OUAT: I Will Always Find You

Last time on “Once”: Emma decided to stay in Storybrooke, much to Regina’s consternation. So Regina does everything she can to make Emma’s life miserable—including having her arrested and evicted. But Henry keeps coming to her rescue—with Mary Margaret in tow. Emma decides she needs to stay to help her son and decides to go along with Operation Cobra—AKA Henry’s plan to defeat the Evil Queen and break her curse.

In the Enchanted Forest, Regina decides to cast the Dark Curse to take away Snow’s happy ending. She goes to Maleficent and pretty much assaults her only friend to get the Dark Curse back (she exchanged it for the sleeping curse) and then attempts to cast it. When it doesn’t work out, her servant suggests she go talk to the Dark One. She does so and he tells her that she has to crush the heart of the person she loves most. In exchange for this information, Regina owes Rumpelstiltskin a favor. Well, that can only end well, right? Anyway, turns out Regina’s servant is really her father and she crushes his heart, casting the curse.

This is supposed to be a family show, right?


Once upon a time, Prince Charming was riding down a road in a white carriage with a pretty blonde who looks like she want to be anywhere but with him. He tries to engage her in conversation but she shuts that down. Well, this is going well, isn’t it?

(Princess Done With You All)

The carriage stops because there’s a fallen tree in the path. The pretty blonde—Princess Abigail—is less than thrilled with the delay. Prince Charming hops out to see if he can offer any assistance. As he studies the log, he realizes it was cut. He believes they’ve just walked into a trap and sure enough, a bandit robs the carriage and startles Princess Abigail. As the bandit takes off into the woods, Prince Charming just stands there yelling at the bandit, who turns out to be Snow White.

We cut back to Mary Margaret, who is on a date with BLAINE DEBEERS! ABORT! ABORT! HE ONLY WANTS YOUR BRAINS…

Oops, wrong show. And if you’re not watching iZombie, I highly recommend you do. It’s amazing and it has two (count ‘em, two!) former OUAT cast members: David Anders and Rose McIver.

Anyway, Mary Margaret was also a million miles away and Whale brings her back with a question about her wanting sixteen children. Mary Margaret shakes her head and clarifies that that’s how many students she has. She says she’s bringing them over to the hospital to decorate and cheer up the patients. As she talks, Whale’s attention wanders to Ruby and so Mary Margaret ends the date.

Poor Mary Margaret walks home and I just want to hug her. She stumbles upon Emma’s yellow bug, with Emma in it. Emma says she’s lived out of her car before and she’s hopeful she’ll find a place soon enough. She asks where Mary Margaret was coming from and she reveals she had a date. And that it went badly. And she paid. Seriously, Whale? Dude. Emma seems to agree. Mary Margaret then invites her to sleep in her spare room.

(Group hug for Mary Margaret!)

The next day, Mary Margaret’s class goes to the hospital and decorates. They cheer up the patients and make more arts and crafts. Everyone seems happy though Mary Margaret notices Henry’s missing. She finds him in a room with a comatose man who the audience knows is Prince Charming. Henry runs a finger over the man’s scar as Mary Margaret enters.

(Grandfather and grandson reunion)

He asks her if she knows who the man is. Mary Margaret says he’s just John Doe and he’s been at the hospital in a coma since she started volunteering there. She tells him to join the rest of the class and leave Mr. Doe along. As Henry leaves, she gives the coma patient one long look.

Emma and Henry hang out in his little castle in the park. He tells her that John Doe is really Prince Charming, her father. He argues that Charming and John Doe have a similar scar. So Henry has a plan.

(Planning session)

At the loft, Emma explains this plan to Mary Margaret. Henry thinks that if Mary Margaret reads to him, something might happen. Mary Margaret agrees and says she’s used to doing all the talking on dates. She agrees to report back to Henry and Emma afterward.

Snow goes to the hospital at night because apparently Storybrooke General doesn’t have any visiting hours. She sits on John Doe’s bed with Henry’s storybook and reads the story of how Prince Charming met Snow White.

(Story time!)

Lanterns are doused in a little hideaway as Snow grabs a vial on a leather string and shoulders a satchel. She races out into the woods…and steps into a trap, being pulled into a net in a tree. Charming steps out and gloats over capturing her. She tells him to cut her down but he wants his jewels back. They include a ring he wants to give his fiancée, Princess So-Over-It from the carriage. Snow’s not impressed and reveals she sold it.

(They're bickering--it must be love!)

Charming then reveals he knows who she really is as he unrolls one of the wanted posters bearing Snow’s likeness. She says that she didn’t do any of the crimes on the poster and that she won’t help him. But he won’t let her down unless he gets his jewels back. So Snow agrees and he cuts her down.

Mary Margaret stops reading as John Doe reaches out and touches her hand.

dun dun DUN!

She hurries back with Whale and says that he moved. Whale tries to explain that it might’ve been a random spasm and nothing significant, but Mary Margaret thinks he’s waking up. But Whale says the monitors show nothing unusual. Deflated, Mary Margaret leaves. Once she’s gone, Whale gives someone a call and says they have a situation. Guess who’s on the other end of the conversation?

(Does everyone have Regina's number?)

That’s right. Regina. She has to keep Charming and Snow apart, right?

At Granny’s, Henry gives Emma one of his mother’s shirts to wear. She then asks him where Madam Mayor thinks he really is and he replies the arcade. Arriving right after, Mary Margaret tells Emma and Henry what had happened. Emma believes Whale’s explanation of random spasm but Henry thinks John Doe was responding to Mary Margaret’s presence. And Mary Margaret believes the same. Henry says they have to go to the hospital and Mary Margaret agrees. Emma tries to see if Mary Margaret is really believing this and it turns out she does.

(See that? That's hope)

They rush to the hospital and Graham stops them outside John Doe’s room. He reveals that the man has gone missing.

dun dun DUN!

Emma asks why Regina’s there and she reveals that she’s John Doe’s emergency contact. Turns out she found him on the side of the road and took him to the hospital. So Whale called her when John Doe was discovered missing. She then looks at Henry and says they are going to talk about him lying about his whereabouts. Regina tells Emma to enjoy her shirt before dragging Henry home. Before he leaves, he tells Mary Margaret that John Doe is looking for her.

Graham asks for Emma’s help in locating John Doe, saying this is her specialty. She agrees and the two, along with Mary Margaret, head up to the security offices. Two of Snow’s former dwarves, Sleepy and Grumpy, are there. Sleepy is actually the security guard while Leroy (Grumpy) is the janitor. He accuses Sleepy of, well, sleeping on the job. Emma just wants them to rewind the tapes.

(Worst movie night ever)

They stop the tape when John Doe starts to move. He gets out of bed and heads for a door. Emma asks Graham where it leads and he reveals that it goes to the woods.

Snow and Charming traipse through the woods. He protests to her calling him “Charming,” saying he has a name—James. She doesn’t care and says Charming suits him better. She then asks him about his upcoming marriage and Snow White has some unromantic—but realistic—views of marriage. She’s a royal, so she knows marriages are nothing more than political alliances. There’s no love in them.

They turn the conversation to his jewels and she says that she’s not a jewelry person. Charming teases her about the necklace she’s wearing and when he goes for it, she pulls away. She reveals it’s fairy dust and it’s hard to come by. Charming scoffs at that, saying fairies are all over the place and their dust is abundant. Snow reveals that it’s black fairy dust and it’ll turn any foe into a form that’s easily defeated. He realizes she plans on using it on the Evil Queen. He asks her why the Queen hates her. Snow says the Queen blames her for ruining her life. Charming asks her if she did. She pauses before confessing that she did.

(And Once's first plot hole was born! After all, in the pilot, Snow says the Queen hates her for being more beautiful) 

Snow then turns against Charming, fighting him off and running away. He gives chase, yelling that he’ll find her. But it doesn’t take long as once she hits the road, she’s surrounded by the Black Guard.

Uh oh.

Graham, Emma and Mary Margaret go searching in the darkened woods. Time in Storybrooke moves as fast as it can on a soap opera. You know, where one day a scene takes place in sunlight and then the next day, the recap of the scene takes place at night? Anyway, they go searching for John Doe as Henry shows up. Seems he has a knack for breaking out of Regina’s mansion. Emma tries to send him home, saying his mother will kill her, then him and then her again. But Henry’s determined to stay and help.

(This is the best search party Storybrooke can muster?)

They have no choice and take Henry into the woods with them. He insists that John Doe is looking for Mary Margaret and asks her about the story she was reading him. Henry thinks that might provide a clue where he’s gone and the adults realize he might be right. Especially when they find a sign saying “Toll Bridge.”

As the Black Guards think they have made the ultimate score and have captured Snow White, they find themselves under assault. Prince Charming has come in to rescue her. Together, they take out the guards and Snow manages to get away with the prince. She thanks him and he says it’s just so he could get his jewels back.

Snow reveals she sold the jewels to some trolls so she could pay for passage out of the kingdom. She wants to go somewhere she can be without fear of looking over her shoulder. A place where she can just start over and start living. Snow asks if Charming’s prepared to deal with trolls. He says they’re small things, nothing to be afraid of. Snow says he’s never experience bridge trolls then.

At the Toll Bridge, there’s no sign of John Doe. But the rescue party doesn’t give up. They go down along the bridge and Mary Margaret ends up finding John Doe. He’s unconscious and not breathing. She gives him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and he wakes up. (True Love’s Kiss still working in a Land Without Magic?) He smiles at her as Graham, Emma and Henry come behind them. They decide to get him back to the hospital.

(True love's kiss?)

In the Enchanted Forest, the trolls aren’t thrilled to see Snow White again. She offers to give them back all their gold if they give them the jewels. They almost seemed swayed when they spot Prince Charming. They then freak out and start fighting the two. Snow grabs the jewels and tells Charming to follow her. She runs off but when she looks back, she realizes Charming didn’t do so. He’s still trapped by the trolls and she has to go back and rescue him.

("Really?")

The trolls, though, find the wanted poster and realize who Snow White is. They decide it’ll be much more profitable for them to turn her over to the Queen. So now she has to fight to save herself and Charming. Working together—and using the black fairy dust—they manage to defeat the trolls. Charming apologizes for the fact she had to use her only weapon against the Queen but she says she’ll come up with something else. She hands him his jewels.

Back at the hospital, the little rescue party waits for word on John Doe. A blonde woman rushes into the room, calling him David. She embraces him and everyone wonders who she is. “His wife,” Regina says, smugly.

Everyone is surprised and Emma questions Kathryn (played by the same actress as Princess So Over It) when she comes out to thank Mary Margaret for finding David. Kathryn explains she and David had experienced a rough patch in their marriage, which she now takes the blame for. She said they had a big fight and she told David to leave. He did and she didn’t realize that John Doe was her husband. She thought he was long gone. She goes back in as Regina tells Henry he’s grounded and takes him home.

(Oh, look. A road block)

Emma pursues Regina, having several more questions. She finds it way too convenient that Kathryn just so happens to appear now that David is awake. Regina asks Emma if she thinks Regina cast a spell on her to give her these memories. Then she laughs at her own little joke because, yes, that’s what she did. She thanks Emma, though, saying that going back to the tapes to find where David went gave them the idea to go through them as well. They discovered he had been talking in his sleep and kept mentioning Kathryn’s name. Regina thought it all sounded familiar and she found his wife.

It all sounds so very plausible. Which seems to be Regina’s saving grace this season—she’s able to come up with reasons that seem plausible. But at the same time, Emma is able to think they are too convenient and it starts to give credence to Henry. Even if Regina isn’t the Evil Queen and everyone under a curse, she’s definitely up to something that’s probably illegal in the United States.

Regina says that not having someone, not having love, is the worst punishment of all. She’s hitting Emma below the belt, but revealing the Evil Queen’s punishment of Snow White. As Mary Margaret and David can only stare at each other while he hugs his wife, the pain is clear.

(And hope is dead)

It’s also a pain Regina knows, but we’ll learn about that later in the season.

Back in the Enchanted Forest, Charming and Snow prepare to go their separate ways. Snow continues to call him Charming, saying she can’t see him as anything else. He asks for his jewels and she hands them over. He pulls out the ring he says was his mother but says Snow wouldn’t care since she’s not a jewelry person. She says there’s one way to find out and grabs the ring. As she wears it, it’s clear Charming is already head-over-heels in love. She may be softening up to as she hesitates before saying it’s not her style. Snow gives it back and they part.

(Oh, it's definitely love)

Mary Margaret plays with that very ring as she sits on the steps of her loft. A knock startles her musings and she opens the door to find Emma there. Emma asks if the spare room is still available. It is and Mary Margaret welcomes the woman into her house. Now they both won’t be so lonely.

(The beginning of a beautiful and ultimately strange relationship)

It’s interesting to see Emma and Mary Margaret’s friendship begin. Especially knowing they are mother and daughter. And in some ways, you have to believe you’re watching Ginny and Josh fall in love as Charming and Snow do.

It’s all so sweet.

Next time: Cinderelly, Cinderelly, night and day it’s Cinderelly.

Screen caps from here.