Once Upon a Time Recap: “Child of the Moon”

by Tracy Ladd:

Once Upon a Time Recap: “ Child of the Moon”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday November 11, 2012
Season 2 Episode 7

I’ve always liked the character of Red so I was pretty pleased when I found out that this week’s episode would focus on her story again.  We got her back story last season when we found out that she is actually the wolf and she was the one who killed Peter, her quasi-boyfriend.  Snow helped her through it and the two became fast friends blah blah blah.  This week, we find out more about her past, but she’s also got some drama to deal with in Storybrooke since you know, it’s the first full moon since the curse was broken.

This is yet another episode that doesn’t have a very much to do with Emma and Mary Margaret’s storyline in present-day FTL.  I feel like we haven’t seen very much of them and I can’t help but wonder how long this is going to continue.  This is after all, the third episode or so that we’ve hardly seen them.  I know there’s still a boat load of episodes before the season ends, but if feels like things are stalling a bit.  Is it just me?

Fairytale Land (Past)

Snow and Red are on the run from the Queen’s guards.  When they finally ditch the guards and stop to take a breather, Red notices that the hood on her red cloak (the one that prevents her from turning) is torn.  She’s afraid that it won’t work now and sends Snow away in case she changes.  They agree to meet by the stream the next morning, even though Snow doesn’t want to leave her alone.

The next morning Red awakens and moseys on over to the stream, leaving her cloak on the ground behind her.  Some random guy grabs it and runs away.  Red chases him and finally catches up after he stops and threatens to light the cloak on fire.  Red begs him not to, but he tells her that she doesn’t need it.  She just needs to learn how to control the wolf.  Shocker….he’s one too.  He says his name is Quinn and he tells her that there are others, and they can teach her how to control her wolf.

Quinn takes Red to a rather posh underground lair where the others are.  A woman who appears to be the HBIC emerges from the shadows and introduces herself as Anita…..Red’s mother…..who was supposed to be dead.  After some debate about Granny lying to Red about her parents being dead, Anita tells Red that she needs to accept that the wolf is part of her.  Only then will she be able to control it.  Anita goes on to say that when Red tries to fight the wolf, that’s when she blacks out and has no memory of what happened.  After the lecture, the pack go on a tear through the woods with Red joining in.

The next morning, Anita asks Red what she remembers and Red says that she remembers everything.  It’s all smiles and laughter, until Snow stumbles down the stairs.  The pack goes on high alert, but Red tells them not to worry and that Snow is a friend.  Red fills Snow in on what’s happened and introduces her to Anita, who is kind of bitchy.  Red tells Snow that she can’t go with her and that she’s staying with the pack.  Always the understanding one, Snow bids her friend farewell and goes to leave, but the Queen’s guards show up.

The guards infiltrate the lair…the pack dispatches the guards, but not before Quinn gets killed…Anita gets pissed at Snow for leading the guards to their hideout…but Snow apologizes and says she didn’t know.  Meanwhile, Red is worried that they will hurt Snow, which it turns out, Anita wants to.  Anita tells Red that if she’s truly one of them, she’ll kill Snow.  Snow refuses so Anita tries.  Anita shifts into wolf form (which I thought this was only brought on by the full moon but I guess that’s all part of controlling the wolf….maybe?) to attack Snow, but Red shifts and intervenes.  The two scuffle, and once back in human form, Red sees that she pushed her mom into a spike thing (fireplace poker maybe?).  Red cries that she isn’t a killer, but her mom doesn’t seem to forgive her before she dies.  Shortly after, Red buries her mother and sets off into the woods with Snow.

Storybrooke

The dwarves are still toiling away in the mines looking for fairy dust, when they knock off for the day to head to Granny’s in time for happy hour.  Leroy has other plans though and he keeps picking away, determined to find what they need.  He hits a weak spot in the wall and tumbles through the other side.

At the diner, Ruby seems otherwise occupied as she rushes around the diner helping people.  She’s stopped by (this episode’s equivalent of the random ensign, aka the redshirt) Billy, the tow-truck driver and he tells her that in FTL he was a mouse in Cinderella’s cupboard.  Billy tells her that he knows Ruby, but wants to know Red and asks her out for a drink.  Belle shows up in the nick of time and tells him that it’s girl’s night so he takes a rain checks.  Ruby thanks her and Belle tells her that she knows what a girl in trouble looks like.  Ruby tells Belle that it’s the first full moon since the curse has been broken and she’s not sure what to expect.

David gets a call from the dwarves and rushes down to the mines.  Leroy found a chamber with diamonds, which means that fairy dust isn’t too far away.  Blue (Mother Superior) tells them that they just need to crush them and tells David to keep Jefferson’s hat safe (foreshadowing??).  They decide to go celebrate with a round at Granny’s.

While David and the dwarves have their drink, Granny is in the back welding, trying to reinforce the freezer since Ruby’s going to be locked in.  David has a brief run in with DA Spencer (King George), who’s still bitter about what David did back in FTL.  David tells him to feel free to come after him, because he’ll be ready.  Moving on to the next task, David sees that Ruby is worried and asks her about her cloak, but Ruby doesn’t think it made the trip because she can’t find.  David tells her that everything will be fine because she learned to control it.  Ruby has to remind him that it’s been 28 years since she’s changed and she doesn’t want to take the chance.  They lock Ruby in the freezer and call it a night.

The next morning Granny finds that the freezer door has been torn off and there are claw marks everywhere, but Ruby is nowhere to be found.  Ganny and David find her in the forest, where she wakes up and doesn’t remember anything.  She’s worried that something happened.  David gets a call and Ruby thinks it’s something bad, but David tells her it’s just someone who double parked at the docks.

Since David is their ride, Ruby and Granny head to the docks with him.  They notice that the truck is Billy’s tow truck and when Ruby gets out of the car, she immediately smells blood.  Further searching finds Billy, but he’s been killed in a rather gruesome way.  Ruby is convinced she did it, but David isn’t so sure.

Meanwhile, Henry wakes up from his nightmare again and it’s Regina who’s there to comfort him.  He asks why she’s there and she tells him that David had a call and he asked her to come over to watch him.  She asks about his nightmare and sees that he has an actual burn on his hand.  A burn that came from the dream.  Mr. Gold comes over and tells him that it’s not actually a dream.  He’s entering another world and it’s a side effect of the sleeping curse.  Mr. Gold gives Henry an amulet filled with a potion and tells Henry that if he wears it while he sleeps, he’ll be able to control the fear.  Regina asks what his price it and Mr. Gold tells her for a house call, even she couldn’t afford it.  But this one is for Henry, and it’s on the house.  What a guy!

Ruby’s convinced that she’s the killer and has David lock her up in a cell.  Spencer tries to form a lynch mob to kill Ruby, and overthrow David.  When Spencer and his mob show up at the station, they find that the cell is empty.  Way to think ahead David.  Instead of keeping her there, he moved her to the library, thanks to Belle.  He tells Ruby that he trusts her and knows that it wasn’t her, but she just won’t listen.  After he leaves, Belle tells Ruby not to worry, but Ruby pulls a fast one and chains Belle to the wall.  She tells Belle that she deserves to die, because she’s a monster.  Oh Ruby….so melodramatic.

David does some snooping around in Spencer’s car and finds Ruby’s cloak and an axe.  Looks like Spencer set Ruby up after all.  The lynch mob has Ruby pinned at the docks and David shows up to take control of the situation.  He informs the crowd, and Ruby (in wolf form) that it was Spencer who set her up and killed Billy.  The wolf is on guard with hackles raised, but David approaches slowly.  When he sees that the wolf won’t attack, he throws the cloak over her and Ruby takes her (fully clothed) human form again.  All is well in the world….well, almost.

David moves to get Spencer, but he ran off and pushed Granny to the ground.  What a douche.  Ruby tracks him where they find him standing in front of a bonfire.  Spencer tells David he should be more careful and throws Jefferson’s hat into the fire.  I guess that was a bit of foreshadowing before.  David pulls his gun on Spencer, but Ruby stops him from shooting.

Later on, Ruby looks over Henry as he sleeps and tells David that he’ll find another way.  Now that she has control of her wolf again, she decides to go for a nice leisurely wolf run.

Henry enters his dream again, but this time, he’s got the amulet with him.  He realizes he can control what happens and tells Aurora, who’s in the dream with him, to not be scared.  She then asks him who he is.

Fairytale Land (present)

Emma and Snow walk past a sleeping Aurora, but run back to her when she wakes up screaming from her dream again.  She tells them both that “he” was there again, and he said his name was Henry.

So, it looks like we’re finally getting somewhere with all this dream business, but wouldn’t you know it…..the next new episode isn’t until November 25th.  Figures.  Overall this was a decent episode, if not for the horrible CGI wolves.  I said this last week, and I totally get it….the show has a budget.  But seriously…..the wolves were really really bad.  I mean….really bad.  I hope they find a way to fix the issue, or at least find a way to work around it.

I’m hoping that after we get through the hiatus that is inevitable at this time of year, we’ll get some more info on Neal Cassidy and find out what happened to August since he hasn’t been seen or heard from since the curse was broken.  So many questions!  I’ll be back on November 26 with some answers….hopefully!

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.