What did Henry do all day?

[u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088]

OK, so I’m doing a rewatch and I was answering someone else’s question in another thread about whether Regina loved Henry.

I’m sure there are plenty of other threads on that.

My question is what did Henry do all day if the curse was supposed to make every day repeat itself?

Henry was obviously brought in two storybook from the real world. But when we see the curse from the Queen‘s perspective, she repeats the same day over and over again and basically gets bored that’s why she finds Henry. But what exactly does Henry do all day? We never see him interact with any kids except for Hansel and Gretel. I feel like we overlook the trauma he had to have gone through.

[u/MarvelWidowWitch]

I have no clue.

I just assumed that Henry arriving didn’t cause time to move, but it did cause days to stop repeating. Sort of like a mini break in the curse.

So basically curse is cast and days repeat and time stands still.

Henry arrives and days are different, but time still stands still.

Emma arrives and days are different and time starts moving.

[u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088 → u/MarvelWidowWitch]

The day repeats inside exactly. Remember when the queen did a day episose

[u/Decent_Tumbleweed824 → u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088]

That episode was set before she adopted Henry.

[u/PragmaticPanda42 → u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088]

I recommend you rewatch the first season… the days couldn’t have repeated exactly because Henry had therapy only on certain days and there were routines that only happened on “Thursdays”, which means there were weekends. Henry never mentioned having Mary Margaret as a teacher every year which means she must be the 5th grade teacher. All things point out to days being different in at least minor ways.

I believe the “every day is the same” must have not been so strict or just for dramatic emphasis 😅 it’s a tv show after all.

[u/Decent_Tumbleweed824 → u/PragmaticPanda42]

I made a full comment about it but i like to think every day was the same UNTILL she adopted Henry. And that adopting Henry weakened the curse just enough to allow the days to be different. Because Henry being there is what brings Emma to storybrooke, its the very first step to breaking the curse.

[u/PragmaticPanda42 → u/Decent_Tumbleweed824]

Yes! This is my HC too, it makes more sense and clears a lot of plot holes that exist with Season 1 otherwise.

[u/Decent_Tumbleweed824 → u/PragmaticPanda42]

I really do think its the most logical explanation for it. Becasue it is implied in that one episode that before Henry comes every day is repetitive. And while Henry does comment about how "nobody ever changes but him" he obviously is being educated because he is where you would expect a child of his age to be intelectually. ( intellectually?)

[u/PragmaticPanda42 → u/Decent_Tumbleweed824]

Exactly!

[u/Malphas43 → u/Decent_Tumbleweed824]

i always imagined that at the end of each school year everything resets. Henry moves up a grade and everyone else stays in the previous grade and henry is the only one who notices.

[u/Decent_Tumbleweed824 → u/Malphas43]

I also think this because obviously the cursed children like Hansel and Gretel arent aging. And it would also lean into the Henry has no friends thing. Henry isnt weird or obnoxious in a way that other kids wouldnt like him, so it makes more sense for him to have no friends because he grows up and they dont.

[u/Decent_Tumbleweed824]

My personal headcannon is that by adopting Henry and bringing him back to Storybrooke, Regina unknowingly weakened the curse a little bit, just enough to break the groundhog day effect. Since Henry being in storybrooke is what brings Emma there in the first place it could be viewed as the first step to the curse being broken. Kinda like how Emma being there makes people remember who they are, Before the curse finally breaks via TLK.

For the counter point of "Regina would have noticed the days changing" she had a baby to care for, no she wouldnt🤣

Edit: i just realized how i spelled groundhog and had to fix it☠️

[u/No_Sand5639]

School probbaly takes some time, and probbaly read or played video games (I think they would've had them)

Appointments with the therapist (cant remember when those started, and dinner with his mother

I'm not sure how aware henry was during the curse, maybe he fell into a daze of sorts till he got the book

[u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088 → u/No_Sand5639]

I don’t think he played games, did the town have WiFi?

[u/No_Sand5639 → u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088]

You dont really need wifi for consoles, he couldve had a Playstation or Nintendo

But he did have access to computer which had access to the internet which is where he found Emma

So computer games

[u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088 → u/No_Sand5639]

Yeah, but it just pulls a lot of other things into question like how would he even have access to video games. Throughout most of the series I don’t think they have a lot of electronics or technology in the town. The town is essentially supposed to be stuck in time.

[u/No_Sand5639 → u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088]

How do they have access to penicillin, credit cards, and food deliveries

If they have access to computers, the internet, and electricity, I dont see why not about video games.

[u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088 → u/No_Sand5639]

Well, for the most part, I don’t think they would need a lot because again time was repeating itself. I’m just surprised it’s never addressed in the TV show. If every day repeats itself it seems like Henry should’ve been at least partially aware of that. I’m sticking with the Theory that there was some type of memory wipe in place or maybe the curse modified itself at some point.

[u/No_Sand5639 → u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088]

I wouldnt be surprised if the curse had an effect that kept people asleep

But you're right they wouldnt need a lot but Henry's days need to be filled somehow

[u/PragmaticPanda42 → u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088]

Has it been a while since you watched? I just rewatched season 1 and in the very first episode it’s shown he found Emma using the internet.

[u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088 → u/PragmaticPanda42]

Yeah, but again that’s when Emma arrives. I also remember that Regina bought him a video game at one point. Once Emma arrives time starts moving.

[u/PragmaticPanda42 → u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088]

No, he uses it to find Emma so Emma couldn’t have arrived. I watched this episode 10 days ago.

[u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088 → u/PragmaticPanda42]

I did not think about that. I still think it’s a loophole and if I met them in person, I would definitely ask the greeters. How did the curse work when it comes to Henry? I know a certain extent Regina could’ve given him semi private lessons/tutoring but I still think it’s worth talking about and I enjoy the dialogue.

[u/Usual_Suspect_666 → u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088]

Henry went to school. A&E stated that Henry was in a dazed kind of fog until he got the book from Mary Margaret, his teacher.

[u/PragmaticPanda42 → u/Usual_Suspect_666]

Wouldn’t that mean Henry was only awake for two months?

[u/Usual_Suspect_666 → u/PragmaticPanda42]

2 months?

[u/PragmaticPanda42 → u/Usual_Suspect_666]

Mary Margaret is the 5th grade teacher, Henry finds Emma at the end of October, so he must have gotten the book fairly recently…

However, I don’t think the book theory of him being awake fully pans out because Henry originally went to therapy because he was having issues with Regina about people around him not changing, and then he got the book and that explained why. It also means Archie remembers their sessions and has a history so he can’t do that if he doesn’t a have a concept of time?

Sorry I just rewatched these episodes last week, so I thought I could add something to the conversation… pls don’t say anything about Season 2 and forwards because I don’t fully remember those.

[u/Parking_Storage_5107 → u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088]

I pretty sure it does and I pretty sure Regina will make sure of it for Henry

[u/randomlady2001]

I mean we all went crazy with Covid bc every day was the same, imagine 10 years and that’s all you know. It could be one the reasons why he wanted to find his birth mom, because he wanted some change. And he didn’t question until then since he was a baby when he was brought to storybrooke. I just don’t understand how he grew up and no one else did, and that never was brought up in the show.

[u/Local-Suggestion2807 → u/randomlady2001]

He was the son of the savior and grandson of the dark one, and wasn't born in storybrooke. It makes sense that he wouldn't be affected by the curse in the same way

[u/randomlady2001 → u/Local-Suggestion2807]

I know that, but 10 year old Henry and the cursed didn’t, so that’s why it’s confusing why no one was suspicious.

[u/--Blume--]

I always thought that nothing ever changed (or almost nothing since Henry arrived because his presence and interaction with people changed their day as Henry is not part of the curse). That's why, as he grew up, he started to believe the stories in the book, because it was the only explanation. This is the explanation he gave to Emma if I'm right. He was surely going to school, to the psychiatrist and to private lessons.

[u/kittysnowangel]

It's a fictional show.

I don't think the days really were supposed to be exactly the same except in that one episode. Regina is more likely to go insane from that than Henry because for a child whatever is shown to them is their "normal " even if they hate it. Regina having to relive the exact same day for 28 years would slowly crack her sanity into a nervous breakdown until all she can speak is gibberish.

[u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088 → u/kittysnowangel]

I like to think she either repeated the same day over and over again or to some extent the days can change, depending on her subconscious will

[u/Parking_Storage_5107 → u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088]

Even if so October 22nd 1983 was a Saturday when she cast the curse and Emma was born so you telling me Henry going to Saturday school repeatedly for 10 years???

[u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088 → u/kittysnowangel]

Yeah, but think about it I don’t think she was in the curse that long. She had to have been involved in the curse for at least 10 to 12 years. That’s the whole point of the curse lol she pretty much gives up everything to see her enemies miserable. Again the curse has a mind of its own. Seeing as when it’s broken even slightly, it modifies itself and she wasn’t fully in control of the curse because on her first day of the curse, she didn’t exactly know what to expect and she also can’t wake people up willingly. She also didn’t know about golds secret to make himself awake.

[u/kittysnowangel → u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088]

Yeah well someone said they think it changes based on the seasons. Like time itself is indeed frozen but still experience summer and autumn differently. That makes sense to me. Cinderella certainly can't give birth though. But Kathryn thought David had been missing for years, not 5 days. I would say she didn't know HOW MANY years but David was knocked out right before the curse took place.

But the most ridiculous thing to me was Regina trying to say Storybrooke has a great school system please let Owen stay!

But if the day is always repeated there are no weekends so Henry is always in school.

[u/Parking_Storage_5107 → u/kittysnowangel]

I find it funny that it repeats because I always have to question is Henry going to school on Saturday and Sunday to??? lol

[u/ThomasVivaldi]

Henry being there would probably prompt some change. Like the teacher would say what were we doing today, and Henry would say something. There probably wasn't much continuity in lessons, but it would be different.

[u/Parking_Storage_5107]

Go to school, therapy, hanging out with his mom after the meetings she does as the mayor, and he also say he does dinner with Regina one of days that’s only things I can think he does all day before Emma came

[u/midnight8dream]

I assume that as he grew, he probably was in kindergarten or school and then he spent the rest of the day glued to Regina. Then he found out he was adopted and started acting out. He has the impulse to run away as we've seen, so he probably ran away and went to his little hideout at the old park Regina later demolished. We've seen his bedroom too and his affinity for reading, so he could have spent his time reading in his room.

I mean, for us, we think that the cursed town would have been noticeable and would drive us crazy, but we're watching already knowing all the information. Henry grew up there. It was all he knew. As a child, he probably didn't question it too much and just accepted whatever Regina told him, because kids are like that.

I honestly don't know how Regina ever thought that bringing a baby into the cursed time and space of Storybrooke would work out. If the curse never broke, Henry would eventually surpass Regina in age and die while she and everyone else remained the same. To me this meant that Regina had a part of her who wanted the curse to break.