Once Upon a Time - The Doctor Review
Okay. It's time for my long review of The Doctor! Someday I might actually be over my cold and not have giant storms distracting me or whatever else and then get these reviews done closer to the airing of the episode but at least I'm still in the same week!
So, who thought this episode was going to be about...oh I don't know, maybe Dr. Whale? I feel a bit sorry for David Anders that he had his focus episode usurped by the latest installment in the 'How To Make An Evil Queen' saga. This doesn't mean I'm unhappy to get more apprentice Regina and some closure on Daniel because I liked both those things. However, I hope Victor gets another episode which actually explores him. (And I do think there is more story there - between all the Oz name drops and hints about what happened to his brother - there is a lot more to tell.)
Now, onto the actual focus of the episode - which was Regina's difficulty in moving on and letting go of the one time in her life she was happy. And how giving up on resurrecting Daniel has had two very different outcomes.
The first time she gives up on bringing Daniel back is in the past, some months it would seem after he was killed/she sent mama to Wonderland/became Rumpel's apprentice. It has turned out that Regina was tempted to learn magic not so much because she wished power for herself, though I'm sure deep down part of her liked it, but because she wanted power to bring back the dead. I can see her rationalization - 'I will learn magic but not become like my mother because I will stop as soon as I get Daniel back.' And it's a good one if it were only possible to bring back the dead. But it isn't.
Here's the thing - Rumpelstiltskin manipulated her into completely giving up on Daniel and taking a sharp turn towards vengeance but there was never any way she was going to get Daniel back EVER. We see Whale try and fail with Daniel later on and know that he also failed with his brother. Since Regina refused to take the third path of letting go of Daniel and what he represented in her life, she had two paths before her: to become more and more obsessed with ways to bring back the dead, failing each time, while becoming more and more broken; or getting to end of the obsession quickly and going straight to vengeance. Either way she was going to end up broken and angry and miserable with her life. In a way what Rumpel did was to provide a shortcut to the end point where there is no hope of bringing him back. It was cruel and nasty of him but there never any hope in the first place. And that's an important thing to remember - as evil and manipulative as he is, he didn't stop her from reviving Daniel since that wasn't possible. (If it were, he would do it for people - can you imagine the price people would pay to bring back the dead?) Regina was already broken but he made sure the fault lines were in places which benefited him.
While I'm certainly not going to absolve Rumple of being an evil bastard, I refuse to take away all of Regina's agency and give it to Rumpel. He manipulated and paved the path he wanted her on but she made choices as well. Two big choices she made were to begin learning magic in the first place and then to continue once she lost hope of getting Daniel back. In both cases she could have taken the third path and moved on but she didn't.
The second time she loses Daniel and gives up on having him again, she is in a very different place emotionally. She has gone down the evil path of dark magic. She has taken many people's hearts and crushed many hearts as well. She has achieved the most complete, though not endless, vengeance imaginable. She has in many ways become her mother and been horrified at the realization. And she has begun learning how to love again, this time as a mother for a child. She is now ready to answer his plea and let him go. He is no longer preserved (and she could have done that) - he is dust and gone forever. Since her entire life for the past 15 years has been to make everyone pay for Daniel's death and to hold onto his memory so tightly that she couldn't see anything else, I wonder where her arc and her character is going to go now. They have a lot of possibilities with her!
One other thing I want to talk about though this is more about the structure of the series - I've noticed that from Stable Boy on we have been getting young and good Regina backstory pretty much exclusively (but some Evil Queen to set up the apple - but even then not much new evil) while seeing lots of evil Rumpelstiltskin. And before (Desperate Souls - Skin Deep - The Return) we saw lots of more sympathetic, if not 'good' particularly, Rumpel backstory and Regina was All Evil Queen All The Time. Thinking about this it make me wonder if they have purpose in doing it that way while both of them are in the present day in similar places as far as looking for redemption and becoming better people. It seems as though by making Regina more sympathetic and putting some of her evil choices on Rumpel, they are setting something up as far her redemption this season. But I'm not sure if it's to make it more believable as she works towards being good or more painful as she falls and fails. And, as for Rumpel, perhaps it a bit of the opposite by making it more difficult to believe that he can change or that he would want to.
• It was nice to see Archie getting some focus this episode! He is the perfect person to help Regina and to give her good advice. I think Rumpel should go back and chat with him too but I can understand if he has decided it didn't work out well the last time.
• When did Regina marry Leopold??? In We Are Both, it's the night before the wedding that Regina gets the book and, I thought, the morning of the wedding that she pushes Cora through the looking glass. Though maybe it was just after the wedding she did that? Either way she was leaving so why not actually leave? She doesn't need to be Queen to learn magic. And what does Leopold think she is doing with her time?
• Also, knowing what we know now, there is NO WAY Leopold ever imprisoned Regina or that Regina was in any way innocent or good in Fruit of the Poisonous Tree. Every moment we see of her in the episode was pure manipulation from beginning to end.
• Regina already has her heart vault set up in Leopold's castle. Though I guess general magic vault is a better word for it since she doesn't have any hearts yet.
• I love Black and White world! The only color was the heart! Excellent. I want to see more of it.
• Rumpelstiltskin was having chemistry with EVERYONE this episode. I'll happily ship him with Whale, Jefferson, Regina. All at once or one at a time. I'm not fussy. :)
• And Jefferson was a very bad boy. Before he reformed to be a good daddy, he was a con artist and a thief. I'm not surprised that Rumpel would have use for a realm jumper of questionable morals and I hope they are together again and soon.
• So many Oz references this week! Wizard, slippers, crystal ball, we're off to see (the wizard) him. I'm calling Victor as the Wizard of Oz as well as Frankenstein.
• Unfortunately I don't have much to say about the Fairytale present part of the episode because it doesn't have anything to do with the rest of episode. It's just sort of there moving the plot along so that the next episode can go straight up the beanstalk.
• However, it is nice to see that Emma got her truth sensing ability cleaned and repaired since last season. She should really get an upgrade since it's down more than it's working. :)
This entry was originally posted here and has
comments. Comment here or there.
So, who thought this episode was going to be about...oh I don't know, maybe Dr. Whale? I feel a bit sorry for David Anders that he had his focus episode usurped by the latest installment in the 'How To Make An Evil Queen' saga. This doesn't mean I'm unhappy to get more apprentice Regina and some closure on Daniel because I liked both those things. However, I hope Victor gets another episode which actually explores him. (And I do think there is more story there - between all the Oz name drops and hints about what happened to his brother - there is a lot more to tell.)
Now, onto the actual focus of the episode - which was Regina's difficulty in moving on and letting go of the one time in her life she was happy. And how giving up on resurrecting Daniel has had two very different outcomes.
The first time she gives up on bringing Daniel back is in the past, some months it would seem after he was killed/she sent mama to Wonderland/became Rumpel's apprentice. It has turned out that Regina was tempted to learn magic not so much because she wished power for herself, though I'm sure deep down part of her liked it, but because she wanted power to bring back the dead. I can see her rationalization - 'I will learn magic but not become like my mother because I will stop as soon as I get Daniel back.' And it's a good one if it were only possible to bring back the dead. But it isn't.
Here's the thing - Rumpelstiltskin manipulated her into completely giving up on Daniel and taking a sharp turn towards vengeance but there was never any way she was going to get Daniel back EVER. We see Whale try and fail with Daniel later on and know that he also failed with his brother. Since Regina refused to take the third path of letting go of Daniel and what he represented in her life, she had two paths before her: to become more and more obsessed with ways to bring back the dead, failing each time, while becoming more and more broken; or getting to end of the obsession quickly and going straight to vengeance. Either way she was going to end up broken and angry and miserable with her life. In a way what Rumpel did was to provide a shortcut to the end point where there is no hope of bringing him back. It was cruel and nasty of him but there never any hope in the first place. And that's an important thing to remember - as evil and manipulative as he is, he didn't stop her from reviving Daniel since that wasn't possible. (If it were, he would do it for people - can you imagine the price people would pay to bring back the dead?) Regina was already broken but he made sure the fault lines were in places which benefited him.
While I'm certainly not going to absolve Rumple of being an evil bastard, I refuse to take away all of Regina's agency and give it to Rumpel. He manipulated and paved the path he wanted her on but she made choices as well. Two big choices she made were to begin learning magic in the first place and then to continue once she lost hope of getting Daniel back. In both cases she could have taken the third path and moved on but she didn't.
The second time she loses Daniel and gives up on having him again, she is in a very different place emotionally. She has gone down the evil path of dark magic. She has taken many people's hearts and crushed many hearts as well. She has achieved the most complete, though not endless, vengeance imaginable. She has in many ways become her mother and been horrified at the realization. And she has begun learning how to love again, this time as a mother for a child. She is now ready to answer his plea and let him go. He is no longer preserved (and she could have done that) - he is dust and gone forever. Since her entire life for the past 15 years has been to make everyone pay for Daniel's death and to hold onto his memory so tightly that she couldn't see anything else, I wonder where her arc and her character is going to go now. They have a lot of possibilities with her!
One other thing I want to talk about though this is more about the structure of the series - I've noticed that from Stable Boy on we have been getting young and good Regina backstory pretty much exclusively (but some Evil Queen to set up the apple - but even then not much new evil) while seeing lots of evil Rumpelstiltskin. And before (Desperate Souls - Skin Deep - The Return) we saw lots of more sympathetic, if not 'good' particularly, Rumpel backstory and Regina was All Evil Queen All The Time. Thinking about this it make me wonder if they have purpose in doing it that way while both of them are in the present day in similar places as far as looking for redemption and becoming better people. It seems as though by making Regina more sympathetic and putting some of her evil choices on Rumpel, they are setting something up as far her redemption this season. But I'm not sure if it's to make it more believable as she works towards being good or more painful as she falls and fails. And, as for Rumpel, perhaps it a bit of the opposite by making it more difficult to believe that he can change or that he would want to.
• It was nice to see Archie getting some focus this episode! He is the perfect person to help Regina and to give her good advice. I think Rumpel should go back and chat with him too but I can understand if he has decided it didn't work out well the last time.
• When did Regina marry Leopold??? In We Are Both, it's the night before the wedding that Regina gets the book and, I thought, the morning of the wedding that she pushes Cora through the looking glass. Though maybe it was just after the wedding she did that? Either way she was leaving so why not actually leave? She doesn't need to be Queen to learn magic. And what does Leopold think she is doing with her time?
• Also, knowing what we know now, there is NO WAY Leopold ever imprisoned Regina or that Regina was in any way innocent or good in Fruit of the Poisonous Tree. Every moment we see of her in the episode was pure manipulation from beginning to end.
• Regina already has her heart vault set up in Leopold's castle. Though I guess general magic vault is a better word for it since she doesn't have any hearts yet.
• I love Black and White world! The only color was the heart! Excellent. I want to see more of it.
• Rumpelstiltskin was having chemistry with EVERYONE this episode. I'll happily ship him with Whale, Jefferson, Regina. All at once or one at a time. I'm not fussy. :)
• And Jefferson was a very bad boy. Before he reformed to be a good daddy, he was a con artist and a thief. I'm not surprised that Rumpel would have use for a realm jumper of questionable morals and I hope they are together again and soon.
• So many Oz references this week! Wizard, slippers, crystal ball, we're off to see (the wizard) him. I'm calling Victor as the Wizard of Oz as well as Frankenstein.
• Unfortunately I don't have much to say about the Fairytale present part of the episode because it doesn't have anything to do with the rest of episode. It's just sort of there moving the plot along so that the next episode can go straight up the beanstalk.
• However, it is nice to see that Emma got her truth sensing ability cleaned and repaired since last season. She should really get an upgrade since it's down more than it's working. :)
This entry was originally posted here and has
comments. Comment here or there.