Once Upon a Time: Lacey (2x19)

Oh boy. Ohhhh boy. Once Upon a Time, I really want to keep liking you. I do, honestly. But when you give us two episodes in a row with so little to enjoy, you make it really hard. I will say that this episode was better than the last one, but it was still bad. My biggest problem with it was honestly the focus of the episode: Lacey. 

Emilie de Ravin (Belle/Lacey) is a beautiful girl with a cool accent, but she's not really up there with the elite in terms of acting abilities. When she was playing Belle, she could get away with it. When she tried to play a saucy and dark vixen, her less-than-amazing acting skills really showed. Beyond that, it doesn't make any sense that she would suddenly have these memories of Lacey... during the curse, she was locked up in an asylum! She never had a Storybrooke personality! It was a really glaring plot hole and they never bothered to explain it.

Also, I really don't care about Rumplestiltskin's romances. I want to see him spend time with his son. His entire motivation for the curse in the first place was to find Bae, and now that he has, he seems to care so little about him. It makes no sense. One slightly funny part of this was when David helped Rumple with his relationship troubles. On the one hand, I don't think David has business dispensing advice to anyone, since he's crappy at relationships too. However, I will say that I never expected to see David playing wingman to Rumple on this show, and it was a bit humorous.

Then we have the flashback stuff. Robin Hood? Really? How awesome! I'm serious. I love Robin Hood stories. What I didn't love was that he was there basically as a gimmick. I'm pretty sure they have no cause to bring him back, and if that's the case, it was a seriously missed opportunity. The magic wand that heals people felt like a contrived device to me, and I'm wondering how Gold got it into his shop if Robin Hood really did take it. Maybe we'll find out? Somehow I doubt it, though. The flashbacks to the fairytale land weren't painfully bad or anything, but they weren't all that special, and other than a few fun lines from Rumple, nothing much happened besides the reinforcement of how messed up Belle/Lacey is. She'd have to be, to fall in love with someone like that, right?

Then let's talk about Greg and Tamara. Still. Don't. Care. Not even a little bit. Their characters are so irritating. Every time they're on the screen, this super cheesy sinister music starts playing and I just want to punch the writers. I know that cheesy music has been part of this show since its conception, but usually I don't mind the forceful musical tone-setting. It's just that when I don't care at all about the characters on screen, it becomes painfully obvious that the soundtrack is contrived and irritating. The one good thing to come out of their existences is this: they brought Hook back to Storybrooke! It was - annoyingly - kept vague during the entire episode. We knew there was going to be a "package" but they avoided using pronouns so we never knew what it was. Then... it was Hook! And you know what? As terrible as Tamara and Greg are, I'm so glad to see Hook that I'll forgive them. For now. I just hope Hook goes all bad-ass in the near future.

Then we have Mary Margaret, David, and Emma. Actually, surprisingly enough, I found myself enjoying their parts of the episode tolerably well. Nothing too special, but I like seeing how the magic beans are ready to be put into action, and Emma's indecision about going there permanently. Also, we didn't get too much in the way of Snow Angst, so I was grateful for that.

So... now we have Lacey and Gold (GoldLace is their tentative shipper name in my mind). Just as Belle brought out the best in Rumple, Lacey seems to bring out the worst. Will they continue to be annoying and contrived in the future? Or will there be a turnaround for this show some time soon? We can only hope.

4/10