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| ABC |
In case the completely different title card wasn't enough of a clue, ‘The Doctor’ doubles as the Halloween episode for Once
Upon A Time. It also finally gave up the answer to one of the most
pervasive questions in OUAT’s mythology thus far: who the hell is
Dr. Whale? In doing so, it showed that there’s often far more interesting
stories in the flashbacks of other lands, both fairy tale and something else
entirely, than there is in the present-day.
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| ABC |
The central focus of the hour was a Regina story as
we saw how her magical apprenticeship with Rumple led to the circumstances
which formed the heart-crushing, leather-wearing, HBIC we know and adore today.
Well, that we knew because in order for Regina’s story to have
a chance at redemption this season apparently she has to give up her want of
power. That’s all they've given her to do so that the show can continue quietly
positioning Rumple as the new true OUAT villain.
But it’s clear when in a world that magic exists
again that her tearful declarations of love are met with zero reward in her
grand reunion with lost love Daniel that her path to happiness isn't going to
be in giving up said power. For the sake of the entertainment value of the show
I hope she realizes that she’s just the kind of person who can’t get the things
she wants by being apologetic. Henry is never going to choose her over Emma,
his gramps David, or just about anyone. He only knows her as the evil Queen of
his fairy-tale book and that’s not ever going to change no matter how many days
she goes without a little abracadabra. I appreciate the chance at seeing her
layers but it’s taking a lot of fun away from the character, at least in the
present day.
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| ABC |
This is why we can all thank our lucky stars that
this show tells stories in multiple lands and time periods; Regina as the
heart-broken lonely girl trying to find her place in a world that gave her this
status she never asked for works so much better than seeing her the same way in
present-day Storybrooke. Tonight’s episode gave us a chance to see the first
meeting between young Regina, mistress of the dark arts in training, and a
Jefferson who gleefully hopped around from land to land meeting a number of
interesting characters along the way. Which brings us to the aforementioned big
answer of the episode: Dr. Whale is actually Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Yep, that's right we're going full-literary.
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| ABC |
He isn't from fairy tale land at all and he’s enlisted to do a job for Regina. She wants
Daniel back from the dead that’s the sole reason for her want to learn magic in
the first place, but she’s informed that magic has its limitations and that is
one of them. Victor comes from a land where magic is surpassed by something
else entirely—science. When the episode is finished, it makes you sit back and
wonder who else inhabits Victor’s land? The closest estimation of what it is
would be some sort of land of literary characters beyond fairy tales. David
Anders finally got the chance to show why he’s such a great piece of this show.
He was charming, he was aloof, he brought steampunk fashion realness and a
sense of danger that some people just inhabit in their roles.
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| ABC |
His character also served the very important role of
giving Regina the final shove into her darker self by intentionally failing the
procedure to bring Daniel back. In the present-day, his current incarnation Dr.
Whalenstein tried to right this wrong with the hope that his reward could be a
way back to his world where his brother might be waiting. See, this version of
events alludes to the fact that Victor’s brother is the creature he brought
back through the use of this dangerous uber-magic that is science. It was surely
a significant instance of when being both is a terrible thing. Whale was a fairly harmless womanizer, but Victor is a man who spits in the face of magic until he
has to come crawling back to it. Given the opportunity, he's quite potentially dangerous and determined to get back to his world. I’m pretty sure that magic is a stand-in for a
higher power in the instance of his character. There’s definite tension between Victor and Mr.
Gold as currently the latter holds all the power in this land. Again, they’re
definitely positioning him as the man to be feared most this season and I do
wonder to what end.
Emma, Snow and the
rest of the fairy tale land survivors had a couple of scenes this episode but the only thing they did that mattered
was to introduce Killian Jones to these characters and set up next week’s grand
adventure. Within the framework of the episode they felt dreadfully out of
place. It feels like a studio note explained that we can’t just ignore two of
the stars of this series for two weeks in a row. That’s a shame, as I feel that
the people who are truly invested in this story want to know about and follow
the stories of many of the characters in this show, even the ones that are only
recurring.
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| ABC |
There should be entire episodes devoted to fascinating characters
like Jefferson without other side stories coming along and putting the flow of
the episode to a screeching halt of irrelevance. Look at the scene that took
place between Jefferson, Rumple, and Victor for evidence that these characters
have enough fascinating back-story with one another that they could easily
support an entire hour’s worth of OUAT goodness. Otherwise,
you're going about introducing fascinating characters that sit on the
proverbial bench until they're needed to service story again. That's not a
great thing and it happens to many shows that feature a great deal of important
side characters.
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| ABC |
Next week we’re focusing on Emma again as we head up
the beanstalk with her and Killian to find the giant awaiting them (guest star
Jorge Garcia). We also get to see a bit of Emma’s pre-Storybrooke past and it
looks like the mystery man (Michael Raymond-James) from the season two premiere
that received the postcard from Storybrooke is a part of it. Is he Henry’s
father? Someone else from fairy tale (or another) land displaced and put into
our world? I think we’re all just happy that Emma’s big yellow VW Bug is making
its grand return.
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