Once upon a time 2.19 Lacey
Apr. 22nd, 2013 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which another weird mini hiatus is over and several questions are answered.
One of the things the preceding episodes weren't clear on was whether Regina knew who Neal was, other than Rumpelstilskin's long lost son, which gets squarely adressed here, and we do get to see her reaction to the unwelcome news there is yet another parent for Henry around. This is very welcome, because I don't think that should have been a scene skipped over. Fittingly, she finds out via Rumpelstilskin who in addition to having prophecy issues about Henry seems distinctly suffering from jealousy because Bae/Neal is so distinctly throwing himself into the role as new discovered father instead of long lost son. Regina gets to perform some payback for the way he taunted her mid season 2 about her efforts to get accepted by Henry, you know, that "and if you're very lucky, they'll invite you to dinner one day" quip, back when Rumple himself was basking in Belle acceptance and support. "Watching from the sidelines" is almost as cutting and sums it up.
The scene also is useful information on something else I've seen debated, i.e. whether or not Gold had any idea about whose baby Henry was when he "procured" him for Regina. I'd have thought it was clear he didn't, but thanks for spelling it out, show, all the same. My guess is we will get a flashback to how that worked (especially since Gold back then couldn't leave town) sooner or later.
Still on the Regina subject, something else fanfic and fandom couldn't be clear about because the show left it open was whether or not she ever bothered to come up with artificial memories for Belle during curse time; I've seen the assumption that she didn't since in curse time, Belle was imprisoned anyway, which makes sense. But now she does come up with curse memories for Belle, and Lacey the turned on by bad guys barfly is just the kind of cruel parody Regina when in a bad moood can hit on. Digging at Rumpelstilskin right now serves no higher purpose than misery loves company (and also, he did organize the death of her mother), and Regina never cared one way or the other about Belle as a person, only as an instrument. Which of course is part of the problem, as it is with Rumpelstilskin. Regina's efforts to be on her good behaviour were for the sake of impressing Henry, and Rumple's were for Belle's benefit. When neither of them responds with complete devotion and encouragement (well, Henry was encouraging in the frst half of the season, just not to the point of wanting to move back with her) and thus provides emotional reward, they fall back on lashing out and power games because neither of them is actually sorry for their actions or empathic to victims for their own sake. Juxtaposing the flashback story from Belle's earliest days as Rumple's servant with the current day Lacey story, and having Lacey encouraging the viciousness in Rumple as Belle did insist on his inner goodness, drives that point home. Although it's a bit more complicated than that, because did Belle really fall solely for the potential of goodness in him back in the day or also some of his darker qualities? Charming's "be the man she fell in love with" is a double edged advice.
(BTW, Rumplestilskin asking Charming for dating advice will never get old, and I'm glad the scriptwriters think so, too. :) (And it's typical for our boy David that he hasn't forgotten the recent stunts Rumple pulled but actually comes through with the advice nonetheless.)
Speaking of the flashbacks: I figured the guy had to be Robin Hood when he showed up with bow and arrow. Rumple misfiring when he sees Marian is pregnant because of the whole fatherless child factor and his identification with that subject is the one part of better behaviour not solely due to Belle's rehabilitiation program but his own backstory, but like Regina letting the child Owen go in Welcome to Storybrooke: the lack of a villainous action because of a positive emotion is not the same thing as actual effort to change.
Something I'm very curious about now: whether Gold will actually stay with Lacey. Because turned-on-by-violent-ruthlessness Lacey isn't the Belle he fell in love with, either, she just looks like her. (Nor is she a genuine counterpart in ruthlessness like Cora.) So if he's just content with someone who looks like Belle, has nothing of her personality and admires the Dark One, we're not talking true love there, either. Though given the writers are somewhat committed to the Belle/Rumple pairing, I doubt that. Methinks it will be a case of "be careful what you wish for" both for a great part of the audience, who wanted Rumpelstilskin and Belle back together, and our Mr. Gold himself, who wanted the same thing. He gets the twisted version of it, all the trappings and empty content, and that's probably going to be his test.
(Along with the ongoing "how to handle Henry?" question, but opening dream or not, I doubt the show will let Rumple even attempt to kill Henry in real life.)
Meanwhile, we have Emma getting updated on the magical beans news, and as I expected, she's less than thrilled at the idea of returning FTL for good. And while she is in that mixed mood, we get the first scene between Emma and Regina for ages in which they aren't part of a greater group and shouting at each other. From Regina bringing up the Neal news to Emma inadvertently letting slip that something is up (and Regina picking up on that), it's a quiet character scene of the sort the two haven't actually had, come to think of it, since season 1, and I was glad to see it.
Lastly: Tamara in this episode comes across as less Evil McEvil and genuinenly focused on helping Owen/Greg find his father, which I was glad to see. The package being Hook wasn't completely unexpected, since we were due his return, and it's as good an explanation as any how he makes it back to Storybrooke sans magical ship or Our World experience. And since he presumably still wants to skin his crocodile and never had a problem allying with the next convenient person...
One of the things the preceding episodes weren't clear on was whether Regina knew who Neal was, other than Rumpelstilskin's long lost son, which gets squarely adressed here, and we do get to see her reaction to the unwelcome news there is yet another parent for Henry around. This is very welcome, because I don't think that should have been a scene skipped over. Fittingly, she finds out via Rumpelstilskin who in addition to having prophecy issues about Henry seems distinctly suffering from jealousy because Bae/Neal is so distinctly throwing himself into the role as new discovered father instead of long lost son. Regina gets to perform some payback for the way he taunted her mid season 2 about her efforts to get accepted by Henry, you know, that "and if you're very lucky, they'll invite you to dinner one day" quip, back when Rumple himself was basking in Belle acceptance and support. "Watching from the sidelines" is almost as cutting and sums it up.
The scene also is useful information on something else I've seen debated, i.e. whether or not Gold had any idea about whose baby Henry was when he "procured" him for Regina. I'd have thought it was clear he didn't, but thanks for spelling it out, show, all the same. My guess is we will get a flashback to how that worked (especially since Gold back then couldn't leave town) sooner or later.
Still on the Regina subject, something else fanfic and fandom couldn't be clear about because the show left it open was whether or not she ever bothered to come up with artificial memories for Belle during curse time; I've seen the assumption that she didn't since in curse time, Belle was imprisoned anyway, which makes sense. But now she does come up with curse memories for Belle, and Lacey the turned on by bad guys barfly is just the kind of cruel parody Regina when in a bad moood can hit on. Digging at Rumpelstilskin right now serves no higher purpose than misery loves company (and also, he did organize the death of her mother), and Regina never cared one way or the other about Belle as a person, only as an instrument. Which of course is part of the problem, as it is with Rumpelstilskin. Regina's efforts to be on her good behaviour were for the sake of impressing Henry, and Rumple's were for Belle's benefit. When neither of them responds with complete devotion and encouragement (well, Henry was encouraging in the frst half of the season, just not to the point of wanting to move back with her) and thus provides emotional reward, they fall back on lashing out and power games because neither of them is actually sorry for their actions or empathic to victims for their own sake. Juxtaposing the flashback story from Belle's earliest days as Rumple's servant with the current day Lacey story, and having Lacey encouraging the viciousness in Rumple as Belle did insist on his inner goodness, drives that point home. Although it's a bit more complicated than that, because did Belle really fall solely for the potential of goodness in him back in the day or also some of his darker qualities? Charming's "be the man she fell in love with" is a double edged advice.
(BTW, Rumplestilskin asking Charming for dating advice will never get old, and I'm glad the scriptwriters think so, too. :) (And it's typical for our boy David that he hasn't forgotten the recent stunts Rumple pulled but actually comes through with the advice nonetheless.)
Speaking of the flashbacks: I figured the guy had to be Robin Hood when he showed up with bow and arrow. Rumple misfiring when he sees Marian is pregnant because of the whole fatherless child factor and his identification with that subject is the one part of better behaviour not solely due to Belle's rehabilitiation program but his own backstory, but like Regina letting the child Owen go in Welcome to Storybrooke: the lack of a villainous action because of a positive emotion is not the same thing as actual effort to change.
Something I'm very curious about now: whether Gold will actually stay with Lacey. Because turned-on-by-violent-ruthlessness Lacey isn't the Belle he fell in love with, either, she just looks like her. (Nor is she a genuine counterpart in ruthlessness like Cora.) So if he's just content with someone who looks like Belle, has nothing of her personality and admires the Dark One, we're not talking true love there, either. Though given the writers are somewhat committed to the Belle/Rumple pairing, I doubt that. Methinks it will be a case of "be careful what you wish for" both for a great part of the audience, who wanted Rumpelstilskin and Belle back together, and our Mr. Gold himself, who wanted the same thing. He gets the twisted version of it, all the trappings and empty content, and that's probably going to be his test.
(Along with the ongoing "how to handle Henry?" question, but opening dream or not, I doubt the show will let Rumple even attempt to kill Henry in real life.)
Meanwhile, we have Emma getting updated on the magical beans news, and as I expected, she's less than thrilled at the idea of returning FTL for good. And while she is in that mixed mood, we get the first scene between Emma and Regina for ages in which they aren't part of a greater group and shouting at each other. From Regina bringing up the Neal news to Emma inadvertently letting slip that something is up (and Regina picking up on that), it's a quiet character scene of the sort the two haven't actually had, come to think of it, since season 1, and I was glad to see it.
Lastly: Tamara in this episode comes across as less Evil McEvil and genuinenly focused on helping Owen/Greg find his father, which I was glad to see. The package being Hook wasn't completely unexpected, since we were due his return, and it's as good an explanation as any how he makes it back to Storybrooke sans magical ship or Our World experience. And since he presumably still wants to skin his crocodile and never had a problem allying with the next convenient person...
