Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: N/A | 2181 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Fairy Tales Can Come True
By Cindy McLennan | Season 1 | Episode 1 | Aired on 2011.10.23
Once Gold is gone, Emma asks who he was. Ruby says, "Mr. Gold. He owns this place." Emma says, "The inn?" Granny: "No. The town." When Emma looks surprised, Granny kind of shakes it off and asks how long she'll be staying with them. Emma answers, "A week. Just a week." Granny says, "Great," and hands Emma a giant skeleton key on an elaborate key chain featuring a swan.
We cut back to Henry who is still watching the town clock. It moves from 8:15 to 8:16. Henry smiles and laughs to himself. We fade to black.
In my recaplet, I mentioned that I'm not generally big on pilot episodes. They have the thankless job of setting everything up, and sometimes that can be tedious. While I wasn't sure this pilot lived up to earlier rave reviews, I thought, upon first watch, that it was better than many the less favorable reviews led me to believe. I've watched it multiple times now. When I recap, I do a lot of playing, pausing and rewinding. This episode improved with each re-watch. That seldom happens for me, but I liked this better the more I saw it. The production values are great. The acting is tight. There are also a lot of little grace notes too (for example, loaded "Our World" character names like Regina, Blanchard, Mr. Gold, and more obviously -- Ruby and Hopper). The premise intrigues me the more I think about it. My friend Denise says she thinks it has the potential hit the sort of emotional notes that will really resonate with her. I'm inclined to agree, especially after watching at the level of detail I do when covering a show. I hope you all enjoyed it and this recap, too. I'm sorry I didn't give you much snark. It's hard to muster it up for a new show. Don't you worry, though. Familiarity breeds contempt, so I'm sure that will change over time.
I'll be back Monday morning with the recaplet of "The Thing You Love The Most," in which Regina tries to drive Emma out of Storybrooke, and we learn more about guts of Queenie's curse. In the meantime, please grade the episode at the top of the page and then join us in the forum, where all apples have been thoroughly inspected, but you probably shouldn't drink the cider.