The story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf takes a shocking twist in this episode as the age-old tale is explored. Meanwhile, Ruby searches for her proper place in Storybrooke. Here is a recap and review of “Red-Handed”.
Recap:
Emma interrogates David at the sheriff’s station, coming to the conclusion that he is innocent. After an argument with Granny because of her strictness, Ruby quits her job at the diner and is hired by Emma as an assistant. While looking for Kathryn, Ruby tracks down David in the forest, finding him passed out and confused as to how he got there. Dr. Whale, as he is looking over David, recalls that this is not the first time that David has suffered from unexplainable amnesia. Emma then sends Ruby to the Toll Bridge where David was earlier, and nearby, she finds a box containing a human heart and Mary Margaret’s fingerprints. Emma believes this heart belongs to Kathryn because she is the only missing person in Storybrooke, but does not have definitive proof. In the end, Ruby returns to the diner and apologizes to Granny.
In the fairy tale world, Granny is strict when it comes to protecting Little Red from the Big Bad Wolf, barricading their house and forcing her to wear a wolf-repellant cloak. Granny speaks out at a town meeting, saying that the citizens should quit forming hunting parties and instead hide from the ferocious beast because killing it is near impossible. Little Red finds Snow White stealing eggs from her chicken coop; the two build a friendship and go out to hunt the wolf on their own. The wolf’s prints morph into human footprints as they approach the cottage; Red and Snow assume the wolf is Peter, Little Red’s boyfriend, because he was at her door the night before. However, after Little Red shares this theory with Peter and he agrees to be chained up for the night, the true wolf is revealed to be none other than Little Red as she devours him. Snow and Red are shocked to find out that Granny has known the truth the entire time, and that transforming into wolves is something common with the women in the family.
Review:
I have been hoping for a while that we would get a Little Red centric episode, and this one was great. Meghan Ory held her own, as the story focused on both her characters’ struggles to figure out where they belong. Overall, the episode was interesting and enjoyable, a whirlwind of misleads and shocks, but not without heart.
Sometimes, when the writers of Lost have these crazy ideas, they actually make sense. For example, I do not think many people would have jumped to the idea of making Little Red the Big Bad Wolf, but they did, and made it work, at that. As much as I was rooting for Dr. Whale to be the Big Bad Wolf because the name “Whale” conjures up images of a big animal, and because of his fascination with Ruby while on that date with Mary Margaret in “Snow Falls”, I am supportive of this creative decision. The fact that, in the some versions of the classic fairy tale, Little Red emerges from the wolf’s stomach after it swallows her whole, brings about a nice theme of conquering your own darkness that is applicable to the story here. It becomes more of an adult tale and shows serious triumph and strength. It gives Little Red the opportunity to show a darker, more interesting side to the innocent girl we grew up hearing about, but not by sacrificing her positive qualities. Additionally, it brought out a family story of love, with Granny in both realities so protective of Red/Ruby. It made a fairy tale a human story.
I find it fun to see how the characteristics of the fairy tale characters are translated into real life. For Ruby to have the hyper-sense of smell that a wolf would have, is something that I would have never though to include, but it is a perfect little detail that links Ruby to Little Red. Also, I enjoy seeing the explanations of well-known story pieces, such as Little Red’s hood. Granny at one point say that the cloak keeps the wolf away from her, but, wow, does it do so much more. Little Red’s iconic hood is this magical wardrobe piece keeping Red from becoming a beast. These small details prove that within the seemingly wild minds of the writers and producers, there is brilliance and coherence.
On a completely different note, is the ongoing you-know-they-will-but-not-quite-yet romance of Mary Margaret and David. When speaking about conventions of keeping two love interests apart, having one be accused of murder is out of the league of normal. But that is why it’s Once Upon a Time. I, for one, am glad that they are seemingly moving past the “other love interest” dilemma. Even though this story does find its basis with Kathryn as the other love interest, it is at least a more interesting and different form of preventing David from being with Mary Margaret than simply throwing another person in between them. I am concerned about how long this story will drag out. If the curse prevents all happy endings, then they cannot have their storybook romance until the curse is broken, which I imagine is something that will not be resolved any time soon, seeing as how that is the entire premise of the show. But then again, Once constantly surprises me.
Although this episode revealed the identity of the infamous Big Bad Wolf, which I was dying to know, it posed several question regarding other storylines:
Why was Henry visiting Emma? Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled to see Henry again after he was absent from the past few episodes, but Regina is restricting her son’s time with his biological mother so this seemed slightly out of place. Doubtful, but is Regina warming up to Emma?
What is going on with David’s strange memory loss? I think Emma kissing him and him having a magical moment of remembrance is out of the question because he is actually her father, but maybe Emma could find some other way to show love towards him and solve this seemingly random storyline.
Was the box containing the heart one of the Evil Queen’s? If so, why was it not in the same location as the others? We know that her M.O. is cutting out and saving her victims’ hearts, but it seemed like whoever buried the box was intent on keeping it away from them instead of placing it in a location where he/she could admire the work like the Evil Queen did.
