This week’s “7:15 A.M.” provided fans with another stellar installment full of romance, suspense, drama, treachery, and hope. After a few forlorn episodes lacking concrete acknowledgement of Snow White and Prince Charming/Mary Margaret and David’s unyielding love for each other, fans were finally given an episode explaining how their Fairytale love was nearly lost and found again in Storybrooke.
Fairytale Land: “Love is the most powerful magic…its cure must be extreme.”
The Fairytale World is just a couple days away from Prince James’s marital arrangement with King Midas’ daughter Abigail and our favorite star-crossed lovers are each aching from the profound love they share.
Snow White has been in hiding out the woods ever since the Evil Queen put a price on her head, but she’s been surviving with a little help from Red Riding Hood. The scarlet-clad gal brings SW a basket of fruits with a side of scoop from across the kingdom. It appears Red owes Snow one (can’t wait to find out what happened there- maybe SW helped with saving her from the big bad wolf?) and the least she can do to repay her is help her get over a broken heart now that PC is destined to marry another. So Red tells Snow to see Rumpy (who is starting to come off as the Great Wizard of OZ and fixer of all problems).
Snow White meets the Rump and he gives her a potion that will erase her love for PC from her memory, thus masking her shattered heart. All he wants in exchange is a strand of her hair, which even Snow thinks is weird (in his realm of magic you know this will come back to bite her in the butt). Meanwhile, the valiant Prince James makes one last attempt at being with Snow, despite the cruel king’s demands, PC sends SW a love letter via dove and hopes she will come to meet him so they can runaway and start a life together.
Snow White receives the letter and sneaks into the palace, only to be immediately imprisoned by the guards. There she meets Grumpy, who is wonderfully introduced while whistling “Hi-Ho.” He explains how love landed him in that cell; for now he only reveals that he worked in a diamond mine and hoped to get one of the diamonds so he could propose to his sweetheart when he was unjustly arrested for theft (spoilers suggest we will learn his whole story soon enough, with Amy Acker playing his love interest, so stay tuned for more on Grumpy’s grand romance). Once his tale is told, Stealthy (the 8th dwarf) suddenly appears and frees Grumpy from his cell; when Snow wishes Grumpy good luck, he softens up and releases her too.
Before making a clear getaway, they are confronted by the King and his guards. Stealthy sadly dies (explaining why there are only 7 dwarves) and the King drags Snow away to give her a heart-wrenching ultimatum. Snow must tell the Prince she does not love him and insist he marry Abigail or else the King will kill him- after all James is not his son and he would die a martyr, so Midas would still save the kingdom. Left with no choice, Snow goes to her beloved Prince Charming to crush his heart.
In a moving scene beautifully acted by Goodwin and Dallas, Snow White convincingly confesses that she does not and never will love him the way Abigail will, then she flees the palace in tears. Outside, the seven dwarves surround Snow and take her in. Grumpy understands her achy-breaky heart, but he also urges her not to drink the potion no matter how painful it is. He explains, “I need my pain, it makes me who I am” and she decides to hold off on extinguishing her memories of PC…for now.
Finally, it is the big wedding and Prince Charming has escaped the palace in hope of reuniting with Snow White. He looks for her in the woods and meets Red who says Snow has left, but that doesn’t matter because he will always find her (awesome call-back to “Snow Falls”). Cut to Grumpy bolting into Snow White’s room to share the great news, only to discover that her heart couldn’t take the pain; she drank the potion and has no idea who Prince Charming is and how much he means to her.
Storybrooke: “It is too painful … It doesn’t have to be.”
It is 7:10 A.M. and Mary Margaret is running late for a very important date, she tells Emma it is for school, but it turns out to be so much more than that.
Every morning at 7:15 A.M. sweet Mary makes sure to be at the diner just in time to see David when he comes in to pick up a cup coffee. When Emma catches her in the lie, she explains that no matter how hard she tries, she can’t get David out of her mind and she is still deeply in love with him. However, Emma reminds her that he is married and stalking will not help her get over him, so she should starting letting go by not showing up to coffee at 7:15 A.M.
Mary is further led into taking Emma’s advice when she literally bumps into Kathryn at the mini-mart and sees her with a pregnancy test. Feeling hopelessly in unrequited love, Mary walks through the woods to clear her head. There she comes across a trapped dove and rushes it over to the animal shelter where David works. The vet takes a look and says the bird will heal, but it won’t be happy living in Storybrooke without its flock. Mary makes it her mission to reunite the dove with its loved ones before the storm blows them out of town.
Meanwhile, Regina gives Emma a mission of her own as Sheriff. She does not like the enigmatic Stranger snooping around town and especially chatting with Henry, so she tells Emma to figure out what he is up to. Emma finds him in the diner with the mysterious box by his side and she sits down for a chat. He still reveals no name, but agrees to expose what’s in the box if he can buy her a drink sometime. She agrees and we learn that the box contains an old-fashioned typewriter. Mr. Stranger is a writer who finds Storybrooke to be particularly inspiring, which makes you wonder how he is tied to the town and its fairytale past (Could he have penned Henry’s famed Storybook? Are there any Fairytale characters who are writers? If only we were dealing with Grimms’ tales and Aesop’s Fables so we could to jump to conclusions.) And with that bombshell he leaves, promising to by that drink some other time.
Back in the woods, Mary is trying to find the flock when she slips of the edge of a cliff and is heroically saved by David who luckily followed her even though she told him not to. As the storm rolls in, David, Mary and their dove seek shelter in a cabin; while the rain pours outside, emotional showers scatter within the cabin as David and Mary reveal their true feeling.
David and Mary feel the same way, neither can shake the thought of each other and even better, David confesses that the only reason why he is at the diner at 7:15 A.M. is so that he can see Mary. Just as the two are about to kiss, Mary pulls back, Kathryn may be pregnant and it wouldn’t be right to start an affair. David didn’t know, but it doesn’t change his feelings for Mary. The storm clears and they release the dove to join its flock, as the bird soars, David takes Mary’s hand. She pulls away saying its too painful, but he insists that it doesn’t have to be.
The next morning Kathryn tells David that she is not pregnant and is relieved because he has been so distant, she wants them both to be in love with each other, especially if there are going to start a family. Kathryn wants them to see Dr. Hopper for marriage counseling and David takes the first step by skipping coffee at 7:15A.M.
Mary also postpones her morning coffee, hoping to miss meeting David she goes to the diner at 7:45A.M. But as fate would have it, David is there. They tried to be apart but it just isn’t meant to be, David assures Mary that Kathryn is not pregnant and the two love-birds finally kiss (cue the collective sigh!). Unfortunately, Regina sees them from a distance and judging by her menacing glare, this means war – again.
What did you think of “7:15A.M.”? Did you tear up? Did your heart break and brighten?
Share your thoughts in the comments below and check back here throughout the week for all the latest news on ‘Once Upon A Time.’
