"A Bitter Draught" is the second episode of the sixth season of ABC's Once Upon a Time and the one-hundred and thirteenth episode of the series overall. It was written by Andrew Chambliss and Dana Horgan, and directed by Ron Underwood. It premiered on October 2, 2016.
Synopsis[]
In the Characters' Past[]
In the Enchanted Forest, Edmond Danteś, also known as the Count of Monte Cristo, is hosting a ceremony at his palace. He then walks over to the person who locked him up ten years earlier, the Baron, and he killed him as revenge. Everyone flees except for the Evil Queen, who offers the Count a list of every person who has ever wronged him or his fiancée, for the sake of revenge, and in return she asks for help with revenge of her own. Later on, Snow and David come across a ransacked village with Snow White's handmaiden Charlotte and Grumpy and encounters Edmond, pretending to be a lone survivor, who is working with the Evil Queen, who wants him to poison Snow and David. Unfortunately, Rumplestiltskin shows up and warns the Queen that he placed a protection spell on the Charmings. The Queen also placed a protection spell on Edmond so he won't be killed by Rumple.
At the Charmings' palace, Edmond reluctantly goes through with the plan, but soon feels guilty when Snow's handmaiden Charlotte joins them, prompting Edmond to back out of the plan to poison them. Later on, Rumple appears to talk to Edmond, who admits that Charlotte reminds him of his fiancée, and decides to poison her, as Rumple cannot kill Edmond. However, the poison failed to kill Charlotte, and is still alive, but as a precaution that she will not die, Rumple convinces Edmond to take Charlotte with him and go to a different realm called: "Land of Untold Stories, as long as he stays there", and Edmond takes the offer.
In Storybrooke[]
That night at the vault, The Evil Queen and Zelena entered the place despite the protection spell placed on it. Hoping that it will make Regina suffer, the Evil Queen tells Zelena that "she can never escape who she really is." She then takes a box that will be useful in her plans. Later on the following night, the Evil Queen congratulated Zelena on not letting Regina know about her arrival in Storybrooke despite Zelena's mixed feelings.
Speaking of Regina, she visits Granny's the following day and helps the residents welcome the newcomers, when suddenly a person who is revealed to be Edmond shows up to give Henry a letter to hand to Snow and David. When Regina recognised who they were taking about, she tells Snow and David that she hired him to finish the job of killing them back in the Enchanted Forest. When they visit his room, they discovered a arsenal of weapons ready to use. At the wreckage in the forest, Regina confronted Edmond to call it off but he refuses, then pulls his sword to strike at Regina, only to have Regina use magic to stop it and he disappeared. At the same time, Emma attempted to get Snow and David out of Storybrooke, only to discover that someone placed a barrier on the city limits. When Regina discovers this, she asked Zelena about it but tells her sister she had nothing to do with it.
When Regina and Henry return to the wreckage, they encountered Charlotte's body and discovered that she was poisoned. The two are then confronted by the Evil Queen, who also weakened Regina's powers and revealed that she is controlling Edmond by using his heart to kill the Charmings. At the docks, Edmond shows up to fight Snow and David, and knocked them out after he tells them that the Evil Queen was alive. Just as he is about to finish them, Regina stops him and challenges Edmond to a sword fight. Regina is still weakened and Henry's phone is blocked by a spell after he gets the upper hand, when Regina throws the sword at Edmond and kills him. Suddenly, the Evil Queen arrived to warn everyone that they all have untold stories and its about to be played out and Regina will be the undoing, as she used Regina's psyche to kill Edmond. Later that night, everyone gathers at Granny's to come with a strategy to stop the threat.
Emma is taking some time out to see Archie about the visions she has been seeing and her tremors from her hand. Emma asked Archie about whether she should tell her family about this but is fretting to point of walking out of his therapy session. When she returned later on, she told Archie about the Evil Queen but then added that her visions are starting to suggest that the only family member who didn't show up in her vision was Regina and is not sure why.
With Belle returning to Storybrooke, she asks for a safe place to stay and get away from Gold, she takes refuge on Hook's ship. Gold on the other hand, is confronted by the Evil Queen, who agrees not to harm Belle or the unborn baby in order to get what she wants. Gold then gives a coin to the Evil Queen, who has something in mind for it. At the diner that night, David sees a note on the stool and opens to find the coin. He then walks out to find the Evil Queen ready to talk to him, saying that coin belonged to his late father, only to add that his father's death wasn't a accident.
Cast[]
Starring[]
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Guest Starring[]
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Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- It seems Hyde forced people to leave the Land of Untold Stories, as Edmond and Charlotte would NOT have wished to leave as the poison would have killed her.
- The Evil Queen makes her return known to the Charming family.
- Regina claims the barrier around Storybrooke is the same from the first Dark Curse. However, this is wrong. In the first season, random bad things happen that stall the victims of the curse. Now it's basically running into a wall.
- Henry mentions The Godfather Part 2 and The Empire Strikes Back.
- Belle moves into Hook's ship.
- Hook mentions a season 2 episode where he tried to kill Belle, back when he was a villain.
- When David goes outside for air, a blue dress in a shop window across the street is similar to the one Elsa wore back in season 4.
- The confrontation between Regina] and The Evil Queen at the docks was first filmed with Lana Parrilla as the Evil Queen, and a double as Regina. Later, they shot the reverse of the scene with Lana as Regina, and the double as the Evil Queen.[1]
- For the scenes where Charlotte has been poisoned with Agrabahn viper venom, Andrea Brooks wore motion capture dots on her chest and face.[2] The dark splotches on her skin were added digitally in post-production.
References[]
- ↑ Gittins, Susan (July 20, 2016). "SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME Season 6's Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) Versus Regina on Steveston Docks". Hollywood North Buzz.
- ↑
A Bitter Draught on Instagram
External links[]
