Strange Case

"You see, there's one final twist: I am not the monster you need to worry about."

- Mr. Hyde to Mr. Gold

"Strange Case" is the fourth episode of Season Six of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by David H. Goodman & Nelson Soler, and directed by Alrick Riley. It is the one-hundredth and fifteenth episode of the series overall, and premiered on October 16, 2016.

Synopsis
The Evil Queen and Hyde continue on their quest to steal Dr. Jekyll’s serum; Snow looks forward to her first day back as a school teacher; and while Emma looks forward to Hook moving in with her, Hook finds himself trying to protect Belle from Mr. Gold, who has made sure she can’t leave the confines of the pirate ship. Meanwhile, back in the past, Rumplestiltskin helps Dr. Jekyll complete his serum to separate a man’s personality into two – good and evil – but his help comes with a hefty price.

Starring

 * Ginnifer Goodwin as Mary Margaret Blanchard
 * Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan
 * Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills/Evil Queen (Serum)
 * Josh Dallas as David Nolan
 * Emilie de Ravin as Belle French
 * Colin O'Donoghue as Hook
 * Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills
 * Rebecca Mader (Credit only)
 * Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold

Guest Starring

 * Lee Arenberg as Leroy
 * Jonny Coyne as Dr. Lydgate
 * Karen David as Shirin
 * Hank Harris as Doctor Jekyll
 * Sam Witwer as Mister Hyde
 * Elizabeth Blackmore as Mary
 * Olivia Steele Falconer as Violet

Co-Starring

 * David Avalon as Doc
 * Reilly Jacob as Tom Sawyer
 * Jordyn Ashley Olson as Oracle

Uncredited

 * Unknown baby as Prince Neal

Trivia

 * -|Production Notes=

Production Notes

 * The title card features Big Ben.
 * The title of this episode was announced by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on August 8, 2016.
 * The episode's title is a not so subtle reference to the story Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
 * The reason why Mr. Gold cuts his hair in this episode is that Robert Carlyle cut his hair short for his role as Franco Begbie in the movie Trainspotting 2. For the first episodes of Season Six, he wore a wig.
 * The computer generated set for the interior of Dr. Lydgate's home is recycled from the CGI model created for the interior of Alphonse's mansion in the Season Two episode "In the Name of the Brother": The design of the windows, the fireplace, the doors and the bookshelves is exactly the same. The same model was used for the Darling House drawing room in the Season Two episode "Second Star to the Right": The wall panels by the windows, the windows themselves, even the curtains, all have the same design, but the checkered window panes in Alphonse's home were replaced with frosted window panes.


 * -|Episode Connections=

Event Chronology

 * The Victorian England flashbacks take place decades before Alice is released from the Bethlem Asylum in "Down the Rabbit Hole".
 * This story also takes place after Belle becomes Rumplestiltskin's maid in "Skin Deep" and before Regina tells him Belle has committed suicide in the same episode.
 * The Storybrooke events take place after "The Other Shoe" and before "Street Rats".

Episode Connections

 * The Evil Queen and Mr. Hyde first teamed up in "The Other Shoe".
 * The Evil Queen mentions how Regina failed to kill her, an event that took place in "An Untold Story".
 * Belle begins living on the Jolly Roger in "A Bitter Draught".
 * Emma asked Hook to move in with her in "The Other Shoe".
 * Mary Margaret decided to go back to teaching in "The Other Shoe".
 * Dr. Jekyll began working on recreating serum in "The Savior".
 * Mr. Hyde was locked up in the psychiatric ward in "The Savior", and he escaped from his cell in "The Other Shoe".
 * Further events about Dr. Lydgate's life are explored in the spinoff series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.
 * The last time Rumplestiltskin convinced a doctor to make a deal with him was during "The Doctor".
 * Belle claims the only person she and her unborn child need protection from is Mr. Gold. Her distrust in him is because of the Dream World events seen in "The Savior".
 * David mentions how he hated Hook the first time he met him, referring to events from "Tiny".
 * David suggests to Emma that she could make pancakes for Hook, which she does in "Where Bluebirds Fly".
 * Leroy mentions that he hatched from an egg, an event that took place in "Dreamy".
 * Doc yells "It's the Queen!", just like his counterpart did in "Pilot".
 * Shirin alludes to her past as a princess, which is explored in "Street Rats".
 * While Emma was the Dark One, she asked Regina to kill her if she ever went too far. This promise was made in "The Dark Swan".
 * What happens to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde after they are banished to the Land of Untold Stories is covered during "Only You" and "An Untold Story".
 * Mr. Gold admits that he fell in love with Belle during "Skin Deep".
 * Mary Margaret mentions how she could never get behind the tradition of accepting apples from her students due to personal reasons. This is first alluded to in "Pilot" when one of her students instead gives her a pear. The reason why Mary Margaret does not like apples is explained in "An Apple Red as Blood".


 * -|Cultural References=

Fairytales and Folklore

 * This episode is rendition of the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story with the birth of Mr. Hyde by Dr. Jekyll. It also features the Evil Queen from the Snow White fairytale, Rumplestiltskin from the Rumplestiltskin fairytale, Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story, Badroulbadour from One Thousand and One Nights, and Hank Morgan's daughter from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
 * The boy wearing a straw hat in Mary Margaret's physics class is Tom Sawyer from Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
 * Jasmine's alias, Shirin, is the name of another female character from One Thousand and One Nights, who appears in a story on the three hundred and ninety-first night called "Khusrau and Shirin and the Fisherman". The character is based on a real seventh century Persian queen who became an important heroine in Persian literature after her death.

Lost

 * In the title card, the time on the Big Ben is 8:15, a reference to Oceanic Flight 815 from Lost.

Popular Culture

 * This episode features Mary from Valerie Martin's novel Mary Reilly.
 * The tune playing at Dr. Lydgate's party is "String Quartet No. 13 in A Minor: Andante" by Franz Schubert.
 * A cropped version of The Embarkation for Cythera, a painting by the French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau, is hanging on the wall in Dr. Lydgate's home. It was created in 1717 and is now in the Louvre museum in Paris.
 * There is an illustration of Isaac Newton on the cover of the book that Shirin carries when Mary Margaret bumps into her.


 * -|Set Notes=

Set Dressing

 * When David is making Emma breakfast, the label on the bottle of orange juice says Andana; a Cebuano word for "floor, storey". It is the same prop that was used for the orange juice that Zelena served Mary Margaret in "Quiet Minds".
 * One of Mary Margaret's physics test is based on a science worksheet from greatschools.prg. Even the illustration is the same.
 * Some of the questions on the other test is adapted from a file on the website jamiemikula.weebly.com.

Costume Notes

 * Emma is wearing a Joie 'Katrine' Silk and Cotton Blouse (no longer available).
 * Belle is wearing a Joie 'Foxley' silk peasant dress (no longer available).


 * -|Other Notes=

Filming Locations

 * The Prospect Point Picnic area in Vancouver's Stanley Park doubles as the Storybrooke Wilderness Park for this episode.