Once upon a Time Rewatch 2.19, "Lacey"

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

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2.19, "Lacey"

Written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz
Directed by Milan Cheylov

Synopsis

Not all it's cracked up to be, really...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Following a recap of series events, the episode begins with a celebration of Henry's birthday, Gold offering him a gift of any single object from his shop. He selects a magic wand, the functions of which Gold demonstrates--by transforming the boy into ceramics and shattering him. It is revealed to be a dream, from which Gold starts awake.

After the title card, the episode shifts to Baelfire and Henry playing as Gold looks on. Regina joins him, and Gold notes to her that his son is Henry's father--making them family, a machination of fate. Regina prophecies his failure with his descendants.

Gold calls on the amnesiac Belle, and the two confer. She accepts that her past, unremembered self had a relationship with Gold, and she recalls having been healed. She also asks him for help in recalling herself to herself--which help he agrees to provide, as it will help him, as well.

The episode pivots to Belle's captivity with Rumpelstiltskin in the Enchanted Forest. Rumplestiltskin rebukes her for her weeping and its distractions from his work, and their conversation is interrupted by sounds of a break-in in progress. Rumplestiltskin proceeds to intercept the burglar. When the episode pivots back, Belle is making ready to leave the hospital where she has convalesced. Regina calls on her and presents Belle a matchbook that carries a spell with feigned memories.

Ooh! A map!
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Meanwhile, Greg and Tamara continue to plot. He notes no success in finding his father, though he reaffirms his faith in his father's presence. She notes being ready to retrieve a package that evening.

David and Mary Margaret drive Emma to a hidden field, one cloaked and bearing a crop of nascent magic beans, tended by Anton. Emma intuits their purpose with the beans, railing at their intent to return to their native realm even as they invite her to return with them in the hopes of a happy ending.

Gold finds Belle has left her hospital room and stumbles upon the matchbook Regina had planted. He follows its clue to a disreputable establishment and finds Belle under the identity of Lacey--that with which Regina has enchanted her via the matchbook. The episode pivots to Rumpelstiltskin tormenting the thief that had breached his residence as Belle cleans. As he takes a break from his efforts, Belle calls on his victim, tending to him and releasing him to flee. The episode pivots back to Gold confronting Regina for her workings on Belle. She coldly dismisses him from her office.

Gold calls on David, asking for help with Belle. Reluctantly, he offers advice for reawakening her actual--not curse-borne--identity: "Show her the man she fell in love with." The episode pivots to the Enchanted Forest, where Rumpelstiltskin prepares to resume "work" and finds the prisoner escaped--with Belle's admitted assistance. She challenges him, and he notes that she had been gulled, vowing vengeance and compelling her to accompany him in its pursuit.

The episode moves to Gold's pursuit of Belle, showing his inept courtship. David encourages him in his efforts, which yield some success. Elsewhere, Regina confronts Emma as the latter reads, a tense exchange ensuing. And after, the arranged date between Gold and "Lacey" commences, awkwardly, and the episode pivots to Rumpelstiltskin's pursuit of the thief, during which he and Belle confer. A confrontation with local authority ensues, revealing that Rumpelstiltskin's quarry is Robin Hood. After a brief pivot back to the date, from which "Lacey" has fled for an assignation, pursuit continues, where Robin heals Marian of a malady with the wand stolen from Rumpelstiltskin. The revelation that Marian is pregnant stays Rumpelstiltskin's hand, about which Belle lauds him. And in Storybrooke, Gold finds that "Lacey" rejects him.

In the night, Regina follows the trail of David, Anton, and the dwarves back to their hidden field, finding the work on which they have been engaged and delighting in the possibilities thereof. Gold returns to his old ways, and "Lacey" happens upon him engaged in them, finding him all the more compelling therefore. Baelfire returns Henry to Emma, and she asks him about returning to the Enchanted Forest. And Tamara makes good on her promise of delivery--of Hook.

Discussion

While scenes from a dream are often regarded as variants on the deus ex machina, they are, as has been noted previously (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, if not also elsewhere) staples of medieval literature. Dream of the Rood is one example, of course, and Pearl another, with Arthurian literature offering any number of others. Dream vision is not original to medieval literatures, perhaps; JA Cuddon remarks that while it is "extremely popular in the Middle Ages," it has its precursors in Cicero and Macrobius's remarks on the same. Even so, it is pervasive in that time, so that it is ripe for taking up by a medievalist property such as the present series--which does, as repeatedly noted and observed, make use of the device, to greater and lesser degrees.

The episode also introduces the Robin Hood mythos into the series. There is no shortage of material discussing such, of course, with accessible entries here and here, among others. Some more reactionary types might well decry the presentation of people of color amid such stories, believing as they do in the myth of the monochrome Middle Ages and hoping that their presentations of such beliefs might somehow justify their execrable ideologies and their even more contemptible attempts to impose those ideologies on the world they inhabit. They are, of course, in error, severally, and should be decried and rebuked for those errors as often as can be done. And it is the case that, even among concerns of "accuracy," it muse be remembered that the medieval stories that have been transmitted--which transmission is itself a concern--are themselves products of change and refiguration. Arthurian literature shows it, among others; Arthur changes substantially from Gildas and Nennius to the Galfridian conception through the high chivalric to Malory. He is far from the only such. How the changes occur and what changes are retained--and imposed--shows much about those who do the changing and those for whom the changes are made; they are well worth the attention, for those and other reasons.