Last week the writers gave a great rendition of the classic Mary Shelly ‘Frankenstein’ story! This week, we continue on as Mary Margaret/Snow, Emma, Hook, Mulan and Aurora go after the magic compass but must get past the Giant from ‘Jack in the Beanstalk.’ Meanwhile, we get a brief glimpse of Emma’s life before she arrived at Storybrooke and who the baby Daddy is for loveable Henry.

(Warning! Spoilers ahead!)

Enchanted Forest:

Hook eplains his plan.

Hook leads the Mary Margaret/Snow, Aurora, Mulan and Emma to the beanstalk and tells Emma what she knows of the story ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ is all wrong. Evil giants grew the beans to plunder the lands from other dimensions and Jack is a war hero who defeated all but one evil giant. Unfortunately, no other person can grow any more beans to create more portals because it remains with the one surviving Giant. However, in order to get to Storybrooke, they will need the magic compass. While Cora can open a portal with the wardrobe ashes, she can’t find Storybrooke without the compass, so Hook devises the plan that they steal the compass from the Giant, then steal the ash from Cora and voilà! Back to Storybrooke.After they leave, Aurora confides that she doesn’t sleep much anymore because she gets horrible nightmares. Snow tells her it’s the side effects of the sleeping curse and she used to have it to, but Charming helped her through it. Snow offers to watch over her as she sleeps and promises that she’ll be safe.But Aurora still gets the same dream of being trapped in a room with red curtains and no doors and windows. The curtains are on fire and over in the other corner was someone else who was looking straight at her. Snow tells her that the nightmares will fade away and not to be scared.

Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum.. The Giant is not happy to be disturbed.

As they climb, Hook is able to discern much about Emma and her abandonment issues. Once they reach the top, Hook gets the attention of the Giant so that Emma can throw the poppy dust filled bag at him. The plan is successful and the Giant falls unconscious.They head to the Giant’s treasure trove but haven’t found the compass before the Giant wakes up. He runs into the treasure room and grabs Emma. She manages to get loose and as she runs away, the Giant chases her. She manages to trap him and it’s then that she hears the giant’s version of what happened in the war and that it’s the humans that were the evil ones causing the giant genocide. She allows him to live which prompts him to give her the compass.Before Emma leaves, however, she handcuffs Hook and tells him she can’t trust him and needs a head start before he’ll be let go.

Down below, the 10 hours has passed and Mulan begins to chop down the beanstalk. Snow tackles her to make her stop but before you can add mud to the cat fight, Emma jumps down and shows them she has the compass.

Emma’s Past:

The beginning of a love story? Emma and Neal’s first meeting.

Portland – 11 years ago and we see that Emma is quite the car jacker. That’s how she met Neal. She just happened to steal a car that he was sleeping in and instead of getting angry, he tries to ask her out. Of course that may be because he stole the car first. Ah, a match made in… well, anyway, they soon become the new Bonnie and Clyde of thievery.Neal decides it’s time to settle down and tells Emma to pick a place for them to do so. He gives her a map and with her eyes closed, picks Tallahassee, Fl.Before they leave, Neal shows Emma a Wanted poster for him that he saw at the Post Office. He tells her of a heist he did before meeting her and now that he’s wanted, he needs to head to Canada… alone. He can’t risk having her arrested too. She offers to retrieve the watches from its hiding place so that they can sell it and get new identities and head to Tallahassee.

She successfully gets the watches and brings it back to Neal. He tells her he’s going to fence them and makes arrangements to meet her with the money at a designated place. He gives her one of the watches before he leaves, however, someone is following him and manages to catch up to Neal. He tells Neal his name is August (we also know him as Pinocchio) and if he wants to protect Emma, he needs to come with him.

Emma gets arrested.

August tells Neal he’s been looking for Emma for the last 2 years. They were in the same home when they were kids and he promised to talk care of her. August tells Neal that he needs to leave her as Emma has a destiny to fill it. He shows Neal a box and whatever was inside changes Neal’s mind as he never shows up to their meeting place. Emma is arrested and the police officer tells her that Neal took off but called the police station and told them she had the stolen goods.The scene now fast forwards 2 months later in Vancouver and Neal visits Arthur. He can’t move on until he knows she’s okay. Arthur tells him she got 11 months as her sentence and once she’s out, she’ll have a good life and can do what she is supposed to do. He tells Arthur to give her the money he got fencing the watches as well as the car and makes him promise to tell him when she is free from her purpose. Arthur says he will – he’ll send him a postcard.While in prison, Emma gets a letter which contains a car key to the key chain Neal had stolen for her. The guard congratulates her saying not only will she get a car when she gets out… also a baby.

Storybrooke:

Henry is asleep and screams. David comes running in and Henry tells him he dreamt that he was in a red room with no doors or windows but there were curtains that were on fire. In the corner of the room she saw another person in the room staring at him…

Well, we now know who Henry’s father is and that he will be heading to Storybrooke as, if you recall, he was seen at the end of the first episode looking at a postcard from Storybrooke with the message “Broken.” What is interesting is that Pinocchio reveals that he was sent to watch over Emma. So who sent him? Who knew that she was destined to remove the curse?

If you’re worried about Hook, don’t be, as he’ll be seen again in latter part of the season as Collin O’Donoghue’s contact was extended. I do love a pirate (especially a rougish and charismatic one at that!) and he’ll be an interesting addition to a possible love triangle with Emma.

So maybe the wall between the Enchanted Forest and Storybrooke is not so think after all as Henry and Aurora seem to have dreamt of seeing each other in that fiery room. Thoughts?

Next week, ‘Once Upon a Time’ explores the story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood.’ Yes, her “true” nature was revealed last season, but I guess we get to see what happens now that magic has returned. It will be one beastly episode!