Once Upon a Time Recap: “The Doctor”

by Tracy Ladd:

Once Upon a Time Recap: “The Doctor”
Original Air Date (ABC): Sunday October 28, 2012
Season 2 Episode 5

Ever since last season the question on who exactly Dr. Whale is has been nagging at me.  I had my suspicions but didn’t think that they’d turn out to be true, mainly because my theory didn’t jive with the typical fairy tale worlds.  I guess I need to stop thinking on linear terms and realize that the writers will find ways to work around such trivial roadblocks.  This week we’re back to three timelines, which means we get to see a bit of Emma and Mary Margaret, but we also get an emotional Regina, and the scoop on Dr. Whale.  On a sidenote…can I say how much I adore David Anders?

Fairytale Land (Present)

We start things off this week in present day FTL.  Aurora, Mulan, Mary Margaret and Emma head back to the “safe haven” camp only to find that everyone there is dead.  At first Mulan thinks it was the ogres that attacked, but MM says no, it was Cora’s magic that killed everyone since they’re all missing their hearts.  Gross.  Aurora notices that there is a survivor and after clearing debris, they find Killian Jones (aka Capt. Hook).  He thanks them for saving him and spins a yarn about how he survived Cora’s wrath by hiding underneath dead bodies.

Luckily, Emma’s spidey sense kicks in and she tells him that she can sense when someone is lying and she knows that he is.  She pulls a blade on him, then she ties him to a tree and whistles to get the attention of the nearby ogres.  Killian claims he’s just a blacksmith, but when he realizes that Emma isn’t buying it, he congratulates her and says that she bested him.  He comes clean and tells them that he was in cahoots with Cora only to get through the portal to Storybrooke.  He tells them that Cora has the ashes of the magical wardrobe and his only purpose is to get to Storybrooke to take revenge on the man who cut off his hand….Rumpelstiltskin.

Killian tells the ladies that there is a magical compass that they can use to get to Storybrooke.  He tells then he’ll help them as long as they don’t kill him and he gets to seek his revenge.  He leads them a beanstalk….THE beanstalk and tells them that the magical compass is at the top.  When Emma expresses doubts about climbing it, Killian tells her it’s not the climb she should be worried about, it’s the giant at the top.

Fairytale Land (Past)

Regina is still a magic rookie and is taking lessons from the Dark One himself.  She immobilizes a unicorn and is rather pleased with herself.  She’s still the nice, sweet Regina but Rumpelstiltskin is about to change all of that.  He wants her to remove the unicorn’s heart and tells her that if she does it right, no harm will befall the animal.  Regina says she can’t do it, because the animal is innocent and she doesn’t want to hurt it.  Rumpelstiltskin does it himself and pulls the heart out, much to Regina’s horror.  He tells her that in order to embrace the magic and become truly powerful, she’s going to have to do the ugly things.  If she can’t, then she’s wasting both of their time.  He gives her the heart and as she starts the squeeze, the unicorn starts neighing, which is enough for her to stop.

Later on in his castle, Rump asks Regina why she wants to learn magic, trying to get the root of it all since she doesn’t seem so evil.  She tells him that she wants to bring Daniel back from the dead and asks if that’s possible.  Rump tells her no, but gets sidetracked when Jefferson arrives with a crystal ball that will transport people from realm to realm.  I gather that Jefferson is trying to help Rump find a way to get to the world where Bae went, but they don’t go into details.  Rump dismisses Regina, telling her that as long as she lives in the past, she’ll have no future.  Jefferson, having overheard part of their conversation, tells her that he may be able to help.

Jefferson takes Regina to meet who he calls, a wizard.  The wizard prefers “Doctor” and it turns out to be Dr. Whale.  Regina takes the Doctor to Daniel, who is nice and preserved thanks to a preservation spell Regina cast.  The Doctor looks over Daniel to see if he’s a good candidate for the procedure, he tells her that he may be able to bring Daniel back from the dead, but he needs an enchanted heart to do it.  She tells him that she won’t get one herself, but her mother has a vault full of them.

Taking the heart that was in Cora’s vault, the Doctor tests his procedure on the body of Daniel while Regina and Jefferson stand outside his medical tent….that happens to be in the middle of a lightning storm….that’s handy.  The Doctor emerges from the tent and apologizes to Regina, telling her that the procedure didn’t work.

Rump is back in the forest, teaching a new girl how to use magic.  Regina shows up decked out in her Evil Regina-ware and asks what he’s doing.  He tells her that since she didn’t have the stones for it, he’s found someone else to mentor.  Regina then pulls out the other girl’s heart and squishes it, killing her.  Rumps seems very pleased with her change of…ahem….heart.

Later on, Rump is seen with the Doctor and we learn that the Doctor “failed” on purpose so that Regina would turn into Evil Regina and embrace her dark side.  After a disagreement of whose methods are better, Rump tells the good doctor that eventually he’ll realize that magic is the way to go and pays the doctor with a strong heart.  Jefferson then leads him back to his own realm.  Once there, the Doctor takes the heart and inserts it in to his brother.  A hand twitches and his assistant exclaims that he’s done it…and calls him by name….Dr. Frankenstein.

Storybrooke

In Storybrooke, David approaches Dr. Whale at Grannie’s and punches him in the face.  Dr. Whale asks what that was for, and David responds by telling him it was for sleeping with his wife.  Dr. Whale points out that no one knew who they really were but David doesn’t care….which I found kind of funny. Dr. Whale then tries to get more information about FTL from David, but David doesn’t have much info to give aside from the fact that it still exists.

David then tells Henry that he’s going to teach Henry to ride a horse.  That way when Emma and Mary Margaret get back, Henry will be on his way to being a bona fide knight.  David takes Henry to the stables and introduces him to his new horse.  He tells Henry that every day, twice a day, Henry will need to clean the stall, and feed and brush the horse.  Henry asks when he can learn to ride, but David tells him that the horse will let him know when it’s time.  What he’s doing now, will help build a bond between himself and the horse.

Regina shows up at Dr. Hopper’s office and tells him that she hasn’t practiced magic in two days in an effort to make amends with Henry.  Dr. Hopper tells her that’s a great start and invites her in to talk.  During their session, Whale bursts in and demands that Regina send him back.  She takes the defensive and refuses, and Dr. Hopper kicks Whale out of his office.  Regina admits to living in the past and confesses to Dr. Hopper that she keeps Daniel’s preserved body in her family mausoleum.

Later on, Regina is driving in the torrential downpour that hit Storybrooke and thinks she sees Daniel on the corner.  She then heads down to the crypt, only to find that his body is no longer there.  Uh oh.  She searches for Dr. Whale in what appears to be an abandoned (and creepy) part of the hospital and enters an operating room that has been demolished.  Among the debris, she finds Dr. Whale, who looks like he’s been through the ringer (and happens to be missing an arm).  He tells her that he took Daniel and a heart from her vault to try to bring him back to life….and it worked.  His goal was to do something nice, so that she would feel compelled to help him get back to his realm.

Dr. Whale is in the hospital recovering when David barges in to find out what happened.  Regina tells him about Daniel, and Dr. Whale.  Regina tells David that Daniel is probably headed to the stables since that’s where he bought the farm.  David rushes out telling her that Henry is at the stables.

Meanwhile…at the stables…..Henry is brushing and talking to his horse.  The horses start to get restless and Henry’s horse bucks, knocking Henry off his stool.  When Henry gets his wits about it, he sees Daniel standing in the stall.  Henry puts his hand out and asks Daniel if he needs help and the action sparks a memory of Cora taking out his heart.  Daniel grabs Henry by the throat, but David and Regina arrive just in time.  David gets Henry out and locks Daniel in the stall, and pulls his gun.  Horrified, Regina pleads with David to let her talk to him because she knows she can get through to him.  David relents and gets Henry out of there, leaving Regina to handle Daniel.

Daniel grabs Regina and she’s able to whisper that she loves him, which seems to flip a switch.  He realizes who he is and who she is and he asks her to stop the pain that he’s in.  She tells him that she can’t lose him again, but he asks her to let him go.  She makes a decision and immobilizes him, then with a wave of her hand, he disappears.

Later on, Dr. Hopper answers a knock on his door to find Regina standing on the other side.  She confesses that she used magic and he invites her in to talk.  Meanwhile, Dr. Whale is hobbling down the street carrying an ice chest.  He puts the ice chest on Mr. Gold’s counter and opens it to reveal his arm.  Mr. Gold makes a crack about how his items / services costing an arm and leg is a figure of speech.  Dr. Whale tells Gold that he needs Gold to fix him and asks his price.  Gold simply tells Whale that he just needs to say the words and Whale admits that he needs magic.  With a wave of Gold’s hand, Whale’s arm is reattached.

So….they’ve meshed worlds by introducing Dr. Whale as Frankenstein.  At first I wasn’t sure this was going to work, but since Jefferson’s hat can open portals to different realms altogether, that puts a different spin on it.  I guess we could start seeing all sorts of stuff now, but I really hope they don’t over use this possibility.  The fairy tales have plenty of characters to base stories and back stories on, I don’t want them throwing in all sorts of monsters from other stories in there too.  The first question may be why Dr. Frankenstein was taken to Storybrooke in the first place.  Regina explained this with one sentence saying when the spell was cast, she brought who she wanted.  Since she still had Daniel, she was hoping that eventually Dr. Whale could bring him back in their new world.

Even though it wasn’t cool of David to punch Whale for sleeping with MM, it was still kind of funny.  Major kudos to Lana Parilla this week.  Poor Regina…I actually felt sorry for her.  It’s nice that she was able to show an emotion that wasn’t influenced by anger.  I actually wanted to give her a big hug.  Next week we get to see Lost’s Jorge Garcia as the giant, which should be interesting.  I’m actually looking forward to that episode.

DarkMedia contributor Tracy Ladd has been writing about film since her days on the her high school newspaper. Even though she took a decade or two off to explore other things, she’s back to doing what she loves. She also bakes, can knit a pretty nifty scarf and makes lightsaber sounds with her knitting needles. Or chopsticks. Especially with the lightsaber chopsticks.

You can find her on Facebook, on Twitter @ReelGoddess, and on her website The Reel Goddess.