So was the Storybrooke sinkhole (which turned out to be located on top of an abandoned mine) a metaphor for the Fairy Tale Land from which The Evil Queen’s curse banished the fairy tale characters, as well as an allusion to the general erosion of the power of the said curse? Was it literal, meaning that it the Enchanted Forest is buried beneath Storybrooke?
I don’t think we’ll be getting specific answers to those questions any time soon — though Once Upon a Time writer Jane Espenson had some interesting things to say during our LiveClack including the fact that the glass shard Regina dropped back into the mine was from Snow White’s glass coffin — but in the meantime, it was interesting to observe the depictions and impact of nasty, selfish parents from Jiminy’s thieving, conniving mother and father, to Regina’s misguided demand that Archie crush Henry’s Fairy Tale Land beliefs, regardless of how much that hurts the child and could damage the therapeutic process.
Jiminy’s parents were so bad, so controlling and had such a powerful hold on Jiminy that he would rather live his life as a cricket than continue living in the form of a human. That’s saying something. After acceding to his parents’ horrific will again and again — stealing from people, cheating them out of their money and goods, then accidentally handing over a potion to a set of benevolent, young parents that wound up transforming them into creepy dolls (the potion was intended for Jiminy’s parents) — Jiminy could finally take no more and wished to join the mass of chirping crickets.
This paralleled nicely with Archie’s decision in Storybrooke to stand up to the bullying mother Regina who threatened to ruin Archie’s life and career if he didn’t do her bidding. While he didn’t wish to be turned into a Storybrooke cricket, he told Regina that should a custody battle arise over Henry (hmm … foreshadowing) Regina would need him on her side.
My curiosity remains piqued about Emma’s growing attachment to Henry — like why she insisted that she should be the one to go down into the mine to rescue Henry instead of Regina simply because Henry, the boy she gave up for adoption, is “her son too” — and why Emma agreed to work as the Sheriff’s deputy. The Sheriff’s motivations for the hire, considering that he’s Regina’s lover, are up for wild debate.
However the most beautiful storyline in this episode of Once Upon a Time is the Snow White and Prince Charming/Mary Margaret and David tale. Mary Margaret had been the hospital volunteer (she just quit the gig) who, while reading Henry’s fairy tale book to David elicited a response from him and her kiss in the forest later revived him. Ginnifer Goodwin is exquisitely vulnerable as Mary Margaret, a school teacher who doesn’t entirely understand her obsession with David, particularly given the fact that he’s married. But hearing David tell her that ever since he woke from his coma the only thing that feels real is being with her, deeply resonated with Mary Margaret who, despite her demure appearance, seems to be seriously considering an affair, something for which fans are rooting.
What I’m really jonesing to see? More on The Evil Queen/Regina backstory to find out exactly how she was wronged by Snow White — who admitted in an earlier episode that she’d made the Queen miserable — in order to provide the Queen with some depth so she’s more than sheer, one-dimensional nastiness, more than just a monster who killed her kind and loyal father in order to find happiness, something which continues to remain elusive for Regina.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Nov 28, 2011 @ 14:08 EST5EDT
Mary Margaret and her prince charming are so precious together… I really can’t bear seeing them separated by that other woman.
I was really surprised just how dark Jiminy Cricket’s back story was, but it was really well done. I have to confess, I totally teared up after he got his wish to be a cricket and we found out that the boy was Geppetto.
Also, loved that Archie’s dog is called Pongo ala 101 Dalmatians! :D
Definitely with you and Ruby in adoring Snow/Charming (aka Mary Margaret/David)… can’t wait to see more of their fairytale backstory.
Thanks for clarifying what that glass shard was– I noticed some lettering on it, but could not figure out the significance. Totally makes sense that it would be Snow White’s coffin.
What I can’t understand is why David’s wife is so nice in Storybrooke while she was such a stuck-up priss before. Everyone else has seemingly kept their personalities from Fairy Tale Land. Maybe her true personality will come out in a later episode? Or is she not really his wife, even in Storybrooke, and this is more of Regina’s doing?
I’m most interested in finding out why Henry is so important to Regina. If she knows she’s really the evil queen, what does she care about some kid she adopted? Why adopt him at all, if she doesn’t know who he really is? (And how could she, if she doesn’t know who Emma is?)
The Jiminy backstory was a punch in the gut! These sweet, naive people meeting a horrible fate – and then the kid from earlier walks in! Oh, man. Twist the knife. The guy who plays Archie has done a really good job with the role.
For the evil queen – I think it is a love thing. She killed the only thing that she loved, her father, in order to complete her evil spell – making her an evil, selfish thing. I think what she really wants is the happily ever after love. Maybe she hasn’t ever known real love, unconditional love like Snow and Charming. Why else do women go all bat shit crazy? They are either PMSing or want to find love. ;) As she can’t seem to find a man to love her and for her to love – adopt a kid so she can love it and it love her. Lesson is you can make something love you.
I think it’s a mistake to assume that Snow White ‘ruined’ Regina’s life by costing her a lover/husband. In the fairy tale, Regina is Snow White’s step mother. That will likely hold true in this story as well. Snow White’s father appears to be gone (dead?), but if I had to guess, I wouldn’t guess that Snow White is responsible for his death and that is the ‘only thing that Regina ever loved’ that Snow White took. I think they are describing Regina’s love as a ‘thing’ because they don’t want to yet reveal that the ‘thing’ is not a man but a child. I believe Snow did something to cause Regina to lose her child and this caused Regina to spiral out of control and become focused on revenge. It also explains Madame Mayor’s attachment to little Henry–he fills Regina’s longing for a child. If she loses little Henry it will be doubly cruel.
The glass shard did hit the intact glass coffin, although that “air shaft” appears to go much farther down than that mine looked to have delved. I don’t know if that was intentional or merely dodgy CGI. I’m assuming that was an actual scene and not a metaphor, so that Storybrooke exists above the former Enchanted Forest/Kingdom.
The reason Emma stayed in town in the first place was that her “power” told her that Regina did not actually love Henry. I assume that’s why she accepted Sheriff Huntsman’s job offer (he also mentioned that there’s not a lot of call for bail bondswomen in Storybrooke, which makes sense since no one can skip town). I accepted her explanation that she was in better physical condition than someone desk-bound for ten years, although that was followed by that odd scene where it looked like Regina was about to kiss her.
Bolstering Jessica’s theory is the implication that Regina named Henry after her late father, per his headstone. I doubt that Emma would have named her newborn, as that would have made it harder emotionally for her to give him up, or that Mr. Gold, black market baby dealer, would have conveyed such information to Regina if she had.
The tragedy is that no matter how much Regina desperately wants to love her son, she can’t because she sacrificed that part of herself to cast the curse.