Skip to Content

Once Upon a Time, Ep. 2.07, “Child of the Moon”: Running with the wolves

Once Upon a Time, Ep. 2.07, “Child of the Moon”: Running with the wolves

Once Upon a Time, Season 2, Episode 7: “Child of the Moon”
Written by Ian Goldberg & Andrew Chambliss
Directed by Anthony Hemingway
Airs Sundays at 8pm (ET) on ABC

Who wants to go to Happy Hour at Granny’s? Pretty much all the dwarves do, except for Grumpy that is. After informing the other dwarves that he plans on staying in the mine until he finds fairy dust, one more swing into the cavern wall and Grumpy crashes through it only to find diamonds growing in the small space. But this isn’t the dwarves’ episode, it’s strictly for Ruby, otherwise known as the wolf.

The episode definitely belongs to Meghan Ory, who has always held her own as Red. We’ve seen her pop up every now and then throughout the season, but nothing huge, which is a surprise since they upped her to a regular cast member for season two. She’s always been able to hold the viewers’ interest when playing Red/Ruby and she definitely knows how to deal with the conflicting emotions and feelings that Red has about the Wolf, so it’s nice to see her get more of a chance to shine.

The storylines in both Storybrooke and in the past Enchanted Forrest are all about Ruby and her upbringing. Granted, other than a few things with Henry and the scene with Snow/Emma at the end of the episode, this is basically a filler episode, which is perfectly alright because the episode hooks us in just as any other.

The writers also keep us interested in the conflicting battle between Charming and King George that is starting to take place in Storybrooke. It’s a nice change to see other villains step up this season and challenge our heroes. The tension between Charming and George has always been grazed upon in the past fairy tale world; it is interesting to see how it plays out in Storybrooke.

We find that the past Enchanted Forest storyline deals strictly with Red and her coming to terms with the Wolf inside of her. Perhaps the most shocking revelation comes when Red is escorted, by a young wolf named Quinn, into a den of wolves, where Red ends up finding her mother, Anita, who she thought was dead. The mother of Red is played by actress Annabeth Gish, who does an extremely good job playing the den mother of the wolves. Props go to the casting director who got an actress that not only can pull off the leadership role as ‘mommy wolf’, but also looks like she could actually pass for Ory’s mother. The way Red comes to find out how to control her wolf-sense feels a little predictable. It seems like in every fantasy, whether it is wolves, witches, or vampires, the way they talk about it and train is in voice over. The wolves running together calls for a time out so we can give another hands up to the special effects guys. The CGI pack looks like it could go running with another certain movie pack.

All in all, even though it is mostly filler and doesn’t really address anything major, other than setting up King George as the primary villain in Storybrooke and dealing with Henry’s nightmares, this episode is storytelling at its finest, something with which that the Once writers never seem to have trouble.

There are some questions that are raised, like what exactly is going to happen with Henry’s dreams? Especially now that he seems to be communicating with Aurora. Is Regina’s role as primary villain over with? Is she going to help with the impending fight with George and, probably soon, Cora? And just how is Charming going to get to Snow and Emma, now that George has destroyed Jefferson’s hat? Speaking of which, who is going to get the job of telling Jefferson that his hat was destroyed? As ever, the writers leave us chomping at the bit for more- we will just have to wait until the next trip to Storybrooke to get our answers. Until then, might I suggest a quick run with Ruby, who is in complete control of her wolf power now?

Josh Bouye

[wpchatai]