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Sunday 5 May 2013

Once Upon A Time 2.5 "The Doctor" Review

Lancelot died a hero's death says Aurora (Sarah Bolger) as they return back to the village.  Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) Mulan (Jamie Chung) and Emma (Jennifer Morrison) find the people dead but one survivor remains, Hook/Killian (Colin O'Donoghue).  Snow realizes Cora ripped their hearts out, using her magic "twisted and evil."

Charming (Josh Dallas) punches Whale (David Anders) for sleeping with Snow, he asks if he means Katherine.  he was cursed he didn't know.  So he slept with both of them! He  wants to know if the Enchanted Forest still remains intact.  Charming says there aren't any secrets any longer so possibly all the land exists.

Regina (Lana Parrilla) comes to see Archie (Rapheal Sbarge) as she hasn't used magic for two days as she promised Henry (Jared S Gilmore).  Magic was her way to get everything.  This is her chance to start again.  Whale wants Regina to send him back.  The curse only brought the living.  She can't send anyone anywhere.  Her father is here, as Archie tells her.  She brought who she wanted.

Regina shows her magical training to Rumples (Robert Carlyle) by freezing a unicorn and he wants her to take its heart, just like her mother did to Daniel (Noah Bean).  Rumples wants her to kill the unicorn by crushing its heart.  Rumples: "nothing is innocent."  the heart becomes enchanted, stronger than a normal heart, once it's removed so you control the beast.  She has to take power otherwise she's not learning anything.  She preserved Daniel with a preservation spell and he's in in her family mausoleum.  She leaves the session.  In the rain, she sees Daniel.  Yeah it had to be a thunder storm too.

Charming takes Henry to the stables to learn to look after his steed before the knight can learn to ride.  The horse will tell him when he's ready to ride, why is he Mr Ed? Ha.  Regina goes to the mausoleum and finds Daniel missing and then searches for Whale, whom she finds has been attacked by Daniel.  Rumples asks Regina what she really wants, to be taught magic to bring back the dead.  Magic can't do that, "dead is dead."  Jefferson (Sebastian Stan) says nothing is beyond his reach.  Rumples wanted the slippers, Dorthy's ruby red slippers from The Wizard of Oz, but gets a crystal ball.  His hat only land transports between magical lands.  He takes the ball.  Jefferson introduces himself to Regina as a man who travels and knows someone who can bring back the dead.  Yeah he's a travelling salesman, ha.  He knows a wizard, being a reference to The Wizard of Oz but he's actually Dr Frankenstein.  He wants a free passport to travel her world.  This is her first meeting with Jefferson which is why she needed his hat later on.  (Well earlier as it was in season 1.)

Emma wonders why Cora would leave a survivor, she's probably tricking them and he's lying.  Killian pretended to hide under the dead.  Emma knows when someone is lying to her.  Jefferson takes Regina to Doctor Whale.  He hasn't brought anyone back from the dead as the procedure is experimental.  The last piece of the puzzle exists here, a strong heart.  They rip the organ out of the living while it still beats says Jefferson about those who practise the black arts.    She knows here to get a heart.  Whale brought back Daniel but he's not dead, he's a monster.

Regina shows them the hearts her mother collected.  She calls Cora a monster.  He takes a heart but doesn't use it for Daniel.  The Doctor tries to resurrect Daniel but the heart isn't strong enough and fails.  Thus she's left with no hope but to return to the master.  Now dressed in black leather, she finally becomes the Regina we know and takes the heart of Rumple's current apprentice, crushing it.  This is exactly what he wanted as Jefferson leads the doctor back to his own land with the use of his hat.

Regina tells Charming about Daniel and she thinks he'll go to the last place she saw him, just like Charming when he regained his memory.  He's at the stable and so is Henry.  She doesn't know whose heart he took, it was impossible to keep count as she took so many she tells Charming.  In a repeat of the line she said about her mother.  Daniel attacks Henry and then Regina but she pleads with Charming to let her talk with him.  Daniel wants her to end the pain and then he attacks her again, before she tells him she loves him.  She needs to let him go and she kills him.

Hook is tied up and threatened with being attacked by the ogres.  Hook says they "bested him."  Snow finds his hook. He tells them about Cora and the portal, magic wardrobe (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe perhaps, it did transport them between lands.) Cora's using the ashes to open up the portal.  He can get them back to Storybrooke if they take him.  She needs more to find their land, an enchanted compass.  Which is up a beanstalk complete with Jack and giant.  Emma asks him why he wants to go and he better be telling the truth.  He wants to kill Rumples, he took his hand.

Jefferson tells Regina if the doctor can't do what she wants then Rumples was right, it can't be done.  You see, the Doctor kept the heart for himself to use for his brother.  "Magic comes at a price" which Rumples tells her and also Whale at the end when he comes to Rumples for him to use his magic to put his arm back.  All Rumples needs to hear are the words, "I need magic."  Whale wants to return home and help his brother.  In the story of Frankenstein the monster killed his brother and Victor Frankenstein in his guilt tried to bring back his brother. Strange that Rumples/Gold in the present gets Whale to say those words since as Victor Frankenstein, he believes science is more powerful than magic, which he says at the end when he brings back his brother.  So ironic that Gold made him utter needing magic.  To Gold and to Regina, magic is everything as shown by his trying to find a spell to break the curse that will make them forget if they leave Storybrooke.

                                       

Doctor: "I need my powers to transcend the limitations of your magic."  The powers of magic is all that exists to Rumples and he asks him to wager, and it did come back to haunt him, as said above.  Whale thought he could help Regina by bringing back Daniel and she'd return him to his world.  The first time ended badly so he needs to return.    Then again Regina got her own back on Jefferson too when he got his head lopped off in Wonderland, though she didn't know about his betrayal along with Rumples and Whale.

Regina returns to Archie saying she used magic.  Yes Regina you had a relapse.  Now she has to start counting the days over. The laboratory scene at the end in black and white was clearly the best scene this ep.  Taking you back to the original black and white movie of Frankenstein.  So atmospheric and eerie.  Victor believes he did it but he failed cos he tells him he needs to find his brother again.  Frankenstein; "it's not magic, it's science."

Anyone who had psychic powers would know that the director of the original Frankenstein movie from 1931 was James Whale.  Thus the reference to Dr Whale here in Storybrooke.  Though we're not mind readers so we couldn't have guessed this is what the writers had in mind when they came up with his name.

Of course the crystal ball belonged to the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz. Wonder how Jefferson got  hold of it.  It's good to see Rumples had his hands in everything isn't it and had everyone working for him even before Regina became powerful.  SO naturally he'd be the one to give her the curse to use, when once again it was for his own ends, to find Bae.

David Anders did an excellent portrayal of both Whale and Victor here, he was funny and a womanizer as Whale but as Victor he was truly tormented with bringing back his brother and using science to fix everything. Yet as Whale he was still a doctor so that part of him didn't change though he couldn't remember who he really was.  Lots of talk of monsters here, Regina calling Cora one as well as Daniel and Whale saying he's not creating a monster but bringing back his brother. When in actual fact he did create a monster.   Also this talk of travelling between lands, Whale must have been the Wizard in Oz, the Emerald City since he was in search of the perfect heart for his brother.  In Oz, it was the Tin Man who was in need of a heart.  All these lands must somehow have a connection to the Enchanted Forest though various portals and not just Jefferson's hat.
Would have thought Jefferson would have had more to do since we won't get to see him anymore.  No fair!!

Just a few more thoughts, Daniel tells Regina she should find another love, well Regina had the sheriff remember last season,  whom she killed by crushing his heart cos he betrayed her with Emma, and now will she get a new love interest if so who and don't say Hook.   Regina really felt sorrow for having to kill Daniel so maybe she will turn over a new leaf.  At least she'll need her magic to fight her mother.


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