Once Upon a Time: An Apple Red As Blood

At last she thought of something.   She went into her most secret room -- no one else was allowed inside -- and she made a poisoned apple.  From the outside it was beautiful, and anyone who saw it would want it. But anyone who might eat a little piece of it would die. Coloring her face, she disguised herself as an old peddler woman, so that no one would recognize her, traveled to the dwarves house and knocked on the door.


Snow White put her head out of the window, and said, "I must not let anyone in; the seven dwarves have forbidden me to do so."


"That is all right with me," answered the peddler woman. "I'll easily get rid of my apples. Here, I'll give you one of them."


"No," said Snow White, "I cannot accept anything from strangers."


"Are you afraid of poison?" asked the old woman. "Look, I'll cut the apple in two. You eat half and I shall eat half."

Now the apple had been so artfully made that only the one half was poisoned. Snow White longed for the beautiful apple, and when she saw that the peddler woman was eating part of it she could no longer resist, and she stuck her hand out and took the poisoned half. She barely had a bite in her mouth when she fell to the ground dead.

In Fairy Tale Land, Snow White mounts a rescue mission to get Charming out of King George's castle.  The dwarves, Red, Granny and an absolute host of multicolored fairies assault the ramparts, make their way in to the courtyard and into the dungeons.
 
Unfortunately, the Evil Queen has already bought the Prince  from George and stolen him away to her own castle. Snow sees only a mirror projection of him before the image of the Queen appears and demands that if Snow wishes to save the Prince she must make a deal, meeting the Queen "where it all began".
 
The Queen meets Snow on a hillside near the old stables from "Stableboy" where a grave marks Daniel's resting place.  Sneeringly, the Queen tells Snow Daniel died because of her.  Snow was not aware he was dead, thinking he had run away.  The Queen doesn't give any details but puts all the blame on Snow.  She also tells Snow that in order for Charming to live, she must sacrifice herself by eating an apple which will bring a waking sleep to Snow, forcing her to be aware but seemingly dead asleep to others.  Snow makes the sacrifice and with one bite drops to the ground.
 
 

 
In Storybrooke, Henry makes the car swerve just at the Storybrooke sign, insisting that Emma must stay and save everyone from the curse.  Emma still only wants to save Henry, but she gives up on taking him from town. 
 
She decides to leave town by herself after talking with Jiminy Cricket (that useless bit of conscience!).  It must be the Storybrooke Curse, but his advice is always wrong and terrible, yet everyone comes to him.  Ack.
 
 

 
Henry desperately talks to August asking him to help convince Emma to save everyone.  August tells him he tried and failed, showing him his advancing wooden state...which Henry can see because he believes in the Curse.
 
In yet another of her bad clueless moves, Emma stops at Regina's to say she is leaving town for Henry's sake but she wants visitation rights and blah blah.   Regina has been preparing for Emma however and has a nice big Apple Tart ready from the oven.   It is made from the original Poisoned Apple snared in a last bit of magic by the Mad Hatter who has been hanging around Storybrooke rather than off suffering in Wonderland as we were led to believe.  (Very stinky bit of storytelling sleight of hand...). 
 
Emma returns to Mary Margaret's apartment to get the rest of her things before leaving town. Mary Margaret gives Emma a great mom style lecture about family and being hurt that Emma wasn't saying goodbye and having backslid to being the Emma who originally came to town. Go mama go!
 
Regina visits Gold and gloats that she has found a way to keep Emma from breaking the Curse and yet keep her out of the way.  Gold guesses it is the Sleeping Curse but warns her magic always has a price (without his Rumplestiltskin voice).
 
As Emma is ready to leave, Henry comes to see her a last time and begs her to stay and believe in him, if not in the Curse.  He hugs her tightly and notices the tart.  "Where did you get that?" he asks.  Regina!  Henry tells her it is poisoned and she shouldn't eat it.  Again she does not believe and in desperation Henry takes a bite, dropping to the floor in the deep deadly sleep meant for Emma.
 
 

Brave Henry!  What a smart kid, full of faith in fairy tales, and Good winning the battle over Evil.   I think Henry is the heart of the story, his ethics, his love, his determination are what Emma needs to emulate if she is to save everyone.