Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: B+ | 3 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT How Rumpy Got His Gilt Skin
By Cindy McLennan | Season 1 | Episode 8 | Aired on 01.08.2012
Later at the scene, Henry asks the fire fighters about Emma saving Regina, while Regina sneers at the EMTs trying to help her and yells at Sidney for trying to get the story. "Are you trying to hand this election to her?" Hatchet jobs aside, Sidney seems better suited for his current job. "But, it's news." Regina: "She's the competition, you fool." Meanwhile, Mary Margaret, Ruby, Granny, and Archie all crowd around Emma, when Henry comes up and crows about Emma saving Regina. Mary suggests a picture of the rescue would make a great campaign poster. The rest of the group gets excited and wanders off with Mary, tossing out ideas, so Emma kneels down beside Henry. "This is how good wins. You do something good and people see it, and then they want to help you." Just as she tells him there's no need to fight dirty, she notices the pile of debris a fire fighter has just removed from the building. Right on top is a twisted piece of cloth. Emma looks at it, and we cut to...
Mr. Gold's Shop: Emma brings the cloth to her "benefactor" and accuses him of setting the fire. When he claims he was in the shop the whole time, Emma says, "Take a whiff. It smells like your sheep crap oil." For the record, lanolin is a wax squeezed out of freshly shorn wool. I don't know how it smells in its raw state, but it's not from either sheep crap or sheep fat. Just sayin'... Gold points out there's construction work going on at city hall and suggests that's how the fire started. Emma ignores this and asks why Gold did it. Gold: "If I did it, if I did it, that would be because you cannot win without something big -- something like, oh, I don't know, being the hero in a fire." Emma wonders how he could know she'd be at Regina's office. Gold: "Maybe Regina's not the only one with eyes and ears in this town?" Ooh, do you think Sidney/the Magic Mirror, is somehow keeping Gold up to date, too? Just a thought. Gold: "Or maybe I'm just intuitive, were I involved." Oh, wait. Rumpy can see the future, can't he? Maybe he's just "intuitive." He's definitely involved. Emma says she can't go along with this. Gold tells her she just did and it's just the price of the election. Emma says it's a price she's not willing to pay. "Find another sucker." Then, like a HUGE SUCKER, she hands him the evidence. Um... Sidney for Sheriff? Gold calls her bluff and tells her to go ahead and expose him, and needles her about disappointing Henry.
Enchanted Forest, Duke's Castle: I am largely plagiarizing from the recaplet here, because I do not feel beholden to put any more effort into this part of the story, than the show did. Rumpy and Bae set off for the Duke's castle. They start a fire and nobody catches them. Rumpy heads inside and no one sees or stops him. That he's able to do so without running into even one complication is a bit too facile for my taste. And the magical dagger -- this enchanted object that allows the Duke to wield the Dark One's power -- is it locked up, or under guard, or in any way protected? Um, decidedly not. It's hanging on the wall, hidden behind a banner. That's it. Rumpy gets the dagger. Commercial.