Once Upon a Time 2-7: Child of the Moon

As much as I am enjoying this season, I will admit I miss having all the characters in every episode. I fee like we are only getting advancements on some of our stories each week, and I’m greedy. I want more!!!!!

Having said that, this week was enjoyable. I felt like I was often half a step ahead of the characters, but even so, I liked seeing how things turned out.

We spent the majority of our time in Storybrooke this week, so let’s start there. As the episode opens, the dwarfs are about to quit their mining for the day, only Grumpy isn’t ready to go. He takes one more swing at the wall of the mine, and tumbles down into a room. They quickly call Charming, who brings Henry and the Blue Fairy. She confirms they’ve found the diamonds from which fairy dust can be made. She tells Charming to keep the hat safe because they will be using it to bring Snow and Emma home again soon. (Was that the Blue Fairy or a different fairy? I can’t remember right at the moment, but I fairly certain it was. Not that it really matters.)

Sadly, we’re only 3 minutes into the episode. You should never make those kinds of promises so early in an episode.

Our next scene is of everyone at the diner celebrating the news. Henry is drinking coffee to stay awake so he won’t have nightmares, but David promises him it will be okay if he goes to sleep because David will be in the next room.

Not okay is Ruby. It’s the first full moon since the curse has been broken, and Ruby is afraid she will turn into the wolf. Since she can’t find her cape and she hasn’t practiced controlling her turning in 28 years, she’s naturally nervous. That’s why she and Granny are turning the freezer at the diner into a cage to hold her.

Before everyone leaves the diner, who should show up but King George. He and Charming have a very threatening conversation. George says he is going to turn the town against Charming, but Charming isn’t worried. “I defeated you once, and I can do it again.” To which George replies, “You should have killed me when you had the chance.”

One last detail of the scene I’d forgotten. Billy the tow truck driver tries to ask Ruby out on a date. Okay, so I didn’t remember him apart from the “Previously on” segment. Anyway, he reveals he was Gus from Cinderella before the curse. She turns him down, remembering what happened to Peter.

Anyway, the next morning Granny returns to the diner to find the freezer wide open. Thanks to the claw marks on it, there is only one conclusion to draw, Ruby turned and clawed her way out.

Charming and Granny head out and track Ruby down to a log in the forest. They wake her, and she immediately starts freaking out. They calm her down since, as far as they know, no one got hurt.

That changes when they arrive back in town and respond to a call about a double parked car. It’s Billy’s tow truck, and as you might have guessed, Billy is brutally murdered. Rudy immediately assumes she’s guilty, but Charming won’t have any of that. He is going to stand by her until they find evidence, something he didn’t do with Snow last season. He’s not going to make the same mistake twice.

Unfortunately, King George gets wind of this, and he knows he can use this to turn the town against Charming. He shows up at the jail, where Ruby has been asked to be taken for the protection of the town. He tells them he will be back.

And back he is with a mob ready to take justice into his own hands. He’s talking about how Charming is protecting a friend at the expense of the town. They break into the jail, only to find it empty.

That’s because Charming has moved Ruby to the library, where she is going to be chained to the bookshelves over night. That way, the mob won’t find her. Charming and Granny head out to try to solve the murder, while Ruby stays with Belle. These two actually get a couple of good scenes together, and I hope they really build on their budding friendship. Anyway, Ruby manages to lock Belle up with the chains and heads out the door. She is still certain she is guilty and is going to submit to justice.

But it’s then that Granny, who has some wolf powers even if she doesn’t fully turn, has follow Billy’s scent and led Charming to the murder weapon. There’s still lots of blood on the ax that was used. And the ax is hiding under Ruby’s cape. And where do Granny and Charming find these items? The trunk of a car – King George’s car.

They rush in to where the mob has cornered Ruby as the wolf, and Charming explains what really happened. He then calms the wolf down. Once he has befriended her, he throws the cape over her, turning the wolf back to Ruby.

But George has escaped. Ruby quickly tracks him down, and she and Charming confront him at the beach where he has started a small fire. He explains that he wasn’t trying to run, but he wants to see the look on Charming’s face when he knows he will never see Emma and Snow again. Before either of them can react, he throws Jefferson’s hat into the fire. Charming tries to get it out, but it is too late. Charming pulls his gun on George, but Ruby talks him down from the ledge, and he doesn’t kill George.

At this point, I’m going to switch over to Enchanted Forest old. (Yes, there is a sub-plot, but we’ll get back to it.)

The flashback focused on Red and picked up not too long after she found out she was the wolf. She and Snow are running and hiding from the Queen’s soldiers. As they are doing that, Red gets a small tear in her cloak. Afraid it will no longer keep her from turning, she orders Snow away from her for the night.

The next morning she wakes up and goes to the creek where they were supposed to meet. It is there she is greeted by another on her kind and taken to a sanctuary where they all live. Ruby is shocked to find that living there is her mother – a woman that Granny had told her was dead. Turns out Granny stole Red away from her. Red’s mother is the leader of a pack, and she promises to teach Red how to control the wolf.

Turns out the secret is to embrace that part of your nature instead of trying to hide it. Once you do that, you can control what you do as the wolf and remember every part of it. Just as Red is feeling accepted into the pack, who should show up but Snow. The rest aren’t happy to see her, but Red is, even if she sends her away to stay with her newly found family.

Unfortunately, the Queen’s soldiers have followed Snow, and attack. They are all killed by the wolves, but one of the wolves dies before that can happen. The rest of the pack is quick to blame Snow, and she is tied up to be killed and eaten for dinner.

Red isn’t having any of that, and when her mom turns into a wolf, she does as well to defend Snow. In the resulting scuffle, Red accidentally kills her mom.

A distraught Red buries her, and Snow tries to comfort her, saying, “I know how it feels to lose your family.” “I didn’t,” Red replies. “You believed in me when no one else did. You are my family.” And the two set off to try to find a cabin in the woods where they will both be safe.

So, let’s get back to the Storybrooke sub-plot I mentioned. It involves Henry and his dreams. He’s still having the nightmares, and when he wakes up that morning, he has burn marks on his hand. We also get a glimpse of the person he is seeing in the burning room, and she looks familiar.

When he wakes up, Regina is there since Charming was called away to hunt for Ruby. She is concerned about the burn marks, so she calls Mr. Gold. Gold explains that this is the place a person’s soul goes when they are under a sleeping curse, and reprimands Regina for not knowing the details of the spells she is casting. She brushes it off by saying, “I’ve never cared about the people I put in those spells, until now.”

Anyway Gold gives Henry a potion in a charm to wear around his neck. It can be used to control the fire so he has no need to fear it. Regina asks what it will cost since “Magic always comes with a price,” but Gold says for Henry, nothing. Although he does say Regina couldn’t afford his fee.

That night, Henry again dreams of the place, but this time he is able to make the flames go away. And he sees who is in the room with him. It is indeed Aurora. He tells her not to fear – that everything will be alright.

And she wakes up in Enchanted Forest present. Snow and Emma are there with her, and she replays what just happened to them. “He said his name was Henry.” As Snow and Emma look at each other, we fade to black.

First things first, hats off to Duy who correctly figured out that particular twist in the story last week. It makes sense, and it will be interesting to see how that changes things going forward.

So, is George now locked up for what he did to poor Billy? I’ve got to admit killing Bill off made me sad even if we didn’t really know him. And just how did Charming (and I’m assuming Snow) defeat him before?

I’m not sure I have much more in the way of questions and theories after this one. As I said, not too many twists that caught me off guard, but I enjoyed the episode none-the-less.

What did you think? Were there more clues in this episode I missed?

Don’t forget, we’ve got to wait two weeks for the next episode. The American Music Awards are on next week. I’d be disappointed, but I’ll be at Disneyland that day, so it would be hard for me to watch and recap anyway.