The Evolution of Mary Margaret
By Mandy

With the exception of Emma, Mary Margaret was the one person who mentally changed the most throughout the season. We see her transform from a timid innocent school teacher, to someone who was accused of and framed for murder; fell in love and had her heart broken; and ended up fighting for who she loved…Emma and ultimately herself.

When we first see her in the pilot, we already know that she is Snow White, this powerful independent person, and to see her telling her students about making a birdhouse, “not a cage”, for birds who are loyal and free to go where they please, we can feel that she is not the same person she was in Fairytale Land; she wants all of those things for herself. What she clings to is hope, one of the many things Emma, Henry, and herself all have in common and one of the many things that influences her actions through the whole season.

At first, when Mary Margaret and Emma become friends, the roles they have with each other aren’t what you’d expect, knowing they were mother and daughter in Fairytale Land. At first, Emma takes on the motherly role, offering advice to Mary Margaret on what she should do about David. As the episodes progress, we see those roles gradually start to reverse. Mary Margaret offers a pep talk to Emma before she gives her election speech.

Mary Margaret makes a huge shift in the way she acts around other people since Emma came to town. She respects herself and knows other people have her back and she has theirs. She has more confidence and is not afraid to speak her mind. In “An Apple Red as Blood”, she goes off on Emma for leaving and taking Henry. She unconsciously treats Emma as her daughter, a daughter that snuck out and didn’t tell her about it. If this was in the first few episodes, we would probably see Mary Margaret brush it off, trying to gain Emma’s trust. Now that they are basically best friends, she isn’t afraid to tell Emma what’s on her mind.

Mary Margaret’s transformation is one of the most profound we see in the first season. We even see some of her qualities she had when she was Snow White. Now that the curse has been lifted, we may see the two sides of her mix together and create an even stronger person than what we saw in both Storybrooke and Fairytale Land. I guess we will just have to wait for season two to find out.

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