Once Upon a Time: Were Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a wasted storyline?

After setting up Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to be a potential major storyline in season 6 of Once Upon a Time, their storyline took a every different turn in episode 4.

Spoiler warning: This post contains details about a major twist from Sunday’s episode of Once Upon a Time, “Strange Case”.

Once Upon a Time follows a formula when it comes to the ends of its seasons. The penultimate episode wraps up the season or half season storyline, and the finale sets up the direction for the next season.

So when Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde were introduced in the season 5 finale, it appeared as if their story would be a driving force in season 6. But four episodes into the new season, and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde are gone. Instead of being the next big bad, Hyde turned out to be a plot device to move along Emma and Regina’s storyline.

Episode four revealed an interesting plot point that Dr. Jekyll was the more villainous side of the duo. But as soon has he revealed his true colors Hook killed Dr. Jekyll to save Belle and Hyde died as well. The moment to reveal that the only way to truly rid the world of the Evil Queen is to die. This is a major step forward for Regina’s storyline, but a rather anticlimactic way for Hyde’s story to end.

After being set up as a major threat, Hyde’s biggest contributions to the One Upon a Time story were explaining Emma’s visions, bringing over the people from the Land of Untold Stories, and proving that Dr. Jekyll was the true evil half. The one point of his storyline that was hinted at the most, the importance of the Untold Stories playing out, will never be explained.

Finally seeing the story of Jasmine and Aladdin next week will be exciting. But was it really worth wasting the storyline of Hyde to bring them to Storybrooke? There was so much potential, especially after the reveal that Hyde is not all evil, that not getting a chance to watch it pay out is a wasted opportunity.