Robert Louis Stevenson helped to shape the horror literary landscape as much as Mary Shelly and Bram Stoker with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Jekyll and Hyde is a seminal horror classic much in the same vein of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein and it has long been discussed is the man the monster. Both Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll share one thing in common, hubris.
Jekyll made the serum in the original story to separate man’s good side from man’s evil side. His evil side came out in the from of Mr. Hyde allowing him to act upon his darker desires while still being a respected scientist in polite society. Hyde is the monster that allows us to act upon those urges we have repressed but the question remains, are we still culpable?
This is where Once Upon a Time comes in, I’ve talked about this show many a time before in the past. I even use to do weekly recaps of the episodes but stopped s it became too daunting but I do enjoy covering their villains on here and it is a Disney owned show. This’ll be a two parter as Jekyll and Hyde in this show were quite literally two separate beings that are separated from each other in the season five finale. This is an interesting angle that is sadly underdeveloped as the show runners decided to pivot in season six and kill off Jekyll and Hyde in the fourth episode of season six and like most network shows, it was 22 episode a season show. IMO, the show killed off one of the best villains they had had in years with this move. The show had been going through a ringer of bad villains with the double whammy of King Arthur and Hades in the season prior.
First Appearance
Now do keep in mind, Once Upon a Time is a show that does like to tell stories in flashbacks so when we first meet Jekyll in the show, his past had already played out. We will be looking at this chronologically however. In the timeline, we first see Dr. Jekyll when working on his serum and hoping to get backing from a science academy from one Dr. Lydgate whose daughter he fancies. Dr. Lydagte says no to Jekyll as his work is dangerous and well he is right.
Now something else we see that drives Jekyll is how The Dark One aka Rumpelstilskin needs the serum for his nefarious reasons s he is falling for Belle who he’s taken as a maid. He uses some of his magic to perfect the serum. I am somewhat iffy on this as I feel as though it undermines how it was Jekyll’s experiment that ultimately did him in.
This goes to the question of how do we know what is the good part of us and what is the bad part of us. Just because we think we’ve separated the good from the evil, is the one that claims to be good still capable of bad. This is something we see with Jekyll throughout hi short tenure on the show. He is presented as a good on if scared timid until his final episode repaints who he truly is.
Now that we’ve meant Jekyll in the past, we need to look at the show’s present and our heroes first meet Jekyll when they arrive in The Land of Untold Stories and there he seems to be nothing more than a common groundsman who is scared of The Warden (Hyde) who hopes to escape back into The Land without Magic to leave Hyde behind.
Personality
In one word, coward. Jekyll is a coward that as we see in flashbacks hides behind Hyde to get what he wants instead of having the courage to act upon it himself. When Jekyll and Hyde meet face to face after being separated, Hyde says Jekyll is more disappointing than he heard. And at first, it seems as though that is just Mr. Hyde being a brute villain but no as time goes on, the truth comes out as more of Jekyll’s past is revealed. I’ll discuss this when looking at hi most evil deed but he does give off incel vibes.
Part of the problem with the writers cutting Jekyll and Hyde out of the show so early into the season’s run is that it left them underdeveloped into not having much of a personality. This is a bigger issue we will touch with Hyde tomorrow but the show set him up to the season’s big bad only to off him.
Grand Desire
Now the bigger goal as we see throughout the show’s present timeline is to separate himself from Mr. Hyde. Which fyi he is very indignant that Rumple gave his other half a name. He is successful in this aspect and we are lead to believe he is freeing himself from the monster he created but again the question that begs to be answered is who is the monster and who is the man?
This again goes back to the hubris of man thinking that we can play god on ourselves. This is the key aspect that drives so many classic mad scientists thinking they are above humanity. Dr. Jekyll might not believe that himself or convince himself he doesn’t but just because he believes he has taken his badness out of him is that really true? Did he instead just remove what could’ve made him strong as Mr. Hyde fears no man and has all the strength that Jekyll repressed that he thought was evil. If he had instead learned to hone his Hyde aka the side of him that had the strength, he wouldn’t be perceived as such a coward.
Most Evil Deed
This one is a tad confusing imo but again we look at his past and after Hyde had a night of debauchery and slept with Mary, the woman who Jekyll fancied, Hyde transforms back into Jekyll. Mary is confused as she went to bed with Hyde and Jekyll angrily tells her he is Hyde. Mary loves Hyde but does not love Jekyll and only views him as a friend. In a fit of rage he shoves, Mary out a window causing her to fall to her death from a two story building. He takes the serum turning into Mr. Hyde leaving Hyde as the only possible suspect for this vicious crime.
There is a certain irony in this as we know Jekyll is Hyde even though the rest of the world does not as they view Jekyll and Hyde as two separate beings which they are not yet. In this moment, we are given the true picture of Dr. Jekyll, even without Hyde in the drivers seat, he is a dangerous man. He may appear to a meek nerd and he is but he could not accept that a woman he fancied did not love him back.
Demise
Again, this is rather complicated as Jekyll appears as an ally to the heroes and perhaps he is or was but he still was out for revenge against Rumple as in a way he blamed The Dark One for losing the woman that never loved him. So he decided to go after The Dark One’s wife, Belle who was trapped on the Jolly Roger (yes, Hook’s ship) due to a protection spell and made an an attempt to kill her, only to be stopped by Hook who killed him which in turn kill both Jekyll and Hyde.
The death was great and served a good purpose for ending the story of these two characters but it came too soon in the season as the show was building up something wonderful with the Jekyll and Hyde storyline only to fall back on repeating a villain from the first season. It just felt as though the show was scared of what they had which could’ve been great.
Is Dr. Jekyll a Good Villain?
He could’ve been if the show gave him more time to cook but no, the show decided to off him and Mr. Hyde too soon. That was a major disappointment after an onslaught of bad villains through the last few arcs, it felt we finally had an interesting baddie or dual baddies who opposed each other. I know why he show pivoted to an old villain but it just sucks as it started back up this show having villains that sucked in its later run.
Join me next time as I look at Dr. Jekyll’s other half as I look at…
Mr. Hyde
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