Last year I rewatched the ABC drama Once upon a timewhich aired from 2011 to 2018. It’s a strange but lovable show that brings a Disney-centric fairy tale aesthetic to a soap opera. While I have many criticisms of the series, I still enjoy a lot of it.
Upon this rewatch, I realized that the show not only promotes (albeit ambiguously or imperfectly) Christian values such as faith, hope, love, and forgiveness, but also has striking parallels to the story of redemption and even an analogy to the Bible as an account of history and revelation. The show’s format, which combines a current storyline with flashbacks to a related storyline in the past, evokes the kind of foreboding and fulfillment found in biblical typology.
The premise of the series is that a number of fairy tale characters have been cursed so that they forget who they are and are transported to the modern town of Storybrooke in Maine. Time does not pass for them, so they remain frozen at the same age for 28 years. The protagonist of the series is Emma Swan, the long-lost daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, who is prophesied to break the curse. However, Emma grows up as an orphan in the “land without magic” and for a long time does not believe in the reality of the curse or her royal lineage. Throughout the series, she struggles to accept her family, her identity, and her destiny.
This article contains spoilers for season 1 of Once upon a time (short OUAT).
The Redeemer
From the first episode, Emma is portrayed as a Christ figure. Even before she is born, she is prophesied to restore the happiness that her parents’ enemy, the evil Queen Regina, is trying to destroy. In the series’ flashbacks, several characters insist that Emma must find her parents and break the queen’s curse at the right time – in her case, when she turns 28 – much like Jesus became flesh and offered his Passover sacrifice “when the fullness of time had come” (Galatians 4:4).
Emma is like Moses and Jesus because she escapes from a tyrannical monarch who tries to kill her as a child. Her parents put her in a wardrobe made from a magical tree that transports her to another realm (perhaps an homage to the wardrobe that leads to Narnia). While this plan is being discussed, one of the dwarves even says, “Our fate depends on a tree?” which makes me think of the cross!
Snow White and Charming’s years of giving up their daughter reminds me of Jesus leaving the unity of the Trinity in Heaven to become a human being on earth. Snow White’s pain at letting go of her child is similar to the sorrow of the Holy Mother who hands her son over to God’s plan of salvation. Just as Saint Joseph protects Jesus from King Herod’s soldiers, Charming protects Emma from the Evil Queen’s knights and ensures that she grows up in safety.
Memory and Morality
A recurring theme throughout the books of the Bible is the importance of remembering. Throughout the Old Testament, God’s people suffer repeatedly because they do not remember the great things He did for them in the past. The Jewish Passover commemorates the Israelites’ flight to freedom, and Jesus commanded his disciples to break bread in his memory. Both rituals are considered participation in these past events.
Memory – or more precisely, the loss of memory – is also a central theme in OUAT. The fairy tale characters have forgotten their true identities and lost their most important relationships. They know the classic stories, but don’t know if the stories are true, let alone that they have anything to do with them. I think this is similar to many people who know the stories of the Bible but don’t believe that these events happened, or don’t understand that they themselves are part of the overall story.
Another notable effect of the Dark Curse is that the heroes, once known for their integrity, no longer have a clear sense of right and wrong. In this moral ambiguity, they make poor decisions and harm themselves and others. This is similar to the effect of Original Sin, which clouds human judgment and corrupts relationships.
Under the curse, the residents of Storybrooke are trapped in banal routine and mediocrity. They live in fearful obedience to Regina, the evil queen turned mayor. Their lives seem to have no meaning. Everyone feels alone.
Henry, Emma’s ten-year-old son, steps onto the scene as a prophet, speaking the truth that no one believes and calling people back to a forgotten relationship. He grew up in Storybrooke as Regina’s adopted son and has a book filled with stories from the town’s residents. Like the scriptures, it explains where the characters came from and where they must go. Henry is the only one who realizes how the old stories are connected to the people he knows, and he tries to make this clear to others, even though they dismiss his claims as childish imagination or delusion.
Emma is forced to confront her past when Henry, whom she gave up for adoption at birth, tracks her down and convinces her to come to Storybrooke. Like John the Baptist, Henry paves the way for the Savior and calls on people to believe in them.
In the fullness of time
Without giving too much away, the season one finale is full of biblical imagery reflecting the descent into hell and the battle between Christ and Satan. Eventually, Emma breaks the curse, restoring people’s memories. But they remain in Storybrooke, far from their home, the Enchanted Forest. With the curse broken, they ask each other, “Then why are we still here?”
This may be how the early Christians felt, and perhaps it is understandable for the rest of us who live between the resurrection and the second coming of Christ. Christ conquered death and opened the gates of heaven for us, but we still live under the effects of original sin on earth. We must continue to live here, holding on to our memories of the past and our hope for the future, until we reach our true home in heaven after we die or at the end of time.
Return home
Even after Emma believes in the truth of the stories, it takes a while until she opens her heart to her parents and accepts their story as her own.
We face a similar choice regarding our relationship with God and our place in the community of saints. It is one thing to believe in God intellectually, but another to love and trust Him. We can choose to accept His invitation to a covenantal relationship or, like the prodigal son, to run away from it.
Finally – I won’t say which season – Emma, after years of running away from opportunities to have a home and meaningful relationships, accepts Snow White and Charming as her parents, Henry as her son, and the people of Storybrooke as her friends. She internalizes her values of faith, hope, and love, and thus sets herself on the path to a happy ending.
Author’s note: I plan to investigate further aspects Once upon a time on my blog and podcast “Finding Faith in Fandoms”.
Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash
