Once Upon a Time has always gained much of its appeal from some flashy elements: attractive actors and actresses, spectacular fairy tale costumes, and modernized renditions of our most beloved fairy tales. But I’m starting to wonder if they’re taking it a little too far. Case and point: the evil queen’s forest get-up and the disturbingly young and beautiful version of Hansel and Gretel’s witchy tormentor. Superficial elements aside, I did appreciate this episode’s set up for progress in the Snow White/Mary Margaret romantic storyline and the way the story touched Emma so deeply. It brings out the fire in a character who won an election last week despite completely giving up.

“The system is supposed to help.” –Mary Margaret
“Says the woman who wasn’t in one for 16 years.” –Emma
Two scruffy kids frame Henry for stealing at the local grocery store as a distractions so they can steal their own groceries. The shop owner insists Henry stole the candy, because he’s apparently immune to reason and in the once instance I’ll actually root for Regina she tells the shop owner he has no idea what he’s talking about. Henry doesn’t eat candy. Poor Henry.

Sheriff Emma shows up to do her job and while Regina dismisses them as miscreants, Emma finds out how poor they are. Emma knows the kids are lying when she asks if everything is okay at home, but she drops them off anyway. They steal away to a basement apartment but Emma makes her way into the house, where she demands to know where their parents are, but it turns out they don’t have any. As a product of the foster system, she doesn’t want to report them because she knows what happens – shuffling from family to family and separation of siblings. Her plan is to look for the kids’ father in hopes that he’ll take them. The mayor has beat her to the punch, and it turns out there’s no record of the father. They don’t have any other way to help them, so the mayor has arranged for them to go to Boston – a boys’ home and a girls’ home. Regina insists that Emma drive them there – but what about that whole magical mechanism that keeps everyone from leaving? Apparently, everyone’s forgotten about that.

“Nice and tender. A succulent roast you’ll make.” –The Witch
Of course, the thieving kids are Hansel and Gretel and in the fairytale world we find the evil Queen’s henchmen coming after the twins. They try to escape, but the queen uses her magical powers to ensnare them. Giving them false compliments about being “so brave,” she says she’ll find their father if they do something for her. They must sneak into a witch’s house and take a satchel from her, but she warns them, “Don’t eat anything,” because it’s the classic gingerbread house from the old story we all know.