ONCE UPON A TIME “Strange Case” Review

Diagnosing Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

One of the many reasons audiences fell in love with this series is the ability to take a classic tale and put a new twist on the story. Such was the case for the famous Gothic novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Dr. Jekyll, a brilliant yet shy scientist, was working on a serum that would separate a person’s personality into two separate entities. He believed that this would ensure that we could control our own darkness as opposed to being enslaved by it. In the curious case of Jekyll, he was enslaved by his anger and the darkness he hid from society; hence the name of his alter ego, Mr. Hyde.

With a little magic from the Dark One, Hyde was born. Like the darkness in Jekyll, Hyde came out at night and let loose his reserved, well-mannered persona. Hyde helped Jekyll get what he wanted: a membership to an elite science academy. However, it was not enough. Jekyll wanted to win the heart of Mary Lydgate. She was attracted to Hyde, but not to Jekyll. Jekyll tried to reason with her after she discovered the truth about Hyde, but it was Jekyll, not Hyde, that pushed her out the window to her death; and it was later Jekyll again, not Hyde, seeking to harm Belle on the Jolly Roger which lead to his, and Hyde’s, fatal demise.

Hyde ultimately believed that completely removing one facet of his personality would solve all of his problems. In the last season finale, we also saw Regina give herself a quick fix, using a serum to separate herself from her darker side, the Evil Queen. However her attempts to then destroy the Evil Queen didn’t work and resulted in her alter ego wreaking havoc in Storybrooke.

Furthermore, Regina is still not exempt from darkness. She was not evil at first. It grew slowly over time and it eventually manifested itself in a stage of her life as the Evil Queen of the Enchanted Forest. Who’s to say Regina can’t turn evil again?

In season four and part of season five, Emma struggled with the darkness that she carries inside of her. Throughout the series, Regina has been engaged in an internal battle between her goodness and her darkness. Their stories, and ours, are not simply done once we overcome an obstacle. Character builds through the journey. Regina has grown significantly over the course of five seasons, and we are so proud of how far she has come; but there is still more to go. Regina has to learn to accept that the Evil Queen, as its own doppelgänger or not, will always be a part of her.

NEXT: The Beast and the Man