Last time, we took a look at Once Upon a Time’s take on Dr. Jekyll and I came to the conclusion that he could’ve been a decent villain if the show had given him time. Well today, we are looking at his other half, Mr. Hyde. Simply put, even in the short time we had with Mr. Hyde in the show, I consider him one of the best villains the show ever had. I’d even go so far as to say he is my second favorite villain in the show’s run and killing him off in only four episodes was complete bullshit.
Hyde was presented as a formidable foe the show hadn’t seen in ages and needed. He was clever and could always get one step ahead of the heroes. He is reminiscent of my favorite villain from the show and my all time favorite villain, Peter Pan from season three. A key difference between Pan and Hyde though comes down to Hyde’s final moments. Pan is a villain at reveled in being evil and for a time, the same seems to be true of Hyde but right before his death, he tells Rumple he’ll learn who the villain really is.
Does that negate the evil Hyde partakes in? Perhaps not but of the two sides, Jekyll the man is much more evil than Hyde the presumed monster. The Villains Wiki describes Hyde as a pragmatic villain and that is a term that I had not head before. TV Tropes describes this as a being who avoids unnecessary cruelty if and when possible and they remain focused on the logistics of their goals instead of falling for petty revenge.
That is the key aspect that separates Jekyll and Hyde in OUAT as Jekyll gives into his pettiness whereas Hyde may show moments of weakness, he keeps his sights set on his goal in the long run. Whereas Jekyll was consumed by his hubris over time, Hyde knew to put it to the side in order to gain his ultimate goal.
First Appearance
When we first see Hyde, he is presented as The Warden a an asylum for characters that we later come to know are inhabitants of what is called The Land of Untold Stories. These people came running away before their story could be completed. We see this with The Count of Monte Cristo and one of Cinderella’s stepsisters. Okay, can I just go on a side tangent here but if Mr. Hyde was set up as the main antagonist for the season, why are we not using more horror characters.
Most of the characters used in OUAT are public domain and we have seen Dr. Frankenstein in this show and we know that Dr. Frankenstein comes from a different land than The Enchanted Forest known as The Land without Color.
This is a nod to the classic monster movies and while Jekyll and Hyde was not part of the famous Universal Monsters lineup, there was a black and white movie based on Robert Louis Stevenson’s work from MGM. So why couldn’t have Jekyll have originated from there as it would’ve given a stronger tie to the classic horror genre.
The only time we get this is when in the last episode, Dr. Jekyll meets Dr. Frankenstein but it is just a quick cameo for one scene. Sorry, I know this was a long tangent but this is something that has bugged me.
Returning back to the show as it presented, Hyde is first met when the heroes accidentally land in The Land of Untold Stories and Hyde believes they were sent by Rumple and he locks them up due to this. He lets Jekyll separate the two and allows Jekyll to escape as he planned to follow him and use Storybrooke (the home of our characters) into the home for his “friends”.
Personality
In most adaptions, Hyde is a repression of the darkest desires of Jekyll dating all the way back to the original text in a way. I’m not the right gender fluid person to go into this but many scholars have noted how this repression can be equated to that of repressing homosexuality.
Now OUAT’s Jekyll and Hyde did not have that and we see them both harboring feelings for Mary (who later I found out was based on Mary Reilly from the text). In a way I do think Hyde started out as representing not the dark desires of Jekyll but rather who Jekyll wishes he could be. As Jekyll as I mentioned is such a coward who is timid to act upon what he wants and that in part is why he uses Hyde. One of the biggest words I kept returning to when thinking of how Hyde carries himself is that he is so suave. Suave describes him perfectly as that sums up how he carries himself whenever we see him interacting the heroes. It’s in a way a cat and mouse game and he is the cat dangling the mice as he knows how to get what he wants.
Hyde is interesting as so many takes even some of the original illustrations make him look monstrous but Once Upon a Time doesn’t hold to that as Hyde in their show is handsome and looking as though he could belong to the British upper class. Perhaps it’s because Sam Witwer who plays Hyde is good looking. The mot you have that distracts from his looks is a single scar.
Grand Desire
The Villains Wiki list a plethora of goals for Hyde but the one I want to focus on is making Storybrooke home for his “friends” from The Land of the Unknown. This is an interesting goal to look at from the perspective of of a villain as it seems like a noble and honorable goal as these “friends” of his are people who have been displaced and their stories have been left unfinished. He does warn that some of these stories are ones our residents might not want to see finished. Also, while Rumple known as Mr. Gold in our realm gives Hyde the deed to Storybrooke, don’t think this is an example of gentrification (season 7 would try to touch upon that) but rather if I stretch this and I do mean stretch it, it could be viewed as helping refugees who have been displaced.
In another way, when looking at this, It shows Hyde eventually won with this goal and it seems as though Hyde might’ve seen something like this coming. I wouldn’t equate it to a Xanatos Gambit as I don’t think Hyde is that smart of a villain to have planned that far ahead. He is still a master manipulator who is able to get under the skin of the heroes.
Most Evil Deed
Gotta say once again this is hard to pin down because as we’ve discussed, Jekyll despite being the man was the much more monstrous side but Hyde could also get petty with his resentment towards The Dark One. So in a way, I think it comes down to what he did in his premiere episode of locking up the main characters in a cell ll because he thought they were sent by Rumple.
This shows how petty he can be and blinded by hatred for someone he considers an enemy. Hey buddy, get in line. It’s small but it speaks volumes to the lows he is willing to stoop to.
Demise
As I mentioned in the Jekyll, him and Hyde died at the same time when Hook killed Jekyll. Now leading up to this, Hyde had taken The Dark One’s Dagger which allows him to control Rumple no matter what and he wanted to use it it have Rumple take him to Hook’s boat to witness what Jekyll was doing as a way to show him who the true monster is. As he doesn’t though, Hyde perishes.
It’s a small moment and imo I feel like Hyde was taken out too soon just so the writers could go back to having a take on The Evil Queen be the villain. Mind you, The Evil Queen was the show’s very first villain and they used the serum from Jekyll to separate the Evil Queen from her good counterpart. It sucked and most OUAT fans I know were disappointed to see the show go back to a villain we thought were done with. Especially as Hyde presented such a fun and new villain that the show desperately needed.
Is Mr. Hyde a Good Villain?
Yes and he could’ve been better if the show kept him around. As I mentioned, he’s my second favorite villain from the show despite his short run. I hate that the show cut him off so soon as though they were scared of how good he was. Maybe, the actor could only be in a limited number of episodes but everything I’ve seen suggests the show wanted to pivot back to a villain that the fans were tired of.
We have one more tv mad scientist to look at. We’re going under the sea with Ariel to look at…
Dr. Vile 
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