#the 1x04 parallels we could get... i am going INSANE

[dawntainbobbynash]

The way I would lose my mind if they parallel this scene but with Athena and the whole team

[stahlop]

Once Upon a Time 1x10 “7:15 AM” Review

Reviews 1x01 1x02 1x03 1x04 1x05 1x06  1x07 1x08 1x09

Right off the bat I have to say that I loved the Enchanted Forest story between Snow and Charming, but I hated the Storybrooke storyline between them. The main reason for this is because Snow and Charming are actually married.  We’ve seen the marriage. It opened up the series after Snow was woken up with True Love’s Kiss. I have no vested interest in David flailing around trying to decide between Kathryn and Mary Margaret because it’s not real and I doubt it will matter whenever the curse is broken. End rant.

Synopsis: In the Enchanted Forest Snow receives a letter from Charming telling her he loves her and he’ll call off his wedding for her. When Snow goes to tell Charming she loves him too, she is threatened by King George and ends up taking a forgetting potion to forget about Charming. In Storybrooke, Mary Margaret and David continue to try and ignore their attraction.

Opening: Hooded figure in the woods

While I don’t usually comment on the opening, anyone have any idea if that’s supposed to be Red or Snow? They both wear hoods in this episode, so it could be either.

Character Observations:

Snow/Mary Margaret: Snow just gets the brunt of everything this episode doesn’t she? We find out that it’s been at least a month since she met Charming and she’s obviously been thinking about him the whole time. She learns that his nuptials are happening in two days time and wishes she could get Charming out of her head. Red tells her about Rumplestiltskin. Snow apparently wants to go “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” on her memories of Charming, even though she only met him once and they fought the entire time (unless we just haven’t seen that part of their history yet). Snow contemplates taking the potion when a messenger dove comes by with a note from Charming saying that if he comes to the castle and tells him she loves him he’ll call off the wedding. So of course Snow sneaks into the castle and immediately gets captured by one of King George’s guards. I thought she was supposed to be pretty savvy at this point. Now she’s stuck in the castle prison, along with Grumpy and Snow tells him that she is in love and she won’t let anyone take that from her. Now, luckily, Stealthy the dwarf comes and rescues them, but they run into guards and Stealthy doesn’t make it, and Snow threatens to burn the castle down if they don’t let Grumpy go. Snow gets taken to King George and here is where it gets bad. Snow has to choose between her love for Charming or living without him, because George threatens to kill Charming if he leaves Abigail. Snow puts on a pretty strong face when rejecting Charming, but even he can see that she’s not telling the entire truth. Poor Snow cries as she leaves her love. She was possibly getting to live a normal life with Charming and now it’s been ripped away. No wonder she still takes the potion after Grumpy’s speech not to.

Mary Margaret has become a stalker. She waits for David at the diner every morning at 7:15 to watch him get coffee to go, for himself and Kathryn. And, as she tells Emma, she pretty much knows the rest of his schedule as well. Mary Margaret makes the comment that she wishes there was a magic cure to get over love. Oh the parallels. Then Mary Margaret discovers that Kathryn might be pregnant and that really upsets her. I’m sure this is why she gets overly invested in getting the trapped dove she discovers back to her flock. She is identifying too much with this poor dove who apparently will be lonely if she is separated from her migratory flock. So, since the dove is fine, Mary Margaret decides to go back out into the woods, despite the storm that is coming, and try and find the flock. And because of that storm, she gets spooked by lightning and falls down a ravine, where, luckily, David rescues her because he knew she’d be stupid enough to try and reunite the dove and it’s flock, so he followed her. I guess the stalking goes two ways. I mean, yay, Mary Margaret didn’t die falling into the ravine because David happened to be following her. And then of course we get one of the best rom com tropes; it starts raining and they happen to find an abandoned cabin that they have to seek shelter in. Mary Margaret basically admits her stalkerish tendencies to David and how she’s miserable and it’s painful to be around him. Then they almost kiss when David also admits to being a stalker. I guess these two really deserve each other. But then Mary Margaret remembers that Kathryn was buying a pregnancy test and she ends up telling David that his wife might be pregnant. Mary Margaret finally tells David they need to forget each other. The next day Mary Margaret decides to get her coffee at 7:45 instead of 7:15 and still runs into David, because he had the same idea to avoid Mary Margaret. Also, Kathryn isn’t pregnant. And so, like the two love struck idiots that they are, they decide to kiss, right in the middle of the street, where anyone can see them, especially Regina.

Charming/David: Charming is actually a pretty stand up guy in this episode. He knows what he wants (Snow) and what he doesn’t (Abigail). Even though he knows it could ruin the future of the kingdom, he would rather be happy and be with Snow than marry someone as a business arrangement. Even after George tells Charming to forget this other woman he loves, he still writes a letter to Snow telling her ‘not a day goes by that I’ve not thought of you’ and asks her to come to him so they can be together. Unfortunately, Snow breaks his heart instead due to George’s threats. We next see him going to Red’s cottage to find Snow, presumably to tell her he broke things off with Abigail. So even though Snow broke his heart, he is still going to find her because he believes they should be together.

David is the most infuriating character on this show. He tells Mary Margaret that he feels like he has two conflicting lives, one where he has memories of feelings for Kathryn and then his real feelings for Mary Margaret. I don’t know if it’s the curse that is preventing him from leaving Kathryn completely, but he can’t just tell Kathryn he’ll work on his marriage and then go and kiss Mary Margaret because he’s been stalking her. And even though he doesn’t seem to understand how he feels about Kathryn, he’s still sleeping with her if she thinks she might be pregnant. And Mary Margaret is trying to stay away from him, but David is not helping the situation. His backstory has been all about choices and that seems to be the one thing he can’t make when it comes to Mary Margaret and Kathryn.

The Stranger: We learn he has a way with words, and the reason for that is he happens to be a writer. That box on the back of his motorcycle, and old fashioned typewriter. I do like how he tells Emma that he might just torture her by never telling her what’s in the box while he carts it around town and to mysterious places until it drives her insane. Or Emma can agree to let him buy her a drink and he’ll tell her. Heh! He’s funny. We still don’t have a name for him. He tells Emma the town provides inspiration and Emma asks if he’s been there before, his response is “I didn’t say that.”  He doesn’t seem to deal in yes or no answers, and he seems determined not to play his hand yet, whatever it may be.

Kathryn: What can I say about Kathryn. She’s trying to save her marriage. She feels like David isn’t really there, even though they’re obviously having a sexual relationship. She’s happy she’s not pregnant because their marriage is shaky. She suggests going to counseling to work on it. Ugh! Why did the curse have to make Kathryn so sweet?

Rumplestiltskin: Snow calls on him to get a forgetting potion. He goes on and on about how awful love is and how only the strongest potion can make you forget about it. Seems to me that someone is bitter about a past love. He takes Snow’s hair as payment. Hmmm. He also tells Snow he was looking forward to meeting her. Was this a premonition that he had about her or did her just hear through the grapevine that she was searching for him?

King George: He is a complete ass. I get that he’s trying to save his kingdom, but it feels more like he’s trying to save his lifestyle as opposed to his kingdom. He’s still throwing lavish balls and not trying to feed his kingdom. He’s banking on the treasures and riches he’ll get from Midas when Charming and Abigail get married. He has absolutely no love for Charming whatsoever. He is a bargaining chip. He even tells Snow that he would rather kill Charming rather than him leave Abigail, because if he’s assassinated, Midas would most likely still give the kingdom the money. Talk about cold-hearted. I wonder if George is still alive and roaming around Storybrooke.

Emma: She is tasked with two things this episode: making sure Mary Margaret stops stalking David, questioning the Stranger as to what he is doing in town. She flat out fails to keep Mary Margaret and David away from each other. But she does talk to the Stranger and at least finds out what’s in his box.

Regina: She’s not so meddlesome this episode. She asks Mary Margaret not to tell anyone that Kathryn has a pregnancy test because it’s their business.  She wasn’t even rude about it. When she asks Emma to look into the Stranger, it’s out of genuine concern for Henry, not because no one should be able to get into Storybrooke. She actually seems sincere in this episode.

Grumpy: So while he’s not nearly as grumpy as his name implies, he does give Snow some great advice. He’s apparently in prison for falling pray to a diamond scam and ended up with stolen goods. He was trying to buy an engagement ring for his ex-girlfriend to win her back. He tells Snow that he wouldn’t erase it for anything as his pain is what makes him who he is. It makes him Grumpy. He invites Snow to stay with him and the other dwarfs.

Henry: Not necessarily the narrator this time around, but asking all the questions.

Questions:

Does Snow know Charming’s real name is James? 

Does Snow live in a forest in King George’s kingdom?

When Rumplestiltskin talks about how awful love is, is he referring to his wife that supposedly left him, or has he found love since becoming the Dark One?

What does Rumplestiltskin want Snow’s hair for?

Where is Mary Margaret walking? It looks like the road that leads out of town. Why is she out in the middle of nowhere? 

Whose cabin is that in the middle of the woods?

How did the Stranger find Storybrooke?

Why is the Stranger using an old typewriter instead of a laptop? Is it just for the mysteriousness? 

Who is the Stranger? Has he been to Storybrooke before? Could he be from the EF and got here a different way?

How does burning hay and straw make an entire stone castle go up in flames? I wondered this in Desperate Souls as well, and here is Snow threatening to do the exact same thing.

How does Charming know where Red’s cottage is? Has he been there before with Snow?

Observations:

Snow is reading The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne in the diner.

Interesting putting Snow and Red as good friends. This seems to be a reference to another Grimm Fairy Tale, Snow-white and Rose-red, in which they are sisters.

Red delivers food stuff to Snow once a month.

King George’s castle is the one Snow and Charming live at in the Pilot.

Grumpy is whistling Heigh-Ho in the jail cell (he was whistling Whistle While You Work when we see him in a jail cell the first time in the Pilot).

The Stranger looks familiar to Regina.

The scene of Snow and the dwarfs is the same scene the Evil Queen saw in her mirror last episode. So now we know this took place at the same time as the Hansel and Gretel storyline.

I get that the writers wanted to parallel that Snow and Charming kind of went through the same thing Mary Margaret and David are going through, but they literally had almost the exact same storyline. The main difference being that Charming was willing to leave Abigail for Snow, whereas David isn’t willing to leave Kathryn. And I get that David is under a curse and for some reason under the curse he is unwilling to leave Kathryn, but it looks like David and Snow are now going be having an ‘affair’. The problem I have with this is that they aren’t really having an affair and I have no vested interest in David and Mary Margaret trying to resist their feelings because I know they are supposed to be together. And no matter how nice Kathryn is, I just want her to stop being blind and just kick David out already, or make up her mind that this marriage can’t be saved.

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