The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter"
Season One
Season 01, Episode 07
Episode Information
Character backstory	The Huntsman
Premiere date	December 11, 2011
Viewers	8.91 million
Written by	Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz
Directed by	David M. Barrett
Episode Chronology
Previous Episode	"The Shepherd"
Next Episode	"Desperate Souls"
Related Pages

“

I always felt there were two kinds of people. Wolves and sheep. Those who kill, and those who get killed. And you, Huntsman... you are most certainly a wolf.

”

—The Evil Queen to the Huntsman

"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" is the seventh episode of Season One of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz and directed by David M. Barrett. It is the seventh episode of the series overall, and premiered on December 11, 2011.

Synopsis

One of the town's residents begins to remember their fairytale past, and Storybrooke mourns the loss of one of their own. Meanwhile, in the fairytale world that was, the Evil Queen attempts to find a heartless assassin to murder Snow White.

Recap

This section is a detailed recap of this episode. There are major spoilers. Click to expand.

In the present

In Granny's Diner, Sheriff Graham throws darts at a picture of a deer very accurately. Emma arrives but leaves immediately because she has not forgiven him for hiding his relationship with Regina. Emma attempts to avoid conversation, but Graham is insistent on explaining to her he feels nothing for Regina. He kisses Emma and suddenly sees a vision of a wolf, only to have Emma push him away. Frustrated by Emma's lack of understanding, Graham, drunk, later has sex with Regina. In the middle of the night, he awakens abruptly from a dream of a deer and a wolf. When Graham tells Regina that the dream felt like a memory, Regina tries to convince him to stay, telling him that he's still drunk, but Graham leaves. As Graham attempts to get to his car, the wolf from his visions appears next to him, startling him before it leaves. As he tries to find the wolf in the woods, he runs into Mr. Gold. Graham tells him about the wolf, and Mr. Gold suggests to him that dreams are memories from another life.

The following morning, Emma discovers flowers on the table and throws them out, assuming they are from Graham, but Mary Margaret says that they were hers from Dr. Whale, with whom she had a one-night stand. Emma is glad to hear that Mary Margaret appears to be getting over David. Mary Margaret tells Emma that it is obvious that she has feelings for Graham, but does not acknowledge them because she is putting up a "wall" to keep herself from getting hurt.

The sheriff finds the wolf in the woods, and when he whistles, the wolf goes to him. As he pets the wolf's head, he sees himself holding a knife, about to hurt the woman he only knows as Mary Margaret. Graham pays a visit to her classroom, telling her that he believes they know each other from another life, before Storybrooke. Mary Margaret assumes that the sheriff has been talking to Henry, and while this is not the case, this gives Graham the idea to consult Henry about his book. Meanwhile, at the sheriff's office, Regina shows up and warns Emma to stay away from Graham, apparently jealous of his connection with Emma.

Graham visits Henry and describes his visions, to which Henry replies that he must be the queen's Huntsman. The Huntsman was hired by the Evil Queen's to remove Snow White's heart and bring it back to her, but when he did not do so, she removed his heart. Graham later attempts to explain to Emma that he could not feel anything with Regina because he does not have a heart. Graham and Emma then encounter the wolf from Graham's visions, and follow it to a graveyard and vault marked with a symbol Graham saw in his visions and in Henry's book. Looking for his heart, Graham fervently searches the vault, which turns out to be the tomb of Regina's father. Regina arrives to place flowers on her father's grave and is furious to find them there.

Regina accuses Emma of stealing the sheriff from her, and Emma responds that Regina has chased everyone away. Graham defends Emma, and the women exchange blows. Later, while Graham cleans Emma's wounds, Regina pushes aside the coffin inside the vault, which turns out not to be a tomb after all; the coffin reveals a staircase. Emma realizes her feelings for Graham and the two kiss just as Regina opens a storage box in the hidden room and clutches Graham's heart, crushing it to dust, showing that she remembers being the Evil Queen. Before he collapses and dies, Graham's last words to Emma are "I remember! Thank you."

In the past

In the Enchanted Forest, the Evil Queen mourns the death of her husband, Snow White's father, although she herself is responsible for his death. Snow and the queen seemingly comfort each other over the loss. The queen consults her Magic Mirror to ask how she can kill Snow, who is beloved by the people but a threat to her bid for the throne. She says that the king's knights will not kill his daughter, and the mirror tells her that she needs a huntsman. As Graham saw in his flashbacks, the Huntsman and his wolf seem to enjoy living a peaceful life in the woods. The Huntsman kills only for himself to live, and has no compassion for humans, who do not understand the wild. As the Huntsman and his wolf enter a tavern, the other patrons begin harassing him, prompting him to successfully defend himself. His performance is viewed in the Magic Mirror by the Queen, who is greatly impressed. She summons the Huntsman to offer him anything he wants on the condition that he brings her Snow's heart. He agrees to this deal, in return asking for the protection of all the wolves in the Enchanted Forest.

Snow and the Huntsman walk together in the forest, and she sees through his disguise and correctly guesses that he was sent by the queen to kill her. Snow flees, but as the Huntsman catches up with her, he finds her writing a letter, which she requests he deliver to the queen after she is killed. The Huntsman takes out his knife, but instead of killing her, he fashions a whistle out of a bamboo stick, telling her that it will summon help and then telling her to run. The Huntsman then returns to the queen with a deer heart, hoping that she will not know the difference. The queen asks him to read her the letter, which is an apology for past wrongs as well as a request from Snow that her stepmother rule the kingdom with compassion. The queen burns the letter and takes the box with the heart in it to store in her vault. When she cannot open one of her storage safes, it proves that the Huntsman lied to her; the heart is not human. The queen has her guards drag him to her chamber and she yanks his glowing heart out of his body. She tells the Huntsman that from now on he will be her pet and will do her bidding forever. She orders the guards to take him to her bed chamber, warning him that if he ever betrays her, all she has to do is squeeze his heart.

Deleted Scenes

A scene involving Rumplestiltskin was cut.

Cast

Starring Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret Blanchard Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan Lana Parrilla as Evil Queen/Regina Mills Josh Dallas (Credit only) Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills Raphael Sbarge (Credit only) Jamie Dornan as the Huntsman/Sheriff Graham Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold

Guest Starring Giancarlo Esposito as Magic Mirror/Sidney Glass Meghan Ory as Ruby Co-Starring Scott Heindl as Bartholomew Tristan Jensen as Horatio Kam Kozak as Black Guard Howard Siegel as Tavern Owner

Trivia

• Production Notes
• Episode Connections
• Cultural References
• Set Notes
• Goofs
• Other Notes

Title

• The opening title card features the wolf.

Production Notes

• This is the last episode to credit Jamie Dornan as series regular.
• This is the first episode in which Josh Dallas does not appear.
• Originally, there were plans for a future story about Snow White using the whistle that the Huntsman made for her. The show creators "had something fun planned for that", but it never came to pass.
• Jennifer Morrison pulled a muscle while shooting the fight scene with Regina, due to shooting the fight from so many different angles in the cold.

Episode Chronology

• The Enchanted Forest flashbacks occur after "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree" and before "Red-Handed". (For more details, see the Enchanted Forest timeline)
• The Storybrooke events of this episode occur after "The Shepherd" and two weeks before "Desperate Souls". (For more details, see the Land Without Magic timeline)

Episode Connections

• The events surrounding the death of King Leopold are explored in "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree".
• The Huntsman's fate following the ripping out of his heart is shown in "A Land Without Magic".
• The Huntsman's failed attempt at killing Snow White is mentioned again in "The Evil Queen".
• Sheriff Graham's life during the first week after the casting of the curse is explored in "Welcome to Storybrooke".
• What Mr. Gold was burying in the woods is revealed in "The Return".
• The school classroom where Graham comes to see Mary Margaret is the same classroom where David came to see her in "The Shepherd".

Biblical

• Graham asks Mary Margaret if she believes in other lives. She replies, "Like heaven?".
• A cross-shaped headstone can be seen in the Storybrooke graveyard, while a cross is etched into the grave of an "Olson, Anthony".

Disney

• The Evil Queen sends the Huntsman to kill Snow White and bring back her ripped out heart as proof, but he is unable to do so.
  • This episode contains a number of other references to Disney works. See the list of Disney references for more.

Lost

• There is a close-up of Graham's eye as he awakens. This is a recurring theme from Lost.
  • This episode contains a number of other references to ABC's Lost. See the list of Lost references for more.

Fairytales and Folklore

• This episode is a rendition of the "Snow White" fairytale, focusing on the evil queen's attempted assassination of Snow White by giving a huntsman the job of killing her.
  • This episode also features the ugly ducking from the fairytale of the same name and the magic mirror from the "Snow White" fairytale.

Props Notes

• Mary Margaret has an Anthropologie Grapefruit Sugar Bowl (no longer available).
• An excerpt from the fairy tale of "The Golden Bird" can be seen when Henry flips through the storybook.
  • A description of a scene from "Pilot", can be seen next to an illustration of the Huntsman, and the illustration of the Evil Queen:

The Queen [illegible / image ends]
with fear as what [image ends]
don't. "Soon, ev[image ends]
love, will be tak[image ends]
suffering will rise [image ends]
to face Charmi[image ends]
ness if it is the [image ends]
Having made [image ends]
to walk away. B[image ends]
Queen's threat go[image ends]
threw it at the ev[image ends]
her, however, the [image ends]
smoke. The sword [image ends]
Queen was gone. [image ends]

• The rest of the page contains an excerpt from the fairytale of "Snow-White and Rose-Red".

• Three illustrations by the famous English book illustrator Arthur Rackham can be seen in the book:

• "The Meeting of Oberon and Titania", a 1905 artwork by depicting a scene from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
• An illustration from a 1922 edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's children's book A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys. It depicts a scene from the story "The Paradise of Children".
• "He played until the room was entirely filled with gnomes", from the fairy tale collection Little Brother & Little Sister and Other Tales By The Brothers Grimm (1917). It depicts a scene from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "The Gnome".

Set Dressing

• On Mary Margaret's loft counter, there is a Vintage Enesco Tea for Two Owl Teapot.
• Regina's bedroom has Arabian Scroll Motif Saybrook wallpaper from Wallquest.
  • One of the pictures on the wall, is "Rosa indica Fragrans - Rosier des Indes odorant", a watercolor picture by the famous Belgian nineteenth century painter and botanist Pierre-Joseph Redouté, from his work The Roses, published between 1817 and 1824. Rosa indica is a synonym for Rosa chinensis, more commonly known as China rose.
  • The same picture is in one of the rooms that Cora searches in the Season Two episode "In the Name of the Brother", and outside Regina's kitchen in the Season Three episode "Save Henry".
• On the billboard at the sheriff's station, there is a police report describing the events leading up to Dory Zimmer's death. However, this is just a fake document fabricated by the curse:

St
4979 MA

Telephone: 555-0145
Fax: 555-0146

[image begins]RATIVE − [three illegible words] Sun 10/14 11:22 − [illegible word] 03 – 10 – 0742

[image begins]ARY PLACEMENT − [illegible word] Dorris Zimmer [sic]

[image begins]. Sheriff Graham responded to the area of Franklin Drive in
[image begins] our vehicle parked in the woods. The explainant, Neil Westlake,
[image begins]gar one parked in the woods and is wounded like [illegible word] was
[image begins] woods. Upon Graham's arrival, he found a white [illegible word], early 90's
[image begins]s. He made contact with the driver, Dorris Zimmer [sic], 01/01/02.
[image begins]he was suffering from clinical depression and that she was not

[image begins]ed and checked the area. She was largely incoherent and is
[image begins] [illegible]. This prompted the Sheriff to further inspect the vehicle,
[image begins] ran taped to the tall pipe of the vehicle. At this [illegible word],
[image begins] and taken into custody under the [illegible word] of the Baker Act.

[image begins]he no longer wants to live. She also keeps stating that she was
[image begins]le." She admitted that she had been institutionalized two times
[image begins] suicide.

[image begins] background check, it was [illegible word] that Zimmer had a previ-
[image begins] incident during the New Year festivities in Storybrooke Park.

[image begins]re called and Zimmer was transferred to the Storybrooke Mental
[image begins]is point, the Clinical Psychiatrist on duty alerted the Special
[image begins] [illegible word] in the presence of her two children, Nicholas and Ava (both 4

[image begins]fed and the children were found alone at the Zimmer
[image begins]is Boulevard, since − without a primary caregiver present. The
[image begins] into short-term foster care while while Zimmer underwent further
[image begins]sted this file was S.S. Edwards who is responsible through the

[image begins] and impounded at the municipal premises on Will Road.

• Neal Westlake is a graphic designer and production staff member on the show, whose name appears on several props throughout the series:

• He is listed as a land surveyor on a document in "Fruit of the Poisonous Tree".
• He is credited as a photographer on the front page of the Storybrooke Daily Mirror in "The Stable Boy".
• He is listed as one of the reviewers on the book blurb for Isaac's novel "Heroes and Villains" in the Season Four episode "Operation Mongoose Part 1".
• He is listed as a Storybrooke entrepreneur on a sign by the town hall in the Season Five episode "Last Rites".
• He is credited as the author on the cover of book Robin Hood: Myth and Legend in the Season Five episode "Only You" and the Season Seven episode "The Girl in the Tower".

• Next to the police report, there is a report about an 8 year old boy named Billy Mason from Seattle, Washington. According to the report, he disappeared on on March 1, 2002, and was possibly kidnapped by his babysitter, a 16 year old boy named David. David is described as having a birth mark on his left shoulder, wore a gold watch, and his clothes were made by The Ridge Clothing Co. He was last seen at the house of a man named Greg Mason, where he "was babysitting for his [sic]". According to the report, "David disappeared along with his 8 year old charge Billy Mason. The time of disappearance is between 8:000 and 12:30 on March 1. 2002. Billy Mason's parents arrived home at 12:30 am to find the back door wide open and the house empty". The incident was reported by Srgt. Kelly, and the investigating officer is called Det. Bradshaw. The report contains an officer's signature, but it is unreadable.
• Below the report is a document carrying the Storybrooke Sheriff's Department seal. A website address is printed on it: www.kawther.info. This is the personal website of Kawther Salam, a Palestinian journalist who reported on human rights abuses by the Israeli military and filed legal complaints against them. Fittingly enough, the document is written in Hebrew.

• One of the gravestones in the Storybrooke graveyard says:

In Loving Memory of
Norman Crane
January 12, 1937 – July 17, 1999
Born in Brooklyn, New York

• Another gravestone says "Olson", "Anthony"

• The insignia on the Mills mausoleum shows interlocking deer antlers, a reference to the stag heart which the Evil Queen received from the Huntsman.

Costume Notes

• Mary Margaret is wearing a skirt from H&M (no longer available).
• Mr. Gold wears a red tie that is the same tie that Henry chooses to go with the suit he'll be wearing as Mr. Gold's apprentice in the Season Four episode "The Snow Queen".
  • Gold wears the same tie at the sheriff's station in "Desperate Souls", in "Heart of Darkness", and when he is reunited with his "son" in "The Return".

Goofs

• When the wolf walks way from Graham, a window pane in the background says "Pacific Net & Twine", the real name of the Steveston business which doubles as Atlantic Twine & Net on the show.
• After Regina's scuffle with Emma, there is blood on the lower left corner of her lip. For the rest of the episode, the wound keeps changing appearance and position.
• When Emma is pressing a pack of ice against her wound, her flower wrist tattoo is missing.

Reawakened: A Once Upon a Time Tale

• Emma finds the vase containing Mary Margaret's flowers from Dr. Whale. Mistakenly believing they are from Graham, she hurls it across the room, shattering it.
• Snow White states she "watched (her father) fall in love with Regina".
• As Graham is dying, he says to Emma that he loves her.
• After his death, Graham's body is put on a stretcher and carried away by paramedics.

International Titles

International Titles
Language	Title	Translation
Finnish	"Metsästäjä"	"The Huntsman"
French	"Le Cœur du Chasseur"	"The Heart of the Huntsman"
German	"Das Herz ist ein einsamer Jäger"	"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter"
Hungarian	"Magányos vadász a szív"	"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter"
Italian	"Il cacciatore"	"The Huntsman"
Polish	"Serce to samotny myśliwy"	"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter"
Portuguese	"Coração é um caçador solitário"	"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter"
Spanish	"El Corazón es un Cazador Solitario"	"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter"

Videos

1x07 - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter - Promo

1x07 - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter - UK Promo

1x07 - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter - Sneak Peek 1

1x07 - The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter - Sneak Peek 2

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