Maybe it was the fact that there was so much emphasis on Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold, who seems, if possible, even crueler than The Evil Queen/Regina Mills. (Which is worse, ripping a newborn away from a mother or ripping out one’s own father’s beating heart in order to complete a curse?)
Or perhaps it was the de-emphasis of Snow White in this episode, but either way, this was the first Once Upon a Time episode that I wasn’t entirely crazy about.
Sure, I was pleasantly surprised by the unexpected twist of having Cinderella’s fairy godmother be vaporized and then having Rumpelstiltskin leap in and extract a promise from the desperate Cinderella in exchange for her magical transformation — although Cinderella didn’t take any time to inquire as to the contractual details and didn’t know she’d agreed to give away her first born to the creepy dude in order for her to go glam and snag a prince. (As despicable as The Evil Queen may be, I have more of an aversion to Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold. Don’t know why exactly, but I enjoy watching the Queen/Regina more than I do watching Rumpelstiltskin/Gold.)
I was likewise intrigued by the fact that the mayor is sleeping with Storybrooke’s sheriff, given that we don’t know his fairy tale identity, nor are we privy to why he’d want to hire Emma as his deputy. Is Emma’s employment a trick orchestrated by Regina or something else, perhaps something noble? Does the sheriff really want to do good in addition to doing the mayor?
And the small knowing nods to the characters’ fairy tale backstories — like Ruby/Little Red Riding Hood’s wolf figurine — were like little wet kisses to the show’s fans.
But if I had to single out what about this episode that I didn’t particularly like it would be Cinderella and her prince, both in the fairy tale land and in Storybrooke.
On paper, the stories sound compelling: A young woman — who is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters and left to toil as their servant, wear rags and remain tethered to an unhappy home — desperately wants a new life and is granted a glorious sparkly one by virtue of an unwise and ignorant agreement she made with a bad man which includes giving him her firstborn. In Storybrooke, a 19-year-old woman who’s broke and also toiling away, is pregnant and agrees to give her baby up for adoption because no one thinks she can handle single motherhood.
Good stuff, right? Certainly something to which Emma, who was pregnant with Henry when she was 18 and who also didn’t have a loving childhood, can most definitely relate. But the acting was just flat. Cinderella/Ashley seemed whiny and supremely foolish, a stark contrast with the other female characters. The Prince/Sean wasn’t all that impressive or intriguing either. Plus I didn’t buy that someone with Emma’s street smarts would agree to a deal with the slippery Mr. Gold when she didn’t know the exact terms. Plus I missed Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow White, even though she did pop up here and there to check in.
Hopefully this episode was only an aberration and that the introduction of new characters will go much more smoothly. Jiminy Cricket and Geppetto are next up.
Clacked by Meredith O'Brien 
on Nov 14, 2011 @ 11:58 EST5EDT
Rumpelstiltskin’s deal-making reminds me of the Man (played by Xander Berkeley) in the Hulu series The Booth at the End, which I highly recommend (the five half-hour episodes don’t take long to watch). Like Rumpel, the Man makes deals with people to give them what they want, but in return they have to do something they don’t want to do (for example, he tells a nun that she has to get pregnant in order to get what she wants). It’s not exactly the same – the deals can be called off. But the Man is an ambiguous character. Is he good or evil? a neutral force? a curious meddler? working for someone? These questions can apply equally well to our Mr. Gold.
I’m wondering if Rumplestiltskin is the devil. Malefecent stated that who ever created the dark curse was more evil than anyone in fairytale land. Also, in the pilot, the jailer insisted they not tell him their names. Finally, his insistence that Ella sign a contract and his refusal to let her off without swapping for someone else’s soul or “favor,” makes me wonder.
However, agreed Cinderella came across as whiny, unsympathetic and, someone who wanted to ‘get rich quick’ more than anything.
I liked this week’s episode. This show continues to intrigue me! However, as I was not a big fan of fairy tales as a child, I don’t know exactly why Rumpelstiltskin wanted first born children. I tried to do a little research, but I haven’t found anything.
The thing I like about this show is, every “fairy tale” character knows one another. Snow White and Cinderella are friends? Odd… but cool.
Personally, i really don’t think Rumplestiltskin is that evil. I mean yeah he is super manipulative but at the same time he gives ppl fair warning. He told cinderella that every bit of magic comes with a price and as for the whole curse thing, he may have created it but he never actually used it. I honestly think he does crap simply for giggles and as long as you keep your end of the bargin there’s no trouble.Plus he has a pretty serious reputation so a good portion of the people that come to him know what their getting into. The queen on the other had…pure evil, im mean she’s purposely destroying the lives of everyone just to get back at one woman. Was it really that serious??