An Apple Red as Blood

This episode immediately follows 1x21 with Henry convincing Emma to stay in Storybrooke & to break the curse as her family needs her. Despite not wanting the responsibility & wanting custody of Henry, everyone rightfully calls Emma out on her actions & tell her to grow up & think about what's best for her son despite Regina being a huge pain in the ass most of the time! Meanwhile, Regina wants to find a way to get rid of Emma without breaking the curse as her death can also stop it. With the help of Jefferson, she manages to obtain the same poisoned apple that she used on Snow & decides to bake it into an apple turnover to get Emma to eat it without any suspicion. Coincidentally, Emma heads to Regina's house to tell her she's leaving Storybrooke, but wants to visit Henry, making this the perfect opportunity for Regina to give her the turnover. However, Henry is quick to realize Regina's actual motives & sacrifices himself by eating it after Emma tells him she's leaving & that she doesn't believe in the curse. In the Enchanted Forest, we finally get to see the iconic moment where Snow eats the poisoned apple as after a rescue mission to save Charming goes wrong, Regina offers a parlay for Snow & finally tells her the roots of her hatred (refer to 1x18). She gives Snow an ultimatum: eat the apple or Charming dies. Snow of course, decides to sacrifice herself for her true love as everyone believes she's dead when she's really asleep with her head filled with 'dreams formed of her own regrets'.
Being the penulitmate episode of the first season, I have to say it's actually pretty good. The pacing is pretty good for both the Storybrooke scenes & flashbacks, Snow White is actually pretty interesting as we see her perspective of the situation with Daniel, Regina & Cora in the confrontation, it was nice to see everyone joining & kicking ass (the fairies were still pretty ridiculous though) during the rescue mission for Charming, Ginnifer & Josh's chemistry was pretty solid & again, Lana's acting as both The Evil Queen & Regina was just perfect! And even if Henry can really get on my nerves, for once I was siding with him on the whole situation with Emma wanting to leave & it was rather nice to see Mary Margaret of all people telling her to grow up! Also, Jefferson appeared again, so it's already a thumbs up for me! The only issue I have is Emma herself. After so much of the season being cynical yet slowly warming up to the people & the town, she throws it back in their faces by abducting her kid & only going back thanks to him reminding her why she was there in the first place! I'm sorry, I just couldn't find any reason to root got her as she has enough evidence to prove that the curse is real! Other than that, I personally enjoyed this episode & the cliffhanger at the end was a rather nice way to segway into the season finale!

Hmm, looks like the townpeople have finally grown some balls & are finally standing up to Regina!

Why does Henry have rope...?

OK...what's going on?

EWW!

Oh, it's just a nightmare! 

That's not stupid almost killing them(!)

For once I agree with Henry, but he's just so annoying with how he's trying to convince her!

Nice to see you again King George!

Haha! 'My tree is dying!' 'Perhaps it's your fertilizer!' 

Please say this means Jefferson will be back if she put that card on Paige's bike!

Thank you Mary Margaret for calling Emma out on her rather stupid actions! 

Haha! 'Red, you've got someone on your chin!'

Nice to see everyone banding together to rescue Charming!

Well, that must explain the title of the episode!

Nice to see that 1x17 wasn't the only time we'd see Jefferson!

Love seeing Snow kick ass!

I'm so sorry, but this was so poorly executed & cringe-worthy, I was actually sniggering with how seriously they were taking it!

Nice to see that at least one person believes in August!

Thank you Archie for putting some sense into Emma & that Regina does in fact love Henry!

Just love Snow's cute way she says 'But I'm rescuing you!'

Am I the only one who had to google what 'parlay' meant?

'Keep a little knife between your tuffets!' Bit of an unusual euphemism!

So her ring from Daniel has magic...?

Must be satisfying for Regina now that Snow finally knows why she hates her! Though to be fair, Snow was only a kid that was easily manipulated!

Can't help but feel sorry for Regina!

Have to say Snow is a bit stupid actually believing Regina wouldn't kill Charming when she easily could after she ate the apple! Still, very sacrificial choice!

Interesting version of how Regina got Snow White to eat the poisoned apple!

Boy, that apple now looks very CGI-ish! 

AH! Rather smart way of disguising the apple!

OK, what kind of person would put an hot turnover straight from a cooling rack into a plastic box?

Interesting way to see if she's dead rather than checking her pulse!

OK, I understand you want what's best for Henry & that he can be very annoying with blabbing on about the curse, but surely every speck of evidence that's been given to you throughout the season is proof enough that the curse is in fact real & that Regina is lying!

See what you've done now Emma?! Yes, he may annoy me, but a kid possibly dying is just bleak & sad!