‘Once Upon a Time’ season 6, episode 4 review: How Jekyll and Hyde’s story involves Regina

Through most of “Once Upon a Time” season 6, dual personalities have remained a central theme. We’ve wondered what it means to have them both in the world, and if it was possible in order to remove one from the equation.

After tonight’s episode, we now know the answer to that with resounding certainty: “Yes.” Unfortunately, there is a very cruel twist — in order to remove one person from the equation, you have to get rid of the other. Rumpelstiltskin and Hook figured this out tonight as Dr. Jekyll died after he attempted to kill Belle as revenge for Rumple helping to put him in a position to kill his beloved Mary. In turn, Hyde went along with him. Suddenly, the monster at the center of the Land of Untold Stories is gone — and far earlier than expected. What this also means is that in order to kill the Evil Queen, Regina may also have to die.

What made this whole situation even worse is that Rumple basically used Belle as bait in this particular situation, even if it “wasn’t his intention.” Let’s just say that even though the guy may have a new hairstyle (hey, Robert Carlyle needed to cut it this summer for his “Trainspotting 2” role), he still has the same darkness in his soul. This remains even more true when we learned through one final flashback that Mr. Hyde was effectively made more evil because of Rumple, and he was not always the horrible person that he was, either.

This is Rumple’s fatal dilemma: He may love Belle, and also want to protect her and her child, but his desire to do things for himself always reigns supreme. He also doesn’t quite realize that his actions are interpreted the way that they are. He’s basically doing the worst things possible if he wants her to ever love him again.

Elsewhere in this episode, Snow White had a rather amusing subplot as she realized for a moment that she needed to be more like Snow, and a little less like Mary Margaret, as a teacher. This was thanks to some advice from a fellow teacher (Karen David), who we know instead to be Princess Jasmine. Hopefully, her story will play out further next week. After all, we saw in the cliffhanger that she is working in secret to try to find Aladdin in Storybrooke. Episode Grade: B+.

Next week – Get ready for plenty of Aladdin! Learn more at this link. (Photo: ABC.)