Review: Once Upon A Time episode 1.7 "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter"

Blurb:

Thanks

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.

My thoughts
After finding about the episode title, was a telling hint (and from the tweets I've read) that something bad was going to happen to Storybrooke's Sheriff, good and bad at the same time. It was a short of a roller coaster of emotions and sat mulling about the episode once it came to an end.

Show's cast and crew

First, the transition from Fairy-tale land to Storybrooke was quite abrupt as if the episode was in hurry to get what it needed to say without any breaks this time. I thought the pacing heightened the growing suspense that has been steadily building up since the pilot.

Emma, after finding about Sheriff Graham's double life from the last episode, didn't want anything to do with him and said "...it was his business." This episode revealed who was Sheriff Graham in Fairy tale land and I also had an inkling he was the Huntsman too. I think the quick transitions between scenes also save those very scenes from falling into the trap of being cliched and I thought director David Barrett did a good job in keeping everything tight.

I'm still itching to know what Mr. Gold (Rumpel's) hand in this episode. I still can't tell if he knew about the curse or he was just playing along or he knew something was wrong with the picture he was now in but he just couldn't put his finger what it was. With all his interaction with Storybrooke characters, he doesn't give away anything  just like Mayor Regina.

I greatly enjoyed Jamie Dornan (Graham) scene with Jared Gilmore (Henry) and wished there had been a lot more before this. :D I'm trying to keep this spoiler-light.

It was intriguing to know that when Graham kissed Emma, his memories came flooding back. We also found out that part of the reason why he hired her to be her deputy was that he had fallen in love with her except, it didn't quite what it looked from the previous episodes. Of course, he could have just been pretending to continue his 'romantic' tryst with the mayor for her sake but he was already smitten by Emma, on the day she set foot on Storybrooke and gave the major the reason to be the thorn on her side.

FX was good and in keeping since the pilot. We saw differences of Snow White's castle for the first time, which was cool. The chamber were the evil queen kept her collection was creepy. There was something that made the scene between the Huntsman and the queen fall flat though. I don't know if it was just too gray that the starkness came across to as unreal and limiting. I was expecting some vibe that yes, you don't want to miss with this queen only  somehow it wasn't conveyed as tastefully as I was watching it. Anyway, I didn't fuss over it and it didn't make too much of a problem so it was all good.

I wonder who will be the next one to get their memories back? Archie? David?

I found a link  about THAT episode where the  show's producers shared their thoughts. (Very spoilerish)

I rate it a 4/5 stars