The Burkshelf

(Warning: For those who like this show but haven’t caught up on Season 4 yet, or for those who want to start watching this show but haven’t gotten around to it, know that this article is gonna contain some massive spoilers. The title also contains a pretty glaring spoiler, while I’m at it. Sorry about that. No real way around that one. All titles come with a price, I suppose.

Ahem…)

I don’t watch a lot of TV, but occasionally a show will come along that demands my attention and continued interest. ABC’s Once Upon a Time is one such show. Fairytale character crossovers aren’t a new idea, but they remain a good one. I haven’t seen an attempt so far that I haven’t liked (after the second or third Shrek movie, anyway), but Once is definitely one of the better ones. And by far the biggest reason for this is the character of Rumpelstiltskin.

 

 

When I first started watching this show, I admit that I was leery of this guy. He seemed like such an over-the-top villainous clown, and I remember thinking, “They’re not seriously expecting us to believe that Rumpelstiltskin, of all storybook characters, will make an intimidating villain, are they?”

Oh me of little faith.

Once‘s Rumpel is a trickster to put even Loki to shame as far as complex manipulation and duplicitous endgames go, and I know I’m not alone in thinking that he is by far the most intriguing and awesome character in this show’s admittedly pretty intriguing and awesome lineup.  He is indeed a villainous clown for much of the story, but he owns that role so well and with such hidden depths that he steals every scene he’s in. He can switch from giddy goofiness to rage to broken and crying, sometimes all in the same scene, and make it work, and throughout each season, you could never be sure whose side he would fall out on other than his own. The result was that I almost never knew what he was likely to do next.

Until the end of Season 3, when he killed himself to take his father/Peter Pan with him and save the entire rest of the cast.

Then, for some reason, I knew exactly what he’d do next – come back to life in a surprise twist shortly into Season 4 and make everyone go “but how?” And wouldn’t you know it:

I’m not saying this was a bad decision. Far from it – I love this guy, and more of him is always welcome. But I also get the feeling that the surprise reveal of him being alive after all was supposed to be, well, more of a surprise than it felt. I was excited when he showed back up again, but not shocked, because ever since he’d been killed off, I’d been looking forward to when they would bring him back.

I know I’m not alone here. Plenty of fans all over the internet were voicing their disbelief and skepticism in Rumpel’s death almost as soon as it happened. Browsing fan forums and comment sections all turned up the same reactions – upset shock followed almost immediately by assurance that he wasn’t really dead for good. For the most part, I don’t think fans were in denial. I think the majority of them, myself included, simply knew intuitively that this plot twist wouldn’t last.

The question is, why? As talented as the writers of this show are, and as often as they’ve managed to knock it out of the park in terms of the story – especially where Rumpelstiltskin is considered – why couldn’t they end him convincingly?

There are a few reasons for this, I believe. Partly it’s because, in this show, hope is a major theme and death is often impermanent. Henry died from the sleeping curse but was revived by Emma right at the end of Season 1. Dr. Hopper was apparently murdered by Cora but was then shown to not really be dead after all, just kidnapped. The Blue Fairy died when her shadow was ripped out but then came back when it was returned. Thanks to all the storybook magic floating around, death doesn’t always stick, and optimism often wins out.

But perhaps more importantly, I think that Rumpelstiltskin has simply been just too much of an integral character to the plot, not to mention too big of a fan favorite, to get rid of. He’s colorful, enigmatic, dynamic, and Robert Carlyle plays him with exceptional skill and fun. Killing him obviously scored a lot of dramatic and emotional points, but that payoff wouldn’t have been enough to make up for all of the interest that would have been lost by leaving him dead. I think this was the biggest reason that the first reaction from so many fans after Rumpel’s death, after the initial sadness at seeing him go, was wondering how and when he’d be brought back. Even before Belle and Baelfire point out that nobody found his dagger afterward, everyone already knew on a practical level that he was too interesting and important of a character to throw out for good. In a movie or novel, perhaps he could stay dead and cash in his fan feels; but in an episodic story like this one, it would be ratings suicide not to find a reason to revive him back in the thick of things. Not to mention all of the creative options the storyline would be missing without its resident Dark One.

And then, of course, there’s the power of true love that the characters keep going on about. True love is the most powerful magic of all, and with it, miracles can happen. And between Belle, Baelfire, and thousands of fans in the audience, there’s no shortage of love surrounding Rumpelstiltskin.

At the end of the Season 4 episode “Witch Hunt,” the newly-revealed not-dead Rumpel told the Wicked Witch, “You never should have brought me back.” Luckily for both the story and its fans, nobody else seems to share his sentiment. If this particular plot twist wasn’t especially believable, it’s only because we all knew that the folks in charge knew better than to run too far with it.

As a side note: If the Wicked Witch of the West is really Regina’s older half-sister, doesn’t that make Regina the Witch of the East? Especially considering she rules over Storybrooke, a town on the East Coast? Does this mean she’s gonna get a house dropped on her at some point?

I love this show.