Beauty

"Even you, Mr. Weaver, have a story, and it's a thing of beauty."

- Tilly to Weaver

"Beauty" is the fourth episode of Season Seven of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Dana Horgan & Leah Fong, and directed by Mick Garris. It is the one hundred and thirty-seventh episode of the series overall, and premiered on October 27, 2017.

Synopsis
It's Halloween in Hyperion Heights and Victoria forces Ivy to take Lucy trick-or-treating. Meanwhile, Tilly appears to be waking up from the curse and is intent on leading Weaver to the truth – but not if Victoria can help it. In a flashback, Rumple and Belle seek the answer to a prophecy that could cement their happy ending.

Starring

 * Lana Parrilla as Roni
 * Colin O'Donoghue as Rogers
 * Andrew J. West as Henry Mills
 * Dania Ramirez as Jacinda
 * Gabrielle Anwar as Victoria Belfrey
 * Alison Fernandez as Lucy
 * Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin*/Mr. Gold/Weaver

Guest Starring

 * Emilie de Ravin as Belle*/Belle French
 * Adelaide Kane as Ivy Belfrey
 * Giles Matthey as Gideon
 * Rose Reynolds as Alice/Tilly
 * Anton Starkman as Young Gideon

Co-Starring

 * Evryle Ebora as Fake Lucy
 * Matt Kennedy as Boyfriend

Uncredited

 * Unknown as One Year-Old Gideon
 * Unknown baby as Gideon*
 * Sage Brocklebank as Gaston*
 * Eric Keenleyside as Maurice*
 * Raphael Sbarge as Archie Hopper*
 * Chris Shields as Military Advisor*

Trivia

 * -|Production Notes=

Title

 * The title card features gravestones, jack-o-lanterns, and other Halloween decor.
 * The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Instagram account on August 3, 2017.
 * The title of this episode is a reference to "Beauty and the Beast", the fairytale written by French author Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, which is the basis for Belle and Rumplestiltskin.
 * Belle's name also means "Beauty" in French.

Production Notes

 * Adam Horowitz described this episode as "hugely romantic".
 * The opening shot where the leaves are blown across Storybrooke Main Street is stock footage from an establishing shot used to show the empty streets of Storybrooke the morning after Hook's death in the Season Five episode "Swan Song".
 * The shot was also reused in the Season Six episode "A Wondrous Place".
 * Before the scene with Jacinda, Henry and Ivy at Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack, there is an establishing shot of Seattle, which is stock footage from "Hyperion Heights".
 * Throughout the episode, Gideon appears as a baby, at the ages of one and ten, and as an adult, making it the largest number of different actors portraying the same role in one episode.
 * In the episode script, Belle says "You know, you could take a picture", and Mr. Gold answers "No need. I could remember how you look right now forever." In the final episode, Belle actually says "photograph" instead of "picture".
 * A sequence where Alice calls Weaver a pillock, which was Rose Reynolds' idea, was cut from the episode.
 * A sequence where the boyfriend interacts with Weaver at the Aurora Bridge was cut from the episode.


 * -|Episode Connections=

Event Chronology

 * The Seattle events take place on Halloween on October 31, 2017, after "The Garden of Forking Paths" and before "Greenbacks".
 * The Storybrooke flashback takes place after "The Final Battle Part 2", one year after "Changelings" and before "A Pirate's Life".
 * The New Enchanted Forest flashback takes place after "Greenbacks" and before "Hyperion Heights".

Episode Connections

 * Belle gave birth to Gideon in "Changelings".
 * Belle and Mr. Gold discuss that Storybrooke has not had a threat since the Black Fairy was defeated in "The Final Battle Part 2".
 * Mr. Gold says that Belle always wanted to see the world, something that was established in "Skin Deep" and "The Outsider".
 * Ivy mentions Jacinda's speech at the Community Gardens which took place in "The Garden of Forking Paths".
 * When Henry tastes the drink that Roni made for him, he says that it could use a dash of cinnamon. Henry enjoys cinnamon and cream in his cocoa, which was established in "The Thing You Love Most" and "Going Home".
 * Roni mentions seeing Henry getting ice cream with Lucy and Jacinda, an event which happened in "The Garden of Forking Paths".
 * Henry mentions how he visited the Hyperion Heights Cemetery, which took place in "The Garden of Forking Paths".
 * Weaver makes a reference to Rogers' Missing Person case, which was previously brought up in "A Pirate's Life".
 * Belle and Mr. Gold previously danced to the song "Beauty and the Beast" in "A Tale of Two Sisters" and "The Savior".
 * As Belle says her last words, clips from "Skin Deep", "A Land Without Magic", "Kansas", "There's No Place Like Home", "A Tale of Two Sisters" and "The Final Battle Part 2" are shown.
 * Mr. Gold says that he took the Dark One's dagger from one son, a reference to events from "Ill-Boding Patterns".
 * When Tilly asks Rogers if he plays chess, he says that he's been known to "dabble a little bit". Wish Realm Hook talked about how he used to play chess with his daughter in "A Pirate's Life. The piece that Rogers moves is a black rook, the same as his daughter's chess piece, which he showed to the real Hook in the same episode.


 * -|Cultural References=

Disney

 * This episode features Ellie, Carl Fredricksen and their child from the Disney/Pixar animated movie Up.
 * Various people wear costumes of different Disney characters including Elsa from Frozen, Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Snow White from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Incredibles from The Incredibles, and the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus. There's also a man wearing a male version of Elsa's coronation outfit.
 * The Sanderson Sisters Easter egg is a reference to Mick Garris, who directed the episode and Hocus Pocus.

Fairytales and Folklore

 * This episode features Alice from Alice in Wonderland and Beauty and the Beast from the fairytale of the same name.
 * There are several references to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland:
 * Tilly is wearing a white rabbit mask with a monocle on its eye for Halloween, a reference to the White Rabbit.
 * Tilly's favorite food is orange marmalade, a reference to the scene where Alice grabs a jar of orange marmalade from a shelf while falling down the rabbit hole.
 * Tilly asks Victoria Belfrey "Who are you?".
 * Tilly references herself as feeling ten feet tall and becoming small again.
 * Tilly says to Weaver "We're all mad here."
 * Alice can be seen chasing a white rabbit.
 * Rogers refers to Tilly as being "As quiet as a dormouse".
 * Tilly and Rogers play chess, which is an important theme in Lewis Carroll's sequel Through the Looking-Glass.
 * Gideon mentions that he has been accepted into Elphame Academy. This is a reference to the Queen of Elphame from Scottish folklore.

Lost

 * According to Weaver's card, the Hyperion Heights Police Station belongs to Seattle police department's 42nd precinct, a reference to the fifth Lost number.
 * When Lucy goes trick-or-treating, she mutters to herself, "Please be an Apollo bar, please be an Apollo bar". This was a fictional brand on Lost.

Popular Culture

 * Belle and Mr. Gold's story in this episode is inspired by the short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button".
 * The pills which Tilly "takes" to prevent her from waking up from the curse are blue, which can be seen when she finds the crushed pills inside her sandwich. This is a reference to the 1999 science fiction film The Matrix, in which the main character Neo is offered the choice between a red pill and a blue pill by rebel leader Morpheus. The red pill will free him from the enslaving control of the machine-generated dream world and allow him to escape into the real world, but the blue pill will lead him back to stay in the comfortable simulated reality of the Matrix.
 * This reference is fitting, since The Matrix is known for referencing the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland through various homages. During the scene where Neo takes the pill, Morpheus informs him that if he chooses to take the red pill and be freed from the Matrix, he will "stay in Wonderland", and Morpheus will show him "how deep the rabbit hole goes".
 * For Halloween, Roni is dressed up as Sandy Olsson from the 1978 musical romantic comedy film Grease.
 * Henry asks if the "Scary Sauce" that Jacinda is serving is Exorcist-level scary, or more like Gremlins-level scary. This is a reference to the 1973 horror movie The Exorcist and the 1984 horror comedy Gremlins. Jacinda answers, "Exorcist-level". The Exorcist has been repeatedly ranked as the most terrifying movie of all time, while Gremlin is more known for its blend of comedy and horror. Despite this, Henry admits to Jacinda that he can't handle Gremlins, prompting her to ask if he's scared of puppets; a reference to the titular characters who were portrayed by animatronic puppets.


 * -|Set Notes=

Props Notes

 * The magical rose from Season Five is pictured on the cover of the travel book that Mr. Gold gives to Belle.
 * According to Emilie de Ravin, she had to carry around four gallons of water during the house building scene, while Robert Carlyle was loading little polystyrene rocks.

Set Dressing

 * During Gideon's birthday celebration, a white rabbit plush toy is sitting on the table.
 * A painting by the American artist Augustine Kofie, from his 2011 exhibition Circulatory System, is hanging on the wall next to the elevator when Jacinda drops by Belfrey Towers.
 * The painting next to Weaver's bed at the hospital is Summer Secret by the American artist Megan Lightell.
 * The same painting is hanging in the Storybrooke General Hospital's waiting area in the Season Six episode "Dark Waters".
 * Another painting in Weaver's hospital room was previously used to decorate the common room in the Storybrooke General Hospital in the Season Two episode "Tiny".

Costume Notes

 * The blouse Alice is wearing is the same garment worn by Maid Marian in "Heart of Gold".


 * -|Other Notes=

Filming Locations

 * The scene where Weaver is walking down the street and sees Tilly, the scene with Tilly and Weaver on the bench, and the nighttime scene with Henry and Ivy on the same bench later in the episode, were all filmed in New Westminster's Hyack Square.
 * The scene where Rogers and Weaver are walking through the park was filmed in CRAB Park at Portside in Vancouver.
 * The scenes where Lucy and the other children are trick-or-treating were filmed in 6359 Palace Place in Burnaby.
 * The driving scene with Tilly and Weaver was filmed in Richmond's Alderbridge Way.
 * The scene where Tilly jumps from Weaver's moving car and runs off was filmed on a lane in 4400 Still Creek Drive in Burnaby.
 * The scene where Tilly and Weaver are walking through the alley was filmed behind the Burrard Inronworks in Vancouver.
 * A ravine in Burnaby's Buckingham Park doubles as the New Enchanted Forest for the flashback where Alice and Mr. Gold meet.