It's Tuesday and OH MY GOODNESS, do we have a lot to discuss for this week's Once Upon a Time. Season 1 Episode 12 is Skin Deep, and I really don't know where to begin.
First: CLAIRE!
Can I confess that she was never my favorite Lostie? I don't blame Emilie de Ryan, I think she is a fine actress. But Island Claire was always just a bit high-pitched for me. Flashback Claire was more to my preference. And no, I can't blame the poor woman given her circumstance, but still.
All of that is to say I LOVED her as Belle. Charming, likeable, and innocent.
As always, my posts are not recaps but rather discussion posts. I feel like the best way for me (always-and-forever English major) is to break this one down by theme:
LOVE
Oh, love. And JUST in time for Valentine's Day, too! Nicely done, Show.
It's interesting for me because Disney's animated Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorites. The first time AJ watched it in its entirety, though, she burst into tears at the end. She couldn't understand why the Beast changed into a man when true love's kiss saved him at the end.
Derail: I think that's an interesting conversation thread. Does one have to change to be lovable? Does being loved mean changing into what your beloved wants you to be? Or is it that true love frees us to be the best possible incarnation of ourselves? This is a theme familiar to literature, not the least of which being The Velveteen Rabbit which teaches us that it is only through being loved that we become Real; however, the process of becoming Real can be a painful one and often leaves us threadbare and falling apart at the seams a bit.
Further, in the Christian faith, it is our belief that it is the love of Christ that changes us, providing restoration and freeing us to be who we were always meant to be before the enemy's plan for our destruction forever marred God's perfect creation. Once embraced with the love of Christ, we are, like Rumpel experienced for a moment in this episode, transformed into the best version of ourselves.
So there's THAT whole aspect of love in this episode: do we take the risk to believe that someone could love us as we are and find freedom from the curse that causes us to cover all the mirrors? Or do we resist that love, preferring instead to remain under the curse where, miserable though we may be, at least we are safe?
Another thread in the love theme this week is the Ashley/Sean -- Cinderella/Prince (??? can't remember his Enchanted Forest name!) story. Love isn't always easy, and sometimes it means making hard choices.
Annnnnnd speaking of choices: David and Mary Margaret. UGH. You know, if the writers are expecting us to sympathize with and even cheer for adultery, they are going to have to throw us a bone, don't you think? In the first episodes after David and MM reconnect, I could go with it a little bit. They are, after all, truly married in the Real World of the Enchanted Forest. However, in Storybrooke, David continues to be reckless in his treatment of both Kathryn and MM. Buying two valentines in Sneezy's drugstore and predictably giving the wrong one to MM was very telling.
POWER
In the Enchanted Forest story, we come to understand that ultimately power was more important to Rumpel than love and being loved. I think, however, that we see such a nuanced and layered portrayal of this in Skin Deep. Was it that he desired the power to which he had grown accustomed? Or was it more that he simply could not comprehend that Belle could truly love him?
We also discover that the power struggle between Rumpel and the Evil Queen has a history that goes much further back than the curse he gave her that created Storybrooke. THAT is interesting. Fruit of the Poisonous Tree leads us to believe that Regina was already evil and possibly already magical before she married Snow's father. All kinds of speculation could abound as to how many deals Regina has made with Rumpel. And we STILL don't know any more about what Snow did to Regina to evoke her wrath.
NAME
As is fitting for a story that draws so heavily on the character of Rumpelstiltskin, the theme of the importance of Name shows up again here. Some message board ponderings have questioned whether or not Rumpel revealing/confirming his name to Regina means he has lost his power in the Storybrooke curse. I don't think so, but you may disagree. I think it simply served to confirm for all of us that BOTH of them, in fact, know exactly what is going on in Storybrooke and both of them remember everything about the Enchanted Forest.
Other Thoughts
I thought the turns on the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast were mostly handled in a clever way. Belle's costuming choices referenced the animated movie in a nice way without being so literal as to be hokey.
If Belle's father, Maurice, truly turned his daughter over to torture on her return, I would be shocked. I prefer to believe that Evil Queen intercepted Belle when she fled the castle after being sent away by Rumpel and imprisoned her.
Rumpel turning Gaston into a rose and telling Belle the knock at the door was an old lady selling flowers - nice play on the Disney version of the tale.
Evil Queen was stunning AS ALWAYS.
I'm seeing discussion that the nurse and janitor in the padded room area of the hospital are a reference to Nurse Hatchett and Chief from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I've not seen that movie, but maybe the nod landed for you?
Finally, and this is nitpicky and my own issue, I think, but I didn't care for the writers drawing Avonlea into the Belle story. I also don't like King Midas as part of the Enchanted Forest. I know not everyone agrees with me, but I feel that fairy tales are a genre unto their own, and I don't like the mixing of classical myth or modern fiction into the lives of our fairy tale characters. But, eh. Just a nitpick for me.
One last thought to throw out there: I could be totally off in this, but I'm floating it out anyway. We still don't know the identity (or even NAME) of Mystery Man Writer. Perhaps (and most likely) he is related to the writer of Henry's book, but. BUT. What if he is Rumpelstiltskin's son - Baelfire? A crack in the curse would be a chance to write redemption and restoration into the story of his father's life. I sort of love the thought of that so I'm going to turn it over in my head until we are told otherwise.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhkay. Cannot WAIT to hear your thoughts! (They are always better than mine!)
via Amazon; tights: We Love Colors; boots: JCP
