Tonight on ABC their new fantastical, epic adventure ONCE UPON A TIME continues with a new episode called, “Ariel.” On tonight’s show after being saved by Ariel, Snow White returns the favor by helping her new friend get acquainted with Prince Eric, adn Emma, Mary Margaret, David and Hook attempt to rescue Neal from Pan’s encampment. Did you watch last week’s episode? We did and we recapped it right here for you.
On last week’s show with the deadly Dreamshade coursing through David’s body and close to death, Hook took him on one last journey to find a sextant that could help them decipher a map that would lead them off Neverland. Meanwhile, in the Fairy Tale Land that was, Killian Jones – aka Hook – and his brother, Captain Liam, sailed off under orders of the King to find a powerful indigenous plant on an uncharted land that could help heal any injury.
On tonight’s show Back in the Fairy Tale Land that was, when Ariel (JoAnna Garcia Swisher) saves Snow White from drowning in the ocean’s depths, Snow returns the favor by helping her new friend get acquainted with Prince Eric, with whom she has fallen madly in love with. Meanwhile, Emma, Mary Margaret, David and Hook attempt to save Neal, who is imprisoned in one of Pan’s encampments, and Regina and Mr. Gold begrudgingly team up to find a way to take down Pan.
Tonight’s new episode is going to be exciting, and you won’t want to miss it. So be sure to tune in for our live coverage of the season 3 Episode 5 of Once Upon A Time — tonight at 8PM EST! While you wait for our recap, hit the comments and let us know how your excited you are about Once Upon A Time being back! Check out a sneak peek of tonight’s episode [CLICK HERE]
Tonight’s episode begins now – Refresh Page for Updates
Flashback – Mary runs through the woods chased by two of the Queen’s guard. She comes to a cliff and stares at the water far below. The guards tell her they’re there to take her back and pull swords. She dives off the cliff! The jump drags her deep down underwater and she sinks but is then pulled up by a woman. It’s Ariel – the little mermaid. She tells her to dive in calmer waters next time.
Regina tells Emma to concentrate but she can’t because she’s too distracted. She tells her to find her anger and use it to focus. Emma says there has to be a way to use her power without going dark. Hook tells Mary and David that Neal is alive and on the island – according to Pan. He tells them that Pan has his reasons for telling them.
Mary notices someone has come to their camp while they were gone. She sees signs of intrusion. Hook and David want to find Neal without telling Emma so she’s not disappointed again. Mary wants to come clean, but the guys convince her to keep it quiet.
Flashback – Ariel asks why Mary jumped off the cliff and she says she was being chased by an evil queen. Ariel tells her about Eric – her true love and how she rescued him from a shipwreck. She says they’ve never spoken. Ariel shakes out her bag of stuff she collects and shows her an invitation to a ball at his castle in honor of Ursula the sea witch. Ariel hopes to see him there and Mary asks how she can do that with a tail. Ariel shows her how she can change into a girl and she’s stunned. She tells her she has 12 hours that she can walk on land. Ariel asks Mary not to tell Eric that she’s a mermaid – she wants him to fall for her without knowing.
David and Hook are preparing to sneak off to find Neal when Emma asks where they’re going. They panic and each says a different thing which makes her suspicious. Mary instantly fesses up and tells her that Neal’s alive.
Gold tries to work magic when Pan shows up to tell him he can’t see the future in Neverland because time stands still here. Pan has cooked him breakfast and Gold isn’t happy to see him. Pan eats one of the eggs and tells him there’s a silver lining – that he can leave at any time. Gold won’t go because it means leaving Henry and Neal behind. Pan tells him he may as well go because they won’t forgive him. Pan asks if he’s forgiven his father. He tells him to go home and back to Belle and says maybe he can have another child with her. Pan walks away. The only way Gold can kill Pan is to die himself…
Mary shows the group signs of a struggle outside of camp but Regina thinks it’s a set up. She says they can follow the evil boy’s dirt road if they want but she’s going to save Henry. She says she’s tired of waiting around and stalks away. Mary tells Emma not to give up on finding out if Neal is alive – she reminds her it’s important to Henry too.
Flashback – Ariel and Mary come into the party and Mary gives her pointers on what things are called and how to use them. She points out Prince Eric to a love struck Ariel. He notices her smiling at him and Mary tells her to go to him. She shoves her in his direction but then she trips. He helps her up and asks her to dance. He introduces himself and tells her she looks familiar.
He says he remembers her from the shipwreck and has had a dream of the face of his rescuer. She says that can’t be because she’s new in town. He says Ursula saved him and showed him a vision of the future – his future – and it’s her. She says Ursula is just a myth and he disagrees. Eric tells her he’s leaving in the morning to go on an expedition from there to Agrabah. He invites her to come along and when she balks he tells her that he’ll wait for her in the morning and if she doesn’t show, he will be heart-broken but will understand. He bows to her as the song ends. There’s a mirror in the ballroom and Regina watches the scene – the soldiers tell her that Ariel is the one who rescued her. She tells them next time to make sure that when you think someone is dead they better be dead. She kills one of the guards to set an example.
Pan watches the gang walk through the jungle and his sidekick asks what they should do with Neal. Pan tells him to take Neal to the Echo Cave and says the game is about to get interesting…
Gold twirls the little doll in his hand when his Belle hallucination shows back up and tells him to come back to her so they can start a new family together. He says she’s not real and she touches him to prove it. She tells him to take her hand and believe in her love so they can be together. He touches her and she begins to choke. Regina is there and is choking the girl. She tells him she has to show him the truth. Once she chokes the life out of him, Gold can see it’s the evil shadow!
Emma tells her mom that she kissed Hook. Mary says Neal will understand. Mary says she needs to have hope that he’s alive because hope is the beginning of a happy ending.
Flashback to Mary telling Ariel that she should make Eric choose between her and the voyage. Ariel says the voyage is his dream and Mary says maybe she’s his dream. She encourages her to be honest and tells her to open her heart to love. She tells her she has to try and Ariel says she needs time to think. Ariel leaves Mary sitting at the party and goes out to the ocean. She calls to Ursula and asks what she should do. There’s no answer and she’s ready to walk away when the water bubbles up and Ursula is there – only it’s Regina in disguise!
Regina chews Gold out for being naïve and tells him she saved him from being Pan’s lunch. He asks what she cares and she says she needs him to save Henry. He tells her he can only stop Pan by dying himself. She tells him that the dark one and the evil queen together are unstoppable. He tells her that he’s faced him before and the only way to kill him is to sacrifice himself. Regina says maybe they can find a way to contain Pan instead. He tells her he has something back in his shop and she asks why he didn’t bring it and he says because he came there to kill him and sacrifice himself. Regina says they need a change of plan and need to get the item from the shop. They just need to figure out how to cross realms.
Flashback – Ursula tells Ariel not to fret. She tells her she’s in luck and can help her with her dilemma with Eric. Ursula tells her Mary was mistaken and that she doesn’t need to tell him the truth – she says he won’t accept it. The witch says she can keep her legs and walk on land and be part of his world forever. Ursula asks if she’s interested and Ariel says – of course.
Ariel rushes to tell Mary that she got a gift that will allow her to be with Eric and Mary to escape the evil Queen who wants her – she hands Mary a bracelet and it turns Mary into a mermaid. She tells her it’s a good deal because it saves both of them. She says she can have a wonderful life under the sea. Mary tells her that Ursula is a myth and Ariel disagrees. Then Regina appears and Mary tells her that who she thought was Ursula is the evil queen.
The gang follows the tracks to the cave and they wonder why there are no guards. Hook says it needs no guards because it’s the Echo Cave. He says you have to reveal a truth about yourself that you will never admit to anyone else. Hook says that Pan wants them to be there to rescue Neal so they reveal their secrets which will ultimately destroy them.
Flashback – Mary can’t get the bracelet off and Regina says she can’t run from her anymore. Mary tells Ariel to run away and she says no – not if Regina will hurt Mary. Regina says she’s going to get hurt whether or not Ariel is there. She tells her there are no second chances and to run off to her happy ending. Mary tells her to run away and says that Regina will never have a happy ending of her own. Ariel whispers sorry and runs away.
Regina turns back to Mary and calls her the catch of the day. Regina chokes Mary with her magic but then Ariel stabs her with a fork and grabs the bracelet off her. She tells her to hold her breath and drags Mary into the water. With her mermaid tail back, Ariel swims them safely away from Regina.
The gang (less Regina) heads into the Echo Cave and they see a cage and can see Neal in it. He reaches out to them. There’s 100 feet between where his cage is pinioned and where they are. Hook says this is literally the moment of truth. He only knows what he’s been told and not the particulars and says there’s only one way to find out. Hook says he kissed Emma and David is shocked but it’s not a truth since Mary knew. He tells her the secret is that he never thought until he met Emma that he could get over his first love Mila and love another. The ground shifts beneath them and a bridge begins to form.
Mary tells David that since the curse broke she hasn’t wanted to admit that their daughter is smart and amazing and that she loves but says she’s not okay with them missing her growing up. She says they don’t have the relationship she wanted and they were cheated out of her entire childhood. She says that she wants another baby. The ground shifts again and more of the bridge forms.
David says she’ll make an amazing mother but it can’t happen with him. Mary asks why and he says when he went off with Hook it was to find a cure for his dreamshade poisoning. He says he was hit by the arrow when he saved Mary. He tells her he can never leave Neverland or he’ll die. The ground shifts and the bridge is complete.
Emma draws her sword and takes to the narrow bridge. She walks over to Neal’s cage and asks if he’s okay. She hacks away at the cage and Neal tells her that’s not how it works. She still has a truth to tell. He tells her she can tell him anything. She says that when she heard he was alive she wasn’t happy, she was terrified. She says that from the moment she saw him and he stepped back in her life she knew that she never stopped loving him. She says when she lost him again, all of the years of pain from the first time she loved him came rushing back. She says she’ll always love him but her secret is that she was hoping he really wasn’t alive to save her the pain and put him behind her. The walls of his cage disappear and he reaches out to hold her close.
Emma walks out of the cave with Neal close behind. He thanks the gang for rescuing him. Hook tells him they found the star maps and asks if Neal can get them off the island. He says he can and they head off to rescue Henry. Emma tells him she wishes she could change how she feels and tells him she’s sorry. He says after what he’s put her through, she never has to apologize. He says he has a secret too – that he’s never going to stop fighting for her. Mary is furious with David for keeping his near-death secret and stalks away.
Flashback – Ariel dumps Mary onto the shore and Mary tells her to find Eric and tell him the truth about her. She yells GO – JUST GO and Ariel finally swims away to her true love. Eric’s man tells him they need to make sail and he says to wait a little longer. Ariel swims up and is about to call out to him where he stands on the balcony but her voice is gone. He walks back inside, giving up as Ariel screams silently. Regina appears and tells her she told her there would be no second chances. She tells her that she took her voice because the only thing worse than telling your prince you love him and him rejecting you is never being able to tell him so you have no chance at true love. She tells her – time to swim back home little mermaid. Regina walks by a mirror and suddenly the real Ursula is there. She reaches her tentacles out of the mirror and chokes Regina and tells her to never pretend to be her again.
Regina and Gold walk to the beach and she grabs up a shell. He tells her that summoning a giant squid won’t help. She says she doesn’t want calamari. She blows in the shell and Ariel is there. Gold tells her mermaids can cross realms but they can’t be trusted. Regina says this one can be and Regina returns her voice. She tells her she can give her what she wants. Regina waves her hand and the bracelet is in her hand and she says she can have legs and control them. She says she wants to send her to where she can find Prince Eric – Storybrooke!
