Once upon a Time Rewatch 1.3, "Snow Falls"

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

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1.3, "Snow Falls"

Written by Liz Tigelaar
Directed by Dean White

Synopsis

Pretty.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Following a recap of the series's premise and the title sequence, action opens in the Enchanted Forest with a carriage traveling down a remarkably well-maintained road. Prince Charming is riding in it with an impatient princess--Abigail--when they are stopped and ambushed by a thief--Snow White--who steals a pouch and rides away. Charming gives chase, confronting the thief, who assails him and flees, smiling.

In Storybrooke, Snow White's alter-ego, Mary Margaret Blanchard, is on a date. It does not go well, and she goes home alone, meeting Emma along the way and inviting her to room with her instead of in her small car. Emma demurs.

I'm sure there's some comment to be made here.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The next day, presumably, Mary Margaret's class volunteers at the local hospital, and Henry finds himself drawn to a comatose patient--Charming's alter-ego, in the event. Student and teacher confer about him, Henry pushing her to recognize him; she does not.

Later, Henry reports to Emma about Charming, citing evidence that she does not entirely accept. He urges Emma to push Mary Margaret towards the comatose patient; she agrees to push the point, and presents the idea to Mary Margaret. There, it meets with some resistance, although Mary Margaret eventually agrees, and that evening sees her read from Henry's storybook to the comatose patient--who reacts, strangely and powerfully, to her doing so.

Nope, nothing to see here. Move along.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Mary Margaret retrieves the attending physician with the news, and he expresses his doubts based on recorded vital signs. He sends her home, and she departs--after which, he calls Regina, reporting events, to her displeasure.

At home, Mary Margaret continues to read through Henry's book, and the episode shifts to follow the story contained therein--in which she, as Snow White, retrieves loot and departs a forest hideout. She is trapped upon exiting, Charming having found her, promising always to find her and being awarded his sobriquet. They banter aspersively about marriage and arrive at an agreement to retrieve his property.

In Storybrooke, Emma, Henry, and Mary Margaret meet for breakfast. The last reports the events of the night. Henry urges her to read again, and the two start to rush off; Emma, disbelieving, demurs again, but Mary Margaret presses on, and Emma follows. When they arrive at the hospital, they find that the comatose patient is missing, and Regina lashes out. She also explains her involvement, and the attending physician notes the danger of his disappearance; pursuit begins with questioning hospital employees and reviewing security footage. Emma notes that the footage is incorrect, and, after the actual tape is found, a lead to pursue is revealed.

Not Nazgûl, but not Black Riders to be sought, either...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In the Enchanted Forest, Snow White and Prince Charming travel together to retrieve his goods. They confer tensely along the way, and Snow White notes her anger at the evil queen and her plans to depart from the latter's reach. Snow White also notes the justification for Regina's hatred. They fight again, and Snow White pitches him into a river before fleeing; she does not get far before being intercepted by Regina's forces. They move to retrieve her heart. Charming rushes to Snow White's rescue, defeating two of the queen's forces and giving chase to the third, who had absconded with her. The last rider falls, and Snow White pauses in flight to tender her thanks. They proceed to confront the trolls to whom she had sold Charming's jewels. A fracas soon ensues, in which the two save one another from death and captivity; they affirm their mutual regard in an awkward parting.

Nope, no problems here.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In Storybrooke, the search for the lost patient continues. Mary Margaret asks Emma about her bounty-hunting work, and they are interrupted by Henry, who claims to know the patient's destination: Mary Margaret. Henry presses them, and they are interrupted by physical evidence of the patient's progress through the woods--and his injury. Pursuit intensifies, and they find him in the water near a bridge; aid is summoned, and work begins to revive him. Mary Margaret's ministrations succeed in bringing him back, not only to life, but also to consciousness--though not to memory. He is returned to the hospital for care--and his wife, the alter-ego of Abigail--joins them. She explains the estrangement that led to her husband's--David Nolan's--hospitalization and moves to address it.

Emma confronts Regina about the inconsistencies in events. They trade barbed threats, and Regina explains the oddities away. Later, Emma takes up Mary Margaret's offer.

Discussion

A comment about the architecture on display as the episode begins seems in order. Admittedly, I am not an architect or a student of that discipline, so my comments will be of a necessarily amateurish nature, but it seems to me there is a mishmash of styles at work. Said amalgamation suggests the compression of the sprawling centuries of the medieval, something noted as at work in no few other media properties that make use of medieval/ist tropes, although it is also the case that a number of medieval edifices were built in stages and parts over time, so that their own architectures are not entirely consistent. But notable among the things in the opening castle-shot is the sheer size of the church contained in the castle walls--identifiable by the abundance of stained glass in the exterior shot. The series does not, at least in its earlier episodes, make much use of religion (aside from the wedding ceremony, which evokes but does not explicitly traffic in Christianity), one of the typifying features of the medieval in popular conception and in documentary history (for the simple reason of who had time and ability to write), so it seems a bit of an oddity to give quite so much space to faith--especially in a castle, which could be expected to have a chapel but not a cathedral that takes up a third of its interior space. Whether this is a more or less authentic thing can, of course, be argued.

Interestingly, the revenge-plot that drives much of the early series begins to be articulated in the present episode, Snow White admitting that she ruined Regina's life and thus spurring the latter's quest for retribution. While revenge plots are hardly unique to the medieval/ist, they are certainly large parts of the stories that continue to be told. Njal's Saga features no small number of instances of vengeance being pursued, not always through legal means (and, notably, spurred on by women depicted); Arthurian legend abounds with them, and not only in Malory. Consequently, while the revenge plot does not, on its own, mark the series as medievalist, it does fall firmly in line with what medievalism is already present, reinforcing it.

Once upon a Time Rewatch 1.2, "The Thing You Love Most"

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

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1.2, "The Thing You Love Most"

Written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz
Directed by Greg Beeman

Synopsis

My heart...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

After a brief recap of the previous episode and the title sequence, the episode opens with Henry staring out over the town and smiling at the now-ticking library clock. The next day arrives and shows the reactions of several other characters to the new day and its bright morning. Regina pores over Henry's book, finding a number of pages torn out. She confronts him about them, only for him to deflect the questions posed and to capitalize on her distraction by the ringing clock bell.

I've seen that kind of smile before. It's never good.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Regina calls on Emma shortly thereafter, offering her fruit as she urges her to leave town. A flashback to the fairy-tale realm--the Enchanted Forest--serves to illustrate the point, with Regina threatening Snow White and Prince Charming before teleporting back to her chambers and consulting with attendants about retrieving a dark curse from a forbidden fortress.

The fortress looks forbidding enough...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Traveling thence, Regina meets with Maleficent, where a barbed conversation ensues in which Regina dickers to get the dark curse back, having previously traded it to Maleficent for a sleeping curse that seems not to have worked. Maleficent asks after its origins, and Regina demurs before a fight ensues. Regina emerges victorious, and Maleficent urges her, in vain, not to enact the curse.

Regina makes an attempt to enact that curse, one that fails due to insufficient sacrifice to fuel it. The death of what she loves most is required, and what she initially gives is not it; she is mocked for the failure.

Back in Maine, the local newspaper editor, Sidney, presents Regina with information about Emma, relating details of her past that Regina finds unsatisfactory; he returns to his investigations. Henry confronts Emma again, trying to press her into his work to lift the curse on the town, explaining the situation as he sees it and presenting her the pages torn from his storybook along with a warning about Regina. Emma follows up on it, which leads her to Henry's therapist; he is circumlocutive, although he flagrantly breaches professional ethics and patient confidentiality to help her--as he has been directed to do.

I'm...not sure how to feel about this.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Emma reviews the file until interrupted by the sheriff knocking on her door--with a claim that Henry's file has been stolen. Given the presence of the file in her room, he takes her into custody as Regina pulls her son aside at school to tell him of the arrest. He rejects her explanation and returns to his lessons. Emma and the sheriff confer until Henry and his teacher--Snow White, as it happens--arrive to make Emma's bail; she vandalizes Regina's property swiftly thereafter, provoking another confrontation.

In the Enchanted Forest, Regina confronts Rumpelstiltskin regarding the dark curse and its failure. He advises her that Snow White has called upon him and that there is a weakness in the curse. He also strikes a deal for his life in the new world in exchange for information about the demands of the curse--the heart of the thing she loves most.

In Maine, Emma finds herself turned out of her lodgings. The sheriff demurs in prosecuting Emma, and Regina rages at him. Emma and Regina confer, and Henry overhears the discussion--as Regina intended. And in the Enchanted Forest, Regina acts upon the information Rumpelstiltskin gave her; she rips her father's heart from his chest, ensuring that the curse will spread even as she is ill at ease with the price she has paid to enact it.

Emma calls on Henry's teacher, thanking her for posting her bail and repaying it; the teacher invites her in for cocoa and conversation. Emma affirms that she means to leave, citing the need to keep Henry from hurting; the teacher argues against it, citing the clear regard Emma has for Henry. And Henry sits silently in his therapist's office until Emma bursts in, apologizing to Henry and affirming her intent to remain in the town--and burning the pages torn from his book to keep them from Regina before they walk out into the town together.

Mr. Gold, Rumpelstiltskin's Maine persona, calls on Regina, informing her that Emma remains in town. He offers his services in eliminating her, for a price, and she rages against him.

Discussion

Henry's book is an interesting bit of medievalism in the present episode (and in future ones, as it happens). It is shown to have illuminated capitals and a number of illustrations, and while the latter is commonplace enough, the former is a deliberate nod back to medieval European manuscript production. The size of the volume is atypical, certainly but that is also somewhat reminiscent of parchment volumes, which were in some ways constrained by the dimensions of the animal from which they came. And it is notable subject to destruction and excision ("It's an old book; stuff's missing."), something that hurts me to see and which plagues studies of older literatures; much is unknown because the pages are simply not present. In some ways, then, the foundation of the series--Henry's book--is a playing with medievalist tropes, grounding the series as a whole in that medievalism even as there are...issues, as discussed previously.

The architecture on display in the episode also rings of the (Disneyfied) medievalist. Regina's chambers in the Enchanted Forest are overwrought Gothic, with vaulted arches and high ceilings in black; the Forbidden Fortress where she meets with Maleficent is very much in the fantastic castle tradition with its thrusting towers and crenellations rising from an impossibly-suspended stone formation, and its interiors seem in that same mode. There is, admittedly, no pretense of authenticity at work; the characters and their fantasy setting are explicitly noted to be fairy-tale constructions, and they are in some senses closer to their older sources that the Disney-working-from-Perrault versions familiar to the presumed audience of the series. (Again, being on a major broadcast network in the United States at prime time has...implications for who is watching.) But there is something to be noted in the carrying-forward of common tropes despite a prevailing informational context that ostensibly (inaccurately and ineffectively, perhaps, as Shiloh Carrol notes throughout her discussion of Martin in this webspace) traffics in a "realistic" medieval.

Once upon a Time Rewatch 1.1, "Pilot"

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

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1.1, "Pilot"

Written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz
Directed by Mark Mylod

Synopsis

That's neither ominous nor disheartening...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Following a brief textual introduction, a richly-clad rider races along a causeway (that obviously sees a lot of wheeled traffic) and through a forest as snow begins to fall. He joins a group of dwarves who surround the glassy coffin of a pale woman; he bids the coffin opened and kisses the woman within. After a rippling of rainbow magic, she wakes, Snow White responding to Prince Charming once again. The two are wed in a towering, stained-glass-walled room with many in attendance, the ceremony interrupted by the entrance of a dark-clad queen who proclaims her evil intent to destroy the happiness of all there gathered.

Yeah, the aspect's off, and the illustration's odd...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

The whole is revealed to be a story in a book, read by a boy on a bus bound for Boston. As he arrives there, a woman in a red dress makes her way into a restaurant to meet a date--as a pretext to pursue a bail-jumper; she is a bail bondsperson, taking her quarry. After, she returns to a hotel room, where the boy confronts her, naming her as Emma Swan and claiming to be her son, Henry. Emma is understandably taken aback by the revelation, as by the assertion that Henry is the child she gave up for adoption a decade earlier. He tries to enlist her to return to his home: Storybrooke, Maine. She agrees to take him home.

Pretty, yes?
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

A castle towers over an inlet amid mountains. In it, the pregnant Snow White muses over the evil queen's threat, with Charming trying to comfort her; she reminds him of the queen's evil and suggests visiting an imprisoned figure. Charming reluctantly agrees.

Emma drives Henry back out of Boston as he resumes reading from his book; he asserts the truth of the stories therein, as well as the power of belief. He notes that Emma herself is in the book, the story from which he reads treating the visit of Snow White and Prince Charming to the imprisoned figure--Rumpelstiltskin. After Snow White agrees to give Rumpelstiltskin the name of her unborn child, he informs her of the queen's machinations; a dark curse is in the offing, one that will trap them all in time and in a place where what they value is gone from them. "No more happy endings," he says, but notes that the child will be their savior on its twenty-eighth birthday; the child's name is revealed to be Emma.

That's neither ominous nor disheartening...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

At length, Emma and Henry reach Storybrooke. She pulls the car to a stop in front of a library with a stilled clock, and Henry notes that time is frozen as he explicates the situation: "The evil queen sent a bunch of fairy-tale characters here," trapping them. His therapist, Archie, meets them, expressing concern and informing Emma that Henry's mother is the mayor; she goes to return him home.

Snow White, Charming, dwarves, and others gather around a round table to confer about what to do. Discussion is not productive until a blue fairy arrives, bringing enchanted wood that can be used to save the as-yet-unborn Emma--and only one other.

Henry resists being returned to his mother, the mayor, Regina Mills. Regina, for her part, is happy to see her son, and she and Emma confer about Henry's situation. The circumstances of his adoption are noted, as are his current difficulties. Emma notes the strange book, which surprises Regina; Emma is surprised in turn to be hastened on her way away, but as she tries to leave town, she sees she still has Henry's book--and she crashes, swerving to avoid a wolf in the road just as she reaches the edge of town.

That's neither ominous nor disheartening...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Geppetto and his son, Pinocchio, work on the tree to effect Emma's escape from the coming curse. Snow White looks out over her domain before conferring with Charming about which of them will accompany Emma. The decision is made to send Snow White with their daughter, and she goes into labor as the curse begins to encroach.

Emma wakes in jail, having evidently wrecked her car while driving drunk. She, another prisoner, and a local confer briefly before Regina enters, noting Henry's absence; a search for the boy begins, with Emma showing her skills. They point to Henry's teacher--who appears to be Snow White, bird-handling and all. Regina confronts her, but it yields no useful information--but does present an opportunity for Henry's teacher to wax eloquent on the value of story before making a painful gaffe and offering Emma direction.

The birth proceeds as the curse approaches--along with the evil queen. Geppetto's work is completed, and Emma is taken to it for her safety shortly after her delivery; Charming saves the child at the cost of himself. Snow White later finds Charming--and their daughter absent, while the queen gloats over her partial success as the curse takes hold.

In Storybrooke, Emma finds Henry at a dilapidated playscape. He implores her for aid and forgives her for giving him up for adoption; she denies that she is a savior, but she affirms the reason for giving him up for adoption and relates her own background as a foster-child. She also takes him back to Regina once again; their ensuring conversation irks Regina greatly, prompting her to threaten Emma. Henry is despondent, and Regina takes away his book, beginning to panic at events.

Henry's teacher volunteers in a hospital, comforting patients--including one who looks much like Charming. Emma takes a room at a local inn, where a sinister landlord, Mr. Gold, greets her. And the library clock begins to tick again.

Discussion

Okay, so, first thing's first: it's Disney. Given that the series ran on ABC, it's not unexpected--nor yet is the fact that the series, rather than being medievalist in itself, is predominantly neomedievalist--that is, rather than going to medieval antecedents more or less directly, it works from sources that are themselves interpretations or reimaginings of medieval antecedents. In the main, the series uses Disney's interpretations of fairy tales and other public domain narratives as its touchstones, rather than the things Disney interprets. (Kavita Mudan Finn offers discussion of the phenomenon here.) In doing so, the series reinforces the already-existing overdetermination of such narratives by Disney, but that is not to be wondered at; media production is a business, after all, it's better business to pay less for materials than to pay more, and using what you already own is cheap. Nor yet is it to be blithely set aside; yes, "it's just a show," but it's one that does get watched with children, and even adults are often deeply influenced by the entertainment media they consume; consequently, the series is in position to shape and shade popular understandings of the medieval, not because it treats the medieval, but because it is perceived as doing so. (Paul Sturtevant's book, discussed here and here, speaks to the idea, among others.) So there's that.

Even with that, though, there are medievalist things that the episode gets right. The round table, for one thing, calls back powerfully to Arthurian legend, perhaps the medieval narrative most likely to be familiar to the general viewership of the series (a prime-time show on ABC will necessarily be trying to reach the broadest possible audience, something that might explain some of the simplifications, etc., at work in the series). The involvement of the fairies in world-shifting lines up with traditional stories, as well.

There are also things the episode gets wrong (aside from some dubious costume decisions--even aside from the historical issues, to which others can speak with greater knowledge and insight than I, several of the pairs of pants worn look like they would chafe). Although there are people of color present and active in the neomedievalist fairy-tale world, they are not among the "important" protagonists for the most part; they tend to be subordinate figures, with the exception of the evil queen--a Latina coded as overtly and, well, evilly sexual. The stereotyping is...not to Disney's credit, and it problematically reinforces both the usual ills associated with reductive typing and what Helen Young describes as the myth of the monochrome Middle Ages, the notion that the only people, or the only people who mattered, in medieval Europe were white people. And, again, since popular media narratives exercise influence, and those promulgated by Disney are positioned to exercise more influence, the already-problematic stereotyping is...even worse.

As a note, I'll be away on vacation next week, so no update. Join us again on 17 June 2021!