Characters We Love: The Thrill of Henry Mills - ONCE UPON A TIME

Let's talk about one of my personal favorite characters on Once Upon a Time: Henry Mills. Henry Mills is played by the wonderful Jared S. Gilmore. Going into season five, Jared is currently 15 years old and Henry Mills, 10 when he started out on season one, is now also 15 years old. In a great way, Jared has been going on this journey of self-discovery with Henry.

In Season One, Henry Mills captured fans' hearts by coming in as the adorable, 10-year-old boy who rode a bus to Boston to track down his biological mother, Emma Swan, the woman who gave him up for adoption when he was a baby. Henry wanted her to come to his hometown of Storybrooke because he believed that she was the Savior. It was Emma's destiny to break a curse that was cast by an evil queen that trapped all fairy tale characters in the real world and took away their memories. This evil queen also happened to be Henry's other mother, Regina Mills, the mayor of Storybrooke. Just like his mother, Henry managed to sway Emma into town and she took an interest in her son, not the town's craziness. Emma saw a lot of herself in the kid and it was no surprise that fans instantly fell in love with the young boy because of his charm, heart, and strength. He was extremely clever for a 10-year-old boy. 

Henry took it upon himself to team up with Emma in Operation Cobra and break the curse. Though it was difficult throughout season one, proving to his mother that the curse was real, Henry didn't just believe in the fairy tale characters, but he believed in Emma. Fans saw that hope in Henry as he continued to do things in an effort to prove himself right and save everyone, by going into the mines underneath the town, befriending August, and trying to stop his evil queen mother. It was also that Henry believed in her so much, that Henry was able to become the common ground at times for Regina and Emma to team up. In the end, Emma chose to leave town and stay out of Regina's way, but Henry, like most kids who have been abandoned, understood Emma's position. However, Regina wasn't done with Emma and still saw her as a threat. With an apple turnover, Henry realized Regina was trying to poison Emma and ate the turnover instead, risking his life for his mother. Henry ended up in a coma in the hospital to prove to his mother that all of it was true and just as it would happen, Emma finally believed in magic and that her parents were in fact Snow White and Charming. Emma does everything she can to save Henry's life, ending in the kiss of true love when she kisses Henry on the head and breaks the curse in Storybrooke.

Coming into season two, Henry loses his mother to the Enchanted Forest when she falls through a portal, giving Henry a chance to bond with his grandfather, Charming. It also shows the strength in Henry and how he truly believes in the good of others. Regina tries to take over the town and her powers have been restored. One of the most pivotal moments of season two is when Regina realizes she can't force Henry to love her and lets Henry leave with Charming. Henry starts to believe that Regina can change and not be evil. When Regina and Rumple try to stop Cora and Hook from coming into Storybrooke, Henry shows up at the well and stops Regina. He informs Regina that Emma and Snow White will come through the portal and will succeed. Henry's strength and compassion reveals itself to Regina through the simple words of "You want me to have faith in you? Have faith in me." 

 Throughout the rest of season two, with Emma back, it became a great struggle between Regina and Emma as they both became two very important figures in his life. Henry believed in Regina, however, and got her to stop practicing magic in order to win him back and have him love her for who she was, not some evil queen. Emma knew it was best for Henry to continue having a relationship with Regina, so Emma made an effort to get along with Regina for Henry's happiness. However, in season two, Regina and Emma weren't the only figure that came into Henry's life. 

When Henry and Emma went with Rumple to New York City to find Rumple's son, Baelfire, Emma discovers Baelfire is Neal, Henry's biological father. When Henry asked about his father, Emma lied and informed Henry he was a firefighter who died a hero. She didn't want Henry knowing that Neal left Emma to be arrested and left in jail. However, when Neal and Emma go back to the apartment, Neal sees Henry and discovers the age matches up to when Neal last saw Emma and she informs Neal that Henry is his son and Henry is angry with Emma for lying to him.

Neal returns to Storybrooke with Emma and Rumple and Henry in an effort to be a part of Henry's life and his father's. Henry ends up kidnapped by two villains working for Peter Pan and taken to Neverland. It wasn't until Season Three that Henry Mills' involvement in the show became bigger. Pan informs Henry that he has the heart of the truest believer. After years of reading storybooks and believing in magic, Henry becomes a pivotal part of the series. Pan asks Henry to save magic and the only way to do so is to give Pan his heart.

Emma and the gang team up, including Henry's father, Neal, to rescue Henry from Pan. When they make it to him, Henry still gives his heart to Peter Pan and thinks he is doing right by magic. Henry might be considered naive for doing so, but Henry happens to be one of the show's purest characters. He believes in the best of everyone and believes good always win. Henry isn't naive for trying to save magic, but he's simply trying to do what he thinks is right. After risking his life, Emma and the others save Henry and restore his heart to him. However, Pan hijacks Henry's body for a few days when they arrive back in Storybrooke while Henry ends up trapped in a box and in Pan's body. When they release Pan, Emma is the only one who knows that Henry is trapped in Pan's body since she knows that Henry seems different. When everyone discovers Pan and Henry switched bodies, Rumple casts a spell to separate them back to their original forms. Pan's curse is cast and Emma and Henry must leave Storybrooke before the dark curse makes everyone disappear. Regina erases Emma and Henry's memories of Storybrooke. In the end of the season, Henry continues to have no memory of the place he grew up in or believe in magic while Emma returns with her memories in tact to try and figure out how Storybrooke didn't disappear. When Emma and Regina help Henry get his memories back, Henry realizes his mother might want to leave still. 

Going into season four, the heart of the truest believer had a few things that he had to deal with personally. Regina and Robin Hood had gotten together. Emma and Hook had gotten together. A new uncle was born. Henry Mills has always lived in a world where he believed in magic and when it finally came true, he became a part of the world that magic came from. He is the son of the Savior and the son of the son of The Dark One. His mother, Regina Mills, is an evil queen. Season Four turns into a nice shift for Henry because he starts to help Regina find her happiness in Operation Mongoose. What the writers did best was give Henry a character flaw. It's an interesting character flaw in season four because Henry didn't focus on it until Emma struggled with her identity in this season. Henry felt he was too normal in this world he lived in. Emma was struggling with her powers throughout the season and to

Henry, he wanted to understand her and help her, but he couldn't, because he considers himself too ordinary. Regina informs him that he has the heart of the truest believer and he is far from ordinary. No doubt, this particular moment was a great foreshadowing to how Henry ends up in the season finale. After Henry's efforts to find the author pays off, his loved ones end up trapped in an alternate world thanks to the author, Isaac. Henry is the only one left in Storybrooke, but he tracks Isaac down and throws himself into the alternate Enchanted Forest where heroes are villains and villains are heroes. 

Henry goes to find Regina, the version of Snow White, a bandit, and tries to find Emma, but according to Isaac, she doesn't exist in that world. When Henry finds Hook, he teams up with him to go to an island where Emma is trapped and saves her from the prison. Henry and Emma find Regina again and think they only way to break this curse is true love's kiss and if Regina and Robin Hood find their happy ending together, they can go back to Storybrooke. Emma tries to stop Rumple, but he kills Regina when Regina sacrifices herself to save Henry. Naturally, in this moment, the fans have already lost so much

in the exciting finale and all of their emotions were being toyed with, including Hook dying to save Emma and Henry. However, when a show like this has a young boy such as Henry, a normal kid, who believes in magic and has the heart of the truest believer, it's time to give him a new destiny. Isaac broke the rules as the author and couldn't change the story back, so there was no way because he was no longer the author. In that case, it was time to appoint a new author. Fans got to see the amazing transformation of Henry Mills as he became the new author, took the quill in his hand, and undid all of Isaac's magic. Everyone was returned to Storybrooke and Henry had a new fate. 

In the end of the episode, instead of keeping the quill, Henry broke it. He believed that having the ability to manipulate the future was too much power for one person. Now that Henry has lost his mother, Emma, to the darkness and she has officially become The Dark One, there is no telling where Henry's journey will take him going into season five. Perhaps Henry will become closer to Hook. Perhaps he will become closer to Regina for sure. 

Of all of the characters on Once Upon a Time, Henry Mills is by far one of the best written transformations on the show. Each character wasn't exactly ordinary starting out. Emma was magical and the Savior, though she felt ordinary in the beginning. However, here is this little boy, Henry Mills, who is already understanding, forgiving, strong, and compassionate. Henry sees the best in people always, believes in magic, believes in the ones he loves, even if they don't deserve it. It's through those incredible traits that make him deserving of such a magnificent gift as becoming the author. 

We're talking about a character who brings out the best in everyone he's around. Henry has an untouchable strength, a tremendous amount of compassion inside of him, and a true spirit that believes the best in everyone and everything.

For that, Henry Mills is indeed extraordinary.  


Once Upon a Time Season Five Premiere airs on September 27 @ 8/7c on ABC.