This was a very odd week for OUT. As a stand-alone episode it wasn’t bad, as part of an over-reaching arc, however, it didn’t seem to advance the cause much, so to speak. It just through in a couple of unnecessary-seeming complications and ran away.

It is Prince Charming’s (Josh Dallas’) turn to have an episode dedicated to him this week. Or, as we quickly find out, Prince Charming Mk 2′s chance, but we will get back to that.

In Storybrooke the main story is David trying to come to terms with his putative history with Kathryn (Anastasia Griffith) and his disturbingly intense feelings for Mary Margaret. At a party thrown for him by his wife David looks lost as people he doesn’t remember celebrate him coming home. When he finds out that Mary Margaret isn’t there he sneaks out to find her, admitting how he feels. Despite herself, Mary Margaret feels the same way but she doesn’t want to be a home-wrecker and sends him away.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen of the Nolan house Regina and Kathryn are talking about lost loves and getting them back. On her way out of the room, Kathryn says that Regina is her friend. The Wicked Mayor looks genuinely touched by the overture. She never had many friends remember, just Maleficent who appears to have not made it over to Storybrooke (something to do with Rumpy? She had a pet unicorn, he has a glass unicorn mobile. If she turns up as his secret wife, it would be awesome.), and her eyes go all misty.

So when David leaves Kathryn, Regina storms down to the cafe to tell Mary Margaret to back off. Lana Parrilla does a wonderful job with this scene. It is obviously partially to stop the fairytale love of Charming and Snow White from derailing the curse, but there is a moment when she calls Kathryn her friend that is just wonderfully smug.

Unfortunately, of course, the warning doesn’t work. What sort of almost fairytale would this be if it did? David arranges to meet Mary Margaret, but his lack of a sense of direction sends him straight into the arms of Mr Gold. Figuratively speaking, obviously.

Meanwhile, in the other real world plot, Emma is corralled into doing the night-shift so that boss can go and feed dogs at the animal shelter. Only it turns out that he is actually sleeping with Regina. ‘I do volunteer,’ he protests weakly. Emma reacts like she just found out he was out at night beating up old ladies for their change purses.

‘You did it with Henry in the house?’ she hisses in disgust.

For some reason, the Sheriff doesn’t tell her to wind her self-righteous neck in and go on patrol. Instead he tries to weakly justify himself, as if he needs to. Emma tells him she won’t be doing any more night shifts and storms off, all misty eyed.

I’m not sure why since there has been no real emotional bond between them. They’ve bantered a bit, but that’s it. She is acting as if he cheated on her.

Anyhow, it ends with the status quo the same as when the episode started, only now Emma knows that the Sheriff is a window-crawling paramour.

Over in Fairytale land, the story is a bit more dramatic. It starts with Prince Charming a big man with a beard that they keep calling ‘a brute’. Rather unpleasantly, it turns out to be a gladiatorial match designed to prove Charming’s worth as a warrior to a blonde king, who turns out to be King Midas.

Midas has a dragon that needs slaying and King Charming has a country that needs gold, a lot of gold. A match made in heaven, eh?

Except that unfortunately ‘the brute’ isn’t quite as dead as everyone thought.

‘Just because I easily defeated this brute,’ Charming boasts, ‘doesn’t mean…’

A pike stabs through his chest, and serves him right. Obviously King Charming doesn’t share my opinion, he is distraught at losing his son and absolutely undone over losing all that gold. Luckily for him, it turns out that Rumpy is an old friend. In fact, it was Rumpy and his baby stealing business that got the King his son in the first place.

Now King Charming wants his son back, and in return he will tell Rumpy where to find the fairy godmother we saw get offed in Cinderella’s episode. Unfortunately, Rumpy can’t bring back the dead, but as he notes, he can fetch ‘his twin brother, did I not tell you there was another?’

Turns out Charming Mk2 is a studly young shepherd with a loving mother, a determination to marry for love and a particularly unlikely wig. He is a bit shocked when Rumpy turns up to find out that he has – had – a twin brother his parents had sold in return for possession of their farm. It is interesting to note that Rumpy looks oddly down at the mouth in these scenes, sipping moodily from his hip flask. There are times he seems positively disgusted by humans willingness to sell their babies to him.

Anyhow, he talks Mk2 into pretending to be a dragon-slayer in order to fool Midas into continuing to turn objects into gold for King Charming’s country. Possibly peasants. King Charming is a bit of a git, as he proves when Midas offers his beloved daughter Abigail to marry Mk2. When Mk2 tries to refuse, King Charming threatens to kill his mother, burn the farm and probably eat all the sheep.

Mk2 promptly caves, leading to the scene where he is driving through the country and gets ambushed by Snow. The swap really doesn’t make a lot of sense – unless they just thought the common working man would be more appealing than a Prince to the public? Maybe it will come out as more important later in the episode.

The most interesting part of the storyline, for me anyhow, was a chance to see more of Abigail, Kathryn’s Fairytale counterpart. She seemed border-line disgusted whenever she had to speak to her father, tight around the eyes and mouth, and not particularly thrilled with the dragon-slayer be bestows her on. Maybe because she’s seen him turn family members to gold with a careless touch?

Like I said, this episode felt like filler. Nothing that felt particularly important happened – Mk1 Charming hasn’t really been seen enough to make finding out he is Mk2 that shocking – and nothing changed with the Curse or with Storybrooke. Unless you count Mary Margaret possibly hooking up with Doctor Whale (David Anders) after a few too many drinks? That would be an interesting veer out of Fairytale canon.