Emma’s Baby Blanket is an item featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the first episode of the first season.
History
In the Enchanted Forest, while a pregnant Snow White and her allies are figuring out how to stop the Evil Queen from casting the curse, one of the war council members, Granny, knits a baby blanket for Snow White's unborn child, Emma. ("Pilot," "The Stranger")
As a spell causes the Enchanted Forest inhabitants to burst into song, Granny sings while knitting at home. Shortly after, the Evil Queen surprises her and, while dancing around, rips the blanket out of Granny's hands and tears it apart. Much to Granny's relief, Regina goes away, leaving behind the torn blanket. ("The Song in Your Heart")
On the day the curse arrives, Snow White goes into labor early, giving birth to Emma, who she and Prince Charming swaddle in the baby blanket. Because Emma is the prophesied savior who will break the curse one day, Prince Charming cradles Emma in one arm, as he battles the Queen's knights with his other arm, in order to put her into the wardrobe and send her to another world. ("Pilot," "The Stranger")Moments after arriving in the Land Without Magic, Pinocchio sees baby Emma come through as well. He picks her up, while she lays snugly in her blanket, and brings her to a diner across the street. The story of Pinocchio finding Emma later becomes a written newspaper sensation, with the article mentioning that Emma was found with the blanket bearing her birth name. The two children are placed in the same foster home together, where Emma rests in a crib with her blanket, but Pinocchio ends up abandoning her for freedom. ("The Stranger," "True North," "Family Business," "Firebird")
During the winter of 1990, a young Emma runs away from her group home and seeks shelter with other kids under a bridge. To keep warm, she covers herself with her old baby blanket while sitting next to a fire. ("Tougher Than the Rest")
Twenty-one years later, while Emma is living in a Boston apartment, she keeps the blanket draped on a chair. That night, Henry, proclaiming to be the son she gave up eleven years ago, persuades her to come back to Storybrooke with him. The next day in Storybrooke, Henry continues to try and convince Emma that the town is under the Evil Queen's curse and she is the savior who will break it. To prove she is the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, he gives her ripped out pages from the storybook, which show an infant Emma with her blanket being cradled by her parents. Later, in an effort to make amends with Henry, Emma burns the pages so the Queen won't catch on that they know about the curse. ("Pilot," "The Thing You Love Most")
Once Emma decides to stay in Storybrooke for Henry's sake, she has her belongings delivered to the town from Boston. During one morning, sometime after moving into Mary Margaret's loft, she receives the box, with the blanket and other items inside, and begins unpacking. ("The Price of Gold")
Finding two children, Nicholas and Ava Zimmer, without a legal guardian, Emma tries to track down their biological father, by showing them her baby blanket as an example of something she got from her birth parents, and she asks them if they have anything similar. Ava gives her a compass, which belonged to her mother. At the pawnshop, Emma learns from Mr. Gold that someone named Michael Tillman bought the compass from him. After convincing Michael to take in the children as his own, Emma talks to Mary Margaret, wondering what it might be like if she could find her own birth parents. Mary Margaret believes she might, to which Emma humors her, recalling that Henry thinks Mary Margaret is her mother. As Emma gets up to go outside, Mary Margaret moves to follow, when she suddenly notices Emma's baby blanket in the box. Mary Margaret curiously picks it up and holds it, but she then puts it back and walks away. ("True North")Looking for clues about her past with the Snow Queen, Emma examines a box with personal belongings, including her baby blanket. Eventually, she finds a camera with recorded videos of herself with Lily. ("Breaking Glass")
To rescue Emma, who has become the Dark One and fled to the Enchanted Forest, the Apprentice gives her allies his wand, telling them that they can cross realms only if someone with both light and dark essence can wield the wand. Zelena eventually gets hold of the item and creates a cyclone, but Regina renders her powerless using a bracelet and later uses the wand on Emma's baby blanket to redirect the cyclone into taking her and her group to the Enchanted Forest. ("The Dark Swan")
Trivia
On-Screen Notes
- Emma's baby blanket is draped over a chair in her Boston apartment.[1] ("Pilot")
- When Snow White is pregnant for the second time, Granny knits a blanket for the baby,[2] as she also knitted Emma's baby blanket when Snow White had her first pregnancy. ("A Curious Thing")
Production Notes
- Caitlin Ffrench, the creator of the blanket, also taught Beverley Elliott how to knit for Granny's scene in "Pilot".[3]
Costume Notes
- Emma's baby blanket was created by Caitlin Ffrench,[4] a fiber artist living in East Vancouver.[5] The knitting pattern is available for free online.[4]
Appearances
Once Upon a Time: Season One | ||||||||||
"Pilot": | "The Thing You Love Most": | "Snow Falls": | "The Price of Gold": | "That Still Small Voice": | "The Shepherd": | "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter": | "Desperate Souls": | "True North": | "7:15 A.M.": | "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree": |
Appears | Absent | Absent | Appears | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Appears | Absent | Absent |
"Skin Deep": | "What Happened to Frederick": | "Dreamy": | "Red-Handed": | "Heart of Darkness": | "Hat Trick": | "The Stable Boy": | "The Return": | "The Stranger": | "An Apple Red as Blood": | "A Land Without Magic": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Appears | Absent | Absent |
Once Upon a Time: Season Four | ||||||||||
"A Tale of Two Sisters": |
"White Out": |
"Rocky Road": |
"The Apprentice": |
"Breaking Glass": |
"Family Business": | "The Snow Queen": |
"Smash the Mirror": |
"Fall": | "Shattered Sight": |
"Heroes and Villains": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Appears | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"Darkness on the Edge of Town": |
"Unforgiven": | "Enter the Dragon": | "Poor Unfortunate Soul": |
"Best Laid Plans": | "Heart of Gold": | "Sympathy for the De Vil": |
"Lily": | "Mother": | "Operation Mongoose Part 1": |
"Operation Mongoose Part 2": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Once Upon a Time: Season Five | |||||||||||
"The Dark Swan": | "The Price": | "Siege Perilous": | "The Broken Kingdom": | "Dreamcatcher": | "The Bear and the Bow": | "Nimue": | "Birth": | "The Bear King": | "Broken Heart": | "Swan Song": | |
Appears | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | |
"Souls of the Departed": | "Labor of Love": | "Devil's Due": | "The Brothers Jones": | "Our Decay": | "Her Handsome Hero": | "Ruby Slippers": | "Sisters": | "Firebird": | "Last Rites": | "Only You": | "An Untold Story": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Once Upon a Time: Season Six | ||||||||||
"The Savior": | "A Bitter Draught": | "The Other Shoe": | "Strange Case": | "Street Rats": | "Dark Waters": | "Heartless": | "I'll Be Your Mirror": | "Changelings": | "Wish You Were Here": | "Tougher Than the Rest": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Appears |
"Murder Most Foul": | "Ill-Boding Patterns": | "Page 23": | "A Wondrous Place": | "Mother's Little Helper": | "Awake": | "Where Bluebirds Fly": | "The Black Fairy": | "The Song in Your Heart": | "The Final Battle Part 1": | "The Final Battle Part 2": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Appears | Absent | Absent |
Once Upon a Time: Season Seven | ||||||||||
"Hyperion Heights": | "A Pirate's Life": | "The Garden of Forking Paths": | "Beauty": | "Greenbacks": | "Wake Up Call": | "Eloise Gardener": | "Pretty in Blue": | "One Little Tear": | "The Eighth Witch": | "Secret Garden": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"A Taste of the Heights": | "Knightfall": | "The Girl in the Tower": | "Sisterhood": | "Breadcrumbs": | "Chosen": | "The Guardian": | "Flower Child": | "Is This Henry Mills?": | "Homecoming": | "Leaving Storybrooke": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Archive |
Once Upon a Time: Specials | ||||||||||
"Magic is Coming": |
"The Price of Magic": | "Journey to Neverland": | "Wicked is Coming": | "Storybrooke Has Frozen Over": | ||||||
Absent | Archive | Archive | Absent | Archive | ||||||
"Secrets of Storybrooke": | "Dark Swan Rises": | "Evil Reigns Once More": | "The Final Battle Begins": | |||||||
Absent | Archive | Absent | Archive |
Other Appearances | ||||||||||
|
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.
References
|