The Doctor

This article focuses on the episode "The Doctor". For the characters who hold this title, see Victor Frankenstein and Dr. Whale.

"The Doctor"
Season Two
Season 02, Episode 05
Episode Information
Character backstory	Evil Queen Victor Frankenstein
Premiere date	October 28, 2012
Viewers	9.85 million
Written by	Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis
Directed by	Paul Edwards
Episode Chronology
Previous Episode	"The Crocodile"
Next Episode	"Tallahassee"
Related Pages

“

Regina: You're the wizard?
Victor: I prefer "doctor."

”

"The Doctor" is the fifth episode of Season Two of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Adam Horowitz & Edward Kitsis and directed by Paul Edwards. It is the twenty-seventh episode of the series overall, and premiered on October 28, 2012.

Synopsis

While Regina continues to try and stop using her magic in an attempt to win back Henry's affections, she begins seeing what she believes is a ghost from her past; and when Mary Margaret and Emma discover a lone survivor from an ogre massacre, Emma begins to question whether or not he's telling the truth. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, Regina finds herself failing at learning the dark arts from a dark master because something from her past is preventing her from using her magic for evil.

Recap

This section is a detailed recap of this episode. There are major spoilers. Click to expand.

In the Enchanted Forest, Emma, Mary Margaret, Aurora and Mulan return to the Safe Haven only to discover Hook under a pile of dead refugees; all of whom have had their hearts ripped out by Cora.

At Granny's Diner in Storybrooke, Dr. Whale tells David they need to talk. David responds first by punching him for sleeping with his wife—curse or not—and second by sitting at a nearby table. They discuss building a portal to the Enchanted Forest, and Dr. Whale realizes Regina lied to them.

Regina goes to Archie's office to discuss the difficulty of not using magic after abstaining from using it for two days. Archie tells her it's an excellent start and invites her in. She explains that it's always been the way she's gotten everything, and he says it's also the way she's lost everything—and that this is now her way to earn Henry. Shortly after, Dr. Whale barges in and demands Regina send him back to his land with his brother, because the curse only brought the living. She apologizes for his loss and reveals she can't send anyone anywhere, but Dr. Whale snaps back. Archie raises his voice and demands the man to leave. He confronts Regina after Dr. Whale leaves about the curse only bringing back the living and brings up her father in the process, to which she says she doesn't care and that she brought who she wanted. Archie explains that she needs to trust him if she wants help, because "stopping magic is a lot harder than starting".

In the past, Rumplestiltskin is training Regina to take power. They're training with a black unicorn. After Regina immobilizes the animal, he tells her to take its heart. She remembers aloud it's what her mother did to Daniel, and Rumplestiltskin states she knows how it's done. Regina approaches the horse, but then refuses to take out its heart because she believes the animal is innocent. Rumplestiltskin says, "Nothing is innocent." He then tears out the unicorn's heart and explains that the animal now belongs to him; Rumplestiltskin continues to explain that, once a heart is removed, it becomes an Enchanted Heart, which is stronger than a normal heart, and that she isn't hurting the beast but controlling it instead. He tells her to kill it, but she can't. Rumplestiltskin tells her to ponder what's holding her back. The scene changes to Regina admiring Daniel in a glass casket.

In Archie's office, Regina explains she preserved Daniel's body with an enchantment spell. She explains that he's dead, but frozen, and kept in her family mausoleum. Archie tells her that if she can't let go of the past that it'll still haunt her. She decides the session has been enough, and doubts Archie can help her. After leaving, Regina sees Daniel standing on the sidewalk corner outside her dashboard window in the rain. She looks away for a moment, and when she looks back, he's gone.

David and Henry go to the stables. David gives to Henry a horse and tells him he needs to take care of his stead twice a day everyday to form a bond with the horse before he can ride it. He then leaves Henry at the stables to go check on the dwarfs.

Regina goes to the mausoleum only to find Daniel missing.

In the past, Rumplestiltskin questions whether Regina is ready and assumes she's wasting his time. She wants him to teach her to use magic to bring back the dead, but he informs her that "dead is dead" and even he doesn't have the power to bring back her beloved Daniel. Jefferson appears with a crystal ball, but not slippers—which are what Rumplestiltskin requested. Jefferson doesn't understand why he would want that and asks if he wants the crystal ball or not. Rumplestiltskin takes the ball and lets Jefferson choose whatever he finds appropriate, then tells Regina their work is done. Jefferson tells Regina there is someone who can help her, and that he can deliver him to her for a royal passport to have free range in traveling the kingdom.

Back in the Enchanted Forest, Emma and Mulan ponder and chat about Hook. Emma thinks he's lying. Hook claims he played dead to survive. Emma, Mulan, Mary Margaret and Aurora talk about leaving the ruins and finding a portal, and Hook chimes in that he knows the land well. Emma holds a knife to his throat.

In the present, Regina goes to find Dr. Whale in psychiatric ward of the hospital.

Regina and Jefferson find Victor Frankenstein, or "The Doctor", as he likes to be called, in her castle. He then proceeds to examine Daniel and states that his “condition is ideal”. Victor insists he needs a strong enough heart to survive the procedure and believes that the Enchanted Forest has magic hearts that are strong enough for just this sort of operation. Regina refuses to use magic for evil, but knows where to find an enchanted heart.

In present-day Storybrooke, Regina discovers Dr. Whale in one of the psychiatric rooms lying on the floor with one of his arms having been savagely ripped away. She demands to know why he took Daniel and if he brought him back. Dr. Whale confirms this, explaining that he made the mess they're in and that Daniel is now a monster.

In the past, Regina leads Victor and Jefferson to Cora's secret vault to pick out an enchanted heart. She calls her mother a monster.

Outside of a hospital room, Regina watches as Dr. Whale is being tended to for his injuries. David arrives and demands to know what is going on, as he believes she is culpable for Dr. Whale's current condition. Instead, she reveals what Dr. Whale did to Daniel and how he was revived using an enchanted heart. Regina has no idea whose heart he took, but wants to go find Daniel. David won't allow her to do so without telling him where he might be. She strongly believes Daniel is acting similar to how David reacted coming out of his coma, and may have gone to the last place he remembers. She guesses Daniel is at the stables, which causes David to worry since it's where Henry currently is.

At the stables, Henry is grooming his horse. Suddenly, the other horses begin jumping and panicking in alarm. Henry's horse is startled as well, and knocks the boy off his stool as it runs out of the stall. A shadow appears outside the stall as Daniel approaches Henry.

In the present-day Enchanted Forest, Hook insists to Emma he's merely a blacksmith even as she, not believing his claim, begins tying him to a tree. She whistles for ogres and the women begin walking away, which persuades him to be honest with them. He offers to help them find a way back to Storybrooke in exchange for not being left behind with the ogres—the catch is that he gets to go through the portal as well, revealing he wants revenge on Rumplestiltskin.

Meanwhile, in present-day Storybrooke, Daniel moves closer to Henry and proceeds to choke him as Regina and David rush in. Regina immediately begins begging him to let Henry go. David picks up Henry to make sure he's okay, and then tells him to run. After Henry is gone, Daniel dashes for Regina, but David pushes her out of the way and shuts the stall. He tells her to use magic, but she refuses to use magic on Daniel, so he pulls out his gun. She begs David to let her speak to him.

Victor performs the surgery on Daniel in an operation tent during a lightning storm while Jefferson and Regina wait outside. After he is finished, Victor exits to inform Regina that the operation has been unsuccessful. Grief-stricken, Regina hurries into the tent and rests her head on Daniel's chest.

Back in present-day Storybrooke, Regina enters the stall to approach Daniel, who begins to choke her. She whispers her love for him, and he releases her before they embrace moments later. He hurts from the heart transplant and wishes to die. He reverts to his monstrous state, forcing Regina to use magic to make him disappear, as she is left heartbroken.

In the present-day Enchanted Forest, Hook leads the ladies through the forest whilst Emma and Mary Margaret talk about staying one step ahead of Cora and Hook. A giant beanstalk is revealed, and Hook informs the group of an enchanted compass at the top guarded by a giant. He tells them that they will obtain it before Cora.

In the past Enchanted Forest, Regina intrudes on a training session Rumplestiltskin is having with a new apprentice, Trish, because he needed someone "more dedicated". To prove her dedication, she tears out Trish's heart and crushes it right before Rumplestiltskin, who looks very impressed by Regina's willingness.

After letting go of Daniel, Regina returns to Archie's office. Miserably, she admits to Archie that she used magic. He welcomes her into his office to finish their session.

Back in the past Enchanted Forest, Jefferson, Victor and Rumplestiltskin discuss their deal regarding Regina. It is revealed that she was set up to believe Victor had legitimately tried to bring back Daniel and had ultimately failed as a result, causing her heartbreak in return to bring out the evil Rumplestiltskin knew she possesses so she would be dedicated enough to become his apprentice. As payment for his services, Victor receives an enchanted heart from Rumplestiltskin. The two argue over whether magic is the most dependable source of power. Rumplestiltskin places a wager that Victor will need magic in the future, but the latter disagrees. Jefferson opens a portal to take Victor home as Rumplestiltskin reminds The Doctor that all magic comes with a price.

In present-day Storybrooke, Dr. Whale stumbles into pawnshop carrying his severed arm in an ice cooler. He begs Mr. Gold to reattach his torn arm, and grudgingly admits he needs magic. Satisfied by his admittance, Mr. Gold reattaches the limb to Dr. Whale's body.

Victor, after returning home to the Land Without Color, attempts to resurrect his deceased brother using the enchanted heart he received from Rumplestiltskin. The operation is a success.

Deleted Scenes

"Chamber Of Hearts"

This scene is included on Once Upon a Time: The Complete Second Season.

Regina, the Doctor and Jefferson are in Cora's heart vault. After Frankenstein inspects the heart, the walls of the vault begin to close in. Regina asks Jefferson to use his hat, but he replies that there is not enough room. After Frankenstein and Jefferson stop the walls with a statue, the ceiling begins to descend. Eventually, Regina masters teleportation and saves them.

Cast

Starring Ginnifer Goodwin as Mary Margaret Blanchard Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan Lana Parrilla as Evil Queen/Regina Mills Josh Dallas as David Nolan Emilie de Ravin (Credit only) Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills Meghan Ory (Credit only) Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold

Guest Starring David Anders as Victor Frankenstein/Dr. Whale Noah Bean as Man Sarah Bolger as Aurora Jamie Chung as Mulan Colin O'Donoghue as Killian Jones/Hook Raphael Sbarge as Archie Hopper Sebastian Stan as Jefferson Co-Starring Paula Giroday as Trish Yurij Kis as Assistant Uncredited Barbara Hershey as Cora* Unknown as Gerhardt

Note:
*: Only in archive footage

Trivia

• Production Notes
• Episode Connections
• Cultural References
• Set Notes
• Goofs
• Other Notes

Title

• The title card features lightning. It is the first title card that is in black and white.
• The title of this episode was announced by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on September 22, 2012.

Production Notes

• Rumplestiltskin instructs Regina to kill a unicorn by crushing its heart, but she refuses because it's innocent. In Celtic and European mythology, unicorns are traditionally associated with innocence and purity.
• For the scene where Regina is driving in the rain, the rain was created via a huge crane with a rain curtain, a long hollow tube with nozzles along it that shoots water out to simulate rainfall. For the moment where Regina sees Daniel, a body double wearing the same costume as Noah Bean was used as a stand-in for Lana Parrilla to interact with, while Noah Bean's parts of the scene were filmed separately.
• Footage from the establishing shot of the Mills mausoleum at the beginning of the scene where Regina searches for Daniel's body, was reused for the scene where Regina searches for the Curse of the Empty-Hearted in "Welcome to Storybrooke", but with a warmer color hue.
• For the scene where Mr. Gold reattaches Dr. Whale's arm, David Anders wore a green-screen sleeve on his left arm. The arm was digitally removed during post-production.
• This is the first episode to end on a flashback. The others are the Season Three episodes "New York City Serenade" and "It's Not Easy Being Green".

Event Chronology

• The Enchanted Forest flashbacks occur after "We Are Both" and "It's Not Easy Being Green", and before "Quite a Common Fairy".
  • It also seems to occur concurrently with "Kansas".
• The Land Without Color flashbacks occur concurrently with "In the Name of the Brother". (For more details, see the Land Without Color timeline)
• The present-day Enchanted Forest events take place after "The Crocodile" and before "Tallahassee". (For more details, see the Enchanted Forest timeline)
• The Storybrooke events take place after "The Crocodile" and before "Tallahassee". (For more details, see the Land Without Magic timeline)

• The exterior of Granny's Diner is decorated with pumpkins and a spider, indicating that this episode is supposed to take place at Halloween, but that is impossible: Halloween takes place on October 31, one week after Emma's birthday. A major plot point in "Pilot" is that Emma was sent to the Land Without Magic when the Dark Curse was cast, and that she came to Storybrooke on her twenty-eight birthday. However, a title card in "Queen of Hearts" establishes that it's still 28 years since the curse was cast, and according to "The Tower", the period of time between "Pilot" and "Quite a Common Fairy" was less than a year: This is proven when David states in "The Tower" that it's been "almost 30 years" since Emma was born; since "Going Home" and the following episodes establish that "The Tower" takes place twelve months after the first half of Season Three, this means that less than a year passes between "Pilot" (where Emma turns 28) and the second half of season three.

Episode Connections

• Aurora and Mary Margaret discuss Lancelot's death. He is revelead to be alive in "Siege Perilous".
• Cora's motive behind killing the Safe Haven survivors is revealed in "Into the Deep".
• Unbeknownst to Mary Margaret, this is not the first time she meets Hook. She first met him when she and Prince Charming hired him to bring them to the Evil Queen's palace in "The Song in Your Heart", but none of them remember the meeting due to the Blue Fairy wiping their memories.
• David punches Dr. Whale for sleeping with his wife, which occurred in "The Shepherd" and was mentioned in "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter".
• The reason for Daniel's death is revealed in "The Stable Boy".
• The crystal ball that Jefferson brings from Oz, is later used by Rumplestiltskin to find Snow White in "Snow Drifts". It is also used to spy on Anna in "White Out", and to spy on the Apprentice in "The Apprentice". It is also used by Neal to locate Emma in "The Heart of the Truest Believer".
• How Rumplestiltskin learned about the magic slippers is revealed in "It's Not Easy Being Green".
• What happened to the slippers is shown in "Kansas".
• The events leading to and following the death of Victor Frankenstein's brother are revealed in "In the Name of the Brother".
• Regina mentions David waking from his coma in "Snow Falls".

Religious

• A statue of an angel can be seen next to Regina's heart vault.

Disney

• Rumplestiltskin's witch-in-training replacement, Trish, bears a resemblance to Esmeralda from Disney's 1996 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Lost

• Henry Mills' horse is in stall 8, which is the second Lost number.

Fairytales and Folklore

• This episode is a rendition of the novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, focusing on Dr. Frankenstein and his quest to revive the dead by means of science.
  • Also included is Frankenstein's monster from the same novel.
• This episode features the ugly duckling from the titular fairytale, the princess from the "Sleeping Beauty" fairytale, Mulan from the Mulan legend, Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story, the evil queen from the "Snow White" fairytale, Rumplestiltskin from "Rumpelstiltskin" fairytale, and the Hatter from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
• Jefferson returns from a journey with information about a pair of magic slippers that can transport someone between worlds; a reference to the silver slippers from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Popular Culture

• This episode features Igor, the stock character lab assistant from popular culture.
  • There is no character named Igor in the Frankenstein novel, nor does Dr. Frankenstein have any sort of lab assistant in the original story. The idea of Frankenstein having an assistant originates in Richard Brinsley Peake's 1823 stage adaption Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein.
• Jefferson returns from Oz with a crystal ball, a reference to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, which features an iconic crystal ball.
• While interrogating Hook, Emma says, "So much for fortune favoring the brave", referencing to the Latin phrase, "AVDENTES FORTVNA IVVAT", quoted in Virgil’s Latin poem Aeneid as allegedly the last words of the Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder.
• When Victor first appears, he's wearing rose tinted spectacles. This is possibly an allusion to Richard O'Brien's The Rocky Horror Show, a musical spoof of Frankenstein which features a song called Rose Tint My World.
• The scene where Frankenstein's monster comes to life, is based on the famous movie scene where the creature comes to life in the 1931 Frankenstein horror film: The scene is shot in black and white and takes place in a laboratory during a thunder storm, where Dr. Frankenstein and his assistant, surrounded by highly technical equipment, try to bring the creature to life as it lies under a shroud on a big table. As the creature comes to life, it raises its arm and there is a close-up of its hand, prompting the doctor to say, "It's alive", all of which mirror the iconic movie scene.

Set Dressing

• The fence outside Granny's Diner is decorated with swan-shaped pumpkins.
• In Cora's heart vault, there are two gray urns on pedestals. The same props can be seen among Regina's wedding gifts in her chambers in "We Are Both", the only difference being the color: The ones in Regina's chambers have a warm, gold color. The urns also appear in the Frankenstein manor in "In the Name of the Brother".
  • The golden version of the urns are reused later in the series: One of them can be seen aboard the Jolly Roger in the part one of the Season Three finale, "Snow Drifts", while the other one doubles as the urn Elsa comes out of in part two of the Season Three finale, "There's No Place Like Home".
  • Both urns were also used as background props in the Wonderland castle for the filming of the scene where Anastasia attempts to steal the royal jewels in the Once Upon a Time in Wonderland episode "Heart of Stone". However, they do not show up on-screen.

Costume Notes

• The coat Victor is wearing when he returns to his laboratory is the same garment worn by his Storybrooke counterpart in the Season Six episode "The Other Shoe". Victor wears the coat again in "In the Name of the Brother".

Goofs

• It is raining heavily as Regina is driving home when she glimpses Daniel. However, the next day when David and Henry go to the stables, everything from the road to the car is completely dry.

Filming Locations

• A wooded area in Vancouver doubles as the Enchanted Forest for the scene where Dr. Frankenstein "tries" to bring Daniel back to life. The interior tent/lab shots were filmed on a sound stage. The Special Effects Department mimicked a storm with fans, shaking trees and the tent as well as adding bolts of electricity during the operation scene.

International Titles

International Titles
Language	Title	Translation
Finnish	"Tiede taikaakin mahtavampi"	"Science Is Mightier Than Magic"
French	"Le Docteur"	"The Doctor"
German	"Der Doktor aus einem anderen Land"	"The Doctor From Another Land"
Hungarian	"A doktor"	"The Doctor"
Italian	"Il dottore"	"The Doctor"
Portuguese	"O Doutor"	"The Doctor"
Spanish	"El doctor"	"The Doctor"

Videos

2x05 - The Doctor - Promo

2x05 - The Doctor - Sneak Peek 1

2x05 - The Doctor - Sneak Peek 2

2x05 - The Doctor - Sneak Peek 3

---