The ABC TV series Once Upon a Time, which airs 8/7c on Sunday nights has finally returned after a four-month break with a startling story line. The show has been airing since 2011, and currently it is on its third season. These past few months have been slow, but it has returned with an interesting plot twist. The show stars Giniffer Goodwin as Snow White, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan, Lana Parilla as the Evil Queen. The story is about classic fairytale characters who are cursed and sent to a small town in Maine called Storybrooke with no memory of their past lives. Emma Swan is the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, and she is responsible for saving the town from the Evil Queen. Now fast-forwarding two years from now, this week’s premiere took place in the third season.

The retuning episode is called “Witch Hunt.” At this point in the story, Emma has no recollection of her fairytale family, and she is simply woman raising her son, Henry. Little does she know that there is a whole town waiting for her to solve the mystery of who cast the curse on the characters to make them forget their lives (again). When Captain Hook comes back to remind Emma who she really is, she takes Henry and goes to Storybrooke. As expected, nobody in Storybrooke remembers the past year, and people are mysteriously disappearing while flying monkeys are appearing out of thin air.

The episode has two story lines — one sett in the present day and one set a year ago, when all the characters had returned to fairytale land. The second story shows the Evil Queen and Snow White working together to get to their castle. The Evil Queen is distraught from loosing her adoptive son, but still agrees to help everyone. As she enters the castle, she realizes that her own sister, the Wicked Witch of the West, is behind everything. Her magic is much more powerful than the Queen’s and she is the one who has cast this horrible curse.

In present day, everyone is still completely unaware of the situation. They have no recollection of their past, and are thoroughly confused and scared of the abductions that are taking place. Everyone believes that the Evil Queen is behind this, but it is really the stunning young townswoman (the Wicked Witch of the West). Regina (a.k.a. the Evil Queen) works together with Emma to figure out who has caused their problems. She uses her powers to create magical potions to revive their memory, but the effort proves unsuccessful. The Witch is still out there wrecking havoc, unnoticed.

The episode ends with the storyline in the fairytale land, where the Evil Queen faces the Wicked Witch of the West. It is also revealed Rumplestiltskin, who sacrificed himself to save everyone in season two, is actually alive and under the supervision of the Wicked Witch.