*****Episode Spoilers Below*****
The third episode of Once Upon a Time starts with a flashback scene: Prince Charming is in a horse and carriage with some random blond when it gets ambushed. Prince Charming gives chase and it turns out the thief was Snow White. She ends up getting away, after knocking PC a good one. His parting words to her are that he will find her.
(Need to catch up? Don’t miss our recaps of episode 1 and episode 2.)
We go back to the present and Mary Margaret (Snow) is on a date, but the guy isn’t paying her any attention. Why? Because he is too busy checking out the short-short clad waitress, Ruby, aka Little Red Skanking Hood. Mary Margaret calls an end to the date, turns out the date is with a doctor from the hospital at which she volunteers. She says she’ll see him tomorrow because her class is going there on a field trip the next day. When she leaves the restaurant, she runs into Emma, who is sleeping in her car because no one will rent her a room. MM offers Emma her spare room but she refuses, saying she is better on her own.
The next day at the hospital, Mary Margaret finds Henry in a room with John Doe, aka Prince Charming. Henry asks Mary Margaret if she recognizes him, but of course she doesn’t. Later that day, Henry meets up with Emma and tells her he found her father. He knows its PC because of the scar that Snow gave him. Emma agrees to talk with Mary Margaret about John Doe when Henry says maybe he’ll remember her if she reads the Fairy Tale Book to him.
Mary Margaret agrees, thinking it would be a good way to let Henry down easy, when John Doe doesn’t respond. Little does she know, he does respond and holds her hand while she’s reading to him. She tells the doctor, and he doesn’t believe her, saying she must be tired and mistaken. When Mary Margaret leaves, he calls the Mayor to tell her that like he promised, he would contact her when Doe showed any progress. At home, Mary Margaret reads the Fairy Tale Book and has a flashback.
Snow is captured while leaving her cave by Prince Charming; he says “I told you I would find you.” Turns out the blonde was his fiancé (or soon to be) and the bag Snow stole held an engagement ring. He makes an agreement with Snow; if she gives back to ring, he won’t turn her into the Queen who has Wanted posters saying Snow committed murder.
Back in the present, Henry and Emma meet Mary Margaret for lunch and she tells them that he did respond. Henry says they should all go back; Emma is shocked when Mary Margaret agrees. When they get back to the hospital, the Chief is there as well as the Mayor. Turns out John Doe is missing! The Mayor hisses at Emma that if she won’t leave Henry alone, she’ll just keep Henry from her and leaves with him. Emma asks why the Mayor is there and the Chief tells her that she is Doe’s Emergency Contact because she was the one that found him originally. Emma, Chief and Mary Margaret go to security and look at the last video they have of the wing Doe was in. Turns out he walked out himself, so they set off to find him in the woods.
Flashbacking once again, Prince Charming and Snow are walking in the woods and he asks her about her necklace. Seems she has a vial filled with nasty fairy dust that will turn anyone into something she can crush beneath her feet. She basically says that it’s for the Queen. Prince Charming asks why, what did Snow do to piss of the Queen, ruin her life? Snow says yes, she did. She says she’s thirsty, so they stop at a stream to drink, when she pulls another escape attempt, only to be captured by the Queens Guards and Prince Charming has her necklace!
Present time, Chief, Emma and Mary Margaret are in the woods trying to find John Doe when Henry appears. He says that Doe is trying to find Mary Margaret. They need to stop chasing him and let him come to them. That’s when they find his hospital bracelet with blood on it.
In another Flashback, just as the Guard is about to kill Snow, she is saved by Prince Charming. But then another guard grabs her and takes off. Charming shoots an arrow, saving Snow’s life. She thanks him and they set off to find the Trolls she sold the ring to.
They come to a bridge and Snow puts some gold coins on it, which makes all the Trolls climb up to them. After she explains she needs the ring back, they figure out who Prince Charming is and a fight ensues. They also find the Wanted poster and say that it will be a lot of money to take her to the Queen. Charming saves her and tells her to run, Snow thinks he’s behind her only to discover the Trolls have him. She goes back and throws the fairy dust, saving his life. He thanks her; she says it was the right thing to do. This is when he tells her his name is James, not Prince Charming.
In the present time, they find a bridge and there is John Doe in the water. After pulling him out, Mary Margaret starts to do CPR, thinking he is dead. When she comes to the mouth to mouth part, he coughs and comes to. John Doe’s first words upon coming to “You saved me” AWWWW! Back at the hospital he is stabilized when a blonde woman comes in, crying and saying “David.” Emma asks who she is, and in comes bitchface Mayor and states “His wife.”
Flashback to Snow and Charming parting ways, he shows her the ring for his intended and says it’s not something Snow would like. She tries the ring on, but ends up saying he was right and gives it back. He starts to say if she needs anything and Snow finishes “You’ll find me. I almost believe you.” And they part ways.
Mayor Biatch says his wife’s name is Catherine and then gives Henry hell for disobeying and lying to her. Catherine comes out to thank them and tells the group that she and David had a fight; he said he was leaving and she thought he had left town. She had no idea he was in a coma, but now she had a second chance to make up.
The doctor comes out and says it’s nothing short of a miracle, but that David still has no memory of who he is. He can’t explain why he came to. Henry whispers to Mary Margaret that SHE is the reason David came to. That she shouldn’t believe them, that they belong together (Charming and Snow, not Henry and Mary Margaret). As Mayor Biatch is leaving, Emma pulls her aside and basically tells her its all so convenient that she finds the wife after all this time. And even more convenient that the Mayor is his Emergency Contact. Mayor Nasty says “Maybe I put a spell on her.”
After everyone leaves, Mary Margaret is looking in the hospital room window watching David and Catherine’s reunion. He looks up and makes eye contact with her, and catches her twisting the ring on her finger. Yep, you guessed it…it’s THAT ring. She goes home and is sitting on the steps crying when she hears a knock at the door. It’s Emma, who asks if the extra room is still available.
I loved that Snow was made a badass, but where the heck were the Dwarves?! And I did cackle when Little Red Skanking Hood was in the booty shorts, I hope they expand on her character; it’s just too good to be left alone!
So what did you think? Love it? Hate it? Still watching? And is it just me, or did Emma make a reference that the Police Chief is a wolf? Tracking?
Natasha Carty reviews Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy on her website Wicked Little Pixie and lives in Toronto, Canada, with her cat, Seamus.
