‘Once Upon A Time:’ Tale As Old As Time

In Storybrooke, florist Moe apparently owes Mr. Gold so Mr. Gold takes his truck for collateral. But then Mr. Gold is robbed. Rather than letting the law handle it, aka Emma, he takes matters into his own hands. He kidnaps Moe and beats him. It is then revealed that the mayor put Moe up to stealing from Mr. Gold. Of course she did.

Regina knows what Mr. Gold is so desperate to have returned. She asks him to tell her his name in return for the object. After some prodding he finally says Rumpelstiltskin, and we finally know that he does in fact remember Fairytale Land. Regina then returns the teacup that Belle had chipped when living with him.

At the end we find out that Regina has Belle locked away in what appears to be an insane asylum. Poor Belle, poor poor Belle.

Also, Mary Margaret kind of breaks up with David after he gives her the Valentine’s Day card he had intended to give to Kathryn.

Meanwhile in Fairytale Land the story of Beauty and the Beast gets a bit of a makeover. The beast is actually Rumpelstiltskin. Belle agrees to leave her father, friends and man (Gaston!) to live with Rumpelstiltskin in order to save them all during the ogre wars.

They soon grow to love one another over time. Then one day he agrees to let her go. Belle runs into the Evil Queen who tells her that true loves kiss will break the curse on the beast. To his surprise, Belle returns and kisses him. He begins to change but is overcome with anger, believing that he was tricked.

Belle frantically tries to tell him that it was all through true love’s kiss, but he locks her away in the dungeon. Eventually he decides to just let her go. He says the power is too important to him. She basically tells him he’s a coward and is too blinded to see true love.

The Evil Queen later stops in to gloat. She informs him that Belle returned home but was shunned by her family and friends. Eventually her father locked her away in a tower and she jumped to her death. Since the story is coming from the Queen, I’m thinking it’s a lie…or at least very little truth. I believe Belle is still alive and maybe held captive somewhere, similar to her treatment in Storybrooke.

I’m a complete Beauty and the Beast fan, so I was so excited for the episode! At first I was leery about the change-up of the story with Rumpelstiltskin as the beast, but I feel like it worked! It seemed to fall organically into the rest of the stories of Fairytale Land. Also, I completely loved the fact that Belle “chipped” a teacup…a nice nod to Chip. Also, did anyone else notice the candlestick and clock in Rumpelstiltskin’s home? Very nice touch. (And those puppets were still hanging around!)

And I would be wrong not to gush a little about Emilie de Ravin! She made the PERFECT Belle! She was sweet and intelligent. She was kind but honest. And she was as gorgeous as ever! Thank you so much, Emilie. You were an amazing Claire on Lost, and now an outstanding Belle on Once.

What did you think? Love it or hate it? Notice anything interesting that maybe we missed? Leave us your comments!