by Tracy Ladd:
Once Upon a Time Recap: “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday December 11, 2011
Season 1 Episode 7
A couple of things that I’ve been speculating on came to fruition with this latest episode. While it was a damned good one, it also destroyed me. I applaud the writers to be brave enough to kill off a main character, especially when it’s someone who people seemed to really dig, despite some of their actions. We’ve known about a death for a while now and while I had feeling who it would be, I spent the whole episode with fingers crossed that I was wrong. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. I mentioned a while back that I thought Graham was the Huntsman. Since this was his back story we find out that yes, he is indeed the man sent by the Evil Queen to dispatch of poor, grieving Snow White.
The episode starts with Graham playing darts in the diner which is also apparently a bar. He’s a mess and he’s three sheets to the west, but his aim is true. Sidney (aka The Mirror) watches and after Graham hits his second bullseye, bets him $20 that he can’t do it again. He does. Emma comes out from somewhere, the bathroom maybe? Anyway, he wants to explain his relationship with Regina but she doesn’t want to talk about it. As she attempts to walk out the door he throws another dart her way, which sort of pisses her off. The two proceed outside where he tells her that he feels nothing with Regina at all. He also tells her that he didn’t want her to know because he didn’t want her to look at him like she does now that she knows. She asks him why he cares, but instead of answering with words, he kisses her.
The minute he does, he flashes back to his life in FTL. He sees a wolf with one red-eye and one black eye in the forest. Back in the present, Emma’s a bit shocked and asks him: “What was that?” He asks her if she saw it too, but she didn’t. Afterwards, he heads to Regina’s and lays one on her as well. Not sure why, but he ends up getting more than just a kiss.
Flashback to FTL and the Queen stands overlooking a tomb. Turns out it’s Snow White’s father. EQ watches as Snow places a rose on the tomb and tells her “I’m here for you dear.” Ummmm, ok. Once back in her chambers, the Mirror congratulates her on her plan to exact revenge. EQ tells the Mirror that her plan is almost complete, but the next phase, doing away with Snow, will have to be done with delicacy because the realm still adores her and doesn’t know of the evil inside of her and that “They don’t know what she did to me.” The Mirror tells her that she needs someone without heart, she needs a huntsman.
Meanwhile, in the forest we see a pretty CGI deer get pegged by an arrow. The Huntsman kneels over the deer thanking it for its sacrifice and that it died so that he could live. He also sheds a tear. Doesn’t look very heartless to me. The wolf shows up and the Huntsman tells him, not to worry that he won’t go hungry tonight. All of this played out in FTL, but also in Graham’s dreams. In Storybrooke, he wakes suddenly having just dreamed the same thing.
Regina tries to calm him down, but he’s anxious and frazzled and tells her it wasn’t just a dream, it felt more like a memory. He then gets dressed and leaves her house, only to see the wolf outside. It runs off, but Graham follows it.
The next morning, Emma comes downstairs to see a bouquet of flowers sitting on the table. After huffing and rolling her eyes, she tosses them in the garbage. Mary Margaret tells her that those flowers were actually hers, from Dr. Whale. The two go back and forth about one night stands when MM tells Emma that her “floral abuse” clearly indicates that she has feelings for Graham.
Graham, meanwhile, is still running through the forest trying to find the wolf. Instead he finds Mr. Gold, who says he’s doing a spot of gardening. That all seemed rather curious to me since he was sporting a shovel and one of those long plastic aprons that butchers wear. Anyway, Graham tells him that he’s looking for a wolf and also tells him about his wolf dream. Mr. Gold tells him that dreams are memories from another life, then leaves Graham to his business.
Back in FTL, the Huntsman and the wolf arrive at a pub. The patrons give the Huntsman a hard time and then try to attack, but the Huntsman takes care of business and the other would-be attackers wisely back off. EQ sees all this go down in the mirror and decides that he’s perfect for her task and tells her guards to fetch him.
In the Storybrooke woods, Graham finally sees the wolf and after whistling to it, it comes to him. He looks into the wolf’s eyes and sees a vision of Snow looking up at him. When the vision clears, the wolf is gone.
EQ tells the Huntsman that there are two kinds of people: wolves and sheep. She tells him that she wants him to kill someone for her and that he’ll be her official huntsman. He replies telling her that he doesn’t want to be someone’s pet. She tells him that she wants him to cut out someone’s heart so she can add it to her collection in her vault. He says “that’s me” and his only price is that the wolves of the forest be protected.
In Storybrooke, Graham goes to see Mary Margaret. He asks how long they’ve known each other and if she can remember when they met. She can’t and neither can he. He can’t remember when he met anyone from town. He asks her if she believes in other lives and tells her he thinks that they knew each other from another time. MM then tells him about Henry’s theories, which he hadn’t heard about before. He’s not looking so good so MM feels his forehead and tells him that he’s hot (ummmm yes he is) and that he should go rest, so he leaves.
In FTL, Snow is walking with the Huntsman who is dressed in guards armor. She knows that he’s not a knight and tells him so. Then she puts two and two together and asks why EQ asked him to take her. He replies by telling her she has good instincts. She tells him he’s wearing too much armor, hits him and runs away.
Graham shows up at Henry’s door asking about the book and asking Henry if he’s in the story. In FTL, the Huntsman finds Snow writing a letter a to the Queen. She’s accepted her fate and asks that he deliver the letter for her. He reads it, then has a change of heart and tells her to run. He makes a whistle for her in case she gets into trouble. He looks up and spots a deer. Fade to a deer in Henry’s book.
Henry asks him when the visions started and Graham tells him it happened as soon as he kissed Emma. There’s a cute moment where Henry says “You kissed my Mom?” But then Henry proceeds to tell Graham that he and Emma share a bond because Emma owes her life to him. All because he didn’t slay Snow. Henry then breaks the news that because of this, the Queen took his heart so that he would never feel again. Graham then realizes that the wolf is helping him to find it.
Emma finds Graham and he tells her that he has to find the wolf so he can find his heart. She tells him that he has a heart and puts her hand on his chest. Then the wolf appears. The two follow it to the cemetery where it stops and howls. Graham looks up and sees the emblem from EQ’s vault.
In FTL, the Huntsmas goes to present EQ with a heart (of a stag) but first, gives her the letter. She has him read it to her. It’s all about how Snow hopes that her death will bring about something good blah blah blah and the Huntsman asks what Snow did to her. EQ tells him that she shared a secret with Snow, and Snow betrayed her by telling that secret. What that secret is, we still don’t know. He gives her the heart, which she places in a little wooden chest, but it won’t open the drawers so it can’t be a human heart. She knows he played her. As a result for his betrayal, she reaches into his chest and pulls out his heart and gives it a squeeze to demonstrate the power she now has over him. She adds it to her collection.
In Storybrook, Graham and Emma gain entrance to the “vault” but they can’t find anything other than a tomb and some urns. Regina then shows up to place flowers on her father’s tomb like she does every Wednesday. Graham tells Regina that it’s over between them and she automatically assumes it’s because of Emma. He tells her that Emma’s got nothing to do with it and he’s doing it for himself. Regina questions Emma on why she’s going after everything that Regina holds dear. Emma tells her to look in the mirror and question why everyone is running away from her. Regina responds with a fist to Emma’s face. One that Emma counters. Graham pulls them apart and Emma walks away. Regina tries to reach out for him but he leaves as well.
Back at the station, Graham goes to work on patching Emma up telling her that he doesn’t know why he left himself get involved with Regina. She tells him it was because it was easy and safe and she understands.
Back at the vault, Regina pushes the tomb aside to reveal a hidden staircase. She walks down them into her (EQ’s) heart vault. She picks the drawer that the Huntsman heart is in and takes out the heart.
At the station, Emma kisses Graham who once again remembers everything. The kiss deepens but doesn’t get much further before Regina squeezes the heart in her hand until it turns to dust. Graham drops dead from what I assume will be a heart attack. Emma tries to revive him, but it doesn’t do any good. She’s left with his body in her arms, crying.
And it’s that note we end on until the show comes back after the New Year. Like I said…I knew it was coming, but I was still incredibly bummed out. I really hope somehow, someway he comes back. I may be wishing for a bit much with that, but I really like Jamie Dornan and I dig that character.
I think that shit is going to get real between Regina and Emma now. It was tense before but now with Graham dead the two are going to battle.
And what’s Mr. Gold playing at? He seems to want people to remember their past. He holds a power over Regina so why isn’t he using it? I think he’s just biding his time. We’ll find out when the show returns hopefully. Until then…
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.
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