Enchanted Forest, The Past---We open at a medieval fair, with a "Punch and Judy"-type puppet show going on. In the assembled crowd is a kid of about 7 or 8 years old, with curly red hair, who is picking the pockets of the puppet show audience.
Later, at a covered wagon with his parents, who are counting the money the kid stole, the parents give him a cricket in a cage. The kid expresses his love of crickets, as they can do anything they want. His parents scoff, and say he can do whatever he wants, as long as it's what they tell him. They suggest they let him do all the thinking for him, and call him by his name...."Jiminy."
Storybrooke, The Present--Henry and grown-up Jiminy discuss how Henry believes his therapist is Jiminy Cricket (remember, Jiminy's name is Archie under the curse....I prefer to use their real names, though the characters use real and cursed names interchangeably throughout the show). Jiminy asks Henry why it is so important to him that the fairy tales are real.
Henry: "It just is."
Jiminy asks him to think about why. Eventually, he hopes Henry will figure it out.
Meanwhile, at the Storybrook jail/police station, Emma is starting her first day of work as the town deputy. She does NOT want to put on a deputy uniform, and insists to Sheriff Graham that her red leather jacket (making its first appearance, and soon to become as iconic to the show as her car) is all the uniform she needs.
Graham asks her to at least wear the badge.
With reluctance, she takes it and clips it to the waistband of her pants.
No sooner does she put on the badge than the entire building shakes. It's like a small earthquake.
Emma and Graham go out to see what's going on. There is a crowd gathered around the old mining tunnels that go under the town. One of the tunnels has collapsed. Regina is there, trying to do crowd control.
When Emma shows up, Regina tells her to get lost, but Emma is all like, "Ha ha, bitch. I'm the deputy here now."
Regina is pissed Graham didn't clear this with her first, but Graham reminds her hiring a deputy is in his budget. Regina gives him a look that says, "I'd kill you right now if there weren't people watching."
Regina tells the assembled townspeople they will collapse all the mines, pave them, and use them for city purposes. Henry does not approve of this, because there might be something important in the mines. Regina tells him to get out of there, which Henry ignores.
In fact, Regina tells Henry to get in the car or leave the area at least three times, each of which he completely ignores.
Now that Emma is in town and in his life, Henry has no more use for Regina, and he is not shy about showing it. Kids usually don't start acting that way until they're teenagers, and Henry is only 10.
Henry tells Emma it's no coincidence a mine collapsed after she came to town. Her mere presence, he says, is weakening the curse. Time already started moving again when she came. Did she do anything different today, Henry asks.
Emma looks at her new deputy badge.
As Graham and Emma do crowd control, Regina asks to speak to Jiminy, who is just leaving.
Regina wants Jiminy to crush Henry's belief in the fairy tales/curse thing. Jiminy thinks the fairy tale belief can be used to help Henry.
Regina is outraged that Jiminy would say anything against her. She tells him:
- He is her employee
- He works for her
- This is HER town
- She can fire him
- She can take his business AND his home and leave him with nothing and nowhere to live
That's some pretty amazing mayoral power. I wonder what this town council Regina insists she actually has would say about such threats made to a citizen who is just doing his job. It's not like Regina can take his therapist's license....except the only reason he has one is because the curse gave it to him.
Jiminy agrees to do as Regina says, but is so clearly against it. I don't think he hates her; Jiminy is a pretty chill guy. However, he is definitely starting to think she is an insane bitch.
Enchanted Forest, The Past--Jiminy is now grown into the Jiminy we know in Storybrooke, but he's still with his parents. They wander into a village, which they have been to before, and notice the village seems to be prospering this year. His parents think it would be a good time to do the "Elf Tonic" scam.
Jiminy begs them to leave these people alone, and says he wants to quit. His parents immediately start listing their various made-up ailments, and say they need Jiminy to stay with them until they're dead. Then, he can do whatever he likes.
They also go on about how they provide a valuable service to these villages with their scams, since everyone steals from everyone else. Their own thefts will only prompt more commerce, they assure their skeptical son.
Later Jiminy is out in the rain, setting up a temporary shelter for he and his family, when a young boy with an umbrella approaches. When the boy says he came out to listen to the crickets, Jiminy raises his face to the rain, and looks wistful. He hasn't listened to the crickets in a while, he says.
The young boy gives Jiminy his umbrella and heads home. He doesn't live far away, he tells Jiminy, and says he looks forward to seeing the show Jiminy's parents have brought to town.
Storybrooke, The Present--Marco, the town carpenter (who is really Gepetto) visits Jiminy at his office, hoping they can go to lunch together, but Jiminy has a patient coming. It's Henry, who straight-up calls Marco "Gepetto."
Jiminy wants to talk to Henry about the fairy tale delusion, but Henry says he has proof it's real. Henry's backpack is full of candy and a flashlight and other supplies for going down into the mines.
Doing Regina's bidding, Jiminy tells Henry none of it is real, and he hoped Henry would grow out of the delusion, but that it has now turned into a psychosis. If he doesn't ease up on the fairy tale talk, Jiminy warns him, Henry will be locked up in the psych ward.
This just pisses Henry off, and he leaves Jiminy's office without another word.
Jiminy looks like he might cry.
Meanwhile, over at the Storybrooke hospital, Snow and Charming are playing Hangman. Charming uses Snow's cursed name (Mary Margaret), and she almost misses it. Charming assures her he would never let her hang on her own name, and would have kept adding words to it until she won.
They flirt a little. Charming still has no memories, but says he might like to make some new ones with Snow.
Of course, that is when Katherine enters, bringing pictures of their old life together, including their dog, Ajax. Snow slips out of the room, while Charming pretends to remember Ajax.
(Katherine, by the way, is her cursed name. Her real name is Princess Abigail, daughter of King Midas.)
Back at Snow's apartment, Snow is preparing some kind of meal while she talks to Emma, and going on about how she is the worst person in the world for having feelings for Charming, who she believes is married.
Emma: "Really? In the world?"
Snow says it would be easier if Katherine was horrible, but that Katherine is so nice. Emma asks if anything would make it easier for Snow, but Snow says nothing would.
A knock at the door. It's Henry, crying. Emma asks what's wrong.
Apparently, Henry tells her off-camera, because the next thing we see is Emma banging on Jiminy's office door and then barging in. She demands to know why he did what he did to Henry, because Jiminy himself told Emma to not take away Henry's belief in fairy tales being real. Emma accuses Jiminy of being Regina's toady. She KNOWS this was Regina's idea.
Jiminy: "I don't have to defend my professional decisions to you."
That would be true if Emma wasn't following his own professional advice to let Henry believe fairy tales are real. In this instance, she damn sure deserves an explanation.
Before there can be more conversation, Emma's phone rings. It's Regina. Henry is missing.
Jiminy knows Henry went to the mines.
Sure enough, Henry is there. He gets out his flashlight, turns it on, and prepares to go down there.
Enchanted Forest, The Past--Rumplestiltskin is at his castle, spinning straw into gold. Jiminy brings Rumple some of the proceeds of his thieving. Jiminy starts to leave after Rumple gives him some gold, but Rumple senses Jiminy wants more.
Jiminy wants to escape his parents.
Rumple offers Jiminy a potion to get rid of Jiminy's parents (Rumple doesn't say how). In exchange, Rumple says to leave his parents after dosing them with the potion, and Rumple will collect them as his fee.
Jiminy wants to know what the potion will do to his parents, but Rumple just says they will be safe at his castle.
Storybrooke, The Present--Emma and Jiminy show up at the mines looking for Henry. Jiminy's dalmatian, Pongo, is with them. Jiminy finds one of Henry's candy bars (an Apollo Bar....if you watched Lost, you'll know about these....incidentally, Once Upon a Time has lots of Lost Easter eggs and actors in it, because the show is brought to you by the writers of Lost.).
The candy bar lets him know Henry is down there.
Down in the mines, Henry explores, looking for some kind of proof fairy tales are real.
He finds a piece of glass with some iron work attached to it.
As Henry examines it, the mines start shaking again. Jiminy heads down there to get Henry. Before Emma can follow, the opening collapses, trapping Jiminy and Henry in the mines.
Enchanted Forest, The Past--Jiminy and his parents knock on the door of a cottage, asking an attractive young couple if they can stay there for the night. They are there to do the Elf Tonic scam.
After enjoying some dinner with their hosts, Jiminy's parents say there is plague the next town over, but they are immune, because they took Elf Tonic. They assume the couple has some, but they don't. The couple agrees to trade all of their valuables for a vial of Elf Tonic.
Jiminy's parents pack up their wagon with their pilfered goods, and Jiminy is pissed his parents stole from good people. He tosses the potion Rumple gave him at his parents. Nothing happens.
Jiminy's dad switched the Elf Tonic with Rumple's potion. That means the nice young couple took the potion.
Jiminy heads back into the cottage to find out what happened to them, and discovers they have been turned into wooden puppets.
The same young boy who gave Jiminy his umbrella comes inside, calling for his parents, who just happen to be the nice, young couple who are now puppets.
Young boy to Jiminy and his evil parents: "What did you do to them?"
Storybrooke, The Present--Jiminy and Henry are still in the mines. Henry has gone on ahead, and Jiminy is trying to keep up with him. Henry has found something shiny he wants to explore, but all Jiminy wants to do is to get the heck out of the mines.
Henry hasn't fully grasped the magnitude of their situation until Jiminy says there is no way out of the mines.
Regina and a work crew have showed up outside, and Regina and Emma each blame the other for Henry being down there.
After some arguing, they agree to work together to get Henry out.
In the mines, Jiminy and Henry hear Pongo barking above them. They also find an old mine elevator and, together, try to get it working so they can get closer to the surface.
On the surface, Regina and Emma have decided to use dynamite to open the entrance to the mines. Gepetto shows up to help them.
The dynamite blows, disabling the elevator that was just starting to work, and trapping Jiminy and Henry in the shaft.
Emma tells Regina the dynamite didn't work, and they still can't get to Henry in the mines.
At Storybrooke Hospital, Snow runs into Charming as she's leaving her volunteer position there for the day. Charming says he's been asked to do physical therapy, with half an hour a day on the treadmill, and to walk outside with an escort. Since they are short on personnel because of the mine incident, he asks Snow if she will walk with him.
She apparently says she will, because we cut to Snow and Charming walking in the woods. Charming says he feels like he woke up in a different world (if you only knew, Charming), and that he only pretended to remember Ajax the dog.
He tells Snow she is the only thing that feels real to him.
They are about to kiss, when, of course, Katherine shows up with cranberry muffins, which she says used to be Charming's favorite. Snow starts to leave, and Charming says he trusts he will see her tomorrow.
Back at the mines, Regina is pissed the dynamite didn't work, and snaps at Gepetto, saying he could have killed Henry. Only the dynamite was Regina's idea, with Emma's approval.
Pongo sniffs out Jiminy and Henry, and Regina and Emma find the top of the elevator shaft.
In the elevator, Henry apologizes to Jiminy for going so far to try to find proof, and Jiminy apologizes to Henry about their horrible session where he threatened to lock up Henry in the psych ward. When Henry asks him why he did it, Jiminy admits to being a dishonorable person.
Up above, Emma, Regina, and Graham get the grate off the top of the elevator shaft, but the elevator is too far down to get to.
In the elevator, Jiminy and Henry wax philosophical on the nature of Jiminy Cricket.
Up above, Gepetto says someone must be lowered down into the elevator shaft. Regina says she will go, but Emma insists it must be her. Regina has been sitting behind a desk for the past decade, Emma points out, and Emma has been out in the field. She is more physically suited to the task.
Both Regina and Emma refer to themselves as Henry's mother, and Regina does not object when Emma does this (a first!). Regina also agrees Emma should go down the shaft.
In the elevator, Jiminy and Henry continue their philosophical discussion, until Emma shows up and gets Henry. Except, she ONLY gets Henry. She's got him in her arms, and before she can grab Jiminy, the elevator falls, taking Jiminy with it.
Emma and Henry scream for Jiminy, but hey! He's okay. He used his umbrella to grab a ledge.
Up above, everyone is excited about Henry and Jiminy being rescued. Gepetto hugs Jiminy, and Regina hugs Henry. When Emma tries to hug Henry, too, Regina tells her to clear the crowd away.
Emma's face falls as she realizes Regina only went with the "two moms" thing long enough to get Henry rescued.
Jiminy approaches Regina and says he will continue to treat Henry as he sees fit.
Regina: "My relief at his rescue doesn't change a thing. You WILL do as I say, or...."
Jiminy: "You'll what? Ruin my life? Do your worst? Because I will always do MY best."
Regina: "Don't test me."
Jiminy: "Oh, I don't need to, because you're going to leave me alone and let me do my work in peace."
Regina: "And, why would I do that?"
Jiminy knows EXACTLY why she would do that.
He tells Regina that one day, she may find herself in a custody battle with Emma. The court, he tells her, determines who is a fit parent by consulting an expert, particularly one who has treated the child. So, Jiminy suggests Regina THINK about that, and let him do his work the way his conscience tells him to.
OOOH, SNAP!
He walks away, leaving Regina looking pensive.
Enchanted Forest, The Past--Jiminy wishes upon a star. No particular wish. Just general wishing. It's enough to summon the Blue Fairy.
She heard his wish, but says she cannot bring back the young boy's parents. Jiminy wants to make it up to the boy in some way, then.
Blue says the young boy will grow up to face many challenges. Does he want to help him?
Jiminy does, but he can't get away from his parents.
What if he could? What would he want to be? These are the questions Blue asks him.
Without him saying so, Blue hears his wish, and turns him into a cricket. She tells him to find the boy, and that he will have as many years as he needs to help him.
The young boy's name, Blue tells Jiminy Cricket, is Gepetto.
Storybrooke, The Present--Emma and Henry watch Gepetto and Jiminy talking from afar. Pongo is with Jiminy.
As Emma and Henry look on at the two friends, they hear crickets, which haven't been in Storybrooke since Henry can remember.
Henry: "Things ARE changing."
At Rumplestilskin's antiques and pawn shop, he wanders through the shop, and we see Gepetto's puppet parents there, on a shelf.
At Storybrooke Hospital, Snow turns in her resignation as a volunteer.
At the mines, a huge crowd including Emma, Regina, Gepetto, Henry and Graham celebrate.
Regina walks off alone, to the grate over the elevator shaft. She has the piece of glass with iron-workings on it Henry found.
She examines it, and tosses it through the spaces in the grate, into the shaft.
The glass lands on the object from which it originated, hidden down there in the mines....the glass coffin of Snow White.
Next: Season 1, Episode 6--The Shepherd
*All photos are Creative Commons.
Thanks. I like this show, Once Upon a Time. I have it on my laptop. I've heard about it but haven't got into it yet. I skimmed through your article here. Was going to read it, but spoiler alert, haha, I should start to watch the first season at least first. I didn't watch that other show, Lost, but may get into. I watch the Walking Dead and some of the others. This is on my bucket list, maybe this month hehe. Thanks for sharing. I'm Oatmeal Joey Arnold. Happy Easter 2018.
Hi, Joey. Thanks for reading. Yes, these are full re-caps. My intent is to mock the many things about this show that deserve mocking, but the first season is pretty awesome. There is little to mock yet. Seasons two and three are good, too, but they squander some excellent opportunities for character development in favor of "stunning plot twists." Seasons four and five are unbelievably silly, with plot holes, retcons, and people acting out of character galore, but still entertaining. Season Six is virtually unwatchable, except my favorite romantic couple is still enough to keep my interest. Season Seven is awful, and so much like another show entirely, with none of the charm and fun of the original, that I pretend the whole season was a dream of Henry's. ;)
I really do love this show, and it was one of my favorites for a long time, but there is SO much to mock after Season One. We will have fun with these recaps. I hope you keep reading along.
People have said similar things about Dexter which I watched all 8 seasons. And that happens in many series unfortunately. Things fall apart for many reasons. Too bad. But love to mock things too hehe.