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.