If the Golden Globes weren’t your thing, chances are you caught this week’s episode of Once Upon a Time, True North. Either that or you watched the Golden Globes and DVRed the episode, knowing that you were going to watch it today since it’s a holiday. Well, be warned. It wasn’t the most entertaining episode. Many of the details were downright predictable but it was still informative nonetheless. So let’s jump into True North. (Spoiler alert!)
This episode told the story of Hansel and Gretel, two children who wander where there not supposed to. It begins in Storybrooke where Ava (Karley Scott Collins, Gretel) befriends Henry in a local shop. Shortly afterwards he meets her twin brother Nicholas (Quinn Lord, Hansel). The three exit the store only to be sidelined by storeowner who accuses Henry of stealing. Henry denies everything only to realize that Ava and Nicholas have befriended him soley to frame him for shoplifting. Regina soon shows up in her perpetual bad mood and whisks Henry away. Charges dropped. Emma Swan shows up just as the two are leaving to investigate what is going on in her official capacity as sheriff. She takes drives the twins home and tries to get them reveal where they’re parents are. Ava tells her that their parents are broke and that they were stealing to help the family out. Emma buys that story and lets the children go home…or so we think. Once the children are inside they are startled to find Emma rooting around. We find out that the children have no family.
Meanwhile back in Fairytaleland, Hansel and Gretel are with their father who is chopping down a tree in the forest. Gretel wants to help so her father sends her off to gather kindling. Before she goes he gives her his compass crypticly saying “a family always needs to find one another”. At this point you know something bad is about to happen. The children return with the kindling only to find that their father is gone. In a panic they search for him and are stopped in the road by the Evil Queen’s carriage. The Queen orders them to be seized but the clever Gretel uses a sling to disable one of the henchmen and runs off with Hansel. The Queen teleports using smoke (apparently, she’s the reincarnation of Smokey from Lost) and catches them. She then makes them a deal. If they can retrieve a black satchel from the house of the blind witch (Emma Caulfield), she’ll let them go.
From here on, you know the story. They enter the house. Get the satchel but one of them (Hansel, which the narrative makes no bones about letting us know that he is the weaker twin) eats a cupcake. The blind witch wakes up but Hansel and Gretel thwart her. They push her into the oven and run out of the house. The Evil Queen watches from her magic mirror and sends a blaze to burn the blind witch up. Yeah, I know. Not much of a twist in the story.
Hansel and Gretel arrive at the Evil Queen’s castle with the satchel. It contains a red apple. If you know the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, then I shouldn’t have to tell you what this is for. Gracious as she is, the Evil Queen reveals that she is impressed with the children, especially Gretel and she offers them a home with her, reneging on her deal to help them find their father. The children refuse, angering the Queen. She sends a whirlwind and catches them up in it. They disappear from the castle. The Queen then summons their father, who she has captured (no surprise there). She asks him why the children refused her and the father says because “family always finds each other”. Angry at his answer, the Queen releases him and says that he can reunite with his children (who have already been transported back into the forest and set free) if he can find them.
Back in Storybrooke, Emma Swan has pledged to help the twins find their dad. Their mother has died and they have never met their father. Since Emma is an orphan herself and she also gave her son up for adoption, she cannot bare the thought of turning them over to the system. That doesn’t stop Regina from doing that for her. She orders Emma to drive the children to Boston and turn them over to social services that night. Emma disobeys Regina and decides to look anyway. She is met up by Henry who has become curious about his own father with the arrival of the twins. Emma tells him that his father was a firefighter who never knew he had a son and died saving a family in a fire. The story reminds Emma of something about all orphans. They always keep some memento from their parents. In this case, Eva kept her father’s compass (again, no surprise there), which was given to her by her dying mother. Emma takes the compass to Mr. Gold. He tells her that the compass was bought in his store and the name of the children’s father after searching through his records. The funny thing is that Mr. Gold doesn’t actually have any records and the card he read the name off of was blank. You gotta love this character. He’s on the screen for 5 minutes and it’s already memorable.
Emma finds the dad. He’s a mechanic working on a car in a garage. When Emma tells him the news of his children’s existence, he refuses her saying that he can barely take care of himself. A disappointed Emma leaves and she speaks to Mary Margaret in private. She is concerned because she doesn’t know how she is going to tell the children, whom she promised that she wasn’t going to separate, that they now have to go into the system. Mary Margaret suggests telling them the truth like she told Henry the truth about his dad. At this point Emma reveals that she lied which you just knewwas the case when she told originally told it. The story was too perfect to be true. It sounded like a mom lie.
Emma then packs the twins into the squad car and drives them off. As they are driving, the car stalls and Emma makes a phone call for help. Help arrives in the form of a tow truck driven by the twin's dad. The kids have no idea what’s going on but the compass arrow starts to work again pointing true north. Emma speaks to the dad admitting that there is nothing wrong with the car and that she just wanted him to see his children. He does and has a change of heart. He takes the children home with him.
Emma returns home satisfied. She briefly talks to Mary Margaret and then heads outside to get some air. She runs into Henry who gives her a pumpkin pie. As she is eating it a mysterious stranger (Eion Bailey) on motorcycle asks her for directions. She gives him directions and asks for his name, which he rebuffs and rides off into the night leaving a puzzling question. If no one can enter or leave the town, who is he?
And that’s your recap. Did you enjoy this episode? For me, I got to say this was a dud. It didn’t have the charm of mystery that makes this show great but if you think about it, if you were going to air a dud what better time to air it than during the Golden Globes. Let me know your thoughts. A new episode returns next week and we’ll get a look at who this mysterious stranger is.
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