ONCE Still Has Heart

Season 1, episode 7: “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”

[All images: ABC]

This is the episode where things start to go completely wonky for Regina, as she starts to really loose control over Storybrooke because …. well… SPOILERS!

Remember last week, when Deputy Sheriff Emma found Sheriff Graham sneaking out of Regina’s place, and put two and two together to get “Ew”? We’re in aftermath mode here, as Graham is playing darts at Granny’s. Getting smashed, but it doesn’t affect his aim. Sidney even challenges him to duplicate a dead-on shot, and Graham makes one even better. With this scene, we establish finally that we’re going to get some answers about Graham, why he’s beholden to Regina, and the circumstances around his Fairy Tale Land counterpart.

This scene also sets up sparks between Graham and Emma, which have come out of nowhere, really. Graham has never seemed all that interested in Emma in previous episodes. Granted, he hired her as a deputy, but as Tina says, “What’s love got to do with it?”

They’re confrontation certainly plays out like he’s the guilty boyfriend who cheated on his best girl, only that’s not the kind of relationship he has with Emma. And it’s a little hard to swallow this week. So far, the writers have been batting about .850 to .900, but this new story thread feels a little forced. It’s obviously contrived so that Graham can kiss Emma and start having flashbacks. Which he does: flashes of a white wolf with a red eye and a black eye. (gorgeous animal, by the way) Emma is shocked – shocked, I say! – and Graham says, “I need to feel something.” What does this mean? He wants to feel something for a woman, or he wants to feel anything at all?

When Emma rejects him, he goes straightaway to Regina, who takes him in and we flash to Fairy Tale Land: the castle, where Evil Queen Regina looks down on a casket. A casket that belongs to Snow White’s father. And we learn that Evil Queen Regina is Snow White’s step-mother! (But of course she is…) Is he Regina’s lost love? Or is he just another victim of her scheming, as she seems to imply to Mirror with the “One down, one to go” comment?

But she knows she can’t make Snow White a martyr, so it has to be an outside job. Mirror says she needs someone with no heart; a huntsman. And this particular huntsman has a wolf with a distinct set of eyes…

…which is when Graham bolts out of Regina’s bed. She tries to get him to stay (which he finds odd, an interesting commentary on their relationship). He says, “It didn’t feel like a dream. It felt like a memory.” And he’s got to get out and get some air, because he’s hungry like the wolf.. confused and a little freaked out. Even more so when he goes to get his car and the wolf shows up in Storybrooke!

Emma comes home to find flowers on the table. Assuming they’re from Graham, she quickly disposes of them, only to discover that they were from Dr. Whale. Turns out Mary Margaret has been a naughty girl, and is feeling a bit guilty over having a tryst with the doctor. But the discussion of one night stands quickly turns around into an analysis of why Emma doesn’t let anyone get close. Mary Margaret talks about the emotional wall that Emma uses to keep out pain. But eventually it will keep out love as well.

[Writers: some good lines this week. Kudos.]

Meanwhile, Graham is in the woods, chasing after the wolf, but runs into Mr. Gold instead (doing a bit of gardening? In the forest?) Gold has a great line: “You know, Sheriff, to the best of my knowledge, there are no wolves in Storybrooke. Not the literal kind, anyway.” And Gold clearly knows more than he lets on when he says, “They say that dreams are memories… memories of another life.”

That other life flashes in as we jump back to Fairy Tale Land, where the wolf is actually the huntsman’s companion. That proves problematic in the tavern, where the thugs of the week get their jollies making fun of the hunstman who cries over his kills and spends time with a wolf. The subsequent fight includes a broken mirror (seven years bad luck, that), which gives Evil Queen Regina a view into the cavern from the safety of her castle in the mountains. “He’s perfect,” she says with an almost Catwoman-ish purr.

Meanwhile, back in the Storybrooke woods: Graham finds the wolf and starts to chase after, but then whistles him back, and it works! (Well, of course it does… He’s the huntsman.) Petting the head of the Magic Wolf, he gets another flash, this time of Snow White and the knife, along with a crest of some kind.

So Graham does what any sane man does when he thinks he’s losing his mind: goes to the person he saw in his hallucination. He goes to Mary Margaret and tells her he thinks they know each other from a past life.

FTL: The Queen wants the huntsman to kill someone, and he doesn’t care who it is. He just wants her word that she’ll outlaw the hunting of wolves. Done and done.

In a very interesting moment for everyone, Graham asks Mary Margaret if she’s remembers how they met. And that plants a seed that’s going to develop later, I’m sure. Because no one remembers any of that. Mary Margaret mentions Henry’s theory that everyone is a character in the book.

FTL woods: the huntsman is dressed as a guard, but Snow White has him figured for an imposter because he hasn’t offered his condolences (the wretch). She figures out he’s been sent to kill her, and makes a break for it.

Meanwhile, Emma’s in the Sheriff’s office when Regina comes in to tell her to stay away from Graham. The whole scene felt like they were channeling high school cheerleader vs. math geek.

Graham drops in on Henry. Now, isn’t it saying something when the ten-year-old kid is the only one in town who has everything figured out? (Of course, Regina knows everything, and it’s a good bet Mr. Gold knows at least some of it, but still…) He asks after Henry’s book, saying flat out, “Am I in it?” Well, of course he is. And as the Huntsman catches up to Snow, she asks him to deliver a letter to the Evil Queen. When he reads it (remember, this man was hired because he has no sympathy for anyone or  anything), he makes a whistle out of local fauna and tells her to run for it.

Graham flashes back into the now and mentions kissing Emma. Henry’s line says a lot: “You kissed my mom?!” Very revealing, that line. It says that this kid is still a kid with the whole “Ew!” factor, but also that he claims Emma as his mother instead of Regina. Henry believes there’s a special connection between Graham and Emma because he spared Snow White. As a result, Emma was born to fulfill her destiny of destroying the curse. Graham is wondering why he doesn’t feel anything. Henry gets the Best Line Award: “The Queen took your heart. It’s kind of her thing.”

Emma finds Graham coming out of the house – again, only this time with no hysterics on anyone’s part – and she has to convince him that he’s not crazy, only sick. And Graham gets the Only in a Fantasy Line award for “It’s my heart, Emma. I need to find it.” Emma, of course, delivers what the writers gave her, putting her hand (and then his) over his heart to prove he has one. It’s one of these moments that would mean more if there’d been any setup at all for this sudden romantic entanglement in previous episodes.

And then Emma sees the wolf! Zounds! And they’re off!

Wolf leads them to the cemetery, where they find a mausoleum with the same crest Graham saw in his Force-vision  flashback dream. And Graham has the second Only in a Fantasy Line: “My heart. It’s in there.”

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[We interrupt this recap for an observation. At this point in the show, ABC ran a promo for “Work It”. It looks like a cheap carbon copy ripoff of “Bosom Buddies”. A very cheap imitation of the original. Blech.]

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Over in FTL, the huntsman is brought in and gives the letter to Evil Queen Regina, but she makes him read it. Snow White has basically turned everything on its ear by forgiving Regina and asking her to leave her vengeance with just Snow White alone, and not take it out on the kingdom. This, of course, infuriates Regina. And we get another tidbit of a clue when the huntsman asks what Snow White did. Regina’s answer: “I shared a secret with her, and she couldn’t keep it.” What was this secret?

Of course, the heart that the huntsman hands over isn’t Snow White’s, a fact Regina figures out when she goes to put the heart in a vault (very much like a safe deposit box) and it doesn’t open.  What is open is the door to the mausoleum in Storybrooke, where Emma and Graham are found when Mayor Regina shows up with flowers for her father’s tomb (guess where? Yep.)

Graham doesn’t want to go with Regina, and Emma asks Madame Mayor the telling question: “Why is everyone running away from you?” Meow. And this leads to a wonderful catfight that doesn’t last long enough (and isn’t anywhere on the scale as the catfight between Krystle and Alexis). And Graham has decided he’s done with Regina.

While Graham is apologizing to Emma at the Sheriff’s office, Regina opens the casket for “Henry Mills” and goes down the secret staircase to the wall of mini-vaults from Fairy Tale Land, which is where she takes the huntsman’s heart because he dared double-cross her. And the heart is still there in Storybrooke.

[You see where this is going, right?]

Graham kisses Emma and has another flash. And while Regina holds his heart in her hand, he looks at Emma and says, “I remember.” Everything? How much does he remember before Regina squeezes his heart to powder?

I have to say, even though it was a well-crafted episode, the whole spontaneous combustion between Emma and Graham seemed too contrived and convenient for everything that’s gone on previous to this. There’s really nothing in prior episodes that would suggest any spark between these two, and when Mary Margaret says it’s obvious to everyone, I have to look around for Everyone to see who she’s talking about. Graham hasn’t had enough time with anyone for there to be a relationship building. Even his trysts with Regina are mostly off-camera. This really seemed like the writers had to manufacture the “love triangle” to make Regina’s jealousy have any source. It’s a misstep in an otherwise enjoyable episode.

And I’m curious to see what transpires now that people are starting to remember things. But we’ll have to wait until 2012.

[Official Show Site at ABC]   [Previous recap: “The Shepherd”]