<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" I&amp;#039;ve been a bit unsure about Once Upon A Time up to this point - I know a lot of people love it, but I couldn&amp;#039;t quite make up my mind. Still, this week&amp;#039;s episode was my favourite to date - perhaps it&amp;#039;s because the fairytale world, while still over-the-top, was edging closer to realism (we had no Evil Queen, for one thing). And, what&amp;#039;s more, I kind of grew to love Snow White, who was sparky and tough this week. The episode began with the beautiful landscape we&amp;#039;ve come to expect. Prince Charming is riding in his carriage with his fianc\u00E9e, a blonde with a bad attitude. They have to stop because of a tree in the road, but what&amp;#039;s this? It&amp;#039;s been cut down - this is an ambush!  Suddenly, a thief jumps on the carriage and steals some jewels from inside, terrifying the irritating blonde. Prince Charming chases the criminal on horseback and, when he catches up with them, he&amp;#039;s shocked to discover it&amp;#039;s a lady. In fact, it&amp;#039;s only blooming Snow White! Snow White&amp;#039;s not hanging about, though - she knocks him on the head with a rock and rides off. Back in the real world, Snow White&amp;#039;s counterpart is struggling through an awful date with Dr Whale (it&amp;#039;s only David Anders! Yay!) She gives up soon enough but as she walks home she&amp;#039;s surprised to find Emma sleeping in her car. She&amp;#039;s going to stay, but it turns out there aren&amp;#039;t too many vacancies in Storybrooke... Mary offers Emma her spare room, but Emma turns it down - she&amp;#039;s better on her own. The next day, Mary takes her class to the hospital for some volunteering. She spots Henry sitting with that coma patient, John Doe (aka Prince Charming). Henry seems to think Mary should know who John Doe is, for some reason... Mary insists that she doesn&amp;#039;t, and adds that none of his friends or family have ever claimed him. Aww.   At his castle on the beach, Henry is determined to make Emma see sense - John Doe is Prince Charming. They have the same scar, for goodness&amp;#039; sake. Emma is as wonderfully cynical as always, but she hits upon a plan and agrees to ask Mary to read to John from Henry&amp;#039;s storybook in an attempt to make him remember who he is. Emma goes to see Mary and sells it like this - maybe if Mary reads to him and nothing happens, Henry will finally realise that fairytales aren&amp;#039;t real. They&amp;#039;ll meet for breakfast and Mary can give a full report. Sounds like a great plan, right? The only problem is that when Mary reads John the story of Snow White and Prince Charming, he suddenly grabs her hand... Mary rushes to fetch Dr Whale, but when he returns John isn&amp;#039;t moving and he claims that there&amp;#039;s nothing abnormal on the monitors. Mary agrees to go home and rest, but when she&amp;#039;s gone Dr Whale calls Regina, who&amp;#039;s apparently asked to be kept informed. He tells her everything - it&amp;#039;s all very suspicious. Mary goes home to read the storybook, and we get that trite technique of a picture becoming real again. Still, it works to an extent. Snow White&amp;#039;s grabbing all her items from her home - a hollowed out tree - but when she leaves, she walks straight into a trap and is soon dangling from a tree. Yep, Prince Charming&amp;#039;s caught her. He wants the jewels she stole back - there&amp;#039;s a ring in there he&amp;#039;s planning to give to his irritating fianc\u00E9e. (I love badass Snow White, and she raises a chuckle when she says: &amp;quot;Good luck with that.&amp;quot;) She knows the marriage is all political but Prince Charming&amp;#039;s going to force her to get his ring back from the trolls she sold it to - he knows that she&amp;#039;s really Snow White and that the Queen is after her (there&amp;#039;s even a &amp;#039;Wanted&amp;#039; poster). Snow White doesn&amp;#039;t exactly have much choice now, does she? The next day, back in the real world, Emma and Henry meet for breakfast (sweetly, Henry has stolen a shirt from his mother for Emma to wear. I was thinking she must be stinky.) Emma&amp;#039;s all ready for Mary to deliver a disappointing report, so when she admits that actually he grabbed her hand, Emma&amp;#039;s a bit surprised.  Anyway, Mary&amp;#039;s keen to see John again - she doesn&amp;#039;t believe he&amp;#039;s Prince Charming, but somehow she touched him - so the trio return to the hospital. But when they get there, John&amp;#039;s gone missing - and Regina&amp;#039;s there glowering.  Regina is naturally furious with Henry for being there, and claims that she is John&amp;#039;s emergency contact as she found him all those years ago. She storms out with Henry, issuing more horrible words to Emma, ordering the Sheriff to find John as she leaves. The Sheriff, Mary and Emma go to check out the security tapes... and discover that John walked out alone. Right into the woods... In fairytale land again, Prince Charming and Snow White are on the move. Prince Charming wants to know about Snow White&amp;#039;s necklace - it turns out that it&amp;#039;s evil fairy dust which can vanquish the most fearsome enemy. Snow White&amp;#039;s saving it for the Queen, naturally, but Prince Charming confiscates it for the moment.  Snow White insists that she didn&amp;#039;t do what the Queen says - she&amp;#039;s just hiding in the woods until she makes enough money to escape to another realm (careful what you wish for, love). Anyway, after a bit more chat Snow White spots a river and asks if she can have a drink.  Prince Charming agrees, but Snow White suddenly slams him and throws him into the river, before running away. The only problem is that she runs straight into some Black Knights - and Prince Charming still has her fairy dust. One of the knights soon has Snow White pinned up against a tree, but don&amp;#039;t worry - Prince Charming&amp;#039;s here! He stabs the knight with a dagger, then fights another with a sword. But the other knight scoops up Snow White and rides away with her. Prince Charming runs after him and hits him with a bow and arrow. Success!  He explains that it felt like the honourable thing to save Snow White, but it&amp;#039;s time to get back to getting those jewels again. You can tell there&amp;#039;s an awful lot of chemistry between the pair, but it&amp;#039;s that rom-com trope of pretending there&amp;#039;s no attraction for a while. It might be clich\u00E9d, but the show can get away with it (mainly because it&amp;#039;s a fantasy land). Eventually, Snow White and Prince Charming make it to the troll bridge and tempt them up with some gold. Snow White is all cool, pretending Prince Charming&amp;#039;s no-one important. She wants to trade with them again and get that ring back - but the trolls are suspicious. They think it&amp;#039;s a set up, and soon they find the fairy dust and the wanted poster. There&amp;#039;s a big reward for Snow White - take her! Prince Charming fends off the trolls as Snow White runs off, grabbing the fairy dust and jewels on the way. But she soon discovers that he&amp;#039;s not managed to follow her and is still on the bridge. Of course she has to go back, and she uses the dust to turn the trolls into tiny little bugs. After all, it&amp;#039;s the honourable thing to do - she&amp;#039;ll think of something else for the Queen. Prince Charming even rewards her by telling her his name - it&amp;#039;s James. Back in the real world, Emma, the Sheriff and Mary are trying to track John through the woods (and there&amp;#039;s a tender moment when Mary asks if Emma went into tracking people down because of her lost parents). Henry shows up too, just to make things as awkward as possible for Emma. (&amp;quot;Your mom will kill me! Then you! Then me again!&amp;quot;)  Anyway, Henry thinks John is looking for Mary. They need to stop chasing him and let him find her! But there&amp;#039;s a problem - they&amp;#039;ve found John&amp;#039;s hospital tag, and it&amp;#039;s got blood on it. Eventually, they find him unconscious in the water. Mary pulls him out and gives him mouth to mouth (before kissing him, a little bit) and, of course, he wakes up. OF COURSE.  John gets rushed to the hospital, when suddenly some woman shows up calling: &amp;quot;DAVID!&amp;quot; Yes, you guessed it - it&amp;#039;s the horrible princess from earlier. Of course, Mary asks who she is, and Regina takes great pleasure in saying: &amp;quot;His wife.&amp;quot; We take a quick detour to fairytale world, where Prince Charming and Snow White bid each other farewell. Snow White even tries on the ring and loves it, but claims that it&amp;#039;s not her style at all. Sure. Anyway, Prince Charming says that if she ever needs anything... and Snow White finishes: &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;ll find me.&amp;quot; You guys! It&amp;#039;s meant to be! Snow White even does that forlorn look after Prince Charming as he walks towards the castle. Back in the real world, Regina&amp;#039;s grounding Henry. Meanwhile, David&amp;#039;s wife Catherine explains that she and David had a row a few years ago - all her fault, naturally - and she didn&amp;#039;t stop him when he left. She had no idea he&amp;#039;d been in a coma! Honest! But at least now she gets a second chance. Mary&amp;#039;s meek &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s wonderful&amp;quot; is very sad, especially when you think about how much fire Snow White has. Still, Henry tells Mary not to believe any of it - David was heading for the troll bridge because they belong together! Emma doesn&amp;#039;t believe Catherine&amp;#039;s story either, and confronts Regina about all the loopholes. But Regina is as mean as ever and cruelly gloats about how this has reminded her how grateful she is to have Henry. &amp;quot;Not having someone?&amp;quot; she snarls. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s the worst curse imaginable.&amp;quot; BOO HISS. Mary watches Catherine and David hugging (to be honest, Catherine seems way more into it) and plays with her ring - OMG, it&amp;#039;s only the same ring Prince Charming was planning to give to his fianc\u00E9e! Anyway, she heads home to mope, but there&amp;#039;s a knock on the door - Emma would like to move into that spare room after all. Hurrah! What did you think of the episode? Leave your comments below! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/once-upon-a-time/review/a349594/once-upon-a-time-snow-falls-recap/>