Once Upon a Time, created by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, follows the story of Emma Swan, an orphan who has bounced from foster home to foster home, losing hope of finding a forever family. Years later, she opens her apartment door to see a face from the past: her son, Henry, who she gave up for adoption. Henry found his birth mother with the intention of bringing her back to a little town in Maine called Storybrooke, and as quoted by Fandom, claims she “is Snow White and Prince Charming’s missing daughter.” He claims her parents “sent her away to protect her from the Evil Queen's curse, which trapped the fairytale world forever, frozen in time, and brought them into our modern world,” and that she can be the one who “saves” Storybrooke, earning her the infamous nickname of the “Savior.” Viewers later learn that the residents of Storybrooke have been cursed, where they no longer remember their previous life as fairy tale creatures. Henry does his best to convince Emma of magic and fairy tales by using a symbolic story book that contains the story of everyone’s lives, which makes an appearance in nearly every episode. For those who have not seen the show and do not want any spoilers, proceed with extreme caution, as this articles serves as a very detailed review. 

[Spoilers ahead!] Watchers meet Killian Jones - aka, Captain Hook- in season two who, as soon as he meets Emma, makes it his life mission to pursue her. A season later, when Henry gets kidnapped, he finds himself heading back to the one place he never thought he would return to in order to save the son of the woman he loves: Neverland. While some fans may have been excited seeing how Kitsis and Horowitz incorporated Peter Pan into the storyline, few had expected him to be a villain. As a young boy, Peter Pan —Malcolm— visited Neverland with his father and as said by TV Maze, “became obsessed with the prospect of flying.” After returning to his village, he spent years dreaming of when he could return, and the time arose when he used a bonding trip with his son as an excuse to go back. He had a love-hate relationship with his son—who later became the infamous Rumpelstiltskin— because his son represented something he could never be again: young. He eventually makes the decision to sacrifice his son to a “mysterious shadow” in order to be able to stay young in Neverland.

Season three of Once Upon a Time ended with a shocking twist as a new face mysteriously arrives in Storybrooke: Queen Elsa of Arendelle. For those who have not seen Frozen, the story follows two orphan sisters, Elsa and Anna, who have been separated from each other out of fear of Elsa’s unexplainable ice powers. When Elsa accidentally enacts a curse with her powers, she flees, leaving Anna to chase after her and find a way to save their kingdom. In OUAT, viewers watch as Elsa frantically searches for her sister in Storybrooke, causing a dangerous ruckus in her wake. She accidentally traps her and Emma in a cave of ice, where Emma agrees to help Elsa find Anna in an exchange to stop causing destruction in Storybrooke. The scenes alternate between the past and present, filling in the gaps of how Elsa arrived in Storybrooke, and what happened to Anna when she attempted to find answers as to why their parents traveled to the Enchanted Forest. Although the antagonist, Ingrid—later known as the “Snow Queen— shocked viewers once they learned of her surprising connection to both Elsa and Emma. As Emma tries to live up to her title of being a “savior,” she races to not only find Ingrid, but understand why Ingrid seems familiar to her.

For students who have access to Disney+,  Once Upon a Time has seven seasons full of twisted fairy tales that keep watchers guessing until the end.