David Nolan

"I will always find you."

- Prince Charming to Snow White

David Nolan, also known as Prince Charming, alias Prince James and formerly known as John Doe, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. He débuts in the first episode of the first season. He is portrayed by starring cast member Josh Dallas.

Prince Charming is based on the Prince from the fairytale "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" and "Rapunzel" as well as the Pauper from the novel, The Prince and the Pauper.

Before First Curse
Prince Charming is born with the name David, to a poor peasant family, with a twin brother. Rumplestiltskin comes to their farm when he is an infant and tells his parents that the barren king and queen of their country need a child, and they will be paid handsomely if they give one of the twins to them. The parents choose to give away Prince Charming's twin, James, who becomes a prince, while they keep David.

As a young boy, David overhears his parents quarreling, for the umpteenth time, about his father's drinking problems. This time, his father expresses a sincere desire to change for his son's sake, promising that by the time he returns from a two week run to haul farm supplies, that his alcohol dependency would be gone. Pleased, David looks forward to the fourteenth day when his father will finally return home. Tragically, he and his mother are notified that his father, although sober for thirteen days, became drunk at a tavern on the fourteenth day and died after falling into a ravine. The death has a significant influence on David, who understands how much his father wanted to change but ultimately could not, as he begins to believe some battles simply cannot be beaten.

Years later, David becomes a shepherd, but he and his mother face troubles on the farm when a warlord, Bo Peep, badgers them for money. He acquainted with a man from Arendelle named Kristoff. One day, a woman calling herself Joan arrives stating she knows his name from someone from Arendelle. Seeing as Kristoff is the only person he knows from that place, David guesses she knows him, too. Revealing little, except that she is on a "secret mission", Joan asks permission to stay on his farm for the night. Noticing the ring on her finger, David recognizes that she must be Kristoff's fiancé. As they talk, Bo Peep arrives to collect payment. Since farm business is poor, their earnings are not enough, so Bo Peep sets a deadline. She warns that if they cannot pool the money by tomorrow, the farm is hers. Additionally, she brands them, using her shepherd's crook, and promises that they will become her slaves if the deal is not met. Joan, believing David must defend himself against this tyrant, teaches him how to sword fight. While she thinks he is making progress, David gives up after being unable to beat her during training. He argues that some battles can't be won, and the most important thing for himself and his mother is survival. Joan insists that surviving is not living, and she elaborates by telling him about how her sister tried to solve problems by running away like him. When she claims he knows nothing about loss and is only afraid of it, David recalls how his father's death due to alcoholism shaped his beliefs. Despite his pessimism, Joan offers to continue training with him tomorrow. The next morning, David enters the barn where they promised to meet, asking Joan to leave instead of trying to help him, when Bo Peep makes herself known. Holding out Joan's pendant, Bo Peep threatens him with no choice but to pay her. Choosing to fight, David takes on two of her henchmen before dueling with the warlord herself. He tricks her, causing her sword to be embedded in a pillar, and then corners her at sword-point. After tying her to a pedestal, he uses the shepherd crook to find Joan in a shed. After returning the pendant, David explains his decision to fight due to realizing that surviving means being able to move on from a life he doesn't want. Before Joan leaves, David gifts her a steed, which belonged to his father, as he no longer needs a reminder of the past.

Some after, Rumplestiltskin persuades David into being a replacement prince for his deceased brother, James, and in return, the farm will be saved. He agrees to the plan for his mother Ruth's sake. As Prince James, he has to kill a dragon for King Midas. While meeting knights who will be accompanying him on the journey, David learns they will slay the dragon so he can take the credit. Atop of the dragon's lair, all but one knight perishes. David manages to save him while tricking the dragon and cutting off its head. Afterwards, King Midas is so pleased with the results that he offers up his daughter Abigail's hand in marriage. As David moves to reject the notion, Prince James' adoptive father King George pulls him aside to threaten to harm the farm and his mother if he does not comply. King George wants the alliance as well as the lands and riches it will bring, so David must agree to the marriage. David returns to inform Ruth of the change of plans, which sadly means he has to continue living the ruse of Prince James and marry Abigail, so it's not possible to see his mother ever again. As a parting gift, she gives him her own wedding ring, so that he can give it to the woman he loves. Returning to his role of Prince James, he and Abigail take carriage ride on the scenic route towards King Midas' palace to begin the wedding preparations. During the carriage ride to the castle, David gets a dose of Abigail's quarrelsome personality. When the road is blocked by a fallen tree, he exits the carriage, leaving his mother's ring behind, to examine the damage. David recognizes the trunk markings as someone's deliberate action to bring the tree down, but is suddenly alerted to Abigail's scream as a thief escapes with his ring. After chasing down the thief, he wrestles the bandit to the ground and flips him over; only to find out he is actually a she. He lets down his guard in surprise, to which the woman hits him with a rock and flees on his horse. David vehemently shouts that he will find her again. Later, he discovers the woman is Snow White, a wanted criminal the Queen is been seeking. He also sets a trap outside Snow White's makeshift home and captures her in a net. While he laughs at her predicament, she sarcastically dubs him "Prince Charming". He threatens to turn her into the Queen, but won't if she returns his ring. Snow White admits to already selling the ring, but left little choice, she agrees to help him. On their way, he takes her vial of fairy dust, which she is planning on using on the Queen. When questioned about her wanted status, she alludes to having destroyed the Queen's happiness. At a stream, Snow White requests a sip of water, but when he allows it, she clocks him and runs away. He catches up in time to save her from one of the Queen's knights. In gratitude, she agrees to the Troll Bridge and retrieve his ring. The trolls suspiciously search through Prince Charming's things and see the wanted poster. When they attack, he is entrapped while Snow White escapes. She returns to throw fairy dust on the trolls, transforming them into bugs, and they leave with the retrieved ring. As the two part, Snow White jokingly tries on his ring, though she states it's not her style. With the terms of their agreement satisfied, they both leave in opposite directions. During the carriage ride, a fallen tree blocks the road and David discovers it was deliberately placed there. Fearing an ambush, he and the guards quickly arm themselves, but the assailant is gone. As they near King Midas' castle, David is surprised by the exterior's gold encrusted walls, though Abigail says he'll stop noticing after a while. During the engagement party, he offers to dance with her, but she complains about wearing uncomfortable shoes. David proposes fetching another pair, though his wife-to-be sarcastically calls him her hero and walks off. Heading upstairs, he stops someone from stealing his ring. Upon flipping the bandit over, he realizes the thief is a "girl". She corrects him, calling herself a "woman", and then hits him. The woman escapes, though David angrily shouts that he will find her again. Later, he learns out she is a wanted murder, Snow White, and he catches her in a trap where she spitefully dubs him "Prince Charming". He asks for his ring, though another prince, Charles, states it is with his princess, Leia, who is now the Queen's prisoner, so they must save her first. On the journey to the Queen's castle, Prince Charming toys with Snow White's vial of fairy dust, which she is saving to turn the Queen into a bug. She claims the Queen hates her for ruining her life, and the charges on the wanted poster are false. Snow White enters the castle first, but tells the princes to wait until nightfall. To Charles, Prince Charming describes his marriage as a business transaction, and he had hopes of marrying for love. A friend of Snow White's, Red Riding Hood, transforms into a wolf to help break into the prison. They regroup with Princess Leia and another freed prisoner, but witness Snow White's execution. However, Prince Charming realizes she isn't dead, but simply turned herself into a bug with the remaining dust. With the Blue Fairy's help, she reverts to human. The next morning, Snow White secretly makes off with the ring, though he catches her at the Troll Bridge. When he is trapped, she saves him by threatening to turn the trolls into bugs. At their parting, Snow White jokingly tries on his ring, but declares it's not her style. With the terms of their agreement satisfied, they both leave in opposite directions. A few days after, the engagement party is held, but Prince Charming retreats into his room in a restless and brooding mood. His behavior does not go unnoticed by King George, who is aware Prince Charming is in love with someone else and threatens to burn down the farm if he does not marry Abigail. Despite the severe warning, Prince Charming writes a letter to Snow White, declaring his genuine feelings for her and asks that, if she feels the same, to meet him at the castle so they can run away together. When they finally meet in person, Snow White affirms she does not love him, and it would be better if he is with someone like Abigail who could.
 * -|Original Timeline=
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Although heartbroken, Prince Charming cannot bear to marry a woman he does not love and runs off from the impending wedding. During this, he is accosted by some henchman, and believes they are King George's men until being set free by them. In actuality, Abigail sent soldiers after Prince Charming, as she wanted to get to him first before King George. She, too, does not wish to marry him. When he inquiries about her reason for helping him, Abigail takes Prince Charming to a shrine with a golden statue of the man she loves, Frederick, who became immobile after being touched by her father's curse. Her many attempts at true love's kiss have failed, though there is the magic water of Lake Nostos rumored to restore something once lost and is guarded by a ghastly creature. He decides it's in his own best interest to change the wretched circumstances so Abigail and Frederick can be together. She protests against this, but Prince Charming claims succeeding will lift Abigail out of her own misery, and if not, then the misery of failure will be his own. They go together to the entrance of the lake and come across an shrine that people have used to ask for the creature's mercy, but he ignores this and goes straight in alone. As he is scooping up some of the water, a Siren in the form of a beautiful woman rises from below the surface. Prince Charming is not tricked by her alluring appearance until she turns into the one person he desires most—Snow White. Though nearly seduced, Prince Charming shakes out of the stupor upon realizing this carbon copy of Snow White is no replacement for true love, to which she tries to drown him. Underwater, he grabs a dagger and stabs the Siren to death. With the mission complete, he goes back to an ecstatic Abigail and gives her the water. She pours it over Frederick's head as the gold melts off and the long-separated couple joyfully reunite. Abigail introduces the two men to each other as Frederick offers Prince Charming his utmost gratitude. In return, he receives a horse from them and uses it to find Snow White's newest hideout. Instead, Prince Charming meets Red Riding Hood, who explains Snow White went to meet with him and never came back. He professes determination to reach Snow White and convince her that they belong together. This doesn't make sense to Red Riding Hood, as she clearly remembers Snow White left intending to break up Prince Charming's wedding because of her love for him, unless something changed. He realizes King George ruined everything just as the man himself arrives on horseback to close in on them. Prince Charming and Red Riding Hood flee for safety.

They camp out for the night, but are found by King George's men. While Prince Charming escapes, Red Riding Hood stays behind and takes care of the soldiers by shape shifting into a wolf. Continuing with the search on his own, he comes across a nude soldier who claims that Snow White stole his armor from him in order to kill the Queen. Prince Charming doesn't believe this, but investigates the matter after hearing Snow White recently went to Rumplestiltskin's palace. He is too late since she, afflicted by a curse since ingesting a memory potion, just left to kill the Queen. Rumplestiltskin swears that the curse, though it has rendered Snow White cold and heartless, can be undone with true love's kiss. Prince Charming agrees to give Rumplestiltskin his cloak in return for Snow White's location and arrives in time to see her preparing for the Queen's assassination. He tries to use true love's kiss on Snow White, to no avail, and is then knocked out and tied to a tree. The next day, he is freed of the binds with the help of the cricket, Jiminy, and rushes to take the hit of the arrow as Snow White fires at the Queen on the road. Prince Charming asserts that he would rather die than see her become evil. Touched, she kisses him, and returns to her normal self. They have a brief reunion just as King George's men capture Prince Charming, though she promises to rescue him.

Prince Charming is brought out for an execution on King George's orders, which is stopped by the Queen. Rather than let him die, the Queen gives King George the gold he desired from the transaction with King Midas, and she takes away Prince Charming as a prisoner. The Queen comes into his cell to show him a cursed apple that she will make Snow White willingly eat and fall under a Sleeping Curse. He attempts to chase after her, but the cell door slams shut as she walks out. Through a mirror, Prince Charming sees Snow White break into King George's dungeon. When Snow White approaches him, only then does she realize Prince Charming is now in the Queen's hands. They place their hands against opposite sides of the mirror and converse, longing to be together, until the Queen interrupts to ask Snow White for an in-person meeting. Later, he feels bodily pain, and recognizes something bad must have happened to Snow White, but can do nothing.

As two guards haul him out for execution, Prince Charming breaks free of them and flees, but is apprehended in the hallway by another one of the Queen's underlings. Surprisingly, the man shoots the remaining guard instead of Prince Charming, and then takes off his helmet to reveal himself as the Huntsman. He returns Prince Charming's sword and provides him with some provisions and a map out of the castle. The Huntsman explains how he gave up his own heart when disobeying the Queen's orders to kill Snow White, and asks that his sacrifice not be in vain. Prince Charming makes it outside, but is entrapped in the Infinite Forest by the Queen. He encounters Rumplestiltskin, who steals his ring and magically enchants it so the closer Prince Charming is to Snow White, the brighter it will shine. Prince Charming tries to take the ring back by force, but Rumplestiltskin bests him in a duel until he agrees to a deal. Rumplestiltskin hands him a bottled vial of true love encased in an egg to hide in the body of a beast. After wandering into a castle, Prince Charming is caught off guard when he meets a witch, Maleficent, who then turns into a ferocious dragon. While hiding behind a pillar, he notices Maleficent has a flap behind her ear that can fit the egg. Goading the dragon into chasing him, he eventually hops onto her neck and tosses the egg into the ear flap. An agitated Maleficent then shakes Prince Charming off her neck and spits flames at him, but he quickly jumps out a window. Landing in the water, he surfaces in time to see the dragon's head sticking out the window as she makes a futile attempt to huff fire at him. Making it to shore, Prince Charming receives the enchanted ring from Rumplestiltskin, and as an added bonus, the wizard also magically transforms his clothes into something befitting a prince and bestows a horse for his journey to Snow White.

The ring takes him directly to his beloved, though she is already dead. With Snow White's body resting in a glass coffin, the seven dwarves mourn her death, but due to Prince Charming's pleas, they remove the cover to allow him a chance to say a final farewell. Bestowing a kiss to Snow White, he unknowingly triggers the effects of true love's kiss and revives her from the curse.

Afterwards, they walk the beach coastline together as she inquiries how he found her. Flashing his mother's ring, he sinks to one knee and proposes to her. She happily accepts and the two decide take back the kingdom from the Queen and King George.

During a rally, in which Snow White asks for the townspeople to fight alongside her for the throne, the Queen offers her a deal. When Prince Charming tries to intervene, the Queen gags him and then asks Snow White to give up her claim to the throne and go into exile. Snow White challenges this, so the Queen attacks a peasant girl. After the princess counters with her sword, the Queen teleports away and drops her hold on both the girl and Prince Charming. Reappearing, the Queen demands an answer by sundown tomorrow or for every day Snow White refuses, one of her subjects will perish. When Snow White decides to give into the Queen's offer, Prince Charming tries to gain support from the dwarves to convince her otherwise. Instead, they suspiciously believe the prince only wants the kingdom for himself and doesn't truly love her. Thus, he goes to Rumplestiltskin for a magical solution to bring out Snow White's courage, but even the Dark One states that true belief must come from within the person. Forging a fake Excalibur, Prince Charming shows Snow White the embedded sword, which can only be wielded by the kingdom's true ruler. After pulling it out, Snow White asserts to Queen that she won't give up the throne. Consequentially, the Queen chokes Grumpy as Prince Charming calms Snow White's panic by reminding her what the sword symbolizes. With renewed confidence, she charges at the Queen, who dissipates and reappears, as the sword cuts her. Then, Snow White declares she won't go down without a fight; forcing the Queen to retreat. Directly after, the dwarves finally accept Prince Charming just as Snow White confronts him about the fake sword. Prince Charming explains he never doubted she is the proper ruler of the kingdom, but wanted her to show the Queen the kind of courage he always knew was there. The two make-up with a kiss.

Sometime during the war with the Evil Queen, Prince Charming, Snow White and their allies ambush her at a village. Although they catch her off guard, Regina decides to retreat rather than fight them, since she is feeling generous on her birthday. That night, Snow White toasts Prince Charming and her friends to Regina, remarking that she hopes her stepmother spends every birthday not finding her. Within her castle, Regina witnesses this, and in anger, she begins crushing what she believes is Snow White's heart. At once, Snow White stands up, seemingly feeling the pain of her beating heart being squeezed. The more pressure Regina puts on the heart, the more frantically Snow White unravels the knotting of her layered clothes, hoping to alleviate the pressure on her chest. Prince Charming and the dwarves watch Snow White's behavior with concern, until Jiminy falls out from under her shirt, making everyone laugh in amusement. From this, Regina realizes the heart she has is not Snow White's, and that someone switched it out.

With the Evil Queen out of the way, Prince Charming and Snow White begin laying down further groundwork for gaining back the kingdom. Receiving gets news from Red Riding Hood that King George has hired a powerful hit-man, Prince Charming offers to stay behind and hastens Snow White to run away to his mother's cabin. After the fight, he arrives at the cabin shortly before King George's army arrive to capture him. Although he emerges victorious, Ruth, worried about his well-being, runs outside and is shot by a poisoned arrow. Once Snow White and Lancelot rejoin the mother-son pair, they travel to Lake Nostos to find the cure for the wound caused by the poisoned arrow. However, the water have dried up some time after Prince Charming, came to the lake in the past and killed the guardian of the lake. Lancelot is able to find a small portion of water and brings it over to Ruth. She drinks it, but it has no effect. Knowing death is near, Ruth admits her only regret is not seeing her son get married to Snow White. Honoring her wish, Snow White asks Lancelot to perform a marriage ceremony. During the ceremony, Snow White drinks from chalice rumored to give eternal life while Ruth dies peacefully following the union. While lighting a candle to honor her, Prince Charming finds comfort in the fact though his mother is gone, he and Snow White can have a family one day. He shows her his mother's necklace, which has the ability to predict the gender of a person's future child. Unknown to him, King George previously cursed Snow White with barrenness, and as she begins to break the news to him, the necklace sways, proving the curse is broken. This is a result of Ruth's secret sacrifice of switching out the lake water into the ceremonial chalice for Snow White.

After the defeat of King George's army, who are Regina's allies in the war, Regina herself is captured. On the war council, the members debate her fate. Though Snow White is against killing the Evil Queen, but she is outnumbered, as the others, including Prince Charming, believe death is a fitting punishment. At the execution, Regina gives her last regards to the public with a sorrowful speech, which turns into a vehement declaration as she is only sorry to have not caused more pain. As the executioner's arrows are fired, Snow White cancels the punishment at the last moment. While Prince Charming is adamant that Regina is simply too dangerous and will never change, Snow White believes there is still some good left in her. To prove it, Rumplestiltskin enchants a knife, incapable of harming the princess or Prince Charming, for Snow White to have when she goes to see Regina. The ex-Queen attempts to kill Snow White with the knife and is banished from the kingdom with the warning that harming anyone again will result in a death sentence.

With peace restored, Prince Charming and Snow White begin residing in the castle and hold a formal wedding ceremony as the kingdom's citizens gather in attendance. The Evil Queen crashes into the room just as the couple are joined in matrimony. As she walks up to them, Snow White shows no fear and unsheathes Prince Charming's sword as a threat. The Evil Queen announces her intent to have revenge on everyone by destroying their happiness. As she strolls out, Prince Charming chucks his sword at her, only for the Queen to disappear in puff of smoke.

Following this, Snow White belligerently expresses anger at how the Queen ruined their wedding. Prince Charming convinces her to let it go, and she suggests they go to the old Summer Palace for their honeymoon. Once there, he attempts to have some alone time with her, but she has other ideas. Armed with the suspicion Snow White still wants to take down the Queen, he leaves the room and later blocks her on the road as she is sneaking off. She explains her plan to cut off the head of a being called Medusa, whose gaze can turn people into stone, and then use it on the Queen. Together, they venture into Medusa's home, where Prince Charming goads the creature towards him as Snow White readies her blade. Instead of severing the head, her sword shatters upon contact with Medusa's neck. As they attempt to flee, Prince Charming is turned to stone by Medusa. After catching the Queen spying on her current dilemma through a shield, Snow White realizes not letting go of her fears is ruining her life. After tricking Medusa into looking into her own reflection, the creature becomes stone while Prince Charming is freed. That night, she finally decides to stop worrying about the Queen's threats and wants to try having a baby.

Riding back to the castle after their honeymoon, Prince Charming and Snow White discover the guards are asleep from a sleeping curse. Once they are past the gates, the couple meet Maleficent and her her associates, Cruella De Vil and Ursula, who reveal the Queen is planning to cast a curse that will affect themselves and everyone else. To defeat the curse, the trio want them to consult the Tree of Wisdom, a being that will only answer questions from two of the most valiant heroes. On the journey there, guards posted at a bridge refuse to let Maleficent and her companions cross. Before the royal pair can persuade the soldiers to relent, Maleficent morphs into a dragon and kills the guards with her fire breath. After camping out one night, Snow White and Prince Charming disappear towards the Tree of Wisdom without the others' notice. Once there, the pair put each of their palms on two rocks and ask their question, but both are ejected backwards. When the villainous trio arrive, Maleficent recognizes the tree refused them because Snow White is pregnant, and her child, although born of true love, has great potential to be evil.

As a married couple, Snow White and Prince Charming a neighboring kingdom's royal wedding of Cinderella and Prince Thomas. During the wedding party, Prince Charming briefly dances with Cinderella and wishes her a happy marriage. While Cinderella is pregnant, he hears of her previous deal with Rumplestiltskin, which has resulted with the wizard demanding her first born child as payment. With the Blue Fairy and Grumpy, they hatch a plan to create an inescapable holding prison for Rumplestiltskin and have Cinderella paralyze him with a red quill infused with squid ink. Success follows, to which Prince Charming and Grumpy begin securing him in a cage for the journey to his prison when Cinderella runs up pressing Rumplestiltskin for answers about her missing husband. Rumplestiltskin gleefully acknowledges that Prince Thomas disappeared due to Cinderella's refusal to pay for their original deal, even though Prince Charming consoles her with a promise to find her husband.

Unsure whether their child will be good or evil, Prince Charming and Snow White touch the horn of a unicorn to glimpse their baby's future. While he sees his infant daughter in a basket and happily picks her up, his wife sees her teenager daughter in a pink gown. In a dark twist, the girl rips out Snow White's heart before crushing it. Home bound, the pair help a peddler free his wagon. Having escaped from the west, where Maleficent has claimed territory and laid an egg in a cave, the peddler advises them to go east through Infinite Forest until they reach a cottage. Following his instructions, they meet the apprentice and ask him for a way to keep their child from becoming evil. The Apprentice can help, but as with all magic, it has a price. By banishing darkness from their child, he must infuse another vessel with darkness. After much thinking, Snow White convinces Prince Charming that they'll use Maleficent's egg since she believes a child of a dragoness will be evil by nature. Knocking out Cruella and Ursula, who are guarding Maleficent's den, with poppy dust, the pair then venture in to steal the egg. Maleficent retaliates in dragon form before reverting to human and begging them for mercy. Snow White vows to return the egg after things are settled, and then she and Prince Charming flee as a devastated Maleficent makes a failed attempt to stop them. As the Apprentice enacts the spell on the egg, he reveals infusing darkness in it puts this land at risk, so it must go to another world. Realizing they have made a grave mistake, the horrified couple watch a portal open while the egg hatches into a baby. They attempt to save the child, but are distracted when Cruella and Ursula arrive to berate them for what they've done. The portal then absorbs not only the baby, but Cruella and Ursula as well. Afterwards, the Apprentice cautions Prince Charming and Snow White to keep their child on the right path in life.

Some months later, Cinderella gifts the expecting parents a unicorn mobile, which only reminds a guilt-ridden Snow White of how she and Prince Charming condemned a child's life for the sake of their own child. She doesn't believe they can be heroic anymore after what they've done, but Prince Charming suggests that if redemption is possible, they should start by being the best people they can be.

While Snow White nears the end of her pregnancy, Prince Charming agrees to let her meet with Rumplestiltskin so she'll stop fretting about the Queen's warning at their wedding. She makes a deal to gain information about the Evil Queen's revenge, which Rumplestiltskin extracts from using foresight. He states that there will be a curse cast by the Evil Queen, and their only hope to break free of it is Snow White and Prince Charming's unborn child. Rumplestiltskin dubs their child the savior, who will save them all in twenty-eight years. Though Prince Charming believes their child is a boy, Snow White knows it's a girl. As payment for the information, she gives Rumplestiltskin the name of the child, Emma. Through much discussion with the war council, a decision is reached when the Blue Fairy presents them with the last enchanted tree in the land, which can be carved into a magic wardrobe and protect one person from the curse. They settle for sending Snow White, while she is still pregnant, into the wardrobe to another land and wait twenty-eight years for the prophecy of the savior to come true.

As Geppetto and Pinocchio set out to carve the wardrobe, Prince Charming listens in as his wife questions the Blue Fairy for more details on the Dark Curse. The Blue Fairy tells her to have faith their plan will work, and if not, the curse will take them to a new land where their memories are erased and they will be slaves to the Queen's will. Snow White is also concerned exactly how the savior will know what to do. The Blue Fairy stresses in more vague terms that when the time comes, the savior will learn of their story. Just before leaving, the Blue Fairy requests to be trusted as she herself has the one thing they all need, which is hope. Snow White is crushed that she and Prince Charming can never be a family with their child and begins agonizing over their grim future due to the curse. He believes the unknown isn't always bad and life is full of twists and turns just like the curse. Prince Charming is sure that even though their chance to be a family is gone, it doesn't mean they can't have a different future together. To this, she affirms her decision to choose hope and believe things are going to work out for them.

As time runs low while they await the Evil Queen's curse, Snow White can't come to the terms with the fact she will be away from her husband for twenty-eight years after going through the wardrobe. Prince Charming has faith they will eventually be reunited. They kiss, to which Snow White pulls away abruptly as she is having contractions. On the same day, the curse approaches. While Snow White is labor, Prince Charming attempts to move her to the wardrobe, but Doc advises against it. After birth, he and Snow White have a shared moment with Emma until realizing that their child must go through the wardrobe alone or all is lost. Prince Charming fights his way through many of the Queen's Black Knights, while cradling Emma in one arm, to place her in the wardrobe located in her nursery. Once he does, Prince Charming sustains a fatal injury by two of the Queen's knights, but before passing out, sees them break open the wardrobe, which is now empty. Later, Snow White discovers him laying unconscious in the middle of the nursery and fails in her attempt to revive him with true love's kiss just as the Queen enters, gloating over her apparent victory. On the brink of death, Snow clutches him in her arms as the three of them are engulfed by the curse.

During First Curse
After the casting of the curse, David is transported to Storybrooke, where he remains in a comatose state in the hospital, because he was on the brink of death in the previous world. Despite that Regina never anticipates he might awaken, the curse constructs a life with false memories for him, in which he is married to a woman named Kathryn. Under memories created by the curse, Kathryn recalls having a heated argument with her husband, before he left their home to cool off, though he never returned. As for the story Regina later gives about how she became David's emergency contact for the duration of his coma, she lies about finding him unconscious on the side of the road whilst driving home one night, and subsequently bringing him to the hospital, where no one is able to identity him, or find any of his relatives.

The day the curse takes effect, Regina goes to see school teacher Mary Margaret, the former Snow White. She brings Mary Margaret to the hospital, and shows her to John Doe's room. Mary Margaret does not recognize him, but she expresses hopes that someone who loves him could find him someday, which Regina finds quite ironic. From this day onward, Mary Margaret visits his hospital room frequently.

A few days after Emma arrives to Storybrooke, Henry convinces her to ask Mary Margaret to read Henry's storybook, full of stories from the Enchanted Forest, to the hospital's coma patient John Doe. Because he think John Doe is Prince Charming, Mary Margaret agrees, expecting nothing to happen and hoping Henry will realize fairytales are only stories. She visits David's hospital room that night and begins to read to him. Halfway through the story, David, while still unconscious, grabs Mary Margaret's hand. During the night, David awakens and wanders out to the forest in search of someone; collapsing unconscious at the stream near the Toll Bridge. Resuscitated by Mary Margaret, he is brought back to the hospital to recuperate. Suddenly, his wife, Kathryn, shows up to reunite with him.

While still recovering in the hospital, David spends time playing hangman with Mary Margaret, who is a hospital volunteer, when Kathryn shows up with old photos to help remind him of their life together. Though David actually cannot remember anything, he pretends to recall memories to spare Kathryn's feelings. He catches Mary Margaret as she is leaving the hospital and persuades her to accompany him on his doctor ordered exercise. They take a walk where David admits being around Kathryn doesn't feel right and the only person he can connect with is Mary Margaret. As they share a close moment, Kathryn approaches to give David some of his favorite muffins, to which Mary Margaret takes her leave to give the couple privacy. Before she is gone, David expresses hopes of seeing Mary Margaret again tomorrow, however, unbeknownst to him, she intends to resign from volunteer duty.

After being discharged from the hospital, David returns home to a welcome home party filled with people he does not recognize. Uncomfortable, he leaves and seeks out Mary Margaret, who is in the middle of setting up a bird house. David expresses a desire to be with her instead of Kathryn, but she dissuades him against it. By the end of the night, once the party guests are gone, David arrives home. Kathryn, trying to close the gap between them, suggests they go to bed. Alarmed, he nervously inquiries if she means actually going to sleep or physical intimacy. Kathryn allows him to choose with whatever he's comfortable with, but when she kisses him, David pulls away, asserting that the kiss didn't feel "right". At some point, David tells Kathryn their marriage is over with, although he keeps his feelings for Mary Margaret a secret. A crushed Kathryn goes to Regina for support, to which Regina warns Mary Margaret against getting involved with a married man. After calling things off with Kathryn, he informs Mary Margaret of his choice to be with her, and asks that she meet him in the evening at the Toll Bridge. On his way there, David gets lost and asks Regina for help. She purposely gives him the wrong directions, leading him to Mr. Gold's pawnshop, where he sees a miniature windmill. Suddenly, he recalls memories of his life with Kathryn prior to the coma. Arriving at the Toll Bridge, David admits to Mary Margaret that he remembered his old life and wants to work on his marriage. Dejected, he stays behind as she departs in tears. After returning to Kathryn, he promises to make an effort for their marriage to work.

After Sheriff Graham's death, he helps to staple promotional posters of sheriff election candidate Sidney around town. He runs across Mary Margaret, who is promoting Emma for sheriff. Casually, she asks if he has found a job yet, and David mentions he is now working at the animal shelter. However, once Mary Margaret notices he is advertising for Sidney, she excuses herself to get more promotional posters.

Though he has made a commitment to Kathryn, David still can't stop thinking about Mary Margaret. Every morning, he goes into the diner at seven-fifteen to pick up coffee for himself and his wife, but purposely enters when Mary Margaret is also present inside. They exchange greetings and nothing more, until one day, Mary Margaret brings an injured dove to the animal shelter. On the advice of the veterinarian, Dr. Thatcher, the bird will heal, but must rejoin its flock or risk being alone forever. With a storm approaching, David tries to dissuade her against releasing the bird, but she ignores his advice. Worried for her safety, he follows her into the woods and saves her from falling down a ravine. Seeking cover in an abandoned cabin, sparks fly as they confess their feelings for each other. David leans in to kiss her, but Mary Margaret pulls back to berate him for cheating on his pregnant wife. David is shocked at the news, which he was not aware of, though it brings attention to the fact he's still married. After the storm, she releases the dove back to its flock as they contently look on. David grasps her hand, but Mary Margaret reasons they must not see each other again. At home, he talks to Kathryn about the difficulties they've been having so far and learns she is not pregnant after all. Despite that, he'll continue to work through their relationship by going to therapy with her. The next morning, David goes to the diner at seven-forty-five, but sees Mary Margaret inside, to which he bolts outside and she chases him down. They realize both of them have been coming to the diner at seven-fifteen just to see each other. Unable to hold back their feelings, David and Mary Margaret passionately kiss.

Beginning an affair, he and Mary Margaret begin seeing each other secretly. After preparing a picnic by the Toll Bridge, he texts her and she rushes to meet him there for a romantic outing in the woods.

On Valentine's Day, he buys two different Valentine's Day cards; one for Kathryn and the other for Mary Margaret. Mr. Gold, also in the store, notices and starts a conversation about love. Feigning ignorance, David claims the two cards are for the same woman. Afterwards, he heads to the bar where Mary Margaret is spending a girls' night out with Ruby and Ashley. Catching Mary Margaret outside, David accidentally hands her the card meant for Kathryn. Only after she reads the inside, he realizes his mistake and hands her the other card. Mary Margaret then insists he should go home to Kathryn, and though David knows she is right, he is unwilling to give up on his feelings for her.

A few nights later, while he is having dinner with Kathryn, she announces her application acceptance into a Boston law school. David tries to be enthusiastic for her, but thinks Boston is too faraway. Kathryn suggests they need a fresh start to have a future together rather than trying to regain what they had in the past. Conflicted, he asks Mary Margaret for advice, and she believes they must tell Kathryn the truth about their affair. Rather than this, David tells his wife that he can't go to Boston with her. Hurt, Kathryn openly inquiries if there is someone else in his life, and this is a chance for him to be honest, David doesn't wish to hurt her with the truth. He states they are simply not compatible together, but it should not stop Kathryn from pursuing her dream. A heartbroken Kathryn later learns from Regina that he has been having an affair with Mary Margaret. From school, Mary Margaret talks to David on her cellphone, in which he lies about coming clean to Kathryn. Following a very public confrontation at the school between the two women, news of the affair spreads throughout town. Upon finding Mary Margaret's car window spray painted with the word "slut", David begins washing it off when the schoolteacher herself arrives. She, disappointed in his lying, break up with him since now that everyone knows about their affair, it proves their relationship is destructive.

During the Miner's Day festival, David finds out from Emma that Kathryn is missing. Keeping his distance, he watches Mary Margaret as her reputation slowly rebuilds itself. That night, Emma approaches to take him to the sheriff department for questioning about Kathryn's disappearance.

David is interviewed all night, but sticks to the story that he knows nothing. Emma allows David to go home, but advises him to get a lawyer. From the time he leaves the sheriff department, his memory becomes blank and ends up wandering the woods in a foggy haze. He is found by Emma and Ruby in a delirious state with a cut to his forehead. At the hospital, Dr. Whale gives the diagnosis as something similar in experience to when he first awoke from the coma and left his room. This is alarming to David, who begins to hypothesize that he could've killed Kathryn and not even know it, when Regina barges in demanding his arrest, though Emma fights against it. David leaves for the animal shelter and confesses to Mary Margaret his fears about what he did to Kathryn. Emma arrives to inform them a box with Kathryn's heart was found. Before she announces the results of the fingerprints on the box, David assumes he did it, but they are a match for Mary Margaret.

Later, after Mary Margaret's arrest, David goes to Regina to plead for mercy. He believes Mary Margaret is not capable of such evil and the evidence must be a mistake. However, Regina refuses, and David goes to Archie for advice on his blackouts. Archie tries hypnosis to find out what he has been doing in his blackouts. While in the hypnosis state, David begins to see flashes of his life as Prince Charming. He sees Snow White on a mission to kill the Evil Queen, and pleads for her to not do it. David mistakes the memories for Mary Margaret's attempt in harming Kathryn and begins to doubt her innocence. He goes to ask Mary Margaret for the truth, but she is shocked at his lack and faith and orders him to leave.

The day after, he approaches Emma to clear up the misinterpretation from his last visit to Mary Margaret. David believes the situation made him confused, though he doesn't actually believe she is guilty. He asks to see Mary Margaret, but Emma brisks that she doesn't want visitors. He takes the hint; recognizing that Mary Margaret doesn't want to see him. Emma is sympathetic, as she can guess his heart is in the right place, but the last person Mary Margaret needs to hear from is him.

Kathryn mysteriously turns up alive and unharmed, so Mary Margaret is free of the murder charges and allowed to go home. During an apartment party in honor of Mary Margaret's return, David attempts to enter and apologize to Mary Margaret, but Emma shoos him away at her request.

Finally, David decides that it is time to leave Storybrooke and comes to Mary Margaret about his decision. He says he will stay if she will give him a reason to, which Mary Margaret cannot, and they part ways. Just as David is driving out of town, the Dark Curse is broken by Emma, and he recalls his memories as Prince Charming. Returning to Storybrooke, he sets out to find Mary Margaret and reunites with her as she, too, recalls her memories as Snow White. Overhead, they witness a purple smoke quickly approaching and brace themselves as it engulfs them.

After First Curse
Upon remembering his true identity as Prince Charming, David is happily reunited with several of his friends, including Granny, Ruby, Mother Superior and the seven dwarves. Both he and Mary Margaret are elated to finally remember Emma as their daughter, but shortly after, they decide to question Mr. Gold about the purple smoke in Storybrooke. On the way there, Emma awkwardly asks her parents to give her space since she needs time to adjust to their new family circumstances. When Archie runs up explaining that Dr. Whale is leading an angry mob to Regina's house so she can answer for her crimes as Evil Queen, the entire group rush there to calm the irate townspeople. Emma and her parents place Regina in a jail cell for protection, before confronting Mr. Gold about the purple smoke. When Mr. Gold admits releasing a Wraith to destroy Regina, the trio feud off the creature temporarily. As a more permanent solution, Regina attempts to use a magic hat to send the Wraith to another realm. The hat, triggered by Emma's magic, sucks in not only the Wraith, but her as well. David then watches in horror as Mary Margaret jumps in after her. He tries to follow his family in, but the vortex closes. Upon questioning Regina about where they were sent, Regina feigns ignorance, eventually using magic to strangle David. She releases her grip after seeing Henry walk in, to which she tells him about what happened to Emma and Mary Margaret. Seeing Henry blame Regina for losing them, David decides to take him into his custody for now.

The next day, David heads to Regina's house, once again confronting her about the vortex, but she refuses to give a proper answer. Assuming the role of temporary sheriff, he finds himself swarmed in the town square by disheveled residents, in the aftermath of the Wraith attack. Focusing on getting his family back, David asks Mother Superior about possibly opening another portal with the hat, but she states it cannot be done without fairy dust. Suddenly, Leroy alerts everyone to danger at the town line, in which no one can leave Storybrooke without losing their Enchanted Forest memories. As the town descends into disarray at the news, David requests that they regroup at the town hall in two hours to hear his solution. Despite giving the impression of calm to the public, he actually has no idea what to do, and even has trouble coming up with a speech to raise the townspeople's spirits. Returning his attentions to regaining his missing family, David looks for the Mad Hatter, the owner of the hat. From Mr. Gold, he gains a locator potion, as both parties reach an agreement to stay out of each other's way. Using the potion on the hat, it leads him to Jefferson, who he rescues from an overturned car. Jefferson, although unable to make the hat work, reveals that the Enchanted Forest still exists, despite Regina previously claiming it is gone. David continues to be distracted about his family, until Ruby gives him a reality check about their current problems, such as Regina kidnapping Henry and the residents threatening to leave town because of her. Just in time, he and Ruby cause a road block to prevent anyone from crossing the border. In an impromptu speech, David reminds them that it might be easier to forget every memory they have, but together, they can accept that both their Storybrooke and Enchanted Forest selves are part of them. Won over by his words, the townspeople return home, as David tries to rescue Henry from Regina, who surprisingly, doesn't put up a fight. Regina affirms what Jefferson said is true, but there isn't a known way to reach the Enchanted Forest. After regaining Henry, David consoles him about about Emma and Mary Margaret's whereabouts.

During a morning walk to the school bus stop, Henry suggests to David that they should work together to save Emma and Mary Margaret and even dubs their new mission "Operation Scorpion". David refuses and instead encourages him to just go to school as usual. Henry seemingly follows his orders, only to get off the bus, as soon as David has walked away. Later on, from Regina, David learns Henry has stolen her keys to the vault. In the nick of time, David saves Henry from vipers, before insisting that he shouldn't be involved in the mission. To make up for it, David teaches Henry how to sword fight with wooden weapons.

A few days later, David has assumed the role of temporary sheriff since Emma's absence. He pitches in with the dwarves to mine for fairy dust when he is approached by Mr. Gold over Belle's disappearance. David decides to help once he sees Mr. Gold's genuine love for her. They receive assistance from Ruby, who has regained her wolfish sense of smell, and tracks Belle to her father's flower shop. After some threats, Mr. Gold deduces he is sending Belle across the town line as David realizes Moe's dirt-covered hands are evidence of being in the mines. They find her handcuffed to a speeding mine cart, so Mr. Gold uses magic to pull Belle back to safety.

Upon seeing Dr. Whale on the street, David punches him for sleeping with Mary Margaret, though the doctor defensively states it was at a time no one recalled their Enchanted Forest memories yet. Later, he gives Henry a day off from school and they go to the stables so his grandson can learn how to be "a proper knight". David wants Henry to "horse-sit" first until the animal decides he is ready to ride. When Daniel hears about Dr. Whale's accident, he rushes to the hospital with the assumption Regina is to blame. Rather than that, she explains Dr. Whale resurrected her dead fiancé Daniel and he may be in the horse tables. Realizing Henry is in danger, they hurry to stop Daniel from strangling the boy. David manages to lock Daniel in one of the horse stables and wants to put him down, but allows Regina to talk to her fiancé. Regina finally lets Daniel go by turning him into dust.

One night, Henry awakens screaming from a horrible nightmare, causing David to rush to his bedside to comfort him. Henry describes the dream, in which he was trapped in a red room engulfed in flames with no curtains or doors, along with another unknown person.

David and Mother Superior are brought to the mines when the dwarves stumble upon diamonds, which can be used to make fairy dust. In celebration, they head over to the diner to have a late night drinking bash. At a table booth, David sees Henry drinking coffee and reassures him to be there if something happens in the dreams. After he urges Henry to grab some cocoa instead, Albert sits down in the booth with him. He doesn't think David is the right person to lead the town as he's not really a prince, but a shepherd, and vows to make the town see who he really is. David is certain the town knows who their leader is and leaves for the diner backroom to stumble upon Granny and Ruby emptying the freezer. It's nearly the first curse-free wolfs time for Ruby and they need a place for her to spend the night when she transforms. In the morning, he and Granny find Ruby in the woods, with no recollection of the night before, after she is missing from the freezer. When they get back into town, they find Billy's mangled corpse. Ruby begins to scream in horror, believing she has once again killed an innocent person, but David trusts her and doesn't think she did it. One reason for his belief in her innocence is David's regrets over not trusting Mary Margaret when she was accused of murder. Trouble brews when Albert and an angry townspeople want Ruby arrested for Billy's murder, so David locks her up for safety reasons. Fearing they are going to break in and kill Ruby, David, Belle and Granny hide her in the library. Then, he and Granny search and find Albert's car with a bloody hatchet and Ruby's stolen red cloak. He realizes this is Albert's plot at getting back at him. David hurries to stop a wolf Ruby from attacking Albert as he aims to gun her down. Helping her to regain control, he lays the cloak over her so she changes back into human. Too late, they see Albert has disappeared and come across him burning the hat. Enraged, David gives Albert a beat-down and prepares to kill him, but is convinced by Ruby to stand down. Later, at home, David contemplates it will be near impossible to bring Emma and Mary Margaret back without the hat, but Ruby assures him he can find a way because she knows what kind of man he is.

David is startled as Henry wakes up from his dream, stating that he met someone named Aurora, who says Emma and Mary Margaret are alive, and they need to stop Cora. Mr. Gold has Henry deliver a message to Aurora and let her know squid ink is the most effective way to defeat Cora. David, Mr. Gold and Regina send him to the Netherworld, but when he returns, communication with Aurora was severed and she did not receive the message. Henry suffers physical pains as a side effect of repeatedly returning to the Netherworld, so David volunteers to be put under a Sleeping Curse to find Mary Margaret. Though it is dangerous, he is positive that she will eventually wake him with true love's kiss. After Regina is finished making the curse, Mr. Gold puts a needle into the liquid for David to prick his finger on. While under the curse, David is trapped in a room full of mirrors until using a torch to break the floor and falls into a chamber surrounded by flames. Once there, he reunites with Mary Margaret and he tells her about the squid ink located in Rumplestiltskin's cell. Then, they lean in for true love's kiss, but their bodies cannot touch in a dream. Mary Margaret's conscious begins waking up from the Netherworld as David is left alone to feud off the fire.

Remaining asleep, David is unconscious as Henry begins reading from the storybook to him. After Mary Margaret returns to Storybrooke through a portal, she rushes to the pawnshop and gives him true love's kiss. He awakens, happy to see his wife and Emma, and the three of them, Ruby and the dwarves catch up by having dinner at Granny's.

Since being reunited, David and Mary Margaret spend some "intimate" moments in the apartment when Emma and Henry walk in on. While Henry is convinced they are just lying down, Emma walks away uncomfortably. David jokes to Mary Margaret that it is impressive they can still provide their daughter with traumatic childhood memories this late in her life. Later that night, a celebration is thrown at Granny's in honor of Emma and Mary Margaret's return. To several of the other guests' displeasure, including David, Emma invited Regina to the party. The very next day, Archie is found dead in his office. Based on the prior confrontation Ruby saw Regina have with Archie, it's plausible she killed him. When Regina is brought in for questioning, David has no doubts that she murdered Archie. However, Emma is in convinced and instead thinks Mr. Gold has something to do with the situation. They go to his pawnshop where Emma uses a dream catcher to see into the memories of Archie's dog Pongo; witnessing an image of Regina choking Archie to death. Since Regina is more difficult to contain due to her magic, David and Mary Margaret suggest they trap her with fairy dust. With Emma, they confronts Regina on her doorstep about what she did. Mother Superior, on cue, attempts to freeze Regina, but she catches the dust in midair and tosses it aside. Angrily, Emma confirms that Regina will never change from who she is. To this, Regina disappears in a cloud of smoke. With reassurance from David, Emma breaks the bad news about Regina to Henry.

At Archie's funeral, David attempts to cheer up a despondent Henry, who has begun to call the man's office just to hear his voice on the answering machine. In the apartment, Emma enters to give Pongo over to Henry in an effort to cheer him up. Her parents agrees Pongo would be great for Henry, though things may get a bit cramped. However, he is shocked when Mary Margaret suggests the two of them move out and let Emma and Henry have the apartment. David is not very enthusiastic about the idea and when shown several houses from Mary Margaret, he turns down every one. His real desire is to go back to the Enchanted Forest, even though their home world is not the same as in the past with Cora in power and the ogres taking over, he insists they fight to regain what is theirs. However, she disagrees, as fighting is so tiresome and just wants a fresh start in Storybrooke. He and Mary Margaret later learn from Emma that Archie is alive, and was kidnapped by Cora, who apparently found a way to Storybrooke.

After a car crashes into Storybrooke, David and Mary Margaret accompany Emma on the drive to the scene. They observe an amnesiac and frightened Belle who crossed the town line, a run-over Hook with multiple cracked ribs and a passed out stranger in the crashed car. David and Emma work to restrain Mr. Gold from beating Hook to death for what he did to Belle. All three casualties are taken to the hospital as patients. David, Emma, Mary Margaret, Leroy and Ruby try to break into the stranger's phone to learn who he is. After reviewing some paperwork left in the man's car, Emma sees that his name is Greg Mendell. From hacking into the phone, he looks to be a normal person. Dr. Whale comes back from checking up on Greg and says the man is bleeding into his chest cavity. Unsure of his own skill, Dr. Whale consults Mr. Gold for help, but he refuses and only warns that they should hope Greg dies so an outsider can't spread their town's magic secret to the whole world. They go into a separate room to debate about the pros and cons of helping someone from outside of town. Ultimately, the decision is made to save the stranger's life no matter what. Dr. Whale leaves the room to prep for the surgery, and Mary Margaret remarks how drunk he appears to be. Suddenly, Greg's phone starts ringing. No one dares to answer in fear the phone might be traced to Storybrooke. As they are waiting for the surgery to finish, a male nurse cannot find Dr. Whale, whose pager is the pocket of his disposed lab coat. Ruby runs off to track Dr. Whale by scent and brings him back to perform the operation on Greg. The surgery is a success and Emma goes in to gather information from Greg about what happened. He confesses to texting while driving. With a breath of relief, Emma and her parents return to the apartment. Henry wishes to know the day's events and after being filled in, he realizes the Frankenstein story is not a fairytale nor does it exist as in the storybook. Abruptly, Mr. Gold pays them a visit to ask Emma to fulfill the favor she owes him by helping find his son Baelfire. Just before he leaves, Mr. Gold also warns if any harm comes to Belle while he is gone, he will kill them all.

In the morning, Emma brings Henry, who she wishes to protect from Cora, along for departure out of town with Mr. Gold. Afterwards, David and Mary Margaret receive Regina at the door. Again, she denies killing Archie, to which they apologize for suspecting her since he turned up alive. They also mention that Emma left town with Henry, which upsets Regina. After Hook is released from the hospital, David, Mary Margaret and Leroy question his alliance with Cora. He leads them onto his ship to show them a caged shrunken giant who Cora brought from the Enchanted Forest. They free the giant, Anton, who reacts in fury when he sees David. He proceeds to lash out at them, which Mary Margaret quickly stops by shooting an arrow at him. Anton leaves the ship, but promises David will pay for what he has done. At the diner, David is still confused about what the giant said until realizing he was mistaken for his brother, James. Soon, he, Mary Margaret and Leroy have to defend the town against a much larger Anton, who begins taking out his anger on humans. David directs all the residents to take cover at town hall while he attempts to clear up the misunderstanding with Anton. Leroy helps win over Anton by mentioning Emma was given the compass by him. Anton wishes to speak to Emma, but she is not in town, so he continues with the rampage by chasing the three down. Finally, David proposes to give up his own life to Anton so he spares the townspeople. As Anton moves to stomp on him, the three are blown back by the debris as the impact of the pound hits the ground. Anton, now back to human size, falls into giant-made hole clinging on for dear life. The townspeople work to help David scale down into the hole with a rope and pull Anton to safety. They introduce Anton to the diner in an effort to make him feel at home. As they talk, Mary Margaret mentions Storybrooke is their home now since there is no way of getting back to their old land. To this, Anton shows them a stem of a beanstalk that can grow magic beans. They let Anton inspect some soil content, which is suitable for planting the stem, as the seven dwarves arrive to help him. David and Mary Margaret leave them to it and briefly discuss the what-ifs had he been raised by King George rather than his twin, and then the topic turns to returning to the Enchanted Forest. While Mary Margaret doesn't want to leave Emma behind, David is sure that their daughter will be fine with Henry.

From Manhattan, Emma phones Mary Margaret with the revelation that Mr. Gold's son is also her ex-boyfriend and Henry's biological father. David is stunned at the news, which now connects not only Regina, but also Mr. Gold to their family tree. He quips that it's a good thing they did not have Thanksgiving in the Enchanted Forest, or otherwise it would have been one messed up holiday. Mary Margaret toys with the idea that this familial connection will be the key to bringing everyone together.

On Mary Margaret's birthday, David makes breakfast pancakes for her, even though he pretends to be making them out of hunger, she can obviously tell what is going on. As an unspoken conflict, Mary Margaret hates celebrating her birthday because her mother's passing occurred on the same date. On the table, she notices a nearly wrapped present, which he denies is from him. She opens the box to find the tiara she once received from her mother, Queen Eva, on her coming-of-age birthday, and a card note from an old friend, Johanna. David cannot believe she, too, is also in Storybrooke. After a quick kiss, Mary Margaret heads out to look for her. David begins another day at the sheriff department only to be ambushed and knocked out by Hook, who then steals the drawer keys to grab his hook back. He finally comes to when Mary Margaret wakes him up. He mentions how Hook attacked him, but Mary Margaret has more urgent news about Regina being in cahoots with Cora and they are actively searching for Mr. Gold's dagger. They conclude the mother-daughter pair want it to either control Mr. Gold or make Cora the Dark One. He moves to phone Mr. Gold, but Mary Margaret already tried and he is not picking up. Instead, she plans on having a chat with Regina to pull her back to their side. The talk goes badly, so David and Mary Margaret try to procure the dagger's location from Mr. Gold by asking Emma to convince him. In the meantime, they unsuccessfully attempt to break into the pawnshop with Mother Superior's powers when David learns from Emma that the dagger is in the clock tower and nab it in time. However, Cora and Regina threaten to crush Johanna's heart unless they get the dagger. After Mary Margaret gives it up to them, Johanna is cruelly killed by Cora. The couple honor Johanna by burying her in the cemetery. To David's alarm, his wife wants revenge by murdering Cora.

As their daughter is returning from New York, David talks to Mary Margaret on the phone about the dagger's status with Cora and information from Emma about Mr. Gold's injury at Hook's hands. At the docks, David helps carry Mr. Gold to his car while meeting Henry's father, Neal, in the process. Mary Margaret secretly expresses an eagerness to do away with Cora, though David reminds her that she wasn't and isn't a murderer. He is troubled by Mary Margaret's explanation that killing Cora would be retribution for her own mother's death. David gently reasons that she wouldn't be able to going through the deed and live with the guilt since he knows her heart is the purest. After they return to the pawnshop, he leaves Mr. Gold to instruct Emma on how to enact a barrier spell. Once done, they all begin making preparations for battle. He senses something is on Mary Margaret's mind, but she remains quiet. Out of nowhere, the building begins shaking, signaling Cora and Regina's arrival, and the foursome assemble for a fight. David is the first to attack Regina, but is thrown out of the shop and knocked unconscious for the remainder of the onslaught. When he wakes, he calls Emma to ask about Mary Margaret, but neither have seen her. David searches by the vault, finding her huddling in despair after casting a death spell on Cora's heart in exchange for Mr. Gold's revival and tricking Regina to put it back into its rightful owner, so they make haste back to the pawnshop. They are, however, too late, as Regina holds a lifeless Cora in her arms.

In their shared apartment, David stays silent as Emma hides the truth from Henry about why Mary Margaret is refusing to eat by saying she's sick. Henry can tell both of them are lying, so Emma explains to him the circumstances that caused Mary Margaret to be partially responsible for Cora's death. Mr. Gold comes to warn them about Regina's plans of revenge on Mary Margaret. He begins leaving, except David reminds Mr. Gold the debt he owes Mary Margaret for saving his life. After some amateur sleuthing in Regina's vault, Mr. Gold informs them of a spell called "the curse of the empty-hearted", that when cast on someone, has the ability to make the caster think the person loves him or her. From upstairs, Henry has been eavesdropping and pushes his way into the conversation. Furthermore, Mr. Gold details the spell is the only way Regina can get Henry and the love she craves, but also vengeance from Mary Margaret. The twist is, in order to enact the curse, Regina needs the heart of the person she hates the most, which is obviously Mary Margaret. Mr. Gold believes warning them already fulfills his debt, but David disagrees. Coldly, Mr. Gold asserts that wars have costs and considering this is a blood feud that goes back several generations, and the only way to end it is to spill more of it by possibly killing Regina. Henry dislikes using such a dark tactic as it is not heroic at all, but no one has a response, leaving him to run out of the apartment as Emma follows. David stays behind, but is later called to regroup with Emma and Neal after Henry has gone missing. Upon seeing some dynamite is missing, they realize Henry wants to blow up something. They arrive at the wishing well to see Regina speaking to Henry. The trio refuse to budge out of Regina's way, so she conjures a fireball. Henry runs in between to force the fighting to cease, and desperately wants to get rid of magic. He pleas for Regina to help him destroy magic, which is not possible, but she burns the spell to placate him. Henry thanks her, and leaves with David, Emma and Neal.

David makes another breakfast tray for Mary Margaret, who is still staying in bed since the aftermath of Cora's death. Emma is exasperated at his attempts at coddling Mary Margaret. Even though he reasons Mary Margaret is having a hard time, Emma believes it's time to move on. As he closes the door behind Emma and Henry, Mary Margaret is finally out of bed and packing for a trip to the woods. He offers to come along, but she insists she must be alone. At the news of August's reappearance, David and Henry join Emma, Marco and Mary Margaret on the way to the sheriff department to look for him. They reach the building in time to see August stumbling out and collapsing as Emma and Marco attempt to help. August uses his last bit of strength to warn Emma about someone, but only manages the word "her" before he passes away. Henry stresses that if August's actions today have been selfless, brave and true, he can be saved. Mother Superior agrees and uses her wand, with success, to revert August into a seven-year-old Pinocchio. Emma makes an attempt to help Pinocchio recall what August was going to tell her earlier, but he can't remember. After a long day, they go home. When he is alone with his wife, David is furious at Mary Margaret's admittance that she went to Regina's house asking to be killed. She has fears about her heart continuing to blacken, though he sets August as an example that redemption is possible. David knows Mary Margaret is neither like August or Regina, and there has to be a way to help because he believes in the goodness in her heart.

As the bean fields prosper, Mother Superior shields the area from outsiders with a barrier. David and Mary Margaret bring Emma to the fields as a surprise. Emma detects this means both her parents want to go back to the Enchanted Forest. Mary Margaret reasons that dealing with the consequences of Cora's death has been tiring on her heart and by going back to their land, perhaps her heart can be healed too. They believe if Emma comes with them, she can also have her happy ending that never happened. During the afternoon, David and Leroy head to the diner to order ten bowls of chili for themselves and everyone else working on the bean fields. Granny is curious about what they are doing at the fields, which Leroy quickly says is landscaping. Mr. Gold pops in to speak with David alone about a private matter. After urging Leroy to go back without him, David hears Mr. Gold out on his dilemma of winning back Belle's heart since she is now living under her false memories as Lacey. He goes with Mr. Gold to the town bar, The Rabbit Hole, where Lacey is drinking. With David's encouragement, Mr. Gold asks her out. After sundown, David carpools Anton, Bashful, Doc, Happy, Leroy and Walter to drop them off at the diner. Then, he and Mary Margaret head home.

By the dock, David discusses with Mary Margaret what will be Regina's fate once they leave for the Enchanted Forest. Mary Margaret is more reluctant to let Henry be without his mother, but David considers how many times Regina has failed to change and suggests they give her an ultimatum to either say in Storybrooke or live out the rest of her days in the dark dungeon. On a sunny day, David, Leroy and Mary Margaret drive out to check up on the bean fields. After entering the barrier, they find the destroyed beans.

Suspecting Regina ruined the bean fields, David, Emma, Henry and Mary Margaret search the mayoral office. They find evidence proving Regina kept some of the beans for herself, but the beans are strangely missing. Even more alarming, Emma discovers an override code was used to break into the office. She suspects Neal's fiancée, Tamara, is involved, but her parents insist only Mr. Gold could overpower Regina. While Emma goes to question Neal, David and Mary Margaret ask Mr. Gold for a way to track Regina. Since Mary Margaret once saved his life, making him indebted to her, he provides a bottle with Regina's tears and asks her to shed one of her own tears into it. After she does, he mixes the tears and instructs her to pour it in her eye in order to breach a temporary connection with Regina. Under the liquid's influence, Mary Margaret feels agonizing pain from Regina and smells sardines in her surroundings. David reports the findings to Emma, who realizes Regina is in the cannery. Regrouping there, Emma and Neal stay behind to secure the rooms while Mary Margaret and David rush ahead, where they catch Greg electrocuting Regina. He escapes, and they free Regina before bringing her to the apartment to be healed by Mother Superior. Regina admits she previously planned to destroy them with a trigger, but now the device in Greg and Tamara's hands. Suddenly, a shocked Emma returns home, revealing Neal died during a confrontation with Tamara, as her parents console her.

Heading to the park, David, Emma and Mary Margaret pick up Henry, where they encounter Mr. Gold. As Emma goes to break the news about Neal to Henry, David and Mary Margaret do the same for Mr. Gold. They desire his help to stop the trigger, but he refuses, believing dying is his penance for Neal's death. Once the trigger is activated, Hook aids them in stealing the remaining beans from Greg and Tamara, which will be used to bring the townspeople to safety. In an act of sacrifice, Regina attempts to stall the trigger for as long as possible. With Hook, David corners Greg at the cannery as Tamara ambushes them. While the pirate distracts Greg, David chases Tamara, who loses her gun at one point. In the nick of time, Greg knocks David away and escapes with his partner-in-crime. Despite this setback, Hook managed to procure the last bean. Not trusting the pirate, David holds onto the bean in a box. Regrouping with the residents at the diner, everyone is ready to go until Henry learns Regina isn't coming with them. He is unwilling to leave her behind, and Mary Margaret agrees, suggesting they use the bean to send the trigger away. Emma is skeptical since it's a risky plan, but Archie rallies everyone into the plan. After Emma agrees, David tosses her the bean box, which Hook catches. Without them noticing, he steals the bean for himself and returns the box with a decoy. Hurrying to the mines, Henry and his family discover too late that the bean is gone. In a stroke of luck, Emma realizes she and Regina could stop the trigger with their combined magic, and they succeed in deactivating it. In the aftermath, they find Henry missing, and later witness Greg and Tamara taking him into a portal. Hook, atoning for his thievery, decides against using the last bean for his selfish purposes, and allows Emma and her parents aboard to pursue Henry's captors. With a magic globe, Mr. Gold tracks the boy to Neverland. They then sail there after opening a portal with the bean.

As they sail towards the island of Neverland, David and Mary Margaret approach Emma to comfort her over losing Henry and Neal. An embittered Emma is tired of her parents' optimism, but they encourage her to have hope about rescuing Henry. Mr. Gold announces he is saving his grandson alone since Emma is not capable enough. With a spin from his cane, he mysteriously disappears. Continuing to sail, the ship is attacked by mermaids. Working together, Mary Margaret and Emma reel one of the creatures on the fishing line as Regina scares off the remaining horde with fire. On deck, the group argue about what to do with the mermaid, who sounds a shell and threatens them with death if they don't free her. As thunder brews in the sky, everyone realizes the mermaid summoned a storm, but they remain unaware that the downpour will increase as their animosity for each other grows. David almost resorts to cutting the fish's neck, but a look of disapproval from Mary Margaret makes him stop. Impatient, Regina freezes the mermaid, and her action causes the storm to speed up. Mary Margaret blames Regina for their situation, and the pair trade insults until the fight becomes physical as David and Hook also have it out. Emma, recognizing the foursome's bickering is making the storm worse, forces them to stop after she jumps into the ocean and gets knocked out by a rig pulley. Working together, David ties a rope around his waist and saves Emma while Mary Margaret, Hook and Regina pull them up. Arriving to Neverland's shoreline, Emma motivates the group to cooperate with each other in order to rescue Henry, and they don't have to be friends, but each person's skill is needed for this mission. Impressed by his daughter's leadership, David follows Emma into the jungle.

While treading through the jungle to a cliff, David uses his sword to clear a path as they progress. Sighting a bush of thorns, he prepares to cut them away, but Hook informs the group the dangers of the poisonous Dreamshade oozing out from the spikes. Though Hook advises they go left, David ignores him and goes right. Up ahead, the ridge allows them to get a view of the island, but too much has changed since Hook was last in Neverland and he can't tell the difference between anything. They can't comb the jungle, either, because it's not safe to travel through. They take a rest for the night, though everyone is awakened with news of Emma's encounter with Pan in the jungle and the map he gave her to find Henry. The catch is Emma must "stop denying who she really is" and only then will the map unlock for her. Regina would rather try using magic on the map, a move David highly disagrees with, as does everyone else. Emma makes the effort to unveil the map by stating facts about herself, with encouragement from her parents, but nothing works. Tired of playing games, Regina snatches the map and casts a locator spell on it, which leads them straight to Pan, who then sends the Lost Boys to engage them in combat. David is grazed by one of the Lost Boys' Dreamshade-coated arrows, but after the battle, reassures Mary Margaret that he is fine. Seeing as Emma is still frustrated over the map, David attempts to go after her, but Mary Margaret goes to talk to their daughter instead. Shortly after, Emma manages to unveil the map. With a strategy planned to travel towards Pan's camp, the group breaks apart to assemble for leaving. However, David sneaks away from camp to examine his festering Dreamshade wound.

Heading north by following the map, the plan is a failure once when they notice Pan's camp location keeps changing, making their journey fruitless. Hook considers a fairy named Tinker Bell who Pan trusts and can likely get them into the camp with pixie dust. As David continues to keep his injury secret, his strength is depleting. He is not able to hide it from a watchful Hook, who estimates his lifespan is left at days or weeks at most, and pushes him to tell Mary Margaret. David decides not to; hoping the problem can be easily fixed by Tinker Bell's pixie dust. Regina stays behind to rest while everyone else goes to Tinker Bell's empty tree house, which strangely has a ladder, even though fairies have wings for flying. David finds a white cloth, which is Regina's and they rush off to rescue her. They corner Tinker Bell outside a cavern, but an unharmed Regina attests to the fairy's innocence. Regina tells them Tinker Bell lost all her fairy powers a long time ago and can't help infiltrate Pan's camp. Tinker Bell acknowledges that people not believing in her anymore, so she stopped being a fairy. Even though she can help them, Tinker Bell wants to know what's in it for herself. Emma and Mary Margaret offer her safe passage to Storybrooke as a new home, to which Tinker Bell agrees and goes back to camp with them.

At the camp base, David listens to Emma go over the strategy for entering Pan's headquarters from the back after Tinker Bell talks her way in through the front. Before they put the plan into action, the ex-fairy wants to know their escape route off the island. Since there isn't one, Tinker Bell warns that no one leaves the island without Pan's permission, and to prove how dangerous he is, she shows them a watch she found on Greg's corpse. Additionally, she reveals Tamara is dead as well. Without a proper escape plan, Tinker Bell decides it's not worth the risk, and she goes back to her tree house. During a group discussion, Emma agrees it's unwise to break into a place without knowing the way out. Although Hook once escaped Neverland, it was possible through a one-time deal with Pan, but the pirate recalls Neal managed to flee on his own. Hoping to find information on this, they go to a cave, where Neal once lived as a boy. To open the cave, David helps pull a vine with Hook to unseal the entrance, though the wound is weakening him. When the two men are alone for a spare moment after the women have entered the cave, Hook asks him about when he is going to tell his family about the injury. David believes the situation is hopeless, to which Hook reveals there is a cure, but it's too faraway. Inside, they find two coconut halves that when combined in the dark, illuminate a star constellation map with an escape route. However, despite that Hook taught Neal how to navigate using the stars, he also coached him against revealing secrets of his own map. Emma, realizing the only person who can read the map is dead, stalks outside. Her parents follow, consoling her about Neal, as Emma expresses everything from anger, grief and pain over losing the man she loved. Emma then goes to be alone, to which Mary Margaret sadly considers her inability to comfort her own daughter. Mary Margaret suggests, if he died, that she could never move on. Comfortingly, David insists if something did happen, he'd want her to be happy. Thanking him for his sweet words, she hugs him, as he bears a worried expression about his Dreamshade wound.

Continuing to search the cave, Emma finds Neal's tally marks on the wall as she recognizes he stopped counting the days due to losing hope of ever leaving, which is the same thing Pan wants for Henry. In the hopes of sending Henry a message, Mary Margaret convinces everyone to make a net out of vine to catch a Lost Boy. Once she leads everyone out of the cave to show them, Hook tries sympathizing with Emma about losing hope, but she rebuffs his advances. After she leaves, David tells Hook that Emma is never going to like him since he's just a pirate. While the women are crafting the net, David gathers vine from the jungle, and upon seeing Hook eyeing Emma, he asks him to come along. Once they are alone, David warns him to stay away from his daughter. Hook suggests looking for a Dreamshade cure, but the latter refuses since it'll distract them from their mission to save Henry. After an altercation, David passes out from his worsening wound and awakens to see a military insignia in the dirt. Hook recognizes it as his brother's badge, which was lost during a duel with Pan on Dead Man's Peak, and there is a satchel there that contains a sextant for reading the star map. Before the pair set out to retrieve it, David says goodbye to Emma and Mary Margaret. On the way up, Hook ascends first, but an impatient David climbs up soon after and overhears Pan's deal with the pirate to kill him once they reach the top. At the peak, David demands the sextant from Hook, who admits lying about the satchel in order to find a cure. Believing he is on Pan's side, David starts a fight, but is knocked out. Reaching consciousness, David is offered magic water, which will heal his wound, but he can never leave the island. Willing to pay the price, he drinks it and is healed. Returning to camp, David kisses Mary Margaret affectionately; much to everyone's embarrassment. Wishing to thank Hook, David stretches the truth by praising the pirate for saving him from a Dreamshade arrow after they were ambushed earlier. They each take a sip of Hook's rum, except Regina, until it passes into Emma's hands. Then, he and Mary Margaret go off to be alone.

At their camp, Mary Margaret and David watch Regina teach Emma how to light a fire with magic. Emma argues with Regina about her training tactics, and as things get heated, she accidentally channels her anger; lighting flame on the wood. To Mary Margaret, David expresses dislike about allowing Emma to use magic, but she thinks their daughter needs to learn. She also believes Emma will use her abilities wisely. Approaching the couple, Hook reveals Neal is alive and Pan kidnapped him from their campsite to a cave. As proof of this story, Mary Margaret notices a snapped branch near the brush along with footprints resembling a struggle. Although she wants to tell Emma about Neal, David and Hook convince her not to. The trio agree to prep a cover story and search for Neal themselves, but when Emma asks where they are going, both David and Hook give different excuses. With the plan ruined, Mary Margaret blurts out that Neal is alive. In disbelief over these claims, Regina leaves the group as everyone else follows the footprint trail. Outside the Echo Cave, Hook explains they each must reveal one of their deepest secrets in order to rescue Neal. Once inside, they see a caged Neal on a separate strip of land. Hook goes first by stating he shared a kiss with Emma, causing outrage from David, as well as his genuine feelings for her. When Mary Margaret confesses her desire for another child, David tearfully admits she would make a great mother, but she won't have another baby with him due to the price of the Dreamshade cure. This shocks Mary Margaret, who says nothing in response. With three secrets revealed, a bridge forms and Emma makes her way across, where she tells Neal her secret and frees him. Once they return outside, they decide to find Tinker Bell first before continuing the mission. Heading back to camp, David tries talking to Mary Margaret about his earlier disclosure, but she snaps at him.

Neal brainstorms a plan to capture Pan's shadow and use it to fly everyone off the island. Emma and Hook will join him on this quest, and they agree to meet Mary Margaret and David at Tinker Bell's tree house once everything is settled. Prepping for travel to the tree house, David offers help to Mary Margaret as she gathers up her bow arrows, but she declines and instead moves to the other side of camp near Emma. Throughout the jungle trek, David reasons with Mary Margaret, stating he kept the secret to keep from sidetracking everyone, as she listens and then silently disregards his words. In another try, he suggests they can build a home for themselves in the jungle. When she continues to ignore him, he calls her out to at least say something. Mary Margaret then furiously berates him for lying to her the whole time, to which David attests he wanted to find a cure on his own so she wouldn't worry. Despite this, she is angry he didn't tell her about the cure or the cost for it. David confesses he was scared, knowing she would be unwilling to leave the island with him, and did not want to force the cure's price on her. Yet, Mary Margaret attests that's exactly what she would do in order to be with him. As he apologizes for disappointing her, she forgives him with a hug. Outside the tree house, they wait as Tinker Bell approaches and tell her about capturing Pan's shadow as a means to escape the island. Tinker Bell is skeptical, until Emma, Hook and Neal arrive with the trapped shadow, and she leads them to the next part of the plan.

While moving ahead to Pan's camp, a rustle from the jungle causes the entire group to assemble for battle, but it turns out to be only Regina and Mr. Gold. Regina tells them about the power of Pandora's Box while Neal's distrust in his father causes him to blurt out Mr. Gold's objective to kill Henry and prevent a seer's prophecy from coming true. David and the others subsequently take a stance against Mr. Gold by drawing their weapons. Things cool down only when Neal forces him to hand over the box. After Tinker Bell gains access into the perimeter of the encampment, Regina uses a spell to put all the Lost Boys to sleep, however, neither Henry or Pan are found. Instead, Neal frees a young prisoner, Wendy, and brings her back to camp to inquire about Henry. Forced to act on Pan's wishes, Wendy lies to them, but with some encouragement, she yields and tells the truth. Mary Margaret gains insight on Pan's real reason for needing Henry's heart, which is to save himself from dying and then become immortal. As a trade, Pan lives, but Henry will die. Before Emma leaves for Skull Rock to stop Pan, she presses David and Mary Margaret to go back to Dead Man's Peak and retrieve more of the spring water as a necessity for the journey home. While the water can keep David alive for a span of time, Mr. Gold will create an elixir in Storybrooke to cure him for good. As David and Mary Margaret double back to the peak, they feel a powerful rush of magic flow throughout Neverland, caused by Henry sacrificing his heart to Pan.

David and Mary Margaret return to the Lost Boy camp and learn from Emma that Henry gave up his heart to Pan and Mr. Gold is trapped inside Pandora's Box. Regina casts a preservation spell on Henry to last one hour until they can track down Pan. Emma manages to get some of the Lost Boys to open up about Pan's current location at his "thinking tree" in Pixie Woods after promising to bring them off the island. While Emma, Mary Margaret and Regina go to find Pan, David and the rest of their party plan to regroup aboard the Jolly Roger. The three women come back in time to place the heart back in Henry as he gasps to life. David and Mary Margaret watch Neal free Mr. Gold from the box and have a warm reunion as their past differences and mistakes are reconciled. With Regina's power, the Shadow becomes the ship sail and flies them homeward.

Following a safe journey from Neverland to Storybrooke, peace resumes as Mr. Gold seals the box away in the pawnshop. While spending time at the diner, David and Mary Margaret overhear Neal inviting Emma to lunch tomorrow. Though Mary Margaret urges her to go, Emma's mind is still on Henry only. The next morning, he and Mary Margaret dine on lasagna when Mr. Gold gives them the Dreamshade wound elixir. After being healed, David suggests they start trying for another child, but Mary Margaret's mood dampers when she observes that Neal is sitting alone at another booth. At the docks, David finds Emma, asking about her reluctance to give Neal a chance, though she is preoccupied about Henry, who is not acting like himself. She is upset Henry spent the night at Regina's house, though David points out that Regina is the boy's mother before she got involved. Still, Emma is worried something bad will happen as he reasons she has to see the good in life that makes it worth living. He then gives her a ride to Granny's so she can meet with Neal, but this is interrupted by the Shadow killing Mother Superior. Suspecting Pan has found a way to control his shadow from inside the box, David goes with Emma and Mary Margaret to investigate. Heading to the town line, Emma crosses over the border, as Pan is released on the same side so she can interrogate him. During the conversation, Henry proves to Emma that Pan switched bodies with him, to which all of them go to meet up with Hook, Neal and Tinker Bell at the vault, where Regina took "Henry" for protection. Unable to open the door, Mr. Gold works his magic to unseal it. As they wait, David and Mary Margaret persuade Emma to move on with life and not worry about things so much, but their daughter is finding it difficult to be a savior and have a day off from trouble. Inside the vault, Regina is found unconscious while one critical item is missing and now in Pan's hands, the curse scroll.

In a group, everyone listens to Mr. Gold's proposition about undoing Pan's curse by having Regina, the original curse caster, to destroy the scroll. First, they must switch Henry and Pan to their rightful bodies so Henry can give the scroll to Regina. To do this, a strong magical outlet is needed, so Tinker Bell suggests the Black Fairy's wand, which is in Mother Superior's possession. With Hook, Neal and Tinker Bell, David asks the convent nuns for the wand just as the Shadow attacks. Attempting to distract the creature, Hook is knocked off his feet by the being as David pulls him to safety. By a leap of faith, Tinker Bell manages to use pixie dust, lighting a flame on the candle in the coconut half, and then flies into the air to trap the Shadow. Disposing the coconut halves into a fire, the Shadow is destroyed as Mother Superior is revived. After they receive the wand from her, the foursome give it to Mr. Gold, who wields it to return Henry's spirit to his body. Everyone, except Mr. Gold, runs off to find the boy, and with Granny's tracking skills, they reunite with him. Regina, passing out after taking the scroll, awakens with knowledge of the price for stopping the curse. Accosting them, Pan freezes the group in place and steals the scroll. Mr. Gold, summoning the dagger, fatally stabs himself as well as Pan with it. After they fade out of existence, Regina reveals that to undo the curse, everyone will return to the Enchanted Forest while Storybrooke disappears forever. Since Henry wasn't born in the Enchanted Forest, he'll be alone, to which Regina asks Emma to leave town with him. To ensure they'll always be together, Regina will rewrite new memories for both of them so they forget everything. David says goodbye to his daughter and grandson, and after the two cross out of town, Regina halts the curse as everyone in Storybrooke is sent back to the Enchanted Forest.

Before Second Curse
After Regina takes magical preventive measures to undo Pan's casting of the Dark Curse, all the inhabitants of Storybrooke pay the price by returning to the Enchanted Forest and reverting to their prior personas. In a group, they manifest in the land of Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip where Regina mentions in passing that her old palace is still standing due to a preservation spell. Regina agrees to comply with Snow White's plan to travel there altogether as a strong front to ease the other inhabitants' minds. Prince Charming is informed by Grumpy, who was told by Jiminy, that fifty inhabitants landed in the Enchanted Forest two miles away. He tasks the seven dwarves with the job of spreading the word that everyone else should head for same destination as their group. Prince Charming is disappointed that Hook decides not to come with them and instead the pirate goes off looking for his ship. Baelfire wishes to stop off by his father's old castle, but Prince Charming persuades him that even if there is some way of reaching Emma and Henry, they wouldn't remember him. During the trek to the palace, Snow White searches for a missing Regina. The two women come back with three of the Merry Men, Friar Tuck, Little John, and Robin Hood, who accompany the group. As they near the palace, Regina discovers a protection spell, cast by whoever currently residing inside, is keeping them out. For the time being, Robin Hood suggests everyone can take shelter at Sherwood Forest.

As the group depart for Sherwood Forest, Regina proposes to Prince Charming and Snow White that she sneak into the palace through underground tunnels and deactivating the shield to allow entry. Suddenly, a flying monkey attacks, though the creature is quickly disarmed when Regina turns it into a stuffed animal. In a group discussion, Belle shares knowledge about the flying monkey's origins in the land of Oz, so Regina determines the person in the palace is the Wicked Witch. The prince suspected that the witch's motives are personal and inquired the Evil Queen on her past with the Wicked Witch, to which Regina replied that she and the witch were never acquianted. A plan is set up to wait for Regina to bring the shield down and then mobilize the whole group into the palace. Once night falls, Grumpy gives the signal when he spots the dissipating barrier, meaning Regina was able to lower it, so Prince Charming orders for everyone to begin heading to their destination.

During a night's sleep in the palace, Prince Charming dreams of being in the old castle he and Snow White lived in. Hearing a baby's cries, he wanders into an undamaged nursery, where everything from the crib to the toys, appear exactly as how it once was prior to the curse. A grown Emma, dressed prettily in a blue gown, persuades him into a dance as practice for her first ball. Prince Charming is ecstatic, as this is the life he wanted for her, but she abruptly remarks that it is a shame it never happened since he failed her as a father. In an instant, the dream becomes a nightmare, with Emma being sucked into the wardrobe, as he is forced to let her go as she warns him not to "fail the next one". After waking up, Prince Charming receives news from Snow White that they are expecting another child, which shocks him, but he hides his true feelings from her. Unable to shake a foreboding fear, he attempts to calm himself by drinking. A sympathetic Robin Hood suggests that he seek out a plant called night root, which grows at the edge of Sherwood Forest, that can help overcome his fear. On arrival to the location, Prince Charming digs up night root, but climbs up a tower when he hears a woman's plea for help. Inside, a princess, Rapunzel, relates how she became trapped after being chased up the tower by a cloaked witch. She, like him, sought out the night root to conquer her fear, but it hasn't worked. He tries to free her, but the cloaked witch intervenes and is unmasked as a manifestation of Rapunzel herself due to the princess consuming the night root. As the witch uses the princess' lengthy hair as rope to climb up, Prince Charming encourages Rapunzel to fight back, to which she cuts off the tresses and destroys her false twin. They journey to the palace, where Rapunzel reunites with her parents, and Prince Charming admits his worries to Snow White, who reassures him they will face the unknown together.

Just as Snow White intends to make a public announcement to the kingdom's citizens of her pregnancy, Belle returns to tell everyone about how Neal sacrificed his own life to resurrect Rumplestiltskin, who is now controlled by the Wicked Witch, Zelena. While everyone ponders what the witch wants from them, Aurora and Prince Phillip admit Zelena desires Snow White's unborn child and that they were forced to keep quiet or their own child would be harmed. After this revelation, Zelena arrives to turn the two into flying monkeys and then immobilizes Snow White. Prince Charming steps up to defend her, but he, too, is frozen in place. Zelena approaches to touch Snow White's belly; claiming the baby will be hers, and she departs soon after. Later, Prince Charming, Belle, Grumpy, Snow White, Regina and Robin Hood discuss counterattacking Zelena. They break into the Dark One's castle; gaining information from Rumplestiltskin about Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, who can help them. With his wife and Regina, they find a door leading to Glinda, but it can only be entered by the pure of heart. Prince Charming and Snow White pass into it to speak to Glinda about Zelena's weakness—light magic—a criteria Emma fits. Though the only way to reach Emma is with another Dark Curse, Regina refuses since it would mean taking Henry's heart. Prince Charming urges his wife to sacrifice his heart, which she inevitably accepts. As they say goodbye, Prince Charming remarks that their hearts have always been as one. Snow White crushes his heart; resulting in his death. Suddenly, Zelena swoops down to add a potion into the curse mixture, which will erase everyone's memories of their year in the Enchanted Forest. Before the curse spreads, Snow White, recalling her husband words, allows her heart to be torn out and divided; giving each half to herself and Prince Charming. From this leap of faith, Prince Charming is revived just as the curse closes in.

During Second Curse
A new curse is cast by none other than Snow White; returning Prince Charming and the rest of the Enchanted Forest inhabitants to the town of Storybrooke. However, as a result of Wicked Witch of the West's interference, everyone's last recollection is the final day in Storybrooke when Regina stopped Pan's curse, but no one can recall anything further than that. David's only clue that a year has indeed passed is Mary Margaret, who is heavily pregnant, despite that the two cannot remember what happened. The couple resume living together in the apartment. Mysteriously, residents begin disappearing from town, such as one of the dwarves. One fateful day, Emma returns, memory restored, to reunite with her parents.

David and Mary Margaret recount to Emma the last memories they have of the day Pan's curse was stopped and how everyone was presumably sent back to the Enchanted Forest, but they only remember waking up in Storybrooke like it was another regular day. Hook confirms that they did indeed return to their old homeland and spent a brief time with Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip. As Hook recalls, before he split from their group, everyone else was headed to the Queen's old palace. The pirate also mentions that his quest to bring their daughter back to Storybrooke was prompted by a messenger bird, attached with a note requesting for Emma as well as a vial of memory potion, which he had assumed was from Mary Margaret. Once Happy and Leroy report two more dwarves missing, Emma decides to conduct an investigation. In the morning, David and his wife meet Henry for the "first" time. Soon, he receives word that another resident has gone missing, and goes with Emma to the town line where Robin Hood and the Merry Men describe how Little John was kidnapped by a winged beast. David, Hook and the Merry Men search for Little John; eventually finding the unconscious man with a sustained bite wound. After whisking him to the hospital, Little John rapidly transforms into flying monkey and takes off. Reporting back to the apartment, David, Emma, Hook, Mary Margaret and Regina conclude that the Wicked Witch of the West cast the new curse.

David, Emma and Hook search the mayoral office for any evidence the Wicked Witch left behind while Regina keeps Henry company. Discovering a holly berry on the room, he pinpoints the plant's location in the northwestern region past the Toll Bridge. Abruptly, David receives an call from Mary Margaret asking him to meet their new midwife, Zelena, at the apartment, and hesitates until Emma insists that he go. Once there, Zelena brews tea for them. While waiting, David expresses skepticism to Mary Margaret about the midwife. Without anyone's notice, Zelena spikes David's tea with night root. When given a chance to voice fears about expecting another child, he chooses not to and feigns calm. Afterwards, he leaves to scour the area of the growing holly berries only to see someone stalking him. Quickly, David phones Emma and leaves a message notifying her that he is closing in on the Wicked Witch. In a fight, he is knocked out by the assailant, who is unmasked as himself. While being choked to death, David admits that he is afraid of being a bad father and uses the hilt of his sword to stab the latter. Both his attacker as well as the sword's hilt vanish and he later recounts this to Emma, Hook, and Regina. Altogether, they go to a farmhouse and investigate a cellar, which was locked, but is now mysteriously open. Inside, the cell's occupant is gone, but a spinning wheel with strands of spun gold litter the floor; evident proof that Mr. Gold is alive.

In a morning meeting at the closed diner, David and his allies discuss searching for Mr. Gold while Regina opts to search the farmhouse alone for evidence. David insists Mary Margaret return home and rest, despite that she has good tracking skills. He, Emma, and Hook inform Belle about Mr. Gold's alive status. The trio becomes a pair as Hook decides to stay behind and help Belle. Not much later, David and Emma arrive to the hospital after receiving news that Neal, who has been missing up to now, collapsed at the pawnshop. On close examination, Neal's palm is revealed to have a burnt symbol, which Belle begins researching. In the woods, David and Emma quickly stumble upon a frantic Mr. Gold after hearing him scream. They question him about the Wicked Witch's identity, but he is unable to tell them. Distracted by a sudden flying monkey attack, David fends the creature off while Emma chases after Mr. Gold. In this time frame, Belle discovers the symbol originates from a key to the vault of the Dark One, which Neal used to resurrect Mr. Gold, but in turn, cost his own life. Though Neal should be dead, he is not due to Mr. Gold absorbing him into his body. Emma magically separates the two; ending with Neal's inevitable death. David rejoins her after she learns from Mr. Gold that the Wicked Witch's true identity is Zelena. The father-daughter duo rush home, breaking open the bathroom where Zelena is supposedly hiding, but she is already gone. Afterwards, David and Mary Margaret enter the pawnshop to deliver the grim news about Neal to Belle and Hook.

David attends Neal's funeral to pay his respects. Afterwards, at the diner, Zelena makes a surprise appearance to threaten those who get in her way will be killed by the Dark One. On guard, David shields his wife from the witch, who cattily remarks that she isn't there for their baby. Instead, she publicly reveals herself as Regina's half-sister and forces her sibling into a showdown on Main Street after sundown. In preparation, lest Zelena is planning something wicked, David, Belle and Tinker Bell seal off the streets. Belle has high hopes of swaying Mr. Gold to their side despite that Zelena is controlling him with the dagger. Along with Emma and Tinker Bell, he stands guard outside the farmhouse cellar where Mr. Gold is imprisoned while Belle goes in and rushes out after nearly falling into Zelena's trap. An enslaved Mr. Gold delivers a message from Zelena; warning them that she will finish off Regina and they'll pay with their lives if they interfere again. During the evening, on Main Street, Zelena approaches while trailed by a helpless Mr. Gold. David witnesses Regina being thrown into the clock tower by Zelena, who later flees on her broomstick. He, Emma and Mary Margaret rush to check on Regina where they learn Zelena attempted to take her heart, but failed since it's hidden elsewhere.

When Emma accepts magic lessons with Regina, David and Mary Margaret offer to watch over Henry while she is gone. Instead, their daughter implies Henry thinks they are boring and lets Hook spend time with her son. As David and his wife walk along the beach, they come across Ariel after she washed ashore. She explains her long journey in searching for a missing Eric who hasn't been seen since the new curse was cast. They take her to the diner to ask Hook, since he retained his memories from the lost year in the Enchanted Forest, but the pirate knows nothing. David and Mary Margaret volunteer Hook to go with Ariel to the pawnshop, look for a belonging of Eric's and track him down using a locator spell. The couple take Henry for the afternoon and attempt to prove to him that they are "cool" by letting the boy drive David's truck. It ends badly with the vehicle hitting a mailbox, but nonetheless the trio regroup with Emma, Hook and Regina at the apartment in high spirits. Hook tells them that Ariel has reunited with Eric on Hangman's Island in the Enchanted Forest, which they see first-hand when Emma projects an mirror image of the happy lovers in the same location. Later, David, Emma, Henry, Mary Margaret and Regina have an evening meal together at the diner.

Gathered in Regina's house, David reports for a group seance to open a portal to the land of the dead by using the now defunct candle to talk to Cora about Zelena's origins. He, Emma, Hook, Mary Margaret and Regina link hands as the portal opens, but Cora refuses to appear. When Hook's knee bumps the table, a startled Mary Margaret withdraws her hands, which closes the gateway. Shortly after the failed experiment, all leave except Mary Margaret, who stays to help Regina clean up. Once Belle figures out what spell Zelena is intending to cast, David and the others return to Regina's house just after Mary Margaret was briefly possessed by Cora's spirit. Mary Margaret reveals Cora, already pregnant with another man's child, was once engaged to Leopold, but Princess Eva deliberately wrecked it. In turn, this caused Cora to unwillingly abandon Zelena after birth. As for the ingredients of Zelena's spell, as Belle explains, they are for a time spell to alter the past; namely to kill Eva and keep Cora from abandoning her first-born child.

Meeting at the inn, David, Emma, Mary Margaret and Regina strategize on how to break the new curse. With the last curse, Emma recalls believing in magic after touching the fairytale storybook, which triggered her memories of the Enchanted Forest. From this, Regina suggests the key to breaking the curse is for Henry to believe in magic as Emma did. They head to the apartment where the storybook appeared to Mary Margaret during the first curse, and the former schoolteacher "magically" finds it in a chest box. Henry is discovered missing from the inn; sending everyone on a wild goose chase to the docks, in which Emma shoots a flying monkey to protect him as David and Regina also step in to take out incoming monsters. Emma hands the storybook to him; asking Henry to believe in magic. Upon touching the book, the boy receives his lost memories back, but Zelena begins choking him. Emma magically scalds the witch; forcing her to retreat. Having been knocked out during the fight, Regina is awakened by Henry. In a tender reunion, Regina kisses his forehead; triggering true love's kiss and breaking the curse's effects. In a flurry of returned memories, David is stunned to remember it wasn't Zelena, but Mary Margaret who cast the new curse. He and Mary Margaret confront Hook about the supposed note he received that led him to find Emma. They believe it's a lie, but the pirate insists that someone sent it. While Emma and Henry visit Neal's grave, Mary Margaret begins having labor pains.

After Second Curse
Once the second curse is broken, Mary Margaret is rushed into the hospital while Emma and Regina enact a protective barrier to keep Zelena out. Though Emma wishes to face Zelena alone, David convinces her that Hook should go along as well. With Dr. Whale's help, Mary Margaret gives birth to a healthy baby boy and happily cradles him in her arms as David looks on. However, Emma's magic is drained after saving Hook's life and causes the room barrier to fade. David attempts to pull out his sword to defend his wife and child, but he is frozen while Zelena steals the baby for a time spell. On Henry's insistence that Regina possesses light magic, she uses it to defeat Zelena once and for all. After Zelena is stripped of her magic when Regina takes her pendant, David nearly swings his sword at a flying monkey, who reverts to Little John. Rather than condemn the witch to death, Regina spares her sister's life and imprisons her in a jail cell. At the hospital, David returns his son to Mary Margaret's loving arms while Emma walks Henry in to meet his new family member. Unseen to them, Mr. Gold kills Zelena; accidentally triggering magic in her pendant, which activates the time spell.

Returning home, David and Mary Margaret plan to do-away with the traditional royal ceremony and announce their son's name during a celebration at the diner. Henry shows Emma an apartment listing so they can live in Storybrooke permanently. When questioned by her mother if she wishes to stay in town, Emma avoidantly asks Henry to brainstorm a name for her new baby brother. During the party, Henry rereads the story of how Prince Charming and Snow White met. As Emma and Hook join the table, David and Mary Margaret playfully argue over who saved who during their first encounter. The conversation becomes awkward once Hook implies Emma wants to go back to New York, and Regina approaches to inquire further. Emma hints her desire to leave town, but when challenged by Henry, she bails from the diner. While Hook follows to talk some sense into her, Mary Margaret and the others notice a stream of light radiating to the sky—Zelena's time spell. David, Belle, Regina and Robin Hood find Zelena missing and discover through a security tape that she used magic to disappear. For the time being, they decide to leave the time portal untouched. David phones Emma, but she doesn't pick up. Later, Emma returns to confirm her decision to stay in Storybrooke, and shares news of her and Hook's trip to the past through the time portal, in which they recreated Prince Charming and Snow White's first meeting. Finally, David and Mary Margaret announce they are naming their son after a true hero—Neal.

In the aftermath of Emma and Hook returning to the present, they also rescued a would-have-been-executed woman, Maid Marian, who is actually Robin Hood's deceased wife. Walking out of the diner, David and Mary Margaret hear an angered Marian condemn Regina, who she remembers as the Evil Queen, as a "monster". Emma attempts to go after Regina, but Hook persuades her not to. David frets over what Regina might do while Henry voices fears about his mother becoming evil again, despite how much she's changed for the better. The next morning, David and Mary Margaret take out Neal in a stroller. While looking at his sleeping son's face, David muses out loud if they should have named him Baelfire instead. Trailing behind them, Emma talks to Henry about having phoned Regina, but she has not picked up at all. Concerned for his adoptive mother, Henry tries to call her as David stays behind to accompany him. Moments later, Emma and Hook investigate a trail of ice leading to a warehouse where they are chased out by an snow monster. David regroups with them and they head to the forest to meet up with Little John, Marian and Robin Hood. Emma's attempt to counter with magic only angers the beast, who knocks her away and blows everyone off their feet. Unexpectedly, Regina intercepts the battle, saving Marian's life, by obliterating the being.

One night, David, Emma, Henry and Mary Margaret receive an apartment visitor—a raven—at their window. Mary Margaret, seeing a note addressed to Henry on the animal, gives it to the boy. After reading it, a crestfallen Henry announces that Regina doesn't wish to see him. Later, David picks up Emma so they can investigate the cause of a sudden blackout. On the drive to the town line, Emma tells him about her failure to cheer up Henry. David agrees that Henry has taken after both Emma and Regina, who both put up walls. However, he believes Henry will feel better in time, and that Emma shouldn't give up on him. At the border, they see an ice wall, which has knocked down power lines. While Emma searches the wall interior, David questions Hook’s intentions with his daughter. Hook confirms that he’s willing to risk his life for her, and however their relationship evolves is his own choice as well as Emma’s, which eases David’s concerns. Venturing into the cave, they find Emma with a woman dressed in blue. Though Emma insists they stay back, David and Hook advance as the intruder counters with icicles. In defense, David readies his gun at the stranger, who causes an avalanche. Emma, trapped on the other side, informs him via walkie-talkie that the woman, Elsa, is searching for her sister, Anna, whose pendant was in the pawnshop. Elsa, speaking into Emma’s device, threatens to freeze everyone in town unless her sister is found. Storming into the pawnshop with Hook, David a card with a photo of the necklace from Belle. Shocked, David recalls it belongs to a woman he knew as Joan, though her real name must be Anna. Since Bo Peep once branded Anna with a shepherd’s crook, the men forcibly take the item and rush to the cave when Elsa radios that Emma is freezing to death. Through the walkie-talkie, David persuades Elsa that surviving is not enough and she must live, which the latter recognizes as her sister’s words. He reveals Anna once saved his life, so she must save Emma. With his encouragement, she melts the ice. Returning to the apartment, everyone, including Elsa, assists in warming Emma up. Elsa uses the shepherd’s crook to find Anna, whose heartbeat they hear. When Mary Margaret comes home, David introduces them and proclaims they will find Anna.

For Mary Margaret's first conference as the new mayor, David welcomes the townspeople into the office before the meeting begins. Like everyone else, he receives a list agenda of all the things Mary Margaret intends to discuss, but the residents press her into talking about the ice wall. She confirms the wall surrounds the whole town, but assures them that the person who made it, Elsa, is not an enemy. The citizens respond in outcry, though David helps to calm the crowd so Mary Margaret can resume her talking points. Suddenly, Marian collapses from an apparent freezing spell affliction. After the meeting, Robin Hood brings Regina to help, but she can only slow down the spell. Since it wasn't Elsa's magic, David goes with Emma to find the culprit. In the woods, they split up in their search for clues. Emma corners a man rummaging through Robin Hood's tent, and after he runs away, David manages to grab him. Introducing himself as Will, he mentions hearing of Marian's illness and tells them about ice cream in a shop, during the blackout, which was still frozen without electricity. Skeptical, the two sheriffs let Will take them to the store, Any Given Sundae, where Emma notices there is no freezer, which is used to keep the goods frozen. Will instructs them to look in the backroom for proof of his claims. David and Emma discover a frozen kitchen, but while they are distracted, Will steals money from the cash register and flees. Though Emma wants to go after him, David insists they stay on track. Sensing something is wrong, he learns Emma is unhappy being a savior, since she is unable to resolve anything lately, such as the snow monster or the ice wall cave-in. He advises she shouldn't give up on herself. Emma picks up a voice message from Hook, which leads them to the Snow Queen, who is preparing to drop icicles on the pirate. As David tries to free Hook's frozen feet, the Snow Queen collapses the trap just as Emma magically pushes the two men to safety. Soon after, the Snow Queen disappears without their notice.

As Emma prepares for her first date with Hook, David brings out records of town residents from the first and second curses so he and Mary Margaret can search for any sign of Anna. Stepping out in her date outfit, Emma asks for her parents and Elsa's opinions. They all think she looks amazing, and to her daughter's embarrassment, Mary Margaret snaps a photo of her. Hook arrives, dressed in normal attire, with his real hand restored due to Mr. Gold's help. David eyes Hook cautiously, which makes Emma hasten her and Hook's departure. By evening's end, Emma returns home as an excited Mary Margaret queries her on how the date went; wanting to know everything that happened, though David is less enthusiastic to hear certain details. Awkwardly, Emma excuses herself by saying goodnight, but this doesn't stop Mary Margaret's chatter about how happy their daughter looks. David supposes that Hook has truly changed, to which a perplexed Emma says, from another room, that she can still hear them talking. The next day, David continues going through records at the sheriff's office. He discovers the Snow Queen lives under the name Sarah Fisher, but she is not listed anywhere in the town censuses. After making this breakthrough, he relates the information to Emma, which proves the Snow Queen did not come to Storybrooke due to a curse.

When David and his wife plan to spend quality time together, they request Belle to babysit Neal at the apartment. As they watch Belle hold Neal in her arms, David quietly reassures Mary Margaret that everything will be fine. While he points out if anything goes wrong, Belle has their emergency numbers, Mary Margaret is unable to not worry about being apart from her son. Finally, he persuades her into taking time off with him as she needs it. Before they go hiking, the two stop by the sheriff station to grab a walkie-talkie so Belle can still get in touch with them. David notices Will is gone from his cell, and at the spur of the moment, he insists they should capture him right away. When Mary Margaret is hesitant to agree, he jokes that "it'll be like old times—a prince and a princess on an adventure but without the Evil Queen". As the evening goes on, they have no luck apprehending the thief, to which Mary Margaret expresses concerns about being away from Neal too long. David lets her go home while he continues searching. After he arrives home, she confidently reveals her capture of Will and then pardoning him. She reveals knowledge about his involvement, as Will admitted David did, in setting up the situation. Mary Margaret thanks him for doing so since she feels more like her old self now. Despite that she had fun, David concedes he had nothing to do with what happened, and Will broke out on his own. Shocked, Mary Margaret wonders what will happen now that he's on the loose. Nonetheless, David is happy she's found a piece of her old self.

David gathers with Belle, David, Henry, Hook, Mary Margaret, Mr. Gold and Regina where they watch a camera recording of a young Emma and her prior foster mother, who is none other than the Snow Queen herself. With only the Snow Queen's ice truck left to search, he sends Emma, Hook and Regina to comb the west of town. David suggests Mr. Gold team up with him for the eastern side, but the latter would rather work alone. When he asks Belle to utilize her tracking skills, she opts out in order to research at the library. After Robin Hood spots the truck near his campsite, he notifies Emma, to which she phones David to let him know the search is over.

Cornering the Snow Queen in the clock tower, where she has just set up a mirror for the spell of shattered sight, Emma uses a candle to magically bind her. Emma then brings her to the station for questioning while David, Hook and later Elsa curiously study the mirror. As Belle arrives, she warns against looking into the mirror reflection as it'll brainwash them. However, when Belle notices it's not the same mirror she encountered last time. David suspects it's fake and takes off, with Belle, Elsa and Hook following, to rescue Emma from the station, but the Snow Queen has already frozen the door entrance. David and his allies once again storm the pawnshop for Mr. Gold's assistance, but he only agrees after much imploring from Belle. Mary Margaret and Henry also joins their team and they all make it back to the station just as an explosion blows a hole in the building. Emma explains that the Snow Queen got away, and it was she herself who caused the combustion. Due to her out of control powers, Emma insists they stay back, but David and Hook approach to help her. A panicked Emma accidentally collapses a streetlight that begins falling on Hook, though David pushes him out of the way and takes the blow. As Mary Margaret checks up on him, she expresses towards Emma, who is hurt by her reaction. Realizing her mistake, Mary Margaret retracts her anger, but Emma flees via car. That night, David and the others search for Emma with no luck. Upon return to the apartment, Elsa recalls how her loved ones reacted badly to her magic as they did to Emma's. Mary Margaret guiltily shares regrets to David about failing as parents when their daughter needed them the most.

Despite an all-night hunt, David, Elsa, Hook and Mary Margaret return home without finding Emma. Henry, having sneaked out to look for his mother, returns with an injury Emma caused. He explains finding her in the woods with her powers still out of control. Arriving at the apartment, Regina gives them a potion they want for tracking Emma. Mary Margaret receives a call from Emma, who insists on getting rid of her powers. Hook, lying about leaving his phone in David's truck, goes to fetch it, though he actually goes to chase down Emma. Later, David and Mary Margaret talk about Emma's decision. She is unsure since magic makes Emma special, but David wants to support Emma if being ordinary is crucial to her happiness. Elsa, overhearing them, uses the potion to locate Emma and talk her out of it. Regina recalls her own inability to accept Henry in the past due to her fear of losing him, which changes Mary Margaret and David's opinions about their daughter removing her magic. Noticing Elsa and the potion are gone, they and Henry track Emma's car trail. Searching on foot, they eventually find Emma, who hasn't stripped her magic due to Elsa's persuasion. Emma, accepting magic as part of herself, creates a fireworks display. Trouble brews again, however, when Elsa and Emma notice ribbons on their left wrists, which begin absorbing their magic into Ingrid's ribbon; allowing the Snow Queen to cast the spell of shattered sight.

In the clock tower, David and his allies witness the cloud formation of Ingrid's spell, which will take effect by sundown. At first, they try to find a method for escaping town, and David attempts to scale the ice wall, but the barricade is too powerful. A fissure in the ice reveals Anna's lost necklace, which Elsa retrieves and she believes is a sign they will defeat Ingrid. Emma sends her parents to warn the townspeople about what is going on while she and Elsa learn a counter spell, using Anna's hair, can be made. With a locator spell, the two women are led to a mine cave-in. Re-congregating in the library, they plan to blast through, but then David receives word from Belle that the nuns can create a counter spell with only the necklace. With time running out, everyone agrees with Regina's opinion of going ahead with the counter spell because many lives are at stake, though it would mean ending the search for Anna. Despite it all, Elsa secretly refuses to give up on her sister, and she hands Emma a pouch containing rocks rather than the pendant. Only on arrival at the diner to deliver the pouch, they discover Elsa's duplicity, and their hopes of a counter spell are dashed since it'll soon lose its potency. Emma persists in having hope of finding Anna, and she goes to chase down Elsa. Emma, with Elsa, miraculously locate Anna, but on return to the diner, they find the nuns mysteriously gone. At the station, David and Mary Margaret ask Emma to lock them into separate cells so they can't harm anyone while under the curse. Before going into her own cell, Mary Margaret tearfully relinquishes her son into Emma's care. As the curse's mirror shards infiltrate the building, David and his wife hold hands in comfort. Once the glass invades their eyes, they unlink hands and stare at each other with animosity.

Under the curse's influence, David and Mary Margaret express mutual disgust at each other. While they are trading insults, Elsa and Emma devise a plan to stop the curse by killing Ingrid. Left in charge, Anna takes baby Neal and puts him in a crib. When Mary Margaret criticizes David for his method of holding their son, Anna tries to put a stop to their bickering by reminding them of their relationship prior to the curse. Instead, this incites anger between the not-so-happy couple with both recalling how the other gave a bad impression on their first meeting. Regina, garbed in Evil Queen attire, bursts into the sheriff station looking for Emma, but is tempted at the prospect of paying Mary Margaret back for killing Daniel by threatening to murder baby Neal. After whisking Anna and Kristoff away, Regina magically unlocks Mary Margaret's cell and challenges her to a sword-fight. Mary Margaret, in defense of her son, ferociously battles Regina as David watches the battle play out. As morning approaches, they continue to have it out until the curse, prompted by Ingrid's sacrifice of her own life, is broken. Reverting to their former selves, Mary Margaret, Regina and David, who is still locked in his cell, burst into laughter at the ridiculousness of their prior disputes. The three of them, with baby Neal, get Henry and reunite with Emma. On the streets, Mary Margaret apologizes to her husband for the terrible things she said, but David know she didn't mean any of it. As snow falls, the two kiss.

After Elsa tears down the ice wall, remnants of Ingrid's magic remain and keep those who leave Storybrooke from re-entering. Emma is tasked with locating a portal, but she has no leads until Hook, seemingly with Mr. Gold's help, discovers a door to Arendelle hidden in an abandoned mansion. David and his wife, along with Emma, accompany the Arendelle natives there. After some farewells, Elsa and then Kristoff walk into the portal door. Before Anna follows in, she curiously inquiries about Mr. Gold's original name in the Enchanted Forest. Anna is told his name was Rumplestiltskin, and to everyone's shock, she knows him, although Mr. Gold claimed he had no knowledge of her or Elsa. Suspecting Mr. Gold is up to no good, Emma and Mary Margaret confront him as he carries out his plan to crush Hook's heart, but it is Belle who forces him, with the real dagger, to stop.

Six weeks after Mr. Gold's banishment from town, a spell is procured to free the nuns from the hat, but the Chernabog is also released without anyone's notice. After Emma and Regina temporarily stun the winged demon, they gain insight from Cruella De Vil and Ursula, who wish to enter Storybrooke, about the Chernabog's attributes. Emma then phones her parents to tell them about the new development, although they dislike the idea of Cruella and Ursula being in town. The couple make it to the town line just after Emma and Regina force the Chernabog across the barrier, where it ceases to exist. Mary Margaret tries to talk her daughter out of allowing the two strangers to stay in Storybrooke, despite their claims about changing for the better, an assertion David backs up. Furthermore, they suspect the women might be lying about being good. Emma still wants to let Cruella and Ursula in because they helped with the Chernabog, and Regina argues that the villains deserve a second chance just as she herself has. Using Ingrid's scroll, Cruella and Ursula are able to enter into town. That night, David and Mary Margaret meet with the female duo and warn them against revealing the past dealings they had in the Enchanted Forest. If they do not comply, Mary Margaret promises to rip out their hearts herself.

Since Regina is unwilling to help, David goes with Emma to spy on Cruella and Ursula, who enter the pawnshop. Emma thinks her father is hiding something about the twosome, but David only admits knowing them from the Enchanted Forest. Once the women take off in Cruella's car, Emma learns from Belle that a box is missing from the pawnshop. Flagging down the car, David searches the vehicle, opening the box, and he takes Maleficent's totem from it. However, to those present, he feigns seeing nothing suspicious. After Emma drops him off at the apartment, he informs Mary Margaret about his find, which leads them to believe the villains want to revive Maleficent. The couple decide they must prevent it by destroying Maleficent's ashes, and before they go, Emma tells them about seeing security footage of Cruella and Ursula steal the box. Her parents pretend they were too harsh on the strangers earlier and have since let go of the issue, which Emma doesn't buy, but she accepts their explanation. Arriving at Maleficent's cave, the pair locate the ashes, but both are knocked out by Ursula. As they awaken later, Cruella sacrifices some of their blood to the ashes and resurrects Maleficent, who promises to make the couple suffering as unyielding as her own for what they did to her. David and Mary Margaret realize Emma deserves the truth, but upon overhearing her speak to Hook about their good natures, they decide against it. Instead, they only tell her about Maleficent's return.

David and Mary Margaret inform Emma that Regina has gone undercover, but they lie about the plan being her idea, not theirs. However, when Regina doesn't contact them within the scheduled time, the couple search for her. As the pair come across a burnt sheriff car, Regina approaches, explaining she spent the night drinking with the trio, during which Maleficent burnt the vehicle. Later, David and Mary Margaret hold another meeting at the library, and much to Regina's disdain, they bring Emma and Hook along as well. From her, the group learn Cruella, Maleficent and Ursula are seeking the Author and want to rewrite their stories so the villains win and the heroes lose. The trio want Regina to steal something for their mission, and although she wants to handle it alone, Emma insists on being nearby if something goes wrong. Later in the night, Maleficent tasks Regina with kidnapping Pinocchio and bringing him to a cabin, where Mr. Gold reverts the boy into August.

In the morning, David heads out with Emma, Hook and Mary Margaret to track where the villains took Pinocchio. They quickly find out from Regina, who temporarily possesses Mary Margaret's body, that Mr. Gold is back and he's turned Pinocchio into August for interrogation about the Author. Hoping to stop Mr. Gold before his plans escalate, they ask for the dagger from Belle. She recalls giving it to Hook last night, which reveals Mr. Gold must have pretended to be him to get the dagger. Hook, disgusted by the crocodile's actions, considers that he should have stabbed him with the cursed blade, even if it meant making himself the new Dark One. While he gathers intel from Ursula, the others work on rescuing August. On their way to the cabin, Emma sympathizes with Hook's earlier sentiments about killing Mr. Gold as payback. Her parents become distressed by her dark words, but Emma reassures them that she is just trying to understand where Hook is coming from. As they storm into the cabin, Cruella pull a gun on them, although Mary Margaret quickly knocks her out. Before they can whisk August away, Ursula refuses to let them leave, as August is the only way to find the Author and restore her happiness, until she unexpectedly regains her lost singing voice from her father and decides to go home with him. In the midst of this, the group notice Cruella has disappeared, and they depart with August, who is brought to the apartment to recover.

At the loft, Hook informs David and Mary Margaret about the villains' plans to turn Emma evil by using the Author. Increasingly afraid of what the Author might do, Mary Margaret storms out as David follows. As she talks to him about feeling ashamed for the lies they have garnered to keep their secret safe, they notice people asleep at the diner. The pair discover Maleficent has put the town to sleep, but they are immune since previously being under the sleeping curse. From across the street, they spy on Cruella, Maleficent, Mr. Gold and Regina leaving the loft. David and Mary Margaret learn, after receiving a call from Henry, that the villains are looking for him and the door illustration containing the trapped Author. They then decide to head for the mansion, where Henry is hiding, when David suggests destroying the door page so the Author can never be freed and won't make Emma evil. Mary Margaret fears the repercussions of killing the Author or wiping out Regina's happy ending, but he insists they must do it to protect Emma. At the mansion, they force Henry to forfeit the page and a key for opening the door. Immediately afterwards, Mary Margaret is distraught over lying to not only Emma, but now Henry. David wishes to destroy the page and think of the consequences later, but Mary Margaret convinces him against taking the easy way out and that they must come clean. Upon learning the whole truth, Emma is hurt and disappointed. When she disappears, her parents ask Hook to talk to her. David and Mary Margaret visit August at the nunnery, and with his condition improved, Emma arrives to unlock the door page with the key to free the Author. Shocked, the couple recognize the man as the "peddler" they once helped in the Enchanted Forest. Before Emma can ask the Author anything, he flees.

Emma tracks the Author to the woods as her parents follow. There, they admit crossing paths with the Author and he manipulated them into making the deal with the Apprentice. Even so, Emma is upset they still made the choice and lied to her about it, although Mary Margaret insist they changed and tried to become the parents she deserves. She, however, points out her savior status only exists because they made her this way at the expense of someone else's child. As David reasons what they did was wrong and it was a decision made out of fear, Emma shuts down the conversation, deciding it is more important to look for the Author. After a search, they do not find him, as Mr. Gold got to him first.

Walking into the apartment with her parents, Emma grills them about any other secrets they have about the Author, but they do not. Still fuming from their lies, she recalls they always told her there is a right way to do things but what they did to Maleficent's child was not. David insists the Apprentice's deal was necessary to ensure Emma grew up as good person, but she cannot ever see herself doing what they did at the cost of an innocent life. Even Mary Margaret chimes that Emma's inability to harm someone is why they accepted the deal to retain her goodness. Regina reveals Mr. Gold is in league with Zelena, who has been pretending to be Marian this whole time. Her plans to rescue Robin Hood are halted by Cruella kidnapping Henry, and sending a video pressuring them to kill the Author or she will kill the boy. Examining one of the video stills, David recognizes a road marker in the background as somewhere miles south of the Toll Bridge. Emma considers it'd help to get information from the Author about Cruella's whereabouts, so her parents suggest using a locator spell on a flask they once gave the Author. When Emma continues to treat her parents coldly, Mary Margaret admonishes her for being avoidant, but the blonde states she doesn't trust them and needs to be around people she does trust; namely Hook and Regina. Later, David and Mary Margaret track the Author to Mr. Gold's cabin. The Author admits he wrote Cruella's story and made it so she can never kill anyone, meaning Henry is not in danger, but the situation is a ploy for Mr. Gold to turn Emma dark. The pair take off to stop Emma, but they find her after she has already killed Cruella to save Henry.

When Emma discovers Mr. Gold's manipulations, she considers going after him, as her parents and Hook try to talk her out of it. Maleficent agrees to help since realizing Mr. Gold only wants the Author for his own interests, but in return, she wants the savior to find her daughter Lilith. Recognizing the name, Emma rushes off to check a newspaper microfiche, discovering Maleficent's daughter is her childhood friend Lily. Since both Emma and Regina need to find people outside of Storybrooke, they make plans to leave together. Before Emma heads out of town, Mary Margaret attempts to say goodbye to her, but latter shuts down, only asking her to take care of Henry. After leaving Neal in Belle's care, David and Mary Margaret try to make amends with Maleficent for what they did. Unimpressed, Maleficent contends they should be apologizing to Lily instead, and they wholeheartedly promise to make it up to her. Maleficent then questions if it's enough, especially since they turned Lily into a monster, and she may not forgive them because of it.

On Emma's return, her parents watch as she has a warm reunion with Henry and Hook, before Mary Margaret attempts to reach out to her. Emma, however, balks and instead goes to fetch Lily from the car. As Lily is being guided by Emma towards Maleficent, she coldly stares at David and Mary Margaret, who both look on with troubled expressions. Later, Maleficent comes to the couple for help after Lily has threatened to leave town. Trying to get to the root of the problem, the couple deduct that Lily is closing herself off due to her own insecurities. They agree to help and then take drive with Maleficent to the town line, where they witness Lily fly off in dragon form. Tracking her to the woods, Maleficent approaches, trying to calm her daughter, who begins breathing fire. Mary Margaret's attempts to help, but Lily knocks her into a rock, causing her to fall unconscious and bleeding. David and Maleficent try to reach her, only for Lily to block them with a stream of fire, before taking off again. While Maleficent goes after her daughter, David nurses his wife's injury. A worried Emma arrives, healing her mother, and then finally forgives her for lying.

In a race to stop Isaac from changing their stories, David and the rest of the gang search the Sorcerer's library for clues, but all the storybooks are blank. With help from August and Hook, they discover the Apprentice is in the hat. After he is released by Mother Superior, the Apprentice rallies them to look for the door illustration needed for trapping Isaac. While everyone else searches for the photo in the loft, Emma, Regina and the Apprentice try to confront Isaac at the pawnshop. Before they reach him, Isaac rewrites new lives for everyone in his book, Heroes and Villains.

During Alternate Reality
After Isaac rewrites everyone's stories in the Heroes and Villains book, Prince Charming becomes Queen Snow White's henchman, after she ripped out his heart and forced him to be a replacement for her true love, James, who was also his twin brother. One day, her underlings, the seven dwarves, capture Isaac, who they suspect is a supporter of Regina as Queen. When presented with proof of his treachery, Snow White speaks into Prince Charming's heart, ordering him into the throne room, so he can execute Isaac. Before Prince Charming can sever the man's head, Isaac saves himself by revealing his knowledge about the Queen hating her stepdaughter Regina for causing James' death. He also claims Regina is conspiring with a boy, Henry, to dethrone her. Learning from him that Regina will be robbing from a royal carriage later in the day, Snow White surprises her. The Queen moves to rip out her heart, but Prince Charming convinces her to question Regina about the boy's location. When Regina hesitates in answering, Snow White prepares to throw a fireball, before Robin Hood distracts her with a loosed arrow and escapes with the thief.

Discovering her prisoner Emma has escaped, Snow White tracks her down with Lily's help. Emma tries to convince the Queen and Prince Charming that they are her parents and the hope they instilled in her, which only serves to make the Queen command her Black Knights to kill her. To ensure Emma protects Henry, Hook stays behind to fight, gaining the upper hand against Prince Charming. When Hook threatens to do the same to the Queen, Prince Charming kills him, as Emma and Henry are forced to run. Once Henry harnesses the quill and becomes the next Author, Isaac's stories are undone and everyone returns to their old lives in Storybrooke.

Before Third Curse
Once Henry becomes the next Author and reverses Isaac's stories, David finds herself in the loft again, with everything as it was before. After stopping Isaac from leaving town, he and Mary Margaret learn he set them up in the past to hurt Lily because he hated the heroes that they reminded of in his own life who have pushed him around. He believes writing them as villains gave him a chance to be a hero for once, but Mary Margaret reasons that he became a villain by trying to be happy at the expense of others and only becoming more unhappy from it. That night, David attends a diner party, where he apologizes to Hook for killing him in the alternate reality. He teases Mary Margaret about ripping out his heart, to which she also says sorry to Hook since it was partially her fault. Recalling her parents were actual villains in that world, Emma expresses regrets for holding a grudge against them about Lily. In an attempt to save Mr. Gold from losing his humanity, the Apprentice traps the darkness in his heart in the hat, which escapes into town. Seeing the darkness attack Regina, Emma realizes she must sacrifice herself to save her. Her parents protest against it, but she reasons that they can figure out a way to remove the darkness from her like they did before. Emma then allows the darkness to enter her body, freeing Regina, while she becomes the new Dark One and vanishes into thin air.

After Emma is gone, David and the others learn from the Apprentice that she is in the Enchanted Forest, and to cross realms, someone with both light and dark essence must wield his wand. Regina is unable to activate the wand, yet she refuses to let Zelena try, fearing what her sister may do. Desperate to save Emma, Hook tries to free Zelena, who double crosses him and later takes Robin as hostage, in order to get Regina to forfeit the wand to her. Zelena then creates a cyclone, but her magic gets severely drained, giving Regina the chance to render her powerless again, while David grabs hold of Zelena. Regrouping in the diner, David and Robin tie Zelena to a chair, as Regina uses Emma's baby blanket to redirect the cyclone into taking them to the Enchanted Forest.

The portal takes the diner to the Enchanted Forest, where David and his allies stop Emma from crushing Merida's heart, before they are approached by King Arthur and his knights, who believe they are prophesied to reunite them with Merlin. The whole group is then led to King Arthur's castle in Camelot.

At the castle, King Arthur introduces the group to his Queen, Guinevere, and he announces there will be a ball held in their honor. To help them understand where Merlin is, Arthur shows them a tree in the courtyard which the sorcerer is trapped in. Arthur wonders why they are so eager to free Merlin, to which David talks about their land being threatened by the Dark One, who Merlin can defeat. When the king asks which of them is the prophesied savior, Regina claims the title in Emma's place. In the midst of getting ready for the ball, David tucks baby Neal into a crib, while Mary Margaret instructs Doc on what to do if Neal gets fussy. Regina offers to watch him since she isn't going to the ball, though she eventually fesses up to not knowing how to dance and fearing people will doubt she is the not the savior. David insists on teaching her, and after she magically poofs herself into a white gown, they practice dancing. During the festivities, Mary Margaret nudges David's attention onto Henry, who is eyeing a girl across the room. David encourages him to introduce himself by using his charm as a mysterious and intriguing foreigner, and he then sends Henry to the girl with drinks. The ball takes a tragic turn when Percival tries to murder Regina, but Robin intervenes, getting injured in the process. Before Percival can deliver a final blow to Robin, David kills Percival. Regina, unable to heal Robin, begs Emma to try. Emma heals Robin with her Dark One powers, but when she realizes the magic is making her skin turn scaly, she kisses Hook, hoping it will help. Her parents watch with confusion at her reaction, and even Hook senses something is amiss, but Emma then excuses herself to go rest downstairs.

While Belle and Mary Margaret help Regina research magical remedies for freeing Merlin, David takes care of baby Neal. Arthur checks up on their progress, and when Mary Margaret suggests finding a way to talk with Merlin, Regina finds details about a toadstool, the crimson crown, that can do just that. Arthur states it's rumored to be in the Forest of Eternal Night, though he is unsure if the toadstool is real. David insists on going, and he departs from the room, after handing his son to Mary Margaret. Arthur joins him, and before leaving, he and David get supplies from the Round Table room. Seeing Percival's empty seat, David feels remorseful, but Arthur insists he did what was necessary. Arthur tells him about the table's seats, which are of equal status among himself and the other knights except for the Siege Perilous, a seat he once bestowed to the knight with the purest heart, Lancelot, until he was betrayed by him. When David reveals Lancelot died, Arthur is saddened by the news, lamenting that Lancelot was a good knight despite his fall into temptation. From a relic chest, Arthur takes a torch, the unquenchable flame, to guide him and David through the forest. On the way there, the men find common ground, with both of them having been born commoners and risen above their ranks. They spot the toadstool, but to reach it, David crosses a water logged bridge. After getting it and walking back, he is attacked by reanimated dead knights and eventually dragged underwater by one. Arthur saves his life, and without David's notice, steals the toadstool, which David believes was lost during the struggle. With the quest a failure, the men discuss the irony of their claims to fame; Arthur's being the prophesied king, and David's being his princess' rescuer, although both want to be known for more than just that. They agree that it's through loss that there is strength to be brave and heroic. That night, David is knighted by Arthur and given the Siege Perilous seat, which Guienvere decorates with his coat of arms. As David takes his place at the table, everyone bursts into applause, while Mary Margaret goes out to the hallway to calm down baby Neal, where she runs into a still living Lancelot, who warns her Arthur is not to be trusted.

After becoming a Knight of the Round Table, David is called in by Arthur, who reveals Excalibur is missing its tip, the Dark One's dagger, and he requires his help to find it, in the hopes of purging the darkness for good. Before coming to a decision, David goes to his allies as they are in the middle of watching over a catatonic Emma, whose condition is getting worse the longer she is the Dark One. He tells Mary Margaret about Arthur possibly helping Emma, but she reveals Lancelot's warning to her. As the couple discuss Lancelot's strange reappearance, Regina chides them for talking about the issue in front of Emma, as anything could set her off at this point. After Henry leaves to take Emma, with Hook, to a place she can recuperate peacefully, Regina relates her suspicions that Emma was likely after the dagger and prepares to hide it, but David objects, stating that Arthur can help Emma if they give him the dagger. Mary Margaret stands by Lancelot's warning, however, David questions where the former knight has been. After the argument blows up, Mary Margaret asks Regina to give them a minute, to which the brunette teleports out. When David sticks to his opinion about Arthur, Mary Margaret accuses him of being starstruck over a king, or that he's siding with Arthur to boost his own ego. Eventually, they devise a plan to test Arthur, by giving him a chance to steal a fake dagger. As part of the scheme, David comes clean to Arthur about Emma being the Dark One, under the pretense of uniting the dagger with Excalibur to get rid of her darkness. He pretends to show Arthur the dagger, and feigns surprise upon discovering it's missing, before leading Arthur to believe Mary Margaret stole it. Arthur then secretly follows Mary Margaret and Lancelot into the Vault of the Dark One, where he makes them forfeit the dagger to him, however, he soon learns it's fake, just as David ambushes him from behind. Regrouping at the diner, the trio keep Arthur handcuffed, while making plans to unite Excalibur and the dagger after installing a new ruler. However, they are cornered by Camelot soldiers, with Guinevere freeing Arthur and having Lancelot imprisoned in the dungeon. To get the real dagger, Guinevere blows enchanted sand on the couple, causing them to return to Regina, insisting their only hope of helping Emma is to give Arthur the dagger.

Regina, somewhat still doubtful of Arthur, halfheartedly leads David and Mary Margaret to the dagger's hiding spot in the woods. Despite that they insist they trust Arthur and are acting in Emma's best interests, Regina hesitates in giving the dagger to Mary Margaret, questioning if it's truly a good idea to let Arthur have the one thing that can control Emma. Getting impatient with Regina, Mary Margaret demands the weapon, just as Emma uses dark magic to freeze her and David. After Emma reverts Merlin to human form with Regina's help, the frozen couple are brought back to the diner, where the great sorcerer undoes the enchanted sand's effects on them. Immediately, Mary Margaret is apologetic towards Emma, while David is regretful that they had confronted Arthur alone, not knowing how dangerous he would be. Merlin confirms he can remove Emma's darkness, but the darkness may have taken root inside of her where no one can see it, and for him to remove it, her heart must be ready to be free.

With Merlin's magical help to distract the dungeon soldiers, David and Hook storm in to take out the guards by surprise. After evading more soldiers, they reach Lancelot's prison cell and unexpectedly find an imprisoned Merida as well. Merlin frees both of them before everyone escapes the dungeon to return to the diner.

Merlin tells the heroes about the plan to rid Emma's darkness by uniting Excalibur with the dagger. To accomplish this, he and Emma have to go on a quest to obtain a magical item, the flame of Prometheus, needed for combining the two weapons. As for the heroes, Merlin requests that they work to get Excalibur from Arthur. During discussion about infiltrating the castle, David suggests going in from the front and ambushing the soldiers. After Hook and Regina chime in with their own ideas, they interrupted by Zelena, who convinces them that their plan won't work, and their best bet is to sneak in without attracting attention. Zelena shows them an abandoned tunnel leading to the castle courtyard, David and the others head in, while Mary Margaret stays behind to keep watch over Zelena. Though they corner Arthur in the Round Table room, the group are blindsided by Zelena, who holds Mary Margaret as her hostage to get them to back down. Zelena, freed of her cuff with Arthur's help, tethers Merlin to Excalibur, allowing Arthur to summon the sorcerer, ordering him disarm the group and then send them away.

David and his allies are held hostage as Arthur forces Merlin to deliver an ultimatum to Emma; hand over the flame ember or her family and friends die. Emma agrees to comply if her loved ones are released first, but when Zelena threatens to start killing either David or Hook, she forfeits the box containing the ember. Zelena finds herself ensnared by Emma's dark magic after opening the box, to which Arthur forces Merlin to engage Emma in a magical duel and then orders him to kill Mary Margaret. In the end, Hook disarms Arthur, freeing Merlin from his grasp, which forces Arthur and Zelena to retreat. Afterwards, David goes with Robin and Regina to comb the woods to ensure the villains are gone, before returning to the diner. Because Emma has trouble lighting the ember, Regina tries to force her, with the dagger's will, to admit why she is afraid of letting go of the darkness. As Regina probes for the truth, she only stops when Emma's parents and Hook stumble upon what she is doing, with all of them horrified at her tactics. With Hook's help, Emma faces her underlying fears and ignites the ember. In the presence of everyone else, Emma begins using the ember to reforge the sword and dagger into one weapon, but then, Hook collapses from a cut he previously sustained from Excalibur, which no magic can heal. Emma, desperate to save him, even if it means making Hook a Dark One like herself and causing her own descent into full darkness, ignores the pleas of her friends and family and teleports away with Hook. As she tethers Hook's life to Excalibur, David and the others remain in the diner, looking on in alarm as black tendrils of darkness evaporate from Merlin's body.

David joins his party to scout to the Vault of the Dark One for a revived Hook, but they find he has already left. David thinks they should still search, but Merlin opposes this, as this the worst future out of all the possibilities he foresaw, and thus, they are running out of time. With Lancelot sent to seek help from his mother, the Lady of the Lake, Merlin convinces the remaining group to return to the diner for now so he can create a spell to counter the darkness. During a moment of privacy, David expresses disappointment over how close Emma was to destroying the darkness. Mary Margaret disagrees, believing Emma didn't do anything wrong by saving the man she loves, seeing as she and David went to extreme lengths of sharing one heart just so they can be together. His wife insists they're in this together to save Emma and he should have more faith in their daughter, to which David agrees he does, except he is unsure if Emma's faith in Hook will pane out, implying that Hook is now more dangerous than Emma. After Hook returns with Emma, the pirate goes into the diner to fetch Merlin, supposedly so he and Emma can be rid of their darkness. Unknown to the rest of the group, Hook crushes Merlin's heart in Nimue's place, enacting another curse to return everyone to Storybrooke. In the hopes of finding a way to return him to the man he used to be, Emma absorbs Hook's memories from the last six weeks into a dreamcatcher, and she does the same with David and everyone else, to ensure no one remembers Hook becoming a Dark One, before adding the dreamcatcher to the curse brew, creating a full memory wipe. Soon, the curse spreads and sends them all back to Storybrooke.

After Third Curse
Upon arrival to Storybrooke, David and the others crash to the floor from the impact of the diner dropping onto the ground, and as they get up, the group realize they are still in Camelot attire, and the last thing anyone recalls is entering King Arthur's castle. Emma, in order to keep Hook's secret under wraps, enters and professes that she will punish them for what they did to her.

The next day, David and his wife join Regina at Storybrooke's border, where they stop Leroy and the remaining five dwarves from testing the town line. Leroy is adamant they must know if crossing out of town is safe since Emma is dangerous and there's no one to protect them now. Dopey steps over the line and nothing happens, but then, he turns into into a tree. Later, King Arthur is discovered to have been brought to Storybrooke by Emma's curse as well. Recalling they spoke of the Dark One's identity during the journey to Camelot, David admits he was dishonest about it, to which Mary Margaret reveals the Dark One is Emma. Robin Hood notifies them that Little John ran into some other Camelot natives in the forest, so David and Arthur, as well as Happy and Leroy, head out to search for them. After everyone has been found, David, Mary Margaret, Robin and Roland distribute supplies to their town visitors. Arthur reunites with Guinevere, who notices Excalibur is missing, but David reassures the couple that it's likely to be somewhere. When a fury kidnaps Robin, Regina gets hurt trying to save him, causing her to stay behind, while David, Mary Margaret, Leroy and Arthur chase after the fury. By nightfall, they intervene when the fury summons a keeper of the underworld to take Robin, only for everyone to be stunned by the fury's magic. Regina forces the fury to take her instead, but a stubborn Mary Margaret links hands with her, taking some of the blast. Soon, David, Leroy and Arthur join them, with the fury's power exploding onto itself. Later, at the diner, David humorously notices Henry getting close to Violet. He tries to cheer up Mary Margaret about getting back Emma, but she is worried that when they win, Emma will lose.

At the sheriff's department, Regina shows David and Mary Margaret a book from Camelot, in which she had marked an image of a toadstool six weeks ago, but she doesn't remember why. Suddenly, the six dwarves burst in, demanding they do something about Emma, who stole Happy's pick ax, just as Regina takes her cue to leave. They call David out for acting like a scared parent rather than their sheriff, while he tries to keep a calm facade by telling them that he'll work on getting the ax. After the dwarves leave in a huff, a frustrated David retreats into the sheriff's office, where he vents to Mary Margaret about his inability to do anything and that he blames himself for what Emma has become. Mary Margaret believes he is doing his best, which he sees as part of the problem. After she reminds him that, in any world, he is her hero, David finally cools down, reassuring her that he has things covered. Soon after Mary Margaret exits, Arthur arrives, explaining someone stole a magic bean that he and his people need for going home. As David examines the chest that had the bean, he questions Arthur's squire, Grif, about any theories about who did it. Grif assumes the Dark One is involved, which David finds plausible since Emma stole the pickax recently, but Arthur recalls the Dark One doesn't need weapons and points out scratch marks on the chest. At the pawnshop, they ask Belle about anyone pawning a magic bean, but she knows of no such person. To improvise, David takes a chalice that has no magic, but he announces to the Camelot group that they must drink from it so the the bean thief can be found. Soon after, Grif flees on horseback, leading Arthur and David to follow him in a truck. David has Arthur take control of the wheel, driving in a circle, as he maneuvers to the back of the truck to grab a wooden beam, which he uses to knock Grif off the horse. Cornered, Grif admits he stole the chest because he was fed up with how Arthur was treating him, but he never saw a bean. Just as David decides to lock up Grif, he finds the toadstool, which came over from Camelot during the curse. He shows it to Mary Margaret and Regina, who realize they were using it to attempt communication with Merlin, and they then decide to test it out to see if it works now.

David is present as Grif's strange disappearance is noted, with Arthur suggesting Grif lied about not having the bean and used it to escape to Camelot. Upset about how this news will affect her people, as the bean was their only hope of returning home, Guinevere believes they must do something to raise everyone's spirits. Henry suggests a dance as a much needed distraction, an idea Mary Margaret agrees with. As they all leave the station together, Belle runs up, reporting that Mr. Gold is missing. Suspecting Emma is responsible, Hook, Regina, Robin and Belle break into her house to investigate. That night during the town carnival, after the search is over, Hook reports back to David, Mary Margaret, Guinevere and Arthur, stating that Excalibur is hidden in Emma's house, and that the sword's markings are similar to the Dark One's dagger. Once Hook calls him out for withholding information, Arthur admits knowing the dagger is Excalibur's missing blade, and when combined together, it can extinguish the darkness, but in Emma's hands, she may use it to snuff out the light.

After informing David, Mary Margret, Hook and Belle about Emma's slip up about Merlin, Regina explains her plans to use the crimson crown to talk to the sorcerer, though they need Arthur's help enacting the spell, as only someone chosen by Merlin can use the toadstool. David prepares to put the plan into action, however, Belle raises the question of simply getting direct help from Mr. Gold instead. All three oppose her views for different reasons, with David believing Merlin is their best bet for helping Emma at this point. After Belle goes to save Mr. Gold on her own, the heroes gather in the vault, with the prepared spell brew. Upon Arthur's arrival, he asks for privacy in order to use the crimson crown, explaining that Merlin only ever spoke to him when no other people were around. Everyone else leave to wait outside the vault, and after a time, Arthur exits to inform them the spell failed. As proof of Arthur's sabotage, David later finds the charred, but still magically intact crimson crown in the burnt out cauldron fire. With Henry being the only other person who was chosen by Merlin, he is called in to enact the spell. Rather than direct communication with the sorcerer, the group view a prerecorded hologram message from Merlin, who tells them to look for Nimue, the person they need for defeating the Dark One.

With Robin and Hook on guard outside, David enters Arthur's tent to confront him about sabotaging the plan and questions him on Nimue's identity. Without answering David's question, Arthur attempts to escape into the woods, but he is eventually apprehended and imprisoned in the sheriff's station. Hook roughly interrogates Arthur for answers about Emma, but David persuades him to stop, suspecting Arthur doesn't have any viable information to give them. Everyone else works on stopping Emma from completing the spell to snuff out the light, but Hook tries to talk to Emma directly, prompting her several times for the truth. After Zelena gives birth, Emma kidnaps her, causing David, Mary Margaret and Regina to confront her at her house. Emma promises that they'll be thanking her after she is done with Zelena, and then stabs Excalibur into the ground, triggering a magical barrier that touches everyone who is present.

Shortly after, David, Regina and Mary Margaret enter the house in search of Emma, who finally admits she had turned Hook into a Dark One and planned on putting both her and Hook's darkness into Zelena before killing her. With a dark Hook now on the loose, their best bet of finding out his goals is getting their memories from the dreamcatchers, however, David discovers Hook already took them from the house shed. In a meeting at Regina's house, Mr. Gold reveals Hook intends to get revenge on him with a duel to the death. To learn more about Nimue, who can defeat the Dark One, Mr. Gold advises the group to research The Dark One Chronicles. Emma believes she can help them quicker with magic if they remove her cuff, but her family or friends refuse, not trusting that the darkness won't influence her to do bad things. With Henry's help, Emma retrieves the dreamcatchers and returns everyone's lost memories. From regaining her memories that Hook stole from her, Emma realizes Hook wants to open a portal to the Underworld and bring all the previous Dark Ones to Storybrooke.

Learning Hook has unleashed the previous Dark Ones from the Underworld, David goes with his wife in search of him, while everyone else splits up to cover more ground. During the search, they are cornered by two Dark Ones, who, unbeknownst to the couple, brand them with the mark of Charon. After rejoining with everyone else, the group discover all of them have been branded, because the Dark Ones can only exist if living souls take their places in the Underworld. With little time until Charon arrives to take them away, David resigns himself to his fate by spending his last hours in the diner with Mary Margaret, baby Neal and Henry. Emma is invited to join them, but instead, she sneaks in to leave them a note, which explains her plans to sacrifice herself to eliminate the Dark Ones for good. Upon finding the note, they prepare to track down Emma, but Nimue takes them to the lake, where Charon is set to appear. In the end, Hook saves everyone by absorbing all the darkness and having Emma kill him. After Emma finds out Mr. Gold used Hook's sacrifice to regain his Dark One powers, she convinces her family to accompany her to the Underworld so Hook can be saved. Once Mr. Gold reopens the portal to the Underworld, Charon arrives on a boat, prompting David and the others to head towards the ferryman.

After coming to the Underworld, whose town bears an uncanny resemblance to Storybrooke, David and his party split up to look for Hook. Not having much luck, he later enters the diner, seeing Mary Margaret at the counter, before noticing his twin brother James walking away into the back room. While Cora threatens Regina with her father's demise if she doesn't leave the Underworld, Mr. Gold procures magic ale for summoning Hook's spirit. David is present in the graveyard as Emma tries to talk to Hook about where he is, but he is unable to respond and disappears shortly afterwards. Once Regina helps her father move on to a better place, the group discuss possibly helping other souls in the Underworld move on. Mr. Gold, not interested in being a do-gooder, parts from the team, while David and the others continue with Operation Firebird, Henry's name for their mission.

In the cemetery, David comes upon Mary Margaret as she is looking at gravestones of people from her father's kingdom. Disappointed that she couldn't protect them, she begins having doubts about how to protect Emma in the Underworld, but David reassures her they'll do it together, and that Mary Margaret's bandit Snow White's skills will come in handy. He begins leading her out of the cemetery to rejoin Emma and the others in the woods, but then, Mary Margaret stops in her tracks after seeing the grave of her childhood friend Hercules. In response to her comment about being "friends" with the demigod, David jokingly gives her a hard time about it. Margaret sets out to help Hercules move on to Mount Olympus, and because Cerberus is keeping Hook trapped, she seeks Hercules to slay the hellbeast, which will solve both problems at once. Following a failed mission to fight Cerberus, Mary Margaret convinces Hercules to try again. In her absence, David stays in the apartment, where Emma keeps watch on Megara, a prisoner that escaped from Cerberus. Looking out the window, he sees Cerberus approaching and hastily alerts Regina, as everyone escapes out the apartment in time, before the beast charges into the building. Megara, getting separated from her group, reunites with Hercules and Mary Margaret to kill Cerberus together. While resting in the diner, David notices Hercules and Megara developing a close bond over their experiences. Changed over helping Hercules with his unfinished business, Mary Margaret talks about the person she once was, someone who took risks even when she was afraid. When David prompts her for an explanation, she states she wants to be Snow White again, which he takes to with much approval.

To find Hook underground, David and the heroes plan to enter the cave Megara had escaped from. The plan falls through after Mr. Gold convinces Emma to join him for a better idea, in which he'll use the aura of a deceased person to get both of them into Hades' lair, where Hook is. Sometime later, upon returning to the apartment, David and his family find Hook and Emma already waiting for them. The pair report that Hades destroyed their boat, so now everyone has no way of going home. Since Regina's magic is working again, she attempts to do the heart split between Emma and Hook, except a barrier prevents her from taking out Emma's heart. Afterwards, Hook shows everyone the three headstones that Hades engraved with Snow, Regina and Emma's names, to make them stay in the Underworld forever, in place of the three people who already moved on.

While David helps look for the storybook, which contains information about Hades' weakness, Henry reveals the book is in the Sorcerer's mansion, but they need a key that James has. Intent on giving James a piece of her mind for kissing her, Snow heads off to the sheriff's station, with David following after learning what his brother did to her. With James nowhere in sight, she opens the upper right drawer, noting that he also keeps all his stuff in the same place as David. David grumbles at her comparison, wondering if she thinks the both of them kiss the same too, but before she can answer, he decides he doesn't want to know. Hearing Cruella calling for James, David sends Snow out of the office with the key, while he pretends to be his brother in Cruella's presence. Cruella plays along, despite knowing he's not James, by showering him with kisses and flirting with him. David casually fights off her advances, telling her he has an early patrol tomorrow, but she continues to try and seduce him, even suggesting they spice things up with handcuffs. Having enough of her games, he comes clean by expressing disgust at her actions. She admits he doesn't have James' "delicious damage", which David is responsible for, having been the son that their mother kept instead of James. David gets upset over being blamed for something out of his control, to which Cruella quips that his temper is more like James than he knows, and the day they meet will be one hell of a reunion. Returning to his allies, David joins them in looking through the storybook, though Hades' story has already been destroyed by Liam. He believes Henry might know more about the book than anyone else, but since Henry is in a bad mood, he goes to talk some sense into his grandson. David tells him about James, who wanted a loving mother rather than being a prince, and he uses this story to remind Henry to not take his family for granted, and that they are here if he needs them. Accepting this advice, Henry reveals he found the Author's quill in the mansion, and he intends to re-record Hades' story in the book.

Etymology

 * The name "David" is of Hebrew origin derived from the word "dwd" that means "beloved".
 * Prince Charming shares his name with another former shepherd, King David of the Bible. Ruth was the name of King David's great-grandmother, and also the name of Charming's mother. Prince Charming was betrothed to Princess Abigail. King David's third wife was also named Abigail.
 * The name "James", which is a variant of Jacob, can mean "follower" or "supplanter". A supplanter is someone who takes the place of another person, place, or thing. This is fitting, as Prince Charming supplanted his twin James.
 * The surname "Nolan" is of Irish origin derived from the word "nuall" that means "noble, famous".
 * David is one of the few characters from the first curse who is confirmed to have the same real name in Storybrooke as his Enchanted Forest counterpart; the others being Regina Mills and Jefferson.
 * Strictly speaking, "Prince Charming", in Disney canon, refers to Cinderella's prince, while Snow White's prince is credited simply as "The Prince". Both are variations of the stock character in fairy tales.
 * Snow White was the one who gave Prince Charming his nickname.

Character Notes

 * He is the first character to appear in the series. The opening scene of the pilot features him rushing to meet Snow White.
 * His cell number is 555-0105.

Production Notes

 * Prince Charming was originally supposed to die in the first episode in the first season.
 * According to Edward Kitsis, ABC president of entertainment Channing Dungey, who was ABC head of drama during the show's development, is at the origin of this change. She sent a note to Kitsis and Horowitz saying that for a series about hope, there is not a lot of hope in killing Charming.

Props Notes

 * King George's coat of arms is argent (silver/white) with a chevron (V-shaped pattern) gules (red). It depicts a lion rampant (depicted in profile standing erect with forepaws raised) langued (having the tongue visible), surrounded by seven heraldic roses (a rose with five symmetrical lobes, five barbs, and a circular seed). The roses are red with a blue border. The royal knights' armor, and King George's own armor, is emblazoned with a modified version with white roses. When Prince Charming and Snow White take over the kingdom, they adopt the same coat of arms, with the white roses.
 * In heraldry, the white rose symbolizes love and faith, charm and innocence. The flower crest is similar to Emma's wrist tattoo.
 * If you look closely at the exterior of the Duke's castle, which Rumplestiltskin breaks into to steal the dagger, you can see the same coat of arms on a flag sitting at the top of a tower.
 * The rampant lion is a common motif in real-world heraldry, and also in the Enchanted Forest. King Leopold's 's father's coat of arms, and Robin Hood's tattoo, also feature this motif.
 * David drives a brown Ford F-Series from the early sixth generation, 1973-1975.
 * According to the Storybrooke Daily Mirror, David is in his early thirties.
 * The book David is reading in Granny's Diner is Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. This book is a tragic story about a married aristocrat and her affair with another man. David, who is, at the time, married to Kathryn and having an affair with Mary Margaret, even remarks that he can't wait to see how the book ends.

Costume Notes

 * During Season Two, David dons a custom leather jacket designed by Vancouver's Oceandrive Leather, which also designed several of Emma's leather jackets.