Don’t forget Rumplestiltskin’s line to Belle explaining who was at the door, after turning Gaston into a rose: that it was an old woman selling flowers. One thing that really amuses me about this show (mostly in a good way!) is how willing they are to mix dark themes into otherwise thoroughly Disney-fied storylines. But yeah, it can get a little silly. In particular I’m not terribly fond of Jiminy Cricket, an almost entirely Disney fabrication.
I’m having trouble deciding whether it’d be awesome or silly for them to do something with The Little Mermaid at some point. Maybe closer to the original story, minus the tacked-on happy ending.
Nooooooo
ooooooooone
hits like Gaston
No one spits like Gaston
No one chops into little rose bits like Gaston…*
Seriously though, this has episode has to have the most Disney-specific references so far, right?
[ul]
[li]The Disney-style dresses[/li][li]The chipped cup[/li][li]Rumple’s “old lady selling flowers” lie[/li][li]The rose[/li][li]Gaston[/li][li]A mirror (that one may be kind of tenuous)[/li][/ul]
Thank you **Invisible Chimp **for the summing up, and thanks also to N9IWP for the link.
I think it was just a joke for the grown-ups, or perhaps Belle has gone insane from grief. There were other doors, I wonder how many prisoners Regina is keeping in the hospital.
I was also amused that the clerk at the duct-tape and card shop sneezed as David left. Hard to tell if the clerk was much shorter than Gold or David.
pricciar, I thought it was pretty clear that the Evil Queen deeply resented Rumplestilskin’s power and that she had to go to him for the curse. I think it’s interesting that Rumplestilskin still believes that Belle is dead. This makes me think that her place in the hospital basement means that the curse must be some combination of the desires of the Evil Queen and Rumplestilskin.
I’m still wondering what happened to Rumplestilskin’s son. Killed? Alive but hates his dad? Rumplestilskin just said “I lost him” which could mean either “gone” or “dead”. Given that Regina uses the thing you love against you, she must not know about the son or she would have done something about the situation before now.
I don’t know if it’s possible due to the timeline and the age of Rumplestilskin’s son in HEAL, but could the stranger with the typewriter be his son? There has been some conjecture that he wrote the book. Could Rump have immunized him to some degree from the curse?
FWIW, I assumed that after his transformation Rumplestiltskin became more-or-less ageless, and that his origin story took place well before other events. In retrospect it’s possible I pulled that out of nowhere (although his great facility for magic and deal-making makes me think he’s had time to practice). But if it’s true then the son is likely old or dead by this point.
Whatever the case, I think it’s not too likely the writer is his son. In the show’s “real” world the fairy tales had to be thought up by somebody. I suspect the writer is somehow connected to the creator, or a co-creator, or something like that, and unearthed the truth — or a portion of the truth — as to Storybrooke’s true nature.
Rumplestiltskin gained his “power of please” in exchange for making the curse work to EQ’s advantage, so he can’t ask for anything that would materially damage the curse for her (the whole point of his deals is that people get exactly what they ask for, then live to regret it). So he can’t out-and-out ask her to kill herself, resign the mayorship, etc.
Regarding the teacup, again, Rumplestiltskin’s weakness is his propensity for making deals–his curse forces him to make these Faustian bargains rather than just take what he wants. This somewhat limits his “power of please” to items which are trifling; for anything which would represent a significant gain to him/loss to someone else, his own curse forces him to make a contract.
This is supported by the specific word he used when he made the deal with the EQ: She has to “heed” his every request, not “obey”. This just means she has to respect what he asks for–she can’t just ignore it, like she does with anybody else who asks her for things she doesn’t want to give–but it doesn’t go so far as to have her just do whatever he says.
I wonder if now that the two magicians realize each other for what they are, full on Magical War becomes a possibility. It would be interesting to see how the fallout from their conflict affects those around them.
Well … you’re right, of course; heed doesn’t convey a sense identical to that of obey. But in my idiomatic experience to heed a request means essentially to fulfill a request (and, indeed, obey is listed as a synonym for heed in my thesaurus, albeit near the end of the list). Further, I’m really not sure how much of a coup it would be to force someone merely to consider what you ask of them — presumably Regina’s only going to do what’s in her best interest however much thought she devotes to the pros and cons of what someone else wants.
That said: it’s probably not even worth a debate. For whatever reason he’s not asking her to jump off a bridge and I doubt she’d jump off a bridge if he did, so I’ll assume for now the writers know what they’re doing. (Then again, I did watch half a season of Lost …)
If not nefarious then why in secret and why is the property in her name and not the city’s. If it wasn’t obvious it was a setup before (and it was obvious), it certainly is now.
I never thought I would be as compelled by this show as I am. I was literally (and I mean lit-er-al-ly) on the edge of my seat for the last 10 minutes of that episode, it was just phenomenal.
I went to Target and bought the “first 5 episodes” DVD for a friend of mine and watching it from the beginning it is much more obvious that the the Mayor and Gold knew from the beginning that they were characters in HEAL.
Last note: Keep in mind that this show is run on ABC, a Disney owned network, so the not-so-veiled references to Disney versions of these fairy tales, and the inclusions of things that aren’t even fairy tales (looking at you dalmation named Pongo) is just Disney patting their own backs. Although IMHO I don’t think they take anything away from the storytelling so I’m fine with them truth be told, but obviously YMMV.
In the Brothers Grimm story, the King marries the miller’s daughter who spun straw into gold with the help of Rumplestiltskin. Regina has to be the miller’s daughter. And Rumplestiltskin hates her because she discovered his name and he lost out on the deal he struck with her for her first born child.
Just watched this past week’s episode. Entertaining overall, but I see they’re going to keep stringing the Mary Margaret/David along yet further. Random thoughts:
We finally (AFAIR?) see what happens to a storybook character who leaves the town: she disappears; her car veers off the road and her airbag deploys to cushion a head no longer there. Somewhat unfortunate, perhaps, that they finally give us good reasons to be sympathetic towards the person in question before killing her off. Oh well! It puts into perspective that, yep, the queen never did care for her as a friend. So Regina remains evil, although the hurt look on her face when Henry told her he missed Emma was a nice touch.
Argh, real-world-Prince-Charming-analogue, you’re such a doofus. Now you got your fake wife killed and your true love known as the town tramp — but, honestly, I can’t imagine I would’ve done anything differently, who’m I kidding.
So just who the heck is the writer? I suggested above that he’s a genuine writer or creator who’s discerned the secret of the place, somehow. Word on the street seems to be that he may have descended from the Brothers Grimm — a Grimm, if you will — which would amuse me, given another current TV show whose name escapes me. Does the name “August W. Booth” have any significance? Other than being clearly fake.
What was Booth doing with the book before (we assume) leaving it where Emma would find it? He took it apart, dipped the pages into some kind of liquid, dried them, and stitched it back together. It didn’t look like he was adding or removing anything. At first I thought it might’ve been some kind of developing liquid, but I don’t know anything about developing photographs and I’m not sure how that would even make sense. Dipping the pages into water from the wishing well is probably a better candidate, but I’m not sure why; as far as we know the stories are already true.
I’m by no means certain that Kathryn is dead just because she’s disappeared. There are many other possible options. And a sample of one does not merit a conclusion.
For whatever reason he’s not asking her to jump off a bridge and I doubt she’d jump off a bridge if he did, so I’ll assume for now the writers know what they’re doing. (Then again, I did watch half a season of Lost …)