To be honest, I wasn't crazy about last week's "The Thing You Love Most," which felt underwhelming (and over-hyped) following a stellar pilot, but this week's episode, which centered on how Snow White and her Prince Charming met in their world and their less-than-perfect reunion in ours, sucked me right back into the magic this show has to offer.
These writers did exactly what needed to be done at this point, which is giving us someone else (or a pair of someones, and their star-crossed romance) to root for. I think I struggled last week because it was difficult for me to sympathize with the villain so early on in the show's run. If that episode had waited a few more weeks, allowing us to gain a better understanding of the Queen/Mayor as antagonist, it might have been a lot more intriguing. That said, I think this week's Snow White-driven tale came right in the nick of time.
The focus shifted from Emma and Henry to lean heavily on Ginnifer Goodwin's Mary Margaret, and the latter delivered an endearing, believable performance. She was funny and kind of an unexpected badass as Snow White in the flashbacks, but then she was also compassionate and downright heartwrenching as things unraveled in Storybrook. I have to admit, I was not expecting to get so invested in a romance on this show, given my usual dismissal of the fairy tale ideal, but I like the way the writers have subverted the original version just enough to keep it compelling. And the soap opera-esque twist of John Doe's "wife" returning had me almost embarrassingly dismayed.
Though the episode was heavy on this plot, we did get a few little steps forward, and new questions raised. I am interested to see what Mary Margaret does next, now that she is beginning to believe Henry's story could be true (at least, that was what I took away). Emma too seems to be experiencing a kind of shift in her beliefs-- she's by no means converted yet, but she might not be as closed off to believing as we thought. I see in her a reincarnation of Jack from LOST: she's going to stick with science/rationality to explain everything, until she absolutely can't fight faith anymore. And the slow transition only indicates that when she is converted, the change will be all the more rewarding.
I'm also wondering about the Mayor and her role in Storybrook. She seems to have her hands in everything (and being the villain, as well as one of the only people who knows their true identities, it's understandable), and to hold a lot of sway over just about everyone. But she doesn't seem terribly bothered with keeping this a secret, which makes me wonder if she hasn't slipped up in front of anyone else all these years. Is there anyone else in Storybrook who doesn't fully trust the Mayor? If so, Henry and Emma could stand to gain an incredibly valuable ally.
Overall this show is progressing in the way I expected, but that has certainly not proven to be a bad thing. I am interested to see next week's episode, which will introduce an entirely new character (Cinderella, but with a kind of twist that appears to link her to Rumpelstiltskin), and how that will tie into the larger story. The writers have done a good job getting us invested and immersed in this fictional world, now it's time to populate it with more of our favorite fairy tale characters, and allow us to see just how high the stakes are for them.
