S01.E06: The Shepherd

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

David - aka John Doe - must choose between staying with Kathryn or leaving her to be with Mary Margaret, with whom he's fallen deeply, and inexplicably, in love; and Emma catches Sheriff Graham in a lie. Meanwhile, back in the fairytale world that was, Prince Charming is about to encounter a life-changing event that will forever alter his destiny.

[daxx]

Love the scene where James is killed, it’s a good twist that David is the twin brother. The whole back and forth with David and Mary Margaret is frustrating still. I hate Regina even more than usual after David sees the windmill.

ugh, I’m with you Emma I wish I hadn’t seen Graham with Regina either.

Abigail is such a bitch in this.

I like the long cloaky thing Midas was wearing. Very gold. ? 

oh MM don’t talk to Whale... 

[Camera One]

They gave Charming a solid backstory that gave the actor something to really bite into, which was a pleasant surprise.  James had a cruel arrogant attitude about him which was different from David, so it made the twist interesting even upon rewatch.  It was great that David used his wits to defeat the dragon.  I'm surprised King George trusted so many men with the secret.  

I remember liking that we got to see another piece of the Snowing story with this flashback.  

But yet again, it was the third episode in a row of Rumple screwing with people.  

So Kathryn had no friends?  She said to Regina, "Thank you for being such a good friend. It's been so long.  I'm not used to having one."  So who were all the people at the "party"?  

Ruth's line in the flashback was very appropriate.  "Your freedom to choose is more important than anything." 

It struck me how much Mary Margaret looked like Snow White in the Storybrooke diner.  The casting was really perfect.

Spoiler

So Rumple went out of the way to get the Fairy Godmother's wand.  For what purpose?  Did we ever find out?

David's memories being "triggered" in Mr. Gold's shop seems like it was designed to generate intrigue without making any decisions about worldbuilding.  At this point, they clearly hadn't decided whether Regina could give someone fake memories or not (which we later saw with Lacey).  We still don't know how Regina knew that David's memories would be triggered in the Shop.  Regina didn't know Gold had his memories back at this point, I thought, though she strongly suspected.  How did she know Gold wouldn't thwart her plan?

"True love follows this ring wherever it goes.  I had it with your father."  So Ruth and David's father were in love?  His alcoholism came later?  

Graham seems so pathetic.  It's a fitting performance knowing that he's basically been forced to be a sex slave.

Although this episode was good, it was when I began to lose HOPE, with David going back to Kathryn and then Snow/Dr. Whale flirting at the bar.  It's hard to look forward to more episodes because it just got more painful from here.  It was really hard to enjoy Snowing's chemistry when they were committing adultery later on.  And we already know that once their memories returned, a lot of the tension was gone.  So in this sense, re-watching is pretty sad.  I think David and Mary Margaret could still have had lots of obstacles without all the crap they threw at them for the rest of the season.

Edited June 16, 2018 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

This episode has what's probably my favorite shocking twist of the whole series. I remember the first time I watched it being surprised when they went to the flashback and Charming was an arrogant jerk. I figured the flashback story would be about him learning a valuable lesson that made him be the nice guy he is now, and right then he was killed. Then we learned that the Charming we know wasn't really a prince, and that fit with what we saw of him in earlier episodes. I guess it helps that this was probably planned from the start rather than just some random thing they pulled out of thin air to fit the plot. It's the good kind of surprise twist because it makes you want to rewatch the previous episodes to see if you can spot the clues. Ending with the beginning of "Snow Falls" still makes me want to immediately rewatch "Snow Falls" with what I know now, that "Prince James" isn't really Prince James, isn't really a prince, and he and Abigail are being forced to marry each other (something that actually sets up a later episode).

Though there was one thing that confused me a bit: the dragon was attacking Midas's kingdom, right? That's why he wanted a hero. But Abigail and Charming are traveling from George's kingdom to Midas's kingdom at the end for the wedding. So, it seems like Charming had to go fight the dragon in Midas's kingdom, then go back to George's kingdom to present Midas with the dragon's head, which Midas then gilded. Or did he present the head to Midas in Midas's kingdom, and then they all traveled back to George's kingdom to sign the treaties? And Midas brought his daughter to George's kingdom, but then they traveled back to Midas's kingdom, via Snow's kingdom.

But although I love the big twist, I think this may be the episode that is most damaged by what came later in the series, and I'll discuss that in All Seasons rather than do huge blocks of spoiler text.

[KingOfHearts]

11 hours ago, Camera One said:

But yet again, it was the third episode in a row of Rumple screwing with people.  

Spoiler

We learn later that there were many other characters they could've used to mess with people. Basically any villain we've seen on the show could've been doing it.

11 hours ago, Camera One said:

So who were all the people at the "party"?  

Regina probably blackmailed them.

11 hours ago, Camera One said:

So Rumple went out of the way to get the Fairy Godmother's wand.  For what purpose?  Did we ever find out?

Spoiler

No but we see him use it in S2 when he steals fairy dust for his portal-closing spell.

1 hour ago, Shanna Marie said:

Though there was one thing that confused me a bit: the dragon was attacking Midas's kingdom, right?

Spoiler

Charming inadvertently killed Zorro. 

Edited June 16, 2018 by KingOfHearts

[companionenvy]

Man, David Nolan is SUCH A jerk. Its a good thing Charming is so likable in the flashbacks. I had forgotten that Mary Margaret actually was trying hard to do the right thing. She was removing herself from the situation to avoid temptation, and then he just kept pushing. I don't blame him for changing his mind once he got his "memories" back, but he shouldn't have been pursuing MM in the first place. They aren't teenagers; the responsible thing to do, if he found he couldn't make a go of it with Katherine, would have been to decide he had to live alone for a while and then actually do it. Not make plans to run off with a woman he barely knew. 

One of the best things the show did in S1, IMO, was to make Katherine such a decent person. It would have been too easy to make her a total jerk (sort of like Abigail has been so far in EF flashbacks) so that we were "allowed" to root for the adultery, especially given that we knew that Snow and Charming really were married in the EF. Making Katherine sympathetic avoids that, and adds some much needed complexity to the situation.

Charming's memories do raise questions about how the curse works. Clearly, even while he was in the coma he must have had some kind of false memory download, because he evidently isn't ignorant about the basics of 21st century life. But it is only when he sees the windmill that he gets insight into his own personal history. I guess maybe his condition prevented the curse from fully taking, requiring the "reboot" from Rumple after he woke. 

[Camera One]

2 minutes ago, companionenvy said:

Man, David Nolan is SUCH A jerk.

Within this episode, from his perspective, I thought his behavior was understandable.  He woke up with no memories (and as he said, as if in another world) and is told a backstory that he knows inherently is very wrong and he has no connection to it.  Subconsciously, he feels a very deep bond with Mary Margaret (because they were actually married and had powerful True Love).  His connection to her is the only thing that "makes sense" in his mind as his brain was trying to make sense of the dichotomy between what was happening and what was buried deep down under the fog of the Curse.  He did make the decision to leave Kathryn and move out, which did show resolve.

Spoiler

In 1B, that was when the adultery stuff became very hard to justify.   I've always hated that the heroes' core traits were not able to be strong enough to resist the Curse in this situation, when we saw so many supporting characters begin to reclaim their pre-Curse identity and personalities.  Maybe it made more suspense in the original viewing, but on rewatch (and even on first viewing, for me), it's very unsatisfying and unenjoyable.

[companionenvy]

30 minutes ago, Camera One said:

Within this episode, from his perspective, I thought his behavior was understandable.

For me, I guess part of what makes him so jerky is precisely the fact that Mary Margaret is very obviously trying not to give into temptation. I have a lot of sympathy for both of them, given that, clearly, a large part of their attraction to each other is grounded in feelings bleeding through from their real lives, even if they can't consciously access those memories. But David believes, at least on an intellectual level, that he is married to a woman who has been nothing but kind and loving to him. His feelings about MM - and corresponding lack of feelings for Katherine -- must make everything extraordinarily difficult, but that's adulthood, for you. Add in the fact that MM so plainly does not want to act on this attraction, and his behavior gets even worse. 

And again, I'm not saying morality demands that he resign himself to a lifetime of unhappy marriage to Katherine. I'm saying that he needed to, you know, maybe separate from Katherine and, out of respect for their marriage, wait a couple of months before jumping into a new relationship. Indeed, the possibility of his memories returning alone should have been enough for him not to make any permanent decisions for a bit. David is days out of a coma. It isn't obvious that his memories are gone for good. Out of fairness to Mary Margaret, he shouldn't have even thought of starting a relationship with her until it was at least more reasonable to think his memories - and, perhaps, with it his original feelings for Katherine -- weren't coming back to throw everything into confusion.

[Camera One]

9 minutes ago, companionenvy said:

But David believes, at least on an intellectual level, that he is married to a woman who has been nothing but kind and loving to him. His feelings about MM - and corresponding lack of feelings for Katherine -- must make everything extraordinarily difficult, but that's adulthood, for you. Add in the fact that MM so plainly does not want to act on this attraction, and his behavior gets even worse. 

On another drama (that I probably wouldn't watch), yes.  On this drama, it's not purely adulthood.  It's magic.   At the end of the day, David pretending he wanted to stay by Kathryn's side wouldn't help Kathryn in the long-run, regardless of how "nice" she was.  Leaving her house was a good thing.  I agree pursuing Mary Margaret immediately was not a good idea, but from the perspective of his muddled mind, I can also see how impulse won over reason. 

9 minutes ago, companionenvy said:

I'm saying that he needed to, you know, maybe separate from Katherine and, out of respect for their marriage, wait a couple of months before jumping into a new relationship. Indeed, the possibility of his memories returning alone should have been enough for him not to make any permanent decisions for a bit. 

That would have made a better and more realistic storyline for Season 1, without all the contrived soap opera-ish elements.  I would have enjoyed that much more.  The Writers decided to rush and fast-track it all so they could throw in another gargantuan hurdle with David getting a bunch of fake memories and changing his mind. 

Edited June 16, 2018 by Camera One

[profdanglais]

Another episode reminding me of how I used to really like Charming (David not so much) and that he used to be pretty awesome. The trick with the dragon was great. It was a good way to show that he was brave and heroic despite not being raised to it, and does kind of establish the idea that in OUAT-world core traits are what they are regardless of nurture, kind of like what we see later with 

Spoiler

Deckhand Hook

Which then makes it even more disappointing when we later "discover" that 

Spoiler

David learned all his courage from hanging out with Anna for an afternoon. Oh, and he learned swordfighting too. Insert eye roll. 

 

Poor Graham. And poor Emma. And poor Graham again.

[Rumsy4]

I really loved the fairytale part of this episode. I remember enjoying the twist of Charming actually being the original James's twin. 

I'm sorry, but David's parents (Ruth included), come across as really shitty and incompetent. They sell off one son to save their farm, and then, manage to let it go to seed again? 

I hate hate hate David going back to Kathryn.

Spoiler

This is the start of the dreadful adultery plot. It's even worse watching now, knowing there is no point to all this other than needless drama. The writers never understood the implications of Regina magically roofing people to sleep with someone they never would have if they had all their memories. It's hard to not hate Regina when I'm reminded of how deep her villany ran.

Poor Graham, indeed.

[Camera One]

I would think it was hard to eke out an existence as a lowly peasant, at the whim of the weather, insects, disease, taxes, feudal lords or 

Spoiler

warlords like Bo Peep.

Though I was surprised Ruth was still suggesting David marry the grain merchant's daughter.  Surely, she knew his stance on the matter.  So David must have been very picky, to still be unmarried at that age.  We're supposed to think he's somewhat attractive, even with that horrible wig, right?  

[profdanglais]

2 hours ago, Camera One said:

We're supposed to think he's somewhat attractive, even with that horrible wig, right?  

And yet, still not as horrible as the one he had later. 

The quickest, most effective way to make attractive people less attractive is to give them bad hair. 

[Shanna Marie]

On 6/16/2018 at 1:15 PM, companionenvy said:

Man, David Nolan is SUCH A jerk. Its a good thing Charming is so likable in the flashbacks.

I tend to cut David some slack because his memories were entirely false, and he didn't get them until the curse was already weakened, so they must have felt very unreal and had no backup in reality. Most of the people who'd been cursed had been living with those identities for 28 years, so the fake memories to set up their identities had been reinforced by living those identities. David went straight from being Charming saying goodbye to his wife to waking up with that wife but being told some other person he didn't remember was that wife, and only later was he given the actual fake memories. David never actually lived as "David Nolan." He'd never lived with Kathryn. All of it was a lie. At that point, everyone was starting to resist the curse in various ways, and that was when he got hit with the memories, so they may not have stuck. No wonder he was a mess.

On 6/16/2018 at 1:15 PM, companionenvy said:

Charming's memories do raise questions about how the curse works. Clearly, even while he was in the coma he must have had some kind of false memory download, because he evidently isn't ignorant about the basics of 21st century life. But it is only when he sees the windmill that he gets insight into his own personal history. I guess maybe his condition prevented the curse from fully taking, requiring the "reboot" from Rumple after he woke. 

I wonder how much he did know about 21st century life. I wonder if all of it was strange, but he didn't read it as strange because he didn't have his real memories to compare it all to, so he just had to accept it as normal. He wasn't shocked about cars, for instance, because he didn't know he came from a world without cars. I don't think we saw him really using any modern technology or doing anything too modern before he got the fake memories. I also suspect the writers didn't consider this, just how blank a slate he was supposed to be and how he'd function with absolutely no memories.

But I wonder why Rumple would have participated in the reboot (and he seemed to be aware of what he was doing.

Spoiler

Didn't Rumple want the curse to break at this point? His whole purpose was using the curse to travel to our world, and the prophecy only said the Savior would come to town on her 28th birthday. So why is Rumple participating in any of Regina's schemes once he gets his memories back? Wouldn't going against the curse weaken it further and lead to Emma needing to get the true love potion so he could have magic? And even if not, it's not as though it helps him to keep participating with Regina.

[Camera One]

17 minutes ago, Shanna Marie said:

I wonder how much he did know about 21st century life. I wonder if all of it was strange, but he didn't read it as strange because he didn't have his real memories to compare it all to, so he just had to accept it as normal. He wasn't shocked about cars, for instance, because he didn't know he came from a world without cars. I don't think we saw him really using any modern technology or doing anything too modern before he got the fake memories. I also suspect the writers didn't consider this, just how blank a slate he was supposed to be and how he'd function with absolutely no memories.

But I wonder why Rumple would have participated in the reboot (and he seemed to be aware of what he was doing.

  Hide contents

Didn't Rumple want the curse to break at this point? His whole purpose was using the curse to travel to our world, and the prophecy only said the Savior would come to town on her 28th birthday. So why is Rumple participating in any of Regina's schemes once he gets his memories back? Wouldn't going against the curse weaken it further and lead to Emma needing to get the true love potion so he could have magic? And even if not, it's not as though it helps him to keep participating with Regina.

Yes, I wondered about why David's download and whether he would be surprised at modern tech too, but your explanation could explain it.  I agree that the Writers didn't think it through.  

Spoiler

Yes, Rumple wanted the Curse to break.  Maybe he was trying to convince Regina that he was on her side, so he could play her longer?  That's the only thing I can think of.  More likely, the Writers just wanted to play US the viewers, wondering what Rumple's real motive really was.  Stuff like that on rewatch though can get annoying fast.

Edited June 17, 2018 by Camera One

[tennisgurl]

I swear, I spend half the time during this re-watch saying “poor Graham” over and over. When Emma found him coming out of Regina’s house, he really just looked more stressed and sad than anything else. He clearly doesn’t like her, and if someone asked point blank why he was sleeping with her, he probably couldn’t give them an answer. 

Spoiler

It makes next week, and what follows, even more of a horrible tragedy.

[tennisgurl]

I really do like the twist a lot, with James being David and him pretending to be James. Josh Dallas is really great as both brothers, especially once David got rid of that awful wig, and I always love seeing him in hero mode. He really is one of the best actors at being both a normal modern guy and as a fairytale character. Its also funny that Charming started out as a simple farmer, when he really had a very noble vibe, and carried himself like a natural leader. Him running in to try to save people and then outsmarting the dragon is definitely a lot of his best traits in a nutshell. 

Ruth might have been a nice lady, but I dont know so much about her skills as a farmer, or as a mom. I mean, she sold one kid to save the farm, and the dang thing is still going under? So now the other kid has to bail it out by doing the same crap the other kid did? I guess its hard to be a peasant in fairytale land, where banks dont give loans I guess. I also like the character beat of how Rumple seems rather subdued when Ruth is telling David what happened to his brother. It makes a bit of sense that he would be a bit more melancholy about 

Spoiler

a parent giving up a kid and regretting it. 

I like what we saw of King Midas here, and some of the foreshadowing we get (remember what happened to Frederick)and the gold look of his outfit, as well as King George. He really seemed to love his son, and while he wasn't really a good guy here, you could see him being a king who was desperate to save his kingdom, and had to do bad things in order to do that, and I thought that was interesting. 

Spoiler

Of course, later episodes make him a mustache twirling villain, and James is just the same, so all that was interesting about them is pretty much thrown out the window. And its too bad, because I was excited to see James in the after life, and see maybe him and David connect a bit, but all we got was creepy David/Cruella action.