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Recap / Once Upon a Time S2 E5 "The Doctor"

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Season 2, Episode 5:

The Doctor

Centric Characters: Evil Queen, Victor Frankenstein

Previous: The Crocodile | Next: Tallahassee

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Rumplestiltskin: Take its heart.
Queen Regina: Like what my mother did to...
Rumplestiltskin: Oh, to your true love. Indeed. Then you already know how it's done.

Dr. Whale: Send me back.
Regina Mills: Excuse me?
Dr. Whale: To my land. Send me back to my brother.
Regina: Why don't you check the "Missing" board like everyone else?
Dr. Whale: Your curse only brought the living.
Regina: Well, then I'm sorry for your loss. But I'm afraid I can't send anyone anywhere.

Returning to the safe haven, the group discusses what to tell the refugees about Lancelot and Cora when Mulan sees the empty watchtower and knows that something isn't right. Getting closer, they find the village in ruins and the dead bodies of every last refugee scattered around. Seeing a bloodstain on the chest of every corpse, Mary Margaret realizes that Cora has taken all of their hearts. Emma spots a hand waving from under a pile of bodies and the women find a single survivor underneath.
Dr. Whale approaches David at Granny's to quiz him about his ongoing plans to find a way to the Enchanted Forest, which contrary to Regina's previous claim wasn't destroyed by the Curse. Whale wonders if that's true for "all the lands".

Regina goes for an impromptu counseling session with Dr. Hopper to discuss the challenge that has been abstaining from using magic. As Dr. Hopper encourages Regina to focus on her goal of being with Henry, Dr. Whale bursts in and demands that she send him back home to his land and his brother, explaining that he's not in Storybrooke because "your Curse only brought the living". After ejecting Whale, Dr. Hopper brings up that the Curse could bring the dead to Storybrooke seeing as her father's tomb is there.

Regina: I don't care about Whale or his brother. I brought who I wanted.
Hopper: Anyone else? <beat> If you want help, you have to try and trust me. Stopping magic is a lot harder than starting.

FLASHBACK! As she practices magic with Rumplestiltskin, Regina is thrilled when she successfully immobilizes a rearing unicorn. Rumplestiltskin is similarly pleased, but the mood darkens when he orders Regina to extract its heart, reminding her that she has already seen how it works. Regina refuses to do this to an innocent creature, but Rumplestiltskin tells her that "nothing is innocent" and takes the heart himself.
Rumplestiltskin: Now, it belongs to me. You see, when you take a heart, it becomes enchanted. Stronger than a normal heart. You're not hurting the beast, you're controlling it. Now, show me you know what to do with that power. <tosses the heart to Regina> Kill it.
Regina: What?
Rumplestiltskin: You've seen it done; now do it yourself. Show me you can take the next step in your training. Crush it.
Regina starts to crush the heart but when she sees the unicorn writhe and moan in pain she cannot go through with it.
Rumplestiltskin: Dearie, dearie, dearie. And I had such high hopes.
Regina: And I didn't sign up to kill unicorns.
Rumplestiltskin: Magic is power. Until you can take power, you're not learning anything. Do you want me to teach you or not?
Regina: Yes!
Rumplestiltskin: Then there's one simple question for you to ponder.
Regina: I'll tell you anything.
Rumplestiltskin: <giggles> I don't need the answer! You do! What's holding you back?

Regina opens up about Daniel, explaining that she's kept his body magically preserved in her family mausoleum. Dr. Hopper tells Regina that she needs to let go of the horrors of her past, but this only makes her angry and she storms out.

Regina drives home through a thunderstorm, when she sees Daniel on the side of the road, staring directly at her with a look of contempt, and in a flash of lightning he vanishes.

The next day, David brings Henry to the town stables and shows him a horse that he will learn to care for. David explains that before Henry can learn to ride the horse, he must first gain its trust by taking care of it and its living space, and it will tell him when it's ready.

Regina nervously goes to the mausoleum, and is horrified to find Daniel's body missing from its glass case.


FLASHBACK! Regina arrives for her next lesson with Rumplestiltskin, but he doesn't believe she's ready to continue.
Rumplestiltskin: Tell me why you're really here.
Regina: For power, for-
Rumplestiltskin: Stop wasting my time! What is it you want? Come on. You've done all your soul-searching. Now tell me.
Regina: Can you teach me how to use magic to bring back the dead?
Rumplestiltskin: That's what this is about?! The stable boy?
Regina: I want true happiness.
Rumplestiltskin: Then find it elsewhere, dearie! Magic can do much but not that. Dead is dead.
At that moment, Jefferson returns from an assignment, bringing Rumplestiltskin a crystal ball but admitting he failed to obtain a pair of slippers with the power to travel between lands, which Rumplestiltskin wanted to use to go to a land without magic, where Jefferson's hat cannot go. Turning back to Regina, Rumplestiltskin tells her that until she can forget about resurrecting Daniel, until she can let go of her past, her training will be suspended. As Regina begins to despair, Jefferson offers to arrange for her to meet with a certain wizard he's heard of in his travels, one who is rumored to have raised the dead.
Mulan tells Emma that the survivor they found came to their haven a few months ago, and claimed to have lost his hand in a ogre attack. Emma is doubtful that Cora would leave one person alive and suspects more trickery. They question the man and he claims that he hid under the bodies and pretended to be dead while Cora was tearing through the other villagers, causing her to overlook him. As they begin to discuss plans going forward, the man tells them that he is well-traveled and offers to guide them, but Emma has picked up on his lying and demands to know who he really is.
Regina goes to the hospital in search of Dr. Whale.
FLASHBACK! Jefferson explains that this wizard is unfamiliar with lands like theirs and with magic, but Regina only cares about what he brings from his land. They meet the wizard* in a palace courtyard.
Regina: You're the wizard?
Doctor: I prefer "Doctor", but you are welcome to call me whatever makes you comfortable.
Regina: Very well. Doctor. You understand why you've been brought here?
Doctor: Of course. Now… show me the patient.
Regina brings the Doctor to Daniel's preserved body, and he is pleased to see how good of a condition it's in. Regina interestedly asks how many times he's raised the dead, but the Doctor admits that he's still in the stage of experimenting and has yet to perform a successful resurrection. Regina is angered by this but the Doctor assures her that all he needs to get it right is a heart strong enough to withstand the procedure. He's heard of hearts altered by magic and asks Regina how they could procure one. Jefferson suggest that Regina could extract a heart from someone but she refuses, and as the disappointed Doctor prepares to leave she realizes another way to get what they need.
Regina finds a room in the basement ward that looks like it's been torn apart. Looking around, she soon finds Dr. Whale on the ground with his left arm torn off.
Regina: Whale! Whale. I know you took Daniel's body. And you took one of my hearts. Why? WHY?! <beat> Did you bring him back?
Whale: <struggling to speak through his agony> I did it.
Regina: He's alive?
Whale: Yes… I brought him back, but… he's not Daniel.
Regina: What?
Whale: He's a monster!

FLASHBACK! Regina takes Jefferson and the Doctor into her mother's vault, where hundreds of enchanted hearts are stored.
Regina: Take your pick.
Doctor: These are all hearts?
Regina: My mother was a collector.
Jefferson: Whose hearts are these?
Regina: I have no idea. She took so many. Caused so much pain, it was impossible to keep track. She was a monster.
The Doctor selects a box and stares at the heart within.
Doctor: Finally, after all this time. It's perfect.

David meets Regina outside of Whale's hospital room, demanding to know her business with him. Regina explains that Whale has brought Daniel back from the dead using a heart from her vault.David asks where Daniel could have gone, and Regina suspects he may be following his final memories to the stables. David remembers with horror that Henry is still there.

At the stables, Henry is brushing his horse when suddenly all the horses start to panic. Henry's horse runs from its stall and Henry is knocked to the ground, and before he can get up Daniel is standing over him.


The group ties the impostor to a tree and threaten to leave him for the ogres if he doesn't spill the beans. He identifies himself as Killian Jones, or as he is often known, Captain Hook. Cora sent him to act as The Mole in their group, however his allegiance only lies with whoever can get him to Storybrooke so he can skin his crocodile. He explains that Cora plans to use the enchantment from the wardrobe to forge her own way over, and offers to help them retrieve a magical compass that she is after next.
Henry sees the blood on Daniel's hands and asks if he's hurt, reaching out a hand. Daniel is reminded of Cora reaching out to take his heart and in a fit of rage seizes Henry by the throat. David and Regina arrive on the scene, and Daniel drops Henry when he sees Regina. David gets Henry out and holds the stall door shut, telling Regina that Daniel is a dangerous monster and they need to destroy him. Regina demands that she have the chance to try to talk with her True Love.
FLASHBACK! The Doctor begins his procedure with Daniel's body on a stormy night, telling Regina and Jefferson to wait outside while he does his work in a tent.
Regina: What's he doing back there? Magic?
Jefferson: He says he wields power greater than magic.
Regina: Really? Why won't he let us see?
Jefferson: In his land, there's much we don't understand. Or can't. If he can't achieve what you seek, Rumplestiltskin was right: It can't be done.
They watch the Doctor's silhouette plunge the heart in as lightning strikes the tent. After a moment, he comes out alone.
Regina: Well?
Doctor: I'm sorry. I failed. The heart wasn't strong enough. It couldn't withstand the procedure.

David leaves Regina alone, and she opens the door. Daniel stares at her and reaches for her, only to grab her by the throat and pin her against the wall. Regina chokes out an "I love you", and the monster releases her as the man he once was awakens. They embrace, but Daniel is in pain and begs Regina to end it and let him go, telling her that she can love again. As he relapses into a monster, Regina magically immobilizes Daniel and as she cries she waves her hand and Daniel is gone.
At swordpoint, Hook leads the group to a beanstalk that stretches up into the clouds, revealing that the compass is at the top.
Regina pulls up outside Dr. Hopper's office.
FLASHBACK! Regina finds Rumplestiltskin with a new student.
Regina: Who's this?
Rumplestiltskin: Your replacement, of course. I needed someone more dedicated.
Regina: Dedicated?
She turns, tears out the woman's heart and crushes it to dust.
Regina: Now… where were we?

Regina tearfully tells Dr. Hopper that she used magic, and he invites her in.
FLASHBACK! Jefferson and the Doctor meet Rumplestiltskin in the forest, and recap their deal: the Doctor fakes a failed resurrection to push Regina further along the path of darkness, and in exchange he gets to return home with the enchanted heart.
Doctor: It's been a pleasure doing business with you.
Rumplestiltskin: Oh, the pleasure was mine. Thanks to your efforts, I've made my monster. Now I do hope you'll be able to make yours.
Doctor: I'm not making a monster.
Rumplestiltskin: Sure you're not. Good luck.
Doctor: If these hearts are as strong as you say, I won't need luck.
Rumplestiltskin: Oh, just magic.
Doctor: No. What I'm going to accomplish goes far beyond magic.
Rumplestiltskin: And yet, you need a magical heart to do it.
Doctor: So small-minded. I need my powers to transcend the limitations of your magic.
Rumplestiltskin: This must be quite a land you hail from, if you think your abilities are more powerful.
Doctor: They are.
Rumplestiltskin: Care to wager? I suspect someday… you'll see it my way.
Doctor: I doubt it. Now, may we go?
Jefferson opens his portal.
Rumplestiltskin: Careful, dearie. Whatever it is you traffick in… it comes with a price.

Dr. Whale enters the pawnshop and slings a bloodstained cooler onto the counter, removing the lid to reveal his disembodied arm inside.
Gold: When they say I charge an arm and a leg, that's meant as a figure of speech.
Whale: Put it back.
Gold: You want me to reattach your arm?
Whale: Can you do it?
Gold: Of course. But first, tell me why.
Whale: Because I want to use it again.
Gold: Obviously. I meant… why bring that stable boy back from the dead? Why now?
Whale: I thought… I thought that if I helped her… she would return me to my world. I want to see my brother. To try to bring him back again.
Gold: "Again"?
Whale: The first time ended badly. I need to return and try it once more.
Gold: Well it seems that's rather beyond her abilities. My condolences.
Whale: Now my arm. You said you can do it.
Gold: Oh yes. But there's a difference between "can" and "will".
Whale: Name your price.
Gold: Say it.
Whale: Say what?
Gold: You know what. You came here, not the hospital. So say it.
Whale: <grimaces and throws his coat to the ground> I need magic.
Gold: That's all I needed to hear.
Gold waves his hand and Whale's arm is reattached.
Gold: Always a pleasure doing business with you, uh… Victor.

FLASHBACK! Back in his home world, a land without color, the Doctor enters his laboratory and shows the enchanted heart to his assistant. The begin the procedure, placing the heart into a sheet-covered body and channeling electricity from lightning into it. When the Doctor shuts off the power, the body raises up a stitch-covered hand.
Doctor: It's alive.
Assistant: You did it! Victor, you did it!
Doctor: Yes. I believe I did. Welcome back, brother.
Assistant: It's magic, Dr. Frankenstein!
Frankenstein: No. Not magic. Science.

Tropes

  • Adaptational Heroism: For Frankenstein. In the original novel, he simply wanted to see if he could create life (which Mary Shelley affirms is a bad thing). Here he wants to resurrect his dead brother.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Oddly enough this applies to Frankenstein too. While his motives are a lot more sympathetic, he's willing to participate in a Batman Gambit to help Regina's Face–Heel Turn - something Victor probably wouldn't have done in the novel.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Starting from the conversation regarding the slippers, you'd expect the person who would help Regina, as Jefferson insistently calls "a wizard", to be the Wizard of Oz. Eventually, you see Whale's counterpart and notice he's more dressed like a Mad Scientist and insists on being called "a doctor" to confirm that he is, indeed, Frankenstein.
    • Rumple says he needs "the slippers" to reach the Land Without Magic but Jefferson failed to get them because they had been sent to another world. This is likely a reference to the events of The Wizard of Oz. invokedFridge Brilliance sets in when you realise that Zelena had taken them with her back to Oz.
  • Batman Gambit:
    • Rumple's plan with Jefferson and Frankenstein is this, since it operates on Flaw Exploitation—namely, that Regina's weakness is her continued love for Daniel. By having Jefferson just "happen" to drop in while Regina is there and "happen" to overhear about her desire to bring back the dead, he gets her interest aroused...and once she meets the "wizard" Jefferson tells her of but finds he is "unable" to bring Daniel back, the despair from this will lead to her Start of Darkness so she can continue with Rumple's training. Quite the Manipulative Bastard. At the same time, Rumple is able to procure Frankenstein's assistance in this by another Batman Gambit—because he knows Victor would do anything to restore his brother, and the process of breaking Regina down will allow him to obtain a heart from Cora's vault that can do exactly that.
    • Whale's plan is a very simplified version of this, inspired by the above—to give Regina what she wanted, what he had tricked her out of before, so that in return she will send him back home to his brother.
  • Came Back Wrong: Daniel, in true horror movie fashion.
  • Catchphrase: Rumplestiltskin alters his to suit Dr. Frankenstein. "Whatever it is you traffic in, it comes with a price."
  • Comically Missing the Point: When Charming punches Whale for his one-night stand with Mary Margaret, and says it was for "sleeping with my wife", Whale at first thinks he means Kathryn.
  • Contrived Coincidence: The stables are a very special place for Regina and Daniel. Storybrooke also had them just for this episode and they are never seen again afterward (despite Charming claiming Henry needs to bond with a steed if he is to be a true knight).
  • The Corrupter: Downplayed, in the sense that Regina already began her descent when Daniel died, Rumplestiltskin is trying to make her fully committed to learning magic and doing evil.
  • Couch Gag: The title card features a lightning bolt in the Land Without Color.
  • Darker and Edgier: This episode is much darker than the show usually is - featuring a high number of on-screen deaths, an arm ripped bloodily off, and a rather gruesome plot. As it's introducing a character from horror literature rather than fairy tales, it's understandable.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Regina's talks with Archie are clearly meant to parallel a recovering alcoholic.
  • Doing in the Scientist: The episode seems made specifically to remove whatever distinctions Dr. Whale/Frankenstein has between magic and science and proving it is comparatively unreliable. In the past, Rumpelstiltskin points out that Victor needs to use magic for something he claims is distinctly better than magic. In the present, Dr. Whale is forced to swallow his pride and admit to Mr. Gold that he needs magic as a price for magically reattaching his arm.
    Victor Frankenstein: If these hearts are as strong as you say, I won't need luck.
    Rumplestiltskin: Oh, just magic.
    Victor Frankenstein: No. What I'm going to accomplish goes far beyond magic.
    Rumplestiltskin: And yet you need a magical heart to do it.
  • Evil Costume Switch: After Dr. Frankenstein "fails" to bring back Daniel, Regina comes back to Rumplestiltskin in her Hell-Bent for Leather Evil Queen look, and has no qualms with ripping out and crushing her first heart.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Regina's stage on the road to villainy is marked by her hair. At the beginning it's in its simple braid. Halfway through it's still braided but tied up. When she's undergone her Face–Heel Turn, it's in one of her familiar elaborate updos.
  • Forgot About His Powers: In this case, a non-superhero or supernatural version, but Regina was so focused on magic as the means to obtain what she wanted (and hadn't even wanted to marry Leopold anyway) that she completely forgot about her worldly mundane powers as a queen until Jefferson reminds her (that she can obtain a royal passport for him).
  • Good Is Not Nice: Emma can tell Hook is lying to her, but he won't confess. What does she do? Tie him to a tree, then whistle to attract an ogre to tear him apart. Emma doesn't play around.
  • Ironic Echo: Regina doesn't know whose heart she's giving to Dr. Frankenstein because her mother "took so many, it was impossible to keep track." Later, she says the same thing with regard to the hearts in her own vault.
  • Irony: Daniel's death was the start of Regina's Face–Heel Turn. Him dying for good here marks the start of her Heel–Face Turn.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Whale manages to walk around with his arm ripped off with nothing worse than a few winces.
  • Magic Versus Science: Rumplestiltskin and Dr. Frankenstein argue about which is more powerful. In Storybrooke, Gold forces Whale to say magic is greater in exchange for reattaching his arm. While magic works faster and is more flexible, Frankenstein did manage to bring back the dead. Something which is impossible for magic.
    • Then Season Three and Once Upon A Time In Wonderland come along; Wonderland has Cora list the three rules - you can't bring someone back from the dead, you can't change time and you can't make someone love you. Her daughter breaks one of those rules - Time Travel - implying that, actually, you can bring back the dead, but Rumple has enough sense to not try because, as proven by Frankenstein, it will go horribly wrong if you do.
  • The Mole: Mentioned only in passing, but when Emma asks Mulan if she recognizes Hook after they find him at the island massacre, she reveals he had been living with them for several months prior to this, claiming to be a blacksmith who had lost his hand in an ogre attack. Combining this with Cora having been there in the pit (and in disguise as Lancelot) reveals just how much planning the two had been up to once the breaking of the curse started time moving again.
  • Plot Device: Although Cora has the ashes from the wardrobe which can open a portal between worlds, the wardrobe's destruction means the magic is no longer fixed on a particular world (Earth). So if she and Hook (or Emma and Snow) want to get to Storybrooke, they need a magic compass which can guide the portal's destination. Thus the plot is set up for the next several episodes of obtaining said compass.
  • Reveal Shot: The episode made it clear at least halfway through (both by the character's appearance and his ability to bring back the dead) that Whale was Dr. Frankenstein, but this is finally confirmed by the very last shot, where the viewer gets to see the memorable and iconic black-and-white laboratory, complete with Igor, lightning, and theremin background music, and Igor calls him by his last name.
  • Same Character, But Different: Jefferson acts a lot more like a self-centered Jerkass in this episode than his last one. It makes sense when you remember that, chronologically, this flashback takes place before he was a father.
  • Unicorns Are Sacred: The reason why Regina couldn't rip the heart out of the innocent creature.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: The horse Henry was grooming runs off when Daniel arrives. We don't know what happened to it.
  • Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Hook uses this to try and get close to Emma and Snow, by posing as the only survivor of Cora's attack on Lancelot's island haven. Emma sees right through him.

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