Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time

Episode 5: The Doctor

Episode 6: Tallahassee

By: Carlos Uribe

Once Upon a Time is a show about fairy tale characters who got sent to our reality, which has magic now.

Spoilers Ahoy!

The Doctor:

We finally find out who Dr. Whale is. It turns out that he's Dr. Frankenstein. We discover this through Regina. She's having trouble in her training because she's not fully committed to the idea of power yet. She's trying to learn magic in order to bring Daniel back to life. She's still trying to get over her loss and she's hoping to use magic to circumvent it. She's disappointed when she learns that even Rumpelstilskin can't make the dead living again. The Mad Hatter does know of someone who might: Dr. Frankenstein. He brings the doctor over from another world and the doctor promises to bring Daniel back to life. What Regina doesn't know is that he has a secret deal with Rumpelstilskin to pretend to resurrect Daniel and fail. He's getting a magical heart in the process which he needs to bring his dead brother back to life. He believes that he'll be able to use the limited power of magic in order to do this impossible task. He makes it perfectly clear that he thinks magic is superior. When he “fails”, Regina's heart breaks all over again and she decides that she'll now commit to her magic lessons. Rumpelstilskin is satisfied because he's only begun to manipulate her so that he'll be able to use her to his advantage: placing the curse on the world. That this entire story is rooted in the human emotions of both Rumpel and Regina is a sign of just how strong and impactful it is.

This story is relevant in the real world. Dr. Whale learns that there's still pieces of worlds out there and he wants to join his brother. He believes Regina has the power to transport him there. He decides that if he brings Daniel back to life then she'll repay him by sending him back. A strong human emotion that makes his actions understandable. Only when he brings Daniel back to life, it's not as Daniel but as a monster. A monster that is heading to the stables because that's where Henry is at. When Regina gets there, she tries her best to get through to his humanity so that she can be with him. She succeeds momentarily but she realizes that she can't be with him. He's in pain and clearly can't control his violent urges. Regina is forced to use magic in order to destroy him. This is significant because she's been trying to so hard to quit magic. The only reason she hasn't been able to is because she was hoping to find a way to bring Daniel back to her. Now that he's gone, the motivation to use magic is gone but she's also emotionally weakened. She hasn't just lost Henry but now she's lost to the one hope of reuniting with her love. This is a really strong story that conveys strong character growth and is rooted in the emotions of the characters involved.

While this is all going on, we also get scenes from what's happening in the modern fairy tale world. The characters go back to their settlement only to find out that it's been wiped out. The immediate conclusion is that Cora did it. The only “survivor” is Hook. Hook was sent to try and gather as much information about Storybrooke as possible so that Cora wouldn't have any surprises. Emma doesn't believe that he's a lucky coward but instead is able to get the truth from him. They also make a deal with him: he'll help them get a magical compass and in return they will all go to Storybrooke. Hook even makes his motivation of seeking revenge on Rumpelsilskin clear. What do they have to do to get the compass? Climb the beanstalk and face the giant. It's a decent story but considering how emotionally based the other stories were, it felt more like a distraction then anything else. I am excited to see this series interpretation of the story. Overall, the entire episode was really great due to it's emotional ground and actual character growth.

Tallahassee:

The main plot in Tallahassee took place in the present fairy tale world. The current group of heroes have arrived at the beanstalk and now they need to climb it. The writers come up with am excuse that only two of them are able to climb. Emma and Captain Hook are the lucky ones. They go all the way to the top and the show is hinting at the beginning of a will-they-won't-they relationship between the two. Considering what we learn from the real world tonight, this relationship will probably turn into a full-scale love triangle. The two reach the land of the giants but they only have to deal with one. It's played by Jorge Garcia and he largely plays angry until Emma manages to show him that not all humans are interesting in genocide. Emma is not only able to get the compass but she's able to secure safe passage down the beanstalk. She also convinces the giant to allow Hook to leave but, because she doesn't trust him, he'll will have to wait ten hours. The main plot has a disappointing guest star appearance from Garcia and it strains the special effects budget the show has. There's a lot of very fake looking CGI in the episode and it distracts from the main story. What's worse is that the writing itself felt relatively lifeless and the banter between Hook and Emma is by-the-numbers. The primary plot for Tallahassee was a good idea but it failed completely in execution.

Tallahassee was an episode that completely concentrated on Emma. The main plot was about how Emma gets the compass and the new relationship dynamic with Hook. The sub-plot of the episode backed that up. This is the first episode where the flashback wasn't in the fairy tale world but completely in the real world. The sub-plot explores the life of Emma when she was a teenager. The show gives Jennifer Morrison glasses and a ponytail in an attempt to make her look younger. She does but not as young as the episode requires her to be. The entire flashback revolved around her relationship with Neal Cassidy. Neal is the character who had gotten the postcard in the season premiere. This episode reveals that he used to be a small-time crook and he began a relationship with Emma when she stole the car he himself had stolen. The sub-plot is completely predictable and the show doesn't really do anything of note with it. The doomed relationship fits in with so many other relationships on this show that it just feels like the series has drunk from the well a bit too many times. This means that every time the show is going to go down the true love path, it has to try harder to find something fresh to say about it. This episode doesn't even try to do that.

Tallahassee is really the first bad episode of Once Upon a Time simply because it felt so very predictable and trite. It seems like the writers got Jorge Garcia to appear on the episode and simply called it a day. They got their hook for the episode but they failed to actually build a good product around it. The main plot didn't work well on a television budget. Even if it had been scaled down, the writing would have still left much to be desired. The sub-plot presented something this show has already done multiple times before without doing anything fresh. It might have been delivered in a new manner for the show but in the end, it wasn't original. Tallahassee suffers simply because it doesn't feel like the writers were having any fun with it. I wouldn't be surprised to learn if the script had been rushed.

Other Notes:

Dr. Frankenstein is from a black and white world. We don't get many details outside of it. I also like the exploration of how science is considered magic. Finally: when David Anders states that his brother is alive at the end, you can tell he relished saying the line.

Tallahassee also has a small sub-plot where Aurora and Henry are having the same nightmare. This also serves as the episode's cliff-hanger.