sees the phone number, calls the number and speaks to his younger self, which triggers Henry's memories to come back. Lucy is excited that Henry's back and they go to rescue Regina.

At the Coven, Rogers witnessed one of the witches being transformed into a tree as the power takes hold on Tilly and escaped. When he reached the police station, Rogers confronted Weaver about Gothel and the witches, and Weaver told him that everything he witnessed is true and that it will all make sense soon. The two then recruited Margot to help them. When they return, Margot attempted to talk Tilly out of it but Tilly used her magic to push her away. As the rest of the witches are turning to trees, Tilly shrinks them down in size.

Earlier that day at Jacinda's, Lucy and Jacinda are packing for Bainbridge Island when Sabine gave Lucy a backpack that Drew used. When Lucy showed the two a tarot card and told them about Facilier, the ladies decided to pay a visit to Samdi's office. When they do visit, Facilier is ready and show them a tied up Drew, then sticks a pin in a doll that caused Sabine pain and the women comply by joining him in the closet. The curse also woke up Ella and Tiana afterwards, but Facilier escaped before they can stop him. Tiana and Naveen are also reunited.

That night at the garden, Regina is ready to stop Gothel, but as Regina doesn't have magic Gothel gets the upper hand and succeeded. As Gothel prepares to destroy humanity, Henry and Lucy show up, and as Henry grabs Regina, he kissed her and broke the Curse, saving humanity. The curse not only restored everyone and their magic, but also gave Alice a chance to choose love over evil, and used her magic to transform Gothel into a tree, and placed flowers around it. The ending of the curse reunited Henry with Ella, Regina and Lucy, and Alice with Hook and Robin.

With Weaver's powers restored, the former Mr. Gold attempts to retrieve his Dagger, but it is not in his safe. He then visited Facilier's office and discovers his album book there. When Facilier walked in, Weaver attempts to use his magic to choke Facilier but stopped short of killing him. Unfortunately, just as he was about to ask Facilier about the Dagger, Facilier is killed in front of Weaver... by the Wish Realm Rumpelstiltskin, who now holds the Dagger and wants to become better acquainted with Weaver.

## Production Notes

Archival footage of previous episodes were used in the episode, and featured an uncredited Jennifer Morrison.

## Reception

### **Reviews**

The episode received critical acclaim. Critics praised the writing, music, and the performances of West, Parrilla, and Gilmore.

*TV Fanatic* gave the episode a 4.0 out of 5 stars.

*Entertainment Weekly*'s Justin Kirkland gave the episode a A-.

## Trivia

* First episode in this season that Granny appears
* Upon seeing the witches' circle, Robin says "I once went to an Ayahuasca ceremony in Iquitos." Ayahuasca is an Amazon shamanistic mind altering brew used in religious/spiritual ceremonies. Iquitos is a city in northern Peru that has built a small tourist industry around providing supposedly authentic ayahuasca drug trips/spiritual experiences to folks who believe tripping balls is, rather literally, divine.
* The title card features Regina's Mercedes from Storybrooke in front of the Seattle skyline
* Tilly says that she's not an orphan or a street-rat, referencing two previous Saviours on the show - Emma and Aladdin.

## Goofs

* The curse breaking shouldn't have brought magic to Hyperion Heights. When the first curse was broken, magic was not brought to Storybrooke until Gold did it deliberately. It was not part of breaking the curse.

## Connections

* TRON (1982)
	+ Regina hands Henry a TRON lunch box