Ginnifer Goodwin stars in "Once Upon A Time" (Sundays on ABC)

With the season only having a few episodes left, this is as good a time as any to have a short review of character plot lines.  With the episodes jumping back in forth between different pieces of character back-stories, keeping track of each one chronologically can be quite the task. So this article will be part one in a series of four plot line reviews. This way, we can make sure we’ve kept track of all our favorite, major characters in the past as well as in the present.

Part One: Snow White

Chronologically, little Snow begins her journey in the most recent episode, “The Stable Boy.” In this episode Snow White is a little girl who accidentally causes Regina to lose her love. Regina marries the king/Snow’s father and Snow is unaware that her new stepmother is also her new evil archenemy. The next time we see Snow in her youth is in  “Fruit of the Poisonous Tree” the episode with the back-story of the magic mirror. Regina, Snow, and her father Leopold live in their castle. Snow has truly become the fairest of them all, just like her mother, her father proudly boasts. Leopold finds a genie, which he frees. The genie falls in love with Regina and Regina manipulates him into killing Leopold. Snow’s father dies. In “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter,” Snow is grieving the death of her father and Regina pretends to as well. Regina hires a huntsman to kill Snow White in the woods. Snow White appeals to his better nature and he lets her go.

I’m torn whether it is Snow’s appearance in “Red-Handed” or “Snow Falls” that comes next but because she did not display any sign of having met Prince Charming yet in “Red-Handed” I believe that it comes next. Snow White has been on the run from the queen and Little Red Riding Hood finds her asleep in the village hen house. The two become friends and Snow helps Red solve the mystery of who the terrible wolf is. When it is revealed the wolf is Red at the end of the episode the two run off into the woods to escape. In “Snow Falls” Snow White and Prince Charming finally meet when she robs his royal carriage. The two share an adventure, fall in love, but, sadly, part at the end. 

Next comes the episode “7:15 A.M.” Snow is in solitude in the woods and receives visits from Red who brings supplies to her. Snow learns that the prince is still going through with his marriage to Midus’ daughter. Heartbroken, Snow goes to see Rumplestiltskin and gets a love-erase potion in exchange for a strand of her hair. Later, she gets a carrier-pigeon note from the prince asking her to come to him. If she does he will know she loves him and the two can be together. Snow goes to him but is captured and thrown in jail where she meets the dwarf “Grumpy”. When Grumpy’s brother, the eighth dwarf, Stealthy breaks them out he is killed. Snow White offers herself to spare Grumpy’s life. King George forces Snow to tell the prince she doesn’t love him so that he will marry Midus’ daughter. This breaks her heart but she does it to stop King George from killing him. Grumpy and the other dwarfs take her in. They tell her not to take the love-erase potion but she does anyways before she learns Prince Charming has run away from the wedding to find her.

In “Heart of Darkness” Snow White has changed into a much meaner and more vengeful person as a result of taking the love-erase potion. She decides to get revenge on the queen for ruining her life and seeks Rumplestiltskin’s help to do it. She is about to kill the queen when Prince Charming stops her and breaks the spell of the potion with true love’s kiss. The two are happily reunited for about ten seconds before King George’s forces come, capture him, and take him away. Snow shouts the couple’s vow of “I will always find you,” as he is taken away.

Here there is a big gap in the back-story that has yet to be filled

While we do not yet know what happens next, we know eventually, from the “Pilot,” that Snow goes into her famous catatonic state from the traditional fairytale and the prince rides to rescue her, kisses her, and wakes her up. This is when we first hear their vow of “I will always find you.” The two get married but have their wedding interrupted by the evil queen’s vow to take away their “happily ever after’s” and everyone else’s. Snow’s brief appearance in “The Price of Gold” fits here. She and her husband make an appearance at Cinderella’s wedding and later try and help Cinderella break free of Rumplestiltskin’s bargain. 

Back to the “Pilot,” some time later Snow is pregnant but still worried about the queen’s promise to curse them all. She and her prince go to visit the imprisoned Rumplestiltskin. In exchange for her unborn child’s name, (Emma), he tells them the curse will happen but that Snow’s daughter will return when she is 28 and rescue them all. Under the instructions of the Blue Fairy, Geppetto and Pinocchio fashion a magic cupboard that will help one person escape the queen’s curse. On the night the cupboard is complete Snow White goes into labor as the curse begins to consume the land. Prince Charming manages to get their baby into the cupboard just in time before the queen’s forces mortally wound him. The queen stands triumphantly over Snow White and her fallen prince as the curse takes hold.

In Storybrooke, Snow White is Mary Margaret Blanchard. She is Henry’s, (Emma’s son’s) teacher. She is a kind-hearted, but very lonely woman. In the “Pilot” we are introduced to her and at the end of the episode we see she volunteers at the Hospital’s ICU and brings flowers to a comatose John Doe, unaware it is her former Prince Charming. Since the Storybrooke plot lines do not skip around like the Enchanted Forest ones do, I will just give you a brief summary of what has happened to Mary Margaret.

She helps awaken John Doe from his coma and definitely feels something for him but he has no memory and is discovered to have a wife, Kathryn, (Midus’ daughter). The two feel something for each other but they try to ignore it because he is married. Eventually neither can deny their feelings any longer and begin seeing each other. The affair goes on for a little while until she makes him choose between her and Kathryn who is moving to Boston. When the affair is revealed to Kathryn, Kathryn confronts Mary Margaret very publicly about it before deciding to leave town. The whole town temporarily views Mary Margaret as a tramp but eventually she is accepted again. 

That doesn’t last long because Kathryn goes missing. When Kathryn’s heart is found in a box with Mary Margaret’s fingerprints on it she is accused of murder. She is in prison while the investigation is going on and, at one point, escapes when she finds the key to her cell under her bead. She and Emma are captured by the Mad Hatter but escape. Emma gives her the choice to keep running or have faith in her and come back. She returns with Emma. Most recently it looked like Mary Margaret was about to go down in flames as every piece of evidence made her out to be guilty. But at the end of the latest episode Kathryn turns up alive and so, for now, I guess Mary Margaret is off the hook.

Reach staff reporter Geanna Culbertson here

For part two of Geanna's character plot line reviews, click here