Once Upon a Time Back Next Week

Once Upon a Time comes back from winter break tomorrow on Sunday, January 6th and there is so much to discuss.

The last episode established Cora (Barbara Hershey) as the Queen of Hearts further confirming that Emma is Alice in Wonderland.

Things you simply must know:

- Sleeping Beauty's heart was taken and restored (that's gotta cause some wear and tear)
- No one can take Emma's heart or Cora's.
- Regina wanted Cora dead in fairytale land because she loved her and love is weakness. Cora liked it       and is coming to Storybrook to "help" her.
- Emma and Mary Margaret's returned to Storybrook (with Regina's help).
- Regina is trying to be a better mother and turn good.
- David/Charming's rescue from the fire caves.
- Hook and Cora setting sail for modern day Maine on his pirate ship. That's some pretty good magic.(There's a full episode recap on the ABC site and a full episode here.)

I don't think Cora's return is going to make it easy for Regina to be good, especially when she was rewarded for her goodness by being left out of the celebratory dinner at Granny's.

It was a great episode, but we have so much to look forward to:

Who is Rumplestiltskin's son Baelfire in Storybrook and when will he make an appearance?
Now that magic has come to Storybrook, if Baelfire is there he knows who he is. And everyone in town knows who Mr. Gold really is. So if Baelfire is in Storybrook, then he must not want to see his father just yet. Maybe he is Neal Cassady, Emma's boyfriend and Henry's father outside of Storybrook. He definitely has ties since he was the one who got the postcard from August/Pinocchio.

Emma & Hook - There is a bit of romantic tension there. If Neal turns out to be Baelfire that would mean Emma would be caught in a love triangle between Rumple's son and worst enemy. Could be kinda of interesting.

What else is happening? (SPOILERS & SPECULATION)
- Rose McGowan (Charmed) has been cast to play Cora as a young girl, as we see further how disfunction has been passed down the generations in this magical family.
- episode 215 is called, The Queen is Dead, according to a tweet from Adam Horowitz. Is this metaphorical? Which Queen is dead?
- We've heard much talk about Ariel being in an episode this season but she hasn't made an appearance yet.
- Neal Cassady is making another appearance this season.

And here's the extended promo for the second half of the season looks like both Cora and Hook will get the battles they seek:

If you haven't watched Once Upon A Time yet, you can get caught up by watching this primer from ABC:

Be sure to enter our current contest to win a Nancy Drew photo album by commenting on that post by January 10th.