A deal for a dream your heart made

Once Upon a Time

Season 1 episode 4 – “The Price of Gold” 

Cinderelly, Cinderelly, this episode was about Cinderelly. Looking pretty as a picture, but making bad life choices. She signed a deal with Rumplestiltskin.To find a prince that she’d be a hitching. Wanting to dance at the ball, might be her biggest mistake of all. 

It’s up to Prince Charming and his daughter to help-a Cinderelly!

Yes that’s right; episode 4 of Once Upon a Time was dedicated to another Disney Princess, Miss Ella of the Cinders herself. Left at home by her appearance challenged step-sisters and horrible step-mother (a trend in fairytales you may say,) on the way to the grand ball. Who will come and help our poor Cinderella (Jessy Schram.) This is where things get interesting. Instead of talking animals and a Fairy Godmother (Catherine Lough Haggquist) coming to the rescue, Miss Ella’s fairy friend is quickly dispatched before she could get out a Bibbidi or a Boo.

Who is this villain who offs Fairy Godmothers and steals their magic wands? It’s Rumplestiltskin, of course. He is after magic, which he notes always has a price. Cinderella, young, dirty, over-worked and desperate, doesn’t care about a price, with her magical guardian now gone; she hitches her wagon to the next powerful creature that might be able to get her to that ball.

Enough cannot be said about how great Robert Carlyle is as Rumplestiltskin, and as Mr Gold later on.

Producing a comically long contract, Rumple promises to make all Ella’s dreams come true, if she promises to give him something precious, later on. I know he wants her first born, you know he wants her first born; but Cinderella obviously doesn’t go to the same chat rooms we do.

After marrying her handsome Prince Thomas (Tim Phillipps, RIP Secret Circle,) and having a Disney of a time at her Wedding, Rumplestiltskin returns to fill her in on the price of purchasing a fairy tale life really is. It’s a baby, the horror. We next see Cinderella, unhappily knocked up and confusing to her beau that Rumple wants their baby to eat (he doesn’t say it, but what else does he want all these babies for?) Not wanting to give up the dream, the pair with Prince Charming, come up with an idea, an awful idea, a wonderful awful idea.

“Trapping” Rumplestiltskin with a new deal and a magical quill, it looks like they succeed in stopping the baby-taking nymph in his tracks. Huzzah! Now we know how he got trapped in the cave we were shown in the pilot.

But wait, what’s this? Didn’t all magic come with a price. Nearly as soon as they start to ship off Rumplestiltskin, Prince Thomas disappears. Oh know, what’s a Princess to do? Especially when our villainous friend promises that in this world or the next, he will get that baby.

That brings us to Storybrooke, Maine, where Emma Swan is projecting her own issues about giving up Henry, onto a pregnant, 19 year old housekeeper, named Ashley (see what they did there.)

Ashley has made a deal with Mr Gold, to give up her baby, as no one believes she will be able to take care of it by herself. Miss Swan, having been through a similar experience herself, inadvertently sends Ashley on a quest, that injures Mr Gold and sends Emma and Henry, on an epic bonding adventure to bring her back. The scenes with Henry tonight were adorable, I know he has annoyed some people but it is nice to see him fighting so hard to get to know his mother, the one who is the root of all evil.

Mr Gold, the reliable source he is, did not mention to Emma that he was after the baby, earning him a burning scowl, but after Ashley has given birth, gets Emma to make a deal. He wants a favour in the future. That will end well.

I didn’t like this episode as much as I thought I would. Cinderella, that should be an automatic winner, right, but whether it was the actress or the way the character was written I couldn’t connect.

Mr Gold and Emma on the other hand, were a treat to watch. She is struggling to stay in town, but accepts a job in town for Henry, and Mr Gold/Rumplestiltskin was brilliant. My theory is that he chose to get caught by team Charming, for what reason I don’t know, but I’m sure it is not going to be good for our heroes.

Extra Fables:

- Seeing all the female fairy tale characters as friends was delightful. Whether it was Snow White and Cinderella dancing and, laughing at the Wedding or, Red Riding Waitress helping Ashley escape in Storybrooke.

- Speaking of Ruby, did you catch the glass wolf hanging in her car? They weren’t being subtle were they?

- Sean (Storybrooke, Prince Thomas) gave his new born daughter slippers, and my heart melts.

- Apparently we found out that Sheriff Graham is sleeping with Regina, but I blacked out in the last few minutes and I didn’t see it. Therefore it must not have happened.

 - So that is it for this episode. Some questions for now. How many other times do you think we’ll see people being stopped from leaving town? What’s Rumplestiltskin/Mr Gold’s endgame? What other Disney Princesses are you looking forward to seeing?

Thank you for reading again, see you next episode, deal?

My wish for my own Fairy Godmother is that you please follow me on Twitter at @Hanniebee852 or join Pop and Fizz, and enjoy my other reviews.  She gets confused easily, help her out.