Once Upon a Time Musings: Pilot
Having watched the first five episode of Once Upon a Time within a very short space of time, I know that I won't have caught everything that matters. Nor have I really given myself the time I think I need to process everything which is going on. There's so much after all that it's hard to keep track of it all, in one viewing.
I decided today that I would rewatch it, particularly since the task won’t take very long (compared to some other new shows). I love that rewatching anything allows you to pick out the things you missed the first time around - significant words or phrases, significant images or scenes. Once Upon a Time is certainly littered with such things.
(Please note: I'm a spoilerphobe, which means I dislike spoilers and would appreciate that if you know something that hasn't been seen on television yet, you don't share it with me. Thanks.)
There were two themes I noticed the most, which linger around Snow White and Prince Charming.
When we see the Prince riding to save Snow, it suddenly begins snowing. I’m not sure if there’s any significance to that, other than her name, but it made me smile. The thing that made me smile even harder, was right at the end when Mary Margaret goes to visit John Doe, she doesn’t just bring him any kind of flower - I’m adamant those were snowdrops. That’s not a coincidence.
The second theme actually has two strands - one is with Snow/Charming and the other, the Queen.
In the beginning, when Charming saves Snow, he makes a promise: “I’ll always find you”. Later when he says goodbye to his baby daughter, he kisses her on the forehead and says “find us”. But the idea that she will find them isn’t just in the fairytale!world, it’s in our world too. Not least because Henry finds his birth mother…but also because, when Mary Margaret is explaining to her class about the birds, she states: “If you love them and they love you, they will always find you”. I think there certainly seems to be a theme of finding what is lost and/or someone who you love running throughout this episode and, I’m not sure but I will have to look at the rest of the episode, potentially the whole show.
Connecting the two worlds appears to be pretty significant in this episode. I know that generally there’s going to be elements of the two worlds being connected throughout, but of course, setting the standard in the pilot, it’s pretty prominent in the words they use. Not just symbols.
When the Queen says “I will destroy you if it’s the last thing I do”, it makes perfect sense really that she would say the same thing, as Regina, to Emma; whether she knows about the curse or not. The fact she says it to Emma having said it to Emma’s parents, I guess it makes sense in a way. Even without her knowing about the curse, she’s already destroyed Snow/Charming’s happiness (well, their happily ever after) so why not feel the need to now destroy Emma’s?!
A few other things I noticed and felt the need to comment on as I was making notes is the way Mr Gold said Emma’s name towards the end of the episode. He spoke with a sense of knowledge, as though he knew the name well. I have a couple of theories on this, but I’ll keep them to myself for the time being as I’m trying to keep ‘future’ episodes out of these comments.
What I wonder the most though, is about Emma and the curse. What makes her so special? Why has she got some sort of power that will enable the curse to one day be broken? Is it who she is? Or is there something else which we don’t know?
Additionally, when baby Emma went into the wardrobe we were lead to believe that she would be free from the curse. Yet, if she was free from the curse, how come she ended up in our world living a very unhappily ever after? I know that she was free from the time element of the curse - she could roam free outside of Storybrooke for as long as she pleased. Though, that’s only half of the purpose of the curse. The other half, that’s what confuses me.
She’s also the only character with the same name in both worlds…how come she was named Emma in our world? Nobody knew that was her name. Snow White and Charming left nothing with the baby to suggest she was called Emma, did they? Unless the blanket she was wrapped in had her name on it, I suppose.
(Just to remind you that I don’t read spoilers, I don’t want to know any spoilers and so, most of my questions here are speculation and curiosity. It’s not me wanting to know the answers, if the answers are out there in the spoilerworld.)
I decided today that I would rewatch it, particularly since the task won’t take very long (compared to some other new shows). I love that rewatching anything allows you to pick out the things you missed the first time around - significant words or phrases, significant images or scenes. Once Upon a Time is certainly littered with such things.
(Please note: I'm a spoilerphobe, which means I dislike spoilers and would appreciate that if you know something that hasn't been seen on television yet, you don't share it with me. Thanks.)
There were two themes I noticed the most, which linger around Snow White and Prince Charming.
When we see the Prince riding to save Snow, it suddenly begins snowing. I’m not sure if there’s any significance to that, other than her name, but it made me smile. The thing that made me smile even harder, was right at the end when Mary Margaret goes to visit John Doe, she doesn’t just bring him any kind of flower - I’m adamant those were snowdrops. That’s not a coincidence.
The second theme actually has two strands - one is with Snow/Charming and the other, the Queen.
In the beginning, when Charming saves Snow, he makes a promise: “I’ll always find you”. Later when he says goodbye to his baby daughter, he kisses her on the forehead and says “find us”. But the idea that she will find them isn’t just in the fairytale!world, it’s in our world too. Not least because Henry finds his birth mother…but also because, when Mary Margaret is explaining to her class about the birds, she states: “If you love them and they love you, they will always find you”. I think there certainly seems to be a theme of finding what is lost and/or someone who you love running throughout this episode and, I’m not sure but I will have to look at the rest of the episode, potentially the whole show.
Connecting the two worlds appears to be pretty significant in this episode. I know that generally there’s going to be elements of the two worlds being connected throughout, but of course, setting the standard in the pilot, it’s pretty prominent in the words they use. Not just symbols.
When the Queen says “I will destroy you if it’s the last thing I do”, it makes perfect sense really that she would say the same thing, as Regina, to Emma; whether she knows about the curse or not. The fact she says it to Emma having said it to Emma’s parents, I guess it makes sense in a way. Even without her knowing about the curse, she’s already destroyed Snow/Charming’s happiness (well, their happily ever after) so why not feel the need to now destroy Emma’s?!
A few other things I noticed and felt the need to comment on as I was making notes is the way Mr Gold said Emma’s name towards the end of the episode. He spoke with a sense of knowledge, as though he knew the name well. I have a couple of theories on this, but I’ll keep them to myself for the time being as I’m trying to keep ‘future’ episodes out of these comments.
What I wonder the most though, is about Emma and the curse. What makes her so special? Why has she got some sort of power that will enable the curse to one day be broken? Is it who she is? Or is there something else which we don’t know?
Additionally, when baby Emma went into the wardrobe we were lead to believe that she would be free from the curse. Yet, if she was free from the curse, how come she ended up in our world living a very unhappily ever after? I know that she was free from the time element of the curse - she could roam free outside of Storybrooke for as long as she pleased. Though, that’s only half of the purpose of the curse. The other half, that’s what confuses me.
She’s also the only character with the same name in both worlds…how come she was named Emma in our world? Nobody knew that was her name. Snow White and Charming left nothing with the baby to suggest she was called Emma, did they? Unless the blanket she was wrapped in had her name on it, I suppose.
(Just to remind you that I don’t read spoilers, I don’t want to know any spoilers and so, most of my questions here are speculation and curiosity. It’s not me wanting to know the answers, if the answers are out there in the spoilerworld.)