Emma had to confront her own past in this week’s episode of Once Upon a Time. After two children (Ava and Nicholas) tried to shoplift some food, Emma was called in by the store owner. She drove the kids home and quickly realized that they were squatting inside the basement of an abandoned house. As it turns out, their mother had died a while ago and the children were on their own, not knowing who their father was.
Emma brought the children to Mary Margaret’s house and told her that she wanted to track down their father so that the kids didn’t have to go into foster care. But Regina interceded and said that Emma needed to bring the kids to separate homes in Boston. More determined than ever to find their father, the kids gave her a compass they believe belonged to him. She asked Mr. Gold for help and he said that he sold it to a man named Michael. Michael was Ava and Nicholas’ father, but he was also a down-on-his-luck mechanic who said he wasn’t ready to be a father. With no other choices, Emma prepared to drive the kids to Boston. But after the car stalled on the road, she called the garage for a tow trunk. After seeing his children, Michael agreed to take on the responsibility of being their father.
On a more personal note, Emma told Henry about his father in this week’s Once Upon a Time. She told him that he was dead and had died saving a family from a burning building. But she later admitted to Mary Margaret that she had lied and that Henry didn’t need to know the truth about his father. Emma also told Mary Margaret about Henry’s storybook and how he was convinced everyone in town was a fairytale character. She said Henry believes Mary Margaret is Snow White and that Emma is supposed to be her daughter. The two shared a chuckle over it and Mary Margaret seemed to dismiss it. At the end of the episode, a mysterious stranger rode into town.
Meanwhile, the Once Upon a Time writers had a bit of a twist on the Hansel and Gretel tale. While chopping wood in the forest, their father disappeared and the children came across the Evil Queen. She told them she would help them find their father if they stole something from a blind witch. Unfortunately, despite the Queen’s warnings, Hansel ended up eating something in the house and the witch woke up and captured them. Fortunately, Gretel was fairly clever and the kids were able to escape.
Later, they returned to the Queen and it was revealed that she had asked them to steal the poisonous apple that she would later use on Snow White. She admired their cleverness and spunk and offered to let them live in the castle. But they were determined to find their father and refused. We also learned that she kidnapped their father so that she could use the children to steal the apple. At the end, she let him go, but we don’t know whether he and the kids were reunited.
A few final things:
-Mr. Gold clearly knows more than he’s letting on. When Emma came into his shop to find out the name of the compass owner, he consulted a piece of paper. But it turns out that the paper was blank, leading me to believe he knew exactly what was going on with Ava and Nicholas.
-How interesting that the Queen had to steal the poisonous apple from the blind witch. I can’t wait to see how she actually gives it to Snow White.
-Do you think that Hansel and Gretel’s were reunited with their father?
-Who is the mysterious stranger who arrived in town at the end of the episode? Any thoughts on his fairytale counterpart?
-I haven’t really gotten a good look at the fairytale dwarfs, but it seems clear that the store owner is Sneezy.
-Who else thought that Mary Margaret might remember her fairytale past when she smelled Emma’s blanket? Because I did.
-What could be the truth about Henry’s father? Do you think we’ll see him anytime soon?
A new episode of Once Upon a Time will be airing next week on January 22. Watch a trailer for it here.
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i think the stranger is the big bad wolf in red riding hood. i really do think mary was really close to remembering after smelling the blanket. its unlikely but she might be the next one after graham to fully remember. i just hope the same thing doesnt happen to her that did to graham. i would be heartbroken if she died
I so leaning towards the stranger being the BBW because of Emma sending him to Granny's house when he said he was looking for a bed. I'm forever searching the internet for clues and in one I found mentions something of someone coming to town who had been in jail. If this is true and the prison is in Storybrooke, Maine then this could explain his absence from the memories of those in town being they have no memory of even how they met. What throws me off is if the stranger from prison is not whats coming then where has he been? No one can stay or leave Storybrooke.
they cannot kill off Snow White, she is the main character besides Emma. The stranger may have something to do with Mr. Gold as both Regina(who remembers her past) and Emma do not know him at all. The stranger may be the Beast from Beauty and the Beast as that is coming up in Feb. along with an episode about Grumpy. I do believe that Sneezy was the store owner from the Hansel and Gretel episode as he kept sneezing and sniffling. Just a thought here but…maybe the reason Mr. Gold and Regina hate each other is because she was in love with his son Bae and he died somehow because of his (Rumplestiltskins) actions. "Magic always comes at a price".
i discussed this with my beau as to who the stranger could be. He thinks it is the prince looking for snow white while at first i thought it might be the big bad wolf. i now lean toward it being the prince.
he's not the prince. the prince was the comatose patient.
another thought on the stranger being the prince. this stranger has something to do with emma's missing father.
but emma's father is prince charming!!!
The stranger as the Wolf makes sense. But why does he have the half-sized treasure chest on the back of his motorbike?
According to IMDB, the store owner was indeed Sneezy.
Thought this was a really predictable, obvious episode, which sucks because the show has been on a roll until now (oh sure, Emma sucks the life out of most scenes and the less we see of Henry the better, but Regina is fun and the revisionist takes on the Fairy Tales has been decent). Hoping that the stranger and the return to focus on characters other than Emma will help. My disappointed take on the episode here: http://wp.me/p1VQBq-kr
Stranger is the guy who found Emma as a baby…
Spot on. Nobody seemed to pay attention to the newspaper clipping about the 7 year old boy who found a baby on the side of the road. Also I think Mr. K is the genie in the upcoming episode with Snow White's father. The triplicate forms was a giveaway.
It really focused on Mr. “K” Krzyszkowski's name. Who do you think he might be? They wouldn't have zoomed in on his name plate if it wasn't significant.
Coming from left field, did anyone notice that these two kids were Olivia and Peter (as children) from Fringe? Just something I noticed, back to business :)
What do y’all think of the Mysterious Stranger being Robin Hood?
Hmmm any connection to his motorcycle license plate with the 23 on it? It also looks like it says Kansas at the top.
Well, the number 23 is important in LOST (it's part of the number sequence that came up a lot). Since the Once writers used to work on that show, they've been using a lot of little LOST references. It could simply be a nod to the show or mean something more, but I'd bank on the nod.
Ok guys there was a terrible mistake in the last episode. Correct me if I'm wrong. If you remember, in episode 2 the witch talks with Maleficent about the curse she had given her, but Maleficent said its hers now because they made a deal and she trade it with the sleeping curse. That obviously meant the apple she gave to Snow white right? Then how come she sends Hansel and Gretel to the candy house to get the apple??? By the way sorry for my English mistakes, I'm still learning :)
I think the sleeping curse is the curse Maleficent used in the fairytale of the sleeping beauty!
The Evil Queen tells Hansel and Gretel that the Blind Witch "has something of mine, and I need you to get it back." Some one must have thwarted the EQ's plan to poison Snow by hiding the apple in the home of the Blind Witch were it would be guarded by her magic.
Sebastian you have to remember that this story goes back and forth in time. The thing with Hansel and Gretal could have happened prior to her giving it to Snow. Who knows how long EQ had that poisoned apple before she thought to use it on Snow. The Blind Witch may have traded something to EQ in exchange for something else. EQ seems to have a habit of taking things she wants … deal or no deal. If I remember correctly Maleficent traded it to her back before EQ Married Snows dad when Maleficent was up to her own problems with Sleeping Beauty.
Option A: The stranger is the Brian B. Wolfe(see what I did there) Option B: He's the storybrooke incarnation of Rumple's son but the twist is that he's also the Evil Queen's son, Option C: He's the boy who found Emma as a baby, Option D: All of the above.
As for Mary Margaret I wouldn't say she remembers but she did say Snow White has a kid (but I might have missed when she was told that she was snow white) before joking about Emma having her chin.
As for the evil queen and why the blind witch had the apple, a who cares I'm getting a headache
i think that the stranger is emmas ex boyfriend the one that she had sex with in order to give birth to henry, so he is henry's biological daddy!
I keep hearing people say the big bad wolf or rumpelstilskins son.
I think it is Gestan, Belle's Beast.
I can say without a doubt that the mysterious stranger is most definitely NOT Gaston (assuming that's who you meant, because "Gestan" isn't actually a character, or the Beast). Because a completely different actor was hired to play that character and can first be seen in this photo of Belle: https://tvovermind.com/once-upon-a-time-abc/on…
He is a writer, so perhaps he's the writer of Henry's storybook.