Just as it seems Emma and Hook were growing closer together… Hook pushes her farther away than she’s ever been.
Back in Camelot, Hook was reborn as the Dark One where we last left off. He emerges from the Dark One’s Vault and Dark Rumple is there to greet him. He tells Hook he can help get him the revenge he craves…to finally kill the Crocodile. Merlin and our heroes visit the vault after Hook has left discovering that he is now the second Dark One. Lancelot leaves to visit his mother, the Lady of the Lake, to see if she can assist with this new problem. Snow backs up her daughter about choosing love even if it meant making him a Dark One. Charming hopes that Emma’s faith in Hook fighting the Darkness is justified.
Emma finds Hook to explain everything and her intentions. Hook doesn’t care and is pissed off that she threw him into the darkness knowing how hard it was for him to fight in the first place. Emma swears she can get the darkness out of both of them…but her lies keep getting in the way. Dark Rumple tells Hook that Emma has Excalibur and is using it against him, to keep him under control. When she finally confesses that this is true, Hook is furious and asks her how is he expected to fight the darkness when no one believes in him. After he vanishes again, Emma uses the sword once more to summon Hook. She gives him Excalibur and wants him to know she will never control him again. They kiss and walk back to Granny’s diner to meet up with the heroes. Merlin is in the diner alone making the message we saw a few episodes ago to warn our heroes of Hook’s faith. Hook walks over and takes Merlin’s heart. He needs to put a curse on everyone in order to get back to Storybrooke to kill Gold. Rather than crush Emma’s heart, the heart of the one he loves, he brings up Nimue who still loves Merlin and crushes his heart instead. Emma walks in just before Hook kills Merlin and puts Excalibur back in the stone so no one can control or kill him. Emma allows Merlin to rest in peace and knocks out Hook with magic. She decides to take his memories so he doesn’t know he’s the Dark One, “When you wake up, you will be the man I love, the man who loves me.” Emma also erases the memories of everyone who knows as the purple smoke brings about the curse to Camelot and its surroundings.
Back in Storybrooke, Hook and Zelena tie up Emma, take her memories, put the No-Magic Bracelet on her and decide to go their separate ways. Regina, Snow and Charming untie Emma and she explains she was trying to do them all a favor. They agree to start working together from now on. Meanwhile, Hook confronts Gold and Belle in his shop and challenges him to a dual on his ship at noon. Gold tells the heroes of his visit with Hook and they all begin searching for ways to get their memories back. Gold tells Belle he needs to go to the fight and needs to be the man she deserves, no more running away. He tells her to meet him by the well where they got married after the dual. As Gold arrives to the fight, Hook wants to make it more fair so he fixes Gold’s hip. Hook almost bests Gold, but gets knocked down at the last moment and Gold takes Excalibur. Hook disappears in a puff of smoke, leaving Gold with the sword and cut from Hook’s hook.
Across town, Zelena goes to the hospital to take back her baby. Regina is there to greet her and explain she’s not going to be taking the baby anywhere but her and Robin decided to allow Zelena to be a part of the child’s life. Regina takes Zelena back to the apartment to hold her child and informs her that she can spend time with the baby only when either Robin and/or Regina are in the room with her.
Meanwhile, Emma escapes being guarded by Merida, when Hook pays a visit and knocks her out, and she goes to see Henry. They commence Operation Cobra Part 2 to get the dreamcatchers back. She promises she won’t use her magic. They find the dreamcatchers in the clock tower and Henry gets rid of Emma’s bracelet, having proven her honesty. They bring the dreamcatchers back to the heroes and they all regain their memories. Emma remembers what Nimue said all Dark Ones want…
…To snuff out all the Light. It’s revealed that Hook was only using the battle to get Gold’s blood because he needed the blood of a man who had been to Hell and back. He uses this blood to open the portal to the Underworld, where Nimue emerges with an Army of Dark Ones to take over Storybrooke.
I loved the ending to this episode! It gave me shivers to see all the robed Dark Ones from the boat coming to Storybrooke. I think it’s a connection to Hercules (who was announced to be showing up in the second part of the season). All of this is very reminiscent of Hades. I’m interested to see how far into Greek Mythology they go (will it be the whole season like Camelot?). I’m very disappointed in Hook’s development though. He finds out he’s the Dark One and then he begins acting like an angsty teenager. Maybe that was the point but I don’t like that side of Hook at all. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind Hook being evil or the Dark One, but couldn’t they have made him cooler? Where are those witty one-liners and charm he had when we met him in season two? And why was the love completely gone for Emma? I’m usually not a huge Emma fan, I typically think Hook can do better but after this episode, my girl friend vibe kicked in and wanted to have a chat over some ice cream and tell her she can do better and to get out of this verbally abusive relationship. When he says, “that’s why you’ll always be an orphan” killed me! As I’m sure it did Emma as well! WTF Hook?! Once Hook becomes good again, I think he will have a very hard time getting over what he’s said and done to Emma.
Anyway in other opinions, I’m glad to see Belle taking a break from Gold. I still think they’re meant to be but maybe both of them need to be single for a little while. Belle needs a better purpose than to be there for Gold (which we saw a bit of her heroic nature with Merida) and Gold needs to truly find the hero within without putting all the pressure to be good on Belle. Although sad, it was the right choice. In wrong choices, why oh why are people still believing in Zelena having any good in her?! Yes she has a child now, but sometimes that doesn’t stop crazy! Regina may have been evil but she was never crazy. At the VERY LEAST get another bracelet to put on her before handing off the baby. Chances is are one of these days she’ll just magically disappear with the child. When she told Regina, “Once you go Green, you never go Queen,” I was really hoping someone slapped her.
Do you guys think Emma and Hook can get past this? Will Zelena play fair with joint custody of Baby Hood? Comment below or tweet me @kristincarole13!
