Once Upon A Time: Red-Handed

WOW! What an episode! What a twist! Right? RIGHT?!
I did NOT see that coming AT ALL! WOW!

Okay, so lets start at the beginning, shall we?

In Storybooke, Ruby and Granny get into a tiff and Ruby quits the diner. 

As she's waiting for the bus that will take her out of town (it totally would have crashed!), Mary Margaret and Emma happen upon her.

We all know how fond Mary is of taking in strays, so she offers Ruby a place to stay. Ruby accepts.

Emma gives her a job working at the sheriffs office (Henry suggestion that Ruby might want a job taking things to people in baskets is priceless!), and all is right in Ruby's world...Until Emma needs help in the woods.

David is wandering aimlessly in the forest, and all he'll say is, "I'm looking..."

Mary attempts to speak to him, but he looks right through her.

Mary reports this to Emma, who, with Ruby, treks through the forest to find David. 

Luckily, Ruby 'hears' David and they find him lying on the ground. 

When he wakes, he has no memory of the last 24 hours or so.

Because of that, David is now the main suspect in Kathryn's disappearance.

While at the hospital with David, Emma calls Ruby and has her go to the T(r)oll Bridge to look for clues, since that was where David went the last time he'd lost his memory.

Using her uncanny gut feeling, Ruby starts digging...and finds a box. Did we all know what was in that box? I sure did! 

I'd also like to point out that in a previous episode (Episode 7, The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter), we saw someone VERY important in the woods with a shovel. Do we all remember who that was? Y'know, just sayin'... 

Ruby and Granny make up in a really heartwarming way, and Ruby gets her job back at the diner, where she belongs.

Emma, meanwhile, goes to see David and Mary over at the animal shelter. She tells them that a human heart was found in that mysterious box...And that they also found fingerprints on the lid.

David is ready to be arrested when...in another BIG twist, Emma says it was MARY'S fingerprints, and not David's!
WHOA!

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Over in Fairytale Land, we meet Red, who's boyfriend comes to her window for a visit. It seems that Granny doesn't approve of Red's boyfriend, Peter. (Okay, I LOVE that his name is Peter! Peter and the Wolf, get it? Brilliant!)

Red is called to the door and finds a hunting party there with Granny. It seems there's a wolf problem and they're looking for recruits.  Red wants to go--and she's wearing her red cloak that repells wolves, y'know--but Granny kiboshes that idea.

The two board up the cottage and Granny sets in to keep guard with her crossbow. Grannies with crossbows are awesome, by the way. ;)

The next day, Red finds Snow hiding out in the chicken coop (did she go from the hunstman to the chicken coop?). Snow uses an alias...Mary (after first giving the name Margaret. Ha!)...and the two quickly become friends.

As Snow and Red and getting water from the well, they stumble across the bodies of the hunting party from the night before.

Later on at a town meeting, Granny tells her story about the wolves. It seems that when she was a child, her older brothers and father had tried to kill one. 

They all died and Granny was bitten...but the wolf let her live.

She tells the townfolk to hide until the 'wolf's time' is over.

Back at the cottage, Ruby tells Snow about Peter and decides they need to kill the wolf so Granny will stop keeping Ruby from seeing Peter. 

Now THERE'S some good reasoning, Ruby! *facepalm* 

They track the wolf through the snow (wasn't that some absolutely stunning scenery?), and the tracks suddenly change into bootprints! Seems we have a werewolf problem now, folks!

The bootprints lead them....right back to the cottage. Right to Red's window, to be specific. Ooooooh!

Red goes to find Peter to tell him he's the wolf, and he makes her chain him to a tree to keep the town safe.

Granny discovers Red missing and Snow tries to explain that Peter is the wolf and Red is okay because she has him tied up. When Granny hears that Peter is tied, she exclaims, "Oh that poor boy!" and rushes off with Snow hot on her heels.

We cut to Peter chained to the tree and, in the biggest twist of the night, we see that RED is the wolf and NOT Peter! Seriously, BLEW MY MIND!!

Granny explains to Snow that the wolf that had bitten har as a child was Red's grandfather and that Granny herself had become a werewolf after being bitten, but apparently is fades after time.

Sadly, Granny and Snow arrive too late. Granny shoots the wolf with a silver-tipped arrow which stops it, and Snow quickly covers it with the red hood...which we find out is a magical red hood that keeps Red from changing at the full moon.

Red is heartbroken when she realizes what she is and what she's done to Peter. 

The hunters have stumbled across the scene and Granny makes Snow take Red away before they can see her...leaving Granny to face them alone.

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Yet another OUTSTANDING episode, written by Jane Espenson! I absolutely LOVED her take on the tale of Red Riding Hood. This couldn't have been done better!

Meghan Ory was brilliant as Red/Ruby and it was SO wonderful to finally hear her story.
Beverley Elliott kills it as the tough old Granny and I'm hoping we do get to see what happened to her, eventually!

So! What questions do we have this week? So, SO MANY!

-What is with Dr. Whale?! What was with him offering to carry Ruby's bag at the bus stop? He's VERY fishy!

-What happened to Granny after the hunters arrived?

-WAS it Gold who buried the box?

-Is it Kathryn's heart in the box? (I think not) 

-If not who's is it?

-And if not, where is Kathryn?

-What is with David's amnesia?

-What was he looking for in the woods? (I don't think he was looking for Kathryn!)

-Is it possible James is bleeding through into David? If so, would James recognize Mary as Snow?

-How did Mary's fingerprints get onto the box?

Looks like next week we get to see more of Snow, Charming and The Evil Queen's story! 

See you back here then, Oncers!