Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: C | 386 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT PANache
By Cindy McLennan | Season 3 | Episode 9 | Aired on 12.01.2013
Gold's shop. Gold is idly tapping the counter when Regina enters. The blank look on his face is spectacular, if only because it reminds me that even though he doesn't know it, he is just biding his time until the curse is broken and he can search for his son. It's also great, because it drills home how empty these characters' lives were, for 28 years. Until Emma decided to stay in Storybrooke, not one of them did anything of substance. I wonder how often any of them just stood by until Regina chose to interact with them.
Regina's here and interacting in her usual way. She "needs" a child and Gold's help. He chuckles. "Well, I'm flattered, but uninterested." Ha. Regina clarifies. She's spent the morning talking to adoption agencies, and the wait-lists are all a couple of years long. Since Regina is as patient as a tired, hungry, over-heated, ear-infected two-year old, in need of a fresh diaper, she wants Gold to cut through some red tape for her. Looking her over, Gold tells Regina, "I'm sure you'll make a... mother of some sort." Since my own mother reads these recaps, I'll not fill in his heavily implied blank. Hi, Mum! Gold advises Regina to ask herself if she's ready for this. Regina says, "It's something I need." Gold says, "Well, that may not be the same thing. I'll get you a child, but whether or not that's helping you remains to be seen. When you become a parent, you must put your child first, no matter what." We cut to a...
Sidebar. There has been a lot of online chatter, about how, in this scene (and a later one also in the shop), it seems as though Gold already remembers life in the Enchanted Forest -- even though that shouldn't happen for another 10 years. Fans (rightfully) object, if that's the case, because it has been shown onscreen, more than once, and confirmed offscreen, that Gold remembers nothing until he meets Emma at Granny's boarding house and hears her name. This is my long way of saying I disagree that this (and the later shop) scene imply Gold remembers the Enchanted Past. I think what Carlyle is portraying here is the experience of having a nagging feeling. Watch the bit when he talks about how parents must put their children first. In his centuries of living, this is the one lesson Rumpelstiltskin has learned the hard way, both as a child and a parent. His memory of learning that lesson has been wiped out, sure, but the truth of it is written on his heart, more times than he wrote Emma's name on that scroll. Gold may not remember why he knows the lesson, but it's nearly all he knows. Now, let's flash forward to...
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