Henry Mills (Once Upon a Time)

Henry Mills
Once Upon a Time character
Promotional photograph of Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills.
First appearance	"Pilot"
Created by	Adam Horowitz Eddy Kitsis
Portrayed by	Jared S. Gilmore
Information
Occupation	Student Writer Pawnshop apprentice (formerly)
Title	The Author The Truest Believer (Season 3)
Family	Baelfire/Neal Cassidy (father) (deceased) Emma Swan (birth mother) Regina Mills (adoptive mother)
Significant other(s)	Violet (Girlfriend)
Relatives	Paternal relatives Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold (grandfather) Milah (grandmother) (deceased) Belle French (step-grandmother) Malcolm/Peter Pan (great-grandfather) (deceased) The Black Fairy (great-grandmother) Gideon Gold (half-uncle) Maternal relatives David Nolan ("Prince Charming") (grandfather and adoptive stepbrother-in-law) Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard (grandmother and adoptive stepsister) Prince Neal Nolan (uncle) Maternal relatives on David's side Unnamed great-grandfather (deceased) Ruth (great-grandmother) (deceased) Prince James (granduncle) (deceased) King George / Albert Spencer (adoptive great-grandfather) Maternal relatives on Snow's side King Leopold (great-grandfather) (deceased) Queen Eva (great-grandmother) (deceased) Prince Henry (adoptive grandfather) (deceased) Cora Mills (adoptive grandmother) (deceased) Zelena ("The Wicked Witch of the West") (adoptive aunt) Robin (adoptive cousin)
Nationality	United States of America
Born	15 August 2001 (Age 15)[1] Phoenix, Arizona
Abilities	Standard abilities of the Author
Type	Land Without Magic character
Centric episodes
Season Three "Save Henry" "Going Home" Season Four "Operation Mongoose" Season Five "Dreamcatcher" "Only You"

Henry Daniel Mills is a fictional character in ABC's television series Once Upon a Time. Henry is the boy Emma Swan gave up to adoption; Regina Mills adopted him. He is portrayed by Jared S. Gilmore, who won the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series – Leading Young Actor in 2012 for his role in the series.

Character Background

Season 1 & 2

Henry Mills is Emma Swan and Neal Cassidy's son, whom she gave up for adoption after giving birth following her release from a federal correctional facility in Phoenix, Arizona in 2001.^[2] He is also Snow White, Prince Charming and Rumplestiltskin's grandson, and the great-grandson of the latter's father's alias Peter Pan. He is adopted by Regina Mills (the Evil Queen), after Mr. Gold (Rumplestiltskin) procures him, naming him after her late father. At first Regina had a little difficulty raising Henry but grew to love him, thus preventing Henry from being taken by the Darling Brothers, who wanted to take Henry to Neverland on orders from Peter Pan.

An older Henry receives his cherished book of fairy tales from his teacher Mary Margaret Blanchard (Snow White), discovering that the residents of Storybrooke are characters from it after noticing he is the only one in town who ages. His realization of Regina's true identity strains his relationship with her, and she sends him to regular therapy sessions to end his belief in the curse. Henry finds his biological mother Emma Swan in Boston and brings her to Storybrooke. He eventually convinces her of the truth by consuming a sleeping curse intended for her by Regina,^[3] nearly resulting in him dying. However, he is awoken with true love's kiss by Emma, which also breaks the curse. Emma and Mary Margaret are then dragged into a portal, leaving David (Prince Charming) to look after him. Following the death of Regina's mother Cora, and her vowing to avenge Mary Margaret, Henry seeks to remove magic from Storybrooke. When Emma and Regina stop the trigger enacted by Greg Mendell and Tamara from destroying the town, he is kidnapped by the pair and taken to Neverland, where it is revealed that Peter Pan (Henry's great-grandfather) wants possession of him as he owns "the heart of the truest believer".^[4][5]

Season 3 & 4

Pan eventually persuades Henry to give him his heart, telling him it will save magic. Regina reclaims the heart and resurrects Henry. However, Pan inhabits Henry's body in Storybrooke, enacting Regina's original curse once more. Mr. Gold returns Henry to his body, and Emma and Henry escape to New York City whilst the remaining residents return to the Enchanted Forest. A year later, Hook restores Emma's memories, leading her to return to Storybrooke with Henry to save their family from another curse. Henry is confused about Emma's decision to relocate, until his past memories are restored with his book. Once his memories are restored, Regina gives him true love's kiss breaking the curse. Henry then moves back to Storybrooke where he splits his time living with Regina and the Charmings. Henry later helps Regina to search for his storybook's author, Isaac. Upon discovering the writer's manipulative actions, Henry takes the pen and, using Regina's blood, writes a new ending to fix reality. This makes him the new author and he breaks the pen deeming it too powerful for anyone to use. Henry then watches Emma sacrificing herself to save Regina and Storybrooke by becoming the new Dark One.

Season 5

With the other residents, Henry transports to the Enchanted Forest, taking Emma to Camelot in order to find Merlin and remove her darkness. However, weeks later, they return to Storybrooke with missing memories as to how they failed except Henry. Revealed in a flashback, Henry has fallen in love with a girl named Violet; due to needing a tear from the pain of losing a first love to help free Merlin, Emma tearfully manipulates Violet into breaking Henry's heart. Due to Emma's curse, Henry gets another chance with Violet, as neither remembered each other from before; they end up sharing a kiss.

After Emma restored his memory, Henry helps Emma rescue Hook after he is sent to the Underworld for sacrificing himself to save everyone. When he arrived with his family, he comes up with a new plan called "Operation Firebird," this after learning that they have a chance to save the souls and help them move forward. However, when he comes across Cruella De Vil, he is offered a chance to help her return to the living as he is the Author, this after telling him that despite having broken the quill in two he still has the ability to use the quill and magically write her a new life while he was in the underworld and at the same time restore Emma's soul as forgiveness, but this would put Henry in a situation that would force him to break his vow not to tamper with his family history. He then learns that he has the ability to bring others back from the dead when he came across the Apprentice, whose soul can't move on until Henry makes the right choice, which is to record the events in the book. Henry plans to re-write Hades' story that was missing in the Underworld version of the "Once Upon a Time" book. He also starts experiencing visions that allows him to illustrate stories but can not explain why they're coming to him. Before he returned to Storybrooke, he finished the unfinished businesses in the book, only to have Cruella hide it in Hades' lair.

Upon returning to Storybrooke, Henry began to experience a roguish streak as he believed magic is destroying his family in the wake of Robin Hood's death. This prompts him and Violet to obtain the Olympian Crystal and flee to New York City where magic can be destroyed. However, his actions also resulted in leaving Snow, David, Zelena, and Hook in the Land of Untold Stories when he used a holy grail to destroy it. Having regret what he did, Henry turned to a fountain and made a wish that he would reunite his family, and with the help of Emma, Regina, Violet, and Gold, along the New Yorkers who see him make this plea, the fountain succeeds in bringing Snow, David, Zelena, and Hook to New York and with that restored magic. Upon returning to Storybrooke, Henry learned that Violet, although born in Camelot, was actually from Connecticut, due to her father having slipped into an unknown portal. The then shared a kiss, implying that are now a couple, as he has found his happy ending.

Character Development and Reception

Jared, who had previously starred in Mad Men as the third Bobby Draper from 2009 to 2011,^[6][7] was cast in Once Upon a Time as Henry Mills, the "biological son of Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison's character) and Neal/Baelfire. He is the only resident of Storybrooke who is not under the spell of the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla)."^[8] Series creators Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis stated of the role, "One of our emotional centers was an 11-year-old boy who had to be precocious and vulnerable at the same time."^[9] Kitsis believed that Gilmore "naturally brought [these characteristics] out... We just knew he had to be our Henry!"^[9] Gilmore commented, "I relate to Henry because I'm 11 and also have a very good imagination. I enjoy making up and playing games in worlds with alternate realities myself."^[10]

References

External links

• Henry Mills at the Internet Movie Database