['Once Upon a Time' - 'The Price of Gold']

Hot on the glass heels of last week's excellent Snow/Charming (Snarming?) episode, 'Once Upon a Time' offered yet another compelling entry this week, this one courtesy of Cinderella.

As with Snow White and Prince Charming's unique backstory, the writers chose to mine new territory with the character instead of retreading the same old rags-to-riches tale we're already well acquainted with. It was no fairy godmother that sent Cindy to the ball this time around, but a malevolent Rumplestiltskin, who wanted something in return for his "generosity." Nothing important, anyway, just Cinderella's firstborn child ...

(Snow and Charming apparently got off relatively easily, since all they had to give Rumple was their baby's name.)

(S03E05) Not my favorite episode so far this season, but still very entertaining. That's because The Closer does quirky very, very well. Brenda is usually the freakiest freak of the bunch, but this week she got overshadowed by her real estate agent and by a surly old man who claimed to have killed seven people.

Let's start with the real estate agent, named Gary (played by French Stewart). He works his catch phrase, "Gary Doesn't Lie" into almost every conversation with Brenda and Fritz as he helps them look for a new home. I don't know what these two professionals are doing with this slimeball-- as interrogators for the FBI and the LAPD, don't they know creeps when they see them? French Stewart did a marvelous job of playing an LA-type real estate agent who was working his gimmick the whole time.