Red Riding Hood

"When there's something I want, I'm good at tracking it down."

- Red to Snow White

Red Riding Hood, also known as Red, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the first episode of the first season. She is portrayed by starring cast member Meghan Ory, and is the Enchanted Forest counterpart of Ruby.

Red Riding Hood is based on a character of the same name from the fairytale, "Little Red Riding Hood".

Before the Curse
Red Riding Hood lives with her grandmother, Granny, in a poor village that is terrorized every wolfs time, or full moon, by a large and malevolent wolf. She often dreams of running away with her true love, a blacksmith's son by the name of Peter.

During the third night of wolfs time, Peter secretly visits Ruby at her home. After a short conversation and a kiss, she is called away by her grandmother to the front door where Mayor Tomkins, the leader of the village, is asking for more volunteers to help the hunting party kill the wolf. Widow Lucas, called Granny by Red, refuses and calls them fools. Red helps her lock down the house. On her way to her room, Granny reminds her to wear her red cloak, as the color red repels wolves.

The next morning, Granny tells her to check on the chickens to make sure the wolf didn't hurt any of them. As Red collects the eggs and prepares to leave, she notices one nest empty. Suddenly, a young woman runs out from behind and confesses to stealing a few eggs for herself. When asked about who she is, she reveals that she is on the run from someone. Red is fine with this, but she needs something to call her. She introduces herself first with the alias as Frosty, then switches to Margaret, and finally settles on Mary. However, the girl is actually Snow White and is hiding from the Evil Queen after the huntsman spared her life.

Red invites her to stay in the house until she can find a place to settle down, and they go to the well to fetch some water. As Red is hauling it up, she marvels at the red color of the water. When she asks for Mary's opinion, Mary is unresponsive. As a result, Red turns around and stares, horrified, at the mangled corpses of the hunting party.

When they return, they discover that Mayor Tomkins has called a town meeting. Tomkins expresses regret at the village's loss and demands for an even larger hunting party so that they can put an end to the massacre of people and livestock. However, Granny protests, and tells the villagers about her own experience with a former wolf that had once preyed upon the village, and how she herself was marked by the creature.

That night, in Red's bedroom, Snow White mentions how the wolf was keeping her from leaving the town with Peter. Red realizes that she's right, and presents the idea of killing the wolf. Snow White thinks it is crazy, but Red persuades her to help her look for the wolf.

The next day, they set out to hunt down the wolf and kill it in its sleep. They eventually find the wolf's tracks, only to have them lead back to Red's house. They come to the conclusion that Peter is the wolf, as he was by the window the night before. Red presents her theory to him, and Peter agrees that they should tie him up in chains. However, that night as the full moon shows itself, it is Red, not Peter, who shifts into a wolf, with no sense of her human self. Peter tries to calm her to make her recognize him all to no use. The wolf growls and lunges at him. While it is eating Peter's remains, Granny and Snow White arrive, and Granny shoots the wolf with a silver-tipped cross bolt.

Snow White lays the magical red cloak over the unconscious wolf form of Red—for it was the cloak that kept Red from being affected by the genetically-inherited lycanthropy at wolfs time—and the wolf turns back into her human form. Red is disoriented at first, but then tearfully realizes that she was the wolf, and responsible for Peter's death. Suddenly, the torches of the hunting party appear in the distance on the other side of the clearing, and Granny ushers them to leave while they still can. Snow White leads a devastated Red away while Granny is left to fend for herself.

Red and Snow White run through the woods to escape the hunting party, but also to escape the soldiers of the Evil Queen who are on the hunt for Snow White. Red discovers her hood is torn and worries that she will not be able to stop the transformation. Worried she might potentially harm Snow White, too, Red makes her leave for the night. Snow White parts with the promise to seek Red out later. In the morning, Red removes her cloak and is washing up in the stream when a stranger grabs her cloak and runs off. Red gives chase and discovers the stranger holding her cloak over a torch. Begging the man not to burn her cloak, the man reveals that he is like her and tells her his name is Quinn. He leads Red to a sunken city where Red meets her mother, Anita, for the first time. Anita tells Red that her own mother—Widow Lucas—took Red from her because she did not want her granddaughter growing up as a wolf.

Red spends time among the other "children of the moon" and is taught how to control the wolf. However, the respite is short lived when Snow White is caught because she was looking for Red. Red convinces Anita and the others that she means no harm, but the Queen's guards burst into the hideout after following Snow White's trail. The guards shoot Quinn and kill him. Anita is furious and makes preparations to execute Snow White. However, Snow White is saved by Red who transforms into a wolf and tackles Anita, causing her to land on a pike and killing her. Anita accuses Red of choosing a human over her own pack, but Red asserts she chooses herself because she is not a killer, and neither is Anita. Later, Red and Snow White bury Anita. She thanks Snow White for supporting her to be both wolf and human.

Many weeks after, Red brings food with her once a month to Snow White's secluded forest hideout while still avoiding the Evil Queen's forces. She keeps Snow White up-to-date on all of the Enchanted Forest's current events, including Prince Charming's wedding to a neighboring king's daughter, Abigail.

Snow White is very upset at this and asks for some magical cure to heal her broken heart. Red is quiet, which makes Snow White think she knows something. After some prodding, Red tells Snow White about Rumplestiltskin, a man with great powers who might be able to help her take away her love for Prince Charming. The next day, Snow White sets out to meet with Prince Charming at King George's castle after he sends her a love letter requesting to see her. She does not return for several days, and Red comes across Prince Charming when he arrives at Snow White's hideout searching for her.

She tells him that Snow White went to the castle because she loved him. To help Prince Charming understand better, she says that Snow White really does love him and has been intending to tell him so, unless something has changed her mind. Just then, King George's men come in an attempt to kill Prince Charming. She and the prince escape together.

Later, they are seen making camp when the king's men catch up to them. She tells Prince Charming to run and when he asks how she can hold them off she looks up at the full moon. Prince Charming leaves and Red takes off her cloak. Her eyes flash gold as she runs at the approaching soldiers; shape shifting into wolf.

Though Prince Charming eventually finds Snow White, the two are separated when King George's men finally capture and bring him back to the king. Snow White enlists the help of Red, Granny, the Seven Dwarves and the fairies to rescue Prince Charming. They take the castle, but the rescue attempt is unsuccessful because Prince Charming has been traded to the Evil Queen.

Snow White agrees to a deal of meeting the Queen alone and without arms. Despite everyone's pleas—including Red—for her not to meet the Queen, Snow White stubbornly follows the Queen's rules if it means the safe return of Prince Charming. Shortly thereafter, they go looking for Snow White and find her lifeless body. Red discovers Snow White is not breathing, and they believe she is dead because they do not know the nature of the sleeping spell she is under.

True love's kiss breaks the sleeping curse. Soon after, Red helps in fighting alongside Prince Charming and Snow White against King George in order to take back the kingdom.

King George's forces fall in battle, and the Evil Queen is captured. Red is at a war council meeting to discuss the Queen's future fate, which they decide should be death. She, along with the rest of the war council, watch the Queen deliver her last testament on the gallows just before the execution is carried out. The execution is stopped at the last moment by Snow White's command.

Many months later, Red and her grandmother join in on the council yet again when Prince Charming seeks advice on how to defeat the Evil Queen's dark curse. They listen to the Blue Fairy's solution of using the magic wardrobe to send a pregnant Snow White to a land without magic for 28 years until her child can save them from the curse. She, along with everyone else are engulfed by the Dark Curse.

Trivia

 * She is both Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf; an allusion to the fairytale, "Little Red Riding Hood".
 * A small doll plushie of Red Riding Hood sits on the shelf of Emma's nursery in the Enchanted Forest.
 * Red seems to be immune to any weapon except silver while in the form of a werewolf.