Once Upon a Time Recap: “The Stable Boy”

by Tracy Ladd:

Once Upon a Time Recap: “The Stable Boy”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday April 1, 2012
Season 1 Episode 18

Well, well, well.  Finally we get to see pre-bitchy Regina.  What a nice change of pace it was to see Lana Parilla smile a smile that didn’t have a layer of conniving evil underneath it.  This is an episode that I’ve been waiting for since the beginning.  Way back then, we knew her hatred for Snow White stemmed from Snow not keeping a secret.  We also knew that Regina once loved someone, but she lost him.  I figured those two things went hand in hand, but it was confirmed in this latest episode.  We also find out that Regina has some serious, serious, mommy issues.  Barbara Hershey guest-starred this week as Regina’s mommy-dearest, and boy, what a piece of work that woman was.

In Fairytale Land, Regina is a young, happy woman who loves her daddy, riding her horse, and the stable boy.  She loves the stable boy….not loves riding the stable boy….or maybe she does, they don’t really go into that aspect of their relationship.  Anywho…..her mother Cora, on the other hand doesn’t think much of her.  She demands perfections and uses her magic to enforce her point when she’s trying to make one.

Cora tells Regina that she’s going to be an old maid if she doesn’t find herself a man soon.  Well, what Cora doesn’t know is that Regina has one already.  She’s secretly in love with their stable boy, Daniel.  They two carry on a relationship that must remain on the DL.  Regina has to cut their secret tryst short when she spies a runaway steed racing out of control through the field with a young girl.  Regina rides into action, saving the young girl, who happens to be….Snow White.

Once back home, Cora insists that Regina get dressed up because the king is coming to see her.  Cora informs her that the young girl she saved was the King’s daughter.  The King shows up and proposes on the spot and Cora steps in to accept on Regina’s behalf.  Stunned, Regina runs to the stables and tells Daniel what happened and that they need to run away before she has to marry the King.  As they share a kiss, Snow sees them and gets upset and runs away.  Regina chases her and tells her that she loves Daniel and that love is magic.  Snow tells her that she needs to be with Daniel and promises to keep her secret so that they can run away together.

Cora is preparing for the impending wedding when Snow enters.  Cora pulls the jedi-mind trick and Snow ends up spilling the beans about Regina and Daniel.  Meanwhile, Regina is with Daniel in the stables preparing to make their getaway.  Cora shows up and at first it looks like she’s giving them her blessing.  But then she rips Daniel’s heart out of his chest.  I guess we know where Regina got that trick from eh?

Having lost her one true love, Regina is going through the motions of being fitted for her wedding gown.  Snow sees her and tells her that she’s beautiful and her and Daniel will be very happy together.  Regina gets it out of her that she told Cora about them and you can see Regina transform into the Regina we know and hate.  She tells Snow that Daniel left and that they will be one happy family.  Snow’s excited and Regina…well she’s already beginning to plot Snow’s demise.

In Storybrooke, Mary Margaret is on the verge of going to trial.  Emma is doing her best to stop that from happening but doesn’t know what else to do.  August shows up to give her some much-needed perspective and the two go back to the toll bridge where Ruby found the box containing the heart.  Emma find a piece of a shovel the broke off and find that it belongs to a shovel that is in Regina’s garage.

Emma gets a warrant and shows up at Regina’s only to find that the broken shovel is gone, and a new one has taken it’s place.  Emma knows that Regina was tipped off, and blames August, but he insists it wasn’t him.  Regina meanwhile is getting more and more snarky with Mary Margaret while she ponders over a gold ring.  Which happens to be the ring Daniel gave her in FTL, before he lost his heart.

Regina confronts a sobbing Mary Margaret, who swears that she didn’t kill Kathryn and that she doesn’t deserve this.  Regina responds, by saying she knows she didn’t kill Kathryn, but that she does deserve what’s about to happen.  This shocks MM and the next we see, she’s being hauled out in handcuffs.

Emma yells at Mr. Gold saying that he didn’t keep up his end of the bargain.  He tries to calm her down and tells her that it isn’t over yet.  Frustrated, she hurls a vase of flowers that Sidney brought in and finds that it contained a listening device.  She puts two and two together and goes to apologize to August.  As Emma and August talk outside the diner, they hear a scream from around back.  They find Ruby freaking out and she tells them that she’s in the alley.  So they go to investigate.  And what Emma finds is…..Kathryn…who is very much alive, if a little dirty and looking confused.

So, it looks like Mr. Gold had something up his sleeve after all.  So the heart….is that the heart from Kathryn’s FTL alter ego?  I can’t say because last time we saw her in FTL, she was very much alive.

I have to give the casting department a huge round of applause.  The young girl who played Snow was a perfect match for Ginnifer Goodwin.  She even had the same facial expressions and connotation in her voice.  It was actually kind of eerie.  We’re getting close the end of the season so and I’m still hoping we’ll see the Huntsman again, but whatever happens, I want to see Emma make some headway with Operation Cobra.