Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B+ | 438 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT It's What's For Dinner
By Cindy McLennan | Season 1 | Episode 9 | Aired on 2012.01.15
Ava and Nicholas look at each other, as Emma observes them from the rearview mirror. Soon the car starts bucking. Emma pulls it over to the side of the road. "You've got to be kidding me." Ava asks what's wrong. Emma says the engine stalled and makes a phone call. Ava: "Who are you calling?" Emma: "Help."
Queenie's Castle: With her magic mirror, Queenie watches Snow White (still in her highwayman regalia) walk through the forest with her new companions, and sneers. "Now she's cavorting with dwarves? When did that happen?" When her guard announces the requested prisoner is there, Queenie shuts off the mirror with a waggle of her fingers and says, "Bring him in." It is the Woodcutter. He pleads with her to release him, noting that his children are in the forest from which she took him. They're alone and could be in great danger. Queenie saunters up to him. "I know all about your children. That compass you gave sweet, little Gretel. Well, it didn't help them find you, did it?" The Woodcutter demands to know where they are. Queenie says, "Gone. I told them you abandoned them, leaving nothing but a compass to find their way." She notes, though, that she's not there to answer his questions. "You're here to answer mine. I offered your children everything -- whatever their hearts desired, and they still chose uncertainty, because of their blind faith in you. Tell me why, hmmm? Why did your children refuse me?" The Woodcutter says, "Because we're a family, and family always finds one another. Regina looks perplexed and hurt. I think she had a hole in heart, long before she ripped out her daddy's. She orders her guard to release the Woodcutter. "You can all be together -- as a family -- as soon as you can find one other." Cut to the forest. Hansel and Gretel awaken on the ground. Getting to their feet, Gretel can't believe the Queen let them go. Hansel is scared, but Greta takes out the compass, and tells him everything will be fine. They hold hands as the camera zooms out, above the wandering children.
Storybrooke: Emma is outside the cruiser, leaning against it. Inside, Gretel notices her compass going crazy. She shows it to Nicholas. Just as the compass needles settles on a point right behind the kids, a truck from Franklin's Towing and Salvage arrives from that direction. It's driven by Michael Tillman. Getting out of the truck, he sees the children through the rear window. "Those are them?" Emma says they are. "And the car? It's fine?" Emma says she just wanted him to see the kids, once. She then explains that she didn't think she could get involved with Henry, either. She'd given him up for adoption to give him a better life. "When I saw he didn't have it, I couldn't leave. And I was just as scared -- more, probably. But once I saw him, got to know him, I couldn't go back." Michael is staring at his children the whole while. Finally, he walks to the back of the car. He turns and asks Emma if she's taking them to Boston. Emma: "I don't have to." He looks back to the children, then turns to Emma. "No. You don't." When he walks over to the rear door, Ava rolls down the window. Michael kneels down so he's eye level with his children. Emma cries.