The Snow Queen is Finally Defeated on ONCE UPON A TIME!

On this week's episode of ONCE UPON A TIME, the Snow Queen's evil Spell of Shattered Sight finally hit Storybooke, and it nearly drove the town into the ground. The curse made everyone nearly tear one another to pieces, and even those who loved each other unconditionally found hate in their hearts. Remembering the original legend Ingrid once told her, Anna realizes that the only way to break the spell is to kill the Snow Queen. Emma and Elsa decide to confront Ingrid, but they soon realize they cannot use magic to harm her due to the ribbons. It turns out the ribbons are filled with amplified love from the Snow Queen, which prevents them from hurting her with magic. Emma believes if they can find an equal amount of 'hate' in someone else, it will cancel out the spell of love Ingrid cast upon the ribbons. And Emma knows just where to find someone filled with hatred: Regina.

Sure enough, the Spell of Shattered Sight is affecting Regina in a major way, and her rage towards Emma has returned. After Emma instigates her a bit, Regina tries to hurt her with magic, and the magic is indeed strong enough to break the ribbons.

With the power of the ribbons gone, Emma and Elsa once again confronted the Snow Queen. But Ingrid is prepared for this setback; she plans to give Emma and Elsa crystals containing good memories from their time together. Both women did love Ingrid at some point in their lives, so Ingrid wants to use magic to re-ignite their previous love. But Ingrid's intentions are foiled by Anna, who had found a letter written by her mother before she passed away. Anna reads the letter aloud to the Snow Queen, and it is revealed that the girls' mother regretted trapping Ingrid in the urn and resenting her for so many years. The mother actually wanted Anna and Elsa to return the forgotten memories of Ingrid to the people of Arendalle and forgive her sister once and for all.

After hearing the letter, Ingrid realizes the error of her ways and knows she must destroy herself in order to save the town. But Ingrid feels no remorse towards ending her life; she is excited to once again be reunited with her sisters. The Snow Queen then uses her own magic to destroy herself, which lifts the curse from Storybooke and return the town to its former state of peace.

We finally learned the origin of Emma and Ingrid's time together at the orphanage tonight, which was nothing less than heartbreaking. It turns out Ingrid wanted to adopt teenage Emma, especially since the two connected so well to each other. But when Ingrid started bringing up the issue of magic to her, young Emma thought she was insane, and distanced herself from Ingrid. Many years later when Emma arrived in Storybrooke, Ingrid erased her memories in hopes of cleaning their slate.

Although the Snow Queen is gone, we still have Rumpelstiltskin to worry about; Rumpel still plans to leave Storybrooke, and he hinted towards wanting to destroy the rest of the world once he leaves. What does Rumpelstiltskin have against our world? And what sort of plans does he have in store for us?

In the preview for next week, it looked like we'll have a few new villains coming to Storybrooke, including Maleficent and Cruella deVil. We've got enough on our plate with Rumpelstiltskin, and now MORE villains are coming to town? I'm starting to wonder if this whole 'happy ending' thing will actually happen for poor Storybrooke.

Storybrooke has finally defeated the Snow Queen! But who will the town face in the winter finale? Tune in next week to ONCE UPON A TIME at 8pm EST on ABC!

Check out a sneak peek at the Winter Finale below: