Once Upon a Time 2.05: The Doctor

While the Crocodile was riddled with character inconsistencies and a weak sense of foresight, The Doctor managed what last week’s episode couldn’t. It was all about bringing characters forward, and moving on from the past. Even its story arcs felt like they were all about progressing towards something bigger. There was no middling character development, and side plots being left in the cold; a perfect example of how strong this season’s narrative has been so far.

One of my favourite things about this season is Regina finally making a move back towards the good side. The biggest issue with her last season was how one note, and regressed she was as a character sometimes. Since Henry has forced her into giving up her evil ways for good, it feels like there’s a major change in her prerogatives and motivations, and that change never felt as prominent as it did here.

It was Daniel’s death that awoke her dark side, and eventually put her in that desperate state that we saw when she begged for a way to resurrect him. Failing in her last attempts to bring him back, she became the villain we all knew her as, or at least an early prototype of the evil woman who destroyed the Enchanted Forest. In Storybrooke, we saw the same thing happen; she blatantly disregarded her vow to stay away from magic to see Daniel again, only to be forced into making that same painful decision to let him go once again. Though she resorted to magic in order to stop him, she still made a choice to place the well-being of everyone else ahead of her own happiness. It’s great to see the show make such wonderful strides with her this season.

It’s also great to see Emma’s lie detector come back with a bang. It really cut out the bullcrap of them all figuring out what Hook was really after and got us another step closer towards bringing these guys back to Storybrooke. Hopefully then they won’t be relegated to the lesser go-to transitional story. I like the idea of there being a bigger world out there, though. The show does seem to be struggling with so many separate arcs this year, but there also seems to be a much larger scope in comparison to the pre-established world from season one.

We even learned that there’s a realm where magic is irrelevant, or at least in part, when Dr. Whale was revealed to be none other than Victor Frankenstein. A massive stretch of the show’s fairytale roots to be sure, but surprisingly innovative at the same time. At least we know there’s still a whole lot more for the show to do once Cora and Hook are taken down.

8/10

Plus

More Sebastian Stan, please.

Cora has a massive collection of human hearts. Regina also made reference to one of her own; does she even consider returning them to the people she took them from?

He Said, She Said

Rumplestiltskin: “Magic is power. Until you can take power, you’re not learning anything.”

Regina: “I want true happiness.”
Rumplestiltskin: “Then find it elsewhere, Deary!"

Emma: “I’m gonna let you in on a little secret; I’m pretty good at knowing when someone is lying to me.”

Regina: “I love you!”
Daniel: “Then love again.”

Also posted at Billie Doux.