Selfless, Brave and True

"Selfless, Brave and True" is the 40th episode of Once Upon a Time.

Summary
While Mary Margaret goes off on her own in an attempt to come to grips with what she did to Cora and how her deed has affected her, she stumbles upon August, who has hidden himself away from the others, ashamed at the actions he has taken in life, and is completely made of wood. Meanwhile, Emma is shocked when Neal invites his fiancée, Tamara, to come to Storybrooke. In flashbacks, after the curse is cast, August is introduced to a man of magic who may be able to prevent him from turning back into wood... but at a steep price.

Teaser
Phuket October 24th, 2011

A glass bottle is seen rolling from side to side on a messy, wooden floor belonging to a house beside the beach. The camera moves up to the bed where a naked woman, covered by sheets, is seen sleeping beside a man. We see a digital clock on the bedside table, and when the time changes from 8:14 to 8:15, the man suddenly wakes up and turns around, revealing himself to be August W. Booth. Apparently in pain, August sits up frantically and his one wooden leg hits the floor as we see the skin on his thigh further transforming into wood. He looks at it, shocked, before telling the girl he slept with to wake up (in Thai, with subtitles appearing on the screen). The girl does so, but tells August that it's only 8:15 and that he should go back to bed, but he moves backwards, still staring at his leg, and asks the girl if he sees it. He addresses her as Isra and begs her to wake up and help him, but Isra tells him that it's early and she's sleeping. He asks her if she doesn't see it, but she tells him that all she sees is his leg, before begging him to be quiet. She closes her eyes as August stands up out of bed and says that he needs to go to a hospital, but Isra asks him what the hell is wrong with him, not being able to see his wooden leg. August, in a panicked state, then says (in English), "I'm turning into wood." ONCE UPON A TIME

Act I
David adds some white-petaled flowers to a small vase on a breakfast tray in his apartment, looking over to his wife who's remaining in bed with the covers pulled over her head, still moping after what she did to Cora. He takes the tray from the counter and begins to approach Mary Margaret but Emma sees this and says, "Breakfast in bed? Seriously?" David reminds his daughter that what's happened has been really hard on Mary Margaret and the least they can do is make sure that she's eating. Emma says that she thinks it's time to give the hot cocoa and the foot massages a rest and hall her ass out of bed and tell her to move past this. David places the tray back onto the counter before telling Emma that she's being a little harsh, reminding her that Mary Margaret took Cora's life. As he says this, Mary Margaret is shown to be awake and listening from under her sheets, seeming sad, when Henry emerges from the stairs, asking his mother and grandfather if everything's okay. The two of them assure him that everything's fine and Emma tells him to get his coat. Henry wishes David goodbye before Emma approaches her father and speaks in a hushed tone, telling him that she knows he thinks Mary Margaret needs their help, but at the end of the day, she's the only one who can help herself.

As Emma talks, she applies her own coat and David nods as his daughter follows Henry out of the apartment. He goes to say something else but the door closes before he can, and he suddenly hears the words "good morning" from behind him, and turns to see his wife up and out of bed. He greets her unexpectedly and approaches the counter, pointing out that he made her some eggs, but if she's craving something else, they can go to Granny's Diner. "Unless you have other plans..." the prince says, finally taking note that Mary Margaret is packing things into her handbag. She tells her husband that she thought she'd head out to the woods as she needs to think things through, but David asks to come with her. Snow tells him that she needs to do this alone, and he remains silent, at which she reminds him that he has things to do, suggesting that he could go to work in the bean fields, which she knows he's been looking forward to. David confirms this, telling his wife that Anton says they may have a crop soon and once they do they can go home and none of what happened will matter as it will all be in the past. Mary Margaret states that she used Regina to kill her own mother and that she doesn't think going back will erase that, but David tries to convince her otherwise. "Please," she begs, nearly tearing up, "Give me time."

Emma and Henry are seen approaching Granny's Bed & Breakfast before the latter walks inside, carrying the book in his arms, and is greeted by Neal, who he hugs. Neal asks his son how he is and Henry replies that he's good before showing his father that he brought his book as he thought he could tell him what it was really like over there. Neal says that that sounds great, accepting the book as Emma walks in. He then takes some money from out of his pocket and hands it to his son, suggesting that he run over to the diner and get them three hot cocoas and they'll dive in. Henry leaves to do so but Emma tells Neal that she may have to take a rain check on that as she needs to get down to the sheriff's station and take care of some things. Neal asks her if it can wait as he has a couple of things that he wants to talk to her about, and Emma wonders what. Neal explains that Tamara went to his place to get some of her stuff and her bags were in the storage room, but Hook wasn't. "Lucky," Emma says, but Neal points out that that means Hook's out there. Emma says that she doesn't know how much more trouble he could cause anyway, before Neal moves on to the "second thing", explaining that the reason Tamara was her stuff is that she's on her way there. "Here? As in Storybrooke?" Emma asks, surprised, and Neal confirms this, saying that Tamara should be there at Granny's any minute now.

The blonde asks him what he's thinking but Neal wonders what she means, at which Emma asks what he's going to tell Tamara when she sees a giant or a werewolf running past her down Main Street. She says that between Greg Mendell, their food-obsessed tourist, and now his fiancée, the town is becoming a theme park. He stipulates that maybe he didn't think it all the way through, apologizing, but saying that he needs Tamara. He apologizes again, thinking that sounded insulting to Emma, but the blonde tells him that there's no need as she's not the one he's lying to. "Who's lying?" Neal wonders. "Does she know who you really are?" Emma wonders, "And where you're really from?" She tells him to take her advice and not let Tamara find out on her own, and to tell her the truth about everything. Neal suddenly receives a text on his cell phone and takes it from out of his pocket, alerting Emma that it's Tamara, who's ten minutes away. He suggests that Emma stay and get to know her but the blonde says that she really should be going. Neal approaches her and reminds her that they're all connected and it might be nice for the two of them to talk, begging her to just stay and say hello. "She's bringing bagels," he tells her, and Emma raises an eyebrow.

An arrow hits a drawn-on target on a tree trunk in the woods as Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" plays over the top. We see Mary Margaret holding her bow and arrow and firing two more arrows at the target on the tree. She fires another and we see it fly past the target, missing its predecessors, and Mary Margaret takes her earphones out of her ears, causing the music to quieten, becoming confused. She hears a snapping sound out in the woods and goes to investigate, walking past her target tree in search of her stray arrow. She soon sees it on the ground and approaches it, picking it up only to discover that it's missing its head. Mary Margaret then lifts her head to see something that surprises her and we are treated to a view of a large, although slightly discrepant and filthy, caravan trailer out in the woods. Snow walks closer towards it and removes her quiver, setting it down next to her bow before opening the trailer door. Looking from side to side, Mary Margaret walks in and asks if anyone is inside. "Just me," says a voice that startles Mary Margaret, and she turns to see a totally wooden August emerge from a back room. She sees that he has the front half of her snapped arrow sticking into his leg before taking a proper look at the wooden man and saying, "August?" He stares at her blankly yet shyly through wooden eyes.

Trivia

 * The title card features August's trailer in the woods.
 * The original promotional summary for this episode, featured in the press release, wrongly read "(...) before the curse was cast..."; August's flashes occur after the casting of the Dark Curse.
 * Although credited, Emilie de Ravin (Belle), Colin O'Donoghue (Captain Hook), Meghan Ory (Ruby/Red Riding Hood) and Robert Carlyle (Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin) are absent from this episode.

Production
The title of this episode was revealed by executive producer/co-creator Adam Horowitz, via his Twitter account, on February 1, 2013, along with the title for episode 2.19.

Gallery
Gallery of photographic stills released to promote the episode.