Once upon a Time Rewatch 1.9, "True North"

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

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1.9, "True North"

Written by David H. Goodman and Liz Tigelaar
Directed by Dean White

Synopsis

Following the title card, the episode opens with Henry reading comic books. A girl, Eva, asks him about it and confers briefly with him; her brother, Nicholas, joins them, and they invite him to hang out with them. They are stopped as they try to leave the store, Eva and Nicholas having exploited Henry to shoplift.

That's not a cutting remark at all...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In the Enchanted Forest, a woodcutter plies his trade. Eva's alter-ego Gretel asks him, her father, about helping; he puts her and her brother, Hansel, to work gathering kindling. He also gives them a compass to help them be safe. They spend long in the woods, during which time, their father abandons them, and they are nearly run down by soldiers upon the roads, accompanying the evil queen. She regards them harshly.

In Storybrooke, Regina takes Henry away from the scene of the shoplifting. Emma arrives to take Eva and Nicholas into custody, and they plead in a scene that mirrors their counterparts in the Enchanted Forest; they try to flee from Regina, to no avail, as she captures the wayward children. She enlists them in a task in exchange for finding their father. Emma drops the pair at their home, accepting their story for the moment; they flee as soon as she is out of sight, absconding to the basement of a ramshackle home where they appear to be squatting and where they are caught by Emma--to whom they announce they are orphans.

Emma and Mary Margaret confer about Eva and Nicholas; their situation is glossed. Emma notes the problems of putting them into foster care, speaking from painful experience, and they arrive at the idea of finding the children's father. Emma proceeds to investigate their father, finding that the documentation on the children is absent, pulled by Regina; Regina notes having contacted social services to take the children--to separate homes--and directs Emma to take them thence.

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

In the Enchanted Forest, Regina takes Hansel and Gretel deeper into the woods. There, she sends them to the home of the Blind Witch to retrieve an item for her; she cannot enter, though the children can, and she sends them in to steal it from her. She also notes the perils of the house itself, bidding the children eat nothing.

At her office, Emma reviews documents. Henry arrives and notes Eva's and Nicholas's storybook identities. He also affirms that their father is in town, owing to the unique nature of Storybrooke. Henry also asks about his father; Emma offers some glossed answers about their meeting and relationship--and his brave death. Their conversation gives Emma an idea about how to proceed in her search for the children's father; she acts on it, trying to get from the children an item from their father as a means to find him. Eva produces one, the compass, and Emma proceeds.

Sweet. Seemingly.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Gretel and Hansel approach the Blind Witch's home, sneaking into it and finding it a cornucopia of confectionery. They find the item they are meant to recover, and Gretel retrieves it, but Hansel eats of the offerings, and they are found out and captured in anticipation of being eaten.

Emma calls in at Gold's shop, asking him about the compass. He assesses it and notes knowing the former owner; he provides the information for a price--tolerance. The name is given, and Emma continues on her way--even though the record Gold reports working from is blank. She finds the father, the auto mechanic, and he denies being the father; Emma presses him about them, and he nearly relents after being confronted with the compass. Nearly. Emma reports the problem to Mary Margaret--and notes her lie to Henry regarding his father. Regina confronts Emma, reminder her to take the children to Boston and foster care.

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

In the Enchanted Forest, Hansel and Gretel are confronted by the pedophagic Blind Witch. As she prepares to cook Hansel, Gretel lays out plans to effect their escape and begins to enact them. They extricate themselves and return to Regina, delivering the retrieved item. The queen exults in the retrieval, and she offers to take the children into her own household; they refuse in favor of their father, and she performs a working on them.

In Storybrooke, Emma makes to take the children to foster care. Henry tries to interdict them, and Emma affirms she has to do her job, driving off. They do not get far before the car stalls out, and Emma calls a mechanic.

The evil queen summons Hansel and Gretel's father, whom she had imprisoned and whom she interrogates. His answers do not satisfy, and she has him released--to another place, far away from his children, who have themselves been sent far away.

Wow, that's not portentous at all...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

As the mechanic approaches, Eva's compass begins to point to him. He is confronted with the physical reality of the children, and Emma pleads with him to take them. He is moved strangely, and he agrees to take in Eva and Nicholas. Emma reports the happy event to Mary Margaret, musing on finding her own parents--and noting Henry's conceit that Mary Margaret is her mother, Snow White. And Henry meets with Emma as she reviews her own adoption file again; he commends her for her intervention with Eva and Nicholas as another visitor arrives in Storybrooke, looking for a place to stay....

Discussion

Notably, the series's premise is not restated at the beginning of the episode. It seems that the audience's habituation is expected at this point--sensibly enough, since two months of initial broadcast have passed to this point, the series premiering episodes weekly. It does mark a difference from the fairy tale and medieval/ist antecedents of the series, however; how many fairy tales open with "Once upon a time" said openly? How many Arthurian tales start with history and context (such as SGGK opening with "Siþen the sege and the assault watz sesed at Troye / The borȝ brittened and brent to brondes and askes" or Malory with "Hit befelle in the dayes of the noble Utherpendragon, whan he was king of Englonde and so regned)? It's a small enough thing, to be sure, but it does mark some shift in audience expectations, and that's worth considering; I'd be interested in hearing from those more up on media studies than I.

Similarly, someone more up on historical depictions of witches than I might have something to say about the Blind Witch. Disney has certainly made some adjustments, to my eye; I don't recall the witch in the Hansel and Gretel story being blind, for example, but that may just be the edition of the stories my father read to me from. In either event, she does not align to depictions of the anthropophagus or the Blemmyes with which they are sometimes conflated--although that can be explained easily enough by the constraints of medium. Still, it seems...strangely shaped, although I am not entirely certain how; others who are, please comment--I look forward to the discussion!