David Nolan

David Nolan, once a coma patient known only as John Doe, is a major character on Once Upon a Time. He débuts in the first episode of the first season. He is played by starring cast member Joshua Dallas and is the Storybrooke counterpart of Prince Charming.

Early Life
David Nolan was originally married to Kathryn Nolan. However, they didn't get along very well, and after one of their numerous fights, David left. So we are told. Regina Mills, the mayor, found him on the side of the road and brought him to the hospital. She became his emergency contact, and he was in a coma for several years. (possibly all 28 years) While he was in a coma, he was known as John Doe.

Season One
A few days after Emma Swan arrived in Storybrooke, Henry Mills convinces her to ask Mary Margaret Blanchard to read Henry's storybook, full of stories from Fairytale Land, to the hospital's John Doe. As Henry think he is Prince Charming, Mary Margaret agrees, expecting nothing to happen and hoping that Henry will realize that fairytales are only stories. She visits David's hospital room that night and she begins to read. Halfway through the story, David, while still unconscious, grabs Mary Margaret's hand.

Mary Margaret runs for Dr. Whale, but he claims nothing happened and she must have been imagining it. The next night, David awakens from his coma and leaves the hospital. Mary Margaret, Emma Swan and Sheriff Graham form a search party to look for him, only to find him at the edge of the Toll Bridge where he is unconscious and bleeding.

Mary Margaret panicks and performs CPR on him while Graham calls an ambulance. Henry, who had tagged along with the search party, becomes upset at the prospect that he could die and Emma shields him from watching. However, Mary Margaret's CPR efforts are effective and he spits out water. When she asks him what his name is, he replies that he doesn't know.

Back at the hospital, Regina comes with a blonde woman who is revealed to be Kathryn Nolan, David's estranged wife. Emma becomes suspicious because Kathryn had never thought that her husband had stayed in Storybrooke - she had assumed that he'd gone to Boston. He reunites with his wife, but he later admits to Mary Margaret that nothing seems right to him except her.

The next few days, he is playing hangman with Mary Margaret and has many conversations with her; however, Kathryn frequently interrupts them with her desperate attempts to help David regain his memory of his life before the coma. David and Mary Margaret grow closer.

After he is discharged from the hospital, David is met with a welcome home party filled with people he doesn't recognize. However, he quickly becomes uncomfortable and goes to Mary Margaret's house instead. He tries to tell her that he was choosing her over Kathryn, and chases after her for the next few days.

Finally, he corners her at the schoolhouse and invites her to the Toll Bridge, because he was leaving Kathryn for her. Mary Margaret agrees to meet him. On his way there, he encounters Regina, who purposefully gives him the wrong directions. David winds up at Mr. Gold's shop, and Mr. Gold gives him the correct directions. As he turns to go, he sees an old windmill that had belonged to the Nolans prior to his disappearance, and he suddenly remembers everything from his life prior to the coma.

He rushes off to the Toll Bridge and tells Mary Margaret that he remembers everything and that he was going to honor his marriage. Mary Margaret becomes upset and tells him off for leading her on. Then she walks away in tears, leaving a dejected David behind. That night, he goes back to Kathryn and says that he is willing to work on their marriage. Kathryn becomes ecstatic and hugs him.

After Sheriff Graham's death, he is seen stapling promotional posters of Sidney Glass around town. He runs across Mary Margaret, who is promoting Emma Swan for Sheriff, and has a quick chat with her. However, once she notices that he was advertising Sidney, she walks away with an excuse to get more posters.

A few days later, he walks into Granny's Diner and proceeds to have a quick chat with Mary Margaret. After the conversation is over, he grabs the coffees and walks away back to Kathryn.

When Mary Margaret discovers a dove trapped in a cage, she brings it to the animal shelter. The vetenarian says that the bird will be all right, but it must join its flock or risk becoming a lone dove. Mary Margaret is about to leave to release the bird, but David stops her and warns her about the coming storm. Mary Margaret goes anyway.

As she is going to free the bird, she slips on the ground and barely manages to keep herself from falling down to a ravine. At the last possible moment, David grabs her and hauls her up. The storm then begins, and they rush to an abandoned cabin in the woods.

There, the two confess their harbored feelings for each other. When they are about to kiss, Mary Margaret pulls away and tells David that Kathryn believed she was pregnant. However, David has no idea what she's talking about. The two reluctantly agree not to see each other again. They part ways after Mary Margaret releases the dove.

David goes home and tells Kathryn that he was willing to work on their marriage. But the next day, he arrives at 7:45 A.M. to get her coffee, and sees Mary Margaret. He immediately walks away and Mary Margaret chases after him. The two confess that they couldn't get away from each other, and kiss. Regina is shown watching in her car from across the street.

A few days later, he prepares a picnic for the two of them by the Toll Bridge. He texts her, and Mary Margaret rushes off. They proceed to have a romantic picnic in the woods.

On Valentine's Day, he is at Mr. Clark's store buying Mary Margaret and Kathryn two different Valentine's Day cards. Mr. Gold spots this and starts a conversation about love. David feigns ignorance and claims that the two cards were for the same woman. Mr. Gold pays for his items and leave.

David walks to the bar where Mary Margaret was having her girl's night out with Ruby and Ashley Boyd. He catches her just as she is leaving, and accidentally gives her Kathryn's Valentine's Day card. Mary Margaret tells him he should go home and leaves.

A few nights later, he is having dinner with Kathryn, when she announces that she applied to, and was accepted at a law school in Boston. David tells her how wonderful the news was, and goes to Mary Margaret for advice. She says that they should tell Kathryn the truth, and David agrees. He goes to tell Kathryn, but instead says that he couldn't be with her anymore. He doesn't mention Mary Margaret.

Kathryn goes to Regina, and discovers that he was cheating on her with Mary Margaret from the mayor. She goes to the elementary school and confronts her in public. Mary Margaret leaves the school and is shunned by a large part of the town. She finds David frantically washing the word tramp off of her car and tells him that their relationship was destructive, not helpful. She breaks up with him and walks away, leaving him devastated.

During the Miner's Day festival, he is watching Mary Margaret converse with the other townspeople. Emma walks up to him and asks him to accompany her to the station. When they reach the station, he is questioned about his wife's disappearance, but he insists that he doesn't know anything. Emma reluctantly lets him go, but gives him the warning about getting a lawyer.

He then proceeds to experience a blackout - or, doing things he isn't aware of. David goes to the woods, searching for something, and Mary Margaret finds him. She tells Emma and Ruby, who search the woods and discover him unconscious, with a cut on his forehead. He doesn't remember the events that happened between when Emma lets him go at the station, and when the two women find him in the woods.

The pair takes him to Dr. Whale, who pronounces that he had experienced something similar to what happened when he had woken up from his coma. David realizes that he could've killed Kathryn and wouldn't have remembered it. Regina barges in and demands that he be arrested, but Emma stands up to Regina and resumes searching for Kathryn. She instructs Ruby to search the area by the Toll Bridge, where she proceeds to find a box with a human heart inside.

David is confessing his fears that he had killed his wife to Mary Margaret at the animal shelter when Emma walks in. She reveals that they found the box with the human heart, and David believes that he did it. He orders Emma to arrest him, and Emma says that the fingerprints on the box weren't David's - they were Mary Margaret's.

Later, aftert Mary Margaret is arrested, David goes to Regina Mills to plead for mercy for Mary Margaret. He insists that Mary Margaret wasn't capable of such evil and that the DNA evidence must've been a mistake. Regina refuses, however, and David goes to Archie Hopper for advice on his blackouts.

Archie tries hypnosis to find out what David has been doing in his blackouts, where David begins to see flashes of his life as Prince Charming. He sees Snow White on her mission to kill the Queen, and tells her not to kill her. Suddenly, David wakes up and tells Archie everything he saw - except he mistook Snow White for Mary Margaret.

He goes to Mary Margaret's cell and asks her if she really did kill Kathryn. Mary Margaret is shocked at his lack of faith and orders him to leave. Once she is acquitted when Kathryn appears at Granny's Diner very much alive, David attempts to apologize to her. However, Mary Margaret is still to hurt.

Finally, David decides that it is time to leave Storybrooke and comes to Mary Margaret about his decision. He says he will stay if she will give him a reason to. She says she cannot, and they part ways. Just as David is leaving town, he suddenly remembers his real identity as Prince Charming. He remembers all of his life with Snow White, and returns to Storybrooke to find her.

They are reunited in the street, where they realize that the curse must have been broken. Snow White exclaims that he found her. Prince Charming asks if she ever doubted he would. He was last seen embracing Snow White being engulfed in a purple cloud of magic.

Trivia

 * David means "beloved" in Hebrew, and Nolan means "famous" in Irish. It is also of English origin, where it means "little champion" or "chariot-fighter".
 * King David in the Bible was a former shepherd, as was Prince Charming.

David Nolan