Not only did we get two episodes on tonight’s Once Upon a Time… but also two Dark Ones?!
Our heroes begin by confronting Arthur about lying with the toad stool working. He tries to run away but is caught when the Dark Swan steps in to save Hook from Arthur’s blade.
ABC/Jack Rowand
Emma has the newly forged Excalibur in her grasp. Hook knows Emma still cares for him since she saved him. He goes looking for answers from Rumple and Belle. Rumple says as the Dark One she’s trying to atone for something she did to him Camelot. Hook endangers himself once more to get Emma’s attention, which works and the Dark Swan takes him to her house. She explains that although he doesn’t remember it now, this was the home he planned to have them live together in once they got back from Camelot. They kiss passionately, but it’s a poisoned kiss, as it knocks Hook out. When he wakes up, he’s trapped in the basement with Zelena (whom Emma took once Zelena gave birth to her baby, which was sped up with those delicious onion rings). Emma finally explains her plan: in order to get rid of the darkness permanently, Excalibur has to kill the vessel it houses…so Emma plans to transfer all the darkness to Zelena and then kill her. Hook argues about the morality of doing such an act but Emma is convinced otherwise. Emma goes upstairs where Regina, Snow and company are outside and confront Emma about why she took Zelena. Once Emma fills them in, they also argue against this, mostly it seems because Regina wants to take care of her sister by herself. Emma goes back inside the house to find that Hook had cut Zelena’s wrist band and allowed them both to escape. Hook captures Emma in the squid ink (which was stolen from Rumple’s store) and Zelena comes in with a dreamcatcher which answers all their questions…that there are now two dark ones: Emma and Hook.
Through the dreamcatcher, it’s seen that Merlin visits Emma in Granny’s diner back in Camelot as she’s filling Henry and Granny in on everything that happened with the spark. Merlin warns Emma if she does not turn over the spark, he will be forced to kill her entire family. Emma tries to make the spark go but she can’t, she doesn’t want to get rid of the darkness yet especially because she needs to save her family. She goes up against Arthur, Zelena and a controlled Merlin in the woods. She tricks Zelena and traps her with magic. Merlin fights against Emma and knocks her down. He begins to kill Snow but Emma convinces him to fight against Arthur’s control. Merlin succeeds and let’s go of Snow. Hook escapes and tries to get to Arthur, not before getting cut by Excalibur. Arthur and Zelena disappear and Emma is able to heal Hook. The heroes all head back to Granny’s diner where Emma is about to forge the dagger with Excalibur (since seeing her future with Hook and the house he wants for them has her ready to release the darkness) but the celebration is stopped suddenly. With the forging means Hook’s cut from earlier will kill him…unless Emma saves him by making him another Dark One. And so it begins, as we see him emerge with the darkness.
The second episode follows where Zelena and Arthur end up after escaping the forest. They’re back in Camelot and Arthur explains they need a Helm to save his kingdom. A Helm that belonged to Merida’s father King Fergus.
King Fergus had gotten it two years prior from the Witch (who lives in the cabin in the woods). He wanted it because invaders were coming to their land and he was unsure his men would follow him into battle. This Helm would convince his people to follow him into battle. He winds up not using the Helm when Merida tells him she admires his strength with taking his people into battle with him. Unfortunately the battle leads to King Fergus’ demise, when a knight kills him on the battle field. Merida had been training with Mulan when the invaders arrived. Merida rushes to the battlefield and tries to kill the knight but misses (only hitting his cape). The knight strikes down King Fergus and steals the Helm.
Two years later, the witch wants the Helm back and since King Fergus is dead Merida must bring it to her or she will turn the whole kingdom into bears. Merida finds Mulan and enlists her help, but Mulan isn’t the same warrior she once was, she has lost her honor and will only work for gold. The two women go back to the battlefield where they find the cloak on Merida’s bow. This will lead them to the killer and the Helm. Arthur and Zelena show up and take Merida’s bow so they can use a location device to find the helm. Merida falls into despair and leaves. Mulan regains her honor and goes to the witch’s cabin for answers. While there a wolf tries to attack her, but it’s no ordinary wolf. Once Mulan knocks a potion on the wolf, it changes into Red! The two of them find Merida and Red volunteers to use her sense of smell to track down the killer. It leads them to Zelena and Arthur, who now have the Helm. And it turns out, Arthur is the knight that killed Merida’s father. With the help of her countrymen, Mulan and Red, they take down Zelena and Arthur (who once again disappear in a puff of smoke) and Merida returns the helm to her kingdom and Red and Mulan go off together to find more wolves. When the witch arrives to Merida’s coronation, Merida informs her she will not be getting the Helm. Merida plans to destroy it, saying no one deserves the power to lead people into a battle they do not want to be a part of. The witch is excited because this was all a test. For her passing the test, the witch gives Merida some magical ale which allows her to see her father once again.
I understand the necessity of the second episode, I do and I appreciate what I learned from it BUT episode 8 was so exciting and left me wanting more and when episode 9 came and didn’t continue the story, not going to lie, I was kind of disappointed. I am glad though that we FINALLY got answers about Red and Mulan. Red wasn’t happy in Storybrooke so she left to find more of her kind and was trapped in the process by the witch, while Mulan was tending to a broken heart. I hope we get to see more with these two but after what happens with Dark Hook!
It’s interesting to me though that Hook wasn’t hearing the Dark One’s voice like Emma even if he didn’t know he was a Dark One. And why would he be bent on destroying Emma, they are alike now. I had a suspicion Emma was actually trying to do good with the darkness. Perhaps since there are two Dark Ones, neither can be 100% dark since it’s split in half? I’m very mad at our heroes though…how many times have they learned to NEVER trust Zelena?! She will NEVER be good! And to Emma’s benefit, I believe given the chance Zelena would’ve taken the Darkness on her own and then they could’ve killed her. Emma should’ve made it seem like it was of Zelena’s own accord…I know that’s not exactly what heroes are supposed to do but it was a good plan. I’m really disappointed in Hook that even if he didn’t want her to go that route, he should NOT have freed Zelena like that. There had to have been some other way. And one would think Regina would be onboard with this plan, which ticked me off as well. She still wants to destroy Zelena but Emma can’t do it to save every one from the darkness?! Makes no sense to me. And I’m still wondering where is Merlin?! And what can Nimue do to stop all this?
Anyone else have too many feelings about this like I do?! Comment below or tweet me @kristincarole13!
