If They Planned It All Ahead - Once Upon a Time (Part 4)

Good evening, everyone.  Welcome back.

We’re deep into the rewrites for Mr. Gold’s arc in OUAT now.  Please see Parts 1 and 2 for the background and Part 3 for Season 1’s proposed changes.  If you’re up to speed, please join me as we dive into Season 2 of the Enchantress and the Beast story arc.

As a reminder: 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, 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 2

The changes in Season 2 are far less intensive than Season 1, coming down to framing of situations rather than any outright changes.

Episode 2.01 – Broken

Soon after bringing magic to Storybrooke, Mr. Gold expresses the desire to use it for revenge against Regina.  Lacey insists that he let the matter go and makes him promise not to kill Regina.  Mr. Gold summons the wraith to exploit the loophole.  Lacey, not wanting to watch him slip away again, leaves.  Before she goes, she reminds him that what he’s done to her is the same thing that Regina did to him.

At the end of the episode, Lacey comes back to the shop.  In this version, Mr. Gold apologizes for twisting Lacey’s words again.  He admits that he has a long way to go as far as connecting with people.  He asks her to help him.  Lacey agrees.

Episode 2.04 – The Crocodile

Lacey is not living with Mr. Gold in this version.  Instead, she stops by to pick him up and drive him to the shop.  She sees him spinning straw into gold.  When she tries to get him to explain why he’s so driven to fully regain his magical powers, he snaps at her.  She doesn’t leave, but they do depart for the shop in stoney silence.

Mr. Smee abducts Lacey in the same manner as in the original.  This time, Mr. Gold assumes that she left because he’d crossed the line; he turns to David to help find her so that he can apologize and make amends quickly.  Meanwhile, Mr. French moves forward with the plan to purge Lacey’s identity as the Enchantress, reasoning that he’d rather have a daughter who is cold and distant with everyone than one who is bonding with Mr. Gold.  She is rescued in the same manner as before.  Her ensuing decision to leave Mr. Gold is because she thinks her father has a point.  Neither she nor Mr. Gold will grow as people as long as the status quo is maintained.

We then get the library scene.  Lacey is wary at first, thinking that Mr. Gold is trying to bribe her into coming back to work.  Mr. Gold explains that he believes that she is right.  He wants to fully commit to starting over.  He can’t return her family’s library, which is still in the Enchanted Forest, but he can give her a chance to start over with this one.  The scene ends, not on a point of poignant hope for their romance, but with friendly smiles and an offer to meet up for lunch the next day.

Episode 2.11 – The Outsider

The big changes to this episode will be in the flashback.  First, the relative time when this occurs will be adjusted.  This will be before the Enchantress’s father makes the deal with Rumplestiltskin, and thus, long before Mulan or Prince Phillip would even be alive.  The second is how the Enchantress contributes.  She will still use book learning to overcome the monster, but through magic, not trapmaking.

Flashback

In this iteration, the Enchantress leaves home in search of magic capable of defeating the ogres who menace her kingdom.  She takes with her a few books on magical lore and a vial of fairy dust.  Her search leads her to a powerful sorcerer, Baron von Rothbart, who promises to aid her if she assists with ridding his kingdom of a dragon.  The Enchantress agrees to his quest.  The knights and mercenaries are, at first, excited to have a magician within their ranks.  However, when they inquire about her powers, they are disappointed to learn that her magic is about understanding the world and changing people’s perceptions of it, rather than throwing fireballs or teleporting people.  She makes it clear that her intention is to convince the dragon to leave, not to kill it.  As in the original, they throw her off their cart and leave her behind.

The Enchantress troops onward in their wake.  She is overtaken by a traveler: a prince named Siegfried.  Siegfried also wants to slay the dragon, for it has devoured his True Love, Odette.  He, too, is doubtful when the Enchantress states her intentions, but he agrees that saving the people is more important than slaying the dragon.

Late that evening, they arrive upon the scene of a battle in progress.  An enormous white dragon, with black markings that make it resemble a swan, is fighting the Baron’s men.  Though the dragon has incapacitated several of them already, they have also managed to grievously wound it with their spears.  Siegfried is eager to gallop forward to engage the dragon, but the Enchantress stops him.  She weaves a spell to communicate with the dragon.  It turns to her and Siegfried and speaks the prince’s name.  Before anyone else can react, the moon rises.  The dragon recoils from its light, fleeing towards the east.

The Enchantress and Siegfried pursue.  They come upon the shores of a lake.  There, they find Odette sitting on the bank.  She and Siegfried are happily reunited.  Odette reveals that she has no memory of where she’s been these past several weeks; her last memory is of the Baron, attempting to convince her to marry him so that their realms will be united.  Before she can reveal more, the moon is concealed by a thick cloud.  Before their eyes, Odette transforms once more into the dragon, complete with the earlier wounds by the Baron’s men.  Said men choose this moment to catch up.  Odette flees before their spears.

The Enchantress and Siegfried failed to convince the Baron’s men as to Odette’s true nature.  As the Baron’s men ride off, the pair instead devote themselves to undoing the curse.  In her book, the Enchantress finds the spell that the Baron used: one fueled by True Love, intended to save the target from death by giving them new life as an animal, with the lovers being reunited by moonlight.  The Baron’s selfish motivations must have corrupted the spell.  Siegfried insists that True Love should also be able to reverse the spell, and that kissing Odette should free her.  The Enchantress warns him that would make things worse.  Odette’s wounds should have been erased when she changed shape; the fact the remain indicates that the spell is so corrupted that the dragon is now her true form.  Breaking the spell would actually trap her.  The best they can manage is for Siegfried to cast the spell anew, changing Odette’s bestial form from a dragon to something less dangerous.  This can only be done while Odette is in human shape.

The Baron’s men have caught up to Odette, who has collapsed under the strain of her injuries.  Siegfried and the Enchantress arrive just as the men are moving in for the killing blow.  As Siegfried throws himself between the men and Odette, Belle looks to the sky.  The clouds still shroud the moon.  Taking the fairy dust from her bag, she weaves a spell and casts the dust into the sky.  The clouds part, and the moon shines upon Odette, restoring her.  The Enchantress quickly coaches Siegfried through the spell; he makes a vow of everlasting love before the witnesses.  However, it is not enough.  The moonlight fades, and Odette reverts to the form of a dragon.  She crawls away.

Siegfried vows to the Baron’s men that he will lead Odette to his lands, keeping her from harming anyone else.  The Baron’s men decide to return to the Baron for further orders.  Before the Enchantress goes with them, she suggests to Siegfried that perhaps the problem was the witnesses.  The vow of love needs to be made before his own people.  Siegfried says that he will throw a ball and bring Odette in her human form.  Perhaps a vow there will be enough.

In the last scene of the flashback, the Enchantress returns to the Baron for payment.  He confesses that he cannot help her with the ogre problem.  His magical powers were granted to him by the Dark One; he has no idea how to fully utilize them.  Furious at his duplicity, the Enchantress tells him that he’ll get what’s coming to him.  Soon Siegfried and Odette’s people will know exactly what he has done.

As she departs, the Enchantress sweeps past a girl in a black dress.  The Baron beckons the girl to him, calling her, “Odile.”  He tells Odile that he has a job for her.

Present-Day

The only significant change to this plot will come at the end.  When Lacey is shot and falls across the town line, she will have a “cursed” persona to fall back upon.  Rather than not knowing who Mr. Gold is, she will refer to him as “Mr. Gold” (despite calling him “Rumplestiltskin” or “Rumple” since the breaking of the curse).  She will, however, still be shocked by the sight of the fireball.

Episode 2.12 – In the Name of the Brother

We will get revised versions of the two hospital scenes in this iteration of the story.  First, when Mr. Gold visits Lacey, he doesn’t attempt to awaken her with True Love’s kiss.  She is already awake; when she sees him, she has a panic attack, still reeling from the sight of him using magic.  When he later revisits her with the chipped cup, attempting to jump-start her memory of being the Enchantress, she again reacts violently, this time shouting at him for how he broke their deal regarding her father.

Episode 2.16 – The Miller’s Daughter

Mr. Gold will still call Lacey while on his deathbed.  In this version, she will already have been discharged from the hospital, since her cursed identity removes the obstacles imposed by amnesia.  She answers the phone while in the back of the library.

Lacey isn’t interested in hearing what he has to say, outright staying that she doesn’t buy that he’s on his deathbed.  She tells him that she left his employ because he broke their deal; she no longer trusts him and wants nothing to do with him.  Him bribing her with the library won’t bring her back.  It dawns on Mr. Gold that, without her Enchantress persona to provide context, her mind has rewritten the memories of life in Storybrooke to reconcile the inconsistencies.  Before she can hang up, he asks if she remembers the ultimatum she once gave him about finding someone to open his heart to, and then tells her that he succeeded.  He’s trying to be a better man.  Lacey tells him that she never gave that ultimatum and hangs up on him.

Episode 2.19 – Lacey

Because Lacey has already recovered her cursed memories, the context of her pushing Mr. Gold back into darkness will need to be revised accordingly.  The flashback will also need to be corrected for the sake of the timeline.

Flashback

In this version of the story, it isn’t Robin Hood who breaks into Rumplestiltskin’s castle.  Prince Siegfried appears instead.  He is hoping that Rumplestiltskin has some magic that will help Odette.  When the Enchantress frees him, she asks him why he didn’t do as they’d discussed by re-casting the transformation spell.  Siegfried admits that he was deceived.  On the night of the ball, the Baron abducted Odette and sent his daughter Odile, disguised with magic, in her place.  Siegfried had made his vow to the wrong person.  Rather than freeing Odette, his spell turned Odile into a black dragon.  (We will still get the bit with the bow that never misses its target, Siegfried stealing magic on the way out, as well as the, “Dark as they say,” line when Rumplestiltskin takes the Enchantress along on his hunt for Siegfried.)

Instead of going to Sherwood Forest, Rumplestiltskin and the Enchantress travel through the Baron’s domain, headed for Siegfried’s lands.  They encounter the Baron and his entourage on the road.  The Baron rages against the Enchantress, blaming her for creating the circumstances to led to Odile’s curse.  Rumplestiltskin removes his tongue for that and tells the Baron that he is responsible for his own actions.  He made his deals; he has no one but himself to blame.  Restoring the Baron’s tongue, Rumplestiltskin turns him to stone.

The rest of the flashback plays out much like in the original.  Siegfried stole the magic to help Odette, who is pregnant.  Rumplestiltskin and the Enchantress come upon them at night, with the full moon overhead.  We again get the line about leaving a child fatherless before Rumplestiltskin deliberately misses his shot and declares that they are going back to the castle.

Present-Day

Mr. Gold goes to the library.  Lacey is not happy to see him, pointing out that he doesn’t look like a man who was just dying, and that she’s not coming back to work for him.  Mr. Gold insists that he just needs to check out a book.  She snipes that she’s surprised that he didn’t just come in and take it.  Testily, he answers that he really is trying to improve.  His son is in town; he wants to prove that he can be a better man.  This softens Lacey.  She says that she had thought his story about his son was a sob story to get her to come back.  Mr. Gold opens up to her, telling her that his son is also Henry’s biological father, making him and Regina part of the same family.  The two share a laugh at the strange coincidences of life.  Before Mr. Gold leaves, he tells Lacey that he would like to have lunch with her.  He doesn’t expect her to come back to work for him, but he would at least like to discuss things with her.  If they are going to be working right across the street from each other, they can’t avoid one another, so they should at least try to make peace and be civil.

Cut to the lunch scene.  Here, Lacey admits that her leaving wasn’t really about Mr. Gold going after her father’s business.  Her father made a lot of bad financial decisions, and she didn’t think she’d shield him forever.  The issue was that Mr. Gold was changing.  Something had come over him when Emma had come to town.  Him breaking their deal was a sign that she wasn’t the man she had come to respect.  As much as she appreciated him giving her the library, that generosity was another sign that she doesn’t know him anymore.  Even this lunch is a sign that he’s gone soft.

Mr. Gold encounters the Baron’s cursed self.  It’s implied that he was trapped in stone until right up to the curse; now he runs the Black Swan Brewery.  His truck clipped Mr. Gold’s car while he was making a delivery.  Mr. Gold glowers at him, makes the remark about how his efforts to open up and be kind have come to nothing, and proceeds to use magic and his cane to beat the Baron.  Then Lacey comes upon them.

LACEY [taking in the scene]: I was wrong about you, Mr. Gold – and I’m glad.  You’re still as dark as people say.

MR. GOLD [looking between her and the Baron, who is lying on the ground]:  Darker, Dearie, much darker.

[LACEY smiles and turns away.]

MR. GOLD: I know the library’s keeping you busy, but if you’re ever looking for a little side money, I could still use your services.

LACEY [looking back]: I’ll stop by tomorrow.

[LACEY walks on, grinning.  MR. GOLD goes back to beating the Baron.]

Episode 2.21 – Second Star to the Right

This episode needs only minor adjustments.  Rather than Lacey being Mr. Gold’s girlfriend, she has slipped back into the role of his assistant and driver, though she still watches on with glee as he menaces Dr. Whale for ogling her.  She is working in the shop when Mary Margaret and David come to seek help in finding Regina; she overhears the bit about magic in the same manner, and gets the same briefing from Mr. Gold.  Rather than trying to convince him to help her stay young as a romantic gesture, she asks to become his apprentice.  He warns her that magic comes with a price, and it has cost him the people in his life; she responds that anyone afraid of his power doesn’t deserve to be in his life.  He then warns her that even his immortality isn’t foolproof, and that there is a prophecy about his death.  We get the line when Lacey unwittingly goads him into trying to kill Henry, challenging him as to whether he will let something like this get in his way.  Mr. Gold and Lacey then strike a bargain: she will return to working for him full-time, and he will train her in magic.

Episode 2.22 – And Straight On ‘til Morning

This episode also needs only a few tweaks.  Lacey’s persona will carry over from the previous updated episodes, and she and Mr. Gold won’t kiss after her memories as the Enchantress are restored.  There is also no kiss in their final farewell at the dock.  Mr. Gold simply gives her the cloaking spell and tells her that there is no one else he would trust to protect the town after his death.  Lacey tells him that she meant what she said: she doesn’t believe that Mr. Gold will let a prophecy end him.  She trusts that he will find a way to save Henry and come home safely.

CONCLUSION

With that, Season 2 comes to a close.  There is still no overt romance between Mr. Gold and Lacey, but hopefully, their friendship will be set in stone for the audience.

Have a good week, everyone.  See you next Sunday for Season 3!