"The Bear King" is the ninth episode of the fifth season of the American fantasy drama series Once Upon a Time, which aired on November 15, 2015.

The DunBroch flashbacks about King Fergus' death take place two years before "The Bear and the Bow" and in-between the events of "Queen of Hearts" and "And Straight On 'til Morning".

Two years prior to the present-day events, a rider arrives to the Witch's Hut, and demands to show themselves and asks for magic.

The person, King Fergus, is met by a witch who asks what he wants and he says he needs something to ensure the future of his kingdom and says he will pay the price.

Over in DunBroch, Merida puts a flower on her father's grave and tells him she saved the boys and proved she's fit to be queen.

Merida is ready to be crowned by her mother as the Queen of Clan DunBroch but the witch bursts in with the contract.

Merida steps in and puts an arrow in the guy's hand and tells Mulan she needs her help.

Mulan tells her they can still track the helm and Merida says if her dad can't lead without magic, neither can she.

It is revealed in a flashback after defeating Zelena that Ruby told Mary Margaret that being the only one of her kind in Storybrooke, she wanted to return to the Enchanted Forest to find others like her with a magic bean given to her by Tiny who had managed to grow one.

Arthur and Zelena arrive at the lake and use the spell to bring the helm up, both are stopped by Mulan, Merida, and Ruby.

Merida then fights Arthur after finding out he killed her father while Mulan and Ruby use sleeping powder on Zelena as payback.

Arthur and Zelena return to Camelot defeated when the clans of DunBroch arrive to aid Merida.

The witch gives Merida a pouch of magical ale, to summon her father's spirit from the Underworld.

This episode marked the first in the series that most of the regular cast, with the exception of Ginnifer Goodwin and Rebecca Mader, did not appear.

Andrea Towers of Entertainment Weekly notes in her assessment of the review, "While the two back-to-back episodes didn’t make too much sense meshed together, we still learned a lot of important things.

Merida's had nothing but trouble with her kingdom in all the encounters we've had with her so another quest so soon was wearisome, and it didn't have the emotional pull it could have possessed.

[4] In her recap, she cited that the episode was weak in the delivery, saying " I’ve already complained about how the Merida storylines aren’t doing it for me, through no fault of the actress playing her, I just don’t think the Brave canon has much to offer as Merlin’s, say.