There were just a few minutes of happiness – and one very hot kiss – in Once Upon a Time season six’s first episode before our Storybrooke heroes once again faced potentially life-threatening (or at least relationship-ending) challenges. Season six episode one titled ‘The Savior’ aired on September 25, 2016 and opened with a flying carpet chasing a man on a horse. The horseback rider makes it to a village and asks for the savior, but the savior isn’t doing well. His hand’s shaking and he looks ill. Hot on the rider’s heels is Jafar (Oded Fehr), the man who had been riding on the flying carpet. He taunts Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) but doesn’t want to kill him immediately. Jafar says making him a hero made him fall apart. He also tells Aladdin you never hear “and they happily ever after” said about a savior. Jafar leaves, warning Aladdin to take care.

Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) and Emma (Jennifer Morrison) are in the middle of a hot and heavy make out session, both wearing their leather jackets, when all of a sudden the room starts rocking. They race outside and see a ship sailing overhead. The rest of the gang race to the woods and Jekyll (Hank Harris) explains it’s a dirigible from the Land of Untold Stories. Hyde (Sam Witwer) shows up to announce it’s there because of him since now Storybrooke is his town; Rumple gave it to him. Emma and Regina (Lana Parrilla) combine forces and try and take Hyde down but he just laughs. Hyde warns them there’s nothing more dangerous than an untold story.

The dirigible crashes and Emma’s the first to enter. No one’s inside and the gang tries to figure out where they went. Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) points out there are lots of footprints and it looks like they scattered after crashing. According to Hyde the stories could create chaos, and Jekyll needs help finding a weapon to take down Hyde. As they’re searching, Emma has a vision of a sword fight and her hand starts shaking. She won’t tell anyone what’s wrong and walks away, hand still shaking.

And now it’s time to spend a little time with Rumple in the woods. He pulls out a map to the Temple of Morpheus which is where Jekyll told him he’ll find sands that will let him walk in Belle’s dreams and enable him to wake her. In the temple, Rumple waves his hand over the box and Belle materializes, still asleep. He sprinkles sand over her and instead of Belle, he meets Morpheus (Giles Matthey). Morpheus asks if he wants to wake up Belle.

Regina pays Zelena (Rebecca Mader) a visit and her house looks like a hurricane hit it inside. Zelena welcomes her to the “mad house” while Regina explains Rumple gave the town to Hyde. Zelena’s ready for a showdown but Regina thinks she should stay with the baby because their magic doesn’t work on Hyde. Zelena’s still in thankful loving sister mode and she reveals she has a feather from Robin’s arrow Roland gave her to give to Regina. But, her house is a complete mess and she has no idea where she put it. Regina tries to convince her she’s not angry, but she really wants the feather if Zelena can find it.

Regina puts a protection spell around her vault and Snow lets her know Jekyll finished the special weapon. Regina looks pissy and Snow figures out there’s something wrong. Regina tells her the feather story but Snow doesn’t believe that’s really what’s bothering her. Snow says to just talk to Zelena about it and get over it once and for all.

The gang gather in front of the Storybrooke Town Hall to try and take down Hyde. Regina acts like she’s going to kill Jekyll but Hyde doesn’t go for it. He tells Regina no one is afraid of her now and that’s when Emma is supposed to use the special weapon. Unfortunately, Emma’s distracted by another vision of a sword fight – and her hand is shaking again. As Hyde’s strangling Regina, Emma finally gets herself under control and fires the weapon. The jolt knocks Hyde into a parked car where Jekyll slaps special handcuffs on him that he can’t escape. As Hook and David (Josh Dallas) are taking him away, Hyde mentions Emma’s tremors and she demands to know what he knows about them. Hyde tells her she knows where to find him if she wants the truth about the tremors.

Emma is wandering around the dirigible when up walks Archie (Raphael Sbarge) with coffee and an adorable Dalmatian. She knows her parents are worried and sent him to her to discuss her problems. He tells her her emotional walls are down now, which is a good thing, but it also let in all the collateral damage from all the fighting. He says it’ll take time and hard work to handle the change.

Emma secretly visits Hyde and wants proof he knows what’s wrong with her. She’s not offering him anything he wants and she thinks he doesn’t know anything and that it’s a bluff. But then he reveals he knows about the visions of the battle she’s been having – visions she hasn’t told anyone (not even Hook) about. She knows he loves to talk and threatens to leave him alone with no one to talk to. As he reaches for her neck, he’s pleased to see she’s afraid of him. He tells her she has to find the red bird and she must face her own story.

Rumple’s dreamwalking with Morpheus as his guide. Belle (Emilie de Ravin) is dreaming about Rumple’s castle when he enters the room. She sees him as Rumpelstiltskin not Gold, and she’s still a servant. She races out to get him tea, and Morpheus lets Rumple know he has to wake her within an hour or she’ll remain under the sleeping curse forever. Rumple tells Morpheus he’ll wake her up by making her fall in love with him again. Interestingly, the castle is a terrifying place for Belle but Rumple says it’s also where they fell in love. Rumple will trick her to get her to wake up, but he’s not lying that he loves her.

Belle looks nervous trying to pour the tea and he catches a cup she drops. He then tells her to take a break, puts on “Beauty and the Beast,” and asks her to help him practice dancing for a ball he has to attend. As they dance, the room transforms and becomes beautiful. He changes her outfit into a gorgeous ball gown as the music plays on. They circle the room and she’s no longer scared of her beast.

Back in Storybrooke, Zelena’s happy they captured Hyde but she’s concerned to see Regina’s crying. Regina says it’s because it’s her first visit back to the house since Robin died. She wants Zelena to leave the room, even though Zelena thinks they should help each other. And now the truth is out…Regina blames Zelena for everything that happened. And now Zelena admits she’s pissed because Regina went to Snow about ripping out the Evil Queen, not to her own flesh and blood. “You ripped out the part of yourself that was most like me!” yells Zelena, crying. Regina has no response and Zelena tells her she and the baby are leaving.

David and Snow are still out in the woods and it’s getting dark. They spring one trap and Snow figures out the strangers are hiding because they’re scared. She yells out that she’s Snow White and Hyde is locked up. The strangers appear but keep their distance, with Snow telling them that they can go to Granny’s for food and shelter. She and David leave so as not to further scare the visitors.

Emma lets Hook know Snow and David found some of the people and sent them to Granny’s. Hook’s also hungry from a day searching in the woods, but just then Emma spots the red bird. She tells Hook to go and get something to eat and that she’ll stay in the woods. He thinks it’s because she’s avoiding talking to him and she says she just wants to be alone. He notices her hand shaking and she won’t tell him what’s going on. She tells him to leave and he finally does.

Emma follows the red bird and encounters a stranger who calls her by name and says she knows why she’s there. Emma wants to know about the visions and the girl tells her they’re telling the story of her future.

Henry (Jared Gilmore) finds Regina kneeling in front of the fireplace doing a locator spell with Robin’s quiver. She tells him she’s trying to find Robin’s feather and Henry says the spell was looking for Robin, not the feather. Regina knows Robin’s soul was obliterated but Henry says Hades said that to hurt her. Henry believes that when a hero’s story is over there’s a special place for them.

Back at Rumple’s, the couple are still sharing a dance. Belle seems to be getting friendlier and says it’s a shame he’s lived there alone for so long. Rumple tells her he had a son but that he left because he saw the darkness in his father’s soul. Rumple couldn’t change then, but for Belle he would be the best man he could be. They kiss and Belle remembers they’ve done this before. Rumple gives her a brief rundown of their history and reminds her she’s with child and fell asleep to keep the unborn baby safe. He wants her to wake up, swearing this is the truth. Belle remembers all the broken promises and loves him, but being with him causes heartbreak. She thinks the baby would be better waiting with her. Just then Morpheus arrives and is happy Belle didn’t fall for Rumple’s lies again. He is ready to wake her up and she asks how. He replies, “With true love’s kiss, of course.” She says she doesn’t love him – or even know him – but he says she does.

Morpheus is Belle and Rumple’s unborn son all grown up! Morpheus says this is his dream world too and wants her to promise not to destroy them like he did his last family. Rumple tells her not to listen to Morpheus because he can’t be their son. He proves he is by giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead. She wakes with Rumple standing over her. She remembers her son was testing her, and Rumple says he’s lost his son before he was even born. Rumple opens a portal for them to return to Storybrooke and Belle says she will not go back to their house. She’s determined to follow her son’s warning.

Back in the forest, the girl says she was once called an oracle and Emma has seen a small piece of future time. Emma wants to see more, but the girl says the future changes although it is inevitable. Emma doesn’t care, she wants to see more. Emma looks into the eyes of the red bird and sees the sword fight. She’s battling someone in a hood as Hook, David, Snow, and Henry run toward her. Emma’s hooded enemy knocks the sword from her hand and it goes up in a puff of red smoke. Emma tells the person she won’t let them hurt her family. She’s stabbed in the stomach and reaches out with her shaking hand to grab the person’s arm. Emma is told this is a small piece of her final story and she can change the path to it, but not the outcome. “On the day you saw and the battle you saw, you will die.” The oracle leaves her.

Emma pays another visit to Hyde and wants to know how to stop it. She says even without his help she’ll defeat it, but he says she’s not the first savior he’s dealt with and they always say the same thing. A villain always brings down a savior…always. Hyde doesn’t know who the villain is.

Hook’s drowning his sorrows when Emma sits next to him at the counter. She’s happier and tells Hook her hand was just from stress, promising that’s the truth.

Time for a Snow and Regina heart-to-heart. Snow tells Regina it’ll all be fine eventually. Regina says the problem isn’t she and Zelena being honest with each other, it’s Robin. Regina wants to know how Snow retained hope after her mother died, and Snow said the Evil Queen actually accidentally taught her to never give up and to have faith. Snow says the Evil Queen taught her hope is a choice. Then Regina has an epiphany: Hades is wrong and Robin is at peace. Regina also realizes that she’s been thinking badly of the people who hid out in the Land of Untold Stories, but she did the same thing. She hid out too and kept telling herself that she was the Evil Queen. But now she knows her life is not just one thing, it is many stories. To some people she’s a villain while to others she’s a hero. Regina wants to start a new story now, one without the Evil Queen. “I choose to believe that this story will have a better ending than my last,” says Regina.

Hook, David, Henry, Emma, and Granny pass out food and blankets to the visitors. Emma leaves Granny’s and clutches her shaking hand.

Regina and Snow stand up, link arms, and walk away. As they do, a feather falls gently from the sky, landing on the bench where they were seated.

Zelena and the baby go home only to find the Evil Queen sitting at her table. Zelena can’t believe she’s alive and the Evil Queen offers her a drink, saying it’s time for some sisterly bonding.