Season 1, Episode 10:
7:15 A.M.
Centric Characters: Snow White, Prince Charming
Previous: True North | Next: Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
Emma Swan: So, you're a stalker?
Mary Margaret Blanchard: No, not really. Maybe a little bit. I mean, it's not like I'm following him. I just know that he spends his mornings with Kathryn, gets coffee, then drives to the animal shelter to start work at 7:30, and then he's home around 5.
Emma Swan: Oh, is that all?
Mary Margaret Blanchard: Thursdays, they pick up Chinese for dinner.
In front of the Mills residence, Henry quizzes the stranger about why he came to Storybrooke but receives only vague answers. He also notes a mysterious box strapped onto the back of the stranger's motorcycle, which the stranger says contains something he needs to do what he came to do while visiting. The stranger tells Henry to watch out for the approaching storm before zooming off as Regina arrives and asks Henry who he was.
At the apartment, Emma questions why Mary Margaret is in such a rush to leave for the school so early, which Mary Margaret claims is due to a science fair she needs to help the students with.
After leaving, Mary Margaret actually goes to Granny's, where she hurriedly finds a seat, checks her hair in a spoon's reflection, and pretends to be engrossed in a book as David comes in. He picks up coffees for himself and Kathryn before having a quick and somewhat awkward conversation with Mary Margaret in which she is a bit too excited to partake. As she watches David return to Kathryn in their car, Emma turns up to bust Mary Margaret on what she's really doing. Turns out David has made a routine of picking up coffee from Granny's at 7:15 A.M. every day, and Mary Margaret likes to wait there to see him, in addition to having memorized just about all of his day-to-day life. Mary Margaret admits to Emma that she wishes she could get David out of her head, and that there was a "magic cure" for love.
FLASHBACK! Snow White hunts a turkey in the Enchanted Forest before being interrupted by Red Riding Hood delivering a basket of goods and news from the world, which is that Prince James is marrying Princess Abigail in two days. Snow tells Red that she tried living in isolation to escape her obsession over the prince, but it hasn't worked. When Red makes a face in response to Snow wishing for a way to stop thinking about him, Snow presses and gets Red to tell her about the sorcerer Rumpelstiltskin, who could possibly do such a thing.
Snow goes to see him, and he procures a potion for her that will cure her of her obsession by erasing all memory of Prince James, in exchange for which he takes a bit of her hair.
Mary Margaret literally runs into Kathryn and Regina at the supermarket, and among the spilled goods she spots a pregnancy test. After Kathryn walks off, Regina tells Mary Margaret to leave the Nolans alone.
FLASHBACK! At the palace, Prince James is unable to stop thinking about Snow White, much to King George's displeasure, and he tells James to forget her at any cost before his wedding to Abigail. After George leaves, James writes a letter to Snow and sends it with a dove.
On a walk in the woods, Mary Margaret finds a dove trapped in a plastic web and takes it to the animal shelter where David works.
The veterinarian tells Mary Margaret that the bird will be fine but due to its biology it will remain solitary forever unless reunited with its flock. David warns Mary Margaret about the storm, but she decides to brave it to save the bird from being forever alone and declines his help with it.
Elsewhere, Regina asks Emma to investigate the stranger as she herself was unsuccessful, since there's something familiar about him. Emma agrees to help after hearing that the stranger seems to have an interest in Henry.
Mary Margaret drives through the forest, searching for the dove's flock as the storm approaches.
FLASHBACK! As Snow considers Rumpelstiltskin's potion, the dove arrives with the letter from Prince James in which he declares his feelings and tells her that if she comes to see him before the wedding, he will make sure that the two of them can be together.
Mary Margaret reaches a closed off section of the road and decides to continue on foot.
FLASHBACK! Snow White reaches the castle, getting past the chaperones by pretending to deliver a gift from Midas' kingdom, however a guard grabs her just before she can make herself known to James and takes her to the dungeon.
As she unsuccessfully tries various escape methods, she meets another prisoner in the dungeon, a dwarf named Grumpy, who reveals that it's because of love that he's imprisoned as he was tricked into trading for a stolen diamond to propose to his lover. Conveniently, a second dwarf shows up to help, a friend of Grumpy's named Stealthy. Stealthy gets Grumpy out of the cell, and although Grumpy has no intention of helping Snow, she uses weaponized sweetness to convince him.
Mary Margaret follows the sounds of the dove's flock before spotting some peculiar fallen trees. After putting down the birdcage to investigate, a thunderclap scares her into slipping and falling down the hill right into a ravine where she hangs onto a root for dear life for several seconds before David saves her, having followed her through the woods the entire time. The rain picks up as they argue about what to do next, and eventually David convinces Mary Margaret to find shelter.
FLASHBACK! During the escape, a point is reached where Snow and Stealthy are conflicted about what to do next. Grumpy decides to follow Stealthy, leaving Snow to escape on her own. Naturally, the dwarves are caught by the guards and King George almost immediately and Stealthy is shot and killed. George demands to know where Snow went. Grumpy refuses to divulge anything and accepts execution, but Snow turns up just before the blade falls, threatening to burn the whole castle if they kill the dwarf. George sends Grumpy off and tells Snow that they need to talk.
David and Mary Margaret find and break into an empty cabin to hide from the storm, and she confesses that she's still in love with him even after he chose Kathryn, and that she goes to Granny's at 7:15 A.M. every morning to see him even though it's painful. He then reveals that he actually goes to Granny's at 7:15 A.M. every morning to see her too. They almost kiss, but she asks him how he can do that when his wife thinks she could be pregnant. This is news to David.
Back in town, Emma heads into Granny's to escape the rain and finds the stranger there. She starts to grill him but he explains it all away, first that he only talked to Henry because Henry came up and pelted him with questions first, and that he was in front of the Mills home simply because that's where his bike broke down. However, he won't tell her the contents of his mysterious box, taunting her that she's going to have to watch him take it everywhere and only wonder what's inside, unless she allows him to buy her a drink sometime. She agrees and he opens the box to reveal a typewriter, claiming that he's a writer and came to Storybrooke for inspiration while neither confirming nor denying that he's been there before.
In the woods, Mary Margaret takes advantage of the rain letting up to escape the awkward situation and runs back into the woods in search of the flock, with David close behinds. The flock is found and Mary Margaret releases the dove, while David tries to take her hand. Mary Margaret tells him it's still too painful, but David tells her that his feelings for Kathryn are memories while his feelings for Mary Margaret are presently real. Mary Margaret turns him down, saying that they have to forget each other.
FLASHBACK! King George orders Snow White to go to James and renounce his love, or else he will have James assassinated. She accepts the deal and goes to James. They embrace but she tells him that they can't be together, and although he tries to convince her otherwise, she tells him bluntly that she doesn't love him and that she came only to relieve him of his obsession over her. She returns the letter and silently weeps as she leaves.
At the Nolan residence the following day, David prompts Kathryn to tell him something she's been keeping secret, but instead of what he was trying to hear she tells him that things haven't been feeling right with him, and though she wants a family with him she's decided that it's not the right time, and that the pregnancy test she took came back negative. David tells her that he wants it to work between them and agrees to marriage counseling. Noticing the time, Kathryn tells David he should probably get to Granny's for the regular coffee but he declines, proposing breakfast at home instead.
FLASHBACK! Walking away from the castle, Snow meets the Grumpy and six other dwarves and voices her sorrows to them. Grumpy tells Snow that they've both lost someone that night, and that they will take Snow to live with them as gratitude for helping save Grumpy. Snow pulls out Rumpelstiltskin's potion and tells Grumpy that she wants to use it to erase her pain, asking if he would do the same as he lost his love. Grumpy says that his pain makes him who he is, and he wouldn't want to get rid of it. He advises against taking the potion while leaving the choice to her. She puts it away and follows the dwarves home.
At the apartment, Emma and Mary Margaret silently acknowledge that she's not going to Granny's and what that means.
FLASHBACK! James rides to the place where Snow lived in solitude, but finds only Red who tells him that Snow never came back from the castle. He vows to find her.
At the dwarves' cottage, Grumpy excitedly reports to Snow that James' wedding was cancelled, but she confusedly asks what he's talking about. Stunned, Grumpy sees the empty potion bottle on Snow's end table.
At 7:45 A.M., Mary Margaret picks up her coffee from Granny's, only to David to enter at the same time and walk straight back out. Mary Margaret chases after him and asks what he's doing. Turns out he had the same idea as her and came at 7:45 A.M. so they would miss each other. David tells her that Kathryn isn't pregnant and they immediately share a kiss as a displeased Regina watches from across the street.
Tropes
- Break His Heart to Save Him: Textbook example, although enforced by King George. Because he is so determined to ensure James's wedding to Abigail goes off as planned, so that his and Midas's kingdom will unite, and James's feelings for Snow are interfering with this, George takes advantage of Snow coming to the castle to deliver an ultimatum: either she tells James she doesn't love him, or he will kill him—to make him a martyr so that Midas will still go through with his end of the deal, and to hurt Snow. And like most examples of the trope, it doesn't work: James goes searching for her anyway, breaking off the engagement to Abigail, and by the time Snow hears about this, she has already taken the forgetfulness potion.
- Call-Forward: Thanks to Anachronic Order, Grumpy telling Snow about his lost love is this to "Dreamy" (right down to him telling her his love was "beautiful as a fairy").
- Continuity Nod:
- Just like her daughter, Snow White first met Grumpy when they were in neighboring cells.
- Back when Graham was spending the night with Regina, he claimed he needed Emma to cover for him because he had to work at the animal shelter; after she finds out about the affair, Graham claims he really did work there. Flash forward to now, and it would seem that after Graham's death, David took up his position at the animal shelter.*
- Just last episode, Regina discovered through the Magic Mirror that Snow White is "cavorting with dwarves." This episode, we find out "when that happened" and the very solemn and saddening reasons behind it.
- Contrived Coincidence: As will be revealed two episodes from now (though we won't see it again until Season 4B), the cabin where David and Mary Margaret happen to take shelter from the storm belongs to Gold. It was Rumple of course who by various means brought them together the first time (so as to obtain the potion of True Love), so it's fitting he indirectly helped kindle their Storybrooke romance, too. Because Destiny Says So, surely.
- Couch Gag: The title card features Red Riding Hood walking through the woods.
- Doomed by Canon: A Canon Foreigner eighth dwarf named Stealthy? Wonder what's going to happen to him?
- Fire-Forged Friends: Grateful for helping him escape, and making a connection over lost love, has Grumpy invite Snow to stay with his 6 other friends to look after her.
- Hostile Weather: The incoming storm forces Mary Margaret and David to take shelter after she goes to release the injured dove, only encouraging their forbidden love.
- Irony: Mary Margaret has taken to coming to Granny's every morning at 7:15 AM so she can see David getting his morning coffee with Kathryn...but it turns out the reason he comes there at that time (since he could just have it at home, or elsewhere) is to see her. Also, when they both decide to not show up one morning at 7:15, they both come a half hour later...and still run into each other.Mary Margaret: What are you doing here?David: Trying not to see you!Mary Margaret: Well, I'm trying not to see you!David: This is a problem. How do we stop seeing each other, then?
- Love Hurts: Mary Margaret says something to this effect at the start of the episode. So does Rumplestiltskin
- Mythology Gag: When Snow White first meets him in the dungeons, Grumpy is whistling "Heigh-Ho." Also, Rumple is the first one to actually refer to Snow as she is in the fairy tale, "the fairest one of all."
- Orbital Kiss: Between Mary Margaret and David.
- Plot Parallel: One of the cases where the present-day plot and the Enchanted Forest plot mirror each other almost perfectly, as in both Mary Margaret/Snow White is doing everything she can to forget her love for David/Charming, and he just can't let it go no matter how she or anyone else tells him he must. Also, the plot with the injured dove that needs to get back to its flock or it will be left alone forever very much reflects Mary Margaret's dilemma, underscored by the fact it seems to be the same dove James used to send her his message.
- Silly Rabbit, Romance Is for Kids!: Both King George and Rumple subscribe to this trope, for very different reasons (Love Is a Weakness vs. Love Hurts)—although he spoke in an earlier episode of having lost his wife, George only seems to care how James's feelings are interfering with saving the kingdom. Rumple, though we won't know the full story for several episodes (and until the next season), is clearly thinking of having lost Milah and Baelfire when he dismisses love to Snow White. Oddly, despite the fact he has greater cause to do so, it's George who is more of The Cynic (and quite malicious) about love, not Rumple.
- The Sneaky Guy: Stealthy, the eighth dwarf, manages to sneak into King George's castle without getting detected.
- Stalker with a Crush: Emma teasingly accuses Mary Margaret of this, and after denying it (badly) with a series of Suspiciously Specific Denials about David's daily routine, she finally admits it.
- Sympathetic Magic: Rumple takes one of Snow White's hairs as payment for the forgetfulness potion. Subverted in that it later turns out he did this not to gain some sort of control or hold over her, but to help make his potion of True Love.
- Troll: August is totally this the whole time he's conversing with Emma at Granny's diner, but especially when talking about what he has in his box.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: As the eighth dwarf, Stealthy doesn't survive the episode.
- Wham Line: "...Who?"
- Wham Shot: The final moment, when Regina glowers at the kissing David and Mary Margaret from her car.
- You Are Not Alone: Grumpy says this word for word to Snow White.
