We begin this chapter in FAIRY TALE LAND’S present day. EMMA, SNOW, MULAN and AURORA are returning from their failed quest after the events of Episode 204. As they make their way back into the Island Encampment, Aurora is telling the rest of the group that she’s not sure she can lie to the rest of the encampment; she’s not very good at it. Snow tells her that it’s not really a lie. Lancelot did die an honorable death, and Cora escaped, all true. Emma tells Aurora to just leave the particulars to her and Snow. There’s no reason to cause unnecessary panic amongst her people. As Aurora protests, telling them she’s not so sure that it’s unnecessary, she’s suddenly interrupted by Mulan, who puts up her hand as she tells them to wait. Mulan has noticed that the guards they always have on the tower aren’t there. She draws her sword and advances, running into the camp as the rest of the group follows closely. When they get past the guard towers they see it… utter DEVASTATION. The camp has been razed and all of its inhabitants murdered.
As Emma makes her way through the utter carnage, Mulan exclaims this can’t be. They were protected here from the Ogres. But Snow notices one of the bodies and realizes this wasn’t the work of ogres. As we see a body which shows a terrible wound in its chest, Snow tells everyone that their hearts were ripped out, meaning this is the work of Cora and her dark magic. Snow, furious at this injustice, says they have to stop Cora. Mulan says it’s too late; everyone is dead. As Snow tries to argue the point, Emma interrupts her with a “Hey!” Nearby, from under a pile of bodies, she sees someone’s hand moving! As Aurora and everyone else rush in to pull the bodies off the unexpected survivor, we get a shock. The “survivor” is none other than HOOK! He’s in disguise and acting fearful. Snow tells him that he’s safe. And as we learn with dread that the group is about to take in this one-handed wolf in sheep’s clothing, we –
Jump to Storybrooke, outside of Granny’s, where DAVID is talking to a townsperson. DR. WHALE comes up to him, telling David they need to talk. David takes this in… then PUNCHES Whale in the jaw. Whale wants to know what the hell that was for, and David tells him, “For sleeping with my wife.” Whale says he didn’t know; he was cursed. David, sitting, says: “Yeah, I got it.” He asks Whale what he wants. Whale sits, asks David if it’s true that he’s trying to build a portal back to his land because he believes that Emma and Mary Margaret are still alive. David tells him the whispers can stop. He has no secrets from this town, and that’s exactly what he’s doing. Whale, confused, says the land is gone, destroyed by the curse. David: “Apparently not.” Whale asks if they’ve had any luck and David tells him not yet. Whale then asks if ALL the lands still exist, which makes David size him up before telling him, “Possibly.” Whale realizes that the Queen lied to them again, and David confirms this. Meanwhile, across town –
ARCHIE opens the door to his office to reveal… REGINA. A bit taken aback, but friendly as usual, Archie asks her if she’s here to see him. Regina tells him she’s been trying to keep her promise to Henry to not use magic, but it’s been difficult. She tells Archie it’s been two days, and he says that’s an excellent start. She shrugs, not exactly sure. Archie ushers Regina into his office. Moments later, Regina is telling Archie how hard this is. Magic is how she got everything. He reminds her it’s also how she lost everything. He tells her this is her chance to start over and to earn Henry. Before Regina can respond, Dr. Whale suddenly barges into the office, ignoring Archie’s protestations. Whale to Regina: “Send me back.” Regina rebuffs him, but he demands that she sends him back to his land and his brother. Regina tells him to check the missing persons board, and he reminds her that her curse only brought the living. And as that sets in, Regina, digging in the knife, tells Whale she’s sorry for his loss but she can’t send anyone anywhere. Whale: “Can’t, or won’t?” Archie steps in, ordering Whale to leave. Whale does, with Archie shutting the door behind him. Archie gently suggests that what she told Whale wasn’t true, citing the grave of Regina’s father. Regina snaps back that she doesn’t care about Whale or his brother. She brought who she wanted. He asks her who else she brought, adding that if she wants him to help she’ll need to trust him. Off her consideration…
We see a beautiful BLACK UNICORN, neighing, with its front hoofs high in the air and we know for sure that we’re in FAIRY TALE LAND, in the PAST. We see REGINA looking up at the Unicorn with apprehension. From nearby we hear a familiar voice telling her to show him what she’s learned: immobilize it. Regina casts a spell, and the Unicorn freezes in mid-whinny. RUMPLESTILTSKIN, standing behind her, titters gleefully. Regina, proudly, “There, I did it!” Rumple tells his apprentice that it’s excellent work. Now there’s just one more tiny little detail. He tells her to take its heart. Regina realizes he’s asking her to do what her mother did to – “Your true love,” he interrupts. So she should be able to do the same to this Unicorn. Regina tentatively approaches the Unicorn, raising her hand to its chest. Rumple tells her that if she carefully takes out the heart no harm will befall the beast, unless she wills it. But Regina can’t bring herself to take the heart of the innocent animal. “Nothing is innocent,” says Rumple. Then he approaches the Unicorn himself and pulls out its heart! He holds its heart and the Unicorn suddenly reanimates, laying down in front of Rumple at his command. He tells her that now it belongs to him. Explaining further that, once removed, the heart becomes enchanted, which allows the subject to remain unharmed, but controlled completely. Rumple tosses her the heart and tells her to show him she knows what to do with that power, and to show him she’s ready to take the next step in her training. He orders her to crush the heart and kill the Unicorn. As Regina begins to squeeze, the Unicorn neighs in pain. Regina stops short, telling him she didn’t sign on for this. Rumple is very disappointed, telling her magic is power, and until she’s ready to take power she hasn’t learned anything. Does she want him to teach her or not? She says yes. Rumple says she needs to answer a question for herself… what’s holding her back? Off a stunned Regina… We got to a MAUSOLEUM, where we can see Regina’s love, DANIEL, lies dead but perfectly preserved inside a glass coffin. Regina enters, puts her hands to the glass of the coffin, heartbroken. And over this we hear –
“His name was Daniel.” But now we’re back in ARCHIE’S OFFICE in Storybrooke, where Regina is revealing to Archie how she used a protection spell to keep Daniel’s body preserved. Archie tells her that if she can’t let go of the past that it will still haunt her. Regina, hardening, wipes her eyes and tells Archie this has been quite enough. She gets up and walks out, with Archie imploring her that he can help as she does. She tells him she doubts it and leaves, slamming the door. A short while later, driving home at night, in a driving rain, Regina, emotional, almost hits another car flying by. She stops, taking a moment to look up to see someone on a nearby street corner, looking at her. As she looks closer, she sees… DANIEL? She starts to get out of her car, but when she looks up again, HE’S GONE. Off Regina’s amazement at this seeming apparition –
We go to the Storybrooke STABLES, where David arrives in his pick-up with Henry. As David leads a somewhat glum Henry in to the stables, telling him this will be fun, Henry admits that he couldn’t sleep. David comforts Henry, telling him he misses Emma and Mary Margaret, too. But, he tells him as he leads him into the stables, think of how proud they’ll be to come home to find that he’s become a proper knight. As they see a row of horse stalls, David tells Henry to say hello to his new steed. Henry goes to a great grey horse, asking if this one is his, but a click from David makes a smaller, light horse poke its head out of the stall. “This one’s yours.” Henry, thrilled, asks how he gets on him. David says he’s not riding today. There’s much to learn before he hops in the saddle. David explains that Henry will have to clean the stall and groom the horse twice a day, every day. Henry says that’s baby-sitting. David, correcting: “Horse-sitting.” He tells Henry that it builds the bond of trust between knight and steed. Henry still wants to know when he’ll ride him, and David says when the horse tells him. David tells Henry he’s going to go check on the Dwarfs, see how the mining is coming, and he’ll pick Henry up later. Henry, left with his steed, asks him if there’s anything he wants to tell him. The horse shakes his head “No.” Off this levity, we join –
REGINA, as she walks purposefully through the graveyard in Storybrooke, heading for her family mausoleum. She rushes down the stairs and throws open the doors to an antechamber, only to see… Daniel’s glass coffin. And it’s EMPTY. Regina, completely shocked, takes this in and then storms out of the antechamber.
We travel back to FAIRY TALE LAND past, where Rumple is at his spinning wheel, spinning thread into gold. Regina, nearby asks him if he’s ready to begin. He snaps back at her that he’s been ready. The question is, is she? She says yes. Rumple, dubious, asks her why she’s really here. For power, she says. “Stop wasting my time!” He knows she’s hiding her true reasons, and Regina confirms this when she asks him, desperate, if he can teach her to bring back the dead. He knows immediately that this is about “that stable boy.” She implores him that she wants true happiness, but he coldly tells her to find it elsewhere. Magic can do much, but not that. Dead is dead. Dismayed, Regina says she is lost. “And I’ve had my time wasted,” he says. Transcending death is beyond even his reach. From nearby, “I thought nothing was beyond your reach.” We see that JEFFERSON, at the height of his portal jumping grandeur, has joined them. He asks Rumple if he’s busy, but Rumple assures him nothing important is going on here, turning away from Regina to give his attention to Jefferson. From a bag, Jefferson produces a CRYSTAL BALL, proffering it to Rumple. Rumple asks him where the slippers are. Jefferson says he couldn’t find them, heard they’d already been moved to another land. But that’s what Rumple needed; to get to that other land. Jefferson offers to take him wherever he wants with his hat, but Rumple says that won’t help, telling an incredulous Jefferson that he wants to go to a place that has no magic. Jefferson again offers the crystal ball, which Rumple accepts, telling Jefferson to take all the gold thread he thinks is fair. Turning to Regina, Rumple tells her she can show herself out. Ignoring her pleas, he tells her he’s not going to teach her anything as long as her goal is raising the dead. So long as she lives in the past, she won’t find her future, so teaching her is a waste of time. With that Rumple leaves a stricken Regina to take this in, until Jefferson comes up behind her, surprising her by saying that he thinks she needs to look elsewhere for a solution to her problem. Questioned by Regina, he says he hears things. He introduces himself formally, telling her he’s a man who travels and sees many things, and he knows a man who can do what she wants; bring back the dead. “He’s, you might say, a wizard.” And, he adds, he can bring him to her. Regina asks him what the price is, and Jefferson says that he wants free reign to traverse her kingdom, which she accedes. Regina, hopeful, asks if he can really bring back the dead, and Jefferson says that if he can’t, no one can. He leaves, and off Regina’s growing hope we leap to—
Present day Fairy Tale Land, were Emma and Mulan talk as they walk through the destroyed camp. Emma asks Mulan if she recognizes their mysterious, one-handed survivor, and Mulan says she’s seen him around, he’s a blacksmith. He joined the camp a couple months ago, and said he lost his hand in an ogre attack. Emma can’t understand why Cora would leave a survivor. It doesn’t make sense. Emma acknowledges that Cora’s tricked them before; their guard needs to be up. Emma approaches the stranger we know is Hook, offering him a drink of water, which he accepts graciously, adding that fortune has seen fit to show him favor. Emma asks him how, in an island full of dead people, he managed to survive. Hook, feigning great emotion, says that as Cora murdered everyone he hid under the dead bodies. It was all he could do to escape alive. Emma, leaning in, tells him she’ll let him know a secret; she’s pretty good at knowing when someone is lying to her. He insists that he’s telling her the truth, and we’re not sure if Emma is buying it, as Mulan tells the group that they should leave here in case Cora decides to come back. Snow adds that they should start looking for another portal. Hook tells them he knows this land well. He can guide them. With that, Emma suddenly brings a knife to his neck, telling him he won’t guide them anywhere until he tells them who he really is. From a seemingly terrified Hook, we travel to…
Storybrooke, in the HOSPITAL, where Regina comes in to find the attending nurse is not at her desk. Pushing further into the hospital, she goes down a corridor, coming to a half-open door. “Dr. Whale?” Regina enters the darkened room…
And we go to Fairy Tale Land’s Past, where Regina and Jefferson walk through her castle. Regina is anxious to meet the wizard, though Jefferson warns her that he’s not familiar with their world and their magic. But Regina is interested in his magic. Jefferson accepts this, leading her out to a courtyard and, he says grandly, her salvation. Once outside, they approach a man with his back to us, sitting and drawing a unique flower he’s spotted. Regina, asks if he’s the wizard. He rises and turns to her, and we can see that it’s our Dr. Whale, but different. He tells Regina that he prefers to be called THE DOCTOR. Regina agrees, asks him if he knows what he’s been brought here to do. He says of course, and asks to see the patient. Moments later, In the MAUSOLEUM where Regina has preserved Daniel in the glass coffin, the Doctor is amazed by the condition of Daniel’s body, with Regina telling him it’s due to a protection spell. Can he bring Daniel back? He says perhaps, then produces a SCALPEL from his bag, making an incision on Daniel’s hand, squeezing out some blood, and running it between his fingers. Pleased, he tells her his condition is perfect, aside from being dead. Regina, a bit taken aback, asks him how many times he’s done this before. The Doctor turns to Jefferson, says, “You didn’t tell her?” The Doctor tells Regina the procedure is experimental and success has yet to occur. He says if certain conditions are met he is confident in the success. Regina, angry, asks Jefferson what kind of charlatan this man is. The Doctor rejects this, adding that he was told the last crucial piece of the puzzle could be found in this land. He tells her he needs a heart that can withstand the shock of his procedure, but so far has been unable to find one. But he’s heard of enchanted hearts that are so powerful that they glow. He asks how they achieve this power, and Jefferson steps in, telling him that those who practice dark magic pull the still beating heart from the chests of their target. The Doctor asks Regina if she can do this, and she says no, she won’t use magic for evil. Jefferson tells her that if she wants Daniel back that’s what it will take. The Doctor, frustrated, asks if he’s been wasting his time here, and Regina says no; she knows exactly who can help them. She knows where to get a heart. As the Doctor takes this in, pleased, we go—
Back to the Storybrooke hospital, where Regina, where we left her, enters the room, calling out to Dr. Whale. As she comes in, the flickering lights show a scene of devastation. Something bad has happened here. She sees a bloody sheet on an operating table, and lifts it to see… AN ARM, severed at the shoulder, lying there. She backs away in horror, but hits a hanging light, revealing… Dr. Whale lying on the floor, in agony, the wound of his lost arm apparent. Regina goes to him, tells him that she knows he took Daniel’s body and one of her hearts. She demands to know, did he bring Daniel back to life? Whale says that he was successful… but it’s no longer Daniel. The thing he gave life to is a MONSTER. As Regina absorbs this horrible news, we go to –
Regina’s castle in Fairy Tale Land. The Doctor and Jefferson look on as Regina stands before a grand fireplace, telling them this used to belong to her mother. The Doctor is impatient, but Regina tells them to listen. As they do they hear the steady THUMP-THUMP of a multitude of hearts. Regina tells them that it’s coming from her mother’s vault. Suddenly, the fireplace disappears and a set of STAIRS appear in its place. Regina leads them down to her mother’s vault of hearts and tells the Doctor to take his pick. When Jefferson asks whose hearts these are, she tells him she has no idea. Cora took so many and caused so much pain it’s impossible to keep track, adding, “She was a monster.” The Doctor pulls one of the containers from the wall, opening the box to reveal a glowing heart, telling them, in awe, that it’s perfect.
Back in Storybrooke, Dr. Whale is in a hospital bed, being treated by a nurse. David comes into the viewing area nearby, telling Regina he heard Whale was attacked and asking Regina what happened. She tells him she came to talk to him and found him like this. David, still suspicious, asks her what she came here to talk to him about, and Regina tells him, “Someone from my past. I believe he’s come back.” David has heard of Daniel from Snow, but also the crucial detail that Daniel is dead. How could he be back? She says Whale. He said he could bring him back, and he did. David assumes this has to do with dark magic, but Regina corrects him, telling him Whale practices something more powerful than magic. She says that all he needed was a heart, which he got from her vault. David, shocked, “You have hearts here?” She says she brought them from FTL, and that she doesn’t know whose heart it was. She took so many it was impossible to keep track. Regina realizes she needs to help Daniel. David stops her, demanding to know where Daniel is. He points to Whale, telling her to look at what he did. He’s dangerous. “Not to me,” Regina tells him. She promises David that he won’t hurt anyone else, but David tells her he can’t take that chance. He gives her two choices: tell him where Daniel is or go to jail. Giving in, she tells David that she thinks it’s like when he awoke from his coma and went into the forest. Daniel, too, will be following his final thoughts, which means he’s headings for the stables. David is stricken, realizing that Henry is at the stables. As he rushes out and Regina follows, we travel to THE STABLES, where Henry, standing on a stool, brushes his horse. The horse suddenly rears up, spooked by something, as are the rest of the horses in the stable. The horse knocks Henry off the stool, sending him careening into a nearby wall. As Henry comes to he sees, standing in the doorway, DANIEL! From a terrified Henry we go to –
Fairy Tale Land present, where Mulan is tying Hook to a tree while Emma, Snow and Aurora look on. Hook implores them, still in character, that he’s just a simple blacksmith. Emma: “Sure you are.” Emma gives a loud WHISTLE. She tells him if he won’t talk to them then he can talk to the ogres, while they rip him limb from limb. Emma tells the group to come on, and they all start to go, even as ogre cries can be heard in the distance. Hook cries that they can’t just leave him there. Aurora, concerned, asks what if he’s telling the truth. Emma, certain, tells her he’s not. Then Hook suddenly changes his demeanor, calling out to the departing group that (good for them) they bested him. Emma returns, asking him who he really is. He tells her his name is Killian Jones, but most refer to him by his more professional moniker; HOOK. At his instruction, Snow pulls his gleaming hook from his satchel. An ogre’s roar reminds them all they need to escape fast, and as Emma presses, Hook admits that Cora wanted him to gain their trust so he could find out about their Storybrooke. She didn’t want any surprises when she got over there. Snow tells him she can’t get there, they destroyed the wardrobe, but Hook tells her the enchantment remains, and that Cora is going to use the ashes to open up a portal. Hook asks them to kindly cut him loose, and when Mulan says he should stay and pay for his murderous crimes, he tells her that was Cora, not him. Unconvinced, the group starts to leave. Hook shouts at them to wait, finally sounding like his true, rakish self, and tells Emma that she needs him alive. He wants the same thing they do: to get to their land. He arranged transport with Cora and he’s happy to make the same deal with them. He’ll help them get home if they take him with them. Snow questions how he can help, and Hook tells them that Cora seeks an enchanted compass, and that he can help them find it before she does. Emma seems taken with this chance, though Snow warns that it sounds too good to be true. An ogre roar is closer now, and Emma puts a knife to Hook’s throat, tells him she wants to know something and she better believe his answer. “Why does Captain Hook want to go to Storybrooke?” He tells her it’s to exact revenge on the man who took his hand: Rumplestiltskin. As Emma weighs this, we leap to –
The Storybrooke stables, where a wild-eyed Daniel stands before Henry. Henry tries to talk to him, telling him he’s upsetting the horses. But Daniel doesn’t respond. Henry notices the blood on Daniel’s hands and assumes he’s hurt, the kind boy moving towards Daniel with his hand outstretched. But as Henry approaches, Daniel flashes to another hand reaching out at him, this one Cora’s, as he flashes back to the moment she plucked his heart from his chest. Back to reality, where a now furious Daniel picks Henry up by his neck, ignoring Henry’s pleas. Just then, Regina and David come rushing up to the stall door. Regina tells Daniel to let him go. Daniel tosses Henry to the ground, with David quickly helping Henry up, and away from the stall. He asks Henry if he’s okay, and once Henry confirms this, he tells him to run, which Henry does. The sight of Daniel captivates Regina. It’s true, he really is here. But this is short lived as Daniel lunges at her, almost reaching her before David SLAMS the stall door shut, locking him in. David, putting his weight against the door, tells Regina it won’t hold for long, asks if she can cast a protection spell to subdue Daniel. Regina says she won’t use magic on him, and David responds by reaching for his holstered GUN. David tells a pleading Regina that Daniel is a monster, and if she won’t put him down, he will. Regina begs David to let her try to talk to Daniel, and after a heated exchange, David takes in Regina’s desperation. And from this desperate moment we travel to –
Fairy Tale Land’s past, where a tent in a clearing glows with light, showing us Daniel’s body. The Doctor exits the tent, coming up to Regina and Jefferson and asks Regina for the heart. She gives the Doctor the box with the heart, and he takes it, thanking her. He tells them to wait there; the procedure is one he must perform alone. As the Doctor returns to the tent, Regina asks Jefferson what he’s doing in there. Magic? Jefferson tells her the Doctor says he wields a power greater than magic. Regina asks Jefferson why they can’t watch, and he tells her in the Doctor’s land there are many things they can’t understand, but adds that if the Doctor can’t achieve what she seeks, then Rumple is right it can’t be done. Inside the tent, the Doctor has the heart ready, prepared to put it into Daniel, and Regina watches the Doctor lean over Daniel, and a bolt of lighting strikes the tent. Moments later, the Doctor exits the tent, and a hopeful Regina asks him, “Well?” The Doctor, chagrined, tells her no. He has failed. Regina listens in horror as the Doctor tells her the heart wasn’t strong enough: it couldn’t withstand the procedure. Regina goes into the tent and over to Daniel’s side, caressing his face longingly, then resting her head on his chest. From her woe we travel to…
The stall door of the stables in Storybrooke. Regina opens the door slowly, revealing a now docile Daniel. He walks toward her, his face peaceful, but then suddenly grabs Regina by the neck, choking her as he pushes her up against a nearby wall. Regina, barely able to get out the words, tries to tell him it’s her, adding, “I love you.” Suddenly Daniel’s face blossoms with a visible humanity. He lets go of Regina, with her coughing, but quickly recovering as Daniel says, “Regina.” She goes to him and they embrace like the couple we remember from the first season, truly in love. She can’t believe it’s really him, but Daniel suddenly turns from her, overcome by internal struggle. When he turns back to her he tells her to stop his pain by letting him go. She says no, she won’t lose him again, adding that without him she’s lost. She tells him to come back to her. She loves him. Daniel, summoning all that he can, tells her, “Then love again.” With that he cries out, buckling in pain. As he lifts his head and fixes his gaze on Regina we can see that whatever there was of Daniel in him has disappeared once more. Regina watches, terrified, as he approaches her menacingly, but then… she lifts her hand and sends out an immobilization spell, freezing Daniel in his tracks. Regina, weeping, knows what she must do. She waves her hand again, removing the protection spell she placed on his body so long ago. In an instant, Daniel turns to dust. Regina, breaking down, says goodbye to Daniel.
Meanwhile, in Fairy Tale Land’s present, Hook leads Emma and the rest of the group through the forest, telling them that up ahead is where they’ll find the compass. Snow, whispering to Emma, is concerned that he’s leading them exactly where Cora wants them, and that the whole thing is a trap. Emma says it’s definitely a trap, but that as long as they know that they’ll be one step ahead of her and Hook. As Emma and Snow join Hook on a hilltop, Emma seems taken aback by the view. Let me guess, she says, the compass is up there. Hook says it is, and we finally see what they’re looking at… a GIANT BEANSTALK! Emma asks how they’ll get up there, but Hook tells her it’s not the climb they have to worry about, it’s the GIANT at the top. Emma takes this in, but then leads the group on toward it. And then to –
Main street in Storybrooke. Regina is driving her car, parking it.
And then back to FTL past, where Regina comes upon Rumple in the forest. A woman holds a rock aloft with magic as he watches on. Regina asks who the woman is, and he tells her that it’s her replacement, of course. He needed someone more dedicated. Off this, Regina turns to the woman and sends her hand into her chest, then PULLS OUT HER HEART. She then squeezes it, killing the woman. It’s the first time the Evil Queen has taken a life, and by all appearances she enjoyed it. She has changed. “Now,” she asks Rumple, “Where were we?” He giggles at this, fingers drumming his spell book. Off this fateful moment, we travel to --
Storybrooke, where a hand knocks on a door. ARCHIE opens it, we’re in his office, and remarks, “You’re back.” We see that Regina stands in his doorway, woeful and beaten. She admits that she used magic. He tells her to come in and tell him what happened. As she does, we go to –
Fairy Tale Land in the past, where Jefferson leads an impatient Doctor through the forest. The Doctor says he needs to be taken home. He has work to do and their deal is done. Jefferson tells him that their deal isn’t done until he says it’s done. “Now, now, patience please.” Rumple comes up to them with a flourish, telling the Doctor that their transaction is nearly complete. The Doctor asks Rumple if he was happy with the results, and he nods, saying she did look rather heartbroken. The Doctor tells him that she believed he failed, and when Jefferson adds that he should have seen her tears, Rumple says he saw the aftermath. The Doctor says, “Now, my property.” Jefferson hands him the HEART BOX, and the Doctor opens it revealing the enchanted heart! The Doctor closes the box and tells Rumple it has been a pleasure doing business with him. But Rumple says the pleasure was his, now he’s made his monster. “Now I do hope you’ll get to make yours.” The Doctor tells him he’s not making a monster. “Sure you’re not,” says Rumple, adding a pointed, “Good luck.” The Doctor says he won’t need luck. Rumple says he needs magic. The Doctor rejects this, saying what he does goes beyond magic. “Yet you need a magical heart to do it.” The Doctor says he’s small minded. He will use his power to transcend the limitations of his magic. Rumple says the Doctor must come from an impressive place if he thinks his magic is greater than Rumple’s, and offers to bet him on it. He believes the Doctor will some day come to see his side, but the Doctor says he doubts it. He asks Jefferson if they can go now, and with Rumple’s leave, he rises, takes off his hat and tosses it onto the ground below them, where it begins to spin and enlarge into a PORTAL. As the Doctor prepares to leave, Rumple offers him the warning that magic always come with a price. “We’ll see,” is his reply. Jefferson and the Doctor jump into the portal and are whisked away, while Rumple watches on ominously. From the forest we go to—
A street in Storybrooke, where a bloodied and one-armed Dr. WHALE walks painfully but purposefully down the street, a large COOLER slung over his one good shoulder. He enters MR. GOLD’S PAWN SHOP, setting the cooler on the counter and lifting off the lid to reveal HIS SEVERED ARM. Gold sizes it up, then tells Whale dryly, “When they say I charge an arm and a leg, that’s meant as a figure of speech.” Whale tells Gold that he wants him to put it back. Whale asks Gold if he can do it, and Gold says of course, but he wants to know why first. “Because I want to use it again.” But that’s not what Gold means. He wants to know why he brought back Daniel, and Whale says that he thought that if he brought him back that Regina would help him get back to his land. He wants to see his brother. To try to bring him back again. “Again?” Whale tells him the first time ended badly. He needs to return and try it once more. Gold says it seems like it’s beyond her abilities, his condolences. Whale just wants him arm reattached, and Gold said he can. Gold tells him there’s a difference ‘can’ and ‘will.’ Whale tells him to name his price. Gold says he wants him to say it. Whale, taking off his coat, tells Gold what he wants to hear: “I need magic.” Satisfied, Gold waves his hand and Whale’s arm is magically returned to his body, good as new. Gold says it’s always a pleasure doing pleasure with you, VICTOR. And as Whale inspects his arm, we see his mind wander, and we travel with his thoughts to –
A CASTLE like none we’ve seen so far, seen in a Gothic BLACK-AND-WHITE. Inside the castle we find the Doctor entering a LABORATORY decked out with beakers, large vats of liquids, and an obsequious ASSISTANT who welcomes him back. In the center of an elevated platform in the lab, a BODY is on a table, covered with a white sheet. The assistant asks the Doctor if he found what he was looking for, and the Doctor says yes, showing the assistant the glowing heart, whose same RED COLOR is striking in this colorless land. The Doctor tells his assistant that this is the key to the puzzle. The Doctor says, “Let’s begin,” and with that, throws a switch on a machine, causing electricity to spark down from the ceiling into an electrode. He throws another switch, causing more lightning to rain down. Nearby, the body is twitching wildly on the table. The Doctor throws the switches off and approaches the body, whose stitched up HAND reaches up from under the sheet. The assistant remarks with admiration that he did it. The Doctor says he believes he has, telling whatever might be under the sheet, “Welcome back, brother.” The assistant, amazed, says, “It’s magic, DR. FRANKENSTEIN.” No, corrects the Doctor. Not magic. It’s science. And off the shock of knowing that DR. FRANKENSTEIN and his famous creation have entered our world, we –
CUT TO BLACK.
Written by FreakZilla on Oct 17, 2014