What if you loved someone and believed you were meant to be with that person, but they're married to someone else? What would you do? In the "7:15 A.M." episode of "Once Upon A Time," this theme is explored in a way that's insightful, character driven and with emotion that dips deeper than your typical TV script. Take for a moment, the fanciful idea that you and another person are meant to be together and, in an alternate fantasy world, you eventually overcome many obstacles to marry and explore your love. Mary and David keep skirting around their emotional pull toward each other, wondering how they can "do the right thing" and not break David's wedding vows. David is married to Kathryn and yet he feels this undeniable tug of emotion for Mary. He is drawn to her, wanting to see her and find more time to be with her, but has chosen to remain faithful to his wife. He wants to live up to his promise to love and cherish Kathryn and yet their life is lacking that quintessential spark of friendship and love that a married couple often has.
Yet, marriage, I would say, is a magic roller coaster ride that is filled with challenges and some of the most heartfelt of experiences. Maintaining a long term marriage that spans decades takes work. Plain and simple. Love and the romantic belief that the emotion will conquer all is sometimes overplayed. Do we not all wish that "Love is patient, love is kind" and the "greatest of these is love" were always true? But what happens when a person falls out of love and is drawn to another. David is experiencing that doubt. He has woken from his comma and is told that he loves Kathryn and is married to her, but he is not feeling that. We, the viewers, know that Snow White and Prince Charming are meant to be together--we want to see them unite because we believe it is right.
But what of Kathryn? She longs to have a child with David. She is married to him and is working hard to make their marriage work, recognizing that all the cylinders aren't firing in their relationship. Thankfully, she is not pregnant, but there's some confusion here: If I understood the storyline correctly, Kathryn takes a pregnancy test, but isn't pregnant. If David doesn't love her, why is he making love to her? When I first saw Kathryn take the pregnancy test in the store, I misunderstood and thought she had cheated on him while he was in a comma and was concerned that she was pregnant by another man, but that's not the case. David is being with her.
If that is true, and David kisses Mary at the end of the episode, then has he not crossed the line and broken not only his vows, but he's trying to have his cake and eat it too (pardon the pun). Is that fair to Mary? I think not. I like David and Mary together. I do. What would I want to have happen? David needs to divorce Kathryn and to move on. Staying with her is not solving any problem, but is only stretching out the issue over time.
Do you love someone else? If you do, then a decision needs to be made: Stick it out and work hard on fixing the problem or leave. Yes, it is that simple (though understanding how you feel might take a good amount of time). David is trying to do both at the same time and, for that, he is no Prince Charming. He is complicating not only his own life, but he is hurting both Kathryn and Mary. There is a lot to learn in this episode and it has a lot of great plot points to debate over some tea and crumpets (or beer and chips if that's more to your liking).
Again "Once Upon A Time" is showing that it has some legs and I believe this is one of the strongest episodes so far this season. I await next week's episode with great anticipation! What do you think?
Ron Vitale is the author of the novel "Cinderella's Secret Diary" and has been a lifelong fan of re-invented fairy tales.
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