We jump forward to their wedding and of course, just after saying "I do", the evil queen shows up. Snow makes a comment about her not being a queen any more - not sure what this is about yet, but it seems important. The queen isn't happy about things and declares that "Everything you love will be taken from you." There are special effects like the queen gliding over the floor as she walks and Charming throwing a sword at her which causes her to disappear into a cloud of black smoke. I think they overdid this scene a bit so they would have something cool to put in the commercials.
Next, we then move to current day Boston and briefly meet a boy on a bus with a book. We then move to a young woman named Emma on a blind date. We find out that today is her birthday and that she describes herself as "kind of a loner". The date turns out to be a setup as she's actually a bail bonds-person and was trying to track down the guy to collect money from him. The guy makes a break for it and she calmly chases him down (in heels) and smashes his head into the steering wheel of his car. I think we're supposed to get the impression that she's a no-nonsense, I-can-take-care-of-myself, school-of-hard-knocks type.
We end up in her apartment which is conspicuously empty. She has a single cupcake with birthday candle and makes a wish. Seconds later, a knock at her door reveals the boy from the bus. His name is Henry and says he's her son. We find out that 10 years ago, she gave up a baby for adoption. During their exchange, Emma tells us that her "super power" is that she can tell when anyone is lying. Apparently Henry isn't. He wants her to come home with him, to Storybrooke, Maine.
Back to the enchanted forest, in the castle, Snow White is now pregnant. She's quite worried about the threat the queen made at their wedding. Charming tries to talk her down a bit, but she insists on seeing "Him", whoever that is.
Back to Emma and Henry - they're driving to Maine and Henry tells her about his book. Supposedly, every story in the book actually happened. Using her super power, Emma determines that Henry really believes this and says "Just because you believe something doesn't make it true". He says, "That's exactly what makes it true. You should know more than anyone". Another statement that will probably make more sense later.
Down in the castle dungeons, "Him" turns out to be Rumpelstiltskin who is looking to make a deal. He offers to trade information about the queen's plans in exchange for the name of Snow White's unborn child. When she accepts, he reveals that the queen is is creating a powerful curse. Apparently, they'll be stuck in time and there will be no more happy endings. Their only hope is the baby - if they can get her to safety she will return on her 28th birthday, find Snow, and the final battle will begin. We then find out that the baby's name is Emma - shocker.
Emma and Henry arrive in Storybrooke. We see a clock tower where the clock is stuck at 8:15.
Lost Reference #1: The time 8:15 seems like a reference to flight 815, the one that crashes on the island
According to Henry, time is frozen here in Storybrooke. The evil queen has sent all the characters from the enchanted forest here and if they try to leave, "bad things happen". We discover that Henry is the Mayor's son (awesome) and that the characters don't remember who they are. We also meet our first character, Archie. He's Henry's shrink and is supposed to be Jiminy Cricket.
Back in the enchanted castle, a plan is being made to deal with the queen's curse. A magic tree is brought in (seriously, a magic tree?) that if they make into a "vessel" will protect one person from the curse. They decide to put Snow White and the unborn baby in as soon as it's ready.
In Storybrooke, at the Mayor's house, we discover that the Mayor, Regina is actually the evil queen. Her name, Regina, interestingly enough is of Latin origin and means "queen". After an exchange between Emma and Regina where we find out that Emma asked for a closed adoption and that Henry's dad has no idea about him, Emma attempts to leave town. As predicted, something bad happens and just as she discovers Henry's book in her car, a wolf jumps out and causes her to swerve and crash into the Storybrooke sign.
A quick flash to the enchanted forest shows up that Snow White's baby is coming early, the tree-vessel isn't ready yet and the curse is approaching in the form of scary black clouds.
The next day in Storybrooke, Emma wakes up in jail.
Lost Reference #2: Emma wakes up with the infamous "Eye Shot" from Lost.
Also, Grumpy the dwarf is in jail and is whistling the "Whistle While You Work" song - nice. Regina shows up and tells the sheriff that Henry is missing. Emma convinces them to let her out to help them find Henry. They figure out that Henry used a credit card from a Mary Margaret Blanchard to pay for the website that helped him find Emma.
We jump to Henry's school and find out that Mary Margaret is his teacher, but more importantly Snow White and supposedly Emma's mother. They're about the same age so this is kinda creepy. Also, this makes the name Mary Margaret Blanchard somewhat interesting. Blanchard has roots in French and Germanic and means "white" or "shining, brave, strong". I also noticed that one of her kids gave her a pear and not an apple. Clever. Mary Margaret didn't give Henry the credit card (he must have stolen it), but she did give him the book.
In the enchanted castle, Snow White has her baby as the queen is rushing towards the castle with curse in tow. The tree-vessel, which is now a wardrobe, can only hold one person, so Charming has a pretty sweet sword fight with a bunch of the queens soldiers while holding a baby in one arm and gets her into the wardrobe. He takes a sword in the chest shortly after and is apparently dead, but the baby is no longer in the wardrobe when it's searched. Mission accomplished.
Emma finds Henry at the park and he tells her that she's here to bring back the happy endings. She's not buying it. We find out that her parents "abandoned" her on the side of the freeway, but Henry thinks that's just where she came through from the wardrobe.
In the castle, Snow White finds the slain Prince Charming, and tries the magic kiss routine to revive him, all to no avail. The queen shows up and finds out that the baby got away. Just then the curse takes full effect and a tornado of sorts rips the castle apart and they all disappear into the smoke.
At the Mayor's house, Emma brings Henry home again.
Lost Reference #3: Regina lives at number 108, the same number that the countdown clock in the hatch in Lost reset to every time they enter the magic numbers. Also the sum of the magic numbers added together: 4 + 8 + 15 + 16 + 23 + 42 = 108
Regina really isn't Emma's biggest fan and let's her know that she's unwelcome in her town. Emma asks if Regina loves Henry. She responds that she does, but the super power tells Emma that Regina is full of it. No surprise there. Later, we see Regina with Henry's book. She's hanging on to it like she's scared to let it out of her sight, but she doesn't destroy it or get rid of it really. Leads me to wonder if she can, or if something is preventing her from doing it.
A couple flashes around Storybrooke shows us Mary Margaret in a hospital where she's working and we see Charming in a bed unconscious. We see Emma check into a B&B where we run into Rumpelstiltskin who goes by "Mr. Gold". He certainly has the look of someone who knows more than he's letting on. The innkeeper pays him a large wad of cash. After he leaves, the innkeeper tells Emma that he "owns the town". Lastly, we see Henry looking out his window at the clock tower where the clock starts ticking again.
My Questions:
- Does Regina know what's going on here? How much does she remember. So far, we haven't seen any confirmation one way or the other.
- How much does Rumpel know? His tone when he hears Emma's name leads me to think that he remembers more than the others.
- Still too early to start forming theories. We don't even really know the rules or the motivations of most of the characters yet.
Great post on the first episode Tom. I am now convinced that the creators of this show weaved in the Lost references intentionally. I wonder how far they will go with this. This is kind of exciting, I have missed coming up with Lost theories.
ReplyDeleteWow hunny that is awesome. i did not catch the pear or any of the numbers. very good recount. can't wait to read more! :)
ReplyDeleteYou will make me pay very close attention from now on. Great blog!
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