The New Neverland

Plot

At the Kingdom castle, Snow White and Prince Charming prepare for their wedding day. Shortly after they are married, Regina threatens the whole kingdom, leading Snow to postpone her honeymoon. She relents to Charming and agrees to go to the Summer Palace instead. After Charming carries her over the threshold and leaves the room, Snow puts on her archer's outfit and jumps out the window, unaware that Charming was waiting for her, having predicted her plan.

Snow tells her husband she intends to travel to the Gorgon Cave, cut off Medusa's head, and send it to Regina so she will turn to stone. Charming insists on coming along. Inside the cave, Snow and Charming seek out Medusa. Snow's sword disintegrates upon contact with Medusa's neck, and Charming looks up at the wrong moment and turns to stone.

Regina contacts Snow through her rippled shield and taunts her stepdaughter. Snow realizes she can get Medusa to destroy herself by looking at Medusa's face in the shield, which is as shiny as a mirror. The ploy works, Medusa turns herself to stone, and Charming returns to human form. The couple gives up their plans to destroy Regina and return to the Summer Palace, where Snow admits she was obsessed with defeating Regina because she wants to have a baby.

Reception

After two weeks of declining numbers, this episode posted an increase in viewership, scoring a 2.1/5 among 18-49s with 6.94 million viewers. It placed third in its timeslot and seventh for the night, and was the most-watched episode since "Ariel," which delivered 7.55 million viewers. The episode garnered mixed to positive reviews from most critics. Liane Bonin Starr of HitFix gave a mixed to positive review, focusing on the episode's pace and simplicity, noting the appearance of a "really cheesy-looking Medusa" and commenting that the show's scope was getting broad by including Greek mythology alongside other genres.

Hillary Busis of Entertainment Weekly criticized the episode's and show's excessive use of flashbacks, suggesting the show cut back on glimpses into the pasts of Snow White, Prince Charming, Regina, and Rumpelstiltskin unless they conveyed crucial new information. Kylie Peters of Den of Geek gave Jared Gilmore's portrayal of the body-switched Henry a positive review, stating that Gilmore is not a bad actor but Henry is a poorly-written character, while Robbie Kay playing body-switched-Henry was less convincing. Peters was critical of the episode's cliffhanger, questioning the resurrection of the curse plotline.