I re-watched this episode recently. It’s episode 2.05 and written by A & E. I’m starting to realize I need to re-watch much of season 2 in hopes of gaining some understanding of the story, but for now, here are some thoughts.
First, it has to be said that Regina looks fantastic in this episode. In Storybrooke, she’s just … umph, in boots, a skirt, and the straining button of everlasting promise. She looks great as young queen Regina too.
It opens with Emma and crew entering the ransacked village where they find the only survivor - Hook, hiding under a pile of bodies. So Emma and Hook’s first meeting was not a meet cute. Everything about their relationship is just a bit off really - like a true love couple … but not. And this first meeting reflects that - Emma sees Hook as a fraud and a coward. We’ve seen other couples, Snow & Charming, Dorothy & Red, and even Emma & Regina in what could definitely be called a meet cute, but not Emma & Hook. It’s a shame that PR and viewers with a lot of internalized misogyny have made this relationship so popular, solely because they’re attractive, because it’s really overwhelmed the story and turned viewers off from looking deeper.
Regina visits Archie because she’s trying to stop using magic. Back in season 2 it did seem like the show was treating magic as an addiction, and it’s shown in this episode. It doesn’t seem like that “magic as addiction” idea continued through the seasons, although Rumple in season 7 did stop using the dagger for Belle’s sake.
During this scene with Archie, the gold ring with a green stone, which Regina seemed to sport on either hand in the early seasons and which looked remarkably like Snow’s engagement ring, is clearly seen on the ring finger of Regina’s left hand. Regina is also sporting the blouse that Emma borrowed. Honestly, the whole scene could play as a married woman in counseling to treat an addiction and heal her marriage and estranged family.
During their session, Archie notes that Regina couldn’t let go of Daniel, and tells her that if she can’t let go of the past it will continue to haunt her. Regina’s inability to let go is the catalyst for the 1st curse and the whole show, but we also know who else can’t let go - Emma. In Firebird 5.20 Cleo Fox tells Emma she’s holding on too tight; and of course the whole Dark Hook and Underworld arcs were driven by her inability to let go. It’s interesting that an episode dealing with Regina’s inability to let go is the episode in which Emma meets Hook. Hook = addiction, obsession?
I generally believe there’s a kind of framing “reality” layer to this story, similar to Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland. So this would mean Henry going to Boston to find Emma, Emma meeting Regina, Emma crashing her car - are “real” in a sense, possibly along with various “real world” flashbacks. But … I’m now wondering if there’s ever any “reality” to anything we’ve seen. This is a fairy tale after all. The story is told in metaphors (and heavy mining of movie and TV tropes) and defines its own reality. Did Emma “really” meet Henry in Boston and crash her car while leaving town, plunging her into a coma and dream-like state? Or is that too just another layer whose “truthiness” must be determined?
Is Regina’s backstory, not only the fairytale aspect, entirely Emma’s imagination? Is the Regina we see, unable to let go of the past, all Emma’s own story? Is Emma not able to let go of the past because of unresolved trauma, or because she’s dying and doesn’t want to let go of life? (I wrote a post a few days ago where I wondered whether Emma is not just in a coma but dying.)
This episode is about Dr. Whale/Frankenstein, the mad scientist who wants to re-animate the dead. They make great use of the whole Mad Scientist trope throughout the episode, especially at the end. The phrase “The Doctor” could of course easily be the real world bleeding through if Emma’s in a coma. And re-animating the dead reminds me of organ donation - both for the donor, who will live on in a sense via her organs, and for the recipient, who gets a second chance at life. Which side does Emma fall on - donor or recipient?
We even see Whale wandering through town with his severed arm on ice in a cooler. Shouldn’t it say “human organ for transplant” on the other side?
In the FTL flashback Frankenstein is recruited, via Jefferson and Rumple, to re-animate Daniel, but fails. The failure was intentional, and Rumple tells Jefferson that he’s made his monster. He destroys Regina’s hopes for the resurrection of Daniel and a future together, and sends her on her dark path.
In Storybrooke, Whale does succeed in re-animating Daniel. There’s a really fun scene shot in a B-horror movie style with flickering lights, where Regina finds Whale’s lab in disarray, and Whale missing an arm. I wish I could find a gif or video, it really is a nice homage to this trope.
This is more blood than we usually see … real world bleeding through again?
The re-animated Daniel, now a “monster”, begs Regina to let him go. “Just stop the pain. Let me go.” and urges her to love again. And Regina does let him go. Something Emma was unable to do with Hook in season 5.
It’s the image of Daniel in his glass coffin, with his hands in the “mudra meditation position”, which prompted this re-watch.
This meditation position, called dhyana, is used “to bring you into deeper, more profound concentration. This gesture can also help bring you tranquility and inner peace.” Given the themes of this episode, this is really interesting. I even now wonder if Daniel was “real” in any way or completely symbolic. Does he represent Emma, lying in a coma, near death? If so, is it Emma whom Regina must let go of?
