once upon a time truly has its epic highs & dismal lows as a show but season 2 episode 19 “Lacey” is truly one of my favorite episodes not just of the show but on television ever. It’s definitely one of the things I was picturing looking forward to when I decided to perservere with this rewatch.
I think season 2 struggled to find its footing at times now that the curse is broken. While season 1 so beautifully executed these parallel timelines with fairy tale characters trapped in a modern world who can’t remember who they are, once that dynamic shifted the show had to adjust its focus.
a lot of plot-lines really worked like SUPER well like the little boy whose father disappeared in a town that doesn’t appear on any maps & came back to find the place & see everyone exactly as they were when he was a child. other plot lines like Regina’s constantly fluctuating moral compass & alliances, Frankenstein’s alcohol problem, Mary Margaret’s depression era after murdering someone, & adult Pinnochio’s whole turning to wood storyline culminating in him turning back human but as a little boy or Rumplestiltskin’s thing with Reginas mom… Ehhhhhh…. I mean… to each their own but I think they were scraping the bottom of the barrel at times if I’m being honest.
but “Lacey” is a glorious return to the style of season one playing with who we REALLY are deep down & how memories changing or being erased changes a person.
Belle has always been such a fundamentally GOOD person. Yet…. She fell for Rumplestiltskin. A man who imprisoned her under threat of exterminating her family. She literally is shown cleaning the blood after he tortures a man. And yet she falls for Rumple thanks to his small acts of mercy & kindness. Thanks to him doing things like making her a library even if he claims it’s just another room for her to clean. She is consistently shown to be one of the strongest characters mentally & the narrative is crueler to few characters than her having her locked up repeatedly & her memories erased against her will.
Lacey being loose & slutty & mean while Belle is none of these things is such a surprise when we meet her cursed self. And then to have her bored by Rumple’s attempts to be soft & kind & a gentleman throws the audience off so much.
The lines - “You really are as dark as people say.” “Darker, dearie. Much darker” - frame the episode so beautifully. I absolutely love the contrast to Belle uttering her horror at Rumple’s ruthless cruelty in the enchanted forest timeline & Rumple mocking her contrasted with Lacey saying the line in awe, impressed & glad to see the man she was bored with beating a man senseless & Rumple responding with a smile as he gives into his darkness. It’s such a wonderfully grim retelling of the classic beauty & the beast story! Probably my favorite fairy tale retelling on the show aside from Red Riding Hood which is also done beautifully (even if the show doesn’t always know what to do with my girl Ruby once her backstory is revealed).
The revelation that Belle fell for Rumple not in spite of his darkness but because of it adds so much dimension to their dynamic & further cements her status as a multidimensional character, not just some girl who insists a man is good when he isn’t. Not that I ever saw Belle that way but this is just another layer to her complexity. Deep down, she craves the dark. She needs a dark to see the light in if she’s going to fall in love.
Anyway I just had to ramble about this episode because it’s been one of my favorite parts of this rewatch yet ❤️
