Recap / Once Upon a Time S6 E2 "A Bitter Draught"

Season 6, Episode 2:

A Bitter Draught

When a mysterious man from the Land of Untold Stories arrives in Storybrooke, David and Snow work together with Regina to neutralize the threat. Belle seeks Hook's help finding a safe place to hide away from her husband, Mr. Gold. Elsewhere, the Evil Queen continues to try to win Zelena over to her side, while Emma resumes her therapy sessions with Archie and shares her terrifying vision of the future.

Tropes

• Adaptational Villainy: This version of the Count of Monte Cristo is less The Chessmaster of the novel and more willing to murder one of his tormentors in cold blood at a party. Partly justified as his origin is more brutal with his fiancée murdered.
• Apologetic Attacker: Edmond, since it turns out the reason he is going after the Charmings despite Regina calling off her contract isn't out of revenge but because the Evil Queen has his heart and is making him do it.
• Chekhov's Skill / Suddenly Always Knew That: Regina is revealed to have learned and been good at swordfighting, enough to impress Edmond, in the same episode she is able to fight and eventually kill him in the present. Although she did show the skill once before, in Season 4A when fighting Snow White during the Spell of Shattered Sight.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The Evil Queen is able to enter Regina's vault as, naturally, she's not affected by the blood magic Regina set up.
  • Hook brings up the various horrible things he's done to Belle, such as shooting her at the town line, as he wants to make amends by protecting her on his ship.
  • When Belle wants to stay at Granny's, Emma comments upon the awfulness of the mattresses there, hearkening all the way back to Season 1 when she stayed there prior to living in Mary Margaret's loft.
  • The Evil Queen uses Regina's own magic to create a protection spell around the town.
  • In flashback, the Evil Queen says she has to use the Count because of the spell Rumple cast to prevent her from killing the Charmings herself.
  • The Evil Queen shows Baby Robin the rattle Cora gave her and gives it to Zelena as a gift.
  • Flashback!Regina selects venom from the Agrabahn viper as her method of killing Snow and Charming.
• Couch Gag: The title card features Regina's castle.
• The Dreaded: We are reminded just how much the residents of the Enchanted Forest feared the Evil Queen when they find out she's back (and free of Regina's morality): when Emma asks Archie if he'd heard the news and he admits it, he stammers and stutters, something he hasn't done since Season 1.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Evil Queen comes on to Rumple, suggesting their deal should have a sexual element to it, but out of loyalty to and love for Belle, he refuses.
• Evil Is Hammy: Lana Parilla ramps it up several notches to play the Evil Queen in Storybrooke. Robert Carlyle does the same as Rumple in the flashbacks.
• Gone Horribly Right: Regina went to massive lengths to make sure the Count could be her agent to kill Snow and Charming...only to find he's still on that quest after she no longer wants them dead.
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Edmond realizes that if he kills the Charmings as part of his quest to get his revenge, he'll be just like the men who framed him.
• I Have Your Wife: Inverted; Rumple poisons Charlotte (rather than threatening to harm her), then reveals the only way to save her life is for Edmond to not act, taking her away to the Land of Untold Stories and thus no longer being in a position to be tempted to kill the Charmings.
• In Name Only: While Once Upon a Time has taken liberties with characters before, the Count of Monte Cristo may be the biggest offender. In his original literary work, Dantès was a Magnificent Bastard on par with Rumpelstillskin, who went from a peasant working on a ship to Taking a Level in Badass after escaping prison, found a long lost treasure, got revenge on everyone who wronged him, and then pulled a Karma Houdini and got away with it all. Here he's a former noble whose fiancé was murdered, his family name and fortune were stripped, and he had to rebuild it piece by piece over the last ten years. Most jarring of all is his use of deadly force on the one person he, Dantès, admitted to being the only one who was a part of the conspiracy that knew the others involved. Doing this in full view of a room filled with people, he ends up having to work for Regina to find out the names of his other targets.
• Is That What He Told You?: The Evil Queen pulls a form of this ("Is that what they told you?") on David at episode's end, after giving him his father's good-luck charm coin.
  Evil Queen: I just have one question for you...are you sure it was an accident?
• Literary Allusion Title: Appropriately, the title references a quote from The Count of Monte Cristo: "Hatred is blind, anger is foolhardy, and he who pours out vengeance risks having to drink a bitter draught."
• The Not-Love Interest: Played with. It's Charlotte's resemblance to his dead love that has Edmond forsake his vengeance and flee to the Land of Untold Stories to save her. That said, whether they became lovers or not isn't established.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Regina tells the residents from the Land of Untold Stories that she's just like them, starting with a blank slate.
• Oh, Crap!: Regina is horrified when she sees the Evil Queen alive and well.
• Operation: [Blank]: Henry, of course, has named Regina's quest for redemption "Operation Cobra: Part II."
• Remember the New Guy?: After discovering the "wounded" Edmond in the burned village, the Charmings suddenly call upon Snow's handmaiden who knows battlefield first aid and has, apparently, always served her and handled such healing whenever needed during their campaign against the Evil Queen. However, the reason we have never seen her before this (or Edmond as their vintner) is readily explained, first by Charlotte needing to go back to her ill mother, then by what Rumple does to her to compel Edmond's cooperation; it's very likely the Charmings assume she went back to her mother and that's why they never saw or spoke of her again (though Edmond's disappearance and lack of mention is a bit more conspicuous).
• The Reveal:
  • Why there were characters in a Land of Untold Stories—not because their stories were never written down, but because they haven't been played out in real life. Because to do so would require them to reveal secrets they don't want known.
  • What the Evil Queen's plan is—to bring the darkness back out of Regina so the others will turn on her again, especially if as she says this causes Regina to be the one who ruins everyone's happy endings.
  • Emma finally confesses to Archie why she isn't telling anyone about her vision—not just because she thinks they'll insist on her staying out of it so she won't get killed (and thus she won't be able to protect them). It's because she doesn't know who the villain In the Hood is...and after the events of this episode, she's afraid that might be Regina or the Evil Queen.
• Saying Too Much: Regina accuses Zelena of breaking into her vault as "only you and I" can get through the blood magic. Zelena blurts out "that's not true!" She then vanishes but has let Regina know someone else is out there to worry about.
• Secret Test of Character: Zelena realizes the Evil Queen was testing to see if she would tell Regina about the Queen being back.
• Shout-Out:
  • When the Count vanishes, Henry wonders if maybe he's the Invisible Man. He also mentions Dracula before realizing it's daylight.
  • Henry says "sequels are always more complex than the original," mentioning several (with Hook baffled at the unfamiliar titles).
• Small Role, Big Impact: All Charlotte does is remind Edmond of his fiancée. It's enough to make him forsake his decade-spanning revenge and get him to the Land of Untold Stories, only for the Evil Queen to manipulate him years later into nearly killing Snow and Charming, so Regina in turn has to kill him in defense of her friends, a fact that leaves the mayor shaken and disillusioned.
• Take a Third Option: The Evil Queen lampshades this as the heroes' usual M.O., and claims that because Regina didn't go for it and instead killed Edmond as "the only way", this proves she still has darkness in her and will be the undoing of everyone's happy endings. Nevermind the fact that by having his heart, dampening Regina's magic with the spell on Charlotte's dress, and blocking Henry from calling Emma, she neatly undercut any other possible means for Regina to stop Edmond other than killing him...not that this assuages Regina's guilty conscience.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: How Regina kills Edmond in the end; despite the context, it's still amusingly ironic considering that's what Charming tried to do to her in the pilot all those years ago.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: The Count of Monte Cristo dies the same episode as he's introduced, after being used as a puppet by the Evil Queen.
• Wham Line: The Evil Queen revealing the death of David and James's father wasn't an accident.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Edmond pulls this by pretending to be a victim of one of the Queen's attacks to get closer to Snow and Charming.