"Heartless" is the seventh episode of Season Six of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Jane Espenson, and directed by Ralph Hemecker. It is the one hundred and eighteenth episode of the series overall, and premiered on November 6, 2016.
Synopsis
In a flashback to the Enchanted Forest, Bandit Snow dodges a bounty hunter known as the Woodcutter while shepherd David goes on a fateful journey to sell his family's farm. In Storybrooke, the Evil Queen threatens to destroy the town and everyone in it unless Snow and David surrender their hearts. As Emma, Hook and Henry prepare to defend Storybrooke, Snow, David and Regina search for a magical sapling created by the first spark of true love. Regina uses Gold's and the Evil Queen's burgeoning romance against them, and Zelena offers Belle some friendly advice.[2]
Recap
In the Enchanted Forest before the first curse, Snow White, hunted by the Evil Queen but not yet a bandit, sells her last heirloom to a nobleman for a pittance, only for him to betray her to the Woodcutter, a bounty hunter whom she fights off with help from the Blue Fairy. Having saved enough money to buy passage on a ship, Snow plans to head for the port city of Longborn. At the same time, Ruth sends David to Longborn to sell their farm, as they lack the resources to maintain it. Disguised as a peddler, the Woodcutter drugs David in order to use his sheep dog, Wilby, to track and capture Snow. When David comes to, Wilby leads him to the Woodcutter's wagon; Snow, locked inside, advises David to run. He instead tries to break the lock with a rock, but is interrupted by the Woodcutter's return. They fight, and the Woodcutter bashes a hole in the wagon, enabling Snow to hold back the Woodcutter's arm so David can kill him. Snow tells David that it would be safest for him to never see her face, so he hands the key through the hole. David's faith in Snow's resourcefulness convinces her that she can live by her wits and stay in her own kingdom; hearing that David is in need of money, she gives him her savings as a reward. As their hands touch, a magical spark of true love gives birth to a sapling at David's feet.
In the present day, Mary Margaret is waking up in the middle of the night, and finds herself in the middle of the woods when The Evil Queen emerges from behind a tree, reminding her of how lucky she has been, only to remind Mary Margaret that she still desires her heart, and with David having the other half, the Evil Queen tells Snow that she'll acquire it too for a “little bit more.” She gives Mary Margaret a mysterious potion and disappears, Mary Margaret then shows Regina the potion, and identifies it as water from the River of Lost Souls. Regina believes the Evil Queen obtained it from Gold as a part of a plan to destroy the whole town. Mother Superior believes that a magical sapling could be powerful enough to entrap the Evil Queen, and Regina hatches a plan by sending a note to Zelena demanding that she meets her other half at Gold's Pawn Shop.
Earlier, the Evil Queen promised Zelena that there was nothing going on between her and Gold, but when Zelena stops by the Pawn Shop, she catches the Evil Queen and Gold snogging, just as Regina planned. Around the same time, Mother Superior enacts a spell that should help Mary Margaret, David, and Regina get to the sapling. It leads them to a trapdoor in the ground, and they hop right in. As Mary Margaret and David find the sapling, they both touch it and the history of their love flashbacks right before their eyes, only to have The Evil Queen appear to steal the sapling, snaps it in half, and vows to destroy Storybrooke if they don't surrender their hearts. At the vault, Hook calms Emma down when her hands start to tremor & uses Henry's storybook to make Emma feel better and to remind her that her parents’ love can overcome any obstacle. They "always found each other." As she grows worried about her parents' fate and (possibly her visions); and how Emma inherited the strength of that love. “You can overcome these visions. You can overcome anything,” he assures her: "Remember who you are, the product of true love” — at which moment her hand stabilized.
Later on at the cemetery, the Evil Queen gathers the town to tell them her plan to kill them all if Mary Margaret and David don’t appear in the next few minutes. Just as Emma is ready to fight, the couple arrives and asks Regina to lift her protection spell from them, allowing The Evil Queen to rip out their hearts and hold them in her hands. She declares that killing them would be too easy and that she wants them to feel the pain of her loneliness. She thrusts their hearts back in, and Mary Margaret quickly passes out. The Evil Queen calls it a sleeping curse with “a little twist,” and she makes Mary Margaret’s body disappear and taunts David to go find her. He doesn't find her at the loft, so he quickly heads towards the woods, evoking the first time the couple were in this situation. David finds Mary Margaret asleep in the same fallen tree coffin as the first time. Mary Margaret is awoken by true love’s kiss, but David immediately passes out and falls to the ground. Regina deciphers that The Evil Queen has placed a sleeping curse on their shared heart, meaning the couple now share the curse, meaning that one will always be asleep while the other is awake, thus never allowing them to be together.
Finally, after Zelena told Belle at the cemetery about the Evil Queen and Gold having a kiss, Belle visits Gold at the Pawn Shop. Although she isn't concerned about him being involved with the Evil Queen, she is furious over the fact that Gold would acquire the Fates' Shears with The Evil Queen's involvement. Belle warns Gold that she forbids him to change their unborn child for his own selfish reasons. After she leaves, Gold becomes furious with Zelena.
Deleted Scenes
"True Love's Light" (Scene 28)
This scene is included on Once Upon a Time: The Complete Sixth Season.
As David, Mary Margaret and Regina walk through the tunnel to find the true love sapling, they come across a fork in the passage. Since they don't have enough time to explore both ways, they must choose wisely. After they kiss, which makes Regina roll her eyes, a green spark glows out from the right way.
Grumpy
A scene with Grumpy was cut from the episode. However, Lee Arenberg is still credited in the press release.[2]
Cast[2]
Starring
Guest Starring
|
Co-Starring
Uncredited
|
Note:
*: Only in archive footage
Trivia
Title
- The title card features Wilby.[3]
- The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on September 6, 2016.[4]
Production Notes
- HIDDEN DETAILS: In the opening scene, Evil Queen's shadow can be briefly seen against Mary Margaret's curtains,[5] as the Queen prepares to teleport Mary Margaret.
Event Chronology
- The Enchanted Forest flashbacks take place after "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter," "Red-Handed," "Child of the Moon" and "White Out,"[6] and before "The Evil Queen" and "The Shepherd." (For more details, see the Enchanted Forest timeline)
- The Storybrooke events take place after "Dark Waters" and before "I'll Be Your Mirror." (For more details, see the Land Without Magic timeline)
Episode Connections
- The Evil Queen's plan to gain Mary Margaret's heart began in "Dark Waters."
- Mary Margaret and David began sharing halves of the same heart during "A Curious Thing."
- The Evil Queen's alliance with Mr. Gold formed in "Dark Waters."
- ♫ MUSIC: The flute music playing at the tent camp in the Enchanted Forest is the same tune that was playing in the tavern Anton visits in "Tiny," the tavern where Hook and his crew celebrate in "The Jolly Roger," the tavern where Emma meets past Hook in "Snow Drifts," the tavern where young Cora is working in "Bleeding Through," Robin Hood's tavern in "Heart of Gold," the Wish Realm tavern where Wish Hook meets Captain Ahab in "Knightfall" and the Fish & Bird tavern in the New Enchanted Forest in "Breadcrumbs."
- Snow White tells the Blue Fairy that "home is where your family is." Her counterpart, Mary Margaret, says the same thing to David in "Tiny."
- The effects of Acheron water were first seen in "Devil's Due."
- Emma's visions began in "The Savior."
- Mary Margaret first voiced her desire for things to "go back to normal" during "The Other Shoe."
- Snow White's mother died in "The Queen Is Dead."
- Snow White's plan of having enough money to leave the kingdom and escape the Evil Queen was explored in "Snow Falls."
- Zelena turns green as a result of her jealousy towards the Evil Queen's relationship with Mr. Gold. This also happened in "It's Not Easy Being Green."
- Mary Margaret notes that the sapling's location is near to where she saved David during the Curse, an event seen in "Snow Falls."
- HIDDEN DETAILS: Adder's fork, a potion ingredient that Hook finds in Regina's vault, previously appeared in "The Apprentice," where Henry was looking through Regina's potion ingredients.
- STORYBOOK CONTENT: When Hook flips through the storybook in the heart vault, he shows Emma illustrations of scenes from "Pilot,"[7] Snow Drifts"[8] and "A Land Without Magic."[9]
- Hook says that Emma's parents are in love today because she brought them together, referring to events in "Snow Drifts" and "There's No Place Like Home."
- When Mary Margaret and David touch the sapling of true love, they both experience flashbacks from "Pilot," "Snow Falls," "A Land Without Magic," "Lady of the Lake," "The New Neverland," "Snow Drifts" and "There's No Place Like Home."
- The ultrasound scan that Mr. Gold is looking at was left by Belle at the pawnshop in "Dark Waters."
- David wakes up Mary Margaret with true love's kiss as he did in "Pilot" and "A Land Without Magic."
- David and Mary Margaret are awakened from the Sleeping Curse in "Awake."
Disney
- Prince Charming's dog Wilby is a reference to Wilby Daniels, the main character of The Shaggy Dog.
- Regina delivers a message via a raven, a reference to the raven that the Evil Queen interacts with in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Lost
- There are close-ups of Hook's eyes as he studies the potion bottle.[10] This is a common theme on Lost.
- The Evil Queen asks Snow if she remembers her 15th birthday. The number "15" is a recurring Lost number.
Fairytales and Folklore
- This episode features the ugly duckling from the titular fairytale, Snow White, the prince and the evil queen from the "Snow White" fairytale, the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story, the Fairy with turquoise hair from The Adventures of Pinocchio story, the woodcutter from the "Little Red Riding Hood" fairytale,[11] the ugly duckling from the fairytale of the same name, Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story, and the pauper's mother from The Prince and the Pauper.
- The serum queen says that she prefers Snow White sleeping, picks up a hand-held mirror and looks into it, and picks up an apple in Zelena's farmhouse, which are all references to the "Snow White" fairytale (the sleeping curse, the magic mirror and the poisoned apple respectively).
- The serum queen traps Regina inside a mirror, an ironic spin on the evil queen's interaction with the magic mirror from the "Snow White" fairytale.
- STORYBOOK CONTENT: Excerpts from the Grimm fairy tales "The Golden Bird,"[12] "King Thrushbeard,"[13] "The Queen Bee"[14] and "The Water of Life"[15] can be seen in Henry's storybook.
- The excerpt from "The Golden Bird" appears in dozens of episodes; read the trivia section in the article for Henry's storybook for more information and a transcript.
- The excerpt from "King Thrushbeard" is from the first volume of Grimm's Household Tales, an English edition translated by Margaret Hunt, published by George Bell and Sons in 1884 (link to text) (text set in fuchsia is off-screen):
(…) But it was of no use, she had to yield unless she |
- The excerpt from "The Queen Bee" is directly copied from The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales (link to text), an English edition first published in 1944 by Pantheon Books, based on a translation by the aforementioned Margaret Hunt, but revised by the publisher (text set in fuchsia is off-screen):
The first was that in the forest, beneath the moss, |
- The excerpt from "The Water of Life" is from the second volume of the Hunt's translation Grimm's Household Tales (link to text). (text set in fuchsia is off-screen):
They waited until they found him fast asleep, then they |
- Gabriel is a hunter of werewolves, a creature from European mythology.[16]
Popular Culture
- When the Evil Queen says "Rage, rage against the dying of the light," she is quoting the poem "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas.[17]
- The name "Longbourn" is a reference to Longbourn estate from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It is the favorite novel of Jane Espenson, who wrote the episode.[18]
Set Dressing
- REUSED PROPS: The two yellow tents with green stripes on the roof which are sitting in the camp where Snow White attempts to sell her jewelry,[19] previously appeared in the United Clans' camp in DunBroch in the Season Five episode "The Bear and the Bow."[20] Both of them were re-used for the Resistance camp in the Season Seven episode "The Garden of Forking Paths"[21] (one of them also appears in the Resistance camp in the Season Seven episodes "Pretty in Blue"[22] and "The Eighth Witch").[23]
- One of the green/yellow tents also appeared the marketplace that adult Jiminy visited with his parents in the Season One episode "That Still Small Voice."[24] It also appeared at the campsite where the soldiers were getting ready to slay the dragon in the Season One episode "The Shepherd"[25] and in front of the Storybrooke Town Hall during Miner's Day in the Season One episode "Dreamy."[26]
- The same prop was used for the tent where Snow White and Prince Charming slept during their journey to the Tree of Wisdom in the Season Four episode "Unforgiven."[27]
Costume Notes
- BRAND INFO: Zelena is wearing[28] a Duchess Blazer by SMYTHE.[29]
- BRAND INFO: Emma is wearing[30] a Joie Katrine Top (no longer available)[31] and a Alice + Olivia Shawl Jacket.[32]
- USE IT AGAIN: Emma wears the same outfit in the next episode, "I'll Be Your Mirror."[33]
- BRAND INFO: Mary Margaret is wearing[34] a Rebecca Taylor Embellished Top[35] (no longer available). She wears it again in "I'll Be Your Mirror."[36]
- The blouse was also worn by the character Cece Parekh on the New Girl episode "Es Good."[37]
Filming Locations
- The Enchanted Forest tent camp scene was filmed near the North Langley Community Church[40] in Langley, British Columbia.
- Burnaby's Central Park doubles as the Storybrooke graveyard for this episode.[41]
- The scene with Prince Charming and Snow White at Gabriel's carriage was filmed in a forest in North Vancouver.[42]
- Lynn Canyon Park in the District of North Vancouver doubles as the Storybrooke forest for the scene where David finds Mary Margaret in the glass coffin and wakes her with true love's kiss.[43]
Goofs
- The name "Steveston"[44] can be glimpsed on Harmony Dental Studio, a business located across the street from Granny's Diner, as Regina approaches the tree to test the mysterious water.[45] Harmony Dental Studio is a real-life business in Steveston Village, the Canadian town which doubles as Storybrooke for the show. The real-life sign, which was not changed for the episode, says "Harmony Dental Studio – Steveston's Family Dentist."[46]
International Titles
International Titles | ||
---|---|---|
Language | Title | Translation |
French | "La Pousse Magique" | "The Magical Shoot" |
German | "Sie haben einander so lieb, doch sie können zusammen nicht kommen" | "They love each other so much, but they could not come together" |
Italian | "Senza cuore" | "Heartless" |
Portuguese | "Sem Coração" | "Without Heart" |