TV Series > Once Upon A Time - Season: 1 > Episode: 9

TV Episode Details:

Once again, this show has taken another of our favourite fairy tales and twisted it into this new cruel world that the Dark Queen has constructed. This week it was Hansel and Gretel's turn.

First in their fairy tale past, while they were gathering wood, they ended up loosing track of their father, then bumped into the evil queen herself while looking for him. I was really surprised when the queen offered to help them find their father in return for their help, but like everything she does, there had to be a dark purpose to it.

So she sends the kids in to the gingerbread house to steal a satchel, but first gave them a strong warning not to eat anything. Like normal children, and the original tale, Hansel couldn't resist, so the witch captures them, and tries to bake them. They foil it, of course, so she ends up getting baked herself. Almost everyone knows that tale, but what came after is completely new.

The satchel that the children brought her, ended up holding the very apple that she used on Snow White. I didn't see that one coming. How all the fairy tales, that were never originally connected in any way, are now all connected through a strange new world, is what makes this series shine. The queen of course goes against her word, just like we expected, and even caused them to get separated from their father in the first place. This leads to the Storybrooke story in present day.

Hansel and Gretel are now Nicholas and Ava, children without parents, who are left to shoplifting in order to survive. Emma finds out after they get caught and decides to try to help them out, but the mayor, in her uncaring self, calls family services on them. What I am surprised about all this is how they ended up flying under the radar for so long. If they were stealing everything to survive, how didn't they get caught earlier? It seems that the store owner had eyes like a hawk, so I don't think he wouldn't have noticed them on past occurrences. Yes, I am aware there are probably more than one store, but they had to hit this one once before.

Anyway, back to the story. Emma promises them that she will find their father, and after Mr. Gold points her in the right direction, she finds him running the local garage, but he doesn't want them, even after her sob story. Thankfully, she ends up using the 'no one leaves Storybrooke' curse to fake car problems on their way to Boston in order to get the dad so see his children. Naturally, with the children watching them with puppy-dog eyes, Emma finally gets through and he finally gets reunited with his children. Yay, yet another happily ever after ending. Emma is starting to get good at those.

My favourite part of the episode, though, was Mary Margarete and Emma's mother/daughter bonding. Surprisingly, there was no flashback or realization when Ms Blanchard held Emma's baby blanket. I really hope that they build on that more in the next few episodes. After Snow's introduction in the first episode, I am sure they would make a formable pair against Mayor Mills.

Even though this episodes story was interesting, as was the characters, it just didn't seem as fun to watch as most of the others. Far too much of the episode had the children depressed, and that is never fun to watch. Hopefully next time we see these two, they will be much happier.