Once Upon a Time: Skin Deep

It's Once Upon a Time's take on the story of Beauty and the Beast, and it's all about a cup with a chip.

Belle's father is a nobleman who asks Rumplestiltskin to save his town from the ogres. Rumple, of course, doesn't do anything for free. He wants Belle - to be his caretaker, for the rest of her life. His real motive is never explained. He doesn't do it to try to break a curse, and I'm sure he doesn't do it to fall in love. Maybe he really does just want a housekeeper. She agrees to go to save everyone and be a hero, or to get away from Gaston, I don't know which.

So Belle goes to live with Rumple, and quicker than you can say " long stem rose," Rumple has fallen in love with Belle, and strangely enough, Belle has fallen in love with Rumple. She tells Rumple, "love is layered," but they really don't have enough time for any kind of layers to "lay." And if Belle wants him to change back into an ordinary man, how much can she really love him?

Regina realizes that she could bring Rumplestiltskin down through Belle, and when Rumple sends Belle to town for more straw, Regina runs into her on the road. Belle tells Regina that something evil has taken root in Rumple. "Sounds like a curse to me and all curses can be broken. A kiss borne of true love will do it." (My question is, if a kiss borne of true love can break a curse, why didn't Mary Margaret and David's kiss in Storybrooke break the curse the town is under?)

Belle goes back with the straw and with a plan. Rumple is so happy that she came back, but not so happy when she kisses him and he starts to lose his power (and his gold skin). He loves his power more than he loves Belle. So, he throws her in the dungeon and starts to break everything. Even the tea set (poor Mrs. Potts). But he stops at breaking a cup Belle chipped when she dropped it (so now we know what happened to Chip. *hehe*). Ah, Rumple is sentimental. He sends her away, but not before Belle tells him, "All you'll have is an empty heart and a chipped cup." They really want to make sure we understand that it's all going to be about that chipped cup in Storybrooke.

Later, Regina comes and tells him that no one would want Belle after her association with him. So her father cut her off, put her in a tower (does that mean we won't meet Repunzel?), and after sending clerics to cleanse her soul with scourges and flames, she threw herself out of the tower. Rumple's reaction is truly heart-wrenching.

Meanwhile, in Storybrooke, Mr. Gold is making sure that Mo French, who is Belle's father, suffers for what he did to Belle in Fairy Tale Land all those years ago. Mr. Gold repossesses Mo's flower delivery van, the day before his busiest day - Valentine's Day. Then Mo robs Mr. Gold, but Emma recovers everything except the most important item, the chipped cup. Mr. Gold kidnaps Mo, and beats the crap out of him, but luckily for Mo, Emma comes in time to arrest Gold for assault and battery.

Regina goes to the jail to have a little talk with Gold while he can't run away, and we find out that Regina suspects that Mr. Gold knows who he really is, and she bribes him into telling her his name, "Rumplestiltskin." And what does she bribe him with? Chip.

Oh, but that's not the end. There's the twist. We don't see the Storybrooke version of Belle through the whole episode, but it isn't because she's dead. No, that wouldn't be true to the power that Regina holds over everyone in Storybrooke. Regina goes to the hospital, and there being held in the bowels of the building is none other than Belle. Dun dun dun.

Oh yes, and there were some Storybrooke subplots as well.

Mary Margaret, Ruby (when are we going to get her Fairy Tale Story?), and Ashley (Cinderella, remember her?) go to a bar on Valentine's Day night. Ashley was complaining that she never sees Shawn anymore because he's always working. He shows up at the bar during his break with flowers, a ring, and a proposal of marriage. Now she'll be a married woman who never sees her husband because he's always working. Mary Margaret breaks it off with David - again, when he gives her the valentine card meant for Kathryn that says, "I love you."

All, in all, I liked the episode, but I feel that it tried too hard to deconstruct the story of Beauty and the Beast; well, the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast. It assumes that we all know the story so well that we'll just believe the love between Belle and Rumple. Well, the love story didn't ring true for me. I didn't believe the actress as Belle, and I didn't see any reason for the two to fall in love. They laugh over a spinning wheel joke, he catches her when she falls off the ladder, he gives her a rose. And suddenly, eternal love?

Also, the Rumple/Belle relationship was too creepy to me. He's too old for her. It was an original idea, I'll give it that, and I like how it answered some questions about Rumple/Mr. Gold and Regina, but I didn't believe the love story, and the age difference just creeped me out.

Observations:

Belle starts in her pretty yellow gown and ends up in the cute little blue peasant dress

Mr. French's flower business is called "Game of Thorns"

Mr. French has an Australian accent in Maine

Rumple's castle is in snow capped mountains, but the road and forest have no snow

Where's the library?

Rumple tells Belle that Gaston was just an old woman selling flowers

We may be seeing Ariel the mermaid's story eventually

Regina asks the nurse in the hospital if anyone has been in to visit Belle. Who does she expect would visit her?

Quotes:

Belle: No one decides my fate but me.

Rumple: Bad things happen to bad people.
Emma: Is that a threat?
Rumple: Observation.

Rumple: I like to watch the wheel, it helps me forget
Belle: Forget what?
Rumple: I guess it worked.

Shawn: Your carriage awaits.

Pic of the Week: Old North Bridge Monument

Grimm: Tarantella

This was a sad episode. We already know that not all Wesen are bad in the Grimm mythology, but this was a closer look at how being a Wesen is not always easy. I like that they aren't making the episodes back and white. It makes the show more interesting and unpredictable.

The Wesen in this episode is a spinatod, a death spider that sucks out her victims’ internal organs, which kills and mummifies them at the same time. Nick finds information about her kind on old Japanese documents, but I wonder if they were around in ancient Egypt?

Monroe introduces Nick to Charlotte, a spinatod who turned her back on who she was, to get some information on what they're dealing with. She looks like she's about 70 years old. She tells them that her kind has to suck out the organs of three men every five years or they will age instantly. She decided she couldn't do it anymore, so she’s accepted her fate. Then she reveals her own age. She's 26.

Lena, the organ-sucking spinatod that Nick and Hank are looking for, is actually a soccer mom with an ordinary-looking husband, and a teenage daughter. After her first kill, she shows remorse and disgust at what she did. I’m glad that they are showing the “humanity” of a Wesen, and that not all of them are happy with what they are.

Lena meets her last victim on a boat at the marina. I love that Monroe said previously that when he finds spiders inside the house he drowns them, and spider-woman tells victim #3 that she hates water. Hank saves victim #3 while Nick goes looking for the spinatod. He finds her and catches her in a web (net). The look on her face is heart-wrenching. She didn't want to kill, but she didn't want to grow old before her time either, who would?

Nick picks up Sally to take her to her grandmother's, and Nick sees that she is a spinatod, just like her mother. What does the future hold in store for her?

Also, in this episode, we find out that the Wesen who was fixing Nick and Juliette’s fridge in an earlier episode and ran away after discovering Nick was a Grimm, has been telling other Wesen about Nick and they are getting bolder. Some of their kids even egged Nick and Juliette’s house. Juliette, of course doesn’t know the real reason and just chucks it up to mischievous boys. Nick confronts the Wesen and warns them to leave him and his girlfriend alone or they will be sorry. We’ll see if that really sticks.

I wonder why Monroe knows about every kind of Wesen. You'd think they have weekly Wesen meetings where they all get to know each other. "Hi, I'm Monroe, I'm a Blutbladen. I like toy trains, gourmet cooking, and playing the cello." "I'm Jennie, a Geier. I'm an herbalist, and I like to climb trees." "Beware of Grimms, they are bad people and will kill you in your sleep."

Even though this episode wasn’t based on a standard fairy tale, I think it’s one of my favorites. It had an interesting central character who was not totally good or totally bad. It showed how the Wesen live in the world of humans, but are still not human.

Quippy Quotes:

Monroe: You're the monster under the bed.

Monroe: Join the misunderstood.

Hank: Do you want to pick it up again, or do you want me to give you the finger?

Hank: Anybody look at our pension funds lately? There's motive for homicide right there.

Wesen: You have a very lovely wife.
Nick: We're not married.
Wesen: Even better.

Monroe: "I'm going to stay home tonight and play a little cello."

To a Great Love

On this Valentine's Day I want to honor a great love. My parents were married 65 years ago, and though there were ups and downs, they loved each other through it all.

My father passed away in July, but their love lives on, and will forever.

To my parents: Happy Valentine's Day!

Movie Review: Assassin in Love

I have a confession. I have a thing for British actors. Maybe it's because I watch so much TV and film from Britain. Yea, that has to be it.

One of my favorite British actors is Damian Lewis. American viewers would probably know him best from Band of Brothers on HBO; the short-lived TV series, Life; and most recently, Showtime's drama, Homeland. Although I watched Life, I was first introduced to him as Benedick in BBC's Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare Re-Told). He was the perfect Benedick for me, in a clever modern-day retelling of the Shakespeare classic. And when I saw him in the Forsythe Saga, I was surprised I could loathe his character so much. He's a great actor.

Then searching through Netflix, I found a quirky English film he did about five years ago, and it just solidified my thing for Damian. 

In Assassin in Love (aka The Baker) he plays, Milo, a hit man who hides out in a little Welsh village from a fellow hit man, Bjorn (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), who wants him dead. When he gets to the village, Milo is mistaken for the new baker. He's never baked before, but with the help of some cookbooks, he gives it a try.

In one of the opening sequences, Milo gets a call from Leo (the wonderful Michael Gambon), and they have a little conversation while Milo and Bjorn are in the middle of a shoot out. So hilarious.

A local young man, Eggs (yes, his name is Eggs), discovers Milo's secret, and soon, pretty much the whole village knows what he really is (unbeknownst to Milo). There are funny sequences when the villagers think they are hiring Milo to bump off other villagers by asking him to "bake [the villager] a cake," and Milo thinks they really do just want him to bake them cakes.

All this time, Bjorn is going from one tiny Welsh village to another, searching for Milo, and leaving carnage along the way. There's a scene where Bjorn swallows a picked egg whole, and it just makes you hope he did it in just one take.

Kate Ashfield plays Rhiannon, Milo's prospective love interest, and their meet cute is quite unique.  I'll just say that it has to do with a sheep head. When Milo finally asks Rhiannon out, it's in one of the cutest ways I've seen in a film. And there's a great fight at the end that has you laughing and cheering at the same time.

Rated PG-13 for some crude humor, and a tame, messy "love" scene, Assassin in Love is a fun romp with a few crazy hit men and a lot of crazier Welshmen.

Quippy Quotes:

-Do you ever stop asking questions?
-Once they're all answered.

Sharp as a spoon and half as useful.

-You call this normal?
-It's as close as I'm likely to get.

Book Review: The Future of Us

What would you do if you saw your future self living a life that you didn't want? Would you try to change it? Would you know how?

The Future of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, tries to answer those questions.

When Emma, a high school student, downloads a free version of AOL in the mid nineties, a strange website called Facebook pops up on her screen. She reads posts from a woman, and eventually becomes convinced the woman to be her future self. She gets a glimpse of herself as an adult, and she doesn't like what she reads so she takes steps to change her future.

I found the premise of this book very interesting and the book is well written. However, I did find it hard to believe that anyone could actually believe that a website was predicting her future. But, it is fiction. 

The chapters went back and forth from Emma's point of view to her friend, Josh's, point of view. I think it was a good way to move the story forward in a clever way. Emma and Josh's relationship is written well, and is very believable. I think the writers did a great job with a premise that could have been predictable. 

The authors recreated the 1990s very well, without hitting you over the head with it. It takes you back to those early days of the Internet, AOL, and dial-up. You can even hear in your mind that distinctive sound of the Internet connecting.

Facebook has become such a huge part of a lot of people's lives, and I think it's hard for some people to remember that there was a time when there was no Facebook, and people still had friends, and lives. I guess I don't have to say that I'm not a huge fan of Facebook.

The Future of Us brings up a lot of questions, and they're not easy to answer. How much are we in control of our own future? Does every choice we make change our future, or does each choice make our future?

A Nun on Roller Skates

A couple of years ago I was in an original musical, which was written by a friend, called Hands Up! It is based on a book by Paul Magrs, and is a comedy about a puppeteer and his Bat puppet that kills other puppets.

There is a "dream ballet" in the middle of the musical, and in the middle of that dream ballet I glided across the stage on roller skates, dressed as a nun.

It was very random.

Just like I am.

That is all.