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Beauty and the Beastmay be a tale as old as time, but Sunday night, Once Upon a Timeshowed us their take on the tale, which is decidedly quite darker than the original.

In flashbacks, we learned that Gaston was considerably more charming than his beefcake Disney persona but still didn’t win over Belle’s heart fair and square. At one point -- in her pre-Rumplestiltskin days -- she even started to warm up to him, but all bets (and courting) were off after he lied to her and tortured an innocent ogre.

Belle and Rumple run into Gaston again in Underbrooke, and there, things get even more hostile. But it ultimately isn’t a Rumple vs. Gaston fight that settles the score -- it's Belle’s brief dip into darkness.

But before we get into how far Belle went to save her unborn baby, let’s go back to Belle and Gaston’s blind date.

Bonjour, Gaston

As expected, Belle was notinto the idea of a setup with Gaston. "He fancies himself quite the hunter -- of animals and women," she sasses to her dad. She gives Gaston a chance, though, when he ends up being more subdued and charming than she expected.

Gaston tells Belle his love life has been "tragically empty" and he's been looking for woman of her substance. Promising? Not quite. Before their date can go any further, he literally runs away from her in the woods to hunt. They discover an ogre has fallen into a hole, and she makes him promise not to hurt the young ogre until she finds out his true intentions with a magic mirror.

When she returns, Gaston has allegedly been attacked by the escaped ogre, but when they finally track the beast down, he’s scared and hurt -- Gaston tortured him. The mirror actually reveals Gaston’s evil intentions, which is enough to drive Belle away. That is, until she realizes he's the only person who can help save the village from the ogres.

"We must do what it takes to save the kingdom," Belle’s father tells her, aka she has to marry Gaston in the ultimate sacrifice.

Well, perhaps her biggest sacrifice untilshe meets Gaston again in the Underworld.

Exes and oh-nos

Belle first meets up with Rumple to tell him they have to defeat Hades together without dark magic to save their baby, but their plan shifts when Gaston tries to kill Rumple.

Per Hades' request, Gaston is armed with arrows that could kill the “greatest beast of them all,” but Belle won’t let Rumple fight back. Instead, she wants to save Gaston's soul so he can move on, and in turn, Hades will be weakened.

But of course there’s a twist. Hades offers Belle a deal: If Rumple and Gaston face off and one of them ends up in the River of Lost Souls, he doesn’t want her baby anymore. She doesn’t take the deal, but in a moment of weakness tells Rumple, who immediately goes to kill Gaston.

Before Rumple can finish Gaston off, Belle jumps in. "I have always known who you really are. That's why I love you," she says before kissing her husband. Sike! "But I also know who I really am and I can’t let you hurt him. In fact, I command you not to," she adds, tricking him with the dagger.

It’s not quite a happy ending, though. Gaston moves to shoot Rumple, and Belle pushes him into the water to save her husband. This little loophole causes Hades to declare their deal null -- the baby is still his, he says.

A vision of love and death

Emma dreams of burning the names off the graves to get them back to Storybrooke, but there’s a tragic ending: a storm comes, a beast is unleashed, and her mother is killed.

After Emma and Regina are unable to break into Hades’ lair, they decide to give Emma’s plan a shot, but unfortunately it just gives the Savior a lot of deja vu. Her dream seemingly comes true -- minus Snow dying -- but they’re able to pull the team together.

Lucky for them, that monster is really just Red in wolf form, who was swept into the Underworld from some tornado. Welcome back, Ruby!

There’s one more monster still lurking around Underbrooke, though: Zelena. Even though she made a huge sacrifice to save her baby, she won’t help everyone defeat Hades because she still loves him. In the final moments, she gets a special delivery from her ex-lover: a dead flower that is a promise to extinguish hope in the Underworld.

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(责任编辑：焦點)