S01E11 - Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

As this episode opens, Henry meets Emma at "the castle" which has been seriously damaged by the storm. Henry is distraught because he had buried his book underneath. He just finishes uncovering the box, making sure the book is still there, and partially covering it back up when Regina arrives. She doesn't seem to notice the book, but she gives Emma a good tongue lashing for letting Henry play on a now dangerous play structure.

Later, Emma is venting to Mary Margaret at Granny's (the town's diner,bed and breakfast, and bar) when Mary gets a text from David to meet her at "their spot". She makes a quick exit and Sidney Glass sits down, clearly drunk, claiming to be able to"grant her wish". He wants Emma to help him expose the mayor for who she really is. Supposedly, he and the mayor have had a falling out.

As we transition to fairy tale land, Sidney is actually a genie. He's sitting in his lamp when it's picked up by a king (what is that, like four different kings we've met now?). The king rubs the lamp and out pops the genie (in a cloud of black smoke no less). He gives the typical speech about the 3 wishes, but the king does something unexpected: he claims that he has everything he wants and so with the first wish, he wishes the genie to be free. This is reminding me a lot of the Disney movie Aladdin right now with the shackles falling off the genie's wrists. With his second wish the king wishes for his third wish to transfer to the genie. The king asks the genie what he will do with his new freedom and the genie tells him that he wishes to find true love. The king invites him to come to his palace to find it. When we arrive at the palace, we discover that this particular king is actually Snow White's father and the evil queen's husband. This seems to be the furthest back in the timeline we've seen thus far. When the genie sees the queen, he seems dazed - apparently smitten.

Back at Henry's castle, the remnants of the structure are being demolished while Henry watches. He's upset not only because of the destruction of the castle, but also because the book seems to be gone. Emma confronts Regina about tearing down the thing Henry loves and receives more verbal abuse for it. Finally fed up, Emma calls Sidney and tells him that she's in for his plan to publicly discredit Regina.

Over at the T(r)oll Bridge, David is waiting when Mary Margaret shows up. He leads her to a picnic he has setup down the river. They kiss and Mary asks him what they're really doing. He says that they need to figure it out, but now is not the time. Nice line.

Emma meets up with Sidney in some sort of shady storm drain. He reveals that $50,000 is missing from the city budget. Emma doesn't think this is much to go on, but Sidney is convinced that this is just the tip of the iceberg. He thinks that if they can track down what Regina did with the money, her whole facade will start to crumble. He seems to have a personal vendetta against the mayor.

In the king's palace, a celebration is underway and during a speech, he tells everyone how much he loves his daughter (Snow) and how much she reminds him of his first wife who, according to him, was the fairest in the land. His current wife, the evil queen, seems quite sad about this and leaves for the courtyard where her infamous apple tree is growing. The genie follows her out and gives her a gift of a golden mirror. He confesses his feelings for her and she seems interested in him as well.

Emma and Sidney are searching through piles of public documents trying to figure out where the missing money went. Sidney is trying to convince Emma to play dirty and do some illegal sniffing around (wire taps, etc). She wants to play things by the book, but is hesitant to get a warrant since she thinks Regina likely owns every judge around. Eventually, she seems to get an idea and the two head off to Regina's office. She asks Regina point blank what happened to the money but gets no clear answer. As they leave, Emma tells Sidney that she planted a bug while questioning Regina. I'm guessing she used her super power to determine that Regina was lying about something and that convinced her to plant the bug.

The king summons the genie to his chambers and tells him that he believes that the queen's heart belongs to another man. He has the queen's diary which does seem to indicate that she is falling in love with someone, but does not name who. The king asks the genie to investigate and find out who this person is.

Sidney and Emma are listening in on the conversations that are taking place in the mayor's office. They stumble across a phone conversation where Regina agrees to meet someone in the forest to complete the transaction. They head to the place mentioned to intercept Regina, but the brakes on the squad car have been cut and they crash into a tree. They believe that Regina found out about the bug and tampered with the car. As they head off to find Regina they run into Mr. Gold. He tells them that they already completed their transaction and that Regina purchased the particular piece of property that they're standing on. Mr. Gold offers a warning of caution to the two of them - this seems wise advice to me.

The genie is waiting in the queen's courtyard and picks an apple from the tree. He's about to take a bite when the queen's servant/father (who later sacrifices his heart to jump start the curse) arrives. He tells the genie that the queen is being held captive in her chambers and that he cannot reach her. He asks the genie to take a locked box to the queen and that it contains something that may help her escape. The idea of being held captive seems to resonate with the genie and he agrees to deliver the box.

Emma and Sidney head to town hall and break in. The alarm goes off but Emma figures they have a few minutes before anyone catches them. They make a copy of all of Regina's files related to the real estate transaction and then while searching around, stumble across an interesting key ring. I wonder what those go to? They seem to look just like the key that accompanies the box the genie should be delivering to the queen. How many of these boxes does she have?

Emma continues searching the office, looking for Henry's book. Regina shows up and Emma acts innocent by claiming that she heard the alarm and was investigating. Regina doesn't want them finding anything else, so she sends them packing.


In the queen's chambers, the genie shows up with the box. It turns out to contain a pair of poisonous snakes which happen to be from the genie's homeland. She is preparing to "escape" by putting her hand in the box and committing suicide, but the genie stops her and says that he will find a way to free her.


Over at Granny's, Henry is busy trying to write down what he remembers of the book before he forgets what was in it. The stranger shows up and seems pretty interested in what Henry's doing. I noticed that he's wearing a golden fang or something around his neck. I wonder if that will mean something down the road - only calling it out here so I can gloat later if it ends up being important. Henry and the stranger trade jabs at each other while not actually saying anything. Henry won't say much about his book and the stranger won't say much about what he's doing in Storybrooke. The pair are pretty funny actually.

Emma and Sidney are going over the documents they got from her office. It appears that she is building something out in the forest that they believe to be for personal use. It seems that they may finally have something solid on her after all, but Emma isn't happy about it because of the means they had to use to get it. She doesn't like stooping to Regina's level. Sidney is still obsessed with people finding out who Regina really is (well, not like "evil queen" really is, just that she's super mean). He shows Emma some pictures that he's taken of her and Henry at the castle, and lots of other places. He says that Regina made him follow them everywhere and that she knows everything they've been doing. Regina was just waiting until the perfect opportunity came along to destroy what made them happy (the castle - their special place).

I guess that settled it for Emma because the next thing we see is Sidney and her interrupt a city council meeting to try and finally out Regina publicly along with her plans for the personal development of the real estate. They claim that she is planning to build a second home for herself, and in the process they really try to expose her as cruel and manipulative. Not shockingly, Regina has the last laugh here - the plan for the property isn't to build a house, but a playground to replace the unsafe one that she recently had torn down. The design is a copy of her palace in fairy tale land too. Emma and Sidney now look pretty mean and vindictive in the public eye and Regina comes out smelling like roses.

Back at the palace, the genie sneaks into the king's bedroom and releases the two snakes into his bed while he's sleeping. The snakes bite him on the neck and just before the king dies, the genie tells him that he was the man the king was looking for.

As Emma and Sidney exit town hall, Mr. Gold approaches them. He tells them that their efforts were commendable, but that they'll need a strong ally (such as himself) to defeat Regina. Emma still isn't interested in his help. Next Regina herself approaches and asks for a word with Emma alone. She now seems to have the upper hand in their struggle and tells Emma than unless she wants a restraining order filed against her, she's no longer allowed to see Henry. There doesn't seem to be much that Emma can do about it. This plan seems to have seriously backfired.


Over at the new playground Emma is waiting in her car while Henry is playing. She talks with him via the walkie-talkies and tells him that she can't see him for a while. They're going to try and play by the rules for a while and see if things blow over. Emma commits to trying to find Henry's book as well.

In the next scene, we see that it's the stranger who has recovered Henry's book. We don't get much from this brief scene,but I suspect this is highly significant.


Emma and Sidney are drowning their sorrows at Granny's. They aren't giving up on finding dirt on Regina, but they're going to need to be more careful in the future. For his part, Sidney tells Emma that at the least, she now has him for an ally.


In the palace, the genie comes to the queen and tells her that the king is dead. She tells him that the guards found the snakes and know that they are from his home country. He will be blamed for the death of the king (which is correct, actually) and that the guards will be there to collect him soon. She tries to get him to leave the kingdom and says that they can never be together. The genie now finally see's what was happening - the queen set him up from the beginning. Even after this, and with the queen telling him point blank that she wishes him gone, he still says that he can't live without her. Using his one wish, he wishes to be with the queen forever and is transformed into the magic mirror.


Back in Regina's office, Sidney is there alone and we finally see what I was suspecting would happen - the entire thing has been a setup. Sidney is still taking orders from Regina and they plotted to plant Sidney as Emma's ally and confidant. The only interesting this is the look in Sidney's eyes during the final shot. He almost looks like he might not really be in her pocket after all - could this be a double cross?


My Questions:

• What's Sidney's end game? Is he still the queen's creature or has he finally had it and is planning a double cross? Also, he was trapped in a mirror before, but now he's flesh and blood again. How is he dealing with that and still not having the queen's love?
• I still want to know what's up with the stranger. Why is he so into the book? How did he get it or know where to look for it?

New Theories:

• I've been pretty certain for a while now that Sidney is well aware of the curse, they're previous lives and everything. This seems more or less certain at this point.
• The stranger is the key to something big - this is kind of obvious. I'm still feeling some possible link where as a writer he can steal stories from the book or straight from the characters in town maybe?

Other Thoughts:

• Other than the plot advancement with the stranger, I thought this episode wasn't as good as some of the others. Nothing too big happened, the story felt a little weak and rushed at times. Hoping for better from next week.
  

S01E10 - 7:15 A.M.

As the episode opens, we're already starting on the topic of the stranger in town. In front of Henry's house the stranger is stopped on his motorcycle and Henry asks him the question we're all wondering - "What are you doing in Storybrooke?". This guy doesn't give out answers easily and tells us that he's just here visiting. Upon further questioning, he also dodges the question about what is in the mysterious box on the back of his bike. Apparently, he needs it to do the thing he's in town for (whatever that means). Now that we're all as confused as possible, he rides off before Regina can catch up with him.

Mary Margaret is rushing out the door of the apartment - apparently it's important that she's at school by 7:15am, or so she tells Emma. The time seems important given that it's the name of this episode. Rather than head to school, she instead turns up at the diner and does her best to look like she's been there for a while. A minute later, David walks in to pick up coffee for himself and Katheryn. He notices Mary Margaret and they make some small talk. After he leaves we see that Mary is still very much into our would-be Prince Charming. Emma strolls in (super power clearly telling her that Mary was not in a rush to get to school) and we find out that Mary has been essentially stalking David.

In the enchanted forest, Snow White is hunting (with a spear?) when Red Riding Hood shows up with a basket of supplies for her. Apparently in this time frame we're past the episode where she has her adventure with James and she is still living on her own in the forest on the run from the queen. Red gives her the news that James' wedding to Midas' daughter is taking place in two days. Snow laments that she can't get James out of her head and Red reluctantly tells her about a man who can possibly help her with that problem. Pretty sure it's going to be our old friend Rumplestiltskin.

Lo and behold, we next see Snow rowing a boat across a foggy lake. When she reaches the other side Rumple is there and, as always, is willing to bargain. He makes her a potion to help her forget about James using a strand of Snow's hair. In exchange for the potion, he just wants to keep one other strand. Now what on Earth can he want that for? - Nothing good, I'm guessing. I strongly suspect this will have something to do with a certain poison apple down the road.

In the next scene, Mary Margaret is shopping when she literally runs into Katheryn.

Lost Reference: She buys a freaking huge Apollo bar! I'm starting to wonder if we've seen enough Apollo bars in this show to start thinking that Lost is actually referencing OUAT, not the other way around?

They manage to knock the contents of each others baskets on the ground and in the cleanup process Katheryn hands back Mary's "Apollo brick" and Mary hands back Katheryn's pregnancy test. Stunned doesn't quite describe Mary's look.

Back in the enchanted forest, James is brooding in his room while his wedding feast is going on downstairs. The king enters, concerned about James' absence. James tells him that he will keep his end of the wedding bargain but the king doesn't think this is good enough. He gets James to admit that there is another woman. The king makes it very clear that no matter what feelings James may have, the wedding will take place on schedule. After the king leaves the room, James writes a letter to Snow White and sends it off with a messenger dove.

Mary Margaret is walking down a trail in the woods when she finds a dove tangled up in some netting. She takes the bird to the animal shelter where David just happens to work. The doctor tells her that the bird will heal, but because it's a specific type of dove if it doesn't get back to it's flock it will never be happy. She decides to take the bird and try to find the rest of the flock before they move on from the greater Storybrooke area. David tries to convince her to wait since there is a storm coming in, but she can't be persuaded. The thought of the dove being lonely and sad forever hits a little too close to home for this bird lover.

Down the road, Emma is packing supplies into the squad car in preparation for the coming storm. Regina shows up and wants her to figure out who the new stranger in town is. Regina says that he seems familiar, and I don't think she's making this up. Could it be that there are some unintended side effects to the curse and there are things that she can't remember as well? Given that the stranger seemed to have been taking an interest in Henry, Emma agrees to investigate.

As Snow is contemplating taking her potion and forgetting about James forever, the dove arrives and brings her the message. He wants her to come to him before the wedding so they can run away together. If she doesn't show up, he will assume that she doesn't feel the same about him and he will go ahead with the wedding.

Snow decides to go after James and does a pretty good job of infiltrating the castle. She gets within arm's reach of James before a guard catches her and smuggles her away before James can see or hear her. She gets thrown into a cell to await the king's judgement and finds herself in the company of a strange cellmate - Grumpy the dwarf. While he's telling Snow his sob story (framed for stealing a diamond to give to his true love) another dwarf shows up by the name of Stealthy and springs them from the cells. Seriously? An eighth dwarf named Stealthy? Walt Disney is rolling over in his grave.

Mary Margaret has been driving through the forest with the dove looking for the flock. She reaches the end of the road and sets out to go further on foot. She comes to a nasty looking cliff and while looking over the edge, part of it gives way and she is left dangling over the edge hanging from a root. David shows up out of nowhere (apparently he followed her from the animal shelter) and pulls her up, but by now the storm is in full effect. They look for a place to take cover.

Snow and dwarfs have different opinions on how best to escape the castle so they split up. Grumpy and Stealthy are heading out the main gate when the guards catch up with them. Stealthy tries to make a run for it and takes an arrow through the chest. The king shows up and questions Grumpy about Snow. When he won't talk, the king orders him killed. Snow turns up at the last second to save his life and bargains with the king who eventually turns Grumpy free.

David and Mary find an empty cabin in the woods that they commandeer to wait out the storm. Now that they're trapped together, the truth finally comes out. Mary tells him that she still has feelings for him and how she stalks him at the diner each morning. He tells her that the only reason he goes to the diner in the morning is to see her. They're about to kiss when Mary asks him how he can do that when Katheryn is pregnant. He's pretty surprised by this so we can assume that he didn't know.

Emma comes into the diner and spots the mysterious stranger. She starts asking questions, but he has a perfectly reasonable answer for everything. He says that his bike broke down in front of Henry's house and Henry turned up asking him questions, not the other way around. She asks him about the strange box he's always carrying around and he offers a trade: she let's him buy her a drink and he tells her what's inside. She agrees and when he opens the box it turns out to be a typewriter. So he's a writer, and he claims that Storybrooke provides "inspiration". I strongly get the feeling that this guy knows a whole lot more about Storybrooke than he's letting on. Plus, there is some kind of connection between a writer and a place where characters from stories are trapped. When Emma asks if he's been in Storybrooke before, he dodges the question and leaves. Apparently he meant that he'd buy her a drink some other time.

We move back to David and Mary. As David is coming to terms with the fact that Katheryn might be pregnant, the rain stops. Mary runs outside just as the flock of doves is flying by overhead. They release the rescued dove which joins up with it's flock. David is still very conflicted about the Mary versus Katheryn problem but Mary decides for the both of them that they are going to have to forget about each other and leaves him standing there. She seems to do this to him a lot...

Snow White is being questioned by the king who has the letter that James sent to her. He wants her to break James' heart by telling him that she's not interested. He thinks that this is the only way that James will move on. He threatens to kill James if she doesn't agree - thinking that if he kills Snow, James will revolt and sabotage the marriage, but if James were killed by an "assassin", King Midas will still honor the agreement and save the destitute kingdom. Snow reluctantly agrees. Shortly thereafter, she meets with James and painfully does what was asked of her. Ouch - tough scene to watch.

Back at the Nolan's house, David is now home and tries to confront Katheryn about the pregnancy. She has a few things of her own to discuss about their relationship and the fact that she thought she was pregnant comes out without David ever mentioning it. The test ended up being negative, which she now thinks is a good thing since they don't seem to be ready for children. She wants to start some counseling with Dr. Hopper and David agrees. The clock reads 7:10am and they're about ready to head out for their morning coffee when David decides to try and move on from seeing Mary Margaret at the diner by staying home and having breakfast instead.

As Snow is miserable and stumbling away from the castle, the seven dwarfs catch up with her. They offer to take her home and protect her since she saved Grumpy's life. They're mourning as well since apparently they used to be eight dwarfs before Stealthy's untimely demise. Snow remembers that she has the potion to make her forget about James, but Grumpy talks her out of taking the potion for now saying that the pain is what makes them who they are (it makes him Grumpy, heh). She agrees for the short term and heads home with the dwarfs.

Emma and Mary are at their apartment and the clock reads 7:15am. Mary is also trying to move on and doesn't head to the diner to see David either.

James is out riding in the forest looking for Snow when he runs into Red Riding Hood. She tells him that Snow never came back after she went to see him. He vows to keep searching for her. We then see Snow at the dwarfs' house where Grumpy comes running in with the news that the wedding is off. Snow doesn't seem to know what he's talking about and we see the empty potion vial sitting next to her.

At 7:45am, Mary is at the diner getting some coffee when David shows up. He sees her and immediately runs out. She chases him down and then after realizing that trying not to see each other isn't working, he tells her that Katheryn isn't pregnant. I guess this was the final straw because they finally break into a long overdue kiss. Regina just happens to be sitting in her car across and street and sees the whole scene.

My Questions:

• So, if Snow took the potion, does James find some way to undo the spell later? Clearly they end up together in the end and have Emma, but there must be quite a bit more to this story that we haven't seen yet.
• The Mary/David thing seems bad for Regina somehow - but other than the fact that she doesn't like any happy endings, what does this really mean for her and the state of the curse?
• Ok, so the stranger - what is that guy's deal? I suspect that he's been to Storybrooke before and has actually left. Of course no one can remember him except Regina who seems to have just a glimmer of a memory.

New Theories:

• Previously, when Graham kissed Emma, his memory started to return to him. Will something similar happen to Mary and David now or was the previous incident special because Emma is the "savior"? 
• If the stranger really did manage to leave Storybrooke, that means there is a way to do it. Could it be that when this happens, memories of the person who leaves are erased? Is this another mechanism of the curse designed to keep people from trying to leave - one less reason to leave if you don't know anyone outside of town?
• This stranger knows way too much - I'm almost temped to think that he's some sort of "creator" type that can influence what happens here by writing about it? Or maybe he somehow steals stories and uses them for his own purpose? I don't know... there is some connection to him being a writer that is nagging me.

Other Thoughts:

• If the Mary/David thing goes public, Henry is going to flip. Also, is it weird that these are his grandparents or is that just me? For some reason I can get over Emma being the same age as her parents, but the grandparent angle is hard to get my head around.
• I was totally into this episode - cool part of the Snow/James story, some intrigue with the stranger in Storybrooke, the two will-they-won't-they characters finally getting together. This is some good TV here folks.

S01E09 - True North

This episode opens with Henry reading a comic book at a convenience store. A girl and her brother (Ava and Nicholas) approach him and say they recognize him from school. They ask if he wants to go hang out, but as they're leaving, the shop keeper stops them and opens Henry's bag. It's full of stolen candy that Nicholas had stashed there. I'm guessing this won't be good for Henry.

In fairytale land, the two same children are out in the forest with their father gathering firewood. This appears to be the story of Hansel and Gretel. They're father sends them off to gather kindling while he works on chopping down a large tree. He gives the girl his compass so she can find her way back to him. As the day wears on, the kids head back to where they left their father but when they reach the tree he chopped down, he's nowhere to be found. As they desperately search for him they wind up on the road and run into but the evil queen's carriage.

Meanwhile in Storybrooke, Regina has been called to the store where Henry and the kids were caught shoplifting.

Lost Reference: One of the things in the backpack is another Apollo bar.

Regina isn't pleased but is pretty convinced that Henry didn't steal anything. She immediately blames Ava and Nicholas. When Emma arrives to do her duty as sheriff, Regina takes Henry and makes an exit. When Emma questions the kids, she discovers that their parents don't have much money (the phone was disconnected) and they things they were stealing were mostly household items (toothpaste, etc). She immediately sympathizes with them and wants to help.

The kids lost in the forest tell the queen that they've lost their father, but rather than take pity on them, she tries to capture the two. They make a run for it, but the queen has some nifty tricks like teleporting via black clouds of smoke and making tree roots tangle them up. When she finally has them restrained, she now has a new plan for them. Given their bravery in trying to run away from her, she offers to find their father if they will do something for her in exchange.

Emma is driving the kids home and when they get to the house, the kids try to pull a fast one. They get out of the car in front of an ordinary house, but after Emma drives off, they hop a fence and run to the cellar of another, much more decrepit house. They enter through the cellar and once inside, Emma shows up out of nowhere. She apparently used her super power to tell that they were lying about the house and followed them. Ava finally confesses that they don't have any parents.

Emma takes them back to her apartment and Mary Margaret doesn't recognize them from school. Apparently their mother died a few years ago but no one knows or remembers her. They don't know who their father is. Emma hasn't reported them to social services yet and reveals some details about her own time in the foster system. She's concerned that if the kids are placed in orphanages, they'll be separated. Instead, she wants to try to figure out who their father is in the hopes that if he finds out that he has kids, he'll want them.

Emma heads to the hall of records to try to look at the kid's birth certificates, but they appear to have been removed by none other than the mayor. When Emma catches up with Regina on the matter, she has already contacted social services and tells her that they're going to be put into two separate homes in Boston. She then tells Emma that she needs to drive them there tonight.

Back in the forest, the queen leads Hansel and Gretel to the "home of the blind witch". She asks them to sneak inside and steal something she needs to defeat a "wicked and powerful enemy". The queen can't enter the house herself because the house is protected with magic, but the spell apparently doesn't work on children. She tells them to wait until night when the witch is sleeping and then sneak in. She also warns them that once inside, they must not eat anything.

As Emma searches for the missing father, Henry shows up and tells her that he figured out that the two are actually Hansel and Gretel. He's convinced that their father is still in town since no one can enter or leave Storybrooke (except Emma). Henry then asks Emma to tell him about his own father. Emma tells him that when she met his dad, he was training to be a firefighter. After a while, they drifted apart but when she found out she was pregnant, she tried to contact him. She found out that he died while saving a family from a burning apartment building. She tells Henry that his father was a real hero.

Emma heads back to the apartment to talk to Ava and Nicholas. She has a theory that they might have kept something of their fathers that she can use to track him down. She says that all kids without parents keep something from them, and as proof she shows them her baby blanket that she was found in when she was abandoned. It turns out that Ava has a compass that belonged to their father.

At the house of the blind witch, it's now night and the kids sneak in through the window. The place if filled with sweets of every kind. The witch is asleep by the fire and the satchel with the item they need to steal is hanging near by. Gretel grabs it, but while she's occupied with the theft, Hansel can't help himself and takes a bite from a cupcake. As soon as he does, the witch wakes up and all the doors and windows magically close. She apparently likes to eat children as evidenced by the pile of bones by the fire.

Emma takes the compass to Mr. Gold's pawn shop. Of course Mr. Gold recognizes the compass and claims that is was bought in his shop. He pulls out his records and gives her the name of the man who purchased the compass. As Emma leaves the shop, we see that the card Mr. Gold read the name from is actually blank. What kind of trick is he up to?

It doesn't take long for Emma to track down the father once she has the name. He's a mechanic and he's not convinced that the kids are his, but when she shows him the compass he has a hard time not believing it. Emma lays the guilt trip on him pretty thick, but even so he doesn't go for it and won't take the kids.

Emma calls Mary Margaret and has her come outside the apartment to talk to her privately. She tells her what happened with the father and also confesses that she lied to Henry about his own father. The real story isn't something that she wants him to know about. Just then Regina shows up to make sure that Emma has the kids on the way to Boston.

The witch has Hansel and Gretel locked up in a cage and is preparing her oven to cook them. When she opens the cage and pulls out Gretel, she grabs the key from the witch's pocket and tosses it to Hansel who gets out of the cage. After a struggle, they manage to shove the witch into her own oven and lock the door. They run out of the house and we see that the evil queen has been watching the whole scene through her mirror. When she sees the witch locked in the oven, she sends a fireball through her mirror into the house to light the oven, cooking the witch inside.

The kids make their way back to the queen's castle. They hand over the satchel which the queen opens, revealing a very magical looking apple inside. The queen is quite pleased with the kids, but instead of reuniting them with their father, she offers to allow them to stay with her and live a life of luxury. Hansel seems to be considering it, but Gretel throws the offer back in the queen's face. The queen is pretty ticked after this and using some smoke magic teleports them to an unknown destination.

Emma is loading the kids up in the squad car to drive them to Boston. Henry is distraught that something bad will happen if Emma tries to take the kids out of Storybrooke. Once again, as they approach the town limits, something odd happens and the engine dies. Emma starts calling someone to help - anyone not think it's Dad the mechanic?

The queen is busy spying on Snow White in her mirror who is walking along with the dwarfs. I guess we know who the magic apple is for. The queen's guards bring in Hansel and Gretel's father. We find out that she captured him in the forest in the first place and has been keeping him locked up. She asks him why when she offered his children everything they could ever want, they refused her. He tells her that it's because they're a family, which is something she genuinely doesn't seem to understand. In a moment of humanity, she releases him, but the catch is that in order to be a family, she tells him that they must all find each other. We then that see Hansel and Gretel are in the woods with their compass and start to follow it toward their father. The shot zooms out to show that they are very, very far away with the castle nowhere in sight.

On the outskirts of Storybrooke, Emma is waiting with the kids by the car. Ava notices that the compass has started spinning around and then pointing back toward town when the tow truck shows up driven by their dad. Emma gives him another chance and once he sees the kids, he has a change of heart. He finally agrees to take the kids home.

Emma heads back to the apartment and fills Mary Margaret in on what happened. Emma starts pondering whether she'll ever find her own parents. During the conversation, she finally tells Mary Henry's theory on who Emma is and who her parents are. She's strangely not weirded out by this. Emma heads back outside to get some air and as she leaves, Mary notices Emma's baby blanket. She's admiring it and pulls it out to smell it. She seems like she's almost on the verge of remembering something.

As Emma is looking through a file outside, Henry shows up. Emma still can't quite tell him the truth about his father, but seems like she wants to. Just then a stranger rides into town on a motorcycle. He stops and asks them if he's in Storybrooke and if there is anywhere to stay in town. They send him off to the bed and breakfast, and when they try to get his name, he dodges the question and rides off. The two of them are baffled by the appearance of a stranger in town. No one is supposed to enter or leave Storybrooke.

My Questions:

• Who the heck is the stranger? This is interesting... hopefully we're starting to get into some episodes with more plot progression.
• Is Mary Margaret starting to remember? I suspect we won't get total recall from her anytime soon since she's such a major character, but hey, we can hope right?
• Why is Mr. Gold consistently helping "the good side". He recently led Graham down the path to remembering who he is and now seems to be helping Emma with no obvious benefit to himself. What exactly is his endgame?

New Theories:

• Seems like a lot of the magical items from fairytale land that transferred to  Storybrooke still work. The compass that showed the way to Hansel and Gretel's father seems to work the same way in Storybrooke - at least once he was close enough to them. Clearly the queen still has some magic items, including her wall of captured hearts that she used to kill Graham.
• So far, it's been impossible to leave Storybrooke. At first I thought Regina sent the kids off with Emma thinking that she could cross the boundary and get them out of town, but now I wonder if she knew that they wouldn't be able to get out without something bad happening and she was really trying to get Emma out of the picture finally. Once again, Storybrooke seems to emulate the Lost island in this "no way out" respect.

Other Thoughts:

• Pretty solid episode. I really think that the season is going to start picking up steam in terms of plot progression from here on out.

S01E08 - Desparate Souls

This episode is the first one after the holiday break and the intro is much more detailed. It gives us a quick "previously, on Once Upon a Time" style overview of the show so far.

We open with Rumpelstiltskin who, unsurprisingly, is a spinster (as in, he spins wool). As some of you may remember from the classic fairy tale, he saves a young woman from an uncertain fate (some versions say execution, others say she would be locked in a tower forever) by spinning straw into gold in exchange for her first born child. When he later comes to collect she protests and he agrees to let her out of the bargain if she can guess his name in three tries, which she eventually does.

Our own Rumpelstiltskin seems to be a simple villager and has a son who turns 14 in 3 days. While he's busy spinning, some soldiers come to the village to force children over the age of 14 to join the army. Apparently, the "Ogre Wars" have taken quite a toll and the kingdom needs more troops. When some villagers try to resist the forced enlistment, a wizard of sorts known as "The Dark One" restrains them from afar with some fairly impressive looking powers.

At his pawn shop, Mr. Gold calls the sheriff's office and asks Emma to come by. When she arrives, he merely offers his condolences about the loss of Graham. I guess that answers that question - he's definitely dead. Mr. Gold also has Graham's belongings as he was renting a place owned by Mr. Gold. Emma doesn't want to claim his things but does pick up a set of walkie-talkies to use with Henry on Operation Cobra. Mr. Gold also informs Emma that according to town regulations, if the sheriff leaves office and no new sheriff is appointed within two weeks, the deputy becomes the new sheriff automatically.

When Emma later catches up with Henry, hes mopey and wants to call off the Operation Cobra activities for a while. He's convinced that Regina is responsible for Graham's death and doesn't want anything to happen to Emma. He tells her that evil wins against good because good has to play by the rules and evil can cheat.

Back at the sheriff's office, Emma is about to swap her deputy badge for the sheriff variety when Regina enters. She tells her that the new-sheriff-appointing deadline is today and that she's appointing Sidney Glass as the new sheriff. Apparently, he runs the town newspaper, and judging by the name, I'll be he's really her old "mirror on the wall". In an earlier episode, I mistook him for her assistant, but newspaper editor fits the bill just as well.

Regina says she's appointing him because he's covered the sheriff's office "as long as anyone can remember". Heh... of course he has, no one can remember anything! Clever evil queen. In any case, once the news is delivered, Regina finishes the job by telling Emma that she's fired.

Back at her apartment, Emma dealing with being fired through scotch and loud music.

Lost Reference (again): She's drinking MacCutcheon again...

In the midst of the sulking, Mr. Gold arrives unexpectedly and offers to be her benefactor. He apparently is opposed to Regina as well. He pulls out a copy of the town charter and seems to have a plan to get Emma her job back.

Back at Rumpelstiltskin's place, he wakes up his son before dawn and they set out to leave town before the soldiers can come back and force the boy into service. While on the road, they encounter a homeless man to whom he gives some change. Shortly thereafter, they're overtaken by the soldiers and the leader recognizes Rumpel. The lead soldier tells Rumpel's son that when Rumpel was in the army, he was a coward and that in one instance, he ran in the heat of battle and left many others to die. When Rumpel returned home, his wife couldn't bear the shame and left him.

Rumpel pleads with the soldiers to leave his son alone, and in exchange the soldier makes Rumpel kiss his boot as a sign of fealty. He then kicks Rumpel in the face and rides off. As his son is helping him up, the homeless man reappears and offers to help. Rumpel tells him that he has no money to pay him but the man says that in exchange for feeding him what can be spared, he will find a way to become his benefactor. This sounds pretty familiar...

Back in Regina's office, she's holding a press conference to appoint Sidney the new town sheriff. Just as she about to pin the badge on him, Emma shows up and informs her that the mayor only has the power to appoint a candidate for mayor and that it calls for an election. Obviously, she's running.

In the enchanted forest, Rumpel is talking with the homeless man and trying to come up with a plan to save his son. The man tells him that the dark one only works for the duke because he has a magical dagger that keeps the dark one enslaved. On the blade, the true name of the dark one is written which is how he is controlled. The man tries to convince Rumpel that if he steals the dagger, he can control the dark one and deal with the soldiers. When Rumpel is squeamish about keeping someone enslaved, he lets on that there is a way to take the dark one's power for himself. If he kills the dark one with the dagger, Rumpel will inherit the dark one's powers.

At Mr. Gold's pawn shop, Regina walks in. They have a fairly nasty exchange over his backing of Emma. As usual, we get the impression that Mr. Gold knows a lot more than he should, but while I was expecting some big revelations here, they really don't reveal anything that useful.

Back the diner, Emma comes in to talk to Henry who's reading the newspaper. Sidney is apparently starting a smear campaign and has written an article in the paper stating that Emma gave birth to Henry while she was in jail. She confirms that it's true, but it doesn't seem to bother Henry too much. He's more concerned that she can't win this fight because of the good versus evil thing. He doesn't want Emma to owe Mr. Gold any more favors either, which I have to agree is a good call.

Later, Emma goes to Regina's office to confront her about the article in the newspaper. Emma doesn't really care that people know the truth, but is concerned for Henry. She claims that he's depressed and he doesn't have any hope. (I believe that "hope" really is one of the central theme's of this show. In some of the ads for the show, Emma is billed to be the hope for Storybrooke.)

Regina informs Emma that there will be a debate before the election and while they're both leaving her office arguing about things, an explosion knocks them over as Regina opens the front door. She's apparently hurt and can't walk and the building is now on fire.

When we transition back to Rumpel and his son, they're making torches for use in his scheme to steal the dagger and control the dark one. He seems to have gone a little power-mad and his son is starting to loose faith in his father. The truth that the soldier told him about his father's cowardice and his own mother (who he thought was dead) isn't helping things. In the end, he reluctantly agrees to help. Rumpel intends to set fire to the duke's fortress and break in and steal the dagger in the chaos.

Speaking of burning buildings, Emma and Regina are still in one and although its tempting for Emma to leave Regina to her fate, she instead leaps through the flames to get a fire extinguisher, makes a path for them to escape and then helps Regina out of the building.

Afterwards, the townspeople are completely enamored with Emma calling her a hero. Suddenly there seems to be a grassroots movement underway to help Emma win the election. Even Henry seems convinced that it's possible for good to win over evil again. During all of this, Emma notices a piece of a torch in a pile of burnt rubble from the building. This looks suspiciously like something she saw in Mr. Gold's pawn shop earlier in the episode.

Now suspicious, Emma heads to Mr. Gold's and while he doesn't outright admit to setting the fire, we're led to believe that he did. He claims that Emma couldn't win the election without something like this to boost her chances.

Meanwhile, Rumpel and his son are getting underway with the torching of the castle. The place catches fire quickly enough and after the people have run out, Rumpel heads in and finds the dagger. The name of the dark one is engraved on the blade and reads "Zoso". A quick google of the name turns up the fact that on the album "Led Zeppelin IV", each band member chose a symbol to represent himself rather than his name. The symbol Jimmy Page used was "Zoso" - so are the OUAT writers giving a little homage to a favorite band here? A little further digging turns up that the air date of this episode was 1/8 and Jimmy Page's birthday is 1/9. Neato.

In Storybrooke, preparation for the debate is underway. Mary Margaret and David run into each other and are on opposite sides of the election due to David's wife Katheryn's new found friendship with Regina. Backstage, Emma is having a crisis of conscience about whether to reveal that Mr. Gold started the fire. She's worried that she won't be able to win if she does, but she's committed to doing things the right way. Classic hero behavior.

In fairytale land, Rumpel escapes from the castle and sends his son home. Once his son is gone, he pulls out the dagger and summons the dark one. Once he appears, the dark one is seemingly willing to do Rumpel's bidding but is also taunting him about his son and his cowardice.

Eventually, when he has been sufficiently goaded, Rumpel stabs the dark one with the dagger. The dark one then reveals himself to be the helpful beggar. He tricked Rumpel into killing him to release him from his burden. He then deliver's Rumpel's favorite line from previous episodes: "Magic always comes with a price." As he dies, his powers transfer to Rumpelstiltskin and his begins to look a bit more like we're used to with the greenish-gold skin. Also, when he pulls free the dagger, his name is now inscribed on the blade. Interestingly, it seems to be spelled wrong - all references to Rumpelstiltskin I've found have a p-e-l, not p-l-e. Now that I look, ABC's site spells it p-l-e too, so I guess they took some liberties with that one. No problem... I can adapt to a new spelling.

The debate is underway in Storybrooke. Archie introduces the candidates and urges them to "vote their conscious". Heh. After a really generic opening statement by Sidney, Emma takes her turn and, as expected, confesses what she knows about the fire. Regina is trilled thinking that Sidney has the race in the bag.

Emma is drowning her sorrows at the diner when Henry comes in. Even though they seem to have lost, he has his faith restored in the good versus evil battle. Sidney and Regina come in shortly thereafter and announce (reluctantly) that Emma won the election. Apparently, the people loved the fact that she was able to stand up to Mr. Gold. As Regina puts it, he doesn't make a good friend, but he makes an excellent enemy. She almost seems to enjoy that - as if she knows that Emma is getting in over her head with Mr. Gold.

Back at Rumple's house, the soldiers are preparing to take his son when the new dark one (Rumplestiltskin) arrives. He forces the lead soldier to kiss his boot, then he proceeds to slaughter the lot of them. His son doesn't even know who his father is any more and is more scared of him than he ever was of the soldiers.

Emma is settling in at the sheriff's office when Mr. Gold comes in. He claims that he planned the entire thing - from the fire, to Emma saving Regina, to Emma eventually standing up to him which would win her the election. He says that everyone is afraid of Regina, but they're more afraid of him. When Emma asks him why he did all this, he reminds her that she still owes him a favor. He just elevated her position and thus the value of his favor along with it.

My Questions:

• The only thing that I'm wondering about is the nature of Rumple's new powers and how his name is involved in controlling him. Perhaps the whole bit about the name was just made up by the previous dark one and there is no real power in it?

New Theories:

• We can assume that Rumple eventually looses his son now that he's the dark one. Is this why he's so obsessed with taking other children?

Other Thoughts:

• I really liked this episode if only because Rumplestiltskin is such a fascinating character. Good to get a little background on him.