Once Upon a Time
Season 1 episode 7 – “The heart is a lonely hunter”
Once upon a time on a lonely road, the writers of Once
Upon a Time decided to rip my heart out and stick it alongside all the other
internal organs Regina has syphoned and stored in her creepy tomb vault for all
millennia.
In episode 7 we lost a champion of Irish hipster
Sheriffdomhood to a curse called “New show shockitis.” It’s an increasingly
common ailment, in which a television program to prove that no character is
safe, terminates a series regulars role in the show, early on in the series
run. The most well known case I can think of, and possible ground zero given
the show runners backgrounds here, is given the name “Item Boone” (Lost
forever!)
Now this is usually not a problem for me. It’s cool and
daring and a sign that a show is willing to take risks, move plot along and
still can tug on your heartstrings (all symptoms present and accounted for
here.) It’s just that I’m going to miss Graham so much. Sorry, I’ve just got
something in my eye, allergies, I’m not crying, your crying.
“The heart is a lonely hunter” was a fantastic episode.
For a show that has not even reached its tenth episode, to care about the fate
of so many characters this early on is a feat in itself, but what this episode
also did was that it answered some of the questions we, as the audience, had
been questioning, scratching our heads over or ferociously attacking fan forums
about since the pilot.
Regina knows. The moment she started pushing her way into
her father’s crypt to make the decent into her vault of hearts, a set that mirrored
her old one back in Fairytale world. Regina is still the same cold-hearted,
evil witch who inflicted her wrath, as seen in flashback, on book, mythological
and Disney characters alike. The only difference now is that she wears pant
suits inside of corsets, converses with people with legs inside of floating,
CGI heads stuck behind glass, and she crushes the hearts of poor, sweet
Sheriffs who are just trying to figure out why they are suddenly remembering
their life as a character from a Kristen Stewart movie (whose trailers during
the ad breaks had you flipping from one version of the Snow white to the next.
If you guessed that Sheriff Graham was the Huntsman from
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, congratulations! You were correct. 10 points
and a year’s supply of fairy dust. If it looks like it hasn’t arrived yet,
that’s just because it’s invisible.
We discovered, as well as being the wickedest witch that
ever was (I don’t have statistics but she’s got to be up there) Regina was also
Snow White’s evil step-mother, a follow-through from the original story. As we
float through the flashback we discover that the Queen murdered Snow White’s
father, the King and Snow White was next on her hit list. To complete the task,
the Queen needed someone heartless, someone cold, someone with an accent. She
needed a Huntsman.
Despite the claim that he was the baddest of the bad, we saw
that he cared deeply for the wolves that raised him (so that means his Mowgli
from the Jungle Book as well, yes?) and that compassion followed through to his
dealing with Snow White. He ended up softening towards her plight. Eventually choosing to let her
go after reading a letter of forgiveness addressed to Regina and getting a good
glimpse into her big doe eyes.
As we see these flashbacks play out as usual, we are in
for a treat. These aren’t your run of the mill story telling device, these are
memories. The Sheriff following a smooch from Emma starts to remember his life
as a fairytale character. As you expect, Graham is extremely confused and
starts following bread crumbs trying to figure out what the flashes and a
mysteriously docile wolf that begins to follow him around, mean.
After a long and bewildering journey, Graham with the
help of a concerned Emma finds Regina outside what they are led to believe is
Regina’s father’s tomb. Graham, who admits that he feels nothing when he is
with Regina, still in a daze, takes off with Emma. Well, takes off after the
girls get a few punches in. Not slaps or claws or hair pulling. Rock’em,
Sock’em robot punches and it was excellent.
While Emma and Graham only see Regina’s father’s tomb, here’s
the kicker, as the audience we see that underneath is the mythical vault where
Regina stores what I imagine is the internal organs of numerous storybook
creatures, including the Huntsman/Graham’s own glowing heart. A location that
mirrors the one she has in Fairytale world. Imagine the suitcases she had to
pack before crossing over.
Regina, who takes rejection like a pro, descends her
secret staircase. At the same time, Emma in a rare moment of letting someone in
(we got an overload of information throughout the episode about how caged she
is) kisses Graham passionately, causing him to remember everything. Not just
flashes, everything.
As this chapter came to close, while Graham chooses to
kiss Emma again, instead of sharing his new found knowledge, the evil Queen in
all her terribleness, crushed Graham’s heart, the one he chose to give to Emma,
to dust. And I’m a wreck.
Before I forget:
-There had been lots of speculation and clues left lying
around the place that the Sheriff was going to be the Huntsman, so it wasn’t
much of a surprise. I’m personally looking forward to them revealing that Ruby
is actually Tinkerbell and all the red clothing has been to throw us off. The ultimate
red herring!
- What was Mr Gold doing in the woods with a shovel and
should they do a headcount of all Storybrooke’s residents just in case? My
recommendation, start with the first borns.
-The kiss from Emma worked because if the Huntsman had not
spared Snow White and lied to the Queen, Emma would never have been born. It’s
the circle of life.
- We got an interesting insight into how the former fairytale
characters minds work this episode. Neither Graham nor Mary Margaret can
remember how or when they met each other, let alone anyone else in town.
- I love the fact that the only person in town who
legitimately understood what was happening was the ten year old.
- As I said earlier, it’s not a new thing for a show to
kill a series regular off so early in the series, what do you think about
losing a main character here? Devastated or happy to be moving forward?
Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed and it wasn’t
to crushing of an experience as we farewelled Sheriff Graham. Hopefully we will
see your original counterpart again in the future. Graham did seem to get along
pretty well with Granny and Little Red in Storybrooke. Maybe Regina’s half-done
heart transplant has removed his love for the big bad wolves?
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