S01.E04: The Price of Gold

[formerlyfreedom]

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A pregnant woman enlists Emma's help to escape from Storybrooke - and from the enigmatic Mr. Gold - while a secret deal made between Cinderella and Rumpelstiltskin is revealed.

[Shanna Marie]

After all Regina's Mother of the Year campaign speeches in the previous episodes, all her claims that she's Henry's real mother and her attempts to make Emma look like a bad influence, it's interesting that she leaves a 10-year-old at home alone all day, from breakfast to 5 p.m., on a Saturday, not allowed to leave the house or even watch TV. What 10-year-old has enough homework to keep him busy all day on a Saturday? And she sure loves her kid if she'd rather spend all day in bed with her sex slave than spend any time with her child. Even when she gets home, all she does is yell at him about leaving a shoe on the stairs, then shut his door and leave him alone again. Not so much as a "so, how was your day?" She also showed no affection to him when she left in the morning -- no kiss on the cheek, no pat on his shoulder. She's so cold to him. She talks at him rather than to him. It's quite the contrast with his interactions with Emma, where they banter. If she's trying to win an emotional tug of war with Emma, she's going about it the wrong way.

[daxx]

Rumple just loves it when they’ll do “anything”.

henry so sneaky trying to get Emma to let him call her mom. “Do you think we need code names, I need something to call you” lol

wow, Ruby that’s quite the outfit!

Regina would do far better if she didn’t egg Emma on and make her want to prove Regina wrong at every turn.

pregnant for 28 years, that sucks, one of my favorite lines, “just punch back and say this is who I am, etc”

head woumds, even small ones bleed a lot more than that.

No tv on a Saturday, that is just mean.

I’m not sentimental. ? 

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I don’t think anyone wants to see that baby born in jail, he knows doesn’t he, manipulative bastard.

Then Henry manipulates Emma into letting him come along. Must run in the family. 

What did Rumple want the baby for or was it just to get caught? Push too far so they’ll catch him? 

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Did his foresight show him that he’d be in a cell and needed the information he’d get from being locked up?

Ohhh, pretty Jag, I had one of those, same color even.

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Of course Ruby kept the wolf!

The blue fairy cast a spell on it? 

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Wasn’t it squid ink?

did they ever explain what happened to Thomas in the EF? I don’t think they did.

Super creepy eyes Rumple.

you'll owe me a favor. Bad idea Emma.

Sorry you’re being used that way Graham. It sucks. 

[andromeda331]

I love Emma's conversation with Ashley. The whole No Fairy godmothers and punching back. It was a great line and true. Combined with Cinderella asking in the later flashback if they should be using magic asking if that wasn't what was causing all their problems. I remember thinking that was going to be the point or a point of the show. That many of the characters and stories we were seeing and going to see they needed to learn to solve their problems without magic.  Or that often they use magic at times there's other solutions.  Like that's why when Cinderella's telling Rumple how horrible her life was he tells her to change it. Did Cinderella have other options she hadn't considered before? Or wasn't brave enough to try? 

I loved Cinderella's dress and her wedding dress. The dance was really nice and I loved that Snow and Charming showed up. It was such a natural way to including other fairytale characters compared to later seasons when they always seem forced.  I loved seeing Snow White and Cinderella dancing together. Snow's dress was beautiful.

I didn't like how quickly Cinderella agreed to the deal after seeing Rumple murder her fairy godmother. There really should have been more resistance, convincing, or more desperation. Like maybe her stepmother was going to sale her the next day or something. Same with Ashley deciding to break into Gold's shop to steal the contract. That's not what Emma meant Ashley. Was she unaware she could talk to a lawyer, social worker or somebody? That the deal wouldn't hold up in court or aware how rare it is for courts to take a baby from their mother? If not what kind of memories do they have from our world? Do they not get news or watch TV from the rest of the world? Henry figured out how to find his bio mom and track her down. He also knew if Emma called the cops on him they'd believe him not her. Or did he know that because he doesn't have the same memories as everyone else? 

I didn't like Cinderella's rudeness to Rumple showing up at the wedding reception. Or her wanting to run away but packing her comb and other things. Or when she talked to Thomas and seemed more concerned about going back to her old life.  But did like the scene with her trying to convince Rumple she was expecting twins. Yeah, clearly he knew what was up. I love his reaction to the pin. "What a lovely quill..."   I did like Thomas telling that magic brought them together but didn't create their love. Which was kind of a good point. Magic created her clothes and got her to the ball. What happened next was up to them.

It was nice to see more of Ruby and her protecting a friend. I realized we never saw Ruby and Cinderella together except for the Valentine episode. Were they "friends" because of the curse? Though Snow?    

I loved everything Emma said to Ashley in the car about keeping the baby and Henry listening in the back to the 'you can't ever leave'. At the hospital him telling her that she can leave. His reaction at the end of the episode when Emma tells him she'll see him tomorrow. 

I didn't like Emma making the deal with Gold. I'm surprise Henry wasn't saying something on that one. Even if he didn't know who Gold was (but he should have figured it out by that point) he believes fairytales are real and be suspicious by deals. Those never go well in fairytales. I remember being worried about why Gold was going to ask of Emma

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And very surprised by what it was. It really could have been much worse

I liked the end scene with Sean coming to meet his daughter and brought slippers. It fit so well. 

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I still wish we'd seen Thomas's reaction to realizing his father almost gave away his grandchild. As well as his father's considering him hinting to Cinderella at the wedding reception

I loved Henry trying to get to call Emma, Mom by bringing up code names. Then when she suggest pumpkin he tells her he has one for her but she's not ready yet.

[Camera One]

8 minutes ago, andromeda331 said:

I didn't like how quickly Cinderella agreed to the deal after seeing Rumple murder her fairy godmother.

I hated that.  One of reasons why this was the first episode of the show that really disappointed me.  They made Cinderella so weak and not too bright, and I didn't think the actress had enough presence.  I do remember really liking her scenes with Emma, though.  It'll be interesting to see whether I like it more the second time 'round.

Because I didn't like this episode as much, I'll probably wait until tomorrow to rewatch.

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I didn't like Cinderella's rudeness to Rumple showing up at the wedding reception.

I don't remember her exact reaction but I wouldn't have expected a cordial response.

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It was quite horrid in the Season 7 retcon that they showed Cinderella walking into the ball jokingly referring to Rumple as her "Fairy Godfather" as if she didn't just watch an innocent fairy get exploded.  Ugh.  Sometimes this show is so repulsive.

Edited June 9, 2018 by Camera One

[Shanna Marie]

Now that I have my rant about Regina leaving Henry alone at home all day, not allowed to go out or watch TV, while she plays with her sex slave rather than actually spending time with the son who is supposedly so important to her that she has to run his birth mother out of town for his own good off my chest, I do like much about this episode. I like how there were so many elements of the fairy tale woven into the present-day events. Cinderella is working as a hotel maid. Henry is made to stay home while Regina goes out to have fun, and he goes out behind her back, but has the firm 5 p.m. deadline to get home, like the midnight in the fairy tale, and he barely makes it, but loses his shoe on the stairs, which almost gives him away. Cinderella's prince gives their baby a pair of shoes as a gift.

While some of the costumes at the ball are lovely, they're awfully modern, looking like prom dresses from the mid-late 80s. The zippers are painfully obvious (I have enough friends who are historical costumers that this bothers me a great deal). Half the dresses at the ball look like they were bought in the formalwear department at Macy's.

Something about Ashley's story I was wondering about, given developments later in the series ...

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They mention that she has a stepmother and two stepsisters she doesn't speak to. We later learned that the stepmother and at least one stepsister were in the Land of Untold stories, so was that just her vague memories of having that stepfamily even though they weren't actually in the town, and she never noticed they weren't in town because she didn't speak to them?

Meanwhile, Thomas's father, a king, lived in the town

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So it's interesting that a king of another kingdom was apparently willing to live under Regina's rule even after the curse broke. You'd think all those other rulers would have made their own play for some kind of leadership position.

[profdanglais]

11 hours ago, Camera One said:

They made Cinderella so weak and not too bright, and I didn't think the actress had enough presence.

Yep. I remember thinking that both Cinderella and particularly her prince looked to modern for the fairybacks. Thomas in particular just looks like a frat boy. I just don't buy him in a leather doublet. 

This episode frustrated me the first time I saw it because I was disappointed that there was no progression of Snowing after Snow Falls. But on the rewatch I like it a lot better. I liked seeing Rumplestiltskin trying to get the baby--

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Was it for the curse? A product of true love, apparently 

 

and I loved Emma calling Gold's bluff. You could see the wheels turning as he realised she had the better of him, and though it is frustrating that he still managed to turn the situation to his advantage, I think that's the first time we saw Rumple/Gold on the back foot. 

There was genuine chemistry between Emma and Graham. I really did think that was going someplace. 

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It's still weird to me that they killed him. I remember reading an interview with Jamie Dornan in a UK newspaper when the first season of Once was showing here. It was sort of a local-boy-makes-good thing, and so I was genuinely shocked when he died. What was the point of it? 

[companionenvy]

While the parallels were obvious, Emma working through some of her issues with having given up Henry through helping Ashley wound up being effective. Other notes:

- It didn't really bother me, but I agree that Gold's deal with Ashley would never, ever have held up in court. That's why adoptions fall through, even when the prospective parents have offered the birth mother financial support through her pregnancy; there's an understanding that the mother is allowed to change her mind. Some states even give her up to six months after the baby is born. 

- Sean/Thomas isn't too bright, is he? He walks into the hospital room where formerly heavily pregnant Ashley is holding a newborn baby, and his first line is, "Is that her?" Unintentionally hilarious moment.

- Henry's reaction to Gold, on the other hand, with the pasted on smile, is intentionally hilarious. Kind of weird that he hasn't figured out who Gold is, though. 

-I also noticed the clever parallel with Henry leaving his shoe on the staircase, although I hadn't made the connection with the 5PM/midnight deadline.

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- I gasped at Regina's "What was so special about Tallahassee," which I had completely forgotten. The fact that Emma went there even after Neal left her - and stayed for two years, no less -- is so sad. 

- Regina also had a line about how "People don't change, they just think they do." Which is super ironic, given where she winds up -- although, I would argue, more on the nose than the writers think it is, when it comes to her character. As as post I read recently either here or on tumblr said, Regina doesn't really change, she just switches sides, which may be somewhat exaggerated, but I think is actually a pretty fair assessment of her character.

[tennisgurl]

I am quite fond of this episode, and I actually like it better now than I did when I first watched it (as I was annoyed we didnt get a follow up with MM and David), but it shows the signs of things that will become huge problems for the show in the future. 

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The careless killing off of random innocent people and no one caring, the rules of the world being ill defined, Rumple is in every fairy tale story ever, etc.

I never liked Ella's reaction to Rumple killing the fairy god mother, it seemed so blase. I think if the actress sold the shock or desperation more, or if she seemed young enough to buy Rumples manipulations, I would have been more ok with her just moving onto the next magical person to help her get a new dress, after that one killed the last one in cold blood. I generally thought that Ella and Thomas/Ashley and Sean didnt really work for me that well, especially right after the adorable fairytale epicness of Snow/Charming we got last episode. 

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To be fair, I liked them a lot more in later appearances, they seemed smarter and more likable, and the acting was better. I think Cinderella should have been a longer arc. But, on the other hand, we saw how well that went with Murderella...

I liked seeing Snow and Charming at the party, and helping Cinderella in her story. It did a good job at establishing that all these stories are taking place in the same world, and are connected to each other, while seeming natural. It makes perfect sense that they would all be friends and hang out and go to parties. I also liked their parts in it, like the dwarfs building the dungeon, and snows bird friends passing messages. It made the land seem real, but also magical. 

"Every story needs a memorable detail." I love this era of Rumple/Gold so much. He just seems so on it as Rumple, and Gold is such an enigma. Its always so hard to see where he stands, what his goals are, or even what he actually knows. 

I really love the Storeybrooke stuff with Emma, and dealing with her baggage with giving Henry up. Her pep talk to Ashley was great, and a really awesome early Emma moment. It was like a more positive version of her cutting down the apple tree. Showing Emma has a tough lady who takes no crap, but cares about people and has a soft side. It was also nice to get some Ruby, and her cute little wolf toy! Early Ruby wardrobe is just the freaking best, and her supporting her friend is nice to see. It hints at more of who she will be later, and not just the sexy waitress who is also red riding hood. 

For someone so obsessed and territorial about being Henry's mom, Regina sucks at being a parent. She seems so cold towards him, doing only the bare minimal as a parent, without actually showing him real affection of showing any actual interest in him. She wont even let him watch TV when he finishes his homework! Not cool! Not to mention leaving her young son all alone for an entire day, so she can have her afternoon delight with her favorite sex slave. And she is somehow even more smug than usual when she was telling Graham "see you next week for our next town meeting", it didnt sound sexy, it sounded victorious, and bitchy. And Graham looked miserable after he was sitting in the room, not happily sexed up or anything. Poor, poor Graham. Freaking Regina. 

I love the many Cinderella shout outs, there were even more than what I remembered. Henry having to get back at a certain time and losing his shoe on the stairs, the shoes Sean got their baby, lots of fun stuff. 

[Camera One]

I think my feelings about this episode haven't changed after all these years.  There were elements that I liked, so it was still a solid episode.  But it was nowhere near the quality of the first three.  Part of it is I never really loved Rumple even though he was played by arguably the most well-known actor in the cast.  He was extremely good in this episode, but I get annoyed by shows where the villain just manipulates the heroes and they fall for it hook line and sinker.

But at least the good guys made a good attempt to thwart him.  Charming's plan to have Ella trick Rumple into using that magic quill was quite ingenious, though Rumple clearly figured it out and still signed it.

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Too bad later we find out it was actually exactly what he wanted.  Still, it was better than later on, when the heroes had zero plan.  They also specified in this episode that Rumple's weakness was that he couldn't resist a deal.  Which was never the case after this.  Rumple had too few weaknesses, which was why I never cared for him too much, even as a villain.  

I still hated the fairy godmother getting murdered and Cinders not even reading the contract.  I still found the actors for Cinderella and the Prince to be weak.  I wish we got an episode with that awesome Evil Stepmother earlier on, rather than for that retcon Season 7 episode.  Why would Cinderella tell Thomas she was afraid of going back to her old life when the Evil Stepmother and Clorinda had left for the Land of Untold Stories?  

We also never found out why Rumple wanted Cinder's baby.  Snowing was together which meant Snow had already woken up from the Sleeping Curse, which meant Rumple already chose their baby to be the Savior.  And why did Mr. Gold care about Ashley's baby in Storybrooke?  

I remember HATING that Emma made a deal with Gold at the end of this episode.  I guess it's okay now that I know the "favor" she had to make wasn't too bad.

I guess every episode has a never-answered unanswered question.  This episode being, What Happened to Thomas?  

It's a bad sign when rewatching this episode after the entire series, we still have no idea how "All magic comes with a price" worked.  It seemed wildly inconsistently applied.

The production values of the earlier seasons was noticeably better

Cinderella's yard looked quite beautiful with the fireworks and the castle in the distance.  

I did find it an amusing choice of words when Graham told Emma after last week's saving of John Doe, "We all owe you a debt of gratitude".  Finally someone doesn't say it to a villain.

Other things I loved about this episode were mentioned by others - Snowing attending Cinderella's wedding, little details like Snow's Bluebird delivering messages, the inclusion of Ruby in the story, all the clever nods to Cinderella throughout the episode, and Emma having character moments and inspiring others. 

I also like how helping Ashley helped Emma decide to put down roots (though I didn't understand why she was sending stuff to Storybrooke... had she decided to stay past a week?  When was that?)

Emma and Henry had a lot of chemistry and their bantering was fun.  

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I'm glad this week wasn't paired with next week, because I disliked the next episode.

Edited June 9, 2018 by Camera One

[KingOfHearts]

Spoiler

I like that this episode formally introduces you to Rumple without giving a flashback focused on him. You can understand a character's profile without seeing their entire backstory. Like most of S1, you get a lot of bits about Emma without turning everything over to her. The way she reacts to Storybrooke and those around her is very telling. We don't need to see her 10 year old self making a sad face in a foster home to comprehend the pain she's been through. In the later seasons, the show totally lost this subtlety. 

This episode is the first foray into filler-y territory.

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But next week is so much worse. :) #DeathToTheJiminyCricketEpisode

Edited June 9, 2018 by KingOfHearts

[Rumsy4]

One of my favorite lines from the entire series is Emma's "people are going to tell you" pep talk to Ashley. I even got an art print of an Emma Swan artwork with that quote in it. Under the cut for spoilers.

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Art I love this piece so much!

I agree that the Cinderella wasn't very impressive. We needed to see why Cinderella was so desperate to escape her life more than the other poor people in the kingdom. Was she being abused? She got over her fairy godmother's murder pretty fast. I actually liked Sean-Philip. I thought he came across as sweet, and was the better actor of the two.

I enjoyed watching Mr. Gold get pepper-sprayed by Ashley. heh

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I still don't really understand why Rumple wanted to be captured and never escaped even though he had the squid ink stashed away. Couldn't he have found out Emma's name any other way? 

Edited June 10, 2018 by Rumsy4

[Shanna Marie]

1 hour ago, Camera One said:

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We also never found out why Rumple wanted Cinder's baby.  Snowing was together which meant Snow had already woken up from the Sleeping Curse, which meant Rumple already chose their baby to be the Savior.  And why did Mr. Gold care about Ashley's baby in Storybrooke?  

 

 

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My impression was that he was setting himself up to get put in the dungeon to lead into the curse in the past (though I'm not sure why he needed that -- to give the details of the Savior and set that up?) and in the present, he was setting up Emma to owe him a favor he could call in when the curse broke and he went to go find Neal. That handy-dandy seer talent told him what he was going to need.

[Camera One]

56 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

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I like that this episode formally introduces you to Rumple without giving a flashback focused on him. You can understand a character's profile without seeing their entire backstory. 

 

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They really wanted to tease us with Rumple's backstory.  I noticed that this early in the series, they didn't try to make Rumple sympathetic at all, or imply that there was deep pain that was driving his actions.  

I just didn't like that they threw away the Cinderella in a one-off filler for a Rumple episode, though.  That fairy tale deserved more than two episodes in the entire show.

[andromeda331]

1 hour ago, Rumsy4 said:

One of my favorite lines from the entire series is Emma's "people are going to tell you" pep talk to Ashley. I even got an art print of an Emma Swan artwork with that quote in it. Under the cut for spoilers.

  Reveal hidden contents

Art I love this art print so much!

I agree that the Cinderella wasn't very impressive. We needed to see why Cinderella was so desperate to escape her life more than the other poor people in the kingdom. Was she being abused? She got over her fairy godmother's murder pretty fast. I actually liked Sean-Philip. I thought he came across as sweet, and was the better actor of the two.

I enjoyed watching Mr. Gold get pepper-sprayed by Ashley. heh

  Reveal hidden contents

I still don't really understand why Rumple wanted to be captured and never escaped even though he had the squid ink stashed away. Couldn't he have found out Emma's name any other way? 

I agree Mr. Gold being peppered sprayed and his reaction to it was hilarious. I wish we had gotten remark about that from him at some point later. Maybe got rid of it, remembers how horrible it was or uses it on someone else while telling them how awful it was.  We really did need to see more of why Cinderella was so desperate that she would ignore someone being murdered. Bruises, talk about her beatings, fear for her live, threats about being sold, something to show why she would ignore a murder right in front of her of someone who was going to help her. 

[Camera One]

It was really against the trait of kindness that's usually attributed to Cinderella.  She had patiently accepted her situation for years.  Why would she now be so desperate to ask a murderer for help?  

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In Season 7, we did see the events that preceded the fairygodmother/Rumple scene in this episode, but I still don't buy it.  It's another example of how A&E don't care about redshirts and they don't realize that their attitude cannot be the same as the characters' attitude about the death of redshirts.

And when pregnant Snow asked to go see Rumple, why wouldn't she have been afraid that Rumple would ask for HER first born too?

Edited June 10, 2018 by Camera One

[andromeda331]

9 hours ago, profdanglais said:

and I loved Emma calling Gold's bluff. You could see the wheels turning as he realised she had the better of him, and though it is frustrating that he still managed to turn the situation to his advantage, I think that's the first time we saw Rumple/Gold on the back foot. 

I really loved that too. She called it and wasn't afraid. I love her pointing out the deal wouldn't hold up in court and why Gold wouldn't want to do that. I do think he was surprised by that. He's used to getting his way and not have someone call his bluff. It also makes sense Emma spent enough time in courts delivering bail jumpers and growing up in the foster system. I liked she was able to our world information against a bad guy. I like when they show Emma being smart and figuring things out.

Spoiler

It reminds me of later when Rumple remarks to Regina how much harder it is to kill someone in this world. It really seemed like things were different in Storybrooke. Rumple and Regina could do sneaky stuff. But they still had to deal with the law. Regina realizing all the evidence of Kathryn's kidnapping would lead back to her. I really wish they had kept that. Not only would give non-magical people an advantage but it would also make villains have to be more creative.

 

 

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There was genuine chemistry between Emma and Graham. I really did think that was going someplace. 

 

So did I.

[KingOfHearts]

1 hour ago, Camera One said:

That fairy tale deserved more than two episodes in the entire show.

Spoiler

Be careful what you wish for.

[Camera One]

On 6/8/2018 at 6:52 PM, Shanna Marie said:

After all Regina's Mother of the Year campaign speeches in the previous episodes, all her claims that she's Henry's real mother and her attempts to make Emma look like a bad influence, it's interesting that she leaves a 10-year-old at home alone all day, from breakfast to 5 p.m., on a Saturday, not allowed to leave the house or even watch TV. 

Yet sometimes, he's allowed to go play at the arcade on his own.  I think he wasn't allowed to leave the house only because Emma was in town.  Maybe on the "usual" Saturdays before Emma came to Storybrooke, he would be allowed to go wander the streets by himself since he has no friends.  

Spoiler

So David went by "James" for much longer than I thought.  Cinderella called him James at her wedding.  By then, wasn't Snowing already married?  

Edited June 10, 2018 by Camera One

[Camera One]

18 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

  Reveal hidden contents

Be careful what you wish for.

All plotlines come with a price.