'Once Upon a Time' Season 2, Episode 5: 'The Doctor' Recap

Mulan, Aurora, Emma, and Snow head back to the village, discussing what to do. They decide to lie about Lancelot/Cora to avoid causing panic. But they needn’t have worried—the village has been destroyed, its inhabitants slaughtered. Ogres, they think immediately, but Snow notes that their hearts have been ripped out: Cora has killed them all.

There is a movement, and they uncover a “survivor.” It is Killian Jones—Captain Hook—posing as a villager.

In Storybooke, Dr. Whale goes up to James, who punches him for sleeping with his wife. Whale reminds him that they were all cursed and it wasn’t on purpose. He asks him about the rumor that he is trying to build a portal. He wants to know if the Enchanted Forest still exists, do other worlds?

Regina goes to see Archie/Jiminy Cricket for help with her magic rehab. She hasn’t used magic in two days, but she’s struggling. Magic is the way she’s always gotten everything—Archie reminds her it’s also the way she lost everything. Whale storms in, demanding that Regina send him back to his world, back to his brother. Regina tells him she can’t, and Archie kicks him out.

Flashback to young Regina being taught by Rumplestiltskin. She uses magic, immobilizing a black unicorn. Rumple wants her to take its heart, but Regina can’t do it. It’s innocent. Rumplestiltskin takes its heart.

“Nothing is innocent.” Now it belongs to him. He tells her to kill it, to crush the heart. She tries, but as the unicorn writhes in pain, she falters.

“Magic is power. Until you can take power, you’re not learning anything.” Rumple wants to know what is holding her back.

She goes to see the magically preserved body of Daniel, her lost love.

In Storybrooke, Regina tells Archie about the enchanted body of Daniel, kept in her family mausoleum. Archie urges her to let go of the past, and she decides she’s had enough, storming temperamentally off. As she is driving home, through the rain, she sees Daniel, standing eerily beside the road. The lightning flashes and he disappears.

James is with Henry, who admits he couldn’t sleep. James tells him that he misses Emma and Snow too. To continue his knight training, they go to the stables and James introduces him to his new charge, a handsome horse. He tells him he isn’t going to ride yet, he has to build a bond with it.

Regina goes to see Daniel in her Storybrooke vault, and finds him missing from his enchanted coffin.

Flashback. Rumple is irritated with Regina, and wants her to tell him what she wants to get out of this. She wants to know how to use magic to bring back the dead. She wants true happiness.

“Magic can do much, but not that. Daniel is dead.”

Jefferson, the Mad Hatter, appears as Rumple gets frustrated and says teaching Regina is a waste of time. Jefferson knows a man who can bring back the dead, and can bring him to her. He would like a royal passport, free reign to traverse her kingdom, as payment.

“If he can’t, no one can.”

In the Enchanted Forest, Killian is passing himself off as the blacksmith, who has been there a few months and lost his hand in ogre attack. He says he hid under the bodies of those killed, and pretended to be dead, which is how he survived. Emma tells him she’s pretty good at knowing when someone is lying to her. They mention searching for portal back to Storybrooke. He says knows land well and can guide them—Emma threatens him with a knife. No guiding until he tells them who he really is.

Regina goes to look for Dr. Whale, but the hospital is deserted, the lights flickering and the halls spooky.

In the past, Jefferson is telling her about the wizard who can bring back Daniel, and has never been to a world like theirs before. They meet Dr. Whale, who goes to see Daniel. He checks the blood in Daniel’s hand.

“His condition is ideal… apart from being dead, that is.”

The procedure, he admits, is experimental. But he is optimistic. He needs a heart, a strong one, one with the fortitude to stand the shock of the procedure. He heard Regina can do this with the dark arts. Regina insists she will not use magic for evil.

In the hospital, the lights are flashing on and off; the lab has been destroyed. Regina lifts a bloody sheet on a medical table and sees a severed arm. Underneath the table, she finds Dr. Whale bleeding. He admits he took Daniel’s body and one of her hearts, but it’s not Daniel anymore.

“He’s a monster.”

Back in time, Regina shows Whale and Jefferson Cora’s fireplace, which leads to a vault full of magically preserved hearts.

At the Storybrooke hospital, James comes to ask her what happened. She tells him about Daniel, and the hearts in her vault. Regina promises he won’t hurt anyone else. James demands she tell him where he is and she says she thinks he will go where he knew her last—the stables.

In the stables, Henry is brushing his horse, trying to bond with him. The horses in their stalls begin to panic, and his horse knocks him down, dashing off. Daniel steps threateningly into the stall.

In the Enchanted Forest, the ladies have tied up Killian Jones, leaving him for the ogres. He finally admits he is Captain Hook. He tells them about Cora’s plan. She has ashes from the wardrobe, but needs more enchantment to open a portal. Hook tells them they need him alive: they want the same thing… to get back to their land. He will help them if they take him along; the same deal as he offered Cora. He tells them he can bring them to an enchanted compass which will help open a portal. As the ogres get closer, they ask why Hook wants to go to Storybrooke—he says to exact revenge on the man who took his hand.

Henry tells Daniel to stop, he’s scaring the horses. Is he hurt? He notices the blood on his hands. Daniel, mind muddled, has flashbacks to Cora killing him, and begins to choke Henry. Regina and James rush in, and Daniel tosses Henry aside. James slams the door shut as he rushes them. James get his gun out but Regina begs him not to hurt Daniel.

Flashback. Daniel’s body is set up in a tent on a hill in the Enchanted Forest. Whales takes the heart and performs his experiment under the lightning while Jefferson and Regina wait anxiously. Whales comes out and tells them he failed, that the heart wasn’t strong enough. He can’t bring Daniel back.

In the stable, Regina opens the door. Daniel, stands, confused. He reaches out as if to stroke her face, but begins to choke her. She whispers that she loves him, Daniel seems to come to himself, recognizing her. They embrace. But something is wrong. Daniel is in horrific agony.

“Just stop the pain.”

He begs her to let him go, but she says she won’t lose him again. Without him she is lost. His mind seems to fade again, and he moves to attack her. Regina immobilizes him with magic, and, sobbing, she turns him to dust, freeing him.

As Emma, Snow, and the others walk on with Hook, they decide it is definitely a trap. Hook shows them where they can find the compass—at the top of spindly beanstalk. But the climb isn’t the issue, it’s the giant waiting at the top they should worry about.

Back in time, Rumple is grooming his replacement, someone more dedicated, when Regina comes up. She is clearly a changed woman after losing Daniel for good. To prove that she is dedicated, she casually rips out the heart of the “replacement" and kills her.

In Storybrooke, Regina goes to Archie and admits she used magic, weeping. He brings her inside to explain what happened.

Whales and Jefferson, in the past, discuss their deal. Regina bought Whale’s failure—he has fulfilled what Rumple asked of him. They give him the heart in a box he needs to take back to his world as payment. He and Rumple argue on the power of magic vs. science, and then Jefferson and Whales jump into the portal to go back to his world.

In Storybrooke, Whales is leaving hospital with a cooler. He goes to see Mr. Gold and asks him to reattach his arm. Gold wants to know why he brought Daniel back, and Whales says he thought if he helped Regina, she would return him to his world, so he could try again to bring his brother back since the first time ended badly. Can he put his arm back?

“There’s a difference between can, and will.”

Gold forces him to admit he needs magic. Mr. Gold waves his hand and “Victor’s” arm is reattached.

Flashback to Whales’ world, where he returns with the heart after tricking Regina. Everything is in black and white, with flashes of lightning and a body under a sheet as the laboratory whirls.

Did it work? A hand rises from the sheet.

“It’s magic, Dr. Frankenstein.”

No, not magic, Whales/Frankenstein argues with his lackey. It’s science.