Once Upon a Time Recap: Time After Time

Hiya Gasmi!  I’m betting you were all as excited as I was to see that this episode was one focusing on Snow and Charming.  I don’t know what it is about these two, but they always hit just the right notes for me.  That said, there was some behavior in this episode that may or may not have tarnished my feelings for them juuuuuust a wee bit.  But I’ll save that discussion for later.

We open on a gloomy, rainy day.  Thunder has begun to roll in the background and the stranger is working on his bike.  It seems to have broken down right in front of the Mayor’s house.  Hmmmm…..coincidence?  It is here that he engages in an extremely annoying conversation with Henry, designed to give us NO INFORMATION WHATSOEVER!!

 Whatcha doing here?    Here in Storybrooke, I mean.  What’s that? What’s in it?

Fixing my bike.  None of your business.  Are you retarded?  Stuff.

He tells Henry that the box has in it something he needs to do what he came here for.  Henry thought he was just visiting.  “Doesn’t mean I don’t have something to do.”  Ugh.  Thanks for nothing Mr. Stranger!  Regina spies them talking and readies herself to head over for a confrontation, but the stranger rides off after telling Henry it looks like a storms a-coming.

Over at Mary Margaret’s house, she’s running around getting ready, spitting toothpaste into the kitchen sink (even though it appears that the bathroom would be free since only two people live there) claiming she needs to rush off to school to help the kids get ready for their science fair.

Yes folks, Mary Margaret spits.

You knew I’d go there, right?

Turns out “science fair” is code for “coffee at Granny’s”.  She sits at a table, checking herself out in the reflection of her spoon and I’m hoping to hell that she’s not meeting Dr. Whale.  Nope.  No Whale in sight.  Instead, she’s come to moon at David while he buys some morning coffee for himself and his fake wife!

Are you stalking me?

Nonsense!  Emma catches Mary Margaret and points out to her that she is indeed a stalker.  Nu uh.  Well, maybe.  But totally not in a creepy way!  She just happens to know David’s entire schedule by heart, including that he and Kathryn like to eat Chinese on Thursdays.

Fuck.  I AM a stalker, aren’t I?

She says she can’t get David out of her head and Emma tells her that maybe the first step is not showing up here tomorrow.  Mary Margaret says love’s the worst; she wishes there was a magic cure.  I hear ya, sista!  Been there myself.

In Fairyland, Snow is hunting.  Just as she’s about to down a nice juicy bird, Little Red Riding Hood shows up and ruins her shot.  Snow wasn’t expecting her for a month.

Uh, it’s BEEN a month

Time flies when you’re trying to forget a man you barely know but have fallen madly in love with!

Red’s got a basket of food for Snow, but also some bad news:  James is going to marry Abigail in just two days’ time.  Dang it!  Snow thought the longer she stayed away the easier it would be to forget him, but all she’s been able to do is think about him even MORE!  It’s all she does.    If only there was a way to get him out of her head!

To forget, ah yes. To suffer a mental lapse, to obliterate from one’s consciousness, to suffer amnesia, a blank or fugue, to drink the waters of Lethe …

Snow gets a weird look on her face so of course Snow figures out she knows something she’s not telling.  Come on!  Snow implores.  After all, she helped Red when no one else would (Ooooooo…….details, please!)

Okay, ya got her with that one.  Red tells her there are whispers of a man that can achieve even the most unholy of requests.  A man that can do what she asks.

Tell me!  Please?  I’ll give you my impossibly mauve fur trimmed vest if you do!

Red must be sick of wearing her namesake color because……..

Rumpy’s my name, dealing’s my game

Rumpy tells Snow that he has been looking forward to meeting her; she really is the fairest of them all.  She tells him she needs a cure for a broken heart.  Ah, the most painful of afflictions, Rumpy says sympathetically.  If she’s looking to make this guy fall in love with her that’s a negatory, he can’t do that.

No, nothing like that, Snow assures him.  They are not able to be together.  Oh, that’s easy; he has just the cure she is looking for.   And he scoops up some of the misty water into a vial he just happens to have handy, and swirls it around a bit changing it from clear to cloudy.  To the water he adds some of her hair (because no two loves are exactly the same) that he yanks right out of her head.

But nothing comes for free, especially with Ole Rumpy.  He tells her the potion is hers; all he wants in return is to keep the leftover hairs that weren’t needed for the potion.  What’s it to her, he asks.  They’re already yanked out and it’s not like she needs them for anything, right?

She takes the potion, thereby sealing the deal with him.  ARGH!  Snow!  What are you thinking?!?!?!?  I’m betting he can do something seriously crazy with that hair or he wouldn’t downplay it so much.

Is it too much to hope for a stray cat hair in with Snow’s?

Over in Storybrooke, Mary Margaret is stocking up on supplies for the impending storm.

Or an already present broken heart

As she turns the corner she runs into Kathryn who is there shopping with her buddy Regina.  Blech.  Of course they drop their stuff, and as Mary Margaret helps Kathryn pick some of hers up, she spies a pregnancy test among her items.  Fuuuuuuuuuck.

Of course Regina has to butt in, telling MM she hopes she’ll be discreet because their lives are none of her business.

Right back atcha BITCH!

God I hate her.  But in a can’t live without her way.

In Fairyland, Prince James is hiding away in his room while the kingdom parties, celebrating his upcoming marriage.  His fake dad comes up to show him the fabulous crown that Midas sent over and James points out that it could feed the entire kingdom for the winter.

Oh, don’t worry about that silly!  The King reminds him that once he’s married to Abigail all their money woes will be over and there’ll be food and prosperity for everyone.

Well, at least everyone who matters.

James points out to fake dad that he doesn’t love Abigail, his heart belongs to another.  The King gives a rat’s ass about that, telling him this wedding is GOING to happen.  KNOW THAT!

Once the King leaves, James rushes over to his desk and writes Snow a letter.  He then attaches it to a carrier pigeon that just happened by, telling it to “Find Her!” as he releases it into the night.  Does the pigeon have ESP or something?  How does it know which HER he means?

No time to answer questions of logic because we’re heading back over to Storybrooke where Mary Margaret has just discovered a pigeon trapped beneath a net.  Sounds like she needs to take a trip over to the animal shelter!

Oh, you work here?  I completely forgot that I follow you home from here every night!

The vet tells her that the bird is a North Atlantic dove.  It’s not hurt, but the thing is that this particular species forms strong monogamous.  In other words, if she’s not reunited with her flock soon, she may end up all alone forever.  (Thanks for the sledgehammer, writers!).  The vet says that if that happens, the bird will adjust to life without the flock, but will never really be happy.  Awwwwwwww.  You know Snow isn’t gonna let that happen.

David points out that a storm is coming, she really shouldn’t go out there, but Mary Margaret knows all about loneliness and she is not sentencing this bird to a life like that, dammit!  No one deserves that.  He wants to go along with her, but she shoots him down.

Emma is loading storm supplies into her squad car when Regina pops by for a chat.  Emma says if Regina’s looking to blame her for the storm that might be taking things a bit too far.  Hee!  Good one, Emma!

Regina wants Emma to find out who the fuck the Stranger is.  Regina says there’s something about him, something familiar.  Huh.  Must be one of the untold millions she cursed.  Huh?  Oh, you know, the curse, Henry’s book…..never mind.  There’s no law against visiting a town, Emma points out to her and refuses to go digging for info on the guy.  But Regina convinces her when she tells Emma about him taking an interest in their boy.  How interesting that she uses Emma’s feeling for Henry to manipulate her.

The Fairyland pigeon may have ESP after all because he has delivered James’ letter to Snow.  Daaaang.  I want one of those pigeons.  Snow reads James’ letter which tells her he can’t stop thinking about her and wants her to come to him before his wedding so that he knows she feels the same way that he does.  Then they can be together forever.

Back to Mary Margaret.  She’s driving along with the dove, trying to find her flock.  She reaches a roadblock, but that doesn’t stop her, oh no.  She’s so focused on helping the dove that she gets out of her car and continue on foot.  Something tells me that’s not going to be the brightest idea she’s had all day.

Snow disguises herself as a floral delivery girl to sneak into the castle.  Hey, it beats torching the place, right Rumpy?  She gets in without a hitch, but you know things can never go THAT smoothly.  Just as she spots Charming and is ready to go after him, she gets nabbed by a guard and thrown into the dungeons.  Poop.

We all know already that Snow has a lot of spunk so she’s not letting any bars get between her and her man!  She shakes the bars, checks for cracks, even climbs up the misshapen walls, trying to find a way out.  She doesn’t find one and instead falls, landing smack on her back.

We hear some whistling from the darkened corner of the cell next to hers (Heigh ho!!)  It’s Grumpy!  Don’t even bother trying to escape, he tells her.  The steel just keeps getting stronger as they grow weaker.  She is not giving up!  Give it time, he tells her.

She says there is someone out there for her, someone she loves very much and she is NOT going to lose him!  Good luck with that one.  He’s stuck in this hole because of love too.  He had it bad.  She was as beautiful as a fairy, but he lost her.  In his desperation to win her back, he came up with a plan.  He went to work in the diamond mines.

So he dug, dug, dug, dug, dugdugdug in the mine the whole day through, and instead of taking home his wages, he traded them to the foreman for a diamond so he could propose.  But he got fucked up the ass on that one.

I still can’t sit down

The rock the foreman gave him was stolen and he took the blame.  He’s no thief, but everyone thinks he is.  He should have known better, but love clouded his judgment.  Now he’s trapped here, with no way out.

Just then another dwarf arrives.

Meet Stealthy!

He’s there to break his friend out!  Woo hoo!  He gets Grumpy out of the cell and they start to leave.  Snow calls after Grumpy telling him she wishes luck and hopes he gets his love back.  DAMMIT!  Now he’s gotta set her loose.  Hrmph.  They don’t call him Grumpy for nuthin.

Meanwhile, it looks like Mary Margaret might have found the flock.  Or at least it sounds like it.  As she ventures forward to get a closer listen, the ground that she’s standing on gives way and she falls…..

WHOA.  What a cliff hanger.

It actually is a bit of a cliffhanger as we go into a commercial break right at that point.  Fuckers.

But don’t get the vapors yet, because David arrives just in time to grab her hand and save her.  As if anything else was ever going to happen!  I guess Mary Margaret’s not the only stalker in Storybrooke!  Once he pulls her to safety, David convinces Mary Margaret that they should stick together and find someplace safe to weather the storm.

In the labyrinth of King Charles Widmore’s dungeons, Snow and her two dwarf friends are trying to figure out the best escape route.  Stealthy wants to head through the courtyard since that’s the way he got in, but Snow says she’s spent quite a lot of time perfecting the art of avoiding royals, and she thinks the stairs would be better.  Stealthy is sticking to his guns and Grumpy opts to follow his friend.

As soon as Grumpy and Stealthy hit the courtyard, they’re caught by the King and his guards.  Stealthy tries to make a run for it, but ends up with an arrow to the chest.

You killed Stealthy!  Bastards!

The King wants to know where Snow is, but Grumpy’s not talking.  Fine!  It’s gonna be death for Grumpy then, but Snow shows up to save the day, torch in hand, threatening to burn this muther down if the King doesn’t let Grumpy go.  Oh ho, go Snow!

Over in Storybrooke, Mary Margaret and David happen upon an abandoned cottage and before long David’s got a nice toasty fire going.  Mary Margaret’s got a fire of her own going; in her PANTS!  He tries to wrap her in a blanket, but she abruptly throws him off.  What’s going on with her today?  She admits to David that she’s still got feelings for him.

That’s why she goes to Granny’s every morning at 7:15; to see him.  She doesn’t know why because it just makes her miserable him being married and choosing Kathryn and all.  He does a little sigh laugh and she’s annoyed at him thinking this is funny.

It’s not that, he tells her.  You see, he’s going to Granny’s every morning SO HE CAN SEE HER TOO!!

Here it comes…….

Nope.  Mary Margaret stops the kiss about a millisecond before his lips touch hers whispering “How can you do this?”  He doesn’t know what she means so she tells him that she knows that Kathryn thinks she’s pregnant.

Come again?

D’oh!  Looks like someone isn’t in the loop!  Anyone else thinking (or hoping) it’s news to him because they haven’t slept together???!?  What a twist that would make!  We’re going to have to table that thought for the moment…..

Because we’re going to catch up with Emma.  She’s stopped by Granny’s and notices Mr. Stranger sitting in a booth, minding his own business.  She tells him they need to talk.  Why?  Because he’s suspicious.  He points out to her that he’s just drinking a cup of coffee.  “Wonder what kind of hell I would have raised if I ordered a donut.”  LOLOLOLOL!

A suspicious comedian.  Even better.  Well….he was talking to Henry.

You mean that kid asking a bunch of stupid questions?

He wonders if it’s unusual for Henry to be curious and precocious.  Emma ignores that and asks what he was going outside Henry’s house.  Bike broke down, it happens.  Thwarted again, she asks him what in his mysterious box.

He says it’s awfully frustrating not knowing, isn’t it?  He’s gonna make her wait to find out, make her wait a loooooooong time, watching him carry it around and with each passing moment the mystery will become more tantalizing.  Her imagination will enflame but so will her frustration; never knowing, only guessing WHAT could possibly be inside it.

Is this some weird attempt at getting in my pants?  ‘Cause I think it might be working.

Or…..she could let him buy her a drink sometime and he’ll tell her right now.  Um, okay.  So he puts the box on the table and opens it up.  Inside is…….a typewriter.  Well, that was anti-climactic.  Hopefully all the mysteries in this tale won’t end in such a blah way!

He tells her he’s a writer and he finds that this place provides inspiration.  Doesn’t she?  (Hmmmmm…….a descendant of the Grimms perhaps?)

He starts to head out and Emma reminds about that drink he wanted to buy her.  “I said SOMETIME” he replies.  Is it just me or is the Stranger kind of a cocky asshole?

Let’s get back to the good stuff!  Mary Margaret is finding out that David has no idea about the possible pregnancy.  I don’t think she knows quite what to do with that revelation, because as soon as she realizes the rain has stopped she rushes outside to resume her flock of doves search.

Turns out they’re still around, and Mary Margaret releases the dove to rejoin them and hopefully live her birdy happily ever after.  No such luck for Mary Margaret.    David reaches out to hold her hand as they watch the dove fly off, but she pulls hers away saying it’s too painful.  He says it doesn’t have to be; they don’t know Kathryn is pregnant.  Doesn’t matter.  He chose her.

But I still have feelings for you.

Mary Margaret tells him he can’t have both to which he replies he DOES have both.  He knows it doesn’t make sense, but it’s like he has these two conflicting lives; memories of feeling for Kathryn, and real feelings for Mary Margaret.  WOW, this curse really sucks the big one, doesn’t it?

He tells Mary Margaret he can’t get her out of his head.  She knows, she feels the same way, but they’re going to have to just do it.  They’re going to have to forget each other.

I don’t think they make a pill for that.

Back in Fairyland, the King has a little chat with Snow telling her that love is a terrible disease and she is going to cure his son of it.  He tells her she is going to march into James’ chamber and tell him that she doesn’t love him.  It will break his heart, but he will then be able to move on and marry Abigail without her haunting his memories forever.

Snow assumes that the King will kill her if she refuses to do this, but he is much more devious than that.  Oh no, killing her would only serve to make James love her even more, and the marriage and the kingdom would ultimately crumble.  If HE were to die at an assassin’s hand, he would die a martyr and King Midas wouldn’t blame anyone for the marriage not taking place.  So if she refuses…..he will kill James.  Damn, that’s cold.

Snow can’t believe he would kill his own son, but the King spills the beans about James not being his son, and suddenly she believes that he will do what he is saying.

She sneaks into James’ bedchamber and watches him packing his things, enjoying that brief moment of watching him before getting down to business.  She closes the door loudly and he turns and sees her, overjoyed that she has gotten his letter and come to him!  She feels the same way he does!  Oh happy day!

Not so fast there, James.  She tells him that they can’t happen.  But they can!  They can run away and be together!  He knows there are costs, but he’s planned for all of them (I hope that includes hiding his mom that the King threatened to kill if this marriage didn’t happen!!!!)

And now that he knows she loves him too……..she cuts him off, saying she doesn’t.  What?  She tells him again that she doesn’t love him.  She’s sorry but she had to come and tell him because he said she would always be in his heart and that is too cruel a fate for anyone.  She had to come and tell him the truth (LIES!!!!).

This is not the only tear being shed at this moment!

She tells him to fill his heart with love for someone else; someone who can love him the way she never has, the way she never will.  DON’T BELIEVE HER JAMES!!!!!!!!!!  She hands his letter back to him and heads out the door

Breaking my heart and her own with every step she takes.

In David’s and Kathryn’s bedroom back in Storybrooke, David is getting ready for his day.  He and Kathryn talk a bit about their relationship and she tells him about the pregnancy (she’s not by the way) and says that she was sad at first to see the test was negative, but then realized they’re not in a good place for a baby right now.  She asks him if he’ll go to counseling with Dr. Hopper with her.

So I guess they’ve been boning after all.

I’m disappointed in you

David agrees (to counseling, that is), and then Kathryn notices its 7:10; they better get a move on it if he wants to have time to stop for coffee!  He says he thinks they should stay home and have breakfast together instead.

Back in Fairyland Snow has left the castle and is walking sadly through the forest.  She’s joined by Grumpy.  And six of his friends.  He asks if she’s okay and she tells him not even close.  Grumpy thinks that means she didn’t find her love, but Snow sets him straight, saying it’s worse; she lost him.  He takes her hand and tells her they’re taking her home.  They all lost someone today, now they’re seven, and Grumpy wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for her, so she’s coming home with them and they are going to protect her.

Anyone else wanna give Grumpy a big ole hug?

Snow tells him the only thing that needed protecting is destroyed; her heart. He tells her it will get better and she agrees, pulling out the potion Rumpy gave her.

Grumpy takes it out of her hands, telling her not to drink the potion.  Snow’s confused.  He of all people should understand.  What if he could have all that pain taken away, wouldn’t he want that?  Nope.  As wretched as it is, he needs his pain; it makes him who he is.

He reminds her that she’s not alone anymore, and says that’s all the cure she needs.  If the pain is too much she can always drink it, but for today put it away.  She does, and they all head home together.

In Storybrooke Mary Margaret is also not going to Granny’s for her daily dose of David.   Instead, she sits sadly at the table, twisting her ring as she watches the clock move past 7:15.  Emma reaches out to hold her hand understandingly.

Holy Crap!  A little later in Fairyland, Charming comes galloping through the forest, looking for Snow!  He finds the little clearing where we found her at the beginning of the episode, but she’s not there.  Red Riding Hood is, and she tells James that she hasn’t seen Snow since she went off to find him.  Then he will find her; he will always find her.

Over at the dwarves’ place, Grumpy bursts in, itching to tell Snow the news that’s been buzzing about the kingdom:  Prince James called off the wedding to Abigail!!  Her Prince Charming ISN’T getting married.

Who?

Oh fuck.  Looks like she drank the potion after all.  Goddammit!

It’s 7:45am at Granny’s diner and Snow is there to get her coffee, thinking that she has successfully avoided “running into” David.

Wrong.

That’s right, Gasmi, his plan to avoid her as well landed them both there at the same time!  He handles this like a champ and hightails it outta there.  Mary Margaret runs after him asking what he’s doing.  It’s 7:45, he’s trying not to see her.  Well she’s trying not to see him.  Well, how do they stop seeing each other, he wonders.  “Apparently we can’t.”  THAT’S RIGHT!!  Because YOU BELONG TOGETHER!!!!!

Hey……FYI……..Kathryn’s NOT pregnant, he shares.  And then……

Get a room you two!

Anyone could be watching!!

And that’s where we end, Gasmi.  What did you think?  I have to admit, I’m not thrilled that Mary Margaret and David end up making out when he’s still “married” to Kathryn.  Especially given that he JUST told her he wanted to work on their marriage.  I mean, I get that they’re not really married (he really married to Snow), but it just kind takes the gloss off them a bit for me, if you know what I mean.  I hope he comes clean and leaves Kathryn soon, because I don’t want to watch my two favorite people sneaking around town having an affair.  It’s just not them.

The Stranger is a bit annoying to me, but I’m curious what part he’s going to play in all this.  I’d still love for him to turn out to be Rumpy’s son, having somehow escaped or being sent out of Fairyland into the real world, maybe even at around the same time as Emma.  I dunno, to me it would add an interesting twist that I’d love to see played out.  But maybe I just REALLY want RumpyGold to find and have to interact with his son.

Anyway, I’m DYING to know what your thoughts are, so have at it!!  Can’t wait!

 

SWAK, PottyMouth

 

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