Once Upon A Time-- Dreamy

Tonight we got the story of Grumpy....and WHAT a story it was! Once again, Lee Arenberg hit it out of the park with his brilliant performance.

In Fairytale Land, we meet Nova, played by the amazing Amy Acker. Does the woman not age?!

And how Fred-like was Nova? I literally JUST finished watching Angel for the first time two weeks ago, so seeing Amy in this type of character again was almost bittersweet.

As Nova is flying over the land, a bit of fairydust--which we find out is made from diamonds that are mined by dwarfs-- accidentally falls onto a giant egg.
That egg hatches early and who's inside? Why, a dwarf, of course! Didn't you know dwarfs are hatched? ;)

The dwarfs are all given an ax which reveals their name...And we find out that our Grumpy was originally called Dreamy!

Dreamy stumbles across Nova in the mine as she's filling up her fairydust bag and he recognizes her from the dream he had before he hatched.

Nova invites Dreamy to watch the fireflies that night on the hill and, after a good kick in the butt from none other than Belle (how great was it to see her again?!) , who's suffering from a broken heart herself after being thrown out by old Rumpy, he arrives on the hill where Nova and Dreamy declare they're love for each other.
They decide to meet the next night to run away and explore the world together on a boat.

The dwarfs catch Dreamy as he's sneaking away the next night and he tells them he's different....He's in love.
They give him their blessing, but as he's walking through the forest, Dreamy is stopped by Bossy and the Blue Fairy.
They tell him dwarfs aren't capable of love. That Nova must follow her dreams to become a fairy Godmother, but Dreamy must allow her to do so.

On the hilltop, Nova shows Dreamy the boat on the water...and Dreamy tells her he can't run away with her.
He can't get in the way of her dreams. When she asks, "Don't you love me?", Dreamy replies, his voice thick with emotion, "I'm a dwarf. I can't love."
And a single tear runs down his cheek. Yeah, I cried. So what?! :P

Dreamy goes back to the mine and, in his anger, breaks his ax on the stone. When he's given a new ax, a new name appears. Grumpy.
AWWWWWWW!



Over in Storybrooke, we meet Leroy in the diner, where he's his usual grumpy self.
In walks Mary Margaret who's trying to recruit volunteers to help sell candles to raise money for the nuns on Miner's Day.
MM asks Leroy if he'll volunteer and he bitterly replies, "...Town harlot. Town drunk. The only person people like less than me in this town...is you."
Don't hold back there, Leroy. Tell us what you're REALLY thinking. Sheesh.

Later, Leroy helps a nun named Astrid, who's none other than Nova's Storybrooke counterpart.
He's taken with her, and in an attempt to get closer to her he goes to MM and volunteers to help sell candles.
Of course, the town drunk and the town tramp sell absolutely NO candles, but instead of fessing up to Astrid with the truth, he lies and tells her they sold them all.

Leroy tries to come up with the $5000 himself to save the convent, but the evil Mr. Gold won't buy Leroy's boat and also won't give the nuns a break on their rent because, apparently, he hates nuns. (Or does he hate fairies? Hmm...)
Astrid comes to Leroy's boat with pie...and she sees the candles stacked on the deck of the boat. Leroy is forced to confess that he lied.

Later that evening, Leroy and Mary Margaret are getting drunk in the diner. Leroy tells MM to suck it up. To remember what she DID have with David and stop moping about what she doesn't have, because he didn't get ANYTHING with the woman he loves.
Leroy has an epiphany and goes to the roof of the diner. With MM watching on, Leroy smashes the power transformer (with a pickax, no less!) and causes a town-wide blackout.
MM asks him what he's doing and in a GREAT line, Leroy replies with a smirk, "I'm sellin' candles, sister." Ha!

Of course, because of the blackout, everyone is now buying candles and MM and Leroy quickly sell out, raising the $5000 the nuns need to pay the rent.

Leroy has his moment with Astrid after he hands her the money. He tells her he's going to fix up the boat and she'll be his first passenger.
AWWWWWW!

MM walks to her car and, once again, someone has spray painted 'TRAMP' on the side.
Dejected, MM holds her head up and resolves to walk home.
Granny, of all people, reaches out to her, lights her candle and smiles apologetically. Looks like MM will be forgiven...eventually.


And through all this, the side-plot was Emma, Sidney, Regina, David....and Kathryn's disappearance.
David tells Emma that he'd had no contact with Kathryn the day she disappeared, but the phone records Sidney gives to Emma tell a different story. They show an 8 minute call from David on Kathryn's phone records.
With Regina's threats ringing in her ears, Emma brings David to the station for questioning...and that's where we end.

Another BRILLIANT episode. Every week I wonder how they're going to top themselves and they ALWAYS do.


Highlights:
- Belle's guest appearance!
- The parallels between the Fairytale plot and the Storybrooke plot. Nova/Astrid sprinkles Dreamy/Leroy with 'dust', the candles/fireflies, Dreamy tells Nova and Astrid tells Leroy, "You can do anything if you dream it."
- Amy Acker!
- "I'm sellin' candles, sister." I LOVE that line!
- Seeing how the dwarfs came to be!
- Heigh Ho!
- Did you see the 'rabbit' eating the carrot? Could that be the White Rabbit and Alice we saw? ;)
- "You don't like nuns? Who doesn't like nuns?!" Ha!

Questions we have after this episode:
-Why does Gold hate nuns (or fairies)?
-WHAT does fairydust do, exactly? WHY is it so important?
-What happened to Nova after Grumpy said goodbye?
-Why were Grumpy and Stealthy looking for Nova in the dungeons?
-Where's Katheryn?!


Looks like we FINALLY see Ruby/Red Riding Hood's story next week! Who's else is crazy-excited about that?!
What did YOU think of 'Dreamy'? As always, comments are welcome!

Until  next week, Oncers!