S01E07 - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

This episode seems as though it will be focusing on Sheriff Graham. We open in the diner and Graham is clearly drunk, but really good at darts. Apparently he never misses as he demonstrates by first taking twenty bucks from the mayor's magic mirror (haven't figured out his Storybrooke name yet) and then showing off to Emma by narrowly missing her head. She isn't impressed. Emma isn't happy with Graham since she caught him sneaking out of the mayor's house in middle of the night at the end of the last episode. He's determined to explain himself to Emma about this, but she really doesn't want to hear his story. He claims that he "doesn't feel anything" with Regina - but not in a normal way. Emma can't understand why Graham cares about her opinion so much, and as a result he proceeds to show her by kissing her out of the blue.

As he does this, something strange happens. He gets a strange vision (flashback?) of a wolf in a forest. The wolf has two different color eyes. He breaks off from Emma and is stunned by the vision. Emma chalks it up to him being drunk and storms off. Next Graham heads to Regina's and after confirming that Henry is asleep, begins kissing her instead. Maybe he is kinda drunk...

We flash to a memory of Regina's at her castle in the enchanted forest. Things seem lighter and brighter than the last time we were here and the queen seems a bit less evil. There's a rose petal covered coffin she's staring at when Snow White arrives. They don't seem to be at each others throats, so we can assume this is further back in the story then we've seen before. We discover that it's Snow's father who died and that the queen was married to him. So the queen is also Snow White's step mother - very interesting. The queen isn't convincing me that she's actually mourning, but she does a good job of convincing Snow White.

Later, up in her chambers, her magic mirror tells her, "Congratulations. Your revenge is almost complete." She replies with, "One down, one to go." She confirms that she is the one responsible for the king's death and confides that she wants Snow White dead as well. It seems that at this point in the timeline, Snow White has already caused the death of the queen's fiance but hasn't yet been driven out to the forest to become a thief. The queen is looking for someone to kill Snow White and the mirror suggests "The Huntsman".

The huntsman turns out to be Graham of course. We see him in the forest as he kills a buck with a perfect shot from a bow. I guess the "I never miss" thing wasn't a joke. He's accompanied by the wolf from his vision.

In Storybrooke, in Regina's bedroom, Graham suddenly wakes up and describes the scene with the huntsman we just saw as an intense dream. Regina looks notably concerned that he seems to be remembering things. He leaves in a rush and heads back to his car at the diner. When he gets there, the wolf shows up in the middle of the street, then trots off leaving Graham stunned.

Back at Mary Margaret and Emma's apartment, Dr. Whale left flowers for Mary. She confesses to Emma that she had a one night stand with him and she feels guilty about it. During the conversation, Mary discovers that Emma has feelings for Graham, but won't admit it.


Graham chases the wolf into the forest and runs across Mr. Gold. This encounter is interesting for a couple of reasons:

1. Mr. Gold is wearing a suit, gloves and an apron and is carrying a cane and a shovel. When asked what he's doing, he claims he was gardening. Um, yeah... right. We don't find out exactly what he was up to, but I strongly suspect that we'll return to this later for some reason. 
2. When Graham tells him about the wolf and his dream, Mr. Gold tells him that dreams can be memories from another life. It seems more an more likely that he is one of the few to know what's going on in Storybrooke and for some reason seems to be encouraging people to start remembering.

The huntsman is in a tavern with his wolf and is getting some trouble from the locals. Someone claims that he was raised by wolves. A fight breaks out and he kills some of the patrons in defense before the others run off. The queen has been spying on the scene through her mirror and decides he's the one to kill Snow White.

Graham finally catches up with the wolf in the forest and when he whistles, the wolf comes to him and he has another vision/flashback. He sees himself attacking Snow White. When the vision completes, the wolf is nowhere to be found. He heads to the school and tells Mary Margaret that they know each other from another life.

At the queen's castle the huntsman has been brought to her. As we get some of his back story, we find out that he really was raised by wolves. The queen enlists his help with Snow White. He names his price to be the outlawing of the hunting of wolves and the queen agrees.

Graham asks Mary some basic questions that I've been wondering about for a while. He asks her how long they've known each other and when they met. He calls out that neither of them can remember when they met each other or anyone else. Mary easily shrugs this off as "That's just the way things are." and that "Things get hazy." I think that in this scene we get a little more glimpse into how the curse actually works. I think that not only does it remove their memories, but it also makes them less likely to think too hard about the past. Graham seems to be breaking free, and I'm guessing it all started with his kiss with Emma. She is supposed to be the one to break the curse after all. Mary tells Graham about Henry's theory and the storybook which seems to really resonate with Graham.

Back in the enchanted forest. Snow White is walking through the forest with one of the soldiers as a guard. He turns out to be Graham and while walking she offers him an apple - obviously this is before her poison apple experience. She figures out that the queen sent him to kill her, but she surprises him with a shot from a tree branch and makes a run for it.

Back at the sheriff's office Emma is playing darts by herself and can't seem to even hit the board. Regina shows up to warn her away from Graham. She has a tendency to turn up and tell Emma what not to do which of course makes her do the opposite. Seriously, she raised a kid? She hasn't figure this out yet? While Regina is out, Graham goes to her house and asks Henry if he's in his book.

Snow White stops running from the huntsman and starts writing a letter. When he catches up to her, she quickly finishes up and asks him to deliver the note to the queen after he kills her. As he reads the letter, he changes his mind about killing her and instead he sets her free.

Graham conveys his whole story to Henry who is thrilled to have someone actually start to believe in the curse. Henry pieces together that Graham is the huntsman and tell him that after he spared Snow's life, the queen took his heart so that he can never feel anything again. They think that the wolf he keeps seeing is trying to guide him to his heart which the queen is keeping in a vault.

Outside Henry's house, Graham runs into Emma. He believes Henry's story and thinks he needs to follow the wolf. Emma almost convinces him that he's crazy but then the wolf shows up and is visible to both of them. Emma has a hard time coming up with an explanation for that one and they follow the wolf to the Storybrooke graveyard.

The wolf leads them to a crypt with the same symbol on the front as the vault where the huntsman's heart was kept in the story book. They break in to look around.

The huntsman arrives at the queen's castle which is now decked out in a creepy gloom. He reads her the letter from Snow White which tells us that she knew the queen was out for revenge. She takes the wind out the vengeance sails by apologizing to the queen (presumably for the death of her fiance) and also by forgiving her for Snow's would-be murder. The queen is very displeased to have her revenge tainted by forgiveness and the huntsman asks what happened between them. The queen tells us that she once shared a secret with Snow that she couldn't keep. This is seemingly what lead to the death of the queen's true love.

When the queen demands Snow's heart, the huntsman produces a pouch with a heart in it. The queen enters a vault and places the heart in a small chest. She then takes it to a wall of similar chests and attempts to put the heart inside. When the slot for the chest fails to open, she's realizes that the huntsman's tricked her and knows that he let Snow go free.

Emma and Graham are searching the crypt for a some kind of hidden room or passage (there is also a sweet heartbeat rhythm in the background soundtrack during this scene) when Regina shows up. She's supposedly bring flowers to her father's grave which is really convenient. Regina tries to take Graham home, but he doesn't want to go with her. He has come to a decision and breaks off his relationship with her on the spot. Regina blames Emma for this of course and the two get into a pretty great fist fight which leaves no clear winner before Graham breaks it up. After they leave, Regina enters the crypt and reveals a secret stairway.

The queen is furious with the huntsman and in place of Snow White's heart, she takes his instead. It has a gem like quality and he doesn't actually die when she rips it out of his chest. She calls him her pet and puts his heart into one of the boxes. She demonstrates what happens when she squeezes his "heart" and it seems to have the same effect as if she squeezed his real heart. Needless to say, he's fairly well leashed.

(Maybe) Lost Reference: I've seen on a few other sites that there are 108 boxes on the wall in another reference to the Lost number 108 (from the countdown clock in the hatch and the sum of all the Lost numbers). I don't really buy this reference though since there are other sections of wall than just the one with 108 boxes. We don't really get a clear look at the wall or the room, but we can piece it together from a couple screen caps. Here's some proof:

12 veritcal rows,

9 horizontal columns, 12 x 9 = 108 boxes

But you can see the other wall sections in the room here.

In the secret room in the crypt at the Storybrooke graveyard an identical wall of boxes exists. Regina pulls out a chest and reveals a gem-heart inside.

Back at the sheriff's office, Graham and Emma begin a kiss that sends Graham into what seems to be total recall. He claims that "he remembers" but before he can tell Emma what he remembered, Regina crushes his heart into dust and Graham falls to the floor, seemingly dead.

My Questions:

• The obvious one... is Graham really dead? I'm guessing so - doesn't seem like we should be expecting miracles in the "real" world. Also, given all this, does Emma now start to believe in the curse? The wolf was a pretty clear sign, but if Graham is dead will that fact get lost in the aftermath?

New Theories:

• Well, if there was any question about whether Emma has the power to break the curse, I think that's cleared up now. I guess all she has to do is kiss everyone in town and they'll all wake up right? Ok, maybe not... but she definitely has some power and Regina is rightfully scared.

Other Thoughts:

A couple of Lost-like things about this show have been brought to my attention lately, some of them fairly obvious, but I hadn't really called them out before:

• Storybrooke sure seems to be a lot like the Lost island in that you can't leave. As we know from previous episodes, "bad things happen" when people try to leave. It seems like there is a barrier right at the "Welcome to Storybrooke" sign. 
• Lost did a lot of switching back and forth between the current timeline on the Island to flashbacks centering on one character's back story per episode. In later seasons, we not only got flashbacks, but flashforwards and flashsideways. Once Upon a Time seems to follow a similar pattern of following the current timeline in Storybrooke, but flashing back to give us back story on one character at a time. I wonder if later seasons will sneak in other flash types as well.