Recap:
Hearing from Little Red Riding Hood that Prince James’ wedding day is fast approaching, Snow buys a potion from Rumpelstiltskin that will ease her pain. Soon after, Snow receives a letter from Prince James telling her to clarify her feelings for him, so she sneaks into his castle, but is captured and placed in a jail cell with Grumpy. Stealthy, the eighth dwarf, comes to their rescue, though he is killed before they reach safety. King George then demands that Snow abandon Prince James or else he will have James assassinated. After telling James she doesn’t and never did love him, she is comforted by the remaining six dwarfs. Nevertheless, Snow takes the potion, no longer remembering anything about her Prince Charming.
Mary Margaret finds a trapped dove, rescues it, and takes it to the animal shelter where David works. There she learns that it must be reunited with its flock soon or it will be abandoned forever. Mary Margaret, having gone into the forest alone to release the bird, is rescued from falling off a ledge by David. Taking shelter from the storm in a cabin nearby, they both express that they have feelings for one another, but Mary Margaret will not let their relationship progress out of respect for his marriage. The day after they reunited the bird with its family, they both stop for their morning coffee at 7:45 A.M., instead of 7:15 as usual, unsuccessfully trying to avoid running into each other.
Having been ordered by Regina to investigate the Mysterious Stranger, Emma speaks with him at the diner. He is carrying around a mysterious box, which she compels him to open; in it lays a typewriter. He confesses that he is a writer who finds Storybrooke inspiring but does not reveal any more about himself.
Review:
The first thing that popped into my head as I watched this episode was, “Why has it taken so long for Little Red to be given more than one or two lines of dialogue?” Though she is not one of the main characters that the story is currently focusing on, she has been present in just about every episode as Ruby, but given little to do. Thankfully, we got to see a little bit of Red’s relationship with Snow White and her knowledge about Rumpelstiltskin. Going forward, I hope to see her more involved in the fairy tale world, as well as Storybrooke, and am waiting for the introduction of the infamous Big Bad Wolf.
I thoroughly enjoyed the dwarfs’ storyline in this episode. Though we could have guessed that Stealthy was not going to make it because he is not one of the seven known dwarfs from Snow White, it was interesting to see him appear. Was an eighth dwarf an homage to the Lost number 8? Or simply a mislead? Stealthy would have been great to see more of, considering his talents are a little more impressive than say, Sneezy. I love that they filled out Grumpy’s back-story, giving him a reason for his attitude, especially since the loss of his love was something that was relevant to Snow White’s situation and their bonding over this is what initiated Snow’s relationship with her dwarf friends.
Although I would hate to see Prince James marry Abigail, I think it has to happen since David is officially married to Kathryn in Storybrooke. The story of Prince Charming and Snow White was so closely paralleled with Mary Margaret and David in this episode that it would seem unfitting for their stories to diverge at this one point in the future.
One thing that I have been saying about Once Upon a Time since the beginning is that it has wonderful music, thanks to Mark Isham, the composer. Although my personal favorite character theme is the Evil Queen’s, Snow White and Prince Charming’s love theme gained a great deal of my appreciation with it being strategically placed throughout this episode. Having it play in the background while Mary Margaret and David are in the animal hospital as well as when Snow White escapes from her holding cell to seek out Prince Charming draws such a connection between their relationship status in the fairy tale world and in Storybrooke. When an empowered Snow White was strutting out of the prison to find her Prince with that music playing, it was impossible not to be affected by their love story.
The mysterious box makes it first appearance in this episode. I have been wondering how far the creators’ would go with their JJ Abrams influence, and this episode shows that nothing is out of the realm of possibilities. I am in no way complaining; in fact, I find it fascinating at their ability to use the same basic concept but spin it in a new direction. But, one thing is bothering me about that mysterious box; it was too dramatically focused on for it to be a mere typewriter. There is a significant typewriter in Fringe (which was created by Abrams), on which someone can communicate between two universes. Could the Mysterious Stranger be doing the same?
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