(Facebook, Once Upon a Time)

Right off the bat, we learn that the Snow Queen used the sorcerer’s hat, which she stole from Anna, to try and make a deal with him. She tells the apprentice that she wants to replace her sisters with two magical ones – Elsa and a third sister to be found by the Sorcerer in exchange for his hat.

Back in Storybrooke, Emma – still hiding and still not able to control her powers – is found in the forest by Henry, but she forces him to leave, accidently injuring him in the process. After he leaves, the Snow Queen shows up to remind Emma of the offer to join the Snow Queen and embrace her power, but Emma refuses if the cost is hurting people she loves.

READ MORE: 'Once Upon A Time' Season 4, Episode 7: 'The Snow Queen'

After finally giving in to their feelings and spending a night together, Regina admits to Robin that she should have chosen to be with him back when Tinkerbell told her they were meant for each other. But, Regina – ever the cynic – says that even if Robin Hood wasn’t married, they probably wouldn’t have worked out. She shows him the storybook, whose author is determined to make sure she doesn’t get a happy ending, and Robin offers to help with the search for the author.

Elsa, Hook, Mary Margaret and David return home after a night of searching for Emma. They decide to rest before searching again, but Henry comes in to tell them they can stop looking and explains what happened. Elsa insists that when her magic was out of control she felt and acted the same way Emma did. (Cue the flashback).

The Snow Queen finds Elsa to tell her that Anna was planning on using the Sorcerer’s hat to take Elsa’s magic away and capture her in the process. She says that Anna is just like their mother, who trapped the Snow Queen in the urn. Elsa is shocked and asks to be left alone.

Emma goes to Rumpelstiltskin to ask for help controlling her magic. He says there is a spell that will take away her magic permanently. They agree to meet at sundown so he can cast it and she asks him not to tell anyone. After she leaves, Rumpelstiltskin crumples up the “spell” and throws it in the trash.

Back in Arendelle, Elsa finds Anna in a cell in the dungeon – where the Snow Queen put her after learning of Anna’s “plans.” Elsa berates Anna for lying to her about what she found in the Enchanted Forest, but when Elsa asks the guards to leave, it becomes clear that she was just putting on a show. She lets Anna out of her cell and tells her that they need to find the urn and trap the Snow Queen in it.

READ MORE: 'Once Upon A Time' Season 4, Episode 6: 'Family Business'

Regina comes to Mary Margaret and David’s apartment to see Henry and to bring them a locator potion to find Emma. However, they don’t end up needing it because Emma calls Mary Margaret to tell her that she’s getting rid of her powers and will be home soon. Hook asks how she plans to get rid of her powers, but doesn’t get an answer. He goes into the hall to call Emma and leaves her a message warning that she may never come home if she goes through with her plan. He suspects – and worries – that Emma has trusted Rumpelstiltskin.

Anna and Elsa look through their mother’s old room in the castle to try to find the urn. They wonder aloud how their mother and the Snow Queen turned against one another and agree that it will never happen to them. Anna finds the urn in a wardrobe – next to a frozen Hans.

Rumpelstiltskin visits the Snow Queen in her cave to tell her that he has found his own use for Emma. She goes to attack him but finds herself trapped behind an invisible wall. Though Elsa destroyed the urn, Rumpelstiltskin was able to collect the remnants to create a spell to temporarily trap the Snow Queen until he collects Emma and her powers in the hat.

Robin finds Will Scarlet in Granny’s and asks for his help finding the author of the storybook. He agrees and says the first place they should look is the clock tower, or rather, the library underneath it.

As Mary Margaret looks at a photo of her, David and Emma after one of the many times Emma used her powers to save Storybrooke, David comes in and they discuss whether Emma is making the right decision by giving up her powers. David suggests that them giving Emma her “best shot” – like they always say – is letting her give up her powers and be normal. Elsa overhears their conversation with a skeptical look on her face.

In a flashback, Anna and Elsa are sneaking around the castle with the urn when they see a painting of their parents on the wall. Elsa gets upset because she realizes her parents wanted to take her powers away. Anna swears that if they saw her now, they wouldn’t want to change her. They’d see how special she was and wouldn’t want her any other way.

READ MORE: 'Once Upon A Time' Season 4, Episode 5: 'Broken Glass'

Upon remembering that she and Emma are special for their powers, Elsa grabs the locator potion and a piece of Emma’s clothing and sneaks out of the apartment.

After pretending to read a comic book, Regina finally gets Henry to talk about what happened with Emma. He admits that he feels useless because he went there to help her and couldn’t because he’s “just ordinary.” Regina reminds him that he has the Heart of the Truest Believer and brought everyone together. She told him not to worry about Emma because she’s a hero and as they know, “heroes always win.”

Hook storms into Rumpelstiltskin’s shop to find out if Emma went to him to get rid of her powers and quickly confirms that she did. He calls and leaves her another voicemail telling her that Rumpelstiltskin plans to use a magical hat that will capture her along with her powers. He comes clean about his deals with Rumpelstiltskin and apologizes, saying that he just wanted to be “a better man” for her, but failed. He then sees the map on which Rumpelstiltskin circled his and Emma’s meeting place and runs out the door.

The Snow Queen tries to find a way to break Rumpelstiltskin’s spell, but can’t. Instead she uses her magic mirror to see where Emma is and smiles as she sees Emma’s car driving down the road.

Inside the car, Emma’s powers continue to have a mind of their own, sparks flying everywhere. Out of nowhere, the Snow Queen appears in the road and Emma swerves, crashing her car on the side of the road.

In another flashback, Elsa puts Anna back in her cell with the urn so that when the Snow Queen comes to let her out, Anna can trap her inside. But, when Elsa leaves, the shackles in the cell find their way to Anna’s wrists and the Snow Queen appears. Anna swears that the Snow Queen will never turn her and Anna against each other, but the Snow Queen doesn’t seem convinced.

READ MORE: 'Once Upon A Time' Season 4, Episode 4: 'The Apprentice'

Emma gets out of her car and the Snow Queen appears, warning her not to trust Rumpelstiltskin. Emma quickly realizes that the Snow Queen isn’t really there and walks right through her to leave.

After consoling Henry, Regina comes downstairs and talks with Mary Margaret and David. When she finds out that Emma is going to get rid of her magic, she tells them that they can’t let her go through with it. She says that she regrets not supporting Henry when he found the storybook and realized that he was special for believing in the stories. They decide to go find and stop Emma, but then realize that Elsa already took the locator potion to do the same.

Back in the Arendelle castle, the Snow Queen tells Anna about the curse of Shattered Sight, which involves a mirror imbued with dark magic and makes people see the worst in the people they love. While it takes much longer to cast on a big group of people – like in Storybrooke – she tells Anna that, right now, she only needs to use it on her as she blows bits of the mirror on Anna and her eyes glaze over.

Emma arrives at the house Rumpelstiltskin indicated and heads toward the door, ignoring the missed calls and messages on her phone.

While looking for Emma, Mary Margaret and Regina talk about Regina’s situation with Robin. Regina insists that it won’t work out because she’s a villain and there are forces working against her happiness. But Mary Margaret refuses to believe that. She says that her and David have faced obstacles but ended up happy because they always had hope. She tells Regina that she’ll be rewarded for doing good things, but Regina questions whether doing good things in hopes of a reward is actually good. Mary Margaret says that she believes Regina’s current streak of good decisions will pay off for her, but tells Regina that she has to be one to believe that.

Will and Robin look through the library with little luck, but then Robin finds a stray page from a book and immediately calls Regina and tells her to come to the library.

READ MORE: 'Once Upon A Time' Season 4, Episode 3: 'Rocky Road'

Emma finds Rumpelstiltskin in the house and he tells her that he has already cast the spell in the next room and she just needs to walk through the door. She mentions her run-in with the Snow Queen, but Rumpelstiltskin brushes it off as the villain not wanting Emma to do something, which – by his logic – should make her want to do it more. She asks him if he’d ever go in the room and he says no. He has always been a man who makes the wrong decision and chooses power over everything else. Emma, however, always makes the right decision, according to him.

As Rumpelstiltskin leaves the house, Hook shows up, yelling Emma’s name. He tells Rumpelstiltskin he’ll die before he lets him use the hat on Emma, but Rumpelstiltskin restrains him. He tells Hook that Emma will use the hat on herself and he’s letting her because he needs Emma’s powers.

Meanwhile, Elsa is led to the back of the house by the locator spell and breaks in.

In a flashback, Anna – under the curse of Shattered sight – claims she’s “come to her senses” and reminds Elsa of all the bad things she’s done to her over the years. The Snow Queen comes in to admit to Elsa that she did put a spell on Anna, but one that makes her reveal her true feelings toward Elsa. Anna holds up the urn and the Snow Queen tells Elsa to use her powers to stop her, but Elsa refuses because Anna is her sister. As Anna opens the urn and it begins sucking Elsa in, she tells Anna that she still loves her no matter what. The curse breaks after the urn closes and Anna realizes what she’s done – as does the Snow Queen, who had hoped Elsa would stop Anna. Kristoff comes in to rescue Anna, but when the Snow Queen sees the fear in their eyes, she freezes both of them – and the rest of the castle.

“Everyone sees me as a monster. Maybe it’s time to embrace that and be one,” the Snow Queen tells them. Holding the urn, she tells Elsa that she will one day accept who she is and promises that they will find their third sister.

Elsa finds Emma just as she’s about to go into the room with the hat. She tells Emma that she can’t get rid of her powers, but Emma says she doesn’t have a choice. Despite Anna’s love being enough for Elsa, Emma said her version with Henry didn’t work, she still hurt him. Elsa said that it was more than just Anna accepting who she was that helped her control her powers. She said that she was able to regain control when she first came to Storybrooke by accepting herself and embracing her powers. She reaches out to Emma and asks her to do the same. When their hands meet, Emma’s powers – which are surging throughout the house – come under her control again.

READ MORE: 'Once Upon A Time' Season 4, Episode 2: 'White Out'

From outside the house, Rumpelstiltskin and Hook can see that Emma didn’t give up her powers. But, Rumpelstiltskin tells Hook that the day won’t be a total loss. He can still get the “special ingredient” for the spell that will release him from his dagger’s control. He needs the heart of someone who knew him before he became the Dark One, and only Hook fits that description as his “oldest friend.” He rips out Hook’s heart and tells Hook that he’s his puppet now. He has to find a new way to fill the hat with power and then Rumpelstiltskin will kill him.

In a flashback, Rumpelstiltskin shows up in the castle to retrieve the hat that Anna stole from him. The Snow Queen lies and says she hasn’t seen it so he steals the urn containing Elsa. He asks the Snow Queen why she took Elsa’s memories and she says that Elsa had learned more than she was supposed to. Rumpelstiltskin says that as soon as she “finds” his hat, she can trade it for the urn.

Hook runs inside the house the make sure that Emma is alright. He then tells her that she should find her family and let them know that she didn’t get rid of her magic. After her and Elsa leave, he retrieves the Sorcerer’s hat and tucks it in his coat.

When Regina gets to the library, Robin shows her the page he found. It appears to be torn from the storybook and shows the two of them kissing in the pub where they might have met many years ago. It’s also numbered (XXIII) the same as the page on which she walks away from the pub in the book. He explains that it must mean there are possibilities for Regina’s fate and she’s not doomed to unhappiness if she makes one mistake – or many.

Meanwhile in the Snow Queen’s cave, she is finally released from Rumpelstiltskin’s spell. She motions toward the three ribbons that once belonged to her and her sisters. One of them wraps around her wrist and the other two disappear – presumably making their way to her new “sisters.”

In another flashback, the Snow Queen retrieves the hat from where she originally hid it and is about to summon Rumpelstiltskin when the Sorcerer’s apprentice appears to remind her of the deal she made with him. The apprentice tells her that if she gives the hat to Rumpelstiltskin, she will never get her happy ending. But, if she gives it back to the Sorcerer, she will not only be reunited with Elsa, but will find her third magical sister eventually – as Emma hasn’t been born yet. He conjures a door that he says will take her to where her “happy ending” waits and gives her a scroll that will lead her to the third sister when the time comes. She gives him the hat and walks through the door, which transports her to our world in 1982.  

Emma and Elsa reunite with Mary Margaret, David and Henry outside the house and Emma demonstrates her control over her magic by sending fireworks into the air. Henry asks Emma about the yellow ribbon around her wrist. They quickly realize her and Elsa both have them and can’t take them off.

Meanwhile in her cave, the Snow Queen informs a disgruntled Rumpelstiltskin that the ribbons bond three magical sisters when they’ve all embraced their powers. Since they now all have, the Snow Queen can harness their power and cast the curse of Shattered Sight over all of Storybrooke, which she does.

Catch “Once Upon A Time” Sundays at 8/7c on ABC.

Reach Staff Reporter Alex Reed here.