There's No Place Like Home (Once Upon a Time)

Plot

In 2001, Emma Swan and Neal Cassidy went on a date in Portland, Oregon, after hours at an amusement park. Neal picked a lock so they could sneak in and sit on a swing ride. He confided in Emma about his past, describing home as a place you cannot escape and that you inevitably miss. Picking up from the prior episode, Emma spots a woman in the same cell who was arrested for aiding Snow White.

She discovers both are scheduled for execution the next day. Recalling the lock-picking trick Neal used at the amusement park, Emma uses two spoons to break the lock, and it works. Meanwhile, Charming catches Snow in a rope trap, but their first meeting is disrupted in timing. Hook arrives and mentions that another woman, Emma, has his ring.

Charming examines Snow’s fairy dust pendant as she recounts her backstory, also thrown off schedule, and he formulates a plan to infiltrate Regina’s castle, free Emma, and reclaim the ring. Snow urges them to wait, allowing Hook and Charming a moment to discuss love. Red Riding Hood then appears, identifying herself as Snow’s friend and offering to help them enter the castle. Red transforms into a wolf, startling a guard whom Charming knocks out, but the escape goes wrong when they encounter Emma and her cellmate.

Hook tells Emma she robbed him of a dramatic rescue and expresses frustration that she again altered the timeline by changing the woman’s fate. Soon after, Snow and Regina prepare for a confrontation. Snow throws dark fairy dust, but Regina halts it with magic. Snow insists that revealing Daniel’s secret to Cora was a mistake made when she was a child, but Regina remains unforgiving, speaks of consequences, and erects a stake to burn Snow.

Regina hurls a fireball at the helpless Snow White, who seems to die. This causes Red to howl in wolf form, and Emma weeps over her mother’s death.

Cultural references

The episode title is a spoken phrase by Dorothy Gale in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Emma's alias in the Enchanted Forest is Princess Leia, a reference to a main protagonist of the original Star Wars trilogy, possibly referencing Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm; Disney was the parent company of ABC, which aired Once Upon a Time. Hook's alias is Prince Charles, a reference to the former Prince of Wales and currently King of the United Kingdom, and also to the inspiration of J. M. Barrie's character, as the Hook of the original play wears the same clothes as Charles II.

It was hinted on March 10, 2014, that producers might incorporate characters from The Princess and the Frog, Brave, and Frozen in future episodes, possibly toward the end of the third season if greenlit by Disney. The final minutes set up a new story arc based on Frozen for the fourth season; characters from the former two films would appear in season seven and season five respectively.

Reception

The two-hour season finale, which included the episode "Snow Drifts," earned a 2.3/7 rating and 6.80 million live viewers, securing first place in both the 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. time slots. While the 18-49 demographic rating improved compared to the previous episode, the total audience was smaller. This finale matched the 18-49 rating of the second-season finale, but that earlier episode had drawn 7.33 million viewers. The broadcast ranked first for its time slot and for the entire night, and came in eleventh for the week.

DVR playback added 2.59 million viewers, raising the total to 9.39 million and the 18-49 rating to 3.5. In Canada, 1.489 million viewers watched on CTV, placing third for the night and twenty-second for the week. Critics responded positively. Hillary Busis of Entertainment Weekly praised the episode, calling the final shot possibly the most surprising moment in the show's history.

Gwen Ihnat of The A.V. Club gave it an A−, highlighting the blend of magic and fairy tales with real-world themes like family and home, and noting Emma’s realization of what she would lose by moving to New York. Christine Orlado of TV Fanatic rated it 4.7 out of 5 stars. Amy Ratcliffe of IGN gave it an 8.9 out of 10, describing the finale as a spirited trip into the past that introduced an exciting new villain, and commended Jennifer Morrison’s performance.