Sheriff Graham

"It's my heart, Emma. I need to find it."

- Sheriff Graham to Emma Swan

Sheriff Graham Humbert is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. He débuts in the first episode of the first season. He is portrayed by guest star Jamie Dornan, and is the Storybrooke counterpart of the Huntsman.

History
After the casting of the Dark Curse, Graham becomes the local sheriff of Storybrooke while maintaining an intimate and physical relationship with the mayor, Regina Mills. She is alarmed that two outsiders, Kurt Flynn and his son Owen, have entered town. Graham expresses just as much surprise as Regina at their unfamiliar faces. In a short time, Regina becomes very fond of Owen and suggests that he and his father can stay in Storybrooke permanently. This offer is rejected, so Regina, at wits end, manipulates Graham via his heart into thinking Kurt needs to be arrested for drunk driving. Graham bursts into Regina's office to wrestle him onto the desk. Kurt tries to tell Graham that Regina is somehow controlling him with something and knocks onto the ground the box containing his heart. The heart hits the floor, to which Graham gasps in pain and accidentally releases Kurt, who escapes out the door. Graham questions what that thing is, but Regina doesn't answer. He helps Regina chase after Kurt and Owen in his sheriff police car and blocks them at the town border. As he takes hold of Kurt and cuffs him, Owen is forced to run out of town on his father's orders.
 * -|During the Curse=

Ten years later, Regina's adopted son, Henry, disappears from town. In a panic, she calls and has Graham come over for support. Henry is found when his birth mother, Emma, returns him on Regina's doorstep. Regina invites Emma in for some apple cider as Graham checks up on Henry in his bedroom, and assures the mayor that her son is fine. He leaves, but later picks up the town drunk, Leroy, as well as Emma, who crashed her car into the town marker, and puts them into jail cells for the night. In the morning, he releases Leroy, and scoffs at Emma's flimsy excuse that a wolf on the road caused her to crash the car. He finds it more plausible that Regina's apple cider was probably too strong for her. Regina comes into the station requesting help as Henry has once again run away. With Emma's sleuthing skills, they discover Henry secretly used his teacher's credit card to track down his birth mother.

While spending a morning at the diner, he is surprised to see Emma decided to stay in town. She pointedly rejects his offering of a free cinnamon cocoa drink, though Graham confusedly states that he never ordered it. From another table booth, Henry admits that he's actually the one who requested the drink, and invites Emma to walk him to school. On the same day, Graham receives a call from Archie claiming that Emma stole Henry's patient file from his office. He goes to Emma's guest room at the bed and breakfast. Upon seeing the file papers spread out on the bed, he arrests and takes her to the station to take mug shots. She insists Regina set her up, though Graham doesn't believe the mayor is capable of that. Emma takes a jab at him for being under Regina's thumb. Surprisingly, Henry and Mary Margaret show up to bail Emma out. Graham has time to mull over what Emma said, and later speaks to Regina about Archie's accusations possibly being fabricated by her. He dissuades her against continuing to fight with Emma as the one getting hurt in all this is Henry.

When a coma patient, John Doe, goes missing from the hospital, he is called in to investigate. As John Doe's emergency contact, Regina also shows up, but quickly leaves to let Graham take care of it. Emma and Mary Margaret stay to help as they look over surveillance security footage from the prior night. Neither the security guard, Walter, nor the janitor, Leroy, saw anything happen, but the footage clearly shows John Doe awakening and wandering out into the forest. With the two women, Graham begins tracking John Doe just as Henry, having followed them, pops up. After finding a patient tag, they reach an unconscious John Doe near the Toll Bridge as resuscitates him with mouth-to-mouth while Graham calls an ambulance. Back at the hospital, Graham and the others watch from outside the door as John Doe is put into recovery when a blonde woman, Kathryn, rushes in. As it turns out, Kathryn is John Doe's long lost wife, and his real name is David Nolan.

Graham stops Emma in her tracks, literally, on the street when he pulls up in his sheriff car with sirens blaring. He is quite impressed by her work in the case of John Doe, and wants to hire her as deputy sheriff. She is still unsure, and asks for time to think about it. After checking into bed and breakfast guest room, he and Regina meet for a tryst. She leaves first, and while Graham is still half dressed and looking for his clothes beneath the bed, he receives a phone call from Emma, who accepts the deputy position.

Emma officially receives the deputy's uniform, but passes on wearing it. As Graham hands her the deputy's badge, a large earthquake rumbles through Storybrooke. He and Emma investigate at a caved in sinkhole. Disdainfully, Regina catches on that Emma is now part of the police force team, but can't argue against it when Graham asserts his decision. Both Archie and Henry's lives are at stake when the two venture into the mines. With Pongo's sense of smell, the dog tracks them to under a mine shaft. Graham assists as Emma is lowered down on a pulley to haul Archie and Henry to safety.

Graham requests Emma to take the evening shift, citing that he has business as a volunteer at the animal shelter, though this is nothing but a cover story for him and Regina to have a rendezvous over her house. Afterwards, he climbs out of the house window and jumps down to the ground. Emma mistakenly believes he is an intruder and tackles him to the ground. Graham tries to cover up his previous lie by stating that he actually does like animals, but she is too disgusted by the truth of his affair with Regina, especially carrying on with it while Henry is asleep in the house.

Since Emma's discovery of his secret, he has been so upset to the point of drinking heavily and trying to distract himself by playing darts at the diner. She steps into the diner one evening, but upon seeing him, begins leaving. He forces Emma to stop by throwing a dart that nearly hits her, but she leaves anyway. He chases her down; attempting to explain his relationship with Regina is purely physical with no emotional attachments. She expresses disinterest in his business, but he loses himself in the moment and kisses her. Briefly, he receives a flash of a memory, but doesn't understand what it is. Emma rejects his advances, so he seeks solace in Regina's bed. During the night, he wakes up from a strange dream with a wolf, huntsman and a woman resembling Mary Margaret. She tries to persuade him to go back to sleep, but heads outside to get some air and sees the wolf from his dreams. In the next instant, the wolf is gone. The next day, he goes to see Mary Margaret and asks whether they have met somewhere else prior to Storybrooke. Strangely, she can't seem to recall anything from before Storybrooke. Then, he looks over a fairytale storybook with Henry. Graham recognizes a photo of the wolf as the same animal he just saw, and relates to Henry about his experience with flashes of memories from a possible past life. Henry explains the story of the Huntsman, who was raised by wolves, and was ordered by the Evil Queen to rip out Snow White's heart, but spared her life. As a penance, the Huntsman's heart was taken by the Queen so he could never feel again. From this, Graham begins to obsess over the fact he can't feel anything and goes off to frantically search for his heart. He manages to gain Emma's help, and they end up kicking open the tomb door of Regina's deceased father, but his heart is not inside. Regina catches them snooping, and offers to take Graham home. Instead, he breaks things off for good with her. A fight ensues between the two women; ending when Graham leaving with Emma to the sheriff station. While tending to her bruises from the fight with Regina, Graham shares another kiss with Emma. This time, all of his Enchanted Forest memories rush back, and Graham remarks that he remembers everything now, though Emma doesn't understand. Suddenly, he suffers a fatal heart attack, which is actually caused by Regina physically crushing his heart to ash. Graham dies as Emma helplessly watches.

Trivia

 * In the Disney animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Humbert is the name of the Huntsman, but is never said on screen. Humbert is revealed to be Graham's last name.
 * The name "Graham" is of Old English origin derived from the English place "Grantham" that likely meant "gravelly homestead".
 * The surname "Humbert" is of English origin derived from the surname bearers of the land in Humber, Herefordshire.
 * In an E! Online interview, Jamie Dornan stated that he originally was supposed to portray another character. However, they could not get the rights and therefore made him the Huntsman. In Entertainment Weekly's final October 2012 issue, Edward Kitsis revealed Jamie was supposed to portray Sherlock Holmes.
 * In the original "Pilot" script, Sheriff Graham is an avid fan of eating pixie sticks. He also states he grew up in Maine, but picked up his accent from his parents.
 * Emma wears a shoelace on her wrist that once belonged to Graham's boot.

Appearances
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.
 * Sheriff Graham photo appears on a piece of paper in "Desperate Souls".