The Great Spider from the Echoless Forest is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It débuts, with its only appearance, in the sixteenth episode of the sixth season.
History
The Great Spider originates from Her Handsome Hero, a book in which it terrorizes the protagonist, Gideon, in the Echoless Forest before being slain. Belle and Mr. Gold's son, Gideon - named after the character from the book - read this passage to his friend Roderick during their imprisonment by the Black Fairy in the Dark Realm. ("Mother's Little Helper")
As Emma forms a tentative alliance with Gideon to help him kill the Black Fairy, Gideon goes with her to Sorcerer's Mansion, where he misleads her into believing they can bring back Hook, whom he had banished to another realm. Emma is at first skeptical that they can create a portal door in the mansion since it requires a lot of magic, but Gideon succeeds in making one before instructing her to place the ingredients on a table to begin the spell. After setting down the Her Handsome Hero book, a bowl, a unrolled scroll page, and a napkin from Æsop's Tables that is stained with her tears, Emma lights the candle just as the book flies by itself to the door and the lit candle burns into the napkin. When a massive spider leg pokes out from the other side of the door, Gideon warns Emma that it was sent by the Black Fairy to stop her from regaining Hook. The two of them hide upstairs but are forced to run again after the spider begins spitting venom at them. They reach a room with a large web, which Gideon purposefully knocks Emma into, trapping her against it, before stealing back the Hrunting sword. Gideon then admits he needs her to die so he can channel her powers into the sword and open a portal to the Dark Realm to kill the Black Fairy. After Gideon is gone from the mansion, the spider entraps Emma in a cocoon to suffocate her. Emma's life begins ebbing away as the spider pulls her closer, but Mr. Gold arrives to free her. When the spider charges at Emma, she and Mr. Gold combine powers to shrink the creature, whom Emma kills by stomping on it. ("Mother's Little Helper")
Trivia
Popular Culture
- Emma calls the spider "Charlotte," a reference to E. B. White's children's novel Charlotte's Web, which tells the story of a pig and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. ("Mother's Little Helper")
Appearances
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 | Absent |
"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 | Appears | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |