“What Happened to Frederick” picks up the ongoing love story of Snow White and her Prince Charming.
Prince James has fled his arranged marriage on horseback and his faux bad Daddy is determined to bring him back at any cost, even with an arrow lodged in his back!
But it’s Abigail who gets her hands on him first. She may be bitchy and spoiled, but she’s no fool. She knows the truth about his love for Snow White and he isn’t the only one not dying to tie the knot. Her heart also belongs to another. A brave knight named Frederick who she was engaged to, before he was tragically turned to gold protecting King Midas. She offers to help him escape safely so that neither of them has to live a lie.
Moved by her kindness, and lost in his own romantic despair, James wants to help Abigail rescue poor Frederick (who is currently his own tribute statue). There is a magical lake full of water that will cure any curse. But a demonic creature guards the lake and no one who has faced it has every returned. James isn’t fazed. He’s determined that at least one of them experience true happiness.
And so he journeys to the lake to face the evil monster, which turns out to be a smoking hot water siren. James resists her sultry charms, until she transforms herself into the image of Snow White. “Everything you want that you can’t have, I can give it to you. All you have to do is kiss me.” He gives in and sucks face with the siren, who starts to lead him to his death. But he manages to see through the cloud of his own lust and rejects the illusion. Nothing but the real deal will do for him. James is the first hero to ever resist the siren and she angrily tries to drown him. He manages to stab her and free himself from the water vines.
James returns to Abigail with a bucket of magic water to cure her love. She pours some on Frederick and the gold melts away. Watching his ex-fiance make out with her one true love, James decides not to give up on Snow. He knows what True Love feels like and he won’t be denied.
He rides to the forest where Red Riding Hood tells him the truth about Snow’s rejection. Snow is in love with him and she only pushed him away because of King George’s interference. James barely has time to be furious before King George’s army shows up to take his head. Obviously that is to be continued …
David and Mary Margaret’s love story continues in Storybrooke, but it is far less romantic and way more frustrating!
During awkward small talk at the dinner table, Kathryn announces to David that she was accepted to law school in Boston. She wants them to attempt a fresh start somewhere new. Hmmm, moving to a new city is going to make it hard for David to see his lover on the side! But David is still a chicken-shit douchebag and just can’t bring himself to sack up and tell his wife he doesn’t love her. Mary Margaret finally lays down the law. “We have to stop hiding and do something. You have to make a choice” – HELLS YA! Mary Margaret insists that he come clean with Katherine about their relationship. David promises to do it. Now let’s see if he has the balls to make those words actually mean something.
David goes home and manages to tell Katherine that he can’t go to Boston with her, but he’s still not brave enough to tell her about Mary Margaret. Instead he weasels out of it with a lame excuse about how he just can’t connect to Katherine and she’d be better off without him. Then he tells Mary Margaret that he ended his marriage, and lets her believe that Katherine knows about them.
He might have gotten away with it too if Storybrooke weren’t a small town full of judgmental busy bodies. Regina decides to show Katherine a photo of David and Mary Margaret together, revealing the truth of their affair. Katherine storms into Mary Margaret’s school and slaps her with a capital S! All the random extras in town begin to shun her, and even sweet old Granny gives her the cold shoulder. Where were all these people a few episodes ago when David and Mary Margaret were kissing openly in the street??? Someone spray paints tramp on Mary Margaret’s car and she catches David as he’s trying to wipe it off.
She chews him out for lying to her and instead of throwing himself at her mercy for being such a coward, he asks who told her. That. Is. Not. The. Point. David thinks he’s a good person because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but all he does is take the easy way out and ends up hurting everyone instead.
What I don’t understand is why he’s so different from who he was in fairytale land. Most of the other characters seem very similar, but he’s a pale version of his former self. James was a man who would face a monster and risk his life to save someone ELSE’s true love. And David can’t even manage to stand in the line of emotional fire for the woman he loves.
David begs Mary Margaret to pick up the pieces and move on with him, but she’s disillusioned. She tells him their relationship is destructive and has to stop. She ends it.
But with all of the deception finally out in the open, Katherine comes to a realization of her own. She stares at the picture of David and Mary Margaret together and realizes that he never once looked at her that way … not even before his coma. And she’s never felt that way about him either. Their marriage was like an illusion and she wants to find something deeper than that. She decides to go to Boston on her own, but first she takes the time to write David and Mary Margaret a letter, telling them they should be together. WHA????? But of course Queen Bitch Regina steals the letter and burns it. And as it goes up in flames, Katherine drives out town. Or halfway out of town … because we know that nobody gets to leave this place! Hours later, Frederick’s alter ego (who we haven’t been introduced to yet) finds Katherine’s car on the side of the road. It’s been in an accident and the air bag is deployed, but Katherine has completely disappeared.
In the episode C plot – the mysterious stranger continues to pursue Emma for the date she promised him. He even sweetens the deal by finally revealing his name, August W. Booth.
But while he waits for his romantic rendezvous with Emma, he’s cooped up in a photo lab, making copies of the pages from Henry’s fairy tale book and carefully binding it back together.
August chooses an … err … unusual setting for his first date with Emma. He takes her on the back of his motorcycle and they drive to an old wishing well. She’s confused by the choice but he tells her it’s a magic well. “They say the water is fed by an underground lake with magical properties. If you drink it, something lost will be returned to you.” Emma plays along, and later that day she finds Henry’s fairytale book floating near the sewer by her car. She returns the book to her son and he takes it as a sign that things will start to get better.
Love It
-It was a nice episode overall, good balance between all the storylines. I enjoyed seeing another side of Abigail. Good job turning the tables on a character who has grated on us and I would love to see more of her love story with Frederick!
-I’m officially intrigued by August. I’m sure it will take a while to reveal his true intentions, but I’m along for the ride as they start to reveal what it is he’s up to!
Hate it:
David. I just hate him. I was on his side when he woke up and felt out of place in his life, but he’s turned out to be so wimpy. And I think the writers are going to have a hard time redeeming him if they want me to root for his romance with Mary Margaret.
Photo Courtesy of ABC
