Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B+ | 580 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT How Grumpy Got His Grump On
By Cindy McLennan | Season 1 | Episode 14 | Aired on 2012.03.04
Mary Margaret and Leroy do no better selling door-to-door than they were doing at the candle booth. The first guy who answers their knock is a long, lean fellow, nibbling a carrot. He looks Mary up and down with a salacious leer that she tries to ignore. When Leery's stocky wife comes to the door, I realize he must be Jack Spratt. Mrs. Spratt nudges Jack out of the way and sneers that they're not interested. Door after door slams in the face of our not-so-dastardly duo.
Enchanted Forest, Pub: While the rest of the dwarfs are living it up, Dreamy feels out of sorts. He tells Bossy he can't sleep or eat and just doesn't feel like himself. Belle is there! She chimes in that Dreamy is in love. Dreamy wants to know what love is. Bell tells him it's wonderful and amazing. "Love is hope." Since it's so great, Dreamy can't figure out why he feels so bad. Belle explains he needs to be with the one he loves. I love Emilie de Raven as Belle. I hope we get a lot more of her. Dreamy tells Belle about Nova watching the fireflies on Firefly Hill. Belle laughs and says Nova was inviting him to be with her. Even though Belle, herself, is still heartbroken she encourages Dreamy to go. "Find your love. Find your hope. Find your dreams."
Sidebar: There's been a lot of discussion about when this scene takes place in the larger timeline -- is it before Queenie tells Rumpy that Belle leapt to her doom, or after? Some reported comments from the writers were poorly phrased and confused the issue, further. For now, for me, I'm assuming Belle just left Rumpy's and stopped in Dwarf Town, or what have you, either for a rest or for good. Regina's visit to Rumpy's estate could have come any time after Belle left, and we don't get the Fairy Tale stories chronologically, so it's not worth breaking my brain. Joss Whedon once told Buffy fans to "Trust the tale, not the teller." That's not original to him but it's where I first remember hearing it and it's generally good advice.
Storybrooke, Volunteer Center: Mary and Leroy arrive to update Sister Astrid on their failure, but when Leroy sees his beloved nun, he just can't give her the bad news. Instead, he lies that he and Mary sold out the entire candle inventory. Astrid jumps for joy and hugs Leroy. We cut to commercial to give Mary Margaret time to contain her ire.
Mary pulls Leroy aside and hisses at him about lying about five thousand dollars they don't have. He tells her he has a plan and asks her to give him to the end of the day. It takes Mary a moment to realize Leroy can't bear the thought of the nuns getting evicted because he has feelings for Astrid. She points out the object of his affection is a nun. "Could you possibly pick anyone less available?" Leroy: "Says the girl who went after a married guy. At the end of the day you're no better than I am. You've got your reasons for being here. I got mine. And when I say I'm going to get that $5,000, I'm going get that $5,000."