Once upon a Time Rewatch 2.5, "The Doctor"

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

---

2.5, "The Doctor"

Written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz
Directed by Paul Edwards

Synopsis

Well, that'll ruin your day.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

After a recapitulation of series events, the episode begins with Snow, Emma, Mulan, and Aurora returning from the ruins of Snow's castle, conferring about Lancelot's end and Cora's escape. Reaching the campground whence they had come, they find it ravaged, its inhabitants slain and buildings ruined. It is clear that the ruination is Cora's doing, and a single survivor is found--Hook, whom the four do not know.

Following the title card, Whale confronts David in Storybrooke, which does not go well for him. Whale asks after David's intentions, and David notes his work to return to the Enchanted Forest. Whale inquires about other lands, piquing David's interest. Regina meets with Hopper, conferring about magic until interrupted by Whale and his demand to be returned to his own land. Hopper chases Whale out, and he asks Regina about who was brought over by the curse.

Washed up? All wet? Poured out?
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Regina recalls training in magic under Rumpelstiltskin, practicing by immobilizing a black unicorn. She balks at removing its heart, citing the animal's innocence. Rumpelstiltskin removes the animal's strangely-human heart himself, opining on the process and its implications. He presses her to kill the beast by crushing the heart in her hands; she refuses again, and he chides her for her hesitation before asking what holds her back. Regina muses on her slain beloved, preserved by enchantment--as she reports to Hopper. He notes that her retention of the dead holds her back from her stated intent of healing and redemption, and she departs in annoyance, driving out into the rain and seeing her late beloved standing on the side of the street in the downpour--briefly.

David drives Henry out to a horse paddock, Henry noting a lack of sleep. David introduces Henry to a horse, beginning with upkeep and maintenance.* David leaves Henry to the work, and Regina returns to her mausoleum, where the casket that had held her beloved stands empty.

Attended by Regina, Rumpelstiltskin works at his spinning. She asks if she can begin her study, and he quizzes her about her motivations. She asks if the dead can be resurrected; Rumpelstiltskin notes that "Dead is dead." Jefferson intrudes, delivering a crystal ball and reporting that access to Rumpelstiltskin's goal is unavailable. After, he dismisses Regina, citing her folly as a waste of his time. Jefferson, however, makes an offer of transport to another realm where she may be able to find a way to bring back the dead. He offers to deliver that way in exchange for a writ of free passage across her kingdom.

Snow and Mulan discuss the surviving Hook, Mulan reporting his alias in the now-ruined camp. Emma doubts him, citing earlier deceit from Cora. She asks after events, and Hook reports cowardice--which Emma disbelieves. Plans to depart are noted, and Emma presses forcefully for confession from Hook.

It's not too hard to piece this together...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Regina stalks through the Storybrooke hospital in the night, searching for Whale. In the Enchanted Forest, Jefferson begins to take Regina on a similar search, seeking out the "wizard" who can bring back the dead. Jefferson notes the differences between worlds that will be in play and introducing her to Whale's alter-ego. They discuss the resurrection of Daniel, Whale's alter-ego noting that his procedure is experimental and requires a strong heart--such as are found in the Enchanted Forest. Regina's reticence to take hearts is noted, and she is told that only her doing so will allow Daniel to return. And in the hospital, Regina finds Whale maimed on the floor, having worked his procedure on Daniel to his own harm.

Regina takes Jefferson and Whale's alter-ego to Cora's estate, where a chamber of hearts awaits. Taking them inside, she offers the alter-ego his choice of hearts. He picks one. And in Storybrooke, David reports to the hospital, asking about events. Regina reports Daniel's return at Whale's hand, and she purposes to go to Daniel; David refuses to allow her to go alone, and the two proceed to the stables--where Henry is tending his horse. The animals there grow agitated at Daniel's approach, and the erstwhile stable boy advances on Henry.

Snow, Emma, Mulan, and Aurora tie Hook up, Emma summoning an ogre to prompt his confession. It is, at that point, forthcoming. He notes his own espionage mission and Cora's intent to travel to Storybrooke. He bargains for his life, ultimately successfully.

Daniel attacks Henry as David and Regina arrive. Henry flees, and Regina tries to reason with Daniel. She pleads with David for the chance and recalls an earlier attempt to effect Daniel's resurrection. It fails, the purloined heart being insufficient to the task. The resurrected Daniel attacks Regina until dissuaded; he begs for death against the pain of his artificially renewed existence. In tears, she accedes to his demand, dismissing the spell that had preserved his body.

No symbolism here, nope.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Snow, Emma, Mulan, and Aurora follow Hook into what they understand to be a trap. They are presented with a towering beanstalk, at the top of which lives a giant. No other options available, they proceed thence. Similarly, Regina pushes ahead, and in the Enchanted Forest, she kills Rumpelstiltskin's new apprentice, resuming her place in his tutelage. In Storybrooke, she seeks counsel with Hopper. And Whale's alter-ego, Jefferson, and Rumpelstiltskin confer about what they have conspired to do with Regina, the alter-ego and Rumpelstiltskin debating about the value of magic as Whale calls in at Gold's. There, Gold reattaches Whale's arm after grilling him about his actions and his earlier disbelief. And Whale--Victor Frankenstein-recalls another failed attempt to effect a resurrection...

Discussion

It occurs to me as I watch the present episode again that Lancelot is changed from his late medieval iterations. In Malory, at least, Lancelot dies...poorly. At the end of Le Morte d'Arthur (21.19 and following), Lancelot goes to the widowed Guenever and seeks to return to an amorous relationship with her, only to be refused (rightly) on the grounds of now wanting to resume a love that led to ruin; Lancelot pines to death. While it might well be argued that being killed--likely murdered--by a heart-ripping witch isn't a good death, either, it is more in line with the popular image of Lancelot as a fighter (or a paladin in D&D terms) than is the death in Malory.

I've often thought about the prevailing disregard for or disinterest in the end of Malory's work and Lancelot's death within it. I quip about it, I admit, although I should note that Lancelot manages to die in a state of grace in Malory, and he is mourned by many of his erstwhile comrades; it is not a bad death, really, by the standards of the work's context of composition or initial reception. It becomes a bad death only in an anachronistic view of knights as warriors of faith, rather than as warriors of faith, of combat as the only worthy end of life (with "end" meaning both "conclusion" and "method" here), of what is ultimately toxicity. Thinking on it, I wonder why it should not be appropriate for Lancelot to mourn the loss of love--a loss that he accepts; when Guenever rebuffs him in the cloister, he (largely) accepts it and goes away. It's imperfect, of course--Lancelot is, even in the end, flawed--but it is far, far better than it might be. It is far, far better than is usually recognized or acknowledged, and I have to wonder what it says about prevailing popular culture that it is so often elided.

It occurs to me, too, that Regina's work with the unicorn in the episode is...somewhat loaded. Disney's writers are aware of the association between unicorns and virginity, as noted here, and there's little reason to expect that the writers on the present series are ignorant of something that is made a significant point in another series. At the same time, Regina is long-established in the series as being not only sexually active, but illicitly so, conducting clandestine affairs that reek of abuse and openly attempting seduction. (There is some implication, too, that she was physically intimate with her beloved stable boy, although that remains implication, and "the old loue was not so" [Malory 18.25]) Assuming that Regina was virginal as she begins her studies with Rumpelstiltskin, the presence of the black unicorn marks a particular point in her character progression; she is clearly engaging with evil as evil--Rumpelstiltskin's presence marking it no less than the unicorn's color, the show engaging in both Manichean allegory and physiognomic fallacy--but has not gone over yet. If she is not, however, the symbolism becomes more fraught, and in ways that likely exceed what present discussion will bear... 

*As a Texan, and one connected with a long-time ranching family, I find myself pleased that the first lesson Henry gets about riding is taking care of the horse. There are some things the series gets right.