Once Upon A Time -- A Tale As Old As Time
A village is being besieged and the King, I guess he is, is waiting for Rump to show up. He does, but as always, he demands a high price. The King's daughter, Belle. The King refuses, but Belle agrees to go with Rump, who promptly throws her into a dungeon.
Over time, Belle starts to change Rump's house. He allows her to let light in. There's even a bit of a homage to Disney's Beauty and the Beast when a chipped teacup becomes an important romantic keepsake and memory between Rump and Belle.
Just like in the classic tale, Rump lets Belle going never believing she'll come back. In this version he's right and she has no intention of coming back. Then she meets Regina, who convinces her that true love's kiss could release Rump from the demons that are in possession of him.
So Belle returns and she kisses Rump and like in the classic fairytale, Rump begins to turn back into his true self. That is, until Rump pushes her away. Rump doesn't want to change back to what he is and give up the power he now has. Rump rejects the chance of love to remain the beast. He declares that he's a monster and no one could ever love him. He even guesses that Regina set Belle up to doing it.
Belle thinks he's nuts when he starts screaming in the mirror at Regina that he's still more powerful than her. But we all know about lovesick Genie and his little mirror trick. What we didn't know is that it enables Regina to spy on anyone with a mirror in their home. So Regina had to have been spying on Rump and Belle the entire time Belle was there and saw that Rump was starting to fall in love with her, and that's how she managed to conveniently run into Belle and to convince her to go kiss Rump, in hopes he'd give up his power for love, making Regina the most powerful in the land.
Eventually, Rump sets Belle free so she can return home to her father. He, however, places the chipped teacup away in his cupboard to keep it safe.
In Storybrooke, Gold is harassing Mo the flower delivery man. Mo owes him money. He even takes his van away so he can't deliver flowers for Valentine's Day, ruining Valentine's Day for quite a few of the residents of Storybrooke. Things get even nastier when Regina sets Mo up to robbing Gold's house. Gold tracks down Mo and begins beating him with his cane for what he did to his daughter; for sending her away. Emma arrives and arrests Gold.
Emma better watch herself, because as Gold reminds her she still owes him a favor, but she has no clue the kind of price Gold's favors cost. Regina shows up and lets Emma spend time with Henry in exchange for letting Regina spend time alone with Gold.
Earlier in the episode [my favorite moment, actually] Regina wanted to talk to Gold and he blew her off. Love when he calls Miss High-And-Mighty, dearie. Gold no dummy, realizes she set Mo up to robbing his place and tells her he wants back what was taken. It's the chipped teacup. Of course, Regina demands something in return. She wants Gold to tell her his name.
Just like all of us suspected, Gold knows who he really is. He tells her it's Rumpelstiltskin, and to not mistake him being in a cell to mean she's more powerful than him, because he's still more powerful than she is.
Regina's got a little of a pattern developing here. She's been out to get Snow because she's more fairer than Regina and she's out to get Gold because he's more powerful than she is. Anyone that stands in the way of Regina being top dog, she's out to get.
It's almost like Rump and Regina are playing a chess game. Rump's secret weapon is Emma and the hope she can destroy the curse, thus robbing Regina of the victory she's had over everyone. However, Regina has her own weapon against Rump. Locked away in a room at the hospital in Storybrooke is Belle. Which is actually a good twist, since Regina can't be fearsome if Rump has all the cards stacked against her.
The one thing I'm wondering is if Regina can physically leave Storybrooke? I don't think so. Otherwise, she wouldn't have needed Gold to get a child for her. She could have left and gotten a child for herself. So Gold is right. He is the most powerful. He may be the only fairytale character that can go out into the real world.
I really enjoyed the twist the show did on the classic Beauty and the Beast tale. Rump/Gold is by far my favorite character on the show. We still, however, don't know what happened to Rump's son, Bae. He said he lost him the same way he did his wife. But his wife ran away? Did Bae do the same when Rump turned into a monster. Is that why Rump yelled that no one could love him, because Bae stopped loving him and ran-off when the magic took over his father and turned him into a monster?
In other Storybrooke news, Ashley and Sean aren't living happily ever after with their baby. Sean is working all the time and they never see each other. However, on Valentine's Day, Sean sneaks away from work and proposes to Ashley and she gladly says yes.
Things aren't going so well for MM and David. David gives MM a Valentine's Day card he bought for Kathryn. I don't know where the writers are going with this, but MM and David are seriously the worst couple in Storybrooke. The breaking point for me was the revelation that while David was pursuing MM he was having sex with Kathryn, and most likely still having sex with her, turned me off this pairing completely. In Storybrook Charming is really more toad than prince.
