Stephanie has already recapped & reviewed tonight’s episode, “Desperate Souls,” which finished just hours ago. Welcome Stephanie to KSiteTV, and hopefully you all enjoy this recap and review as much as we do.
Recap:
Rumplestiltskin, wanting to avoid his son being drafted into the army in a few days time, runs away with him. An old beggar they run into tells Rumplestiltskin about a way to procure power and rise above his ordinary status. To do this, Rumplestiltskin must break into a fortress, steal the Dark One’s dagger, which is the only way to find out the Dark One’s true name, and murder him with it. Successful at this, Rumplestiltskin himself becomes the Dark One and decides to use his newfound power to kill the men about to take his son, to delve into darkness contrary to the good he intended to do when first hearing about it.
Back in Storybrooke, Emma attempts to take on the role of Sheriff, citing the law that gives automatic Sheriff status to a person acting as one for two weeks. Regina stops Emma as she is pinning on the badge, saying that the mayor has the right to appoint someone else within that time period- Sydney Glass of the Daily Mirror. In the process of releasing her anger, Emma is interrupted by a knock at the door from Mr. Gold. He comes in to tell her that he will be her benefactor because the town charter says the mayor can only appoint a candidate for election, not select a replacement.
The election takes a vengeful turn once Sidney Glass writes an article about Emma giving birth to Henry while she was in jail, an article that hurts Henry and convinces Emma that she needs to fight for the position, wanting to win the election to show Henry that heroes can succeed. Mr. Gold, aiming to sway voters to Emma’s side but without her knowledge, stages a fire outside the mayor’s door, but both Regina and Emma get caught in it. Emma saves Regina, who was trapped under the rubble, and seeing some of his cloth among the debris, Emma realizes it was Mr. Gold who caused the fire. She does not openly criticize his actions until her campaign speech, in which she also discreetly apologizes to Henry for not being able to be his hero, thinking she has lost the election. Nevertheless, Emma is rewarded with the job of Sheriff.
In the end, Mr. Gold confesses that Emma betraying him was his plan the whole time. For Emma, it helped her get the position of Sheriff that she desired, but for the self-interested Mr. Gold, he now becomes more feared by the town and has greater options when it comes to asking Emma for that favor she owes him.
Review:
Up until now, Rumplestiltskin has come off as a highly self-centered, over the top character, but this episode grounded him, made him more human than fairytale. This episode came at the perfect time in the season; for seven episodes viewers have been led to dislike and distrust Rumplestiltskin, so revealing his tragic past now not only provides a Hollywood shock but also adds in a layer of sympathy moving into the rest of the season. Additionally, making him a broken human, having lost a wife and alienated a son, puts Rumplestiltskin in a similar position to a few other characters. He is a vengeful widower, as the Evil Queen is an angered widow. He has a broken relationship with his son, as does Emma. He was unknowingly sucked into the world of evil, a world that Jiminy Cricket was able to escape. His character was wonderfully fleshed out, and I, for one, was excited to see the origin of Rumplestilskin’s fascination with names; it has been one of those mysteries bothering me all season.
The scene in which Rumplestiltskin speaks with the beggar the first time demonstrates phenomenal talent from Robert Carlyle with his subtlety and tears. I applaud him for portraying Rumplestiltskin as a completely different man in this episode. If his usual mannerisms, eccentric hand gestures, and chippering speech were there, there would have been no obvious change in Rumplestiltskin’s character, and that was an important point to this episode.
The election in Storybrooke did not seem to parallel the story in the fairytale world as well as other episodes have done; however, that does not mean it was a poor story by any means. I enjoyed seeing Emma fight to be Graham’s successor, wanting so badly to do good with her life and make up for her rocky past. Also, her being so concerned about becoming a hero for Henry, to make herself vulnerable and to speak honestly, truly provides hope. Emma is now fully embracing her role as their savior, taking responsibility to combat darkness, which is exciting for the audience. It was a beautiful story of the power of determination and steadfastness. Though the victory of good over evil is a common theme throughout much of our literature and media, this is a more realistic and relatable story, one that I believe shows more courage on the part of good than many fictional heroes have shown in the past.
Though a mostly superb episode, Sheriff Graham’s death was seemingly glossed over and unexplored. The characters minimally mourned the loss, which left me feeling as if the significance of the last episode was ignored. Sheriff Graham remembering events from this fairytale life was a huge progression towards breaking the curse that appears to have been lost. Hopefully, these points will be picked back up in a more serialized episode than this stand-alone one.
Stephanie Hall is studying Multimedia Development and Film at Duquesne University. A huge fan of television, her favorite shows include Castle, Fringe, Once Upon a Time, and Smallville. Follow her on twitter @_stephaniehall and check out her blog at http://stephaniehall.wordpress.com/.
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2 Comments
Yeah I was kind of hoping to see if Mary Margaret was going to keep thinking about what Graham had said to her about not remembering meeting anyone else in Storybrooke but it’s like the writers forgot about that. Henry was the one most upset about Graham’s death and that was mainly because he realized how dangerous trying to break the curse is going to be.
I did find it interesting that apparently at some point Emma must have told Mary Margaret that Henry thinks she’s there to save everyone in Storybrooke from the curse because MM didn’t question it when she referred to herself that way when talking about why she wanted to win the job as sheriff.
And with Rumple, I had started thinking that maybe he didn’t create the curse necessarily but had possibly discovered it somehow and realized it might give him his son back, but only if someone else cast the curse and it had to have someone else break it for it to work out for him. But now I’m not sure.
I agree wholeheartedly, Stephanie. When the episode turned from Rumple the Good, to Rumple the Dark I was wishing that he would win in some way. He was not just this evil conniving Mr. Gold, but a man that lost his son.
I am also upset that Graham was so easily tossed aside. Emma had found a friend, possibly even more than that, that was also the quickest to recall his past. As storylines go, I understand that the evil queen had to squelch that but I cried along with Emma when he was killed. If his story is not revisited I will be very confused and peeved.