An Affair to Remember

Once Upon a Time

Season 1 episode 6 – “The Shepherd”  

Once upon a troll bridge, a handsome Prince married a beautiful princess/former highway bandit. Two seconds into their happily ever after, the step-mother in law from hell crashed the wedding and sent all their friends and family to a horrible world where they would be constantly subjected to the horrors the likes of reality television and where glitter and taffeta is reserved only for special occasions.

Now in the horrible not so far off land, the handsome Prince was trapped in a magical sleep and could only be woken by hearing a story about himself.

Once awake the Prince was all a daze, not able to remember his life with Snow but still not entirely certain on his new found life in Storybrooke. The only thing that did seem real to the Royal was the angelic Mary Margaret. The petite brunette, who despite her overwhelming attraction to the once coma bound David, fought the desire to start a tremulous affair with the man, who unbeknownst to her was actually her husband (probably, I don’t know how Fairytale law holds up in Maine.) I don’t know about you but the whole thing makes me grateful that the relationship statuses were not this complicated in the Disney version.

We open this week’s episode at a party and not just any party, one of the world’s most awkward Welcome Home party ever. Don’t you hate parties where you are meant to know everybody but can’t remember anyone’s names; at least David has the whole amnesia thing to cushion the pain.

It is in those moments that you cling to anybody that you can recognize and in this case the only people David happens to know at the party are his family, he just doesn’t know that yet either.

As explained by Henry to Emma to the audience, the curse is not working on David, as the amnesia is preventing the curse from putting fake memories in place of his real memories, but then on the flip side it is also holding back his memories of Fairytale world. 

This week’s cute instalment of Meet the Charmings does not last long though, because nearly as soon as he arrives he’s off to see Mary Margaret. She holds up well, that Mary Margaret, despite missing Snow White’s spunk, she stays true to her convictions, even when David looks at her like she is the only thing in the world.

We then cross to Fairytale land, where we see Prince Charming get butchered by an extra, left over from Lord of the Rings. What? What? WHAT? Hold it right there, I need to check something.

 

Ok, I watched past this bit in the episode and it turns out all right, we can proceed safely.

In a very cool twist the Once Upon a Time masterminds have spun the origin story of Prince Charming with two other mythical stories, the legend of King Midas (He’s got the Midas touch) and the tale of the Prince and the Pauper.

Rumplestiltskin has his fingers in all the pies doesn’t he? Solving the mystery of what he does with the baby he makes deals for, after the untimely death of his son, King George (Alan Dale aka Charles Widmore for those in the know) learns from Rumple that while magic can’t bring his son, who he nears to close a deal with King Midas (Alex Zahara) back from the dead (Did they learn nothing from Aladdin? The genie sang about it!) He can however give him the next best thing, the Prince’s twin brother. On that Rumplestiltskin, he’s always doing crazy things like separating newborn twins in deals so he can use one of them at a later date.

-Fairytale equivalent of a side bar- Rumplestiltskin in return for helping the King asks for the whereabouts of a fairy godmother who is a patron of the Charming family so he can lay claim to her magic wand. Is this Cinderella’s fairy godmother that he killed in episode 4? – The End of Sidebar-

While his hair is distractingly terrible before he meets the King, the future Prince is truly the fairytale Prince TV shows are made on. He rescues knights, slays dragons (yes, there was a dragon and yes it was awesome) and agrees to a loveless, arranged marriage to a women he will not love in any dimension to save his family and the kingdom. What a guy.  

In Storybrooke David is not prepared to spend his life, with a woman he doesn’t love where at this point Prince Charming is willing, if not happy about, marrying someone he is not in love with. We as the audience however, know that the road to true love is just around the corner. Literally, as he leaves King Midas palace we follow through to the carriage ride that brings the Prince to meeting the love of his life. This got me, this was clever and romantic and just plain combination of joyful viewing and storytelling.  

Unfortunately for Mary Margaret and David their path to happiness is not so sunny, as it is being blocked by this pesky little, life altering, soul crushing curse. With some “help” from Regina, David “remembers” his life with Katherine and decides he wants to try and make it work with her.

It is in that moment we see Mary Margaret gets some of her Snow White fire back. He should not have led her on, but is there really any good excuse for hanging out with Sark (Dr Whale aka David Anders.) No good will come from that. Stay away.

Let’s not forget:

-King Midas (from Greek mythology) mentions putting the golden Dragon’s head between the Chimera and Mapinguari back at his palace. The Chimera is also from Greek Mythology and the Mapinguari is part of Brazilian mythology, which confirms that the writers are definitely reaching outside the realm of just Fairytale and Disney movies.

-I don’t think I’m grown up enough to handle the thought of Snow White and Dr Whale.

-Does Regina do anything else but walk into a scene, threaten someone then leave? I didn’t think so.

-Emma, who up until now has never had a family, has parents coming out of her ears with Mary Margaret continually seeking her out for relationship advice.

-Apparently Emma, Regina and the Sheriff did not get the memo I sent, that the Regina and Sheriff hook up was not happening.

-Feathers aka Kathryn, seems to be a decent enough person, which means she is going to be evil, right?

-Did you catch all the fairytale and storybook objects scattered throughout Mr Gold’s shop. I saw a tea set, which could either be from Alice and Wonderland or Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin’s lamp; Emma’s mobile from Fairytale land, what could possibly be a canoe from Pocahontas hanging from the ceiling and of course the parent puppets. What other items did you see?

 Until next episode my magical friends, where it looks like the fairest of them all might just be starting to clue in on the evil curses workings, and I’m not talking about Snow White.