Mary Margaret Blanchard

**Snow White**, formerly known as **Mary Margaret Blanchard** in Storybrooke, is a fictional character in ABC's television series *Once Upon a Time*. She is portrayed by Ginnifer Goodwin and by Bailee Madison as a child. She is the true love of Prince Charming/David Nolan, mother of Emma Swan and Neal Nolan, and grandmother of Emma's children, Henry and Hope. The character has been one of Goodwin's best roles, one she loves playing on the show.

Before accepting the role, Goodwin stated in interviews that she'd always wanted to play Snow White and called her acceptance of the role "a no-brainer. Kitsis and Horowitz are self-described big fans of Goodwin's previous series, *Big Love*, and wrote the part of Snow with Goodwin in mind.

## Character background

### **Early life**

In the Enchanted Forest, Mary Margaret was actually born **Snow White**, the daughter of King Leopold and Queen Eva. As a young girl, Snow White's mother dies when Cora poisons her, in an attempt to make Cora's daughter Regina the new Queen. Snow is later rescued from a runaway horse by Regina, which leads to her having a loveless marriage with Snow's father. After Regina assumes the throne by killing the King, she recruits the Huntsman to kill Snow, but he ends up sparing her for her selflessness. Snow then lives in the forest, meeting Prince David while robbing him who she nicknames Charming. The pair fall in love, but he returns to his fiancée Princess Abigail, though the Evil Queen holds him captive. In exchange for Charming's life, Snow eats an apple from the Queen containing a sleeping curse. Charming breaks free of his imprisonment and awakens her with true love's kiss. The two are later married. During the wedding the Evil Queen announces her curse to destroy their happiness. Snow gives birth to Emma and she is placed in a magical wardrobe and transported to the real world as the curse takes hold.

### **Season 1**

It all starts with Regina's curse which sends everyone Storybrooke, where she appears as **Mary Margaret Blanchard**, Henry Mills' fourth grade teacher at Storybrooke Elementary School. As a part-time volunteer at the General Hospital, she awakens David Nolan (Prince Charming) from his coma, and the pair gradually fall in love, despite David's marriage to Kathryn Nolan (Princess Abigail). Beginning a secret relationship, the affair becomes public and David's marriage breaks down. Mary Margaret becomes an outcast in the town, and is arrested for Kathryn's "murder" after fake evidence is discovered. Kathryn is later found alive, though Mary Margaret's relationship with David becomes strained as he did not believe her innocence. He decides to leave Storybrooke, but the two are reunited when the curse is broken, and they regain their memories.

### **Season 2**

The two find Emma, only for Mary Margaret to be transported with her back to the remaining Enchanted Forest through a portal, though they manage to return to Storybrooke. After Regina and her mother Cora attempt to gain power by killing Mr. Gold, Mary Margaret curses Cora's heart with the same candle that Cora used to kill her mother Eva and tricks Regina into killing her. She pleads for Regina to kill her when she cannot deal with what she has done, but she instead tearfully taunts her.

### **Season 3**

When Henry is kidnapped and taken to Neverland, she travels with Emma, David, Regina, Mr. Gold, and Captain Hook to rescue him. Upon returning to the town with Henry, Peter Pan enacts Regina's curse again, leading Mary Margaret to be returned to the Enchanted Forest with the other inhabitants, while Emma and Henry escape to New York City. Back in the Enchanted Forest, Snow learns she is pregnant again but discovers that Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West wants her baby. After a year of battling, Snow and Charming realize they must enact a new curse to return to Emma who can stop Zelena. A reassuring David lets Snow crush his heart, though she later requests Regina split Snow's heart to give to both of them. Once they return with their memories of the past year erased, Emma returns to Storybrooke, learning her mother is pregnant. Zelena plots to steal the baby by becoming her mid-wife,[18] though she is ultimately defeated and Mary Margaret gives birth to a son, whom she names after Henry's father and Rumplestiltkin's son, Neal.

### **Season 4**

Mary Margaret later becomes Mayor of Storybrooke but after the Snow Queen's defeat Regina is given back the position and Mary Margaret becomes a teacher again. Following the Queen's of Darkness's arrival in Storybrooke, Mary Margaret and David battle to keep their secret (being the reason Maleficent lost her child) from Emma. However, they eventually tell Emma the truth, who finds it hard to forgive them. After Mary Margaret is almost killed by Maleficent's daughter Lily, Emma reunites with her parents and forgives them, and after everything is return to normal after the alternate reality is erased but this is short lived when Emma sacrifices herself to become the new Dark One.

### **Season 5**

With the other residents, Mary Margaret is transported to the Enchanted Forest, taking Emma to Camelot in order to find Merlin and remove her darkness. However, weeks later, they return to Storybrooke with missing memories as to how they failed. She would later have her memories restored after Emma transfers her powers of the Dark One to Hook, who then sacrifice himself. Mary Margaret later joined Emma in the quest to rescue Hook in the Underworld, where she encountered Hercules, a childhood romance of hers. In the past, it had been Hercules who helped her become an accomplished archer. When she realized that he never completed his twelve labors before he died, she returned the favor by helping him defeat the three-headed hellhound Cerberus, and in the process allowed him to join his father Zeus on Mount Olympus. Her actions would result in Hades picking her as one of three souls he wants to keep behind. Following this, she discovered that she no longer wanted to be known as Mary Margaret and returned to being Snow White. She and David later learned that her brother-in-law James was in the Underworld, bitter at the fact that David had stolen his life, following his death. Later, Snow and David found a way to contact their son Neal from the Underworld, only to have Cruella de Vil and her henchman Claude tear out the phones after they succeed. As a sacrifice to keep one soul in the Underworld, David traded places with Snow, so she could return to Storybrooke. Before arriving back home, Snow witnessed her friend Red's awaking Dorothy Gale with true love's kiss. Following the defeat of Hades at the hands of Zelena, Snow was transported, along with David, Zelena, and Hook, to the Land of Untold Stories, led by the sinister Mr. Hyde. Fortunately, with the assistance of Dr. Jekyll, the heroes escaped. Then with further help from their family in New York City, Snow, David, Zelena, and Hook were safely returned to the Land Without Magic, accompanied by Jekyll (who had now separated himself from Hyde). Upon her return, Snow witnesses Regina's use of Jekyll's serum to separate herself from the Evil Queen, as well as Regina's subsequent attempt to destroy her.

### **Season 6**

After the people from the Land of Untold Stories arrive in town, Snow and her family stop Hyde and decide to help these new people with finding their happy endings but find themselves in repeating battles as the Evil Queen arrives and has Regina kill the Count of Monte Cristo. Afterwards when trying to figure out why the Evil Queen survived Regina crushing her and a way to destroy her, Snow wishes to become a teacher again and for things to return to normal which they start to do but this is short lived when the Evil Queen threatens Storybrooke with water from the River of Lost Souls unless Snow and David give up their shared heart which they do. But the Evil Queens decides to give them her pain of loneliness so she places a sleeping curse on their shared heart so when one is awake, the other will be asleep meaning Snow and David cannot be together. As they try to continue life without each other Snow starts to lose hope as she cannot stand being without David.

As Regina works feverishly to waken Snow and Charming from the Sleeping Curse, Gold comes face to face with the Black Fairy, the powerful enemy Emma must fight in the Final Battle. Hook, still in Neverland, meets up with Tiger Lily, who gives him a piece of an ancient fairy wand to give Emma, to aid her in defeating the Black Fairy. Gold learns that the Black Fairy had been manipulating Gideon with his heart, and confronts her about it, with her saying that if they should fight, Storybrooke would be destroyed.In 1993, a pixie flower awakens Snow and Charming from their cursed selves, but an awakened Rumplestiltskin tells them they must make a difficult decision, to ensure that Emma fulfills her destiny as the Savior. In the present a Pixie flower allows Emma to open a doorway to Neverland and rescue Hook, who re-proposes.

## Character Development and Reception

Goodwinn's portrayal of Snow/Mary Margaret has met with positive reviews. Prior to accepting the role, Goodwin had stated in interviews that she'd always wanted to play Snow White and called her acceptance of the role "a no-brainer. Kitsis and Horowitz are self-described big fans of Goodwin's previous series, Big Love, and wrote the part of Snow with Goodwin in mind.