Elvenesse – Everything Elvish Blog

Brad Dourif recently made an appearance on ABC’s hit show Once Upon A Time. Fans will remember him as the character Gríma Wormtongue in the Lord of the Rings films. His character the Old Beggar on Once doesn’t seem too far off from Gríma, at first. Stop reading if you haven’t seen the episode yet and want to be surprised.

Brad Dourif as the Old Beggar

A very normal human Rumpelstiltskin  comes across an Old Beggar as he his fleeing through the woods with his son, to save his son from serving in the king’s army. Unbeknownst to Rumpelstiltskin, the Old Beggar is more than he appears. The Old Beggar convinces Rumpelstiltskin to steal a sword that can control a being called The Dark One, also known as Zoso, in order to save his son from being taken by soldiers to fight in the army, where he will surely die.

Once Rumpelstiltskin has the dagger, he summons the Dark One, and Zoso appears behind him. There are some words exchanged in which Zoso says some negative things about the legitimacy of Rumpelstiltskin son. This angers Rumpelstiltskin and he stabs Zoso with the dagger, which has Zoso’s name engraved on it. As Zoso lies dying, he turns into the Old Beggar that Rumpelstiltskin had encountered earlier and who convinced him to steal the dagger. The Old Beggar intended all along to have someone kill him to release him from his prison as the Dark One, Zoso, and saw that Rumpelstiltskin was his way out. Zoso/Old Begger then tells Rumpelstiltskin that “magic always comes with a price,” and when Rumpelstiltskin removes the dagger from Zoso/Old Beggar’s chest the blade now has Rumpelstiltskin name on it, after which we see Rumpelstiltskin’s arm beginning to change into the creature we’ve become to know him as.

To see the episode in full, head over to ABC’s page for the show Once Upon A Time.

Once Upon A Time airs weekly on Sunday nights at 8pm ET.