The twin brother copout allowed the writers room to tell a decent origin story about the actual Prince Charming. Charming's twin was egotistical, vain, and someone who didn't bother to listen to his own arrogant advice about making sure someone's dead before looking away or making a sloppy move. I couldn't imagine an entire episode devoted to such a character's quest to slay a dragon would be riveting or worthwhile. And, indeed, the writers felt the same way. The story shifted dramatically to a lowly sheep herder (or shepherd as in the episode title) who just wanted to continue herding sheep, find a nice woman that he CHOSE, love and then marry her. Unfortunately, the greed of men thwarted Charming's best laid plans. Rumplestiltskin made another deal with Charming and his mother. Immediately thereafter, Charming's amidst armies of two castles, with a golden sword from Prince Midas in his clutches, ready to slay a dragon. Long story short: he slays the dragon, learns the truth about dowry and marriage, mopes and pouts, gives in, then meets Snow White.
The one word the A story kept returning to in both worlds was "choice." Choice, or free will, is more important to Charming than gold or dowry. The ability to choose is rarer than painite as well as more precious. Individual free-will's been permanently changed in Storybrooke unbeknownst to everyone but a certain set of characters. Free-will isn't popular in the fairytale world. While I haven't read any interviews with Kitsis and Horowitz about the model for their fairy tales, I feel confident in suggesting the creators model their fairy tale world after the middle ages. No, free will wasn't something the middle age folk knew about, except for royalty. King Midas and King Alan Dale (not character name) weren't interested in Charming's ideas for himself or his future wife. King Alan Dale desired the gold that literally dripped from Midas's fingertips. Midas offered a gift more precious and golden than his own literal gold to Charming and the kingdom--his beloved daughter--and of course the kingdom would experience the flow of gold into the kingdom once the marriage was made and consummated (presumably...this is a 2000hr show).
Charming felt conflicted between his personal wants and needs versus the wants and needs of the two kingdoms in fairy tale land. King Alan Dale made it clear to his new son when he stated Charming had no choice. Charming returned to his sheep-herding home to tell his mother about his new path in life and to bid farewell. Loyalty and honor are the only two things he knows. His mother urged her son to flee the kingdoms and hide. Charming, though, found some honor in loving a woman he had no choice but to love because loving her meant saving the life of a woman he actually loved (his mother). Thus, he consented to a life chosen for him. After all, he never had a choice once his brother died and King Alan Dale needed a champion.
David Nolan (aka Prince Charming) received a welcome home party. Despite his amnesia, he socialized with the assembled guests before fleeing to Mary Margaret. David told anyone who'd listen about how he never chose the woman he married, that he deserved a chance to choose the woman he wanted to be with, and that woman was/is Mary Margaret. Of course, Prince Charming eventually married Snow White, but he and Mary don't remember the life they once shared together--it wouldn't be a curse if they did. Presently, it's all about the pain for Mary Margaret. She met him where she found him passed out after he searched the town for her post-coma only to endure rejection from the man she found herself quite taken with. David visited with Mr. Gold, looked up a decorative windmill, and remembered his life with Katherine. The memories filled him with the same sense of honor, duty and loyalty his fairytale self possessed. Namely, David needed to honor the vows of marriage and love he made with Katherine once upon a time, in another life.
Nothing new jumped out in "The Shepherd." I mean, the episode followed the same formula of the previous episodes. The stories in both worlds ran parallel. There were scenes intentionally designed to cause the viewer to wonder about who knows what and who holds the power. I read Brad Willingham's interview with himself today. Willingham created Fables and published today's article to put to bed claims that ABC's show ripped off his comic book series. Willingham wrote about his curiosity about the possible power struggle between Regina and Gold in Storybrooke. Immediately I flashbacked to season six of LOST when MIB and Jacob were seen in flashbacks involved in a power struggle for the Island. Should the series head in such a direction, Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz would be guilty of ripping off their own series. I'm hesitant to speculate about a power struggle because Mr. Gold seems like the puppet master of it all. Every character in Once Upon A Time went to Rumplestiltskin, including the queen, and he profited from each deal he made. Regina's going to become more interesting when the fog of the curse lifts and Mr. Gold's standing there with the fate of Storybrooke in his skinny, spidery hands. This is all speculation of course and sort of unrelated to the actual episode.
"The Shepherd" didn't succeed in its ambition to make Charming a beloved character. Josh Dallas performed well in the spotlight. The character needs some work, though. I think the biggest problem of the A story was how condensed the story was. Chambliss and Goldberg worked through enough beats for a 90 minute episode. I'd criticize the quick-decision making of Charming if not for the corner the character was in. Instead, I'll remark on how little drama there is with a character with no individual freedom or will-power. One might respond with a list of stories about characters that faced the same hurdles as Prince Charming, to which I'd respond with something about how those stories weren't dull or boring. NFL players and coaches constantly talk about the importance of execution. Well, execution's extremely important in creative writing. New ideas still exist in the world but many contemporary TV shows re-use story ideas. Execution's the difference between success and failure. Right now, the execution of Once Upon A Time's episodes is poor. I expect improvement, though, because the room's too talented to continue producing boring stories.
Other thoughts:
-I listened to a Nerdist Writer's Panel Podcast with Eddie Kitsis and Adam Horowitz. I've heard interviews with the writing team before. Their story about their writing process together isn’t something I just discovered on Thursday. Adam's the actual writer while Eddie's the idea guy or something. Something annoyed me about the panel, though. Eddie Kitsis needed to write part of a LOST draft without Adam around, except he couldn't because he doesn't know how to properly format or write a script himself. I'm sure he was joking, but his tone suggested otherwise. Adam Horowtiz deserves more credit at all times for laboring through the actual typing part. I wrote 52 short scripts with a friend over a number of years. I typed every one out, but he was an integral part of the process, pitching in jokes, punching up a scene, breaking a scene with me, finding typos, acting out the scene with me as it was written. If Kitsis is doing the same work then that is completely fine.
-Emma and Henry were on the sidelines tonight. Emma saw the Sheriff sneak out of Regina's home, which disgusted her. Next week's going to reveal all about the sheriff.
-Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg wrote the episode. Victor Nerelli Jr. directed it.
THE YOUTUBE CLIP OF THE WEEK
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