The Doctor (Once Upon a Time)

Plot

In the Enchanted Forest, Rumplestiltskin teaches Regina magic, but she struggles to take a unicorn's heart. He tells her nothing is innocent and that even magic cannot bring her fiancé Daniel back to life. The Mad Hatter, Jefferson, arrives with a crystal ball Rumplestiltskin requested, though Rumplestiltskin had actually wanted the slippers to enter a realm without magic. Jefferson tells Regina of a wizard who can help bring Daniel back.

They visit the doctor, who examines Daniel's body and says he is ideal for an experimental procedure but needs an enchanted heart. Regina takes one from Cora's vault. The doctor attempts the procedure but announces failure. Devastated, Regina returns to Rumplestiltskin and proves her advancement by ripping out and crushing the heart of his new protégée.

It is revealed Rumplestiltskin was in league with the doctor, who exchanged the strong heart for the monster he got in Regina, and with Jefferson, who allowed the doctor safe passage to his world, the Land Without Color. Rumplestiltskin and Jefferson scoff at the doctor's claim that science is more powerful than magic. Later, the doctor takes the strong heart to his laboratory, where he places it inside his dead brother's body to revive him. The doctor is revealed to be Victor Frankenstein, relying on science, not magic.

Production

The episode was penned by showrunners Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, with Paul Edwards, a director from Lost, helming the installment. David Anders only agreed to play Dr. Whale after learning his character’s fairy-tale identity was Dr. Frankenstein, a reveal the series held back for a full year. Anders modeled his performance on Gene Wilder and the movie Young Frankenstein. This installment was Sebastian Stan’s last as the Mad Hatter, Jefferson; he left the show to fulfill commitments to the stage production Picnic and the Marvel film Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Cultural references

Victor Frankenstein and his monster are primary characters from Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein, but the episode alludes more to the classic 1931 horror film Frankenstein, including the use of lightning to revive the monster, a bad heart causing the monster to go bad (analogous to the film's bad brain), a lab assistant (a hunchback in the movies, whereas Victor worked alone in the novel), and the line "it's alive! Dr. Whale's arm is ripped out of its socket by Daniel, similar to the police inspector in Son of Frankenstein. Whale's Storybrooke name references James Whale, director of Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. The Wizard of Oz is alluded to when Jefferson gives Rumplestiltskin a crystal ball instead of the slippers, which had been sent to another land; Rumplestiltskin needed the slippers to get to that land.

Reception

The episode received mixed to positive reviews. Entertainment Weekly's Hilary Busis liked the episode but questioned the sudden inclusion of characters from the 1800s, wondering where the show would draw the line and whether it would become a "giant, fanfiction-y mess. The Huffington Post's Laura Prudom gave mixed reviews, noting the abundance of lightning, shambling monsters, and creepy heart-stealing but finding the end result cold. The A.V. Club gave the episode a B, calling it a solid episode that incorporates the expanding cast and poses interesting questions about the nature of the show's alternate worlds.