Once Upon a Time Recap: “Snow Falls”

Once Upon a Time Recap: “Snow Falls”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday November 6, 2011
Season 1 Episode 3

This week gives us a peek into Snow White’s back story.  While it doesn’t reveal a whole lot about her history, or what she did to piss off the Queen for that matter, we do get to see just how she and Prince Charming met.  We also find out that he actually has a name.  And it isn’t Charming.

The episode begins in Fairytale Land with Charming and his fiance …who isn’t Snow, riding in a carriage when they have to stop due to a fallen tree blocking the path.  The woman is a tad snooty, telling Charming that they should have taken the troll road.  Typical woman….bitching to her man about the route he took.  Anyway, Charming gets out of the carriage to see what the problem is and upon inspection, finds that the tree didn’t fall.  It was cut intentionally and realizes a tad too late that it’s an ambush.  A figure has stolen a parcel from the carriage, the naggy woman is screaming and the thief gets away on horseback.  Charming grabs a horse and takes off after the thief, catches up and is able to knock the thief off the horse.  Once he does, he pulls the hood off the thief’s cloak to find, to his surprise, Snow White is underneath it.  Snow gets away, but not before Charming tells her that wherever she is, he will find her.

Flash to Storybrooke, Mary Margaret is at the diner, on a date with a doctor from the hospital (David Anders), and who also is the guy who played Sark on Alias.  He spends a good portion of their date oogling Ruby who’s busting tables in hot pant and stripper heels.  Mary picks up on this and asks for the check.  As she’s walking home, she sees Emma in her VW bug reading the paper by flashlight.  Mary offers her a room, but Emma says she’s not the roommate type and declines the invite because apparently sleeping in a car is much more comfortable.

The following day, Mary is with her class at the hospital and she finds Henry in John Doe’s room.  He asks her who he is and Mary replies that she doesn’t know.  No one has claimed him and he’s been in a coma for as long as she’s been volunteering there.  Henry’s got that look again and later on, while he’s with Emma, he tells her that John Doe is Prince Charming and it’s the curse that’s keeping him in the coma.  He thinks that if Mary reads him the story, he’ll wake up.  Emma plays along and tells him she’ll talk to Mary, which she does, over hot chocolate with cinnamon.

Mary goes back to the hospital with the book and reads it to John Doe.  This part of the story takes us to another flashback.  Snow is gathering up a bunch of stuff and as she leaves the tree trunk that is her lovely abode, she gets caught up in a net.  Charming comes out telling her TOLDJA!  They exchange quips with her giving him the nickname of Charming, and him telling her that he has a name.  A fact that she doesn’t care about.  He tells her that he wants his jewels back, mainly because a ring that belonged to his mother was among the items stolen and because he’s giving it to his fiance.  Snow refers to her as the “nag with a bad attitude” which Charming doesn’t find amusing.  He then tells her he knows who she is and shows her a wanted poster with her image on it.  Back in Storybrooke, as Mary continues to read, John Doe grabs her hand.  She rushes to get the doc, (the same one she went on a date with) and he says that there aren’t any changes and maybe she just imagined it.  As soon as she leaves, the doc calls Regina and says that John Doe grabbed a volunteer, that it was Mary and there was a change in brain activity.

The next morning Mary tells Henry and Emma the same thing.  She’s anxious to go back to the hospital, so they do.  Once they arrive they find that John Doe is gone.  The Sheriff is there keeping everyone back and in the room is….Regina.  Of course.  She tells them that she was his emergency contact because she’s the one who found him.  She sneers at Emma, glares at Mary and takes Henry with her telling him he’s grounded.  Emma and Mary look at the surveillance tapes to see John Doe get up and walk out.  Emma, Mary and the Sheriff head out to the forest to follow his trail and, of course, Henry shows up again to help.  He tells Mary that John Doe is looking for her and she has to let him find her.

Back in Fairytale Land, Snow is leading Charming to the troll bridge to get his jewels back.  They stop for a drink of water and she pushes him in and take off.  She stopped on the road by the Queen’s guards and just before they’re about to cut out her heart, Charming rescues her.  Moving on with their journey, they finally reach the troll bridge.  Snow sets some coins on the ledge and three trolls emerge.  She tells them what she came for and they seem to be willing to deal until they see the wanted poster.  They decide that will get them a better payday.  This also provides Charming one more chance to save her.  However, things go amuck, and she’s the one who has to save him telling him “how could I let Prince Charming die?”  He responds to her once again by telling her he has a name and it’s James.  Snow and Charming/James gather their booty and he gives her the gold and she gives him the ring.  She tries it on, says it’s not her style (she’s totally lying) then gives it back to him.  They set off on their way in different directions.

In Storybrooke, they find John Doe laying in the stream by the toll bridge (see what they did there?).  He’s unconscious and Mary begins CPR, the tries the old mouth-to-mouth routine.  This does the trick and once he comes to, he tells her, you saved me.  She asks who he is, but he says he doesn’t know.  Henry is ecstatic and Emma is stunned.  They get him back to the hospital and when they arrive, a blonde woman (the nag with a bad attitude in Fairytale Land) runs up to him crying and acting like the concerned wife.  According to Regina, that’s exactly what she is.  I smell a set up!

Regina tells them that she went back through the tapes and found that he’s been talking in his sleep calling out for someone named Catherine.  His name is David Nolan and the woman is his wife, Catherine.  Her story is that they separated and wondered why he never called.  Emma doesn’t buy it but Regina continues telling her that she’s glad she has Henry because being alone is the worst kind of curse. Mary however, watches the Nolan’s in a really weird uncomfortable looking embrace.  As she watches, he catches her eye.

Back at her apartment, Mary is left sitting by herself toying with her ring (which just so happens to be the ring that Snow gave back to Charming James) when she hears a knock at her door.  It’s Emma asking if she still has that room available.  Looks like she’s going to learn to be the roommate type after all.

Glad to see that John Doe is awake because I think things are really going to start getting interesting now.  One a sidenote, last week I mentioned that I was trying to figure out who the Sheriff is supposed to be.  I think he’s actually the huntsman sent out by the Queen.  Snow mentioned to Charming that a huntsman found her but let her go because he actually had a heart.  We also got to see Grumpy and Sleepy in Storybrooke as well.  Next week it looks like we get a peek at Cinderella which should be really interesting.

Word came down last week that ABC has ordered a full season of OUaT which is really awesome news.  I’d hate to get involved and have it cut short.  Ratings have been strong however and it looks like our stories will continue.  I’ll be back next week so stay tuned!

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.