Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time is a fantasy-drama television series created by Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis.

Plot
The series takes place in the fictional seaside town of Storybrooke, Maine, which acts like a parallel universe in which the residents are actually characters from various and well known fairy tales that were transported to the 'real world' town by a powerful curse. Its only hope lies with a bail bondswoman, Emma Swan, who was transported from the fairy tale realm before she could be cursed. As such, she is the only person who can break the curse and restore the character's magical memories, aided by her son, Henry, who has a book of fairy tales that holds the key to ending the curse.

Each episode focuses on a character's backstory. One segment details their life in the Enchanted Forest that, when serialized, adds a piece to the puzzle about the characters and their connection to the events that lead up to how the curse began and consequences that it can bring. The other, set in the present day, follows a similar pattern with a different outcome but also offers the same consequences.

Season 1 (2011-2012)

 * Main article: Season 1

Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming's (Josh Dallas) wedding is interrupted by the Evil Queen's (Lana Parrilla) announcement that she will destroy everyone's happiness. The Queen fulfills her promise by unleashing a curse upon the fairytale world that rips away everyone's happy endings by sending them to our world. The fairytale characters we know and love therefore become trapped in the town of Storybrooke, Maine, dazed and unable to remember their past and prior identities, assuming new ones, and unaware of the fact that time is frozen. When young Henry Mills (Jared S. Gilmore), the adopted son of Mayor Regina Mills - the real world alter-ego of the Evil Queen - starts believing in the curse and that everyone in town is a fairytale character, due to a book given to him by his teacher, Miss Blanchard (Snow White), he tracks down his birth mother, Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison), in Boston, knowing her to be the child of the royal couple, and the key to everyone's salvation. Henry manages to get Emma to come with him to Storybrooke, and fills her in on the curse, but she refuses to believe him. However, Emma decides to stay once she meets Henry's stern and manipulative foster mother, and this leads the young man to continue to try and find evidence to prove his theory. The residents of Storybrooke include: psychiatrist Archie Hopper (Raphael Sbarge) - who used to be Jiminy Cricket; Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan) - the Huntsman; Ruby (Meghan Ory) and Granny (Beverley Elliott) - Red Riding Hood and her grandmother; local drunk Leroy (Lee Arenberg), who once went by Grumpy, the head of his dwarf brethren; and the mysterious Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle), who was none other than the vicious Rumplestiltskin...

Henry takes it upon himself to get Emma to believe in the curse, and save everyone, which includes going past his malevolent adoptive mother, getting Miss Blanchard and David Nolan (Charming's alter-ego) together as a couple, and whatever other steps required to make "Operation Cobra" a success. But even though there's always hope, the battle of good versus evil isn't an easy one...

Season 2 (2012-2013)

 * Main article: Season 2

With true love's kiss, Emma Swan, the savior, was able to break the Dark Curse and restore the memories of the previous lives of everyone in Storybrooke, including those of Mary Margaret/Snow White and David/Charming, her biological parents, with whom she's reunited, at long last. However, shortly after reuniting with his long-lost love, the fair Belle (Emilie de Ravin), Rumplestiltskin brings about magic to the small town, which is sure to make things complicated. To add salt to the wound, the townspeople learn that once one crosses the town's border, they lose their memories again, and revert back to their cursed selves, and it soon becomes known as well that whatever kept outsiders from stumbling into Storybrooke is now also gone. After Emma and her mother are taken through a magic portal back to what is now left of the Enchanted Forest, they learn that a corner of the land was spared from the curse, and that the world is now a more dangerous place. With the aid of the brave Mulan (Jamie Chung) and the beautiful Aurora (Sarah Bolger), mother and daughter make it back to Storybrooke... but are soon followed by two cunning, deceptive villains: Captain Hook (Colin O'Donoghue), a one-handed pirate with a vendetta against Rumplestiltskin; and the powerful Cora (Barbara Hershey), Regina's cold, manipulative and heartless (quite literally) mother. Drama is heightened when Belle loses her memories, an outsider by the name of Greg Mendell (Ethan Embry) becomes aware that there is magic in town, and Rumple is reunited with his son, Baelfire (Michael Raymond-James)... who also turns out to be Emma's ex-lover and Henry's father. Meanwhile, Regina tries to better herself, which proves to be excruciatingly hard, Snow White gets a taste of darkness, and Bae's fiancée, the elusive Tamara (Sonequa Martin-Green), comes to town with a dark and perilous agenda... and to meet an equally dangerous ally.

Season 3 (2013-2014)

 * Main article: Season 3

Emma, Mary Margaret, Regina, David, Hook, and Rumple team up and sail on Hook's ship to Neverland to rescue Henry. Meanwhile, Belle keeps the fort up in Storybrooke, and Neal finds himself back in the Enchanted Forest.

Main cast and characters
Once Upon a Time features a large ensemble of castmembers, listed below are the thirteen actors of the series who have, at some point, been credited under "Starring", indicating that they are main castmembers. They are ordered alphabetically, and the periods in which they were regulars are featured in brackets, except for those who were always such.


 * Eion Bailey - August W. Booth/Pinocchio (episodes 14-22, recurring otherwise)
 * Robert Carlyle - Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin
 * Josh Dallas - David Nolan/Prince Charming
 * Emilie de Ravin - Belle (season 2 onwards, recurring previously)
 * Jamie Dornan - Sheriff Graham Humbert/The Huntsman (episodes 1-7, recurring afterwards)
 * Jared S. Gilmore - Henry Mills
 * Ginnifer Goodwin - Mary Margaret Blanchard/Snow White
 * Jennifer Morrison - Emma Swan
 * Colin O'Donoghue - Captain Hook (episode 36 onwards, recurring previously)
 * Meghan Ory - Ruby/Red Riding Hood (season 2, recurring previously)
 * Lana Parrilla - Regina Mills/Queen Regina
 * Michael Raymond-James - Neal Cassidy/Baelfire (season 3, recurring season 2)
 * Raphael Sbarge - Dr. Archie Hopper/Jiminy Cricket (season 1, recurring afterwards)