Child of the Moon

"Child of the Moon" is the seventh episode of the second season of the American ABC fantasy/drama television series Once Upon a Time, and the show's 29th episode overall, which aired on November 11, 2012.

It was co-written by Andrew Chambliss & Ian Goldberg, while being directed by Anthony Hemingway.

In the Characters' Past
In the Enchanted Forest, Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Red Riding Hood (Meghan Ory) run from the queen's men and waste no time fighting and eluding them. As Snow and Red hide in the woods, Red notices a tear in her hood and worries it won't prevent her from turning during the coming full moon. She tells Snow they have to split up so she'll be safe and that they'll meet up in the morning. As Red runs off, a man watches her go and his eyes begin glowing like a wolf as he follows her. The following morning, Red wakes up to take a drink of water from the stream and sees the man take her hood. She succeeds in getting it back after tackling him to the ground. He introduces himself as Quinn (Ben Hollingsworth) and tells Red that he can recognize a child of the moon because, like Red, he is one as well. Quinn also tells her that she can learn how to control the wolf, and leads her to an underground grand hall that is home to werewolves just like them. They are greeted by their leader Anita (Annabeth Gish), who is revealed to be Red's mother. Anita tells Red that Granny (Beverley Elliott) lied and kidnapped Red when she was a baby so she wouldn't find out about her true identity. Anita says she can teach her to accept the wolf as a part of herself and learn to control it, starting with letting go of Red's hood.

During the night, Anita guides Red by telling her about the feeling of running through the woods with her pack, and that she has to give in to the wolf to be in control. As Red wakes up the next morning, she tells Anita that she remembers what happened and that she doesn't have to be afraid any more. However, the location is later compromised when Snow, who claimed that she eluded the queen's men during the night, stumbles onto the place and sees Red and Anita. Moments after Red tells her mother that Snow can be trusted, the queen's men find Snow, and during their attack, they kill Quinn. Anita believes that all humans can never be trusted and decides to have Snow killed and wants Red to kill her. When Red refuses, Anita says she'll do it herself and turns into a wolf, only to have Red kill Anita by knocking her onto a skewer before she can strike at Snow. Snow manages to untie herself and quickly places the red cloak onto Red changing her back into her human form, Red then apologizes to her mother, who says Red chose Snow, but Red explains she chose herself and she is not a killer. Hours later, Red and Snow bury Anita, and Red tells Snow that she didn't lose her family today, she protected it, and that Snow was the only person who ever thought it was okay to control her life as a human and as a wolf.

In Storybrooke
Down in the mines, the dwarves continue mining for fairy dust. However, they want to take a break so they can eat, but Leroy (Lee Arenberg) keeps at it and at the swing of his ax, he punches a hole through the mine wall. When David (Josh Dallas) arrives, they announce that they've found the diamonds needed to create fairy dust. As a precaution, Mother Superior (Keegan Connor Tracy) tells David to lock up the remains of Jefferson's hat so they can use it for their plans to escape back to their world. However, later that evening at Granny's, and just moments after talking to Henry (Jared S. Gilmore) about his nightmare (which he would later continue to have after returning to the apartment), Albert Spencer (Alan Dale) stops by to remind David that he is determined to expose him as the shepherd's son. David then reminds Spencer that it didn't work before and it won't work in Storybrooke.

Meanwhile, Ruby cleans up and Billy the tow truck driver introduces himself as Gus, the mouse who lived in Cinderella's fireplace. Billy asks her out for a drink after work, but Ruby turns Billy down, and with good reason. It's the first night of "wolf's time." Granny has welded a cage for Ruby since Ruby believes that after 28 years, she might not be able to control her wolf side and that the red hood she wore back in the Enchanted Forest did not follow her to Storybrooke. She locks herself in the freezer for her and everyone else's safety, but the next morning, Granny notices that the freezer has been broken open from the inside and Ruby is not there. David and Granny later find Ruby in the woods, where Ruby claims that she doesn't remember anything and is worried she might have done something. Later, the trio return to check on an abandoned vehicle, which turns out to be Billy's tow truck. Red smells blood and finds Billy murdered, his body torn in half. Ruby believes that she might be responsible for his death and asks David to lock her up in jail, even though David believes that Ruby is innocent.

As David locks Ruby up in a cell, a defiant Spencer stops by to threaten David and his decision to protect Ruby. He vows to tell the town about Ruby's true identity and does just that by telling the townspeople about David protecting Ruby. The residents break into the jail, but there are no signs of Ruby. It is revealed that she has moved to another refuge in the library with chains to lock her up along with help from Granny, Belle (Emilie de Ravin), and David. As David worries about fending off the mob and finding a way to prove her innocence, Ruby tries to convince Belle to leave for her own safety, thinking the town is right to be afraid of her. Belle isn't convinced, so Ruby handcuffs her and prepares to face the mob. Hours later, Granny follows Red's scent to the trunk of a car, but instead of finding Ruby, they find an axe and her red hood, leading David to suspect the hood was taken so she can transform. The two also find out that the car is registered to the person that was really behind the murders, Spencer, who is using this plot to make David look weak as a leader.

Moments later, Spencer and the residents hear a wolf's growl belonging to Ruby and follow it to an alley. But as Spencer prepares to kill Ruby in her wolf form, Granny uses her crossbow and successfully knocks the gun out of Spencer's hand. David then addresses the crowd, telling them that Spencer killed Billy in cold blood so they'd question his leadership. David approaches Ruby cautiously, saying he knows she can control the wolf and convinces Ruby to sit down and he throws the cape over her, allowing her to turn back into her human form. However, Spencer finds the perfect opportunity to escape, and Ruby and David go looking for him. Spencer waits for the two at the edge of the woods by a roaring fire, where he tells David he's never going to see his wife or daughter again. He takes the Mad Hatter's hat out from his coat and throws it on the fire. David knocks Spencer down with one punch and draws his gun, but Ruby stops him before he can aim it at Spencer, who tells David "I told you, you should have killed me when you had the chance." After returning to the loft, Ruby asks David to hold on to the hood so she can run free as a wolf as long as the full moon is out.

In between these events, Henry and Regina (Lana Parrilla) show Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) a burn that Henry received during the dream, which could be a "side effect" of the curse. Gold explains when people fall under a sleeping curse, their soul travels to a netherworld where it resides until they're woken up. The world is between life and death, but is very real. Even when the curse is broken, sometimes the victims find their way back to the other world. Gold can't keep Henry from going back there, but he mixes a potion that will allow him to control his actions in the other world by putting the potion in the amulet for Henry to wear while he's sleeping so he can control the dream. Gold informs Regina that Henry is the only person who can wear the necklace.

In the Fairytale World
Princess Aurora (Sarah Bolger) sleeps and dreams her fiery nightmare, in which she sees Henry with his necklace that Mr. Gold gave him. He douses the flames and tells her not to be scared. Aurora wakes up and tells Mary Margaret and Emma (Jennifer Morrison) that she met a little boy who said that his name is Henry.

Opening sequence
Red Riding Hood is featured in the forest.

Production
"Child of the Moon" was co-written by producers Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss, while Shameless veteran Anthony Hemingway served as episode director.

Cultural references
This episode uses inspired references, elements and quotes from Cinderella and Shakira's 2009 single "She Wolf." Also, the name of Red's mother, Anita, may be a reference from 101 Dalmatians.

Ratings
This outing would be the lowest ever in the series' run, placing a 2.7/7 with only 8.75 million viewer tuning in, a 23% drop from the previous episode. However, they weren't alone as all of the other programs that aired on this night also posted record lows as well besides Once Upon a Time.

Reviews
Entertainment Weekly's Hilary Busis loved this episode: "A moment of silence, please, in honor of cute werewolf Quinn, Gus-Gus -- can you believe that Storybrooke hottie Billy once looked like this? and Anita, Red Riding Hood's bloodthirsty, feather-loving mama wolf. (Age-inappropriate casting alert! Annabeth Gish, who played Anita, is only 11 years older than Meghan Ory, who portrays her onscreen daughter.) Between those three and all the knights who got their necks snapped in the Wolf Pack's secret furry lair, tonight's Once had a bigger body count than usual. No matter what she does, death seems to follow Red like the train of her signature cloak -- trauma, trauma on the wall, is her back story the most tragic of them all?

The A.V. Club gave this episode a C: "After the first few episodes of this season proved to be a nice change of pace, the show’s new status quo introduced a set of challenges that the writers haven’t fully met (see last week’s abysmal installment), and this week’s chapter is a Storybrooke-centric story that suffers from many of the problems of last season. It begins with a misleading opening sequence where the dwarves find magical diamonds under Storybrooke that can be ground into fairy dust and put in the Magic Hat to bring back Emma and Snow. But this episode is minimally concerned with bringing back the exiled women, instead focusing on Ruby to tell a half-assed mystery/horror plot."

In a positive review from TV Fanatic, Christine Orlando notes that "Child of the Moon" conjured up another fiendishly good hour of Once Upon a Time as the full moon came out and Red's wolfie ways showed their claws.

The Huffington Post's Laura Prudom was also pleased with the outing, even if it had some flawed moments that did not fit the storyline: "Generally, episodes of 'Once Upon a Time' fall into two categories: those that propel the mythology forward in big ways (such as last week's 'Tallahassee') and those that tread water by focusing more on character backstory, and/or form building blocks for the next mythology episode. This week's Ruby-centric outing, 'Child of the Moon,' fell into the latter category—not much was resolved or advanced, but it was clearly pushing things into place for next week's dramatic-looking installment. That's not a value judgment; every serialized story requires certain 'filler' episodes to pace the story advancement over 22 weeks, and 'Child of the Moon' did a fine job of making us root for Ruby/Red as we learned more about her troubled past."

Amy Ratcliffe of IGN gave it a 6.9, citing that "This week's Once Upon a Time put the focus back on Ruby, with mixed results," and thought that there was stiff dialogue throughout the episode.