Recap / Once Upon a Time S7 E4 Beauty

Season 7, Episode 4:

Beauty

In the flashbacks, Gold and Belle try to find a way to release him from the dagger so he can live a natural life and cement their happy ending. In Hyperion Heights, Victoria has Ivy take Lucy trick-or-treating, and Tilly, one of Weaver's informants, goes off her meds...leading her to drastic actions to help him remember his true self.

Tropes

• Character Death: Belle dies of old age at the Edge of Realms.
• The Chessmaster: Rumplestiltskin is awake at the end of the episode, which means that the accent he uses as Weaver is something he is now faking (rather than it being Weaver's normal accent) to hide that fact. Welcome back, Rumple. We have missed you so very much. Additionally, the reason this happens? As with the first Dark Curse when he used Emma's name to restore his memories, Rumple carefully arranged a way to restore him ahead of time via Alice and the chipped cup.
  Weaver: Who told you to do this?
  Tilly: You did.
• Clingy MacGuffin: Rumple tries to drop the Dark One dagger off a bridge older than time itself. It immediately returns to its sheath.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Alice/Tilly. Both are basically completely off their rocker — if the alternate Wonderlands are as bad as the one we've seen, we can't say we blame her — but entirely correct in how they act, work, speak and do things.
• Composite Character:
  • Rumplestiltskin adds Carl Fredricksen to his list of roles along with the Beast and the Crocodile.
  • Alice/Tilly is taking as much from the White Rabbit role than the original Alice.
• Continuity Nod:
  • During one scene at their cottage at the Edge of Realms, Belle is once again standing on a ladder, tries to open a set of curtains, and falls only to be caught by Rumple. This time, however, it's because she's dying of old age.
  • When Tilly shows him the chipped cup and says it will help him remember, Weaver responds "This? It's only a cup."
  • Both Belle and Tilly speak of Rumple having a pure heart, a reference to having the darkness drained from it by the Apprentice at the end of Season 4 (and, indirectly, him once having been a Savior).
  • Henry suggests that the drink Roni gives him could use some cinnamon, referencing the fact that the members of the Charming family have a taste for cinnamon with their drinks.
• Couch Gag: The title card features a cemetery with jack-o' lanterns and other Halloween decorations.
• Good-Times Montage: We have one of Belle and Rumple as they live and grow old in their cottage. Another comes when Belle is dying and tells the story of their meeting with scenes of them together across the series.
• Go Out with a Smile: Belle, after a long life of old age with her Rumple.
• Halloween Episode: Being set in a city populated by enough regular humans, unlike Storybrooke which was entirely populated by cursed fairy tale characters, allows for this.
• Happy Ever After: Rumple doesn't think so, but getting to travel the world, raise Gideon right, and then spend years of peaceful solitude together at the Edge of Realms is very much this to Belle. Considering he got to escape what the Black Fairy did to him, then grows up into a scholar and attends a prestigious college, this certainly applies to Gideon as well.
• History Repeats:
  • Once again, being subjected to a certain trigger causes Rumplestiltskin to wake up. In this case, it's Belle's chipped cup and being shot.
  • In the first season, Sheriff Graham got his memories restored to him by a blonde woman he cared greatly for, then died immediately afterward. Here, Detective Weaver gets his memories restored to him by a blonde woman he cares greatly for, and would have died were it not for being immortal... but now that he has his memories back, his quest is to die so he can rejoin Belle. For added levels of irony, Emma was also the one who helped Gold get his memories back the first time (via her name being woven into the Dark Curse), and when Emma helped Graham she had no idea what she'd done (or even believed it) while Tilly absolutely knew what she was doing but was desperate to succeed before she forgot it.
• It's the Journey That Counts: Rumple is so focused on getting rid of the dagger so that he and Belle can have a normal life together that he misses the fact they already had it, living together at the Edge of Realms. When she lies dying, he still insists that they wasted all their time there when they could have been out looking for another solution, or seeing the world the way she dreamed of. But she tells him it wasn't a waste at all, they they already did those things and had the life they wanted, so that she is quite ready to die in peace and wait for him on the other side.
• I Was Just Joking: After Weaver wakes up in the hospital, Rogers jokes that he must be immortal to have survived that gunshot. Having his memories of being Rumple back, he takes this claim with a quiet seriousness, prompting Rogers to invoke the trope.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Belle passes away of old age while Rumple remains immortal.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Roni/Regina offering a drink called "the Poison Apple".
  • During the montage of them growing old together, Belle and Rumple dance as the soundtrack shifts to "Beauty and the Beast" one last time.
  • Rumple first encounters Alice during her chase of the White Rabbit — interrupting it, in fact, so that she complains she'll never be able to find him again. Also, when they see Henry driving past on his motorcycle, she comments that the guests for the prince's ball are getting "stranger and stranger", an echo of the Lewis Carroll novel where she spoke of things getting "curiouser and curiouser".
  • What is the food Weaver claims is Tilly's favorite? Orange marmalade, which is what Alice found in a very memorable moment in the original book while falling down the rabbit hole (where she somehow puts the jar back in a cupboard as she falls past).
• Never Trust a Trailer: The Next Episode Preview for this episode showed Alice/Tilly pointing a gun at Weaver while holding the teacup, with the voiceover that she was attempting to "destroy a timeless romance". The actual episode proved that it was the exact opposite: she was trying to wake Weaver up so that he'd remember Belle and his mission to reunite with her.
• Odd Friendship: Ivy and Henry strike up one of these, thanks to bonding over being scared to go for what they want and have their own lives.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Victoria's reaction when she realized Tilly remembers who she is.
  • Averted. Victoria Belfrey/Lady Tremaine does not crap herself at Rumplestiltskin uttering his trademark "Dearie". The audience, however...
• Pet the Dog: Weaver lets Tilly get away after shooting him, though this is more because it helped him remember who he is and, more importantly, who she is.
• Prophecy Twist: Gold and Belle go to the Edge of Realms because a prophecy tells them that when the sun sets there, Rumple will be able to free himself from his dagger. Turns out the "sun" that needs to set is Belle's life. An even bigger twist? Belle knew this and deliberately mistranslated the prophecy...
• The Reveal:
  • Tilly/Alice kept her memories, and Victoria had her put on medication to suppress them.
  • Also, Rumple is seeking a "Guardian" to pass the Dark One's dagger to, so the Darkness can "rest" and he can finally pass on.
• Series Continuity Error: This episode makes out that Rumple needs to be holding the Dark One dagger to use his powers; however, this has never been the case before.
• Shout-Out:
  • While off her meds, Tilly says repeatedly that she "doesn't want to be small again", and at one point claims to be "ten feet tall", alluding to the Jefferson Airplane song "White Rabbit".
  • Some of the trick-or-treaters are dressed as Disney characters, Lucy talks to a girl dressed as Elsa from Frozen, Henry talks to a girl dressed as Snow White, and Jacinda/Ella serves chicken to a family dressed as the Incredibles.
  • Tilly's situation, where she is believed to be normal when on her meds and crazy without them, when in actuality the pills are keeping her under false memories and only without them is she truly herself, is rather reminiscent of the Black Knight/Rilian's situation in The Silver Chair.
  • While trick-or-treating, Lucy is hoping to get an Apollo bar.
• Time-Passes Montage: Gold and Belle get one at the Edge of Realms.
• Together in Death: Rumple intends to free himself from his curse (and thus his immortality) in order to die and be reunited with Belle.
• Trailers Always Spoil: That scene in the preview also spoils that Alice was awake.
• Wham Line:
  • Belle explaining the "setting sun" in the prophecy refers to her death.
  • Weaver calls Victoria/Tremaine "dearie", indicating that Tilly's actions gave him back his memories.
• Wham Shot: Tilly giving Rogers the same rook he had as Hook, suggesting she might be his missing daughter, or at least knows what happened to her.
• Whole-Plot Reference: To Up for the flashback scenes with Rumple and Belle — from recreating its Signature Scene opening, to the design of the house, to the Edge of Realms rather looking like Paradise Falls, to the photo book, to Rumple taking on a surrogate at the end in order to find his own path once she dies. Even some of the jaunty music during the Good-Times Montage is reminiscent of Up's soundtrack.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Rumple doesn't want to remain immortal if it means he'll outlive Belle but is unable to find a method of breaking the dagger's curse before she passes away of old age. Leads to him becoming a Death Seeker so that he can finally join her in death.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: How the Edge of Realms works; every time Gideon leaves and then comes back to visit, Belle is older but he has hardly aged at all. (Neither has Rumple, but he's immortal so doesn't count.) Eventually this explains how Belle can grow old and die after a long time, but Rumple can emerge from a portal in the alternate Enchanted Forest at the same time Henry is riding his motorcycle to Cinderella's ball.

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