Once Upon a Time- Heart of Darkness

What Happened- In the Fairytale World, Rumpy’s potion didn’t just take Snow White’s love of Prince James, it took her love of everything and everybody. Her love is gone, and with it, her real self. The dwarves hold an intervention where Jiminy Cricket accidentally convinces Snow that she needs to take out her rage on Regina. Snow takes off to kill Regina. Grumpy finds Snow and takes her back to Rumpy to see if he can reverse Snow’s condition. Snow goes along so that she can ask Rumpy for a way to kill the queen. Rumpy tells Grumpy and Snow that there is no antidote. Grumpy gives Snow a bow and arrow to kill Regina and tells Snow where to wait to see Regina traveling. He asks for nothing in return, saying that he is just “invested in Snow’s future.”

Red Riding Hood and Charming are looking for Snow. Red gives Charming a head start by turning into a wolf and attacking King George’s men, who are still chasing the prince. When Charming hears news of Snow’s terrible new personality, he goes to Rumpy to find out how to reverse it. Rumpy tells Charming to try True Love. A kiss! Of course. He takes Charming’s cloak as payment. Later, Rumpy takes one of Charming’s hairs from the cloak and puts it in a bottle with Snow White’s hair. They glow and encircle each other. It looks like Rumpy has bottled true love.

Charming finds Snow and kisses her, but it doesn’t reverse the Evil Snow effect. Snow knocks Charming out, ties him to a tree, tells Charming that she is going to kill Regina, and then leaves. Jiminy Cricket appears and bites through the ropes, then he advises Charming to help Snow remember her true self before Charming tries to help Snow remember a romantic relationship. Charming leaps in front of Snow’s arrow, saving Snow from the fate of becoming a murderess. This makes it clear that Charming is willing to die to save Snow from having a heart of darkness. Snow kisses Charming and then remembers everything. Just then, King George’s men appear and take Charming away. Snow goes back to the dwarves to apologize and they volunteer to help her rescue her prince.

In Storybrooke, it is revealed that the heart was buried in a jewelry box belonging to Mary. DNA confirms that the heart is Kathryn's, then Emma finds the murder weapon in Mary’s house. Emma is torn between wanting to help her friend, who Emma still believes is innocent, and doing her job and following the evidence. If Emma gives Mary a pass, Regina will have cause to replace Emma. Gold shows up and offers to be Mary’s attorney, saying that he is invested in her future. Mary accepts.

August tells Henry that he is a believer in the Enchanted Forest and gives Henry a clue as to how to help Mary. Henry’s book tells him that Regina has keys that open any door in town. Henry steals the keys and shows Emma that they open Mary’s house too. That’s why there is no evidence of a break-in. Henry reasons that the jewelry box was stolen from Mary by his adoptive mother. Emma is shocked when the keys work. Later, an incarcerated Mary finds a key in her cell that opens it.

David, meanwhile, undergoes hypnosis to remember what happened during his blackouts. He goes too deep and actually remembers the Enchanted Forest. He remembers being Charming and telling Snow not to kill “her.” David wakes up before he can get more details. David visits to Mary and tells her that he remembers her telling him that she wanted to kill Kathryn. Mary is upset that David doubts her when she never doubted him. Mary uses the key to escape. After realizing that Regina is probably setting Mary up, Emma goes to Gold for help and tells him she’ll do what it takes to save her friend. Rumpy tells Emma that she is more powerful than she knows.

Comments- Raise your hand if you’ve ever read Heart of Darkness? If you haven’t, we think you can skip it. This episode was so sweet in the fairytale world portion. We were actually touched. We liked the way the show didn’t try for wolf-transformation special effects. It knows its strengths and its budget. Special effects aren’t needed. We absolutely LOVED Snow trying to kill the parrot. Then things got even better when the episode turned into the show Intervention. A potion that gives you amnesia is nowhere near as interesting as a potion that turns you evil as well, so good job, show.

Are we wrong to prefer Evil Snow? Especially when she made fun of James introducing himself as “Charming”? Jiminy Cricket’s advice to help Snow first remember who SHE is felt a little like a Sesame Street lesson. Maybe it’s just the way the line was delivered. It’s funny that the queen’s impressive security detail didn’t think about Archers on higher ground. They could never work for the Secret Service. We also loved that True Love’s Kiss by itself didn’t work, but True Love’s Willingness to Die For Snow did. Because that’s what true love really is.

Speaking of, this episode had a lot of little philosophical and moral nuggets, like “Evil is made, not born.” That debate has been raging for ages. It seems to us that the answer is that it is BOTH made and born, because if no one was born with it, no one could make it and pass it to others. Also, as one writer pointed out, you never have to teach children to be bad or to hit each other, even if they are sheltered from all other children and have only loving parents. It’s intrinsic. It’s obvious that we’re all born with both good and bad leanings and then our lives shape which one is the strongest. Pro tip: If there is a debate raging for hundreds of years with only two options, the answer is often “both.”

We wish Mary Margaret had a different haircut. We like short hair, but not like that. Maybe we should be complaining about her outfits instead. We were shocked when the heart was a match for Kathryn, and we're sad because we feel like we just found out that Kathryn is cool. Maybe the tests were rigged? It’s a good thing Emma is wise to Regina’s intentions now. We think this season will end with Emma believing in the Enchanted Forest completely. We still only like Jennifer Morrison when she is married to Joel Edgerton though…and even then she dragged down the material. We could not love Mr. Gold/Rumpy more. He’s one of the best villains we’ve seen on TV. Overall, this was a good episode in a line of good episodes that this show has been churning out recently.

Episode grade: A-