What Makes a Hero Brave? A Review of Once Upon a Time's "The Bear and the Bow" (5x06 OUAT)

I've been reading a lot of criticism of Once Upon a Time's season 5 episode 6 "The Bear and the Bow," and I wanted to take a deeper look into what happened in that episode that has fans so riled up and confused. So here's a quick recap, and then a review/analysis of what OUAT seems to be doing with this tricky episode.

Season Five: Analyzing Where the Characters Have Been and Where They Still Need to Go

                                                               
So since we're at the start of a new season, one that seems to promise quite a bit of excitement as well as some long needed character development, I want to take a moment to muse about the the development of the main trio over the past four seasons, as well as a brief look at the rest of the cast, and point out where I think their characters still need development.

Emma Swan and Regina Mills: Parallels

 -- Let's start with Emma Swan, the Dark Swan/Dark One herself, and her counterpart in the show: Regina, the Evil Queen, now New Savior. Emma began Season 1 as the hoped for Savior, and we learned exactly how she'd been "created" that way by none other than Rumpelstiltskin, who also, as we soon found out in Seasons 2 and 3, created her arch-nemesis in Season 1 (and arguably her counterpart in the story) the Evil Queen. In seasons 2 and 3 the show explored how Regina and Emma felt now that they had time to process being forced into these roles, partly by Rumpelstiltskin's manipulations, and partly by their respective parents (who, of course, had their best interests at heart).

Regina: From Evil Queen/Mayor to New Savior:

The end result of this was Regina's redemption arch (which technically spanned three, if not four seasons), turning her from an abusive, manipulative parent (in the vein of her mother Cora), a rapist, a murderer, and someone obsessed with vengeance in Season 1, to a wavering villain -- questioning her loyalties to her mother --  in Season 2, to an anti-hero (not afraid to get her hands dirty) in Season 3A, to the more explicit hero and wielder of light magic in Season 3B, and finally to the woman who could willingly give up everything she loved (at one point or another) without needing revenge and who could now advise Emma and the Charmings as to the right course of action in Season 4 -- someone who actually makes sense as a hero in Isaac's topsy-turvy version of the story. Finally, in Season 5, Regina is in name and probably in spirit the Savior.

Rumbelle: What Goes Around Comes Around

It's been a while since I last posted, and I wanted to get in a little analysis of the story so far as the writers of Once Upon a Time have spun it. The story I'm talking about is Rumpelstiltskin/Beauty and the Beast as it appears on Once. So, if you're looking for pirate captains, witches, or dwarves, you won't find them here. Not today anyway.

 I've written before about how Beauty and the Beast parallels, in many ways, the plot and themes of Jane Eyre, which critics long before me have noted, but also how interestingly Once's version sticks surprisingly close to it as well.

So my latest observation, besides noting that Belle did indeed follow the Jane Eyre model by rejecting, painfully, Rumpelstiltskin (though the banishment trope sort of went the other way), is to note that now Rumpelstiltskin and Belle's story has at last come full circle.

At the beginning of their story together, Rumpelstiltskin made a discovery about what he believed were Belle's true motives. Then he banished her. Now Belle has (finally!) made a similar discover (will she prove to be wrong too? I don't think so.) and has banished Rumpelstiltskin. Of course, he didn't stay banished for long, but then, neither did she -- as we discovered in seasons 2 and 3.

What does all of this mean? I don't know. I hesitate to predict, but if the story continues to follow the pattern of Jane Eyre, Belle will possibly be tempted down a different path with a possibly different suitor and Rumpelstiltskin will finally have to come to terms with (witness the destruction of) those old sins and patterns that held him back (in Jane Eyre this is literally symbolized by Bertha, Rochester's first wife; in Once, this is the dagger). Of course, just like Rochester, Rumpelstiltksin was trying to have his cake and eat it too -- before he got caught. He was trying to get rid of the dagger (Bertha), and keep Belle (Jane).

If Rumpelstiltskin is humbled by fate (like Rochester) and loses his power completely, he may have a chance of getting back together with Belle, who will have gone through her own journey at that point. Of course, there is one major difference here: In Jane Eyre, Jane rejects Rochester's love and flees from him, but she never actually rejects him in her heart. Belle, on the other hand, seems to have openly accepted that Rumpelstiltskin was a bad choice for her. I agree with her, but I still wonder if this story is going to keep following its literary predecessor?

My two cents.