Once Upon a Time Recap: “An Apple Red as Blood”

by Tracy Ladd:

Once Upon a Time Recap: “An Apple Red as Blood”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday May 6, 2012
Season 1 Episode 21

Well, next week wraps up the first season of Once Upon a Time.  This latest episode was written by the incredible Jane Espenson, and the equally incredible David Goodman.  Both have been responsible for some of the season’s strongest episodes of the series thus far.  The same can be said for director Milan Cheylov, who also directed the episode that gave us Belle.This week, things really start to pick up steam as we head into the season finale next week.  I don’t think they can just magically make Emma start to believe in everything by the end of next week’s episode.  That would be too much.  Instead I think they’re going to have her slowly see things differently and that’s what will do the trick.  Official word on a second season still hasn’t been given however.  Fingers crossed the finale gets enough viewers to convince the network to give it the go ahead.  With the way this week ended, I imagine it will be a cliffhanger.  If ABC pulls the plug, people are going to be pissed.

Fairtytale Land

We get back to the core of the story this week with Prince Charming and Snow White’s tale.  Charming is about to pay the price for not marrying Abigail and is put in place to lose his head to the guillotine.  Just as the blade comes down, it turns to water and Regina makes a grand entrance.  She tells King George that she will give him enough to cover what he lost since the marriage didn’t happen, in exchange for Charming himself.  She tells King George that she plans to use him to get to Snow White.

Snow, the dwarfs, Granny and Red all hatch a plan to free Charming from Regina.  Grumpy calls for reinforcements and the fairies lend a hand as well.  Red, in wolf form, give a howl signaling the group that the mission is a go and Snow, along with the dwarfs, scale King George’s castle walls.  After taking out several guards, they find themselves surrounded, but thanks to the fairies, they’re soon knocked out cold.

Snow makes her way to the dungeon cell, and sees Charming but once inside the cell, she realizes that it’s his reflection.  He tells her that Regina has him in her castle and Regina soon pops up and offers Snow a Parlay.  Snow agrees and even though Grumpy warns her, she goes to meet Regina, unarmed.

The two meet up at the stables where Daniel died and walk to the field where Regina first saved Snow.  They reminisce about the good ole days and Regina shows Snow a grave.  Daniel’s grave.  She tells Snow that she told her Daniel ran away to spare her feelings, but the fact is that he died because of the secret Snow spilled.  Snow apologizes and said she had no idea, but Regina doesn’t care.  She tells Snow that she has to make a choice.  Either she eat the poisonous apple, or Charming dies a horrible death.  Of course she takes the apple.  One bite and she hits the ground.  The other find her and after a quick assessment, realize that she’s not breathing.  As her life was leaving her, Charming seemed to feel it too while locked up in Regina’s cell.

Storybrooke

In Storybrooke, Regina has a horrible dream that the locals are after her and are about to destroy her.  She wakes from her nightmare and rushes to check on Henry, who she thinks is in his bed, but he’s actually with Emma.  Henry is trying to convince Emma to not leave town and ends up almost getting them in a wreck.

The next morning, Regina looks at her prized apple tree and notices that it’s dying.  She goes to see Mr. Gold and tells him that the curse is breaking and he’s not doing anything about it.  He tells her that if Emma dies, the curse will be broken and perhaps giving up Henry is the best course of action.  She refuses to believe that.  He tells her that if people start to remember who they are and what she’s done to them, they will be out for her blood….much like the dream she had.

Regina goes to Henry’s school and leaves a calling card (of a white rabbit) on Paige’s bike.  Jefferson (yay the hatter is back!) shows up at Regina’s office and asks her what she wants.  She gives him his hat box and tells him that if he helps her, she’ll give him his daughter back.  He tells her that he was a new story with his daughter and she agrees.  One problem though.  There is no magic in Storybrooke, therefore the hat won’t work.  She tells him she has just a little bit of magic left to get the hat going.

Henry goes to August for help with Emma and August is in a bad way.  He’s slowly turning back into wood and once he does, he’ll die.  He tells Henry that Emma’s disbelief is so strong that she doesn’t see what’s happening and he can’t do anything else.  He apologizes and tells Henry that he’s on his own and all August wants to do is to spend his last days with his father.

Emma seeks advice from Archie and realizes that maybe her actions haven’t been all that great for Henry.  He tells her that she has no case and wouldn’t win in a custody battle, but that the war between her and Regina must end.

Meanwhile, Regina takes Jefferson to her crypt of goodies and gives him a few items to produce the last bit of magic she has.   The items don’t give the hat enough juice to produce a full vortex, but Jefferson tells her that if she has something stronger, she might be able to bring something back.  But it will need to be small.  Her last bit of magic is the ring that Daniel gave her before he died.  She uses that and it does the trick.  Regina is able to bring across the poisonous apple used on Snow White.  Her thought is that is Emma eats it, she won’t die die…..and therefore the curse won’t be broken.

Emma follows Archie’s advice and decides to call a truce with Regina.  She goes to Regina’s house and tells her that she’ll leave Storybrooke, but she still wants to visit Henry.  Regina, who has been playing Betty Crocker with her poisonous apple, agrees and sends Emma home with her famous apple turnover.

Henry shows up at Emma’s place and she tells him that she’s leaving but they will still see each other.  He tells her not to go, but she insists it’s for the best.  He hugs her and as he does he sees the turnover on the counter.  He asks her about it and she tells him that Regina gave it to her.  He grabs it and tells her not to eat it because it’s poisonous.  She doesn’t believe him, so to prove it, he eats it instead.  The episode ends with Henry falling to the ground unconscious.

I’m thinking that the finale will end with Henry on the verge of death.  A couple of notes about this episode:

• I love that they brought Jefferson back.  I would like to see him as a recurring character because he adds an unknown element to the show.
• From what I understand, we’ll get to see Graham again….but only as the Huntsman.  I’ll take that over nothing.
• Will Emma finally start to believe now that Henry is knocking on death’s door?  And how is Regina going to react when she realizes that she’s the one who hurt him?
• Why does Mr. Gold want the curse broken?  He’s always working an angle, I’m just trying to figure out what it is.

DarkMedia contributor Tracy Ladd has been writing about film since her days on the her high school newspaper. Even though she took a decade or two off to explore other things, she’s back to doing what she loves. She also bakes, can knit a pretty nifty scarf and makes lightsaber sounds with her knitting needles. Or chopsticks. Especially with the lightsaber chopsticks.

You can find her on Facebook, on Twitter @ReelGoddess, and on her website The Reel Goddess.