Line #42 Recap/OnceUponATimeS1E6TheShepherd


1	'''Season 1, Episode 6''':
2	!The Shepherd
3	!!!'''Centric Characters:''' Prince Charming
4	!!!Previous: [[Recap/OnceUponATimeS1E5ThatStillSmallVoice That Still Small Voice]] \| Next: [[Recap/OnceUponATimeS1E7TheHeartIsALonelyHunter The Heart is a Lonely Hunter]]
5	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/06_the_shepherd.jpg]]
6
7	->'''King George:''' He was not a gift, he was my SON!
8
9	->'''Mary Margaret Blanchard:''' You ever walk into a situation where you know exactly what's going to happen: And then you go into it anyway... and then when what you're afraid of happens, you kick yourself, because you should have known better. But that's just who you are, so you keep punishing yourself.\
10	'''Dr. Whale:''' No.\
11	'''Mary Margaret Blanchard:''' How do you do that?\
12	'''Dr. Whale:''' By never doing what's expected. It keeps life interesting.
13	----
14
15	Kathryn brings David home where a party is waiting for them, with the intent of jogging his memories. Henry insists to Emma that David has no false memories from the Curse and that if he becomes a couple with Mary Margaret he'll remember his real life. Unfortunately for him, Mary Margaret isn't here tonight. In the kitchen, Kathryn confides in Regina that it doesn't really feel like she has her husband back. Regina reciprocates, and says that while her own lost love will never return, Kathryn still has a chance with David. Kathryn goes back to the party, only to find that David snuck out. He goes to find Mary Margaret and tell her he knows she resigned from the hospital because of him, and that he has feelings for her too. But, Mary Margaret doesn't want to come between him and his wife, and leaves.
16	----
17	{{FLASHBACK}}! In the Enchanted Forest, Prince James fights the Behemoth. The Behemoth throws him to the ground, seemingly killing him, but James is only FakingTheDead and surprises and kills the Behemoth. A ways away, King Midas and King George, James' father, are watching. Midas is impressed, but remains unsure that James could slay the dragon terrorizing his kingdom. James is certain he can do it, and Midas turns his sword to gold as an up-front reward. The kings leave together and James begins a speech to his men, but it turns out the Behemoth was also FakingTheDead and kills James before dying for real.
18
19	After learning of his son's death, George summons Rumpelstiltskin, who gave him James after he and his late wife couldn't conceive. Rumpelstiltskin asks for and is given the location of the Fairy Godmother, and while he says that no magic can return the dead to life, he will give George a new son in the form of James' twin brother, who lives as a shepherd.
20	----
21	Emma knows of the conversation Mary Margaret had with David, and tells her she did the right thing despite David's insistence.
22
23	David tries at home to connect with Kathryn, but can't.
24	----
25	{{FLASHBACK}}! James' brother talks with his mother Ruth at their farm. They're super poor, and Ruth wants him to marry a wealthy woman, but he insists on only marrying for love. Rumpelstiltskin shows up and reveals the deal he made with Ruth, one of her twins for the farm. Ruth admits the truth, and that her husband instantly regretted it and died from guilt. Rumpelstiltskin tells him that King George is in need of a prince to slay a dragon, and that he must simply act the part and the knights will do the rest. In exchange, George will provide for Ruth.
26	----
27	At Granny's Diner, Dr. Whale attempts to hit on Mary Margaret, to no avail, before Regina comes to intimidate her to stay away from David, revealing that he has left Kathryn.
28	----
29	{{FLASHBACK}}! "James" arrives at Midas' kingdom, while the knights remind him to let them kill the dragon while he stays at a safe distance, as if he dies the kingdom is screwed. However, the dragon wrecks the knights and "James" is able to kill it after luring it through a narrow space.
30	----
31	David shows up at the school to see Mary Margaret, and while she's very clear that she is staying out of his life he insists that he loves her, and tells her that he'll be at the bridge they met at that night. If she doesn't meet him, he won't talk to her again.
32
33	At the Sheriff's department, Graham gifts Emma donuts in apology for him needing her to work a night shift. Mary Margaret arrives to tell Emma of the recent events, and Emma says that now David has made the choice to leave Kathryn, Mary Margaret should go for it, especially since it would piss off Regina.
34	----
35	{{FLASHBACK}}! Presented with the dragon's head, Midas showers "James" with praise and reveals that he wasn't just looking for a hero to slay the dragon, but a man worthy of his daughter Abigail's hand in marriage. "James" tries to decline, but George threatens to kill Ruth and destroy the farm if he doesn't accept.
36	----
37	Regina meets David, and he tells her of his choice and asks for directions to the bridge, and surprisingly she understands and gives them. Unfortunately, he gets lost and steps into Mr. Gold's shop for more directions. Gold tells him the mayor's directions were intentionally wrong and gives him the correct directions, before he notices a model windmill that used to stand in front of his and Kathryn's house.
38	----
39	{{FLASHBACK}}! "James" goes to see his mother, telling her that he is forced to remain a prince and accept Abigail's hand in marriage despite their lack of love for each other. Ruth gives "James" her wedding ring, telling him love always follows it.
40	----
41	David meets Mary Margaret at the bridge, only to tell her he remembers his life with Kathryn now, and even though he's still in love with her he now knows the right thing is to stay with Kathryn.
42
43	Meanwhile, Emma catches Graham sneaking out of Regina's house, puts two and two together, and tells him to finish her shift and that she won't be working nights anymore.
44
45	David reunites with Kathryn and tells her he remembers and wants to try again with her.
46	----
47	{{FLASHBACK}}! The Kings send off "James" and Abigail to their future home, while Snow White watches from a tree.
48	----
49	At Granny's Diner, Dr. Whale gets Mary Margaret to talk to him and relent to letting him buy her drinks.
50
51	!!Tropes
52
53	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When James (the original, not David impersonating him) asks Midas's forgiveness for not shaking his gold-cursed hand, the king stares at him emotionlessly--then bursts out laughing.
54	* AmbiguousSituation: Just as he's leaving the pawn shop, David discovers the old windmill from his and Kathryn's yard...and as he watches its blades spin, says it was his and he remembers. Gold, watching very intently, asks him if he's sure. Next thing we know, he's deciding to stay with Kathryn. It's unclear what exactly happened, but between Gold's small smile and Regina having sent David there in the first place, it wouldn't be surprising if there was some kind of spell on the windmill (placed there by her) to make him "remember" enough memories to want to go back to Kathryn and try again, and Gold (now aware of who he is) could sense this and was testing David, perhaps to try and undercut Regina.
55	* BaitAndSwitch: David is stopped from studying the mobile (which he and Snow White had had over baby Emma's crib) by [[AstonishinglyAppropriateInterruption Gold interrupting with, "Charming"]], his Enchanted Forest nickname. Then, when David asks what he means, he explains he was talking about the mobile.
56	* BitchInSheepsClothing: For most of the episode we see King George as being a good King who loved his late wife and adopted son, who needs a son to kill the dragon and make an alliance with Midas, thus providing money for the kingdom. However, as soon as David turns down his offer to marry Princess Kathryn, he reveals his true colours and threatens to kill him, his mother and burn down the farm.
57	* CallBack:
58	** In "The Price of Gold" Rumpelstiltskin was tricked into signing a deal that traded twin babies for monetary gain. Here in this episode we find out he actually made such a deal with Charming's mother.
59	** We also find out why in that same episode he was able to simply appear and take the Fairy Godmother's wand--because she was associated with King George's family in some way, and the king gave Rumple permission to do so in return for replacing the slain Prince James with his twin.
60	* [[CaughtWithYourPantsDown Caught With His Pants Down]]: Graham is caught sneaking out of Regina's house by Emma, while half-dressed.
61	* ChangelingFantasy: Inverted. Prince James was actually born a farmer's son and sold to the king to pass off as an heir. The same happens to his twin brother David.
62	* CharacterisationMarchesOn: One of the soldiers says of Prince James "he was the bravest man I ever knew". The episode "Tiny" shows that James was an amoral womanising scoundrel. Either this or a {{Retcon}}, although it's also possible the soldier was lying, didn't know James' true nature, or [[FantasticRacism had a very different view]] of what bravery was.
63	* ChekhovsSkill: Prince Charming's skill in shepherding animals comes in handy when he lures the dragon into a trap.
64	* CompositeCharacter: Due to both his background and the TwinSwitch Rumple arranges to [[HiddenBackupPrince replace the suddenly-deceased James]], Charming turns out to also be ''Literature/ThePrinceAndThePauper''--except it's done to save his mother's farm and the kingdom rather than to see how the other half lives (that ends up being enforced by George).
65	* CouchGag: The title card features the dragon.
66	* CrypticBackgroundReference: When Midas demonstrates his curse as a show of good faith for King George, he gives a warning to his soldier who is not being careful enough with his gauntlet: "Remember what happened to Frederick." This isn't explained until much later, in the episode of the same name.
67	* DecapitationPresentation: The dragon's gilded head is presented to Midas.
68	* DonutMessWithACop: Invoked when Sheriff Graham offers Emma (who has just become his deputy) a box of donuts to persuade her to work a late shift. As he presents them, he quips that some cliches are true.
69	* DrowningMySorrows: Mary Margaret in Granny's after David tells her he's staying with Kathryn.
70	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Rumple says that magic cannot bring back the dead. In ''Wonderland'', Cora lists this as one of the main rules - you can't make someone love you, can't change the past, can't bring back the dead - but Zelena breaks the Time Travel "law", implying that bringing someone ''back'' from the dead can be done, which is then confirmed by the absolute disaster that Frankenstein's attempt creates. Thus, Rumplestiltskin is smart enough to know that meddling with dead people is ''not'' a good idea.
71	* FiveSecondForeshadowing: At the end of his fight with the Behemoth, James sits up from being seemingly slain on the ground, impales the Behemoth, and smugly tells him "make sure I'm actually dead next time." A few minutes later, when James is giving a RousingSpeech to his men in preparation for facing the dragon, the not-dead Behemoth sits up and impales ''him''.
72	* HiddenBackupPrince: Prince James has a twin brother, raised as a shepherd.
73	* IdenticalTwinIDTag: The only way to tell James from David was the hair - James had his short while David's was longer - and the clothes - James of course was royalty while David was a farmer.
74	* {{Irony}}: George tells David after the betrothal is set and he's about to go to Midas's palace with Abigail that he's on the road to true love--not knowing that this is literally true, since Ruth had said her ring would lead him to true love as it did her and the road they take through the forest is the one where bandit Snow robs him of the ring.
75	* ManipulativeBitch: After she finds out David has left Kathryn and plans to be with Mary Margaret, Regina deliberately gives him wrong directions to the toll bridge--which not only keeps him from getting there in time to meet her but takes him past Gold's pawn shop, where she knows the windmill he and Kathryn once had in their yard can be found.
76	* MarryForLove: David wants this, despite Ruth urging him to find the money from an ArrangedMarriage to save their farm. By irony, when he is given AnOfferYouCantRefuse from King George, Ruth urges him to stick to his principles but thanks to the threat to the kingdom (and to him and her), David goes along with it. Meanwhile in Storybrooke the amnesiac David also wants to be with someone he loves (and his missing memories mean he doesn't love Kathryn), which is why he chooses to go to Mary Margaret...until he gets his memories back, and then feels he must honor the love he once had for Kathryn.
77	* MatchCut: Indirect, but the scene where Charming looks at the golden sword he just used to slay the dragon cuts to a scene of him in Mary Margaret's schoolroom, where she's cutting into an envelope with a golden letter opener.
78	* MealTicket: King George wants his son to marry Midas's daughter in the hopes that Midas will use his power to restore his kingdom's wealth. Things work out pretty good until George's son dies, forcing him to get help from an evil sorcerer to get someone identical to take his place.
79	* MeaningfulEcho: "You can't have everything" and "Didn't see that coming, did you?"
80	* MeaningfulName: David, who is revealed in this episode to have been [[Literature/TheBible a shepherd]] in the Enchanted Forest before taking his twin brother's place as the prince.[[labelnote:*]]And in Season Two we find out that not only his cursed name, but his real name was also David.[[/labelnote]]
81	* AnOfferYouCantRefuse: With his kingdom on the line, this was King George's method of forcing David to play the part of James for the rest of his days. He threatened to destroy David's mother and anything else David held dear if he did not comply.
82	* PlayingPossum: The Behemoth at the beginning pretends to be dead for several minutes before stabbing James in the back.
83	* PlotTriggeringDeath: Prince James killed in a duel.
84	* SexForSolace: After David changes his mind because of his returned memories and goes back to Kathryn, Mary Margaret is comforted at Granny's diner by Dr. Whale, and [[invoked]][[NeverLiveItDown ends up having a one-night stand with him]].
85	* SmallRoleBigImpact: The Behemoth only appears on screen for a few minutes in one episode and nothing of importance is revealed about him; however if he hadn't killed Prince James then Charming would never have taken his dead brother's place and a large majority of the plot would never have happened.
86	* ShownTheirWork: In a rather obscure reference, Midas tells his men to put the dragon's golden trophy head between "the chimaera and the mapinguari", the latter being [[OurCryptidsAreMoreMysterious a legendary Bigfoot-like beast from the Amazon]].
87	* StandardHeroReward: PlayedForDrama and nastily {{Deconstructed}}. The shepherd boy brought in as a last-minute swap for the deceased prince slays the dragon and saves his widowed mom's farm. Unfortunately, the kingdom is flat broke, meaning he's being forced to marry some Royal Brat in order to secure a fat dowry for the land's empty coffers. Otherwise, the king is going to destroy his mother and is willing to murder him to see it through.
88	* ThereIsAnother: Rumplestiltskin says this verbatim when saying to King George that James had a twin brother who could replace him.

Context Recap / OnceUponATimeS1E6TheShepherd