Once Upon a Time: “An Apple Red As Blood” Recap & Review

Regina sets her sights on strengthening the curse, unintentionally harming her own son. Meanwhile, Snow White attempts to rescue Prince Charming but sacrifices her life for true love. Here is a recap and review of “An Apple Red As Blood”.

Recap:

As Emma drives out of Storybrooke with Henry, he intentionally runs her car off the road, yelling that she cannot leave before she has saved the town. In another attempt to convince Emma, Henry goes to August, who continues turning to wood, but he abandons Operation Cobra. Regina demands that Mr. Gold rework the curse so that she can kill Emma without breaking it, but he refuses. Regina then recruits Jefferson, claiming she will “wake up” his daughter if he helps her destroy Emma from the fairy tale world. While in Regina’s secret crypt, they fail to summon enough magic to transport themselves into his hat. However, Regina retrieves an apple from the other side, which she bakes into a turnover and gives to Emma. Later, Henry stops by Emma’s and she tells him that she struck a deal with Regina that she will leave Storybrooke but be allowed to visit. Angered at this and that Emma still will not put faith in the curse, Henry takes a bite of the turnover, falling to the ground from the sleeping curse.

When we last saw Prince Charming, King George captured him. The Evil Queen interrupts the King before he has the chance to chop off Charming’s head and she takes Charming with her to destroy Snow White. The Seven Dwarfs, Granny, Red, Snow, and the Fairies storm the castle to break out Charming, but all Snow finds is his reflection in a mirror; the Evil Queen has moved him to her dungeon. Snow agrees to meet the Queen to resolve the situation. The Queen gives Snow a proposition: either eat the poisoned apple or allow Charming to be killed. Snow’s friends soon find her lying dead in the field.

Review:

This episode started off with what could have been a well-developed lead; however, Regina’s dream seemed slightly misplaced. As with most openings, I expect it to fuel the action of the episode. While this one provided and understanding of Regina’s fear of being found out and losing power, there was nothing in the episode to indicate that the situation in Storybrooke would actually escalate to the town tying her up and threatening to destroy her happiness. Additionally, her desire to strengthen the curse was not solely reliant on this dream because she knew about Emma as the savior from the beginning, so there was really no need to explain her actions. That being said, I did enjoy watching this episode.

Mary Margaret acting as a mother towards Emma by scolding her for trying to leave without saying goodbye and acting out of selfish interest gave the episode a good vibe. It was nicely paralleled with Snow White choosing to sacrifice herself in order to save the man she loves, demonstrating the most selfless act.

As beautiful of a story as Snow and Charming’s difficult love is, it seems as if the Queen’s plan hurts Charming more than Snow. If the Queen wanted to make Snow suffer as she did losing her love, then it make more sense to put Charming into a deep sleep and prevent Snow from actually being with him. That way, Snow would experience the same type of pain as the Queen. But I guess this could depend on whether or not you think that watching someone else suffer is worse than suffering yourself. The Evil Queen did say that Snow would have “dreams of her own regrets”, so Snow’s conscious mind would be functional and torturing her while she slept. Snow would be suffering, but it would be a monotonous and the diabolical Evil Queen would want a more active role in causing her pain. Given that their story has not been told in completion, there is still time for the Evil Queen to bestow more drama unto Snow White.

The ending scene in which Emma speaks with Henry about her plans to leave Storybrooke was one of my favorites direction-wise. Emma starts out standing, telling Henry what she will do and holding the power in the conversation. But, as soon as she begins pleading with him to break his belief in the curse, she kneels down to his level. The visual imagery of Emma lowering herself made her look slightly childish, as she wants the easiest explanation. Then Emma stands back up and implies that things have gotten out of hand but she loves him no matter what, reasserting her power in their relationship. This scene is interesting to look at in terms of Emma’s whole journey on the show. She started out as a strong and independent bail-bonds person, but in Storybrooke becomes naïve about the town and acts more for herself (her power, status as a hero, and feelings towards Henry) than for bettering the community because she doesn’t believe that the curse harms them. Following this, we should soon see Emma in a sense “grow up”, accept the facts of life, and work selflessly to help others.

Considering that Henry has shown Emma the effects of the curse, she is going to have to believe, right? I think that Emma may realize that there is a curse affecting everyone else but not believe that she is part of the fairy tale world herself. It would take a lot more to convince me that I was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming than to make me believe something that has a little more proof associated with it. Whatever the outcome, it appears that next week will be an epic season finale.