You want dark, fairytale fans? This season is getting darker with each episode.

The Evil Queen is a very catty villain, who likes to play with her victims before she dispatches them. Accordingly, she got the plaything she wanted -- both pieces of Snow White's heart, which sustain the life of both Snow White and Prince Charming -- and, once she had it, she used it to make the couple suffer worse than ever.

The shared heart went back to each of its bearers, with a particularly complex curse upon it, a twist on the sleeping curse from which Prince Charming awoke Snow White in the pilot episode.

From now henceforth, one of the couples must be asleep in order for the other to be awake and active, which means the two may never again be awake at the same time. So, now that they are married, keeping house, and raising a recently born baby son, they take turns keeping the bed warm and keeping the household going, leaving little affectionate tokens around, like written notes or photos on their cellphones, in order to connect with each other in absentia.

And talking of babies, Rumpelstiltskin and Belle, who got married during an episode when Rumpel was behaving himself, are expecting a baby; but about the time the pregnancy was discovered, the two had a big quarrel and are now estranged. So Belle is angry with Rumpelstiltskin and wants to keep the baby away from its father....but of course its father specialises in snatching babies.

So while the Evil Queen is toying with Snow White and Prince Charming, Rumpelstiltskin is plotting about baby-snatching his own baby from his estranged spouse. The preview for the next episode shows Belle going into labor, attended by Emma. I think I may be too chicken to watch.