Once Upon a Time 1.05 'That Still Small Voice'

Though the show’s trio of smash first episodes still remain a touch above this one, it seems as though the series has finally solidified its storytelling methods, and gotten a hang of exactly what it has set out to achieve. Another lovely fairy tale was tackled quite well, after last week’s questionable interpretation and I’m sure that my love for this series is well founded.

The story of how Jiminy Cricket came to be is explored in ‘That Still Small Voice’. Emma starts as Deputy Sherriff and finds herself once again at odds with Regina when Henry ends up trapped in a mine shift while investigating a mysterious sinkhole that appears on the edge of Storybrook.

It seems that the main idea behind all of the flashbacks is to explain all of the breakdowns that are happening to each of the characters as a result of the curse starting to unravel. This episode was the first to truly make sense of that with Archie realizing his rightful stance on Henry’s imaginative view of their town, and it worked splendidly. The flashback scenes were funny, emotional and at times downright creepy but they all served the greater purpose of explaining Archie’s inner desire to do right by those around him.

One of my favourite stories so far is Mary/Snow trying to fight her obvious attraction to David. She seems to be a lot more attuned with her morals than the girl we met in the ‘Snow Falls’ flashbacks, but her giving to him would have gone against a lot of what this series is about, so I’m glad she did the right thing in the end, even if I’m dying to see her reunited with her true love!

It’s slow burning, but the series is working so well thus far, and judging by the rate at which Regina’s hold on the town is beginning to deteriorate I’m guessing there are a lot more townsfolk waiting for their turn in the spotlight.

8.5/10