Mary Margaret Blanchard

"I've loved you since the first moment I saw you."

- Snow White to Prince Charming

Snow White, also known as Mary Margaret Blanchard, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the first episode of the first season. She is portrayed by starring cast member Ginnifer Goodwin and guest star Bailee Madison..

Snow White is based on a character of the same name from the fairytale, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and the fairytale, "Snow-White and Rose-Red". She also takes the role of Perseus from Greek Mythology.

Before First Curse
Snow White is born in the Enchanted Forest to her father, King Leopold, and her mother, Queen Eva, during a harsh winter. A decade later, the day of her coming-of-age birthday celebration approaches. While the decorations are being prepared, Eva has an heirloom tiara to give her. As they go to retrieve it, they find one of the royal servants, Johanna, trying the tiara on. Immediately, Snow White voices disapproval by stating servants should not wear crowns. Eva is disappointed in her daughter's tone and emphasizes that no matter if they are royals, every one of their subjects deserve love and respect. When asked the purpose of the upcoming ball, Snow White proudly answers that it's in honor of her own birthday. Rather than that, Eva helps her to see it is to honor the people and show them what a good queen Snow White will be someday. Snow White learns a lesson, to which Eva places the tiara on her daughter's head. While admiring the view, her mother suddenly collapses. Johanna rushes to get a doctor, and after some examination, the cause of the illness cannot be pinpointed. Snow White wishes to cancel the party until her mother is well again, however, Eva insists for the show to go on without her. She is led out of the room by Johanna after seeing her mother cough up blood. Fearing Eva will die, Snow White is in state of distress until Johanna suggests she go find the Blue Fairy for help by wishing upon a blue star.

Out in the darkness, Snow White tries to locate a blue star in the sky, but the Blue Fairy arrives even when she didn't make a wish. The Blue Fairy has no means of helping Eva, except a type of dark magic in the form of a candle, which sacrifices one person's life so another can live. Snow White rejects the deal as she doesn't wish to use bad means to gain something, but runs back to the palace in tears, admitting to Eva what she couldn't do. Though she believes this makes herself weak, her mother is very proud of Snow White's sign of strength and goodness. As their time together shortens, Eva promises to be with Snow White as long as she has good in her heart. She passes away peacefully as her daughter breaks down into sobs. In preparation for the public mourning ceremony, Snow White changes into a black gown as Johanna places the tiara on her. At the memorial service, she puts a single snow drop on Eva's chest and then refuses to leave her mother's side, even when everyone else is gone, until Johanna helps her leave the room. Following this, her father returns and Snow White begins traveling a long journey with him.

While on a break in the forest, Snow White's horse goes awry. She is unable to stop the horse as it speeds off onto an estate. Her calls for help alert a young woman, Regina, who pulls Snow White to safety. Later, she tells her father about the woman's brave feat. King Leopold, in turn, is so impressed that he proposes to Regina so his daughter can have a stepmother. In the evening, Snow White walks in on Regina kissing a stable boy, Daniel, and runs off to inform her father. Instead, Regina chases the princess down and explains what she and Daniel have is true love, though her mother Cora will never accept it. Snow White is sworn to secrecy, but begins to feel sympathy for Cora, who expresses a desire to make Regina happy. Drawing from her own experience in losing Eva, Snow White doesn't wish for Regina to lose Cora, and therefore, reveals the truth about Daniel. Sometime later, Snow White watches Regina get a fitting for a wedding dress. When she brings up how understanding Cora is, Regina is puzzled by her words. This leads Snow White to admit she told Cora about Daniel, and her reasons for doing so. Regina is shocked, but tells Snow White that Daniel ran away, and now she is very happy to marry King Leopold and become her stepmother. Snow White, too, is glad things worked out and happily leaves the room.

After Regina marries into the family, Snow White sits in one of the castle rooms as her hair is braided and adorned with flowers by her new stepmother. While admiring the new look, she notices a necklace in Regina's jewelry box. Curiously, the girl inquiries about where the necklace originated from, but Regina doesn't recall. Snow White decides to try it on, and while she is happily admiring the necklace, Regina fantasizes about choking her to death with the ornament.

King Leopold, away on a diplomatic mission, leaves his daughter and new wife to tend to the kingdom's affairs. When peasants plead for help about a bandit, Dead Eye, who is terrorizing their villages, Snow White agrees to notify her father, however, Regina gently reasons she can handle it instead. The girl, overcome with fear about taking on this responsibility, chokes out a hasty apology, before fleeing the throne room, much to Regina's veiled satisfaction. Fleeing into the woods, she accidentally falls into a hole, where she is saved by the demi-god Hercules, who needs to complete his Twelve Labors, in order to reach Mount Olympus and become immortal. To help her be the hero her kingdom needs, he persuades her into learning archery from him, because fear of failing shouldn't keep her from trying. As Hercules teaches her how to hold a bow, he openly flirts with her, and tells her about the last Labor he needs to finish, defeating Cerberus. At one village, Snow White shoots an arrow, making it miss Dead Eye and hit a tree, as a warning. She threatens to make the next arrow hit his good eye, and when the bandit dares her to try, she grabs an arrow from her quiver, only to have all the arrows spill out. Snow White fumbles, finally clasping one arrow, when Dead Eye steps on it and tries to bully her into leaving. Using his demi-god ability, Hercules causes a brief earthquake to make the bandit retreat. Miserable over the fiasco, Snow White attempts to break her bow, believing she's not fit to be a queen one day. Drawing from his own past with failure, Hercules tells her about how completing his first Labor almost killed him, but it was from failure that he learned to win. After Snow White looses an arrow that knocks Dead Eye's sword away, she is backed-up by armed villagers, who surround the bandit's men, which forces the outlaws to retreat. While Hercules plans to go after Cerberus, Snow White opts to stay and look out for her kingdom. The two friends, having mutual feelings for each other, say goodbye with a kiss.

At an older age, Snow White masters horseback riding and earns many medals for her tremendous skill. While the princess happily gallops on her favorite horse in a meadow, Regina angrily regards her from inside the stable window. Later, she poisons Snow White's horse with a dose of the sleeping curse.

While in the royal gardens, Snow White meets a new friend of her father's, the former Genie of Agrabah, who he invites to his birthday celebration. At the festivity, King Leopold praises his daughter as the fairest one of them all as she greatly reminds him of Eva. A few days after, her father is found murdered in his bed. After a search of his room and the castle, the royal guards discover a Agrabahn viper, which is native to the land the Genie came from. Although he is believed to be responsible, the Genie himself is never found, and none realize he killed King Leopold in order to win the Queen's favor.

After her father's sudden death, Snow White goes into mourning while being consoled by Regina. Despite the affection, she knows Regina desires to get rid of her. During an outing in the woods, she talks with a knight, but knows he is actually someone Regina sent. She hits the man, a Huntsman, with a bag of apples and escapes into the forest, though he catches up. When Snow White learns that the Queen sent him to kill her, she disappears to buy herself time to finish a farewell letter to her stepmother. In it, she expresses hopes that her death will bring an end to Regina's suffering and that the subjects of the kingdom will be ruled justly. After the Huntsman finds her again, she hands him the letter and prepares herself for death. Instead, he is moved to tears by her written words and allows her to go. Before this, the Huntsman fashions a whistle for her to use if she ever finds herself in trouble.

Not long after running off, Snow White wanders to a village and seeks shelter inside a chicken coup, to avoid a howling beast she hears outside. At dawn, she steals eggs from the chicken nests, only to be caught by Red Riding Hood. Instead of being upset, the young woman offers her a place to stay. Assuming the name Mary, Snow White later goes with Red Riding Hood to haul water at the well. Once there, they sees the bodies of the hunting party, ripped to shreds by a wolf, scattered all around. To keep herself from being publicly recognized, Snow White partially obscures her face with a scarf while attending a town meeting discussing the ravenous wolf; with Granny determining that no one has the power to kill the beast. Returning home, she brings up a boy, Peter, who Red Riding Hood is in love with, though Granny will never allow it since the dangers of the wolf stand in the way. Red Riding Hood prompts a suggestion about killing the creature themselves. Snow White objects, but accompanies her for a tracking expedition. They successfully follow the trail of the wolf tracks, though to their horror, they slowly turn into human footprints leading to Red Riding Hood's cottage. From this, both have reason to believe Peter is the wolf. That evening, Snow White masquerades as Red Riding Hood by putting on her cloak. Red Riding Hood, on the other hand, breaks the news to Peter in the woods. Snow White is caught by Granny, but insists Red Riding Hood and Peter are truly in love. To her confusion, Granny is horrified at the vulnerable situation Peter is left in. On the way there, Snow White is told Red Riding Hood is the wolf and without the cloak, she has no control over transforming. They arrive too late to save Peter, who has already been killed and eaten by wolf Red Riding Hood, but Granny is able to shoot a silver arrow to knock her out. Snow White puts the cloak over Red Riding Hood to turn her back to human, who comes back disoriented until catching a glimpse of what she did to Peter. There is no time to grieve as a hunting party approaches, so Granny stays behind to hold them off while the two girls escape into the night.

Through the woods, they are pursued by the Queen's knights, which Snow White realizes from seeing a wanted poster of herself. They manage to hide out of sight, but Red Riding Hood is terrified a tear in her cloak will force her to transform again, so she sends Snow White away. She comes back to look for Red Riding Hood and finds a den that is home to other shape shifting wolves. When she enters, one of the shape shifters, Quinn, attacks her for intruding, but Red Riding Hood convinces the leader of the tribe, Anita, and the other members of the pack that Snow White means no harm. She is permitted to stay and learns Red Riding Hood has eagerly embraced herself as a wolf and wishes to stay with the tribe. The peaceful moment is wrecked by the appearance of the Queen's knights. In the middle of the disruption, Quinn is struck and killed by one of the knights. Directly after, Anita mournfully tends to Quinn's body and angrily blames Snow White for his death. She begins strangling her as an act of vengeance, though Red Riding Hood shape shifts to defend her friend. As the mother-daughter pair fight, Anita accidentally impales herself on a spike and dies. After Anita is buried, Snow White and Red Riding Hood pay their respects to her grave. Before they resume their journey together, she thanks Snow White for the constant support of both halves of herself as wolf and human.

Stripping herself of her former life, Snow White survives as a bandit and becomes wanted by the Queen for false crimes, such as treason and killing King Leopold. While squatting in one of the outer villagers, she befriends the inhabitants. After receiving a tip that the Queen's soldiers had discovered her location, Snow White flees. Soon after, she rescues a peasant woman named Wilma from being executed by the Queen's men. Wilma succumbs to fever due to the soldiers' rusty blades, and is cared for by Snow White in the forest. She tells the woman the story of how Regina saved her as a little girl; revealing that her faith in people and their goodness resulted from that one connection. When Wilma has fully recovered, they leave and begin traveling through the woods. In conversation with Wilma, Snow White declares that she harbors no hatred towards the Queen and would be willing to let her back in and be a family again if she is sincere about changing. Unfortunately, the two arrive at a village, which Snow White previously stayed, and come across a hill of the inhabitants' corpses. Horrified at the gruesome sight, Snow White retracts her prior statement about the Queen, and attests there is absolutely no good left in that woman. Strangely, Wilma mentions the matter in how Regina saved Snow White, although this was never brought up in their prior discussion. Snow White, tipped off by this, quickly raises her bow to Wilma, recognizing her as Regina in disguise. Regina fesses up, before attempting to use magic, but nothing works, so she flees from Snow White, who reluctantly lets her go. Wanting to save enough money to leave the kingdom for elsewhere, Snow White learns to survive by stealing valuables from carriages owned by the Queen. During one outing, she mistakes a passing carriage as belonging to the Queen's and purposely fells a tree to block the road. While the soldiers are checking the tree, she snatches a bag of jewels before fleeing on horseback. She is chased down by a man, who wrestles her to the ground, and flips her over to see the face of the person he is dealing with. He is dazed to see she is a woman, to which Snow White uses the moment to smash his chin with a rock and escape on his horse. She looks back with a satisfied smirk when the man shouts that he will find her. Snow White sells the jewels to the trolls on the Troll Bridge for gold. Outside her makeshift home, she is caught in a net trap. The man she previously stole from steps forward to introduce himself as Prince James, though Snow White sarcastically dubs him Prince Charming. He agrees not to turn her into the Queen if she returns his stolen ring. Though it's already been sold to the trolls, she has no choice but to help him. On the way there, he takes away her vial of fairy dust, which she was saving to use on the Queen, as the substance can transform an adversity into something harmless. 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 only to be cornered by the Queen's knights. With her vial of dust gone, she is nearly killed, but saved by Prince Charming. Since he helped her, she decides to take him to the Troll Bridge. They try to bargain for the ring, but the trolls find it suspicious she wants a refund. From fishing through Prince Charming's things, they see the wanted poster and attack him while Snow White flees. After reaching a safe distance, she turns around, expecting that Prince Charming got away as well, but sees he is entrapped by the trolls. She saves him by throwing fairy dust on the trolls; turning them into bugs. The two leave and reach an intersection where they must part. Snow White hands back his ring, but jokingly tries it on for a moment, though she states it's not her style. With the terms of their agreement satisfied, they both leave in opposite directions. Wanting to save enough money to leave the kingdom for elsewhere, Snow White learns to survive by stealing valuables from carriages owned by the Queen. During one outing, she mistakes a passing carriage as belonging to the Queen's and purposely fells a tree to block the road. Snow White hides in a tree while a prince and some soldiers examine the fallen tree. Suddenly, the sound of a broken branch startles her, and she turns to see a man and a woman in the bushes. Losing her grip, Snow White falls to the ground as the prince realizes the tree was purposely cut and it's an ambush. With her opportunity wasted, Snow White flees. Hoping to find passage on a ship, she gives gold to a pirate, Black Beard. He asks for double in order to buy his silence, but she can't afford it. Despite no deal, a crew mate of another ship asks her to speak to his captain. The captain offers passage on his ship if she steals a ring from Prince James. Snow White finds the ring, but is caught by the prince, who is shocked that she is a "girl". She calls herself a "woman" and bashes him in the face with a jewelry box. Her presence is then alerted to the Queen's soldiers by the prince's fiancée. In her haste to escape, Snow White drops the ring. After she rides off on a horse, the prince angrily shouts that he will find her. Later, she walks into his net trap and sarcastically dubs him Prince Charming. Another prince, Charles, claims that the stolen ring is with his princess, Leia, and they must rescue her from the Queen first. She agrees to help break into the palace if Prince Charming doesn't turn her into the Queen. On the ride there, she attests the charges on her wanted poster are lies, and the Queen hates her for ruining her life. When Prince Charming grabs her fairy dust, Snow White explains that it's a weapon to turn someone into something easily squashed and that she is saving it for the Queen. While the princes search for Princess Leia, she uses the dust on the Queen, who neutralizes it. Recalling the Queen's hatred for her, Snow White insists she didn't know any better when telling Cora about Daniel. The Queen orders her to be executed tonight, though Snow White states even if she is dead, the kingdom will never be hers. Before the Queen's fireball hits her, she uses the remaining dust to transform into a bug. She flies to Prince Charles, who prepares to squash her, but Prince Charming stops him; realizing the bug is Snow White. With the Blue Fairy's help, she is restored to human. To Snow White's confusion, Princess Leia is overjoyed to see her alive. The next morning, she offers to refill Prince Charming's water canteen, but actually makes off with his ring. He finds her at a bridge where they are attacked by trolls. When Prince Charming is trapped, Snow White saves him by threatening to turn the trolls into bugs, and they believe her, though she is bluffing with sand instead of fairy dust. 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. While still living as a bandit, Snow White is chased by Queen's knights and attempts to outrun them. Eventually, she is cornered at a cliff, but jumps headfirst into the water to elude capture. As she begins sinking, a mermaid named Ariel saves her life. Ariel shares her experience falling in love with a prince named Eric and plans to meet him at the upcoming Ursula ball by transforming her tail into human legs. Snow White agrees to assist her, and the two attend the celebration together. She teaches Ariel the name of a fork utensil. Ariel likes the fork so much she keeps it. When Eric strolls in, Snow White pushes a shy Ariel towards him, and the pair begin waltzing. After the dance is over, Ariel rushes back to tell Snow White about the traveling expedition Eric invited her to. As they discuss the matter, Snow White urges Ariel to be honest with Eric about her mermaid self even if she is rejected. Ariel goes to think over her decision and regroups with Snow White at the docks with a solution to both their problems with a bracelet from Ursula. She clasps it on Snow White, which transforms her legs into a tail. Though Ariel considers this a way for her to escape the Queen with a new life under the sea, Snow White still doesn't believe Ursula is real. The Evil Queen interrupts the chat, and only then Ariel realizes she has been tricked by an impostor Ursula. Snow White pushes Ariel to leave to be with Eric; sentiments the Evil Queen agrees with. Ariel apologizes and hurries off, to which the Evil Queen begins choking the life out of a defenseless Snow White. Suddenly, Ariel lunges from behind to stab the Evil Queen in the neck with a fork. In the middle of the distraction, she also pulls off the bracelet from Snow White's wrist, reversing the effects on both of them and they flee by swimming away. After reaching a shoreline, Snow White encourages Ariel to catch up with Eric, who likely is still waiting for her, so the mermaid makes haste.
 * -|Original Timeline=
 * -|Alternate Timeline=

Since Snow White's chance meeting with Prince Charming, he lingers in her thoughts frequently. While hiding in the woods of King Midas' realm, she overhears a conversation from travelers concerning Prince Charming and his upcoming wedding. As she enters a tavern, she hears news of his fiancee, Princess Abigail, who is also King Midas' daughter. Suddenly, a man bursts in to report the Queen has helped a wolf pack seize control of the silver mines and they are terrorizing villagers in their search for Snow White. Worried about innocent lives at stake, Snow White uncloaks herself to the pub patrons and requests that they tell the Queen she will be waiting in the woods. Before reaching her destination, she joins Red Riding Hood, and surprisingly, the Huntsman that once spared her life. They travel to Lake Onondaga where a totem can be used to transform the shape-shifters into normal wolves, but it can be wielded by someone only once. On the way there, she notices a growing closeness between the Huntsman and Red Riding Hood. On glimpsing the lake, Snow White deliberately remarks how romantic it looks, which makes Red Riding Hood blush. While the Huntsman grabs the totem, his companions hold off the wolf pack. However, Snow White and Red Riding Hood fall into the lake as the Huntsman jumps in after them. Due to the totem’s power, all three turn into aquatic creatures. Before regaining human form, the Huntsman convinces Red Riding Hood to talk sense into the pack. They approach the leader, Adair, who refuses to listen and calls out the wolves. To menace the Queen, the Huntsman threatens Adair's life, but she incinerates the man herself; causing the upset wolves to attack her. As the Queen counters them, Red Riding Hood urges the Huntsman to take Snow White away while she ensures the pack's safety. Rather than that, the Huntsman sacrifices his heart to the Queen while the two women escape. Snow White regrets how much Red Riding Hood has given up for her, but the latter wants to continue protecting her in order to honor the Huntsman's wishes. Additionally, Snow White promises to stop the Queen so Red Riding Hood and the Huntsman can be together again.

Secluding herself in an isolated cottage, Snow White attempts to hunt prey, but she misses. Red Riding Hood brings her a basket of food and confirms the wedding between Prince Charming and Abigail is set to happen. This pains Snow White as she longs for a way to forget about him. Red Riding Hood knows of a way, but doesn't say anything until Snow White presses for an answer. On Red Riding Hood's instructions, she seeks out a man named Rumplestiltskin who can grant her wish for a price. From him, she gain a potion capable of helping her forget about Prince Charming, and he takes a lock of her hair as payment. On a different day, she prepares to drink the potion when a carrier bird arrives with a letter from Prince Charming. In the letter, he declares his feelings for her and asks that, if she feels the same, to meet him at castle so they can run away together. She enters the castle easily, but is caught and thrown into a dungeon. In the cell next to hers, a dwarf, Grumpy, explains his own failed love story that landed him in the dungeon. Soon, another dwarf, Stealthy, arrives to free him. Snow White bids him farewell with the hope that he finds his love again, so Grumpy frees her as well. As they work their way out, Snow White advises using the back exit, but the dwarves go through the front. The guards kill Stealthy, and Grumpy is saved by Snow White, who threatens to burn down the castle if King George does not let him go. In a private chamber, she is forced to submit to King George's request of rejecting Prince Charming's feelings, or he will kill him. Snow White heads into the prince's room and breaks his heart, as well as her own, by affirming she does not love him, and it would be better if he is with someone like Abigail who could. She leaves the castle in tears as Grumpy and his six brothers, both of out gratitude and pity, take her into their home. Again, Snow White tries to ingest the potion, but Grumpy reasons that having pain is a part of herself and promises to help her through it. After a stay in the dwarves' cottage, Snow White eventually soothes her heartbreak away by taking the potion. Grumpy rushes in with news of Prince Charming's canceled engagement, but Snow White no longer remembers the man she so desperately loved.

The potion not only erases Snow White's feelings for her prince, but turns her into a callous person with little affection for anything or anyone. Her friends stage an intervention with the help of Jiminy Cricket, but instead, she decides to take charge by getting rid of her biggest problem, the Evil Queen, by killing her. Grumpy drags her back to Rumplestiltskin, but the potion cannot be undone. She is further encouraged when Rumplestiltskin hands her an enchanted bow, which is famed to never miss a shot, and a map to look for the perfect spot to use it. Prince Charming attempts to break the potion's effects by giving Snow White true love's kiss, however, it does nothing. After knocking him unconscious, she ties Prince Charming up and leaves to continue on her mission. While the Evil Queen is traveling on the road below, Snow White readies her aim and fires, except Prince Charming takes the hit. She is surprised by his feat, especially when Prince Charming says 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 kidnap Prince Charming, though she promises to rescue him. She returns to the cottage and apologies to the dwarves for her prior behavior. When she announces that Prince Charming has been taken by King George, they offer to go with her to save him.

In an effort to rescue Prince Charming, Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Granny, the dwarves, and numerous fairies stage an attack on King George's castle. The attack is successful, but when Snow White arrives in the dungeon, she discovers a mirror image of Prince Charming since he is now the Evil Queen's prisoner. After a tearful conversation, the image changes to the Queen, who asks her to come to a certain place, "where it all began", alone and unarmed. She agrees, though her friends do not like the idea. Snow White comes to the old estate of Regina's family and finds her at the stables. The Queen shows her a grave marker, and finally reveals what actually happened to Daniel after Snow White told Cora about him. She learns Daniel did not run away, but was killed by Cora due to his relationship with Regina. Stunned, Snow White tries to settle the war between them since the Queen hurt her, too, by killing King Leopold. The Queen rejects this proposal and gives her an apple infused with a Sleeping Curse. For the curse to work, Snow White must willingly eat the apple, which she does when the Queen promises that her downfall will keep Prince Charming from harm. She quickly passes out after one bite, and is later discovered by her friends.

To honor her in death, Snow White is laid to rest in a glass coffin. While the dwarves are mourning the loss, Prince Charming arrives and unintentionally breaks the curse with true love's kiss. Later, she accepts his marriage proposal, and voices her desire to take back the kingdom.

Snow White puts the plan into full-swing by rallying villagers with a speech exposing the truth about the Queen’s evil ways; including King Leopold's murder and her own plight under the sleeping curse. The townspeople agree the Queen's reign of terror must end, but when she asks them to join her to reclaim the throne, no one speaks up. With the Queen's surprise appearance, the villagers scatter. The Queen asks Snow White to give up her claim to the throne and go into exile, as the real satisfaction isn't killing the princess, but taking everything that belongs to her. Then, she orders Snow White to swear on King Leopold’s grave to revoke her own petition to the throne. When Snow White challenges this, the Queen threatens a peasant girl's life. Snow White charges at the Queen, who disappears in a puff of smoke, causing her to fall flat on the ground. The Queen sets a time limit of until sundown tomorrow for an answer, and for every day Snow White refuses, one of her loyal subjects will perish. Lastly, she asks Snow White to stop denying that she was a princess, but never a queen. Snow White, doubting her inability to protect the kingdom's subjects, resolves to agree to Queen's offer. While she is practicing archery, Prince Charming informs her that he made a deal with Rumplestiltskin, and he later shows her the Excalibur sword, embedded in stone, which only the kingdom's true ruler can wield. After pulling it out, she turns down the Queen's deal. As the Queen suffocates Grumpy, Prince Charming calms Snow White by reminding her what Excalibur symbolizes. Confidence renewed, she charges at the Queen, who dissipates and reappears, as the sword cuts into her. Declaring her intent to fight for the throne, Snow White stands her ground as the Queen retreats. Afterwards, she summons Rumplestiltskin to pay for his deal with Prince Charming. However, the wizard proves the sword is fake by dissolving it into dust, and for wasting his time, he steals her mother's necklace. Upset, she confronts Prince Charming, who explains never doubting she is the proper ruler of the kingdom, but simply 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, Snow White and her 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. Later, Regina's father Henry asks to speak with Snow White alone. She shows up to the meeting spot armed and ready to take him out if he tries anything, but Henry tries to persuade her that he just wants the war to stop because going down this path might cost Regina's soul. Suddenly, a second Henry appears behind Snow White, and she turns to retaliate against him, only to have the first Henry rip out her heart. Only then, Snow White sees the Henry she spoke to is actually Cora, while the other is the real Henry. Cora then instructs her to forget this ever happened and go on with her business, which she does. 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, Snow White and Prince Charming lay down further groundwork for gaining back the kingdom. From Red Riding Hood, they hear about King George's hit-man,the Leviathan. When King George's forces storm their camp, Prince Charming offers to stay behind and tells Snow White to meet up with him at his mother's cabin. While fleeing, she is apprehended by the Leviathan, Lancelot, who brings her to King George. When given a cup of water, she drinks it, and only after this, King George smugly explains that the water has cursed her to be barren. Afterwards, she is let go, but Lancelot follows her into the forest. Furious at his affiliation with King George, she attacks him, but he begs her to spare him because he, too, was unaware of the poison in the cup. She allows him to come with her and together, they return to Prince Charming, but discover his mother Ruth has been injured by a poisoned arrow. On their journey to Lake Nostos to obtain water to heal the wound, Ruth shows Snow White a necklace her own mother had given her, which can predict the gender of a woman's first child. She tries it out on Snow White, but nothing happens, to which the princess admits to being cursed to never bear children. Finding the lake completely dry except a few water droplets, Snow White refuses Ruth's offer to drink the water and lift her inability to have children. In an act of sacrifice, Ruth secretly pretends to ingest the water, but she later gives the lake water to Lancelot for Snow White. Ruth's wound refuses to heal, which leads everyone to believe she requires more of the lake's water. As her dying wish, she asks to see her son and Snow White married. During the ceremony, Lancelot slips the lake water into a cup, and explains it is rumored to have magical properties for immortality, to which Snow White drinks from it. Soon after, Ruth passes away and Prince Charming burns a candle for his mother. Snow White is apologetic that he is losing the last of his family, but Prince Charming is grateful to have her as his wife since they will have children of their own. She looks on, visibly distraught, when he pulls out Ruth's necklace and tests it on her. Miraculously, the necklace begins to swing, leading Snow White to figure out that Ruth had Lancelot switch the lake water into the cup for the marriage ceremony.

As the war continues, Regina's allies, King George's army, finally meet their defeat. Snow White lures the Queen into a conversation in the woods, where the Blue Fairy freezes the Queen with fairy dust, and the war ends with her capture. In a discussion with the war council, they decide the Evil Queen's fate. Snow White is against killing the Evil Queen, but she is outnumbered, as the others 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. She recalls a moment in the past when Regina saved her life. With Rumplestiltskin's help, he enchants a knife that is powerless to harm Snow White or Prince Charming. She tucks the knife on herself and visits Regina in the cell. Snow White allows her an opportunity to leave and change from the past. Once they are out of the prison, she is choked by Regina, who then takes the enchanted knife and attempts to stab her with it. Sadly, Snow White now has proof Regina has definitely not changed and banishes her from the kingdom. She warns Regina against harming anyone in the kingdom ever again, or death will be the sentence.

With peace restored, Snow White and Prince Charming 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.

Upset that the Evil Queen ruined their wedding, Snow White storms off into the war council room. Prince Charming convinces her to let it go so they can enjoy their honeymoon. Instead, Snow White has an idea of how to get rid of the Evil Queen, and since the very item needed for the task is near the old Summer Palace, she asks that they go there for their honeymoon. While her husband goes to make preparations for the journey, Grumpy notifies Snow White that the castle has been secured so the Evil Queen can't come back in. He thinks it's a bad idea to leave when the Evil Queen's threat is at stake, but she hints that there is something at the Summer Palace that will help get rid of their nemesis. Once the couple reach the Summer Palace, she sneaks out when Prince Charming is away, though he catches her outside. Snow White elaborates on a being called Medusa who has the ability to turn whoever looks into her eyes into stone, and she wants to cut off her head and use it on the Evil Queen. Together, they venture into Medusa's home. While Prince Charming goads the creature to come towards him, Snow White readies her blade. Her sword shatters upon contact with Medusa's neck, and as the couple try to flee, Prince Charming turns into stone when Medusa forces him to meet her eyes. Left alone, Snow White sees the Evil Queen spying on her through a mirror in a fallen shield. The Evil Queen finds it amusing that Snow White is wreaking havoc on her own life, to which the princess realizes she must let go of her own fears before more damage is done. As Medusa attacks, Snow White holds up the shield, causing the monster to gaze into her own reflection and turn to stone while Prince Charming is freed. That night, she decides to stop worrying about the Queen and start living her life with Prince Charming by trying to have a baby.

Riding back to the castle, Snow White expresses a priority to focus on dealing with the Queen now that their honeymoon is over. Discovering all the guards asleep from the sleeping curse, she and Prince Charming rush past the gates. There, Maleficent and her associates, Cruella De Vil and Ursula, reveal themselves and explain the Queen is planning to cast a curse that will affect themselves and everyone else. To defeat the curse, the trio want Snow White and Prince Charming must 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.

Sometime after this, Snow White wakes up in bed to see Maleficent before her. She tries shaking her husband awake, but the witch has made it so he won't wake until morning. Assuring the princess that she came alone, Maleficent reveals she, too, is pregnant. Since they are both going to be mothers and want to protect their children, she hopes Snow White will team up with her to defeat the Queen's curse. Instead, Snow White doesn't wish to use dark methods to win against the Queen, and she fears doing so will jeopardize her own child's potential for good. Maleficent accuses her of putting the kingdom at risk just to keep her child from becoming evil, to which Snow White attests she and her husband will win, but they won't compromise their morals to do it.

As a married couple, Snow White and Prince Charming attend a neighboring kingdom's royal wedding of Cinderella and Prince Thomas. During the wedding party, she sweeps Cinderella into a dance and praises the princess-to-be for changing her life as well as setting an example for others.

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 her husband sees his infant daughter in a basket, she sees her teenager daughter in a pink gown. When Snow White states herself to be her mother, the girl rips out her 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. Upset, 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 Snow White and Prince Charming 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 nearing the end of her pregnancy, Snow White still worries about the Queen's threat. To ease his wife's mind, he agrees to let her meet with Rumplestiltskin. 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. In return, Snow White gives him the name of her 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, Snow White questions the Blue Fairy for more details on the Dark Curse as Prince Charming listens on. 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. This is not much assurance, so Snow White further asks how the savior will know how to save them. The Blue Fairy stresses in more vague terms that when the time comes, the savior will learn of their story. Snow White is left more uncertain as the Blue Fairy requests to be trusted as she herself has the one thing they all need, which is hope. After the Blue Fairy's departure, Snow White relates her crushed dreams to Prince Charming of them ever being a family due to the curse. She agonizes over the future, but he believes the unknown isn't always bad and life is full of twists and turns just like the curse. He 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 frantically expresses an unwillingness to part from her husband for twenty-eight years once she goes through the wardrobe. Prince Charming has faith they will eventually be reunited. They kiss, to which Snow White pulls away abruptly as she begins 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, she and Prince Charming have a shared moment with Emma until realizing that their child must go through the wardrobe alone or all is lost. She sends Prince Charming to bring Emma into the wardrobe, and later hobbles out of bed. After finding Prince Charming unconscious, she tries to bring him back with true love's kiss, to no avail, just as the Evil Queen arrives. Snow White confidently assures the Evil Queen that she has lost since Emma has gone through the wardrobe. As the curse spreads into the room, she clutches Prince Charming close to her as the three of them are engulfed by it.

During First Curse
After the casting of the curse, Mary Margaret becomes a timid and soft spoken school teacher in the town of Storybrooke. One day, she is teaching her students to make bird houses and tells the kids to make them with care, as they are building a home, not a cage. Class ends, and mayor Regina Mills comes in. Mary Margaret is asked how long she's been a schoolteacher. She can't remember a specific date, and only recalls that it's always been this way. Regina takes her to the hospital to look at a coma patient who goes by the unidentified name John Doe. She doesn't recognize the man at all, but brightly suggests perhaps someone who loves him will find him someday. From that day onward, Mary Margaret often visits John Doe. Later on, she accidentally bumps into Regina, and apologizes profusely for her clumsiness. The same event occurs on a different day, and Regina snaps at Mary Margaret for not apologizing. Docilely, Mary Margaret agrees she should apologize. Her response bothers Regina, who questions why she does not fight back. Mary Margaret curiously wonders why she would do something like that, and proceeds down the street.

While spending time in the children's ward at the hospital as a volunteer, Mary Margaret is given Regina's adopted infant, Henry, to hold for a bit. She happily coddles him in her arms to the point he stops crying; a feat which shocks Regina. The mayor takes her baby back as Henry begins to wail again. Concerned, Mary Margaret asks if she herself did something wrong, though Regina refutes this.

When Henry is older, Mary Margaret becomes his teacher at school. One morning, she finds a mysterious fairytale storybook while cleaning out her bedroom closet and brings it with her to school. During lunch break, she approaches Henry to ask why he hasn't been turning in his homework lately. Seeing Henry in a saddened mood, she assures him that things will get better if he believes in it. Henry is upset over the lack of change in town, and believes only he himself stays the same. Furthermore, he feels unloved, with knowledge of his birth mother's abandonment, as well as his belief that Regina doesn't love him. To cheer Henry up, she gives him the fairytale storybook, and explains the stories in it are a reminder that his life will get better if he just holds onto hope. She allows him to keep the book, and states that even believing in the possibility of a happy ending is a powerful thing.

After class dismissal on a typical day, Mary Margaret is surprised by a visit from Regina and another woman, Emma, who is Henry's birth mother. Regina confronts her over helping Henry obtain knowledge about his birth mother by lending him a credit card. Confused, she checks her wallet to find a credit card missing and realizes Henry must have stolen it. Mary Margaret is also apprehended over giving Henry a certain fairytale book, to which she defensively states that he is special and needs to let his imagination blossom. The mayor storms off, and Mary Margaret talks to Emma about Henry's need for the book so he can have hopes of a happy ending. She suggests Emma to seek Henry, who is currently missing, at his playground castle. At a later time, Mary Margaret is on her hospital volunteering shift and places flower vases on all the patients' beds, including John Doe's.

On the school grounds, Mary Margaret sees Emma walking Henry to class. She thanks Emma for cheering Henry up and isn't keen that Regina has remained mayor through intimidation. Though it's silly in her eyes, Mary Margaret admits Henry thinks she is Snow White and asks which fairy tale character Emma is. Emma hastily says she is not in the book. Following Emma's arrest for "stealing" from Archie Hopper's office, Mary Margaret comes to the sheriff department, with Henry, to bail her out. Later, Emma returns the bail money to her while Mary Margaret notices she has something on her mind and offers to be a listening ear. Despite being strangers, Mary Margaret feels like they have met before, and convinces her to stay in town and protect Henry.

Mary Margaret goes on a date with Dr. Whale, which ends horribly. By chance, she sees Emma spending the night in her car and offers a spare apartment room. Emma turns down the offer; citing herself as not a roommate type. On a hospital volunteer day with her students, Mary Margaret notices Henry sitting in the room of John Doe. She explains the mystery of John Doe's identity and shortly after they leave the room together. From Emma, she learns Henry believes John Doe is Prince Charming, and wants her to read the Snow White fairytale to him. Emma suggests for her to play along with Henry's idea so he will realize on his own that fairytales are not real. They decide to meet at the diner tomorrow for a full report. At the hospital, she begins reading to John Doe and near the end of the story, he grabs her hand while still unconscious. Shocked, Mary Margaret summons Dr. Whale, but he sees nothing out of the ordinary and suggests she might have imagined things. The next morning, Mary Margaret, with great elation, blurts out to Emma and Henry what occurred with John Doe. They rush back to the hospital only to discover John Doe disappeared the previous night. Some surveillance footage shows John Doe wandered out to the forest, so he, Emma, and Mary Margaret follow the trail to the woods. In passing, Mary Margaret asks Emma how she became a bail bondsman, and Emma says that it started when she was trying to search for her birth parents. Henry sneaks into the group to proclaim that John Doe is looking for Mary Margaret. While Emma wants to take Henry home, Graham finds John Doe's patient tag. At the shore, Mary Margaret begins resuscitating John Doe using mouth-to-mouth, nearly giving up, when he sputters awake. Elated, she reassures him as he thanks her for saving his life. Back at the hospital, Mary Margaret and the others watch from outside the door as John Doe is put into recovery when a blonde woman, Kathryn, rushes in. As it turns out, Kathryn is John Doe's long lost wife, and his real name is David Nolan. Kathryn thanks Mary Margaret's efforts for saving her husband. However, this revelation leaves Mary Margaret feeling confused. Later that night, she gains a new roommate when Emma decides to take her up on the spare apartment room.

A few days later, she spends time with David at the hospital playing hangman when Kathryn shows up and brings pictures to jog her husband's memories. Mary Margaret leaves and has a discussion with Emma, who warns her not to get involved with a married man. After this, Mary Margaret considers leaving her volunteer work at the hospital when David approaches her, asking her to escort him on a walk as it is the start of his physical therapy. While on the stroll, David admits that nothing about this world feels right to him except her. He also admits to lying about remembering his old life to spare Kathryn's feelings. While they are talking, Kathryn comes up with a box of cranberry muffins, which she claims is David's favorite. As Mary Margaret begins walking away, he asks her if he will see her again. She pauses, smiles, and leaves without another word. Eventually, she turns in a letter of resignation to the hospital.

On the night of David's discharge from the hospital, a homecoming party is held at his house, but Mary Margaret does not attend. Instead, he approaches her while she is hanging up a birdhouse. She tries her best to deter him, but David attests that he is going to choose her, not Kathryn. Mary Margaret talks things over with Emma and how hard it is not to feel guilty about the growing attraction between herself and David, especially considering how nice Kathryn is. Emma advises for trusting her instincts—if it felt wrong, it probably is. The next morning, she briefly chats with Dr. Whale about their less-than-spectacular date. Afterwards, Regina confronts her about David leaving his wife, and how many lives will be destroyed by that one action. At school, David comes to her again, though Mary Margaret is upset that he left his wife. He asks her to meet him at the Toll Bridge at eight o'clock. Again, she goes to Emma for advice, who urges her to meet him. Expectantly, Mary Margaret waits for him, but he bears disappointing news. David says he remembers his life with Kathryn and wants to work on his marriage. Furious and heartbroken, Mary Margaret runs off to the diner in tears. Consoled by Dr. Whale, the two later have a one night stand.

As a follow-up, she receives bright yellow flowers from him, which Emma throws away, thinking that they are from Graham. Judging from Emma's reaction to the flowers, Mary Margaret can tell she has feelings for Graham. Following class dismissal from school, Graham converses with Mary Margaret. Oddly, Graham asks if he has ever hurt her, and the two discover that they cannot remember when they met each other or anyone else in Storybrooke. Alarmed, she tells him about Henry's fairy tale theory, and Graham goes to the mayor's house to talk to him.

After Graham's death, Mary Margaret walks into the apartment to find out Emma has been fired by Regina. Just then, Mr. Gold comes in with the town charter and he and Emma proceed to set up an election campaign. Mary Margaret runs into David as she is spreading election posters for Emma and asks him how things are. They have an awkward conversation, and when Mary Margaret sees him spreading posters of another candidate, Sidney, she hurries off. Emma confesses to Mary Margaret of her fears of not winning the election because she can't fight dirty and has to prove to her son that good can win. Mary Margaret reassures her, and they go to the debate, where Emma exposes Mr. Gold for the staged fire in the mayor's office. This impresses the townspeople, who then elect Emma as the new sheriff.

To help Emma, she keeps orphan siblings Ava and Nicholas company in her house after they are found homeless and abandoned. Mary Margaret also counsels Emma in her struggle to find the two a home in Storybrooke rather than send them to the foster care system in Boston.

A few days after, Mary Margaret is in a morning rush; citing to Emma that she and her students are making a volcano. In truth, she heads into the diner at exactly eight-fifteen just to get a glimpse of David. After some further probing from Emma, Mary Margaret admits that she has purposefully been going to the diner to see David every day, and proceeds to outline the Nolans' weekly schedule. She can't get David out of her head and wishes that there was a way to cure her feelings. While shopping for supplies, she runs into Kathryn, who drops, among other things, a pregnancy test. Mary Margaret is stunned and wishes her luck as Regina snips that it's not her business. During a walk in the woods, she stumbles across a trapped dove and takes it to the animal shelter where David is working. The veterinarian says that the bird itself is fine, but must be reunited with its migrating flock or risk being alone forever. She makes off to free it, and ignores David's warning about the upcoming storm. In the forest, she faces physical danger, but David saves her. They seek shelter in an abandoned chain and confess the real reason they go to the diner is to see each other. Just as they are moving into a kiss, Mary Margaret asks him how he could do this to his pregnant wife. David, however, is confused at her question. Before he can clarify, or answer, the storm stops and Mary Margaret leaves to free the dove. David chases after her and admits that his life with Kathryn seems fake, but life with her seems real to him. As a means to purposely avoid each other, Mary Margaret comes to the diner at seven forty-five in the morning when David suddenly walks in. He hastily exits after seeing her, though she runs after him. They agree that it's too difficult to not be together and dive into a passionate kiss. In secret, Mary Margaret carries on an affair with David. After he sets up a picnic in the woods, she meets him there for a rendezvous.

Mary Margaret, Ashley and Ruby all decide to have a girls' night out on Valentine's Day. Ruby goes off to party with the boys, and Ashley confesses her doubts about her relationship with Sean. Just then, Sean comes to the bar and proposes to Ashley. She accepts, and the couple run off happily. Outside, Mary Margaret watches the two drive off in Sean's truck and runs into David. He gives her a Valentine card, which turns out one meant for Kathryn. David apologizes and offers her the other card, but Mary Margaret tells him to go home to his wife instead.

A few nights later, she and David decide to take a walk. He talks about Kathryn's plans to move to Boston so that she can attend law school. Mary Margaret becomes uncomfortable at how dishonest they are being with Kathryn, and convinces David to tell her about their relationship. While at school, she receives a phone call from David, who tells her how badly things went when he told Kathryn about them. She reassures him that he did the right thing. Once the conversation ends, she sees Kathryn approaching her in the hallway. Mary Margaret is met with a resounding slap across the face, which leaves her and all the bystanders in shock. As she starts to apologize, Kathryn unleashes anger towards her for David's flimsy excuse that they weren't connecting in the marriage rather than admitting the truth. Shaken, Mary Margaret is surprised to learn David did not tell Kathryn about the affair, and that she learned of the affair from Regina. Afterwards, Mary Margaret sets out to find David and is shunned by passing townspeople on the streets. She finds him scrubbing off the word "tramp" off her car. When she confronts him about lying, David admits that he did not want anyone getting hurt. On the spot, Mary Margaret recognizes their relationship is destructive and breaks up with him. She goes home upset as Emma keeps her company in the apartment.

Mary Margaret, in an effort to rebuild her shattered reputation, seizes the opportunity to do honest work as a volunteer for the nunnery by selling candles for the annual Miner's Day festival. She walks right into the diner to make a brief announcement about Miner's Day and asks for volunteers, but is completely ignored. However, when Mary Margaret sights Leroy approaching, she mistakenly believes he wants to volunteer. Instead, he spitefully calls her the "town harlot" and states that she is the person the residents hate more than him. After exiting the diner, Emma catches up to give her support. Later, Leroy asks to be signed up as a volunteer. At first, Mary Margaret gives him the cold shoulder, considering his earlier behavior towards her. However, he makes a fair point seeing as she is the only volunteer at her own table, and needs more help, to which Mary Margaret finally agrees to accept him. During the festival, no one comes to their booth to sell candles, so they attempt to go door-to-door. However, that fails, and the pair return to the church dejected. Mary Margaret pushes him to tell Sister Astrid the truth, but instead he lies and says all the candles are sold out. This leads her to conclude that he has feelings for the nun. That night, the two nurse their failure to sell candles with drinks at the diner. Suddenly, Leroy gets an idea runs up to the roof of the church to cause a power outage; therefore forcing the townspeople to stock up on candles, and they sell out completely. Later, Mary Margaret packs up and goes to her car, which still has the faded lettering of "tramp" on the window. Dejectedly, she heads back to the festival carrying an unlit candle. She passes Granny, who lights hers. In the distance, Emma pulls up in her car to take David in for questioning about Kathryn as a stunned Mary Margaret watches.

A few nights afterwards, she and Emma walk down the street engaged in a conversation about David when they see Ruby at the bus stop evading the advances of Dr. Whale. They force Dr. Whale to leave, and Mary Margaret invites Ruby to live with them until she can find her footing. The next day, she heads out to the woods to search for Kathryn. While there, she sees David wandering around in a daze. Concerned, she notifies Emma, who later enlists Ruby to help her locate him. Though David's loss of recollection is written off as a blackout similar to his post-coma state, he shares his fears to Mary Margaret about possibly having harmed Kathryn. Emma walks in on the pair to inform them that a jewelry box containing a human heart was found. David breaks down in tears, believing he has murdered Kathryn. Instead, the box's fingerprints are a match for Mary Margaret. Arrested and held as the prime suspect, Mary Margaret can do nothing while Emma is working towards helping her. While Regina sits by as a third-party to ensure Emma remains unbiased, Mary Margaret is shown the jewelry box Kathryn's heart was found in. She admits it is hers, but doesn't know how it ended up buried in the ground. However, she is appalled that David begins to question her innocence. During one early morning, she happens to find a key in her cot and uses it at night to escape the cell. She doesn't make it out of town, however, and is kidnapped by a man, Jefferson, until Emma discovers her in his house. She manages to undo Mary Margaret's binds, but a struggle for the gun ensues between Emma and Jefferson for a gun. Mary Margaret grabs a croquet mallet to clock Jefferson with it, and then kick him out the window. Outside, Emma presents her with the choice of either leaving for Boston or going back to the jail cell. Touched by Emma's confession that she considers her family and will do whatever it takes to help her, Mary Margaret goes back.

Mary Margaret has an interview with the District Attorney, Albert, as he asks her if she wanted Kathryn gone. Though she answers no every time, the repeated probing prompts her to say yes. This admittance serves as a murder confession. She receives a visit from Regina, who pressures her to take the easy way out and confess to avoid a trial. Mary Margaret is confused over why the mayor hates her so much, to which Regina doesn't reply. In the middle of the night, she sobs in despair over her current dilemma when Regina appears yet again. Mary Margaret begins apologizing for anything she's ever done to incite hate, but the latter rejects her pleas. Shockingly, Regina admits she knows Mary Margaret didn't kill Kathryn, but deserves to suffer. In the morning, she is taken away by the police for the trial. As fate would have it, Kathryn turns up alive and unharmed, so Mary Margaret is released from custody.

Mary Margaret returns home and is greeted with a homecoming party in her apartment. At one point, David tries to enter in, but she has Emma turn him away with an excuse. On the street, he attempts to apologize for doubting her. She hears him out, but refuses to take David back as there's always something inexplicably keeping them apart. Mary Margaret wants to hold onto the good memories they have together rather than continue to make bad ones.

To safeguard herself from Regina, Mary Margaret enlists August to change her apartment locks. Upon returning to the school grounds to resume her teaching job, she unexpectedly meets Regina. Mary Margaret calls her out for framing her, though Regina pretends otherwise. She also expresses genuine forgiveness towards Regina for her actions.

Mary Margaret discovers Emma's belongings missing from the apartment; meaning she has just up and left town. Her roommate returns in the morning, to which she criticizes her for disappearing without saying goodbye since Emma once said they are like family. At Emma's admittance that she doesn't want people relying her as sheriff, and that she attempted to take Henry out of town with her, Mary Margaret tells her to stop running away and figure out what is best for her son. One night, she is approached by David. He tells her that he is going to use Kathryn's apartment from when she had planned on going to law school. Mary Margaret wishes him luck, and, when he asks for her to give him a reason to stay in Storybrooke, she does not give him one.

When word gets out that Henry has fallen under a coma, Mary Margaret reads his storybook by his bedside, possibly in hopes that he will wake up like David did. However, instead of awakening, his heart flat lines. As he dies, she is pushed out of the room. Mary Margaret leaves the hospital and wanders around the town in a dazed state. Suddenly, a pulse of magic surrounds the town, breaking the Dark Curse, as memories from her former life return. She has a joyful reunion with David, who she remembers as Prince Charming. In the near distance, they see a large purple smoke approaching town. They brace for impact as the smoke envelops them as well.

After First Curse
Upon remembering her true identity as Snow White, Mary Margaret is happily reunited with several of her friends from the Enchanted Forest, including Red Riding Hood, Granny, and the Seven Dwarves. She is most excited to remember Prince Charming and her daughter Emma. While Mary Margaret is overjoyed to see Emma and realizes she saved them all by breaking the curse, she is a little stunned when Emma states she needs time and space to adjust to the new situation. Suddenly, Archie rushes up to inform them that Dr. Whale is leading an angry mob to Regina's house. Prompted by Henry's concern for Regina, they make it in time to stop Dr. Whale. They decide to place Regina in a jail cell for protection and then confront Mr. Gold for his misdeeds. Instead, they learn Mr. Gold released a Wraith upon town to destroy Regina. They temporarily stop the creature, but Regina has a more permanent solution by using a hat to send it away. After the vortex opens, the Wraith is sucked in, but Emma is as well. Horror stricken, Mary Margaret declares her intent of not losing Emma again, and jumps into the portal. The two women land in the Enchanted Forest and are found by Aurora and Mulan.

Mary Margaret and Emma are accused of killing Prince Phillip and taken hostage by Aurora and Mulan, who then take them to a survivors' haven. Mary Margaret makes an attempt to escape, but is knocked unconscious by Mulan. For the time being, she and Emma are forced into a holding pit.

She awakens, and is unsettled by Cora's presence in the pit with them. Mary Margaret discourages Emma from speaking to her any further. Emma, however, is willing to take the chance since they have no one else to rely on to help them get back to David and Henry. Cora tries to ask about Henry, but Mary Margaret cuts her off. Then, the two are released to speak with the leader of the survivors, Lancelot, who Mary Margaret has a friendly reunion with. He offers to help them return home, but insists no more portals exist. Mary Margaret knows of one possibly in existence, so the two women travel to the location with Mulan. Near nighttime, they decide to camp out. Mary Margaret and Mulan go off separately to gather supplies. Out of nowhere, she is attacked by Aurora, who blames her for Phillip's death, and wants revenge. Mary Margaret pins Aurora to the ground with ease and states she knows what it's like to lose someone, too, but Phillip's death is not her fault. Mulan pries Aurora away as Emma, in annoyance, fires her gun, and unintentionally attracts an ogre. Emma is nearly killed by it, but Mary Margaret takes out the ogre by shooting an arrow in its eye. Despite not using a bow and arrow for twenty-eight years, her skill in archery is still sublime. Continuing on, they reach the old castle of Snow White and Prince Charming. Aurora and Mulan wait outside as Mary Margaret and Emma go inside. Inside, Emma's unused nursery room still stands, as does the magic wardrobe that took her away. Mary Margaret laments over the life they would have had as a family. They receive an unexpected appearance by Lancelot, but Mary Margaret notices his prolonged interest in the wardrobe. She goes on the defense, to which the mask of Lancelot melts off to reveal Cora. Cora battles them for the wardrobe, but Emma sets it on fire. In the end, Cora is forced to flee. As a cover story for the safe haven survivors, Mary Margaret suggests telling them Lancelot died a hero since the man she once knew in the past was brave. Mary Margaret rejects Mulan's offer to make her leader as she and Emma have a family to get back to. Before leaving, Emma becomes emotional while talking about her parents' abandonment, but now knowing they sacrificed so much for her, too. They bond as Mary Margaret reassures Emma that she is looking out for her.

Returning to the safe haven, the four women find that the camp has been attacked and no one appears to be left alive. Aurora discovers Hook beneath a pile of bodies, and he attempts to deceive the foursome by stating he survived Cora's attack on the camp by hiding under some dead bodies. Emma doesn't buy his story and ties Hook to a tree so the ogres can eat him. Unable to best Emma, Hook reveals his true identity as a shocked Mary Margaret pulls his hook out of his satchel. Hook admits to working with Cora, but offers to join forces with Emma and her team as he knows a way to get to Storybrooke. Most of all, he wants to go to Storybrooke to get revenge on Rumplestiltskin for taking away his hand. Emma decides to cut him free. Then, he leads them to a giant beanstalk stretching up into the sky, and explains there is an enchanted compass at the top, but first they must deal with the giant guarding it.

Mary Margaret volunteers to go up the beanstalk; citing herself as more familiar to the Enchanted Forest than Emma. However, Emma overrides this decision and departs up the beanstalk with Hook. While they wait for them to come back, Mulan decides it would be best for the three of them to take turns on watch duty. Aurora presses to be on duty first due to the horrible nightmares she has been having. Mary Margaret recognizes that Aurora is suffering from a side effect of the Sleeping Curse, which she herself went through at one time, but only says that the nightmares will go away in time. Later, Mary Margaret comforts Aurora after she awakens from another bad dream, and describes frightening imagery of an exit less room surrounded by curtains and flames. She manages to coax the girl into going back to sleep. After ten hours go by, Mulan, going by orders Emma secretly gave her earlier, begins cutting down the beanstalk. Mary Margaret reacts with protest and wrestles Mulan to the ground. They scuffle until Emma jumps down from the base of the beanstalk alone, as she left Hook trapped with the giant so they can have a ten hour head start.

Mary Margaret rushes to console Aurora as she comes to from another nightmare. Shockingly, Aurora claims she met a boy named Henry in her dream.

As Aurora relates her encounter with Henry to everyone, Mary Margaret finally speaks up about the nightmares being a side effect of the Sleeping Curse. Aurora is upset that she wasn't informed of this earlier, though Mary Margaret simply didn't want to burden her with it. They decide to let Aurora go back to sleep and stand guard over her. Suddenly, the camp is attacked by Cora's army of heartless humans, and Emma and Mary Margaret defend themselves while Aurora and Mulan run off into the woods. After the battle, Aurora is discovered to be missing and in Cora's captivity. Without Aurora, they can't reach Henry, though Mary Margaret was once under the Sleeping Curse, too, so she is capable of travelling to the Netherworld under special circumstances. As they head to gather a special poppy dust to put Mary Margaret to sleep, a raven from Cora gives them a message. Cora wants the compass by sundown in exchange for Aurora's safety. Mulan attempts to grab the compass, but then agrees to wait and see if they can contact Henry first. After entering the Netherworld, Mary Margaret waits in the flame filled room for Henry, but is stunned to see David instead. Quickly, he tells her about the squid ink located in Rumplestiltskin's cell. She learns he is currently under the Sleeping Curse, and they lean in for true love's kiss, but their bodies cannot touch. Mary Margaret has no choice but to leave him behind as she begins waking up from the Netherworld. She reaches consciousness in a panic over David's dilemma while Emma is certain everything will be fixed once they get home. They realize Mulan made off with the compass and catch up in time. Mary Margaret tackles Mulan when she refuses to give her the compass, and nearly kills her before Aurora reappears to break up the fight. The four head off towards Rumplestiltskin's old cell to find the squid ink.

As they arrive to the cell, Aurora finds a strange note with Emma's name written on it repeatedly. Mulan also discovers an empty vial, but no squid ink. Suddenly, Aurora throws a rock at the cell door switch and entraps them inside. Cora approaches to magically snatch the compass out of Emma's hand and thanks Aurora for the help. Angrily, Mary Margaret berates Aurora for assisting an enemy, though Cora reveals she has the girl's heart in her possession. Cora squeezes it as a demonstration; causing Aurora physical pain. Soon after, Cora and Hook leave to begin making preparations for a journey to Storybrooke. While trapped in the cell, Mary Margaret figures out there is squid ink on the note and uses it to melt away the cage bars. At Aurora's insistence she cannot be trusted, Mulan binds her up. They hurry to Lake Nostos where Mary Margaret fires an arrow to shoot the compass out of Cora's reach. While Mary Margaret tries to catch Cora with her arrows, Mulan parries the woman's magic with her blade. Mulan quickly leaves the battle to restore Aurora's heart after Hook returns it. Then, Hook is passes out after being clocked by Emma. In turn, Emma is flung aside by Cora as she stalks forward to remove Mary Margaret's heart. Mary Margaret is unable to fight back, but is shoved away by Emma just as Cora reaches in. This causes Cora to grab Emma's heart, but she finds herself incapable of pulling it out. A burst of light shoots out of Emma's chest; knocking Cora unconscious. Joining hands, Mary Margaret and Emma leap into the portal. Successfully, they reenter Storybrooke from within the wishing well. Henry has a tremendously emotional return with both of them. Mary Margaret is surprised, and skeptical, to learn from Henry that Regina helped to ensure their safe return. She rushes off to the pawnshop to awaken David with true love's kiss. To catch up on lost time with her family and friends, she, David, Emma Henry, Ruby and the dwarves have dinner at Granny's.

On one afternoon, Emma and Henry go out shopping in preparation for the evening celebration party at Granny's. While they are gone, Mary Margaret and David have some intimate alone time. When caught, both attempt to hide under the covers, though Henry seems to buy their excuse that they are just resting up. In private, Mary Margaret is apologetic towards Emma since they assumed both of them weren't going to be back until much later. Emma blusters that they should give a warning next time and embarrassingly walks off to make tacos. David jokes that it's impressive how they can still provide their daughter with traumatic childhood memories this late in her life. At the party, Mary Margaret arrives with her husband and daughter just as David calls for a toast in honor of his family's safe return. Suddenly, the diner door opens when Regina walks in with a plate of homemade lasagna. Her presence displeases some of the guests, but Emma vouches that she invited Regina. As the guests disperse, Mary Margaret and David express concern about Regina being at the party. Emma states that she owes Regina for helping them return to Storybrooke, and planned on telling her parents, but they were a little busy this afternoon. Mary Margaret insists Regina tried to have them killed yesterday, but Emma believes the mayor is trying to change for Henry's sake. They let the topic drop once Emma is certain that Regina should be given a chance to change from the past. The next morning, Archie is found dead in his office. Mary Margaret watches from outside the interrogation room as Regina is questioned by David and Emma. Regina appeals to Emma that she has done everything to change thus far and wouldn't throw it all away by killing Archie. While Mary Margaret and her husband firmly believe Regina is the main suspect, Emma is still not convinced she has done anything wrong and believes Mr. Gold is framing the mayor. They head to the pawnshop where Emma is given a dream catcher to look into the memories of only witness of Archie's death, Pongo. In it, she sees Regina murdering Archie. As a plan, they agree Regina must be trapped with fairy dust. The trio confront 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. In a bout of intense rage, Regina uses magic to physically shove Emma away. Angrily, Emma confirms Henry will never forgive Regina after this and that she is a person not capable of changing. To this, Regina disappears in a cloud of smoke. With reassurance from her parents, she breaks the bad news about Regina to Henry.

At Archie's funeral, Mary Margaret eulogizes him. Afterwards, she goes back to her apartment where other residents of Storybrooke are also gathered in mourning. Emma speaks to Mary Margaret about how sad Henry is over the death of Archie. Leroy approaches Mary Margaret and Emma to ask, on behalf of himself and other dwarves, when they will be returning to the Enchanted Forest. While Emma argues she and Mary Margaret did everything in their power to return to Storybrooke, Leroy is anxious about what is Regina's next move, and whether the broken curse means outsiders will have the capability to come into town. Emma believes they are safe for now while Leroy believes that trouble will happen sooner or later. Much later in the day, Mary Margaret discovers Henry is listening to Archie's answering machine. The boy cheers up when Emma walks in to give him ownership of Pongo as Marco allowed. Mary Margaret and David agree things might get a bit cramped with all of them living together. However, David is shocked when Mary Margaret suggests the two of them move out and let Emma and Henry have the apartment. The couple leave for the diner where she shows her husband various possible houses, but he turns down every one. While she desires a house of their own, David wishes to return to the Enchanted Forest. Mary Margaret protests that even if they do go back, the land they once knew is not the same with Cora in power and the ogres taking over everywhere. Though there are ongoing problems in the Enchanted Forest, he sees it as a good reason to fight for what is theirs. However, Mary Margaret states she is tired of always fighting, and wants a fresh start in Storybrooke. She and David 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, Mary Margaret and David 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. Mary Margaret tries to soothe a terrified Belle until they reach the hospital, where she passes the girl off to a nurse. Mary Margaret, David Emma, 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, Mary Margaret and David 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, Mary Margaret, David 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. Mary Margaret and David 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.

Over the phone, she talks to frantic Emma in New York, who just discovered her ex-boyfriend Neal is Mr. Gold's son. As if that weren't complicated enough, Neal is Henry's biological father. Mary Margaret advises her to be honest with Henry about his father's identity. She perceives the reason Emma may be withholding the information might have more than do with herself than Henry. When Mary Margaret tells her husband the news, David is astonished that this not only connects 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 her birthday, Mary Margaret suspiciously notices David making pancakes. Though he feigns 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 David claims is not from him. She opens the box to find the tiara she once received from her mother, Eva, on her coming-of-age birthday, and a card note from an old friend, Johanna. After a quick kiss, Mary Margaret heads out to look for her. In a garden behind a house, she finds Johanna planting snowdrop flowers. The two hark back to their times in the Enchanted Forest, which includes their memories of Eva. Mary Margaret hears a strange noise from the woods and goes to investigate; discovering Cora and Regina discussing their plans to find Mr. Gold's dagger to force him to kill whoever they wish. Following this sighting, she tries to phone Mr. Gold, but he is not picking up. Upon entering the sheriff department, she finds David unconscious after being previously knocked out by Hook. Mary Margaret fills him in about Cora and Regina's alliance. They conclude the mother-daughter pair want it to either control Mr. Gold or make Cora the Dark One. She conceives a plan to instill doubt in Regina regarding Cora's motives, and tells the mayor over the phone to come to the diner so they can discuss Henry. Once Regina shows up, Mary Margaret gives her the third degree about being allies with Cora. She offers her one last chance to do the right thing by choosing good over evil. Regina states she always has been good, but Mary Margaret suggests that all her actions thus far have been evil. Regina wants Mary Margaret to stay out of her business. As she gets up to leave, Mary Margaret pleas that Cora does not care about her or Henry. In a blatant jab at Mary Margaret, Regina asks her what she knows about mothers, considering hers died a long time ago. Since the talk went badly, she and David 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. Desperate, Mary Margaret recommends using dark magic if that's what it takes to get the dagger, and reminds Mother Superior of the "secret" she kept of hers. The head nun, however, is utterly confused and has no idea what she is talking about. Finally, they reach a breakthrough when David learns from Emma that the dagger is in the clock tower and nab it in time. Before they can leave, Cora and Regina materialize; threatening to crush Johanna's heart unless they get the dagger. During this altercation, Mary Margaret learns that Cora poisoned Eva to death, and she, not the Blue Fairy, was the one who gave her the enchanted candle. Left little choice, Mary Margaret gives the dagger up to them, but Johanna is cruelly killed by Cora shortly afterwards. The couple honor Johanna by burying her in the cemetery. Heartbroken over the cost of an innocent life, Mary Margaret vows to prevent more unnecessary deaths by killing Cora herself.

In a phone discussion with David, Mary Margaret discusses the seriousness of Mr. Gold's wound. Unknown to both, Cora and Regina are listening in through a phone tap. When the Jolly Roger arrives in Storybrooke, Mary Margaret and David help a weakened and injured Mr. Gold onto a truck. Again, she brings up to David of her plans to kill Cora and protect their family. He reasons that she would not be able to live with herself after murdering someone. After a return to the pawnshop, Mr. Gold deliberately causes Mary Margaret to find the enchanted candle, which is the same one she was given as a child to possibly save her mother's life by forfeiting someone else in her place. Since Cora is a threat to both of them, he wants Mary Margaret to kill her and save him. Though the candle's spell works by whispering the name of the intended victim over the person's body, it is also possible to do the same with Cora's heart. She is given the location of the heart in a vault to enact the curse and then, as a follow-up so the candle's spell will kill their nemesis, is to put it back into Cora. For a moment, Mary Margaret considers controlling Cora with the heart so she'll finish off Mr. Gold. However, he warns Henry, who is his newly discovered grandson, won't take his death lightly. Out of nowhere, the building begins shaking, signaling Cora and Regina's arrival, and the foursome assemble for a fight. During the battle, Mary Margaret heads to the vault, where she curses Cora's heart with the candle. On her way out with the heart in a box, she offers it to Regina, persuading her that Cora can only feel genuine love if she has her heart. Just as she expected, the madam mayor departs with the heart box dead-set on returning it to Cora. Instead of relief, Mary Margaret immediately regrets her actions. Once David finds her, they rush to the pawnshop to stop Regina, but arrive to see Cora is already dead as a result of the cursed heart.

After Cora's death, Mary Margaret becomes despondent, and she refuses to leave her bed. With Mr. Gold's help, David and Emma investigate Regina's plans to cast a curse of the empty-hearted, and one of the ingredients is her most hated enemy, Mary Margaret. As they search for a missing Henry, Mr. Gold is left to guard Mary Margaret in case Regina shows up. As expected, Regina tries to steal her nemesis' heart as Mr. Gold blocks her, which forces her to leave. After much pleading from Henry, Regina eventually destroys the curse, and Mr. Gold is notified by phone that his services are no longer needed. Unable to move past what she did to Cora, Mary Margaret questions how he lives with himself after all the terrible things he's done. Mr. Gold reasons that it gets easier by telling himself he did the right thing. Coming to a decision, she slips out of the apartment, going to Regina, begging to be killed for her crime. Instead, Regina removes Mary Margaret's heart, now harboring a dark spot, as she considers the darkness within it will only continue to grow. She smugly believes it'll destroy the happy little family that Mary Margaret has tried so hard to create, which a worse punishment than death. After cramming the heart into Mary Margaret's chest, Regina then tells her to leave. From the street, Greg has recorded the entire heart ripping incident on his device.

Since the confrontation with Regina, Mary Margaret remains bedridden. While she is hiding under her bed covers, David prepares a breakfast tray for her. Upon seeing this, Emma expresses exasperation as she believes enough time has passed for Mary Margaret to move on from what she can't change. After Emma departs, Mary Margaret gets up, packing a few necessities into her bag, before heading out to think things through. Blasting music in her earphones, she practices archery. All arrows hit the tree target, but when one misses, she unplugs her ear-buds to hear something wooden moving. Investigating, Mary Margaret finds a completely wooden August hiding in a trailer. Ashamed of his physical state and the mistakes he's made, August doesn't wish anyone, especially his father Marco, to see him. When she mentions Henry's father, Neal, returning, August inquiries if he and Emma are together again. Learning that Neal is engaged to someone else, this dampens August's spirits even more as he hoped the couple he purposely separated years ago might have reconciled. August has given up on finding redemption, but she believes everyone deserves a second chance. When he asks her to leave, Mary Margaret calls Emma to the diner and informs her about his dilemma. Marco, wishing to see his son, goes with them to consult Mother Superior, who can't help August as he must earn redemption on his own. On their way to the trailer, Marco guiltily admits he made the Blue Fairy lie about the wardrobe, which could save two people instead of one, so Pinocchio would be spared from the curse. Upset, Mary Margaret slaps him, surprised at her own action, and then forgives him since she would have done the same for her own child. They reach the trailer, but August is gone. On the trek to town, Emma receives a frantic call from August warning her about someone, but the line goes dead suddenly. Rushing to the sheriff station, they witness August collapse before he dies in Marco's arms. Suspecting August's actions today have been selfless, true and brave, Mother Superior tests her wand on him and reverts him to a seven-year old Pinocchio. Afterwards, Mary Margaret confesses to David about her blackened heart. Optimistically, her husband assures she can have redemption since he believes in the goodness in her heart.

To protect the bean fields from being seen by outsiders, Mother Superior enacts a barrier to make the area appear as an empty field unless someone stepped inside the barrier. Mary Margaret and David surprise Emma by showing her the growing fields and present the possibility that they could all return to the Enchanted Forest. Fatigued since the aftermath of Cora's death, Mary Margaret considers going back and rebuilding their land could heal her heart. Both she and David are convinced if Emma comes with them, she can also have her happy ending that never was. After sundown, David carpools Anton, Leroy, Happy, Bashful, Walter, and Doc and drop them off at the diner. Despite Leroy's invitation to have dinner with them, Mary Margaret and her husband head home for the night. From across the street, Regina waits for them to clear the area and uses a tracking spell on David's previous car route, which leads her straight to the hidden bean fields. Upset

At the dock, Mary Margaret and David have a quiet evening sitting at a bench by the harbor. They discuss what will happen to Regina once they go back to the Enchanted Forest. Mary Margaret accepts Regina is still Henry's mother, but David wants to give her a choice to either stay in Storybrooke or live out the rest of her days in Rumplestiltskin's old cell. Secretly, Regina overhears their plan, and she decides to retrieve a trigger to destroy Storybrooke as well as its inhabitants before leaving with Henry for another realm. The next morning, Mary Margaret, David and Leroy check up on the bean fields. As they walk from the car, she asks Leroy for help fixing up the castle once they return home. After entering the barrier, they find all the fields destroyed.

Suspecting Regina ruined the bean fields, Mary Margaret, David, Emma and Henry 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, Mary Margaret and David 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, Mary Margaret, David and Emma pick up Henry, where they encounter Mr. Gold. As Emma goes to break the news about Neal to Henry, Mary Margaret and David 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. At the diner, Mary Margaret and Henry gather the residents, and when David and Hook return with a procured bean, Henry inquiries about Regina, who will die trying to save them. Mary Margaret suggests they use the bean to send the trigger away, but Emma is skeptical since it's a risky plan. Archie, recalling Mary Margaret and David once led them to victory in the Enchanted Forest, rallies everyone into agreeing with the plan. Mary Margaret pleads with Emma that they must save Regina, and what happened with Cora must not be repeated as taking the easy way out is not the right thing to do. Emma relents, and when David tosses her the bean box, Hook catches it. 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, Mary Margaret and David 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 her daughter's leadership, Mary Margaret follows Emma into the jungle.

While the group go through the jungle to a cliff, Mary Margaret suggests her daughter call her Mom. Uneasy about the subject, Emma notes the last time she did, it was because they were all going to die, to which the latter drops the subject. Through one path, they narrowly avoid walking into a patch of Dreamshade. Up ahead, the ridge allows them to get a view of the island, but too much has changed since Hook was in Neverland and he can't tell the difference between anything. Not knowing what dangers lurk in the jungle, they rest for the night, though everyone is awakened with news of Emma's encounter with Pan and the map he gave her to find Henry. The catch is Emma must "stop denying who she really is", and only then, the map unlock for her. Regina would rather use magic on the map, a move Mary Margaret 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. After the battle, Mary Margaret frets over an arrow that hit David earlier, but he seems to be fine. Mary Margaret asks Emma about why she withdrew from the fight earlier on. the blonde reluctantly admits that the boy's look of despair reminded her of how she felt in the foster system; a lost and unimportant girl longing for the parents who gave her up. Confessing to be what she's always been, Emma considers herself an orphan. With those words, the map unveils its contents. Though the truth hurts, Mary Margaret promises to do her best to change Emma's future so they are together as a family. They group form a strategy to travel towards Pan's camp and begin assemble for leaving. Despite David's earlier reassurance to his wife, he disappears into the brush alone, where the Dreamshade arrow wound festers on his abdomen.

Soon, they notice the map keeps changing the Lost Boy camp location, making their endeavor useless, so Hook suggests looking for a fairy named Tinker Bell, who Pan trusts. Regina, writing Tinker Bell off as bad news, thinks she and Emma can combine powers to take on Pan. Emma refuses since there's always going to be a price of magic, and out of exasperation, Regina snappishly regards Hook as the blonde's "boyfriend". Mary Margaret defends her daughter against the accusation, to which Regina apologizes; citing her bout of anger is due to worry over Henry. Later, the brunette decides to stay behind and rest while everyone else goes to Tinker Bell's tree house. Finding the home empty and barren, Emma remarks that it reminds her of the home she herself grew up in. Mary Margaret, too, recalls a similar living circumstance, as she lived in a tree stump while on the run from the Queen. Strangely, Tinker Bell's tree house has a ladder, even though fairies have wings for flying. Suddenly, 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 ex-fairy's innocence. Regina relates that Tinker Bell lost all her fairy powers a long time ago and can't help infiltrate Pan's camp. Even so, Mary Margaret and Emma promise to take Tinker Bell with them to Storybrooke if she helps their cause, which she agrees to.

At the camp base, Mary Margaret 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. 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 walks off to be alone, to which Mary Margaret sadly considers her inability to comfort her own daughter. Mary Margaret suggests, if David 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. When David hauls Hook to fetch more vine, he refuses until Emma presses him to do so. In a flashy display, Hook bows and agrees to go "as the lady insists", which draws a curious stare from Mary Margaret. When the men return, Hook informs them about a sextant on top of Dead Man's Peak, which can decipher Neal's map. Before going on this journey with Hook, David talks to his wife about the unforeseen possibilities in Neverland, though she believes he'll be fine. With the net, the women trap a Lost Boy, Devin, and attempt to gain his trust. Regina offers him chocolate while Emma promises to take him away from Neverland, but he rejects both offers. As Emma ties him to a tree due to his noncompliance, he boasts about Henry's vicious nature since joining the Lost Boys, she chokes him until Mary Margaret pulls her away. Eventually, Emma allows Regina to rip out Devin's heart so they can use him. Mary Margaret protests, but Emma holds her back as Regina fulfills the plan. Shortly after, she cautions Emma against using unsavory methods to get Henry. Under Regina's control, Devin is sent back to Pan's camp with one half of a magic mirror, which he delivers to Henry. Through the other half, Mary Margaret, Emma and Regina inform Henry that they are coming to rescue him. Returning to their camp, Mary Margaret apologies for doubting Emma's earlier decision as she knows how easy it is to give into darkness. To this, Regina arbitrates that she, not Emma, gave into the darkness. Arriving back, David and Hook report that Pan got the sextant before them. Nonetheless, David reveals Hook saved his life earlier by protecting him from a Dreamshade arrow when they were ambushed. To celebrate, everyone, except Regina, drinks a sip of rum until the bottle passes to Emma. Happily, Mary Margaret goes off with David as Emma and Hook are left 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. She considers telling Emma about Neal until 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. During travel, Mary Margaret learns Emma shared a kiss with Hook, though her daughter attests it didn't have any deeper meaning. Emma is unsure about Neal being alive, but Mary Margaret encourages her to have hope. Outside the Echo Caves, 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 has genuine feelings for Emma. When Mary Margaret confesses her desire for another child, to which David admits his Dreamshade wound, and the subsequent cure's price that will force him to stay in Neverland forever. 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, Mary Margaret gathers up her bow arrows, and when David offers help, she declines his assistance; moving to the other side of camp near Emma. Ignoring her daughter's attempt to convince her to stop being mad at David, Mary Margaret cautions Emma to be careful while travelling with Hook and Neal since they both have feelings for her. 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, Emma is relieved to see her parents have made up and talks to Mary Margaret about her decision to stay behind in Neverland with David. Though Mary Margaret is torn about leaving Emma, there's no way for David to leave without dying. Emma accuses her of giving up too easily and believes there has to be a way. Hearing a rustle, the entire group holds a defensive stance until Regina and Mr. Gold walk out. Regina informs them about Pandora's Box, but a distrustful Neal reveals Mr. Gold intends to kill Henry to stop a seer's prophecy from coming true. Disgusted, Mary Margaret aims an arrow at Mr. Gold as the others follow suit in drawing their weapons, however, things cool down after 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 the Lost Boys to sleep, but neither Henry or Pan are found. Instead, Neal frees a young prisoner, Wendy, who lies about not knowing Henry. With some encouragement, she admits Pan needs Henry's heart in order to become immortal, in which he'll live while the latter will die. Before Emma leaves for Skull Rock to stop Pan, she presses Mary Margaret and David to go back to Dead Man's Peak and retrieve more of the spring water as a necessity for the journey home. Although the water can keep David alive for a short time, Mr. Gold will create an elixir in Storybrooke to cure him for good. In gratitude, Mary Margaret hugs Emma and thanks Mr. Gold.

Mary Margaret and David 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. Mary Margaret insists on going along with Emma and Regina. Once there, she sees the box sitting in open sight and moves to take it, but this pulls all three of them in binds against the tree as Pan makes himself known. Pan mentions the tree is special to him because it's the same place that he abandoned his son, Mr. Gold. As such, the tree will kill those who feel regret, so he brings up guilt-worthy moments from each person's past. To Mary Margaret, he grills her over being haunted by the decision to allow Emma to grow up alone. However, Regina attests to doing cruel and horrible things, but regrets nothing since each one of those deeds led her to Henry. She breaks herself and her allies free, tears out Henry's heart from Pan and steals back the box as well. They hurry onto the Jolly Roger in time to place the heart back in Henry as he gasps to life. Mary Margaret and David 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, Mary Margaret descends the ship to greet an old friend, Ariel, and is ecstatic to see Eric is with her. Mary Margaret, realizing a certain someone deserves recognition, announces to the townspeople that they were able to return due to Regina's help. To keep Pan at bay, Mr. Gold seals the box in the pawnshop. While at the diner, Mary Margaret and David overhear Neal inviting Emma to lunch tomorrow. Mary Margaret encourages Emma to accept, though the latter doesn't want to focus on other things since Henry's ordeal. Later in the night, Henry goes home with Regina, which Emma allows. Overhearing the exchange, Mary Margaret assures her that Henry probably just wants to spend the night in his old room. The next morning, she and David dine on lasagna when Mr. Gold gives them the Dreamshade elixir. After David ingests it and all is well, he suggests they start trying to have another child, but Mary Margaret's mood dampers when she observes that Neal is sitting alone at another booth. David goes to find Emma, and they arrive back in time to witness Mother Superior being killed by the Shadow. Suspecting Pan is somehow controlling the Shadow from within the box, Mary Margaret goes with David and Emma 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, Mary Margaret and David 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. While she, David, Hook and Neal fetch it from the convent nuns, Mary Margaret waits in the pawnshop. Toying with a unicorn mobile from what would have been Emma's baby crib, she relates to her daughter about how difficult it was to give her up when the curse hit. She expresses her constant thoughts about how different their lives could have been if it didn't happen. Emma admits wondering the same with Henry, but she knows it wasn't meant to be. David, Hook and Neal arrive back with the wand, courtesy of a revived Mother Superior, and Mr. Gold uses it to transfer Henry's spirit into his original body. Everyone except Mr. Gold heads out, and with Granny's tracking skills, they are reunited with Henry. 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. Mary Margaret says her goodbyes to Emma and Henry, 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. Snow White suggests they go there together and gains Regina's compliance by insisting their united forces will ease the other inhabitants' minds. Neal wishes to stop off by his father's old castle, but Snow White persuades him that there is no way of crossing the realm to get to Emma and Henry. During the trek to the palace, Snow White is alerted to a missing Regina by Grumpy. Upon discovering Regina is burying her own heart, Snow White offers condolences, knowing all too well what it's like to say goodbye to her own child, but promises the pain will lessen over time. Regina is convinced by her to find happiness for Henry's sake and reinserts the heart. Soon after, they are attacked by a flying monkey that scratches Regina, but is chased off by one of the Merry Men's arrows. Friar Tuck, Little John, and Robin Hood accompany the whole group to the palace, but Regina discovers a protection spell keeping them from entering, meaning someone is already inside. For the time being, Robin Hood suggests everyone can take shelter at Sherwood Forest.

As the group depart for Sherwood Forest, Snow White notices Regina is not budging from her standing position. She realizes Henry is once again on Regina's mind, but the former Queen changes the topic, proposing to sneak into the palace through underground tunnels and deactivating the shield to allow entry. Snow White arms herself with a bow and arrow when the flying monkey attacks again, which is quickly taken care of when Regina turns the creature 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. Snow White wants to help with infiltrating the palace, but stays behind since Regina insists she do it alone. 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 as everyone begins heading to their destination.

After a night's rest in the palace, Snow White awakens to view the beautiful balcony scenery. Happily, she also shares news with her husband that they are expecting another child and becomes worried when Prince Charming looks shocked, yet insists he is thrilled. Later, while gathered inside the palace with Belle, Regina, Robin Hood, and other residents, Snow White witnesses a long-lost Rapunzel, who Prince Charming helped save, reunite with her parents. Prince Charming admits his fears to Snow White about raising a child, when he wasn't there for Emma in the same aspect, but she promises that they will figure out everything 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; approaching to touch her belly and claiming that the baby will be hers. Later, Snow White, Belle, Grumpy, Prince Charming, 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 her husband and Regina, they find a door leading to Glinda, but it can only be entered by the pure of heart. Snow White and Prince Charming 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. Regina rips out his heart, and Snow White crushes it. 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 herself and the Enchanted Forest inhabitants to the town of Storybrooke, in her quest to find Emma and defeat the Wicked Witch of the West. However, as a result of Wicked Witch'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. Mary Margaret's only clue that a year has indeed passed is her own pregnancy, despite that she and David cannot remember what happened. The couple resume living together in the apartment. Mysteriously, residents begin disappearing from town, such as three of the dwarves. One fateful day, Emma returns, memory restored, to reunite with her parents.

Mary Margaret and David 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. Despite the possibility Regina may be involved, Mary Margaret doesn't believe she cast the new curse. She learns Hook received a messenger bird with a vial of memory potion and a note requesting him to find Emma, which he had assumed was from her. After Happy and Leroy report two more dwarves missing, Emma decides to conduct an investigation. In the morning, Mary Margaret and her husband meet Henry for the "first" time. She makes up a story about being Emma's former cellmate in Phoenix when they were both incarcerated. Later, Henry is left with her at the diner while Emma continues to look into the new curse. To prepare herself for a baby, Mary Margaret tries reading a child care book, but gives up and suggests to Henry that she take him to the town library. She quickly covers up her knowledge about his interest in reading by stating that Emma mentioned it. While Henry is getting his coat for the trip, Mary Margaret meets a midwife, Zelena. Grateful for someone with expertise in childbirth, she even allows Zelena to touch her pregnant belly. Later, after David and Hook report witnessing a resident transform into a flying monkey, it is concluded that the Wicked Witch of the West cast the new curse.

While David, Emma and Hook search the mayoral office for any evidence the Wicked Witch left behind and Regina keeps Henry company, Mary Margaret has a scheduled meeting with Zelena, who she wishes to take on as her midwife. She learns that Zelena knew her nanny, Johanna. Mary Margaret tells Zelena about what had happened in the first curse, in which she and her husband had lost Emma under dire circumstances, and her own anxiety about having a second child. After phoning David, he arrives home to meet their new midwife as well, and sits as Zelena brews them chamomile tea. David expresses skepticism to Mary Margaret about Zelena, but she insists they try her out first and can always change their minds later. In a conversation, Zelena gives David the opportunity to let out any fears about having a second child, but he reassures Mary Margaret that they can deal with whatever comes their way. David leaves to resume his search for the Wicked Witch with Emma and Hook as Mary Margaret sees Zelena out of the apartment. In a gesture of calm, Zelena reassures Mary Margaret not to fear having another child since she will be right beside her the whole way. Meanwhile, the search for the Wicked Witch extends to a farmhouse cellar where David, Emma, Hook, and Regina discover an open cell with a spinning wheel littered with spun gold; evident proof that Mr. Gold is alive.

In a morning meeting at the closed diner, Mary Margaret and her allies discuss searching for Mr. Gold while Regina opts to search the farmhouse alone for evidence. Despite that she has good tracking skills, David advises Mary Margaret to sit this one out while the rest of them look for Mr. Gold. At home, she panics after not feeling the baby move and calls Zelena for assistance. The dutiful midwife quickly arrives to calm her down, stating that it's normal for babies to move infrequently as the labor date nears, and offers orange juice. Mary Margaret brushes off the baby's current state as due to her own worries, though Zelena knows the Wicked Witch, which everyone in town is talking about, must also be giving her stress. Soon after downing all the juice, she is pleased to feel the baby start kicking; all thanks to Zelena's help. While Zelena excuses herself to the bathroom, Mary Margaret is startled when David and Emma suddenly burst into the apartment on guard. She watches, stunned, as they kick down the bathroom door, only to find Zelena gone. Emma explains that Zelena is the Wicked Witch and admits, in tears, that Neal is dead, to which Mary Margaret gives her a comforting hug. Later on, Mary Margaret and David head to the pawnshop to deliver the bad news about Neal to Belle and Hook. Wordlessly, she embraces a grieving Belle.

Mary Margaret attends Neal's funeral to pay her 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. As the villain approaches, David protects Mary Margaret, though Zelena state she's not out to get their baby. Instead, she publicly reveals herself as Regina's half-sister and forces her sibling into a showdown on Main Street after sundown. Regina, having doubts about Zelena's claims, heads to the vault for evidence of their familial connection. Mary Margaret and Emma follow her there, but are left puzzled when Regina finds proof and abruptly departs without a word. During the evening, on Main Street, Zelena approaches while trailed by a helpless Mr. Gold. Mary Margaret witnesses Regina being thrown into the clock tower by Zelena, who later flees on her broomstick. She, David and Emma rush to check on Regina where they learn Zelena attempted to take her heart, but failed since it's hidden elsewhere.

To keep Mary Margaret safe, Regina places a protection spell on the apartment. Emma wants to be powerful enough to fight Zelena, so she accepts magical lessons with Regina. Mary Margaret and David 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 Mary Margaret and her husband 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. Mary Margaret and David 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, Mary Margaret, David, Emma, Henry and Regina have an evening meal together at the diner.

Gathered in Regina's house, Mary Margaret reports for a group seance to open a portal to the land of the dead and talk to Cora about Zelena's origins. Two of the key things needed is the now defunct candle—which was once used to kill Cora—as well as the murder herself—Mary Margaret. She, David, Emma, Hook 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. She seizes the opportunity to talk about her regrets about killing Cora, which Regina accepts since her mother had done the same to Mary Margaret's mother, Queen Eva. Investigating a strange noise, two discover Cora's angry spirit has crossed over to get even with her murderess. Mary Margaret, while briefly possessed by Cora, receives glimpses of the woman's life and what led up to Zelena's abandonment. Cora is then forced back into the land of the dead by Regina's magic just as Belle, David, Emma and Hook arrive. Mary Margaret reveals Cora, already pregnant with another man's child, was once engaged to Leopold, but 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. In a talk, Mary Margaret and Regina bury their long-disputed feud.

Meeting at the inn, Mary Margaret, Emma, David 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. In a moment with her daughter, Emma reiterates how happy she and Henry were in New York, though Mary Margaret knows that was because their memories were gone. 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. She hands the storybook to him; asking that he believe in magic. Upon touching the book, Henry 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 new curse. In a flurry of returned memories, Mary Margaret is stunned to remember it wasn't Zelena, but she herself who cast the new curse. She and David confront Hook about the supposed note he received that led him to find Emma. They believe it's a lie, but he 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. With Dr. Whale's help, she gives birth to a healthy baby boy and happily cradles him in her arms. However, Emma's magic is drained after saving Hook's life and causes the room barrier to fade; allowing Zelena to steal the infant. In despair, Mary Margaret suffers the same fate once more of being ripped away from her child. An angry David rushes off with the others to fight Zelena, in which Regina successfully stops her sister from performing the time spell and defeats her with light magic. Afterwards, David returns his son to Mary Margaret's arms. As she and her husband happily watch over their child, Emma brings Henry into the room to meet his new family member. Unseen to them, Mr. Gold kills an imprisoned Zelena; accidentally triggering magic in her pendant, which activates the time spell.

Returning home, Mary Margaret and David 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. Seeing her daughter's hesitation, Mary Margaret questions Emma on her decision to stay or leave town. Avoidantly, Emma asks Henry to brainstorm a name for her new baby brother. During the party, Mary Margaret rocks her infant son while Henry rereads the story of how Prince Charming and Snow White met. As Emma and Hook join the table, Mary Margaret and David 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. Belle, David, Regina and Robin Hood find Zelena missing and decide to leave the time portal untouched for now. 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, Mary Margaret and David announce they are naming their son after a true hero—Neal.

After the naming ceremony in the diner, Ruby stands in the diner hallway, watching everyone else from a distance. Mary Margaret, noticing her friend's forlorn demeanor, asks what is wrong. Ruby admits she feels out of place being the only kind of her species in Storybrooke, and as such, she explains having helped Tiny tend to the fields, which produced one single magic bean. She wants to use it to return to the Enchanted Forest and seek out any other existing werewolves, to which Mary Margaret gives her blessing, wanting her to be happy.

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, Mary Margaret and David hear an angered Marian condemn Regina, who she remembers as the Evil Queen, as a "monster". After Regina walks off, Mary Margaret watches anxiously as 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, Mary Margaret and David 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. Since Emma's attempts to phone Regina have gone unanswered, Henry tries to call his adoptive mother instead while David stays behind to accompany him. To Emma, Mary Margaret remarks how stable Henry seems since losing and regaining his memories as well as both of his mothers now having boyfriends. Judging from her daughter's reaction, Mary Margaret can tell Emma hasn't told Henry about Hook yet. Emma sputters that she doesn't know how to talk to Henry about those things. Just then, Hook arrives since combing the vault, as Emma previously requested, in search of Regina, but she is not there. When Hook questions if Emma is now avoiding him, she asks Mary Margaret to give them some privacy.

Having had a busy day, Mary Margaret puts Neal to sleep in his crib. When a raven appears at the window, she takes a note, which is addressed to Henry, from the bird's leg. From reading it, Henry is hurt that Regina does not want to see him. Soon after, a blackout strikes the town. David and Emma investigate the issue at the border as Mary Margaret stays home. Unexpectedly, Granny, Happy and Leroy persuade her into fixing the power issue. She balks, as this is a task for the mayor, but they believe Regina no longer wants the job. Granny stresses that Mary Margaret cast the last curse, so she must step up. Additionally, Leroy recalls they reclaimed her kingdom in the Enchanted Forest, but Storybrooke is her kingdom now, so she has to rule it. At the electrical service site, Mary Margaret looks at the circuit system while her friends talk about whether Marco or Dr. Whale could help them, but she insists they don't need assistance. When Happy and Leroy complain further, Mary Margaret lashes out, voicing her exhausting lifestyle since having a new baby, and maintains that although she cast a "little" curse, it wasn't her choice to maintain a town with residents dependent on electricity despite that they previously lived in the Enchanted Forest without it. Lastly, she spitefully tells them to buy a flashlight, which shocks them into silence as they exit. Left alone with only Neal, Mary Margaret fiddles with the circuit buttons to no avail. Finally, she recognizes that the system is out of fuel and refills a full tank. Returning home, she is introduced to a new ally, Elsa, as David promises the woman that they will find her missing sister since their family never gives up.

Assembling her first conference as mayor in her new office, Mary Margaret holds Neal while beginning the meeting as she introduces the townspeople to her discussion points on the listed agenda. Due to overwhelming insistence that they hear about the ice wall incident, she informs them that the wall and the creator of it, Elsa, are not dangerous. Regardless, the citizens react in an uproar, which upsets the baby. Once calm resumes, Mary Margaret continues with the next thing on the agenda when Marian collapses from an apparent freezing spell. Regrouping in another room after the meeting, Robin Hood brings Regina to help out. Since it wasn't Elsa's doing, David and Emma search for the culprit. On the streets, Mary Margaret juggles her son in one arm and attempts to collapse the stroller with the other. Archie, out of concern, talks to her about all the jobs she's taken on lately. Mary Margaret remarks that with so much going on, she doesn't want to miss out on Neal as he will grow up quickly. Pointedly, Archie reminds her of how much she missed with Emma. He advises that she doesn't have to be with her son for every waking moment, and by letting him go, it'll help her, too. As Archie walks off, Mary Margaret is left to contemplate his words.

As Emma prepares for her first date with Hook, Mary Margaret and David bring out records of all the residents from the first and second curses so they can search for any sign of Anna. Stepping out in her date outfit, Emma asks for her parents and Elsa's opinions, to which they agree she looks amazing. In a sing-songy tone, Mary Margaret tells Neal that his big sister is going on a date. Emma humorously tells her mother not to make a big deal out of it, to which she does by taking a snapshot of her daughter. Hook arrives, dressed in normal attire, with his real hand restored due to Mr. Gold's help. 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.

When Mary Margaret and her husband 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, a thief, 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. Left alone, she sees someone shoveling at a distance and discovers it's Will. After some questioning, Mary Margaret concludes David let Will escape in order to allow her to find him. Will denies everything, until she promises to pardon him, to which he confirms David's involvement. After returning to Neal, she waits until David comes home to reveal knowledge about what he did. Mary Margaret thanks him for doing so since she feels like her old self again. Despite this, David concedes he had nothing to do with it. Shocked, Mary Margaret wonders what'll happen now that Will is on the loose. Nonetheless, David is happy she's found a piece of her old self.

Mary Margaret gathers with Belle, David, Henry, Hook, 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, David splits some of the group into a search party.

To better her parenting skills, Mary Margaret attends meetings at Mommy & Me, an activity session run by Ashley. As they finish their time together, everyone sings along to a song to their babies. Once Emma arrives to babysit Neal, Mary Margaret directs her to all of his necessities. Emma comments on how many things he has, and Mary Margaret cheerfully states she wants her son to have everything. This causes Emma to be slightly jealous, but she says nothing about it. When Ashley explains their meetings are a support group for first-time mothers, a perturbed Emma tries to be supportive of Mary Margaret, despite that Neal is her second child, since she didn't have the experience of motherhood the first time around. Mary Margaret's concern turns to shock upon seeing Emma has magically boiled Neal's bottle of milk. Emma nervously reasons that it's from magic practice, and she then tries to bring Neal into her arms, but Mary Margaret refuses. The tension breaks when Emma is called away to apprehend the Snow Queen and bring her in for questioning. Meanwhile, David and his allies look at the Snow Queen's mirror in the clock tower, which they suspect will be used for the spell of shattered sight, but realize it is fake. When Emma, pushed too far by the Snow Queen, causes a station wall to explode, to which the villainess escapes. Her family arrive to help, but Emma accidentally collapses a streetlight. David pushes Hook out of the way to take the hit, and as Mary Margaret checks on her husband, she expresses resentment at Emma. Seeing her daughter's hurt expression, she retracts her anger, but Emma flees. That night, Mary Margaret puts Neal to sleep as David, Elsa and Hook return after a fruitless search for Emma. After Elsa recalls her loved ones reacted badly to her magic as they did to Emma's, Mary Margaret shares regrets to David about failing as parents when their daughter needed them the most.

Despite an all-night hunt, Mary Margaret, David, Elsa and Hook return home without finding Emma. Henry, having sneaked out to look for his mother, returns with an injury Emma caused. Mary Margaret dresses his wound and phones Regina. Elsa explains comforting Henry over Emma's powers as they are linked to her emotions. Arriving at the apartment, Regina gives them a potion they want for tracking Emma and she then goes to check on Henry. 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. Looking at a family photo, Mary Margaret talks to David 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, Mary Margaret insists to Regina that people aren't defined as heroes or villains, especially since she herself has done bad things. She believes Regina's story can change since she is making good decisions over her prior bad ones. After Emma doesn't strip her magic due to Elsa's persuasion, they all reunite. 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, Mary Margaret and her allies witness the cloud formation of Ingrid's spell, which will take effect by sundown. At first, they try scaling the ice wall as a way to escape town before the spell hits, 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, Mary Margaret 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. Mary Margaret expresses frustration at Elsa's blind faith, but Emma persists in having hope of finding Anna. Emma, with Elsa, miraculously locate Anna, but on return to the diner, they find the nuns mysteriously gone. At the station, Mary Margaret and David ask Emma to lock them into separate cells so they can't harm anyone while under the curse. Before going into her own cell, she tearfully relinquishes her son into Emma's care. As the curse's mirror shards infiltrate the building, Mary Margaret and David 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, Mary Margaret and David 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. At one point, Mary Margaret talks about her capacity for murder, such as when she killed Cora and was not sorry about it, which causes Anna to back off from the conversation. Regina, garbed in Evil Queen attire, bursts into the sheriff station looking for Emma, but is tempted at the prospect of settling a score with Mary Margaret. Regina's grudge against Mary Margaret for causing Daniel's death is revived, and she threatens to kill baby Neal as payback. 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. Both sustain blows, but neither give up. 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.

At the town line, Mary Margaret witnesses Elsa tear down the ice wall, however, 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. Mary Margaret and her husband, 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, Mary Margaret and Emma locate him inside the clock tower. At the upper level, they notice Hook is with him, and as Emma attempts to magically intervene, Mr. Gold freezes her as well as Mary Margaret. Mr. Gold begins crushing Hook's heart, but an angry Belle compels him, with the real dagger, to stop. She makes him drop the heart and release Emma and Mary Margaret. Lastly, Belle commands Mr. Gold to take herself and him to the town line. In the aftermath, Emma restores Hook's heart.

During the six weeks after Mr. Gold's banishment from town, Mary Margaret teaches at school again while Regina resumes being mayor. The nuns, trapped in the hat, are freed with a spell, and as everyone basks in the reunion, they fail to notice a Chernabog being released from the hat and flying off. While the diner is bustling with activity to welcome the nuns back, the Chernabog makes itself known to the townspeople. With Belle, Emma, Hook and Regina, Mary Margaret ducks behind a building as the group brainstorm a solution. Since something freed from the hat can never be retrapped in it, Emma and Regina temporarily stun the winged demon with their combined powers, and afterwards, Mary Margaret goes to make sure the townspeople are okay. Returning to the apartment, Mary Margaret receives a phone call from Emma about Cruella De Vil and Ursula, who wish to enter Storybrooke and have provided information about the Chernabog. She and her husband make it to the town line just after Emma and Regina sent the beast across the barrier, where it ceases to exist. Mary Margaret tries talking her daughter out of allowing the two strangers to stay in Storybrooke; 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, Mary Margaret and her husband meet with the female duo and warn them never to reveal the past dealings they had in the Enchanted Forest. If not, she promises to tear out their hearts herself.

During a night, Mary Margaret has a nightmare, in which Maleficent and her two companions take away Neal from her. Awakening, she goes to check on her son and finds an insomniac David, who is worried about the women revealing their secret. The next day, since Regina is unwilling to help, David goes with Emma to spy on Cruella and Ursula. After finding that they stole a totem of Maleficent's from the pawnshop, he takes it and shows Mary Margaret, who believes the villains intend to revive the dead witch. 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 stealing 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 Mary Margaret's suffering as unyielding as her own for what she did to her. Mary Margaret and David 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. That night, Mary Margaret confesses to Regina that she and David caused Maleficent to lose her child, and she asks her to keep the secret from Emma. Additionally, she wants Regina to go undercover as a villain to find out Maleficent's plans.

Mary Margaret and David 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, Mary Margaret and David 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, Mary Margaret heads out with David, Emma and Hook 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 ambushes them and chokes Mary Margaret with her tentacles. 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 Mary Margaret and David about the villains' plans to turn Emma evil by using the Author. After Emma is told the same information by Hook, Mary Margaret becomes increasingly afraid of what the Author might do and she storms out. David follows, consoling her, but she feels ashamed for the lies they have garnered in order to keep their secret from being uncovered. Noticing 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. Mary Margaret and David 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. Realizing their selfishness already began when they destroyed Maleficent's child, she convinces David that they can't hide from the truth anymore. Upon learning everything, Emma is hurt and disappointed. When she disappears, her parents ask Hook to talk to her. Mary Margaret and David 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. Much to their dismay, Emma states she doesn't trust them enough to be around them. Later, the two 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 registry of adoptions, 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, Mary Margaret attempts to say goodbye to her, but the latter shuts down, only asking her to take care of Henry. After leaving Neal in Belle's care, Mary Margaret and David 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 Mary Margaret and David, 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 issue, the couple suggest Lily's behavior may be attributed to her own insecurities as they recall a time when Emma acted the same way. The trio then head to the town line in search of Lily, who has since morphed into a dragon. 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. After Lily flies off again, Maleficent follows her while David nurses his wife's head injury. A worried Emma arrives to heal her mother, leading to a reconciliation, as she forgives Mary Margaret for her past mistakes. Emma considers what happened in the past with Lily cannot be undone, but it doesn't change the the good person Mary Margaret has become.

In a race to stop Isaac from changing their stories, Mary Margaret 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, Snow White rules the Enchanted Forest as the Evil Queen, who hates her stepdaughter Regina for telling a secret that resulted in her true love James' death. As a substitute, the Queen rips out the heart of James' twin brother, Prince Charming, so he is not only her lover but will do her bidding. At some point during this, she also locks up a woman, who calls herself the savior, in a tower near the Bottomless Sea, with the Black Knight Lily guarding her. 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, Isaac tries to convince her he is on her side, and that a boy named Henry is trying to take away everything she has. Snow White speaks into Prince Charming's heart, ordering him into the throne room, so he can execute Isaac. However, Isaac saves himself by revealing his knowledge about why the Queen hates Regina, and he claims learning all this from a magic book. Intrigued by his encouragement to seek revenge against Regina, Snow White learns from him that Regina will ambush a royal carriage later. When she asks what he wants in return, he asks her to kill Regina and Henry. As promised, Regina attempts to steal from a royal carriage, except Snow White surprises her by stepping out. While Regina tries reasoning with her about their past, Snow White demands the boy's location, but the latter hesitates in answering. The Queen prepares to aim a fireball at her, though Robin Hood distracts Snow White with a loosed arrow before rescuing Regina.

Annoyed with her followers for not capturing Regina and the boy, Snow White rips out and crushes Doc's heart to show what will happen to another one of them if they fail again. With Lily's help, the Queen tracks Emma down at the dock with Hook and demands the boy. 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, Mary Margaret finds herself in the loft again, with everything as it was before. After stopping Isaac from leaving town, she and David 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, she attends a diner party, where David 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, Mary Margaret 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. When Hook reveals the truth about what happened, Regina is furious, and the two get into a heated argument, which is only quelled once Mary Margaret persuades them to put aside their differences for Emma's sake. With Robin as her hostage, Zelena later lets him go after Regina forfeits the wand to her. Zelena then creates a cyclone, but her magic gets severely drained, giving Regina the chance to render her powerless again. Regrouping in the diner, Mary Margaret cradles baby Neal in her arms, as Regina uses Emma's baby blanket to redirect the cyclone into taking them to the Enchanted Forest. Suddenly, Leroy, Doc and Happy burst in, panicking over the cyclone, until Mary Margaret admits they summoned it. Regina tells them to leave, but a defiant Leroy refuses, stating the the dwarves will not abandon Mary Margaret.

The portal takes the diner to the Enchanted Forest, where Mary Margaret and her allies stop Emma from crushing Merida's heart. Mary Margaret gives the dagger to Emma, who hands it to Regina, asking the brunette to stop her if she ever goes to far. Soon, 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 and asks which of them is the prophesied savior, a title Regina claims, in order to keep Arthur from discovering Emma is the Dark One. In the midst of preparing for the ball, Mary Margaret instructs Doc on what to do if baby Neal gets fussy while they are away. 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 the savior. David insists on teaching her, and as he practices with her, Mary Margaret helps Emma with her flower crown and tells her about the first time she went to a ball. Before the festivities begin, Mary Margaret and Emma walk out to an awaiting crowd of guests as they are formally announced. During the ball, Mary Margaret nudges David's attention onto Henry, who is eyeing a girl across the room, to which David goes to offer him encouragement. Suddenly, Percival tries to murder Regina, with Robin getting injured, but David kills Percival to save Robin. 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 Regina researches magical remedies to free Merlin, Mary Margaret helps, suggesting that perhaps Merlin could either be trapped in the tree or actually be the tree itself. Belle considers getting a branch sample, but Regina dismisses the idea since they could be taking off a finger by accident. Arthur checks up on their progress, and when Belle comments about how working with Merlin's books is like working with the sorcerer himself, Mary Margaret wonders if they could find a way to talk to Merlin. This leads Regina into finding information on a toadstool, the crimson crown, that can communicate through magical barriers. Arthur states it is rumored to be in the Forest of Eternal Night, but he believes the toadstool is just a myth. David insists on going, even with very little information about the item, and he departs from the room after handing baby Neal to Mary Margaret. Arthur accompanies him there, and though the quest fails, he and David develop a strong bond from adventuring together. That night, as Mary Margaret and the others are present, Arthur makes David a knight of the Round Table and bestows the Siege Perilous seat to him. As everyone applauds once David has taken his seat, Mary Margaret takes her crying son out to the hallway to calm him down. Seeing a shadowy figure walk past, she calls out to the person, who reveals himself to be Lancelot. Putting aside the story of how he survived up until now, Lancelot quickly warns her about a villain in Camelot. At first, Mary Margaret believes he is speaking about Emma, but he declares it is Arthur who is dangerous, and that Camelot is not what it seems.

Sometime after gaining this revelation from Lancelot, Mary Margaret helps him hide in the diner, keeping his return a secret. As Emma enters a catatonic state from the strain of being the Dark One, Mary Margaret, Hook, Regina and Henry are left unsure how to help her. When David arrives, he explains his conversation with Arthur, who can help Emma, but Mary Margaret reveals Lancelot's warning to her. She discusses Cora lying about killing Lancelot, to which Regina interjects, chiding her for discussing 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. A frustrated Mary Margaret yells that she wouldn't know, as she doesn't have all the answers, before realizing Regina is still in the room. She calmly asks the brunette to give them a minute, to which Regina 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. David leads Arthur to believe Mary Margaret has stolen the dagger, while Mary Margaret takes the dagger and goes with Lancelot to hide it in the Dark One's Vault. In one of the vault rooms, she moves to put the dagger on a table stand, though it's protected by a barrier, but Lancelot insists on doing it instead, causing her to doubt his intentions. Arthur surprises them, getting Mary Margaret to forfeit the dagger to him, but after his attempt to summon Emma fails, she admits the dagger is fake, just before David ambushes Arthur. 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 Mary Margaret and David 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.

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, the group are interrupted by Zelena, who convinces them their plan to get in from the front won't work, and their best bet is to sneak in without attracting attention. After Zelena shows them an abandoned tunnel leading to the castle courtyard, Mary Margaret stays behind to guard her, flippantly remarking that they can exchange pregnancy tips, while everyone else heads in. As assurance the redhead can't try anything, Mary Margaret binds Zelena's wrists behind her back. While standing watch, she casually comments that the sun must be bad for Zelena now that she's pregnant. Zelena, bursting into hysterics, cries about Regina always having the upperhand, before coughing and lurching in pain. A concerned Mary Margaret checks on her, to which Zelena kicks her hard, rendering the short-haired woman unconscious and sprawled on the ground. Zelena then ties and gags her, using her as a hostage, to force the heroes to back down from Arthur. After Zelena helps Arthur tether Merlin to Excalibur, he summons the sorcerer, ordering him to send the heroes away.

Mary Margaret and her 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 them one by one, 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. With tree roots, Merlin begins strangling her, but with Emma's encouragement, he is able to briefly resist Arthur's chain of command by loosening his grip on Mary Margaret's neck. 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 combine 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, Mary Margaret and the others remain in the diner, looking on in alarm as black tendrils of darkness evaporate from Merlin's body.

Mary Margaret joins her party to search the Vault of the Dark One for a revived Hook, but he has already left the area. Because this is the worst future Merlin foresaw in his visions, Lancelot is sent to get help from his mother, the Lady of the Lake, while everyone else will return to the diner so Merlin 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. She 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 Mary Margaret 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, Mary Margaret 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. Mary Margaret questions where Emma is, to which the Dark One herself enters. Emma stops in front of Mary Margaret and touches her cheek, causing Mary Margaret to shudder in surprise. Giving off the facade that she wants revenge against them, Emma professes she will punish them for what they did to her.

The next day, Mary Margaret and her husband 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 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, and after all the people are found, Mary Margaret helps with distributing supplies to them. When a fury kidnaps Robin, Regina gets hurt trying to save him, causing her to stay behind, while Mary Margaret, David, 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 on itself. Later, at the diner, Mary Margaret holds her sleeping son and looks unhappily into the distance. Noticing her demeanor, David tries to cheer her up about getting back Emma, but she is worried that when they win, Emma will lose.

At the sheriff's department, Regina shows Mary Margaret and David a book from Camelot, in which she had marked an image of a toadstool six weeks ago, but for what reason, she doesn't remember. Suddenly, the six dwarves burst in, demanding Mary Margaret and David do something about Emma, who stole Happy's pick ax, just as Regina takes her cue to leave the room. Mary Margaret is unsure what the dwarves want them to do, while David tells them that he'll retrieve the ax. However, this isn't good enough for the dwarves, who are sick of David acting like a scared parent instead of their sheriff. 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 the best he can, which David 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 the situation covered. Later that day, Mary Margaret and Regina regroup with David in the vault, where he shows them the toadstool he found, which must have crossed over with the curse. They learn they were likely using it to attempt communication with Merlin, and they then decide to test it out to see if it works now.

Gathered with her allies at the sheriff's station, Mary Margaret is present as Grif's strange disappearance is noted, with Arthur suggesting Grif escaped back to Camelot with a magic bean. 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 Mary Margaret, David, 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. Overwhelmed by this possibility, Mary Margaret wonders what could've happened in Camelot to make Emma this way.

After informing Mary Margaret, David, 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. Because Belle disagrees with everyone else's assertion that they have to leave Mr. Gold at Emma's mercy, she leaves them and goes to rescue Mr. Gold on her own. Gathered in the vault, the remaining heroes wait for Arthur so he can cast the spell with the toadstool. 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 leaves to wait outside the vault, and after a time, Arthur exits to inform them the spell failed. As proof of Arthur's sabotage, they later find 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.

Although Arthur is apprehended and imprisoned for his sabotage, he holds no answers about Emma's current actions. From Hook's previous run-in with Emma, in which she told him that he is the reason for her plans, he comes to believe Emma has something bigger at stake rather than her desire to snuff out the light. Regina scoffs at his naiveness, insisting Emma is toying with his emotions, something Mary Margaret agrees with, as she believes the current Emma is not the person they knew in the past. 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. While Zelena is in labor, Regina waits in the hallway, expressing doubts about helping her sister after everything she's done, but Mary Margaret persuades her that it's the right thing to do. After the birth, Emma kidnaps Zelena instead of the baby, who she should have taken as a spell ingredient for snuffing out the light, but this helps the heroes realize Emma has something bigger planned. Mary Margaret, David and Regina confront Emma at her house, where 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, Mary Margaret, Regina and David 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. Mary Margaret objects to this, insisting that's premeditated murder, and she questions why Emma didn't come to them for help. Emma, not wanting to risk losing more people, thought the best way to control her darkness was to isolate herself, though this was a flawed decision because she didn't have anyone supporting her. With a dark Hook on the loose, Mary Margaret suggests using the dreamcatchers to restore everyone's memories so they can understand what Hook's ultimate goal is, but consequentially, Hook has already stolen all the dreamcatchers. 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, Mary Margaret goes with her husband 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, Mary Margaret resigns herself to her fate, deciding to spend her last hours with her family in the diner. Before heading there, she asks, that after her own death, for Emma to take care of Neal. Although Mary Margaret invites Emma to be at the diner as well, Emma sneaks in only to leave a note for her loved ones, which explains her plans to sacrifice herself to eliminate the Dark Ones for good. Mary Margaret eventually finds the note, but before she, David and Henry can track down Emma, 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 Mary Margaret and the others to head towards the ferryman.

After coming to the Underworld, whose town bears an uncanny resemblance to Storybrooke, Mary Margaret and her party split up to look for Hook. Upon entering the diner, she is greeted by the Blind Witch, who recognizes her as Snow White and offers to serve her gingerbread or children. Mary Margaret provides a physical description of Hook, and although the witch correctly guesses she is searching for Captain Hook, she admits not having met him yet. When David walks in, Mary Margaret notices he changed his clothes, without catching on that this is James, her husband's twin. As she talks about how creepy the Underworld is so far, he pulls her into a passionate kiss, which she has no qualms about, until he notes that now he understands why David likes her, causing her to realize who he really is. Once he leaves, after telling her to give David his regards, the real David comes in and glimpses his brother walking 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. Mary Margaret 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 Mary Margaret and the others continue with Operation Firebird, Henry's name for their mission.

In the cemetery, Mary Margaret sees gravestones of people from her father's kingdom, believing they died because she couldn't protect them. She has doubts about how to protect Emma in the Underworld, while David reassures her they'll do it together, and that Mary Margaret's Snow White bandit skills will be handy. On the way out, she sees her childhood friend Hercules' grave, giving her further pause. In response to her comment about being "friends" with Hercules, David jokingly gives her a hard time about it. Mary 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. Hercules is reluctant, stating that the hero he used to be died long ago, but she recalls what he once told her, that fear of failure shouldn't keep someone from trying. In the mines, Hercules panics after seeing Cerberus and runs back to Mary Margaret and her allies, who prepare to fight the beast, only for Hades to call off the hellhound before confronting them. Mary Margaret discovers, from Hades, that Hercules died while fighting Cerberus for his Twelfth Labor, hence his unfinished business. When she stands up to Hades' threats, the Underworld lord warns her not to mess with his family or he'll strike back at hers. Feeling defeated over her inability to help Hercules or herself, Mary Margaret loses hope. Despite Regina insisting that Snow never lost faith in her, the Evil Queen, and won her over by becoming her friend, Mary Margaret feels she has nothing to offer except a hope speech. To this, Regina pushes her to give up on her Storybrooke persona because they need Snow White now. Mary Margaret questions Hercules on how he fought Cerberus before he died, and from this, she realizes he needs two other people to kill the beast. Joined by Megara, the trio take down Cerberus, with each person killing one of the three heads. While resting at the diner, Mary Margaret vows to be Snow White again, because helping Hercules brought out her old self, someone who took risks even when she was afraid. In the aftermath, she bids farewell to Hercules, who ascends to Mount Olympus with Megara.

To find Hook underground, Snow 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. While Mr. Gold and Emma are away on the mission, Snow accompanies Regina to the cemetery to look for Daniel's headstone. After finding it, Regina is relieved to see the headstone is tipped, meaning Daniel has moved on to a better place. Later, in town, the women spot a wounded horse lying on its side, in which Regina manages to channel her magic to heal it. At the apartment, Snow and the others enter to find Hook and Emma, who report that Hades destroyed their boat, so now everyone has no way of going home. Since her magic is working again, Regina attempts to do the heart split between Emma and Hook, but a barrier prevents her from taking the 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.

Seeking knowledge about Hades' weakness in order to defeat him, Snow helps search for the storybook. Recalling that, during the second curse, she pulled the book out from a chest, she attempts to do it again, but it isn't in there. Henry reveals the book is in the Sorcerer's mansion, but to get in, 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 this piece of information. 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 stays to distract Cruella. Snow gives the key to Henry, who goes to find his mothers so they can enter the mansion together. After finding the storybook, they return to Snow and David at the apartment to look through the book, though Hades' story has already been destroyed by Liam. Henry later reveals to his family that he found the Author's quill in the mansion, and he intends to re-record Hades' story in the book.

At the diner, Snow realizes she and David have been in the Underworld for far longer than they intended, with the Blind Witch so used to them that she knows their favorite foods. Fearing it was a mistake to leave Neal behind, the couple try to contact him through Underbrooke's telephone booth. As they wait for their turn, they learn from another person that no one knows for sure if sent messages get through to the land of the living. Since Neal is still too little, Snow and David decide it's best he at least hear their voices, so they sing him a lullaby. They still have doubts about whether Neal heard them, and they receive confirmation that he did after Henry records the event in the storybook. Relieved at the news, Snow is now more determined than ever to return home after Hades is defeated.

While Regina is creating a spell on the library elevator entrance, Emma ends up dozing off and dreaming about magically burning her, Regina and Snow's names from the headstones. Snow and Hook, who are present with her, seek cover from an incoming storm that brings a monster to the Underworld. Snow jumps into action to go after the creature, but it ends up killing her, causing a frantic Emma to awaken from the nightmare. After the door to the elevator reveals a brick wall instead of access to Hades' lair, Emma talks about her dream, minus the part where Snow died, and possibly burning away the headstone names. Snow insists on going with her for the mission, but when the storm happens in real life as it did in the dream, Emma stops her mother from going after the beast. Snow, Emma and Hook hide from the monster by entering the vault, where Emma admits what happened at the end of the dream. When Regina suggests the dream is about her fears coming true, Emma acknowledges she regrets bringing everyone to the Underworld and is afraid of causing someone else's death. Snow persuades her to let that guilt go because they came with her out of free-will. She stresses that some things are worth the risk, and now, they will take care of the creature together. In the woods, Snow leads her allies to the monster using her tracking skills. Emma and Regina stun the beast with magic, but on closer look, Snow recognizes it's wolf Ruby. She then covers Ruby with the red cloak to revert her to human form.

Once Ruby wakes up, she tells her friends about her search for Dorothy, who went missing in Oz after Zelena took her silver slippers. Before Snow heads out with everyone else to confront Zelena, she urges David to contact their son at the booth again, since it's been days since he's heard their voices. After David goes there with Hook and Henry, Snow and the other women get the truth from Zelena, and learn Dorothy is in a sleeping curse. Regina persuades Zelena to forfeit the slippers, but Ruby sees no point in returning to Dorothy in Oz, without someone to give her true love's kiss. Snow asks Ruby if she can think of anyone, to which Ruby recalls Dorothy only ever loved her deceased Auntie Em. They find Auntie Em's headstone, and since it's neither tipped or cracked, she's still around. Because Auntie Em can't leave the Underworld, Snow suggests bottling a kiss of true love and giving it to Dorothy. Just then, David returns with news of Cruella destroying the booth on Hades' orders. Fearing for Neal's safety, Snow assumes Hades has plans to make a move on Storybrooke. Emma advises that both her parents should go home because Neal needs them more than her, and they've already done enough for her by coming to the Underworld. She suggests they head to Oz with Ruby and the slippers, and from there, use the slippers to return to Storybrooke. Regina reminds them of Snow's name on the headstone, making it impossible for her to leave, so Snow prompts David to go instead. After tracking down Auntie Em, they try to obtain true love's kiss from her, only for her to melt into a puddle because of Hades' interference. Snow realizes Ruby has feelings for Dorothy and encourages her to attempt true love's kiss. As she prepares to send her husband off with Ruby, David reveals he has forfeited his freedom for Snow's, with his name now on the headstone instead of hers. He inspires her into going home, saying Storybrooke needs a leader like her, and he promises to join her soon. After getting to Oz, Snow witnesses Ruby awaken Dorothy with true love's kiss, before the couple reconcile. Snow then uses the slippers, arriving back to Storybrooke, where she reunites with her son.

Following King Arthur's escape from his cell, Snow is appalled by the discovery, especially since Merida apparently put Walter, who is notorious for falling asleep, on watch duty. Setting aside blame in the situation, she decides the best course of action now is to find Arthur by sending Merida, Walter and the other dwarves on a search party. Once she is left alone, Snow comforts a babbling baby Neal, as she laments over not having the rest of her family around. As luck would have it, David walks in to greet her, to which she rushes over to give him a kiss. After handing her son to David, she welcomes Henry back with a hug, before spotting Emma standing nearby. Snow learns from them that everyone made it back to Storybrooke, except Hook. Emma tells her mother that she regrets ever went to the Underworld, but Snow reminds her of all the people who moved on with their help, and the fact she got to see Hook one last time. With Hades now in Storybrooke, however, the heroes work to reclaim Robin's daughter from him by finding his weakness. While Regina and Robin infiltrate the town hall to retrieve the baby, Snow, her family and Merida plow through books at the library for information on Hades. Emma, frantic over knowing Hook still hasn't moved on because of her, has a meltdown over the situation. Ever the voice of calm, Snow encourages her to help them with the book research, as the quicker they find Hades' weakness, the sooner Hook can move on. With Hook's help from the Underworld, Emma discovers Hades can be killed with the Olympian Crystal, but instead of her finishing him off, Zelena kills Hades with it shortly after he murders Robin. At Robin's funeral, Snow and David walk up to lay a rose entwined arrow on the casket. Following the funeral, everyone departs, except for Snow and Emma. Snow senses Emma blames herself for Robin's death, and she comfortingly assures her it wasn't her fault. She then leaves after Emma requests a moment alone to say goodbye to Robin.

That night, at Robin's wake, Snow offers comfort to a shell-shocked Regina, telling her that she doesn't have to grieve alone. After Zelena assures her that she can keep Regina company, Snow leaves the sisters to work things out. When a tremor erupts in town, Hook bursts into the diner, with his presence shocking everyone except Emma, who was waiting for the right time to tell Regina. Snow and the heroes investigate the clock tower, where they learn the tremor resulted from Mr. Gold tethering Storybrooke's magic into a piece of the Olympian Crystal. Before they can find Mr. Gold, Henry disappears to New York City with the crystal, intending to destroy the magic within it. In fear the erasure of magic will cause Storybrooke to disappear, Emma and Regina pursue Henry, while Snow and the others send Merida, the Merry Men and Camelot folk back to their homes. However, Zelena's attempt to close the portal goes awry, with she, Snow, David, and Hook being pulled into another realm. As their only way home, the Apprentice's wand, is broken, they seek magic from a groundsman, Jekyll, to fix it. Jekyll is too terrified to help them, but before he can make them leave, an orderly named Poole arrives to magically taser the group into unconsciousness. Snow later wakes up in a caged cell, along with her companions, where the warden, Hyde, pays them a visit and accuses them of working for the Dark One. When Hyde chokes Hook for showing recognition over the name, Snow persuades him to stop by revealing how they came to this realm because of Mr. Gold and his plan to save Belle with the Olympian Crystal. While Hyde is away, Jekyll agrees to fix the wand for them if they take him with them when they return home.

Jekyll returns to free Snow and her friends from the cell, however, the fixed wand is now in the warden's hands. Upon reaching the the outside city, Jekyll provides the heroes with a backstory of this land, which is home to people of all backgrounds that have fled from various dangers. They stop by Hyde's house, where Jekyll finishes making a red serum to defeat the warden for good, but Poole makes him to ingest a blue serum that forces Hyde to manifest in the body. Snow is shocked as the transformation occurs, and recognizes this is the real version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When Zelena's magic apparently has no effect on Hyde, the heroes flee the house. After Hyde takes the red serum to separate himself and Jekyll, the group return in time to save Jekyll. As the heroes and Jekyll attempt to get out of the city, they run into Hyde. With magical help from the Land Without Magic, a portal opens, allowing them to return home. That night, after learning about Regina's inner turmoil with herself, Snow suggests she can have a fresh start by taking the red serum to be rid of the Evil Queen forever. Both Snow and Emma stay in support of Regina as she faces the Evil Queen and eventually crushes her heart. On return to Storybrooke, Snow joins David as he shows Jekyll to the town diner.

Etymology

 * Snow mother, Eva, named her "Snow White" because she was born during the toughest winter.
 * Mary Margaret's name is similar to the name of two German women who have been identified as possible inspirations for the Snow White fairytale: Margarete von Waldeck and Maria Sophia Margaretha Catharina von Erthal.
 * Snow White offered both "Mary" and "Margaret" as aliases when Red asked what she should call her.
 * Mary Margaret shares her name with the Virgin Mary of the Bible, who, like Mary Margaret, is the mother of the savior. Interestingly, Mary Margaret (who was originally supposed to be a nun ) can be seen wearing a cross in "Pilot" and "Welcome to Storybrooke".
 * The name "Mary" is of Greek origin derived from the names "Mariam" and "Maria", and itself derived from the Hebrew name "Miryam" with several theorized meanings such as "sea of bitterness", "rebelliousness", and "wished for child". It was most likely originally an Egyptian name, perhaps derived in part from mry, meaning "beloved", or mr, meaning "love".
 * The name "Margaret" is of Greek origin derived from the Latin word "Margarita" and itself derived from the Greek "margarites" that means "pearl".
 * The surname "Blanchard" is of Old French origin derived from the word "blanchart" that means "whitish, bordering upon white".

Character Notes

 * Snow White was the one to give Prince Charming his nickname.
 * Snow White delivers messages via bluebirds.
 * When Snow White first meets Red, she asks her to call her Margaret, then Mary. Mary Margaret is her counterpart's name in Storybrooke.
 * During the opening scene of "Heart of Darkness", Snow White hums "A Smile and A Song".
 * Like her daughter and grandson, she enjoys hot chocolate with cinnamon.
 * She teaches fourth graders.
 * Can communicate with and understand the language of birds.

Production Notes

 * The role of Snow White was written specifically for Ginnifer Goodwin.
 * The casting call for her younger self describes her as "12 to 14 years old to PLAY 12, a young and innocent princess, she sees the world through a prism where she believes everyone is capable of the same kindness she and her benevolent father bestow on their kingdom".
 * Bailee Madison wore green contact lenses for the role as young Snow White, since her eyes are naturally brown.
 * In the original "Pilot" script, Mary Margaret is both a nun and a school teacher.
 * With the exception of "The Crocodile", Mary Margaret has appeared in every single episode of Once Upon a Time, making her the character who appears in the most episodes.

Props Notes

 * When Mary Margaret is teaching at school, she receives not an apple from her student, but a pear. This is fitting as she was poisoned by an apple.
 * Like her grandson, she has a large collection of clocks.
 * Based on her mugshot, Mary Margaret is approximately 5'7".

Costume Notes

 * Snow White's dress at the Under the Sea Celebration has small Mickey Mouse faces on it.
 * According to costume designer Eduardo Castro, they wanted to avoid a very generic look for Mary Margaret. Her outfits are meant to be whimsical, fun and interesting to look at. Her outfit in the first nine episodes of the second season, is meant to have a 1960s vibe, and is inspired by Audrey Hepburn in the 1957 musical romantic comedy Funny Face.
 * The floral dress Mary Margaret wears for her date with Dr. Whale, is the same one young Emma wears at the Portland convenience store in "Tallahassee".
 * The necklace she wears in the first half of Season Two, as well as in the "The Shepherd" from Season One, is an Oval Key Necklace from Pyrrha. It is the same brand as Emma's swan necklace.
 * The key necklace was chosen to represent the key that Prince Charming used to lock baby Emma in the Magic Wardrobe.