Once Upon a Time 1x15 Review

Red-Handed

Once Upon a Time has shown that it is capable of telling very endearing and sometimes campy love stories as we saw last week with Dreamy. They also have shown a capability for very dark and even scary episodes as we saw with The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. This week was clearly the latter. After more than half the season we finally get the back story for Ruby and Granny. It's been known since the pilot that Ruby was Little Red Riding Hood, and we've seen her appear in multiple Snow White stories, but this was the first chance we've had to see her story. I thoroughly enjoyed this episode, and that's not a shock. It was written by the great Jane Espenson. If you don't know the name look it up on IMDb, I guarantee you'll see more than one show that you really like. 

Both story lines were very good this week. In Storybrooke we have the continuing search for Kathyn, and whoever is responsible for her disappearance but we also had some nice moments with Ruby. I got seriously creeped out when David was acting so strangely towards Mary Margaret. For a moment I thought he was starting to remember his fairy tale self, but that didn't make sense when he simply walked off. Clearly if he had remembered he would embrace her even more. The reveal of the box and its contents was even more creepy. I actually jumped a little bit when Ruby screamed. Then later when her and Emma were discussing it, I continued feeling very tense. I also was wondering why Ruby wasn't telling Emma what she had found. It was almost like she was trying to keep it a secret. Would she have stolen the contents if it had been something valuable to her? I would like to think not, but who knows. 

The reveal that it's a human heart, and was covered in Mary's finger prints was a very cool twist. We know about Regina and her collection of hearts, but why would Mary's prints be all over it? This cannot simply be a big frame job. There are far easier, and far more convincing ways Regina could have framed Mary if that was her intention. I mean let's think about this. For Mary to kidnap Kathryn, cut out her heart, put it in this little box and then bury it at the same place she found David we would have to assume that Mary is a total psychopath. Also that she's far stronger than she lets on. I may have missed this, but I don't think they found any blood in Kathyn's car. Not that they don't have evidence of wrong doing now, but before this there was no evidence that there had been any fowl play. She didn't arrive at Boston, but it was very possible that she crashed her car, had a concussion, and then walked off into the woods. I know there was no evidence of this, but why didn't Emma try to organize a large search party? Ruby found this stuff very quickly, makes you wonder how much else is out there. 

The story in Fairy Tale Land was just as creepy, and revealing. We meet Granny and Little Red and a boy named Peter. Peter was the name of the kid in "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" right? So how cool is that? From the moment Granny showed her scar I was sure that Granny was either the wolf, or she had been a wolf at some point. Since I wasn't sure how much of the werewolf story they would use I didn't have a complete theory. When they reveal, or seemingly reveal that Peter was the wolf I was a little disappointed. Not because I saw it coming, but it seemed so pedestrian. Thank the gods that was not the end of the story. We learn that Little Red Riding Hood is in fact the wolf, and it's her hood that stops her from changing. It was cool that we got to see the beginnings of the friendship between Little Red and Snow. We also see that Little Red is quite familiar with the idea of tragic love stories so she was indeed a very good source for Snow to go to. 

Two more observations. First, I've been theorizing that Dr. Whale was the Big Bad Wolf. While it doesn't connect to the name at all, he was checking her out in that early episode. That's not shocking, but he's the only one that we've seen doing that so it made sense to me. Since we know that the Big Bad Wolf was actually Little Red Riding Hood where does that leave Dr. Whale? There still is the whale from Pinocchio, but I find that a little unlikely. Can't wait to find out. I think he's the longest running character that we've met, but have no idea who he is. The second thing I noticed was that Snow White called herself Mary Margaret in Fairy Tale Land! I was like "WHOA!" I don't know what signification that has other than the obvious, but I still thought it was cool. 

I think next week we're back to another Snow White episode next week, but know that like this one, the blog post will be late. Next week is also the Walking Dead finale so I'll be out at a watch party for that. I welcome any and all comments.