Questions/Discussion Points for The Doctor

[chloris.livejournal.com]

I have my review and discussion questions for The Doctor...

1. Why exactly did Cora kill the ENTIRE settlement? So they would have to take Hook with them maybe? I'm glad that for whatever reason the women were on their guard with him and didn't trust him right on through.

2. So, Emma can tell when people are lying, huh? Tell me another one! The writers need to pick one or the other. But maybe she got her truth sense serviced over the summer break.

3. Okay, so Regina is married to Leopold as of this episode. I thought she sent mom through the looking glass before the wedding. I suppose they'll come back to this the way they do since it seems as though some time has passed (perhaps even a few months) but why did she marry him? Or why did she stay with him? I was hoping for more than a throw away line about it after We Are Both.

4. Did you find exceedingly innocent Regina believable in this episode? We know she was having intense revenge fantasies not too long ago. How about the change to Evil Queen Regina? That was quick if she was as nice as she seemed the rest of the episode.

5. Damn, Cora took a lot of hearts! I'm not surprised she couldn't keep track. And Regina also says she couldn't keep track but she must have noted the important ones at least since she had no trouble finding Graham's heart.

6. When Regina dusted Daniel, he had someone else's heart in him. Hmmm. Did the someone else drop dead at that moment? Freak heart attack with no history of heart disease! I'm also wondering if the hearts can 'live' after the person dies. Or is destroying the heart the only way to die? I wonder if they'll get into any of that.

7. What is your thought on how Regina preserved Daniel with a spell when she didn't know any until he was dead at a few days if not a few weeks? I've decided either Cora preserved him in a bid to control her or the preservation spell can also reverse decomposition.

8. Charming: "I have no secrets from this town." How smug and sure of himself! How long before it bites him in the ass?

9. Do you think Dr. Whale might be the Wizard of Oz as well as Victor Frankenstein? There were a number of name drops, including calling him a wizard, throughout the episode. We know his revival of his brother went wrong (he mentions that in the episode) so perhaps he found his way to Oz to look for stronger hearts.

10. Regina states in this episode that she took who she wanted in the curse. Gold also mentioned last year that he knew Regina couldn't resist bringing Maleficent. I guess that explains how some people were left behind and how some people got pulled from other realms? But then why bring so many people? Did she have time to hate and remember that many people when she claims to not remember whose hearts she took? I suppose she could have taken the entire population of her kingdom and maybe George's kingdom and then random others.

11. This week Dr. Whale walked across town carrying his arm in a box probably on the same day it got torn off. Last week Hook got his hand cut off and sailed to Neverland shortly thereafter. (Probably hours since who would stick around after fooling the Dark One?) These FTL/Storybook people are tough! And don't tend to lose much blood.

12. Also, Rumpel reattached the arm without any effort at all, and Regina used powerful magic, to immobilize and to disintegrate, without needing a crutch either. It seems that magic may be different but it's more a matter of adjusting to the change than needing to do anything different to access it.

Comments

[ladyiapetus]

8. Charming: "I have no secrets from this town." How smug and sure of himself! How long before it bites him in the ass?

Two more episodes, if the summary for episode 7 on the OUaT wiki is right.

[chloris.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised! It was way too bald a statement to leave laying about unanswered.

[lorelaisquared.livejournal.com]

3. I'm curious about the timing there as well. It's a bit confusing.

5. I think Regina was probably lying and she knows/remembers more than she let on at least about some of those hearts.

9. I strongly suspect this could be so. Also, his world was black and white and the beginning of the movie version of "Wizard of Oz" was black and white. Could this be yet another clue?

10. I think it's likely she brought almost everyone from the Enchanted Forest except for those few that were somehow protected (I'm thinking maybe by Cora?) and then she picked and chose from other lands?

[rodlox.livejournal.com]

>3.
*nods* more explanation, please, writers!

>9.
"Dr. Whale, please get out from behind the curtains."
"Pay no attention to me here."

>10.
begs the question, though - how did her spell get into the other lands?

(and if her curse spell could get into other lands, could a spell in Wonderland (or elsewhere) extend into FTL ?)

[chloris.livejournal.com]

3. I'm usually fine with their style of skipping around the FTL time line but this time it felt as though they missed something important. Perhaps because otherwise the episodes followed directly upon one another and We Are Both made such a big deal about not marrying him. We know she does it but now it's a mystery as to why!

5. I think you're right. She obviously knew exactly where Graham's heart was. I suppose the dialog was in part to highlight the parallels with Cora and we shouldn't overthink it. :)

9. Yes! The black and white counts as an Oz reference. The clues keep piling up.

10. Maybe - perhaps this is what took her eight months. Making sure she had everyone she wanted.

[emmy-scarlet.livejournal.com]

9. Personally, I think the black and white was in homage to the 1931 Frankenstein movie (directed by a man named James Whale, I see what you did there, writers). Not that it couldn't be in regards to Oz too. Mostly because that would be awesome, since Wizard of Oz is my favorite movie of all time, and I've been waiting for some OZ folks since seeing flying monkeys in Henry's book, and that green door in the Wonderland episode, which I'm pretty sure had "OZ" on it.

[chloris.livejournal.com]

Oh, I certainly agree that it was a homage to the films! However, I like the idea that it was also a clue to Oz so I hope that's true as well.

[koloagirl.livejournal.com]

1. Budget. Why spend all the $$ on extras you don't intend to develop as characters when you can have Cora kill all of them, focusing instead on the 5 or 6 who really matter to advancing the plot. As it is, there's been limited "advancing" where Aurora and Mulan are concerned.

[rodlox.livejournal.com]

we need more Aurora and Mulan adventures!

[chloris.livejournal.com]

Heh. Perhaps, though a quick scene in the village as they stop briefly on their way elsewhere wouldn't be all that expensive. I am hoping for an in-universe explanation though. Something besides 'Cora is EVIL, damn it.' That would be nice.

[rodlox.livejournal.com]

>1.
I've no idea why she killed the entire settlement. (some have suggested to instill terror, or because Cora had no more use for them)

...but why not take their hearts & then turn them against The Heroines?

>2.
It might be as much bluff and bluster*, as an unpreparedness for dealing with people old enough to have centuries of practice.

* = is her claim any more outlandish than, say, a talking cricket?

>3.
No idea why Regina went through with the wedding. maybe to prove to herself that she wouldn't actually kill Snow? or maybe she figured that a castle is the safest place to practice the magic she's learning. (with elements of the possibility of revenge - "whoops, accidentally turned my king husband into a rug")

>6. When Regina dusted Daniel, he had someone else's heart in him. Hmmm. Did the someone else drop dead at that moment?
if she had the heart in her collection, would that have brought the person to Storybrooke whether Regina wanted them or not?

or could that person still be in FTL?
(be a good motivation to not want to reunite FTL with Storybrooke - they'd drop dead instantly)

> I'm also wondering if the hearts can 'live' after the person dies. Or is destroying the heart the only way to die? I wonder if they'll get into any of that.
I hope they do!

>7.
Might've been the first spell Regina learned (the price of letting Rumplestiltskin tutor her)

...or Cora had a hand in it. a peace-making gesture between mother and daughter ("preserve Daniel, mother, and I'll marry the king")...or something to hold over Regina's head ("behave, or I'll destroy his body")

>8.
oh yeah, definately going to bite Charming.

...especially since people might start to wonder "how well can he govern our town, when he's spending all his time trying to leave?"

>10.
I used to think that if there really was an element of choice in the matter, Regina sent all of Snow White's supporters and allies to Storybrooke.

>11.
>These FTL/Storybook people are tough! And don't tend to lose much blood.
I think this proves that these people differ from RL people in one important respect: they don't shed. (hair, skin, etc)...otherwise it would have been exeedingly easy for Gold to have a hair or two that Belle left behind.

>12.
I suspect immobilization and disintegration may be among the easier of spells (tis easier to destroy than to create, after all).

...as for Gold - how long's he been spinning gold under his house in Storybrooke, building up magical reserves?

[chloris.livejournal.com]

1. She does seem to want them to get the compass for her (for whatever reason that she can't) so I could see her manipulating our heroines through controlling the villagers. But then we get to money/cast issue!

2. I do think the writers see her as someone with an actual magical truth sense and it certainly isn't any odder than anything else on the show. If it WORKED. They spent too much time writing scenes where Emma is fooled once again for me to take her truth sense at all seriously anymore. So I guess for me it works as bluff but not as anything tangible.

3. Yeah. *throws up hands* I wouldn't have even thought she was married if they hadn't included the lines of dialog. I hope they come back to this sooner rather than later.

7. I could see it as her first spell but there is still the matter of him being dead for at least a few days before she met Rumpel. Cora using his body as blackmail works for me though!

8. I thought he was spending all his time trying to bring people (Emma and Snow) back? But either way he is terribly distracted even before we consider that he is a surprise single grandparent now.

10. That's another thing I hope they get into (perhaps when flashing back to the curse making period between the wedding and the casting) now that we know she could choose.

11. I don't know about that though they clearly don't lose much blood. As for shedding: Point one - he got a Charming hair off of his cloak. A hair that he must have shed. Point two - what good would Belle's hair do? I assume you mean to make the True Love potion, yes? As far as that goes, not any True Love would work or he would have made the potion long ago (it needed to be an ESPECIALLY strong love) and there needed to be a result - a child - of the True Love to be the spell breaker. So even if he had a hairbrush full of her hair I don't think it would have helped him.

[rodlox.livejournal.com]

>1.
if nothing else, it could have been a matter of keeping the FTL survivors offscreen, with Cora holding them hostage (and if any did "escape", it would be under Cora's control)

...main difference is Hook would have to have hid in the ruins/wreckage of the village.

>2.
next time I have an OUAT viewing marathon, I'll keep count of who fools Emma, and how often.

>7.
maybe both?
Cora cast the spell initially...and then it was Regina's first spell, as insurance in case Cora went back on her word?

>11.
yeah, forgot about Charming's hair.

but about Belle, I meant when Charming mentioned using that tracking spell to find Belle, and Gold said he would have needed something of Belle's.

(no hairs on her pillow? or in her hairbrush?)

[tcoll813.livejournal.com]

1. No idea. I guess they didn't want anyone to get in their way? Or they were maybe hoping that Snow, Emma, Mulan, and Aurora were THAT stupid.

2. Lol! I think I read a theory out there saying that when she's part of the lie she doesn't notice, or something like that. It still doesn't make sense why she believed the genie. Maybe she was just desperate at the time.

3. Hopefully they'll elaborate as to why she continued marrying him... probably because she wanted more power?

4. I found it interesting...I'm still not sure if I like that.

6. She probably end up killing someone else. After all, that heart did belong to someone.

7. She probably preserved the corpse with the little magic she knew at the time.

8. Charming charming... I bet his smug attitude will catch up to him.

9. I don't think so...

10 Idk, I have no idea why that part was preserved. Hopefully they'll elaborate.

[chloris.livejournal.com]

2. Perhaps but no matter what the reason watching her get fooled again and again last season gives me the impulse to laugh when she talks about how good she is at detecting lies. :)

3. Except this was nice!Regina who made it clear she didn't care about power. At this point I'm completely puzzled.

6. I know they didn't want to get into that but a quick scene of someone dropping dead would have reminded us that this was someone else's life they were playing with.

8. I do love Charming but he can be smug! He and Gold can smug-offs.