'She walked through the forest, and who should she see, but the Big Bad Wolf!'
asked Mar 22, 2011 at 9:11
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1 Answer
In this case, should is a way of heightening the drama of the event:
should 8 used to emphasize to a listener how striking an event is or was : you should have seen Marge's face. [NOAD]
Do and did can be used in the same way:
I came home early and what did I see? My wife in bed with another man!
Should in your sentence and did in mine are used as a mild form of erotema, a rhetorical device that asks a question to dramatize a certain event. It is, in fact, the most common device, otherwise known as a "rhetorical question".
