Once Upon A Time (ep. 6)

Week six for ABC's Once Upon a Time has arrived. This week's episode was entitled "The Shepherd", which focuses a bit more on the backstory of Prince Charming while in present day time David has to chose between his estranged wife Katherine and the woman he is falling for Mary-Margaret.

Let's get to the episode breakdown, shall we?


First we'll do a rundown of things in Fairy Tale land.

Prince James shows his great sword skill by slaying a brute. This impresses his father George, the kingdom's knights and King Midas. Midas needs him to slay a dragon that has been plaguing his kingdom. As he walks away, the brute slays James with a dying action. King George is understandably freaked out. He sends for help.

Help, it turns out, is Rumpelstiltskin who gave George a son when he and his wife could not conceive. George will do anything to have James returned to life. Rumpel says he can't do that - that's beyond magic. But, in exchange for information about the Blue Fairy's location, he will give George a new slayer, James' twin brother. Rumpel goes to retrieve the shepherd brother and convinces him to play a part if he wants to save his mother's farm. He agrees.

The knights, however, don't feel this imposter is up to the task. They warn him to keep back while they do all the work. Turns out, they're not up to it and the dragon turns them into fried corpses. The shepherd though cannot stand by idly and manages to herd the dragon to a trap where he beheads the beast as James would have done. He returns the head to Midas who then offers his daughter Abigail's hand in marriage. This reward will help King George's kingdom too. George tells the shepherd to go along with the charade or else.

The shepherd returns home to say his final goodbye to his mother. She does not want him to go through with the marriage for her, but he says he must do what is right for all despite his own unhappiness. She gives him her ring which he gives to Abigail so they can be engaged. As they leave for George's palace to celebrate the upcoming union, Snow White waits on the troll path to ambush them (which we saw back in episode three).

Going over to the Storybrooke side of things, Katherine (Abigail) brings David home in hopes a party will remind him of their past. Regina speaks with her in the kitchen and shares that she too lost someone once that she loved greatly. Katherine pledges to be her friend.

David meanwhile ditches the party to go see Mary-Margaret. He feels that he should be with her. Mary-Margaret later talks to Emma about it who advises that if something feels wrong that there is a good chance it might be. David returns back to Katherine who remarks that his hair and other things are different. (Could David also have a twin that was really her husband?)

Regina warns Mary-Margaret to stay out of Katherine and David's relationship. David then sees her and tells her that he is leaving Katherine. Mary-Margaret does push him away, but he wants her to meet him at 8pm at the toll bridge.

The Sheriff Graham asks Emma to work the night shift for him as he has volunteer work to do. Emma then sees Mary-Margaret who tells her that David has left his wife. Emma then suggests that is a sign and that she should go meet him after all.

David runs into Regina on the street and asks her directions to the toll bridge. Regina realizes who is going to meet and steers him the wrong way. He ends up at Mr. Gold's shop; Gold gives him the right direction. But before he leaves David sees a windmill, the same windmill that was on his and Katherine's front lawn. He remembers that it belonged to him once. (Dang, so much for my twin theory...)

David arrives at the bridge late yet Mary-Margaret is still there. Her joy turns to sadness when he tells her that he remembers Katherine and needs to go back to her because it is the right thing to do.

On patrol, Emma sees someone sneaking out of window at the mayor's house. A cat burglar? Nope. She catches Graham in the act of sneaking out after a booty call with Regina. Emma is disgusted that they do that with Henry sleeping in the same house. She tells him he can forget about her doing any more night duty for him.

David returns to Katherine and tells her that he is remembering. He knows they had problems before his accident, but he is willing to try to work things out. She agrees.

Mary-Margaret meanwhile has been crying in the diner. The doctor comes in, they talk and she agrees to have a drink with him.

I definitely liked the twists and turns of this week's episode. The back story of Charming (can't really call him James since he is really a fill in for the dead James, and we never get his true name) was intriguing. I like how we get to see these stories fitting together with one another.

And the previews for next week look interesting as we're going to get the details on the Sherriff.