Once Upon a Time 1x09: True North

Original Air Date: 15 January 2012

Storyline: Feeling their pain from having lived through the same experience, Emma desperately tries to help two homeless children find their birth father before they're separated and put into the foster care system. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale world that was, the Evil Queen coerces Hansel and Gretel into stealing an important artifact from a blind witch.Trivia: The "Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk" comic that Henry is reading was published in 2009, making it three years out of date. Drug stores don't carry comics three years out of date, although it raises the question of how, if no one can come to Storybrooke, they get comic book deliveries. Another comic, "Kazar the Savage", is issue #1 and was published in 1981, making it even further out of date. 

The comic that Henry is reading at the beginning is "Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk" #3. It was written by Damon Lindelof, who worked with Once Upon a Time's creators on Lost.
Behind the opening title, the witch's gingerbread house can be seen.

Best Quote:

Emma: What's your price?
Mr. Gold: Forgiveness.
Emma: How about tolerance?
Mr. Gold: Well, that's a start.

Review: To start with the end, I'll ask the same question Emma did: if strangers don't come to Storybrooke, how did the motorcycle guy arrive? Is he a disruption in the space/time continuum, or is he yet another of Regina's little helpers? I will not even go into how do people deliver goods to Storybrooke, cause that's simply one of the plot holes one would expect in a fantasy series.

This week's Once Upon a Time episode is two-faced: first up, we have the main story, one involving the most famous couple of siblings there is in the fairytale world - Hansel and Gretel. But their story has opened the door for Emma's own experience as an orphan abandoned by her parents, as well as the one regarding her son, Henry. 
As virtually every story retold from this show's perspective, Hansel and Gretel's takes a new turn. We all know them as the tow kids who got lost in the woods and sought refuge in a house made entirely by gingerbread. Unlike the fairy tale version, in this series their father doesn't abandon them, but is instead apprehended by the Evil Queen, who wants to use the two siblings for her own schemes - first, to steal a black satchel from the owner of the house, the blind witch (who, incidentally, was a cannibal); second, to keep them around as her own children. There's a pattern there that can be followed to Henry, one that makes me wonder if the queen/Regina is incapable of conceiving. Unfortunately for her, wanting to have children doesn't necessarily make her a good mother.
I'll return for a little bit to Hansel and Gretel to say that the two - the girl especially - reminded me of their BtVS characters from "Gingerbread"; but Buffyverse fans were probably more excited about Emma Caulfield's appearance as the blind witch, one that didn't quite fit the witch from the story, but was for sure frightening. I just wish we'd seen more of her and, though every fairy tale character has its counterpart in Storybrooke, I doubt we'll see her again, since she was so definitively killed back in the enchanted forest. But Emma Caulfield's presence was enough to give me fond memories and make this episode one of my favorites.
Hansel and Gretel's story finds its equivalent in the little town in Maine as well, with the two siblings being orphans living in an abandoned house; their real lives are discovered just as they try to use Henry to steal some supplies from the local drugstore, leading to Emma's involvement to find their father, since she herself has suffered her entire life because she was unable to find her own parents. 
The episode gets very personal as parallelisms are formed between the siblings, Emma and Henry, both of them having their own parent issues. I agreed with Emma when she decided to lie to Henry about his father (though I'm surprised he didn't see right through it, but I guess any ten year old wants to know his dad was a hero rather than knowing he was a scumbag). What I also found interesting is Emma telling Mary Margaret about Henry's theory regarding the two of them being related. I half expected Mary Margaret to have a flash similar to Graham's when she picked up Emma's baby blanket and was very disappointed when that didn't happen.
The episode marked a first: Ava and Nicholas (as Gretel and Hansel) found the happy ending none of the other characters has found so far, by being reunited with their father. That's a first step towards seeing real change in Storybrooke and also a first one towards defeating Regina. The same Regina who, obviously, wanted for something bad to happen to the two kids (and to Emma) by insisting on sending them out of town, when she probably knows that no one can leave Storybrooke.Once Upon a Time 1x08: Desperate Souls Back to Season 1