I don’t know how many people noticed (well, you’re Rumbellers, so I imagine you’ve seen Skin Deep enough to notice everything), but there are tapestries decorating the walls of the spinning room in the Dark Castle.

The first time I saw the episode, I didn’t pay much attention to them, but the second time, OH I DID AND THEN SOME. One of the tapestries is in a series called ‘The Hunt of the Unicorn’, and I know a decent amount about them because they are currently weaving replicas at Stirling Castle, which I saw last summer.

The significance is fricking epic, given the context. In the series of tapestries, there is the usual religious allegory and suchlike, but I want to look at the main one from an OUaT perspective.

The unicorn is the mythical creature at the heart of the story. Hunters go after it with weapons and dogs and generally fail to make any impact. Sound familiar? You can’t beat something as powerful as the unicorn.

However, some manipulative regal sends an innocent maiden into the forest, and we all know the kind of girls unicorns like. The innocent maiden, whether accidentally or by misadventure, lures the unicorn into a trap, rendering it vulnerable. It gets captured and its horn, its power, is taken away.

No wonder Rumpelstiltskin flipped the frick out, when even his tapestries are telling him that the pretty virgin is a trap.