Monday, November 14, 2011

TV: Once Upon a Time (episode 4)

Week four for ABC's Once Upon a Time. This week's episode was entitled "The Price of Gold", where Emma meets a young woman named Ashley desperate to get out of Storybrooke. It seems there is someone in town she is suddenly very eager to get away from. How does this all tie into the tale of Cinderella?

Let's get to the episode breakdown, shall we?


First, the past: Cinderella is left home while her evil stepmother and step-sisters go off to the ball. A fairy godmother shows up to help, but then explodes leaving only her wand. Rumpelstiltskin appears to get the wand and warns Cinderella that magic has a price. She agrees to pay it, signs a contract of his; he uses the wand and transforms her for the ball.

Jump ahead to the wedding day of Ella (Cinderella's nickname) and her Prince. Snow White and Charming are there. Rumpelstiltskin shows up too, just to remind her of their deal. What does he want? What else - the first born child. Soon after, she discovers she is with child and plans to run away. Hubby won't hear of that and says they can trick the imp into getting out of the contract.

With the help of the dwarves who make a special cage in their mine and a magic quill, the plan is to tell Rumpelstiltskin that Ella is now expecting twins. Eager to deal, he signs with the quill only to be frozen. He warns her that the magic she just used will have a great price, and moments later her hubby is gone. Rumpelstiltkin warns her that she will never see him until her debt is paid, even if it takes until the next life.

Time to jump to present day and Storybrooke. The Sheriff offers Emma a job. She then meets Ashley Boyd, a 19 year old pregnant maid at the inn. Emma can relate to the young girl's plight. That night, Ashley breaks into Mr. Gold's pawn shop to retrieve something, macing him in the process.

The next morning Regina is going out to a Saturday council meeting and tells Henry to stay home (as soon as she's out of the drive, he's out the door to hang with Emma). Mr. Gold approaches Emma to hire her to find Ashley for him; she agrees only to look for her to help the young girl. Henry does not seem to know who Gold's fairytale counterpart is (so the kid doesn't know everything, good). Emma talks to Ruby and finds out that she and Ashley are friends (Ruby also has a sports car with a glass wolf hanging from the rearview mirror). She sends Emma to see Sean, Ashley's boyfriend. There Emma learns that Mr. Gold was going to buy the unborn child to help the kids out. When Emma returns to the diner, she finds Ashley is gone with Ruby's car, heading to Boston. But the curse won't let her leave town - she goes into labor before getting out of town.

Emma takes her to the hospital and says that if she is serious about keeping the child that she needs to stop running away from her problems. The baby is born - a little girl. Mr. Gold arrives to collect the child; he and Emma have a discussion. Gold says he will let Ashley out of her deal if Emma is willing to make a deal with him - a future favor. Emma says deal. (uh oh - that can't be good) Sean shows up to see Ashley with a gift - slippers (appropo indeed). She tells him the baby's name is Alexandra (the same name that Cinderella's husband wanted to name their child - hmmm). Looks like someone got a happily ever after, thanks to Emma.

Regina's council meeting included some afternoon delight. We don't see who at first. She arrives home seconds after Henry, finds his sneaker on the stairs (it fell off as he rushed in - very Cinderella like) and bursts into his room. Is she on to him? Nope. Finally, Emma calls the Sheriff and accepts his offer to be a deputy. We then find out it was the Sheriff who Regina has been making time with. Very interesting.

This was a solid episode. I like that we got another set of characters involved and more of Mr. Gold and Regina's actions. I like how Ruby had a bigger role too (I am sure she will get an episode spotlight down the road). All in all, quite enjoyable.

See you in two weeks for the next new episode.

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