Season 2, Episode 11:
The Outsider
Belle: Last time I faced a beast it didn't end well.
Belle (Storybrooke): I learned a long time ago that when you find something worth fighting for, you never give up.
Mr. Gold finds an unwilling test subject to see if a spell he has concocted will allow him to cross the border of Storybrooke—without losing his memory—and go in search of his son, Baelfire, Belle stumbles upon a vengeful Hook in the Storybrooke harbor whose main goal is to eradicate Rumplestiltskin, and Mary Margaret and David go house hunting in search of a bigger place to live. Meanwhile, in the Enchanted Forest that was, Belle meets Mulan as the two set out to slay a fearsome beast called the Yaoguai, who has been ravaging the land.
Tropes
- Answer Cut: Hook asks Archie what Rumple's weakness is. Cut to Belle entering the pawn shop.
- Badass Bookworm: Much of the plot shows off Belle's book-smarts, including her ability to communicate with the yaoguai through their shared knowledge of Chinese calligraphy. In Storybrooke she also figures out, just by consulting a book of nautical knots, that Hook is in town and his ship must be in the harbor, then goes there and penetrates Cora's invisibility spell so as to rescue Archie.
- Chekhov's Gun: The fairy dust Dreamy gives Belle ends up being quite useful in breaking Maleficent's curse on Philip.
- Continuity Nod:
- Regina calls one of her knights "Claude", which is the name of a guard Hook killed in The Queen of Hearts.
- We also get to see Dreamy with Belle again, congratulating her on her advice for him and Nova (though we know how sadly that is going to end), and how this set Belle on the path to returning to Rumple and eventually getting captured by Regina.
- And Smee, last seen being held prisoner by Gold, reappears to help him test his memory-retaining potion at the town line...as well as help Hook steal the shawl and eventually get turned into a rat for his troubles.
- Couch Gag: The title card features the Yaoguai.
- Description Cut: A very dark one. At Archie's funeral, Geppetto remarks that at least he's in a better place. Cut to Archie tied up in Hook's ship.
- Diabolus ex Machina:
- Enchanted Forest: Belle gets caught by Regina. Though we already know about this one from previous episodes.
- Storybrooke: Belle loses her memory.
- Double-Meaning Title: While the episode title most obviously refers to the person with Pennsylvania plates who crashes their car at the town line at episode's end, it can also refer to Hook himself. It also applies to Belle in the Enchanted Forest segments as she tries to stand up for herself and be a brave warrior and adventurer like in her books, only to be shut out by men (and Mulan, at first).
- Dull Surprise: Emma and Henry seemed awfully okay with the fact that Cora is in town and kidnapped Archie. All they seem to care about is making up to Regina that they accused her of murder. To be fair, they learn this from Archie himself (so they know he's already been rescued thanks to Belle) and the fact he isn't dead kind of takes priority too. And there isn't much they can do about Cora at the moment, but still...
- A Fate Worse Than Death: What Hook ends up inflicting on Rumple: he pushes Belle over the town boundary (via. a gunshot), wiping her memory and thus all recollection that she loves Rumple. The sheer anguish on Gold's face is testament to how well it works.
- Forced Transformation:
- As punishment for stealing Bae's shawl for Hook (after he spared his life and released him), Gold turns Smee into a rat.
- Also, it turns out the yaoguai is a case of this having been done to Philip by Maleficent, to keep him from waking Aurora.
- Foreshadowing:
- On the one hand, the disagreement between Snow and Charming over whether to get a house of their own and stay in Storybrooke, or go back to the Enchanted Forest to face down Cora and the ogres, foreshadows both their attempts to grow the magic beans to go back in the latter half of this season as well as that of Season Three where their desire to return conflicts again with Emma's (and Neal's).
- More immediately, the worries about the outside world finding Storybrooke now that the curse is broken which Leroy and Ruby bring up bear fruit right away with the episode's Cliffhanger.
- Hidden Depths: The Reveal of the yaoguai's transformed identity also reveals that Philip knows Chinese calligraphy. While as a prince he would have an elite education, this is a rather specific and unusual bit of knowledge for him to have. It also supplies a reason, beyond her being involved in his rescue, for him to form a connection with Mulan.
- How We Got Here: Belle and Mulan's quest not only ends up revealing how Belle got captured by Regina, but how Mulan met and became Philip's traveling companion in the search for Aurora as seen at the start of the season, since he was the yaoguai they were hunting.
- Kill It with Fire: What Gold is gearing up to do to Hook, right before they're interrupted by the outsider.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Because Gold wants to face Hook on his own (ostensibly because it's his personal problem and he doubts Emma and the others can or will do anything about him, but surely because he knows they won't countenance his methods in handling the pirate), he refuses to let Belle go to the sheriff for help. As a result, no one knows Hook is in town until the end of the episode—information which would have immediately revealed Cora must also be in town, thus exonerating Regina sooner and possibly keeping her from regressing.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Hook thanks Belle for persuading Rumple to save his life by shooting her.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Gold inflicts one on Hook with his cane until Belle prevails on him not to.
- Pet the Dog: Even though it is the only way for Gold to leave Storybrooke, Hook won't destroy or get rid of Baelfire's shawl. Why? "Because she made it." (Meaning Milah.) Though later episodes also reveal he was close to Bae as well.
- The Reveal: The yaoguai Belle and Mulan were chasing? Philip, transformed by Maleficent to keep him from breaking the spell on Aurora.
- Revenge by Proxy: Hook decides to kill Belle as part of his revenge on Rumple.
- Sadly Mythtaken: In Chinese mythology the yaoguai is a malevolent animal spirit or fallen celestial being that has acquired magical powers through the practice of Taoism and thus become a demon, and which hunts down and consumes holy men to achieve immortality. Here it is a human transformed by Forced Transformation and doomed to remain trapped in said cursed form until someone can break the spell, and so spends all its time either vainly trying to communicate its plight or cowering in its cave. The only thing they have in common is that the cursed Philip looks like a lion and has a corona of fire as a mane (fire being something the demonic yaoguai have in common with the Indian rakshasa). Of course it is rather unlikely Maleficent would have known or cared about mythological accuracy when casting her curse.
- Status Quo Is God: Played with. After the Cliffhanger of the last episode, Archie gets rescued, everyone finds out he's alive, and what could have been a several-episodes-spanning plot is instantly done away with. But the knowledge Hook gained from him before this of Belle changes the game completely, since it leads to the shocking moment at the town line.* So even though things get reset with Archie, everything else in Storybrooke changes from now on for the rest of the season.
- Stay in the Kitchen: The men hunting the yaoguai have this attitude toward Belle. She makes them pay for it by deliberately misdirecting them, then going to find its real lair on her own. Unfortunately resentment over this causes them to in turn betray her to Regina (which is how one of them, Claude, ends up becoming one of her Black Knights).
- Wham Episode: Belle has her memory irrevocably erased and an outsider has arrived in Storybrooke... by crashing his car into Hook, and then into a tree. Wow, seems to be a lot of these this season...although this particular case is also an example of a Midseason Twist.
- Wham Line: "W-w-who's Belle?!"
