The Huntsman, also known as Sheriff Graham Humbert, following the Dark Curse, is a character featured in the ABC fantasy-drama series, Once Upon a Time. He is portrayed by Jamie Dornan.
The Huntsman was hired by the Evil Queen to carry out an assassination against Snow White. He resfused to comply, opting to trick her with a deer's heart instead, but the Queen saw through his charade and ripped out the Huntsman's heart as punishment, putting him under her control. In Storybrooke, he is known as Graham Humbert, and serves as the local sheriff.
History[]
The Huntsman in Once Upon a Time.
The Huntsman is a crucial character in the series and is played by Jamie Dornan. He was raised by wolves and lives in the Enchanted Forest with a white wolf as his sole companion. He is immensely compassionate towards animals, believing they have the purest hearts and mourns any he must kill to survive. When several tavern patrons mock his beliefs and assault him, he easily overpowers them while expressing his disgust for human nature, attracting the Queen's attention via the Magic Mirror as somebody merciless enough to retrieve Snow White's heart. While initially hesitant of the Queen's request, the Huntsman bargains with her to outlaw the hunting of wolves within her kingdom and accepts. When the Huntsman escorts Snow White into the woods, she flees after sensing his intentions but soon realizes she cannot outrun him there. She accepts her fate and the Huntsman agrees to hand an impromptu letter to the Queen along with her heart, but the sympathetic letter overwhelms him and he encourages her to escape. The Queen, unmoved and frustrated by the letter, is further enraged upon realizing the Huntsman has handed her a stag's heart. The Queen tears out the Huntsman's heart, using dark magic to make him an unwilling soldier and servant of her intimate desires. Much later, the Huntsman assists Prince Charming out of the Queen's castle due to their shared adoration for Snow White. Soon after, the Queen initiates the Dark Curse and transports all fairytale inhabitants to the town of Storybrooke in our world, where the Huntsman assumes the identity of Graham Humbert, the town sheriff.
The Huntsman's Storybrooke counterpart, Sheriff Graham.
With the Queen now Mayor of Storybrooke, Graham retains an unquestioning obedience to her will and lust. Emma Swan's arrival begins weakening the Dark Curse, which eventually leads Graham to defy the Mayor's orders to arrest her. After Graham enlists Emma as his Deputy, she catches him exiting the Mayor's bedroom window and expresses her loss of faith in him. The next day, he spontaneously kisses Emma in a desperate attempt to feel some form of compassion, but it sparks a sudden and confusing flashback of his former life as the Huntsman. Graham returns to the Mayor for attempted love and comfort, where a dream containing the white wolf furthers his confusion. Upon leaving the house, Graham is confronted by the white wolf and later pursues it into the surrounding forest. The wolf recognizes Graham but reacts cautiously because he is somehow different, until Graham whistles and it approaches him in a friendly manner. When Graham makes contact with the wolf, he has strange visions of Snow White and his supposed murdering of her, and the wolf departs again. Graham visits Mary Margaret because she resembles the woman in his dream, wondering if they could have met in a previous life.
Graham learns of Henry's fascination with a storybook and after hearing Henry's theory of the Queen possessing the Huntsman's heart, Emma confronts Graham and attempts to console him, but is interrupted by the presence of the white wolf. They pursue the wolf into the Storybrooke cemetery and Graham recognizes the Queen's insignia from his dream above a tomb door, believing his heart is inside. Emma reluctantly helps Graham search the tomb, but they are caught by the Mayor delivering flowers to its supposed occupant, her father. After a violent altercation with the Mayor, Graham, and Emma return to the police station as the Mayor descends below the tomb into a secret chamber containing her vault of hearts from the fairytale world. Emma and Graham share a kiss that completely lifts the effects of the Dark Curse on him, restoring his memory as the Huntsman. Before he can make the revelation to Emma, the Mayor crushes the duplicate heart and kills him instantly.
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