Lacey (Once Upon a Time)

"Lacey (Once Upon a Time)"

"Lacey" is the 19th episode of the second season of the American ABC fantasy/drama television series Once Upon a Time, and the show's 41st episode overall. It aired on April 21, 2013.

It was co-written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz, while being directed by Milan Cheylov.

Plot

In the characters' pasts

In the Enchanted Forest, Rumplestiltstkin gives Belle a pillow to calm down her crying in the dungeon and to not hear her while he is working, when all of a sudden they are interrupted by an intruder in the library. Rumple soon captures a thief (revealed to be Robin Hood (Tom Ellis) who is trying to steal a magic wand from him), then locks him up and sets out to torture him. Belle pleads with Rumple, and then she sets the prisoner free, not knowing until later that he already succeeded in taking possession of the wand, thanks in part to Belle. The two later hunt down Robin Hood in the Sherwood Forest when they come face to face with the Sheriff of Nottingham (Wil Traval), who has his tongue taken out by Rumple after he attempts to make a deal in exchange to sleep with Belle. When Rumple and Belle finally see Robin Hood from a distance, Rumple prepares to aim despite pleas from Belle (who Rumple then "grounds" in the ground), only to witness Robin Hood using the wand to heal his pregnant love, who is revealed to be Marian. Rumple “misses” with his arrow and lets the couple escape, having realized that his actions would have the same consequences as his situation. Receiving a warm hug from Belle for his change of heart, Rumple later gifts her with a room of books.

In Storybrooke

During a dream, Mr. Gold is holding a birthday party for Henry in front of family: David (Josh Dallas), Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin), Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Neal/Baelfire (Michael Raymond-James). When Henry picks a wand as his gift, Mr. Gold accidentely turns him into a porclain puppet and faces the wrath of the family, only to wake up from the nightmare. Now that she has learned that Henry is his grandson and Baefire/Neal's son, a bemused Regina (Lana Parrilla) waste no time exchanging words with Mr. Gold, who noted that “Apparently fate has a sense of humor,” while Regina responded “If your own son couldn’t bring out the good in you, who will?” So Mr. Gold turns to the only person who he feels will be a key to helping him feel loved by visiting Belle at the hospital, where she is happy to see him and hoping that he'll help her remember who she was before the accident. However, Regina, who arrived moments before Mr. Gold does pick her up to take her home, made sure that she doesn't remember by using a cursed matchbook that she plants on the floor to implant her false memories and she is given the name of Lacey French, a barfly. Mr. Gold is furious that Regina interfered but Regina makes no apologies for her actions, prompting Mr. Gold to use whatever it takes to win her back.

At Granny's Diner, Mr. Gold approaches David to ask him about his other life during the curse to see if there was some way to win back Belle, so David tells him the only way to win her heart is to be himself, so they trek down to "The Rabbit Hole" where Lacey seems to be enjoying herself with playing pool and taking shots. After much convincing, Lacey agrees to go out with Mr. Gold for a date. As they return to Granny's, Lacey shocks Mr. Gold with ordering chicken Parmesan and a full glass of wine instead of hambugers, and as they make a small conversation he spills the wine on her dress and she excuses herself to go to the bathroom. Mr. Gold then becomes suspicious when he checks on her and then discovers Lacey out in the back seducing Keith/The Sheriff of Nottingham. Lacey is not happy with Mr. Gold because he wants Belle back and leaves, but when he confronts Keith again, he takes his tongue out (like he did back in the forest) so he won't scream and beats him with his cane. When Lacey returns, she starts to like Mr. Gold's dark side, to which he replies, "Only Darker."

Meanwhile, David and Mary Margaret take Emma to a secret location that when uncloaked is revealed to be the field where the beans are growing that can return everybody back to the Enchanted Forest. Emma is also greeted by Anton, who gave her the explanation of what happened to him. But when David and Mary Margaret explained that this was the only way they can return to be a family, Emma started to have mixed feelings because of having lived among "our world" for most of her life. She later runs the idea to Neal/Baelfire, who isn't keen about returning either but she leaves out the part about the beans. Unfortunately hours earlier at the docks, Regina arrives to confront Emma about why she didn't know about Neal/Baelfire being Henry's father, only to have Emma remind Regina that she was too busy trying to kill the entire Charming family to let her know. But Regina has begun to sense that Emma knew something by looking at her expression, and later at the diner, Regina, who after seeing David and Mary drop Anton and the dwarves off for dinner, used her magic to retrace the truck tracks to the bean field and discovers the crop, giving her a new plan.

Magic was also on the scheming menu for Greg/Owen (Ethan Embry) and Tamara (Sonequa Martin-Green), as Greg shows her the locations of where he took the photos, while Tamara tells Greg that she bought a "package" that will help them in their plot. Later that night at the city limits, Greg arrived to see Tamara with a moving trailer, which featured the "package" that will help them: Killian "Captain Hook" Jones (Colin O'Donoghue).

Opening sequence

Robin Hood pointing an arrow in the forest is featured.

Production

"Lacey" was co-written by series creators Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz, while Milan Cheylov served as the episode's director.

Cultural references

Disney references in this episode points to Alice In Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast and elements from the animated version of Robin Hood.

Reception

Ratings

This outing remained steady from the previous episode, with a 2.1/6 among 18-49s with 7.28 million viewers tuning in.

Reviews

Hilary Busis from Entertainment Weekly had good things to say about this outing but notes that "Rumpbelle fans were undoubtedly fine with that; others may have felt a bit let down by "Lacey," especially since it aired after three long Once-less weeks."

Oliver Sava of A.V. Club gave this episode an "C+": "Welcome back to Storybrooke, where everyone is either evil or dumb right now. This show certainly does love its status quo, and after pushing characters briefly outside their comfort zones with solid results this season, “Lacey” backtracks on a lot of those developments to create some conflict before the finale."