Title New York City Serenade
Two-Sentence Summary After getting her memories back, Emma must leave behind the life she thought was real to journey with Hook and a still-in-the-dark Henry back to Storybrooke, which has been re-created by a mysterious curse that has also wiped a year’s worth of memories from all of the town’s inhabitants. Though the residents of the town aren’t sure who brought them back there, all signs point to the Wicked Witch, who has taken over Regina’s castle in the Enchanted Forest and sent one of her flying monkeys to take some of Regina’s blood and later pose as Emma’s boyfriend in New York City.
Favorite Lines
Emma: You could be a crazy person, or a liar, or both.
Hook: I prefer dashing rapscallion…Scoundrel?
Emma: Give me one good reason not to punch you in the face.
My Thoughts After what felt at times like the longest midseason hiatus imaginable, Once Upon a Time returned last night with a new energy that has me excited for how this half of Season Three is going to play out. In a similar way to “The Heart of the Truest Believer,” “New York City Serenade” did an excellent job of highlighting what appear to be the important arcs of Season 3B: the mystery of the new curse, the Wicked Witch versus the Evil Queen, Henry and his missing memories, the quest to find out what really happened to Rumplestiltskin, and Emma’s struggle to find normalcy and happiness in her life as the savior.
The biggest theme of this episode was the idea of finding a home. Just as “The Heart of the Truest Believer” set up the Neverland arc’s major theme of belief, “New York City Serenade” raised the question of what home means for each of the major characters.
And what does home mean for a woman who’s never really had one? Yes, Emma built a home with Henry in New York, but that was a home with a false foundation. It seems that, for Emma, home is less about a place than it is about a feeling, and I think the same can be said for all of these characters. Home is where you feel safe, stable, and loved. Emma has been searching her whole life to find that, and I think this episode showed that she may never find it in any one place—because, for these characters, home is often found in another person.
This universal search for a place to call home brought characters together in fresh ways in “New York City Serenade.” Even characters we’ve seen interact many times before worked together with a new energy. Maybe some of that was due to the writing being a little brighter and lighter than it has been for quite some time. But I think a lot of the credit should go to the actors. There was a genuine sense of comfort, confidence, and understanding between all of them in this episode. Nothing felt forced, and that was important for an episode that was heavily dependent on the chemistry between certain actors to make various plot points believable.
Nerdy Girl Notes 