409: Promo (American and Canadian)

At least Belle shows up. The way things are going, that’ll be her only scene…but at least she’s IN it.

You’d think you’d include a regular in a two hour special, too. Obviously not.

She’s been a regular since S2 and except for her centrics (which I always find to be among the better eps, but I know I’m biased), she’s barely present. I think the fact that she’s a regular is what makes it most frustrating to never see her–there are lots of awesome characters we don’t see enough, but at least they’re not promoted as characters you SHOULD see every episode.

And it’s worrying for a fan of Belle because Red vanished and Neal got killed off when their characters suddenly got used a lot less. I don’t believe they’d let Emilie go (and she clearly loves her job, who wouldn’t?) or kill Belle…but I didn’t believe a lot of things that have happened would happen. So I don’t know what to think. It just makes me sad, because I DO go into every episode hoping for at least glimpses of her story. And it wasn’t like they had no opportunities to include Belle–I mean, they have Robin (who KNOWS Belle) and Will (whom Belle discovered out cold a few eps ago) in the LIBRARY where Belle WORKS. Judging by Tumblr, I wasn’t the only one just WAITING for Belle to emerge having overheard at least part of Hook’s confession on the phone (which would have paralleled earlier moments when Belle’s overheard stuff in the shop beautifully) and seriously felt let down when that monologue went entirely unheard.

I do actually love that Belle babysits Nealflake…except that’s what Ruby got reduced to with Henry before vanishing. Oh, and it means we don’t see her on screen at all. (Does Ruby not do diapers or something?)

I’m sorry. I’m ranting. I just went into this thinking, 2 hours, she has to have a few seconds, and then NOPE. Barely even a shoutout.

in the LIBRARY where Belle WORKS.

The library that was open, but the only librarian in town was nowhere to be seen, not even to side eye Will and ask her old buddy Robin if they needed any help. Don’t apologise for being annoyed, Keb. Belle’s not even my fave and I’M annoyed.

What I’d LIKE to see, and yes because it would get Belle involved, but also because I think it gives us delicious parallels to past episodes and beautiful drama that could really dig into all the characters involved:

Hook, now Rumple’s puppet, attempting to get Belle to see the truth. He’d have to win her trust, despite the fact that she’s seen him at his worst (or at least close to), and play with all those doubts they set up in Family Business. And he’d have to do it without the ability to be honest, which means he gets to be his Hookiest–ie, tricky.

I suspect he’ll attempt with Emma, but she’s gonna be a little distracted by the yellow ribbon business. It’d be interesting for him to try to get Henry to see what’s going on, too, but…it doesn’t have the same delicious dynamic since Henry’s only really known Hook as his mom’s awesome boyfriend. He’d have little reason to doubt any hint Hook gave him that Rumple was up to something.

Will and Regina might be sympathetic to where he is, both having gone without hearts for a while themselves, but Hook doesn’t really have much reason to try to work with either of them, either–Belle’s the one he knows has some influence over Rumple. He’s seen her stop him from killing before.