ONCE Again, Snow Falls Hard

 

 

 

 

Season 1, episode 3: “Snow Falls”

So, this is the episode that promises to answer the question “What kind of name is Prince Charming?” And it does. Spoilers abound this post like unicorns! Be wary!

[All photos ABC/CHRIS HELCERMANAS-BENGE]

Yon royal carriage, escorted by royal elite guards, doth carry our fair prince and his lady fair. (cough) And she’s a trollop. Can’t understand why they didn’t take the troll bridge, which would have been so much quicker and smoother and — what’s this? They have to stop for a fallen tree. Only our prince senseth something is upeth, as yon tree hast been felled by someone’s hand! Egads! It’s an ambush!

Well, sort of. Hooded thief makes off with the Prince’s wallet, which he conveniently left in the royal carriage. Prince gives chase, catches the thief, who turns out to be Snow White. And she clocks him pretty well and gets away.

Meanwhile, in Storybrooke, Mary Margaret is on a date at the diner. Only her date (guest star David Anders from “Alias”) has eyes for the comely young Ruby, who’s not really dressed to serve pie, if you know what I mean. Mary Margaret ends the date early, finds Emma parked along the curb. Emma has decided to stay for a while, even though she really has no place to stay. (Does that yellow Volkswagen mean something?) So Mary Margaret offers her spare room to Emma.

Next day, Mary Margaret (doesn’t that make you think of a nun?) takes her class to volunteer at the hospital, where Henry spends some alone time with John Doe. He’s got it figured out that all this guy needs to pull him out of a coma is to remember his identity. So he wants Mary Margaret to read to him from the book.

In last week’s recap, I posited that Emma could be humoring Henry and his big crazy notion that everyone’s a fairy tale character, and she pretty much confirms that here, as she suggests that Mary Margaret go ahead and read to the poor near-dead coma patient, and the lack of any response will show Henry that it’s just a big crazy notion that everyone’s a fairy tale character.

So, of course, when Mary Margaret (Snow White) starts to read to John Doe (Prince Charming) about how they met in Fairy Tale Land, he grabs her wrist! Zounds!

Naturally, no one else saw it. Dr. Whale (Anders) speculates she just fell asleep or maybe misread a beep or something. But after she leaves, he’s rattled enough to call Regina. And Mary Margaret runs home and reads more in the book, where we find…

Snow White in a cave, with the spoils of her endeavors. But when she comes out, she’s caught up in a net! (“Great, Chewie. Always thinking with your stomach.” type of net…) The young prince has captured the fair maiden. And in a fit of irony, she gives him the nickname “Prince Charming”, because it’s very much not charming for him to trap her in a net hanging from a tree, you see. She’s very cynical, this version of Show White, who goes on about arranged marriages and how “true love” is a myth and it’s all transactional nowadays.

That’s when Charming pulls out the Wanted poster with her face on it. Oops.

Back in Maine, Emma and Henry are at the cafe when (sister) Mary Margaret comes in to report back about the response. So when they go to the hospital to check on him…
… he’s missing. Dun-Dun-DUNNN. And Regina’s in the room. DUN – DUNN – DUUNNNN.

Emma and company go check the security tapes (which should have been the Sheriff’s idea, not Emma’s… but he’s on the take, right?). Grumpy and Sleepy are the ones in charge of that. And once Emma figures out they’re not watching the right tape (due to the lack of the kids’ decorations in the room), they find the tape and see John Doe – who’s been in a coma for how long? – walk out of the hospital completely on his own.

So, he’s gone out into the woods. Meanwhile, in the woods of a different color, Charming and Snow White talk about stuff, in dialogue that establishes the time frame – this is after the huntsman let her go, and probably before she meets the Seven Dwarves. We also learn she has a pendant full of blue fairy dust, and it’s a dangerous weapon she has. And she promptly knocks him into the river and makes her escape, only to be surrounded by the Evil Queen’s soldiers. And they plan to cut out her heart. Uh-oh.

(What is it with cutting out hearts? What do they know that we don’t?)

The rest of the episode is a mash-up between two forests: Emma, Mary Margaret and the Sheriff (and later Henry) search for John Doe in one set of woods while Snow White and Prince Charming travel through another set of woods to the troll bridge so Snow can buy back Charming’s ring – the one that belonged to his grandmother. Henry’s convinced that John Doe is looking for Mary Margaret, and is heading for the real world iteration of troll bridge. They don’t find him, but they find his ID bracelet, with blood on it. dun-dunnn.

Ginnifer Goodwin and Jennifer Morrison have a nice scene here, where they talk about why Emma is a “finder of people”. It goes to the character-building and helps cement this notion that the two worlds are slowly coming into synch, which is something I cottoned to last week…

At the troll bridge, the trolls discover the Wanted poster, and there’s more danger and action! Charming to the rescue! But Snow has to use her blue fairy dust to rescue her rescuer. And we find out Prince is actually James. But Snow prefers to call him Charming. So there.

In Storybrooke Land, they find John Doe at the toll bridge (complete with a Sharpie Red R on the sign…) and he’s out. Mary Margaret performs CPR, and the mouth-to-mouth turns into something a little more… and he wakes up! Sort of… They get him back to the hospital, where a blonde (the RL version of the whiny trollop) is there. She calls him David. Regina is there, naturally, and reveals that this woman is John Doe’s wife. Convenient.

(At this point, you have to either buy into the premise totally for what it is – a fairy tale that takes itself just seriously enough for the story to have depth – or you take the io9 route and go completely snarky and play up how cheesy you think it is…)

In Fairy Tale Land, Snow White tries on the ring (on her right hand), decides it’s not for her, only it’s actually on her finger in Real World (or should we call it Curse World?)!

So, John Doe is actually David – but really he’s Prince Charming who’s actually Prince James – and the wife is conveniently rolled out by Mayor Regina who’s actually the Evil Queen Grimhilde who wants no one to have a “happily ever after”. And Emma takes up the offer of a spare room with Mary Margaret, who’s actually Snow White and is really Emma’s mother and not really a nun even though her name makes you think she could be one.

Got it? Next week, “Once Upon a Time” crosses paths with “Falling Skies” as Jessy Schram crosses over to play Cinderella.

[Official Show Site on ABC]     [Previous Episode Recap: “The Thing You Love Most”]