Once Upon a Time Review: Changelings (Season 6 Episode 9)
Talk about history repeating itself.
Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 9 gives loyal viewers an eerie sense of deja vu, as Belle is forced to send away her child. Much like Snow and Charming did with Emma all those years ago, the unspoken reasoning behind Belle’s heartbreaking decision is her desire to give her only son, Gideon, his “best chance,” with no guarantee of ever seeing him again.
Belle is forced to make the tough call when the Evil Queen picks up where Rumple leaves off, poisoning Belle with the same type of magic that Dark Swan Emma used on Zelena last year.
Love him or hate him by this point, you have to pity Rumple’s own horrifying sense of deja vu. Once again, his poor choices and desperation have led to forced estrangement from a son. The man has a serious fear of abandonment – and rightfully so.
Leading in to next week’s midseason winter finale, “Changelings” leaves us with so many loaded questions, most of which will probably carry on into the second half of Season 6. The answers to these major questions will determine where the season will go from here.
Can Rumbelle ever recover from this?
“Changelings” is an emotional whiplash for Rumbelle fans. It contains both a glimmer of hope and a moment of such deep betrayal for these two former lovers.
Rumple has been treating Belle terribly all season. That much is clear. While, underneath it all, it remains obvious that Rumple’s actions stem from a place of love and worry and fear of being left behind, that simply doesn’t excuse his manipulative scheming to keep Belle and their child under his thumb.
Probably the worst part of Rumbelle’s storyline this season is how Rumple has failed to even attempt to explain to Belle why he’s doing everything he’s doing – until now.
The latest installment offered a glimmer of hope that perhaps the Rumple that Belle once knew could be a good man isn’t entirely gone. The conversation that the two had while Belle was fleeing from her husband is a heartwrenching moment for the two. Importantly, it features Rumple confessing that, on some level, he doesn’t believe he can ever truly be loved or that Belle and their child will never leave him.
The flashbacks have been hit-or-miss for me in recent years, but the flashbacks to Belle and Rumple during the early years of her captivity are perfectly used here. Juxtaposing the reveal that Rumple had also been abandoned by his mother, a fairy-turned-evil hungry for power, put into perspective all of Rumple’s behavior.
It’s not just power > love for him. It’s that, somewhere deep down despite everything he and Belle have been through, Rumple simply doesn’t believe that she truly does love him – or that anyone can. Except, of course, for their blank-slate baby.
Again, this doesn’t at all explain away Rumple’s behavior and I still don’t really understand how he’ll be redeemed from his actions this season – but it does contextualize what he’s doing and cements him as a completely tragic figure.
The glimmer of hope, when Belle talks Rumple down and prevents him from accelerating her pregnancy using his magic, is a good one. Unfortunately, it’s all undone by the Evil Queen, who poisons Belle and forces her to give birth to the baby anyway.
As far as Belle and the others know, Rumple poisoned her in an effort to steal the baby. That’s a huge betrayal of trust, on Belle’s end.
On Rumple’s end, all he sees is red after Belle sends their child away. It’s a two-fold “betrayal” – he sees this as Belle both stealing their child away from him and as Belle abandoning her own child, just as Rumple himself was abandoned by his mother.
Before, it was all a question of whether Belle could ever forgive Rumple. Now, despite the fact that Belle’s actions do make sense and are justified, it’ll be a matter of whether Rumple can ever forgive Belle for what he perceives as a massive betrayal.
Who kills Emma?
Emma and Hook spend most of their time on “Changelings” helping Belle flee from Rumple. Obviously, that doesn’t work too well (squid ink = not particularly effective after all), but it does provide the opportunity for Emma to get one major clue in the mystery of her future death.
CaptainSwan will apparently be spending their time seeking the owner of the sword that Emma found (which triggered a vision of her death) at Rumple’s shop. Whether it’s a good or bad omen that Emma’s visions of her death are getting clearer and more precise still remains to be seen.
But at the very least, we’ll hopefully have some fun CaptainSwan adventuring and detective-ing in the coming episodes!
Will Regina and Zelena be able to repair their fractured relationship?
I’ve been a little hard on Zelena this season for having chosen the Evil Queen over Regina. This decision bites her in the ass in a major way on “Changelings,” when the Evil Queen chooses Rumple over Zelena and actually agrees to kill her own sister.
In all honesty, I’m a little shocked that the Evil Queen goes that way – I thought the Evil Queen’s desire for a family would override her desire for Rumple. Not that she got Rumple in the end anyway…
I can’t fault Regina for refusing to forgive Zelena, despite saving her from the Evil Queen. Zelena hasn’t earned Regina’s forgiveness; no longer being interested in doing evil for evil’s sake isn’t quite good enough. Plus, as we learned in the season opener and as is repeated on “Changelings,” Regina is still holding Robin’s death against Zelena.
Rightly or wrongly, that’s how Regina feels. There’ll be no saving the relationship between these two formerly-evil sisters until either (1) Regina legitimately moves on from Robin’s death (which his future appearance may potentially assist with) or (2) Zelena saves the day in a major way.
How badly will Aladdin’s decision to become a genie come back to bite the Storybrooke crew in the ass?
Is it just me, or is Aladdin’s impromptu decision to become a genie one of the most ill-advised gestures possibly ever on this show?
He puts literally no thought into the larger implications of what being a genie might entail. As far as he’s concerned, he’s tied to that lamp for eternity! I get that he feels guilty for abandoning Agrabah, but he couldn’t have taken a sec to brainstorm other options before slapping on those cuffs?!
Clearly, this is just a plot device so that we can have next Sunday’s AU “Wishverse” winter finale.
Aladdin’s newly-acquired genie powers will enable the Evil Queen to make Emma’s wish (to have never become the savior) come true. There’s no denying that next week’s “Wish You Were Here” looks like it’ll be a hell of a lot of fun, but Aladdin’s genie transformation is so silly. And poor Jasmine! She just got him back, only to lose him to now genie-dom.
Will we see Rumple’s mother again anytime soon?
That Black Fairy costume can’t possibly be a one-time only thing. It’s way too awesome.
The reveal that Rumple had been abandoned by not only his father, Malcolm/Peter Pan, but also by his mother, is a great one and definitely goes a long way towards bolstering Rumple’s chronically-in-fear-of-abandonment complex. I’m not sure if a love of (and desire for) power is supposed to be genetic on OUAT, but if it is – well, Rumple definitely gets that (and his penchant for baby-stealing!) from his mama.
Here’s hoping we get to see Rumple’s mother in present day. So far, we don’t know her fate, which presumably means she’s still out there somewhere, alive. I assume this would be a Grendel’s mother situation, where the Black Fairy is ten times more dangerous than Rumple could ever be.
Stray thoughts:
- The Evil Queen and Rumple are, presumably, through. Will this give Rumple the push he needs to actually, permanently reform himself?
- Placing bets now: Rumple calls upon his evil mother to help him track down baby Gideon.
- Speaking of baby Gideon, his name – a callback to Belle’s favorite book (Her Handsome Hero) – is a lovely touch.
- Why is Rumbelle’s child creepily prescient? This kid is like scary-powerful, isn’t he? Yikes.
- Is David even mentioned in this episode? He doesn’t appear at all. I guess they just let him stay asleep throughout this incident.
What did you think of this episode of Once Upon a Time? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Once Upon a Time airs Sunday at 8/7c on ABC.
Caralynn Lippo
Caralynn is a freelance writer and editor, but most importantly, she is a diehard TV addict. A few of her current favorites are Mr. Robot, You're the Worst, iZombie, and The Vampire Diaries. She also writes about TV for Romper, The TV Junkies, and TV Fanatic.