Once Upon a Time (Part 3)

Good evening, all.  I hope you’ve had a good couple of weeks.

Over the previous two parts of the series, we covered the elements that I believe doomed the character arc of Mr. Gold / Rumplestiltskin across the length of the Once Upon a Time television series – how his repeated betrayals of the heroes in general and of his love interest, Belle, destroyed any faith in his potential for redemption.  We also did an overview of a potential tweak that could have salvaged his arc if the writers had planned things out from the start.  By elevating the character of Belle from the love interest of the Beast to the Enchantress who cursed the Beast in the first place, Mr. Gold’s story could have progressed in a manner that both granted him a more satisfying arc and strengthened the romance subplot between Mr. Gold and Belle.

Please feel free to revisit those past parts if you need to refresh your memory of the specific details.  Otherwise, let’s dive right into the episode-by-episode changes that would need to be made.

For the purposes of this rewrite, only episodes that are directly relevant to supporting the pre-planned arc will be covered.  Episodes won’t be included if Mr. Gold and Belle don’t have a major role or if their roles aren’t impacted by the rewrite, or if the necessary revisions are superficial changes to dialogue that don’t impact the overall story.  Additionally, “Mr. Gold” and “Lacey” will refer to these two characters in the present-day story, while “Rumplestiltskin” and “the Enchantress” will exclusively refer to their flashback personas.

SEASON 1

Belle only played a role in two episodes in the original Season 1.  Most of the changes here will be minor details to establish the character of Lacey as an integral part of Mr. Gold’s life in Storybrooke and the curse that she placed on Rumplestiltskin.

Episode 1.04 – The Price of Gold

Lacey will appear in this story solely as a background character.  She’ll be seen in Mr. Gold’s shop before Ashley’s break-in, and also act as Mr. Gold’s driver.

Episode 1.08 – Desperate Souls

Again, Lacey will be working in Mr. Gold’s shop.  She will also be seen as the Mayor’s office shortly before the arson, implying that Mr. Gold sent her to start the fire.

A more significant deviation will occur in the flashback.  The Dark One – both in the initial appearance as Zoso, and when Rumplestiltskin claims the mantle – will not have golden skin, despite this trait being present in the previous episodes’ flashbacks.

Episode 1.12 – Skin Deep

This is where we will see the most significant change.

Flashback

The flashback will start the same way as in the original show.  Rumplestiltskin will be summoned to by the Enchantress’s father to save their kingdom from the ogres.  (As in Episode 1.08, Rumplestiltskin will not have gold skin.)  The terms of the deal will be altered: Rumplestiltskin will want the royal library and all of its contents as payment for his help.  The Enchantress’s father will agree to the deal.  Rumplestiltskin upholds his end of the deal by turning everyone in the kingdom into inanimate objects, thereby depriving the ogres of their food source while also erasing the knowledge of the books of magical lore that the library held.  He then teleports the library back to his castle.  Little does he realize that the Enchantress was in the library when the deal was struck, thereby making her part to the bargain.

Rumplestiltskin discovers the Enchantress in his newly acquired library.  The Enchantress, who had begged her father not to summon Rumplestiltskin in the first place, uses her magic to force Rumplestiltskin to explain what happened.  She is distraught when she learns what he has done to her kingdom.  Rumplestiltskin agrees to strike another bargain with her: if she servers as his castle’s caretaker, she can earn the release of her kingdom from its curse.  The Enchantress agrees, on the condition that the people who were transformed into objects be safely stored in the castle until then.  This will also be the scene where the Enchantress deliberately conceals her name from Rumplestiltskin.  He labels her ‘the Enchantress’ for the magic she used to force the truth out of her.

The Enchantress adapts to her new environment.  She uses her limited magic to animate the objects.  Though they don’t retain their human memories, they help her around the castle.  Rumplestiltskin doesn’t like the chaos at first, but he acclimates to it.  In the course of these scenes, we get the various moments of cute interaction between him and Enchantress (including the curtain scene and the teacup scene), as well as Rumplestiltskin starting to confide in the Enchantress about Baelfire.  This will be framed as a growing friendship, not as romance.  One of the enchanted objects does not approve of this friendship – a clock, which was formerly the Enchantress’s father.

Rumplestiltskin overhears the clock telling the Enchantress that she could give up on her deal and simply run away.  Having grown fond of Enchantress, he gives her that chance, sending her far afield on an errand to steal something from the fairies.  The Blue Fairy catches the Enchantress in the act.  Rather than punish the Enchantress, she will give her counsel, attempting to use her to purify Rumplestiltskin.  She convinces the Enchantress that Rumplestiltskin’s magic is a curse, and that True Love will dispel all of his spells.

When the Enchantress returns to the castle, we see the happy reunion between her and Rumplestiltskin.  He admits that he is amazed she came back; she says that she wouldn’t walk out and leave a friend on his own.  This revelation cracks Rumplestiltskin’s façade.  True to the Blue Fairy’s word, the cursed people around the castle begin to revert to their original form.  The moment is ruined, however, when the Enchantress says friendship is a powerful form of love, and True Love can break any curse.  This gets a violent reaction from Rumplestiltskin.  The cursed people revert back into objects as he accuses the Enchantress of manipulating him to get out of her deal.  So great is his fury that he tells the Enchantress that their deal is null and void.  She was in the library when he claimed it, so he owes her nothing.  She must serve him regardless, until the end of time.

The Enchantress does not take that lying down.  She bitterly tells him that, if he prefers magic and power and love and friendship, then he can be alone forever.  Until he opens his heart to others, everyone will be able to see him for what he truly is.  She draws her magic out of the cursed people, returning them to their object state, and unleashes it upon herself and Rumplestiltskin.  When the light fades, we see Rumplestiltskin’s appearance changing, turning him into the golden man we have seen in the other flashbacks.  Where the Enchantress stood, there is only a rose.

(The implementation of the gold skin as the Enchantress’s curse will play into the flashback timeline.  The OUAT flashbacks were presented wildly out of order, so small continuity details were necessary to keep track of everything.  This curse moves the interaction between the Enchantress and the Beast to not long after he lost Baelfire and before he cut off Captain Hook’s hand.)

Present-Day

The present-day plot, running parallel to the flashback, will also begin in a similar manner to the original.  Mr. Gold will repossess Mr. French’s truck; Lacey will be present for the repossession, avoiding eye contact with her father as it takes place. She will also be present for the altercation between Mr. Gold and Regina, sharing a look with Regina as Mr. Gold brushes off the mayor’s demands.

As in the original show, we get the break-in then, Mr. Gold abducts Mr. French and takes him to the cabin to beat the location of the stolen items out of him.  The accusations Mr. Gold hurls while beating Mr. French change: here, instead of accusing him of abandoning the Enchantress, he accuses Mr. French of corrupting her (so he is still projecting his failures onto others, only in a different form).  Emma intervenes and arrests Mr. Gold.

While in jail, Mr. God is visited by Regina.  He asks if she has what he wants (still the teacup); when she admits this, he concludes that she told Mr. French to take it.  This is when Regina drops the bombshell on him: Mr. French didn’t take anything from him. Regina simply reminded his “little rose” that she had thorns, and she shouldn’t be afraid to use them.

We get an added scenes at the end.  Lacey is drinking at the bar when Mr. Gold comes in.  She is silently drunk, sniping at him about how easily he made bail.  The two of them talk.  He points out that she broke his trust; she responds that he broke their deal, as the whole reason she was working for him was to shield her father’s business from total foreclosure.  Him beating her father only added to his betrayal.  The pair of them are quiet for a moment.  Lacey comments that she knows she’s fired; Mr. Gold tells her that she is free to quit, but otherwise, he expects her back in the shop tomorrow morning.  Lacey is, understandably, surprised by this.  Mr. Gold explains that, while each of them let the other down, he’s lost enough people in his life.  He wants a chance to rebuild that lost trust, to believe that neither of them needs to be alone.

Thus the episode ends: not on the dark cliffhanger of the original, but upon the grim realization of what has been lost between these two characters, and the hope that they can rebuild.

Episode 1.21 – An Apple Red as Blood

This episode will have a minor tweak.  In the original, there’s a line where Regina comes to Mr. Gold about dealing with Emma.  There’s a line where it’s established that Regina can’t kill Emma without breaking the curse.  This is really odd, as it has never been previously mentioned, yet Regina acts like she always knew this, or at least realized it with very little prompting from Mr. Gold.

The problem with this line is that it begs the question why Mr. Gold didn’t kill Emma himself.  He wants the curse broken, and this is before he begins his initial redemption story.  Offing Emma would have saved him a lot of time.

Therefore, when Regina comes to Mr. Gold, she will directly ask him what will happen if she kills Emma.  Mr. Gold doesn’t take this well.  He passive-aggressively asks her not to do it (implying that killing Emma is indeed on the table), resorting to activating the “please” clause of their pre-curse deal to keep Regina from attempting it.  Regina then resorts to the apple as a means to bypass their deal.

Episode 1.22 – A Land Without Magic

Lacey doesn’t need the Mad Hatter to break her out of the asylum in this version.  Mr. Gold brings her along to the well merely because he needs help carrying the many ingredients for the potion.  The curse breaks while they are walking.  They stare one another down warily.  Then, Mr. Gold apologizes for lashing out at her all of those years ago.  Lacey asks him if anyone ever came close to opening his heart.  He shakes his head, and says, “But now I’m going to fix that.”

The pair of them arrive at the well.  Mr. Gold concocts his potion.  Lacey is wary when she realizes that he intends to bring magic into the Land Without Magic.  He asks her if she trusts him.  When she nods, he drops the bottle into the well, bringing forth magic into Storybrooke.

CONCLUSION

That wraps up the changes for Season 1.  As stated previously, I want to break these proposed episodes into manageable chunks without cutting things off mid-season, so this is where we’ll leave it for this week.  Please tune in next week for Season 2.

Have a good week, everyone.  See you next Sunday.