Once Upon A Time 1.3-Snow Falls-My Thoughts

We begin with a brilliant opening in Fairytale Land.
Prince Charming is riding in a white carriage with an annoying blonde woman who turns out to be his fiancee.
A 'highwayman' ambushes them and steals the Prince's jewels from the carriage.
The Prince gives chase and discovers the highwayman is a 'girl'. She gets away and the Prince yells after her, "You can't hide from me! Wherever you go, I'll find you!"
A glimpse of things to come. ;)

In Storybrooke, we find Mary on a horrible blind date. After she exits the restaurant, she runs into Emma who is now living in her car.
Mary offers Emma a room...and Emma declines, saying she's not the roommate type.

At the hospital the next day, Mary finds Henry in 'John Doe's' room. John Doe is the coma patient who's fairytale counterpart is none other than Prince Charming.
Henry finds Emma and tells her that he's found her father and that they need to tell Mary that John is her true love.
Henry believes that if Mary reads their story to John Doe, John will wake up and remember who he is. Emma convinces Mary to do so.

As Mary is reading to John, he takes her hand.

Mary runs to get the Doctor (a new character, 'Dr. Whale'. I wonder who his fairytale character is?), who tells her everything is normal and that she must have imagined it.
After Mary leaves, the Doctor calls Mayor Regina and reports that there has been a change in John Doe's condition.

Back to Fairytale Land, Snow gets trapped in a net as she leaves her cave...by none other than Prince Charming...and we find out how he got the name 'Prince Charming'.
The Prince wants his jewels back...specifically a ring from his mother that he was going to give to his fiancee.
Snow discovers that the Prince is only marrying the 'nag' to merge the two kingdoms.
The Prince then tells Snow that he knows exactly who she is and that if she doesn't help him, he'll turn her in to the Queen.

In Storybrooke, Mary tells Emma and Henry what happened with John Doe and they all head back to the hospital, where they find John has disappeared.
They learn that Regina is John's contact person since she was the one who found him on the side of the road so many years ago and brought him to the hospital.
Regina takes Henry home and the Sheriff, Emma and Mary view the security tapes with Sleepy and Grumpy Leroy and Walter.
They discover that John left through a door that leads to the woods (Um, WHY does a door in the hospital lead directly into the woods, exactly?).
Emma, Mary and the Sheriff go after John.

In Fairytale Land, Snow tells Charming about the fairy dust she wears around her neck, and that they charges the Queen had brought against her aren't true.
Snow says the Queen blames her for ruining her life...but we don't find out exactly HOW she ruined the Queen's life.

Snow catches Charming off guard and knocks him into a river and flees...running directly into some of the Queen's men.

Snow is saved by Prince Charming, who pulls some nifty tricks with his sword and a bow. I swear, he just gets hotter and hotter as the show progresses. ;)
The two once again join forces to find the trolls Snow sold the jewels to.
In another wonderful scene, the trolls (who were very awesomely done, by the way!) discover who Snow is when they search through Charming's belongings.
She's able to get away, but the Prince gets caught while battling the trolls.
Snow returns and uses her magic fairy dust to turn the trolls into cockroaches, saving Charming's life.
We discover Charming's name...James.
The two then part ways, with Charming giving Snow the gold and Snow giving Charming the jewels. We get to see the ring when Snow puts it on to see 'if it's her style'.
You can see that both are reluctant to part ways, but they must. It's a bit of a sad goodbye for us viewers.


Back to the forest, the Sheriff tells Emma the woods are 'his world', giving me more reason to believe that he IS the Big Bad Wolf...although he's not really that bad!
Henry catches up to the trio in the woods and tells Mary that John is out there looking for her.
They find John in the water near the t(r)oll bridge. Mary starts CPR and John wakes (with true loves kiss), but doesn't remember who he is.
John arrives back at the hospital and in runs a blonde woman who looks suspiciously like the 'nag' from the carriage in Fairytale land.
Regina then tells everyone the blonde is John Doe's wife, who's real name is David Nolan. Now, if this isn't a BS move by Regina, I don't know what is.

It's obvious that she hired this woman to pretend she's 'David's' wife...and we find out that Emma agrees when she says as much to the Mayor.
Regina denies this, of course, saying she'd gone back to look at past security tapes and she'd heard John calling for a 'Catherine' in his sleep. After that, it was easy to put two and two together.
Whatever, Queenie.

Outside David's room, Catherine tells Mary that years ago, she and her husband weren't getting along and he walked out.
She thought he'd left town but now realizes that he'd obviously gotten hurt and that's why he didn't return home.

Mary goes home and we can see her playing with her ring. Yes, it's the same ring that Charming was supposed to give to his fiancee in Fairytale Land. Aww.
Emma knocks on Mary's door and asks if the spare room is still available....and now mother and daughter are under the same roof.

I really enjoyed this episode. I loved finding out more about Charming and Snow and I loved every scene in Fairytale Land.
Regina is the perfect 'evil queen'. She ticks me off just enough for me to mutter swears at my TV under my breath. ;)
I'm overjoyed that the writers have been able to produce amazing, fast-paced episodes and I truly hope they're able to keep it up all season.
Next week's episode about Cinderella looks like it'll be another hit!

So!
What questions do we have after this episode?

-What did Snow do to the Queen that ruined her life?
-When does Snow find the dwarves and how?
-IS Catherine a fake?
-Who was Catherine's fairytale counterpart?
-Who is the Sheriff's fairytale counterpart?
-Who is Dr. Whale?
-How do Snow and Charming fall in love?
-How will David get his memory back?

And there were a few Lost references that I picked up...but, of course, I might be grasping at straws here. ;)
-Henry says, "We have to go back!" when talking to Mary and Emma in the diner about John Doe.
-Snow gets caught in a net, a la Rousseau.
-Charming's real name is 'James'.
-The wanted poster featuring Snow is just like Kate's wanted poster.


What did YOU think about this week's episode? As always, comments are most welcome!