Snow White, Cinderella & Little Red Riding Hood walk into a bar …

Other than the cheeky gals’ night out on the Storybrooke town, at a bar called The Rabbit Hole — highlighted by Ashley receiving a wedding proposal and Mary Margaret receiving the wrong Valentine’s card from her married lover — this installment of Once Upon a Time focused the lion’s share of its scenes on Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold.

Let me say upfront: He is my least favorite character, so the prospect of having a Rumplestiltskin-heavy episode didn’t thrill me. However not only did it put more traditional fairy tales into a blender — combining Beauty & the Beast, Rumplestiltskin, Rapunzel (as far as the tower part) — it also took some thoroughly odd, Lost-like twists that I hope, for the sake of the show, ultimately pay off.

So let’s get this straight: Rumplestiltskin made a deal to take a young woman home as his servant in exchange for sparing her village from the ravages of the Ogres. Belle ultimately fell in love with Rumplestiltskin, particularly after he started to make himself emotionally vulnerable and reveal details about his sad past, namely the loss of his son and wife. However once Belle — given the opportunity to flee and didn’t take it — was informed by The Evil Queen that kissing Rumplestiltskin would break the spell he’s under if the pair were in love (thus it would also take away his dark powers, about which Belle appeared clueless), Rumplestiltskin went berserk and eventually drove Belle away, refusing to believe she actually loved him. And, according to The Evil Queen, Belle later was shunned by her father and locked up in a tower from which she leapt to death.

But did she? No, The Evil Queen is a stinking liar, at least about the Belle being dead part.

It was at this point, at the very end of the episode, when my interest became piqued. We learned that in Storybrooke:

— Mr. Gold knows that he was Rumplestiltskin in another world and that Regina was The Evil Queen. How long he has known this is unclear.

— Mr. Gold’s mind and emotions are vacillating back-and-force in time as evidenced by the fact that he was beating Moe with a cane and shouting about what he’d done to “her,” referring to Belle in Fairy Tale Land whom Gold/Rumplestiltskin thinks is dead.

— Regina has Belle (played by Emilie de Ravin from Lost) locked up in solitary confinement in the basement of the hospital and Belle looks just as disheveled as the actress did during her final season playing Claire on Lost.

— No one ever visits Belle.

This new knowledge has opened up a bunch of new questions:

What does the fact that Regina and Gold know that there was a Fairy Tale Land mean for the rest of the characters? Has Gold always known that his real identity is Rumplestiltskin or is that a fresh realization? Does Gold know the other Storybrooke inhabitants’ Fairy Tale Land’s IDs? Will others, now that Emma has arrived in town and is breaking The Evil Queen’s curse, start to awaken en mass, like David/Prince Charming did, sort of, although he hasn’t really put together that he was Mary Margaret’s husband in another time and place? How does Belle factor into all this?

While I applaud the deepening of the mysteries, I’d be lying if I didn’t cop to worrying that as the writers make the drama more labyrinthine, that they’ll never circle back to make everything make sense.

Clacked by Meredith O'Brien
on Feb 13, 2012 @ 13:27 EST5EDT