‘Once Upon A Time:’ Sweet Temptation

This week in Fairytale Land the story revolves around Hansel and Gretel. In a twist on the classic story, the lost children are found by the Evil Queen and sent to the Blind Witch’s gingerbread cottage to retrieve a satchel. They’re told not to eat anything.

But of course Hansel couldn’t avoid temptation and ate a cupcake, awakening the Blind Witch who then imprisons them with plans to eat them. However, the children outwit her, lock her in the oven and escape with the satchel.

When the children return with the satchel, we discover its contents to be the poison apple. She offers to keep the children, but they just want to return to their father, who we discover is also captured by the Queen. Ultimately she casts them all back into the woods to roam and try to find one another.

Meanwhile in Storybrooke, Henry meets Ava and Nicholas Zimmer who use him to try to shoplift. However, they are caught and it is revealed that Ava and Nicholas have no parents. Emma immediately has a connection and fights to prevent them from being place in fostering. She tracks down their father but he denies the possibility of the children being his.

Regina pressures Emma to take action with the children and eventually Emma must oblige, loading the children up and driving them out of town. But like Henry said, you can’t leave Storybrooke without something bad happening and Emma’s car breaks down. The mechanic she calls to come fix it is the children’s father and another happy ending is found when he decides to keep them! Hooray for Emma!

Henry actually asks Emma about his father, too. Emma shares that he was a firefighter and they met in a cute little diner. She became pregnant and when she searched for him, she discovered he had died saving a family in a fire. I was very pleased to hear this and totally believed it…but no, it was all a story she just told to give Henry a hero to look to.

The last scene shows a man on a motorcycle arriving in Storybrooke. Emma and Henry are both a little stunned. Strangers aren’t supposed to stop in Storybrooke. No one ever does. Yet, here he is.

Phenomenal episode. I wasn’t expecting much with a Hansel and Gretel episode, but there were so many great parts. Even though Fairytale Land revolved around Hansel and Gretel, I loved seeing the Evil Queen playing a big part. And I loved seeing her take some magic action…she is fierce!

The whole “who’s the daddy” plot had to come up at some point, and they revealed just enough to make me want more. He’s not the hero Emma told Henry he was, so who is he? I’m certainly curious. And how will he be integrated into Storybrooke and the fairytales.

Finally…that man?! Who is he? Is he fairytale or is he just a real-world man? Such a tease. My initial thought was maybe he’s Henry’s father, but surely Emma would recognize him. And if he’s arriving in Storybrooke, then doesn’t that mean he’s from elsewhere thus not a fairytale character? This one man has left me with so many questions!

Anyway, what did you think? Like the episode? And what are your thoughts on the mysterious man? Comment your thoughts!