Once Upon a Time: Beauty (7x04)

Wow, what the heck did I just watch? That was a bit brutal!

Cons:

The Hyperion plot is moving along a little too slowly for my taste. In this episode, we see more of Henry and Jacinda's tentative relationship, we see a lot about Ivy, Jacinda's step-sister, and we get some progress with Alice and Rumple. But we still don't know what Victoria is up to exactly, we get no more information about her dead daughter, or the witch, and meanwhile the flashback story is about Rumple and Belle instead of advancing Henry and Jacinda's relationship. That's not to say that there was nothing to like, but after four episodes I'm wishing I had a bit more of the story figured out. I'm not eager to drag out the big reveals for an entire season, like we did with the first season of this show. It's not going to be sustainable this time around.

Okay, the Belle and Rumple story. It's no surprise to anybody who has read my thoughts about this show in the past that I'm not a fan of their relationship. Every time I'd see a plot point designed to bring these two characters back together, I'd be screaming at my computer - "run, Belle! Run away from this monstrous, horrible man!" I was never convinced by the idea that he was worth saving, and Belle wasted a lot of time sticking around waiting for him to become the man she deserves. In the end, as this episode tells us, apparently Rumple did become a good person, whose only wish was to grow old at Belle's side. Consequently, he spends a lot of time looking for a way to get rid of the dagger so he can live a single, mortal life beside his wife.

So, the first obstacle here is that I had to ignore the fact that Rumple is still a bad person, and I don't forgive him for his past behavior. But let's say you can set that aside. Then you're forced to watch as Belle and Rumple live their lives together, Gideon grows up, Belle grows old (with laughable visual effects - some grey in her hair and silly face makeup), and Rumple doesn't age at all. And then, we see an ancient Belle tell Rumple that the only way to be free of the dagger is if he lets Belle die her natural death, and believes in their love enough to know that some day he'll find a way to be free, and he'll rejoin her in death.

Okay, wow. That's... dark for this show. The moment when Belle dies, and Rumple is just crying and begging her not to leave him... I just did not sign up for that! I'm not a Rumpbelle shipper myself, obviously, but I know a lot of people are, and that was such a slap in the face for those people. You can't even really describe this ending as "bittersweet," because there wasn't much sweetness to be found. It was just really, really sad. And then Rumple goes off to the Wish realm apparently to help him figure out how to get rid of the dagger, and he bumps in to Alice. This begins their partnership, which we see carry forward into Hyperion Heights.

The other reason to dislike this is that if you buy the idea that Rumple has finally put his dark past behind him, it's really unsettling to see him act like such a manipulative jackass as Weaver in Hyperion Heights. Once again, without Belle by his side to do all of the hard emotional labor for him, he falls back into old habits. I mean, I know that he doesn't remember who he is or who Belle is, but Hook is in a similar boat, and so is Regina, and they've both retained their redeemed goodness from their lifetime of changing and growing. So why does Rumple revert? It sucks both for fans of Rumple and for those of us who are getting tired of the cycle.

Pros:

All of that being said, I'll admit there's a part of me that's impressed with the show's guts in going there with Belle's death the way they did. The setup here is that the only happy ending available for Rumple will be when he finds a way to die and join his beloved in the afterlife. That's not so happy, and it was a risky move they made. Not sure if it paid off, but I like that they took it.

I also really like the stuff with Alice/Tilly. She's a mentally imbalanced woman in Hyperion Heights, and when off her meds she seems to start remembering bits and pieces of her old life in the wish realm, and the partnership with Rumple she had there. She actually remembers that Rumple instructed her to hurt him in order to get him to remember too, so she shoots Rumple, which does indeed seem to make him remember. I was pleasantly surprised that Rumple was actually cursed this time, and had to be woken up, and I'm excited to see what it means now that he remembers who he is.

Ivy was a pleasant surprise this week. We had already seen the hints of this playing out, but we get more confirmation that Ivy is desperate for her mother's approval, and isn't actually an irredeemably bad person. It was cute to see Ivy and Henry bond. I hope that relationship has a chance to keep developing. She's dismissive of Lucy and mean to Jacinda, but in the end she decides to stand up to Victoria in order to allow Jacinda and Lucy some time together on Halloween.

Okay, Jacinda and Henry are pretty cute, even if the buildup is going a bit too slow for my taste. And Henry and Roni (it's really hard to call her that) also have a cute little bonding thing going on. One of the moments I'm actually the most excited about is the moment they realize who they are, and have a mother-son reunion. That's going to be really sweet.

In all, this episode was sort of... baffling. The stuff with Belle and Rumple was just so depressing, and the rest of the story didn't progress very far. Last year, when the premise for this season was set up, I was cautiously optimistic, with one caveat - I didn't want this to be a reboot where the same premise was recycled with Henry in the role of the skeptic outsider. There are significant differences between this season and the first, of course, but unfortunately the sluggish pace of the season thus far is reminding me of a time when this was all new, and we could afford to take our time peeling each mystery apart slowly. This time around, I'd like to get around to the main event at a more hasty speed. We'll see how it goes!

7/10