by Addie Heffernan '29 on September 17, 2026
A&E - Film & TV
Like most children, I grew up with a deep love of stories and fairytales, which only deepened as I grew older. This interest is what pulled me into ABC’s Once Upon A Time, a seven-season series that ran from 2011 to 2018, focused on the simple premise of all the fairytale characters that we have grown up with being sent to Earth, a place where happy endings are far harder to come by.
The pilot episode begins with that explanation, preparing the audience for what is coming right before they are introduced to Prince Charming, the dwarfs, and an awakened Snow White, whose wedding is dramatically interrupted by the Evil Queen declaring that they will suffer under a dark curse and have their happiness ripped away. Snow insists that the threat is a promise, and she and Charming venture to meet with Rumplestiltskin, the magical imp who lives in their dungeon. He confirms Snow’s fears about the validity of the Queen’s curse, but reveals that their child will be the savior, breaking the enchantment after her 28th birthday and making time move again despite their frozen state. As the curse looms closer, Snow and Charming have a war council with other notable fairytale characters such as the dwarfs, Red Riding Hood and Granny, Jiminy Cricket, Geppetto, Pinocchio, and the Blue Fairy. Their solution to the imminent doom is to build a portal out of a tree and transport Snow through it to avoid losing her memory and protect the baby. Snow is skeptical of this plan and distraught at a future without her husband, but she has no choice. The wardrobe gets built and finished just before the curse strikes, and she goes into labor. The baby is born and makes it safely into the wardrobe, while Charming is fatally wounded fighting the Queen’s knights. The Queen arrives at the castle to gloat over a devastated Snow, who remains hopeful as the curse washes over them, knowing that her daughter made it out. The end, right? An intriguing tale that flips every fairytale children have grown up with on its head.
Not even close.
In between these flashbacks of the enchanted forest and the curse that is awaiting them, we spend time in our world and are introduced to our protagonist, Emma Swan, a bail bondsperson who knows nothing about family, and her son, Henry, who ventured to Boston to find the mother who had given him up for adoption 10 years prior. Henry convinces Emma to drive him back to Storybrooke and she reluctantly agrees, becoming an unwilling audience as the boy explains that his town of somewhat struggling citizens is filled with victims of the curse woven through the episode. While this is not news to the audience, it is to Emma, who is introduced to various townspeople, including Regina Mills, Henry’s adoptive mother who happens to be just as threatened by Emma’s presence, as she is threatening to the heroes back in the enchanted forest as their evil queen. Emma leaves promptly, but is unable to make it past the town line, in part due to a wolf in the road and Henry leaving his book in her car. She wakes up
in jail before being enlisted to help the Sheriff and Regina find Henry, who has once again snuck out. It is through this search that we meet Mary Margaret Blanchard, Henry’s teacher who gave him the storybook that set his entire curse revelation and mother search into motion. While she and Emma find common ground, Mary shares Henry’s usual hiding place, sending Emma to a decrepit castle playground. Henry and Emma are able to bond over feeling unwanted, as Emma was left by her parents too as a newborn on the side of the freeway. It is this moment of connection with her son, mixed with Regina’s thinly veiled threats upon his safe return, that encourage her to book a room at the nearby Granny’s bed and breakfast and agree to stay for a week. The last shot we see before the credits roll is the old clock tower, which has not moved Henry’s entire life, beginning to work again, signaling the movement of time.
What truly makes this pilot so special is its structure, with scenes flashing between Storybrooke, ME, where the characters have been sent to live during their curse, and the Enchanted Forest. These parallels allow the audience to get to know the new versions of these beloved characters while also seeing their cursed personas as Emma meets them in Maine. There’s also the twist that no one truly knows whether the curse is real, or if we are simply seeing things through Henry’s point of view, with the flashbacks depicting what he believes to be true. This question is threaded through the rest of the first season as well, but never as expertly as it is in this episode. The characters we are introduced to are engaging and easy to root for against the backdrop of a coastal town with charm and fear lingering on the edges. While this pilot may only be the start of this long-winded magical quest, it truly sets the series up for what turned out to be unparalleled success.