Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A- | 283 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT Happy Birthday
By Cindy McLennan | Season 2 | Episode 15 | Aired on 2013.03.03
Sidebar. Look, when someone has painful events associated with his or her birthday -- particularly big ones like death -- the memories are not going to fade away just because it's a birthday. If you're old enough to read this, I imagine you've probably lost at least one person close to you, so you know this. We can't help but mark the anniversaries of deaths. We can't. The death of a close loved one is bigger to most of us than our own birthdays. It just is. I know David is happy Snow was born. Heck, Snow is probably usually happy she was born -- despite all her hardships -- but she is going to be sad on this day. People who insist that those of us in the Very Buffy Birthday Club be capital-H Happy on our birthdays sometimes stress us out and leave us feeling guilty and unappreciative. We need your love and appreciate your thoughtfulness, but please understand we're still hurting, and that's not your fault. I think David strikes the perfect tone in the last scene. If I could sit down with Snow at Club 33, I'd tell her to let her family get her a little gift and make her a little breakfast or a cake, have a nice dinner with them, and then I'd tell them to let her cry or remember when she needs to, and not to lay a lot of happiness expectations on her. I mention this because I'm feeling relieved on Snow's behalf that Emma and Henry are out of town for the first birthday she's endured since her memories were restored.
Sheriff's Office. As David is hanging up his coat, Hook pops out of nowhere and whacks our Charming princely pauper right in what many fans would argue is his weak spot: his head. Once David is out cold, Hook grabs his keys, unlocks the desk drawer and retrieves his hook. No fussy evidence lockers in Storybrooke, no siree. We cut to...
Johanna's yard. When Snow finds Johanna in the garden, the older woman whispers, "Snow!" The Fairest unnecessarily corrects her. "It's Mary Margaret here," which makes Johanna's "You'll always be my dear Snow" even more predictable. The tearful women embrace. When talk turns to the tiara, Johanna explains that she saw it in Gold's shop and knew how much it meant to her. That's pretty darned sweet considering the kid was such a twit about it, Once Upon A Time.