Once Upon A Time returned Sunday night, to give fans a much anticipated first look at Emma as the “Dark Swan.” It didn’t disappoint! This episode gave us twists and turns, and more than enough to look forward to for the rest of the season. Read below for more information.
*****SPOILERS BELOW*****
The premiere starts off where season 4 left, with the Storybrooke crew standing in the street where Emma vanished into darkness. Hook is, of course, worried where his lady love has disappeared to, and Regina is pissed at Emma for doing something “so stupid.” In the OUAT offseason, cast and producers of the show seemed to go back and forth over whether Emma sacrificed herself for Regina, or for the town in general. I’m going with Regina, since she basically flung herself into the darkness while telling Regina she deserved her happy ending. With this in mind, Regina immediately seems burdened by Emma’s sacrifice when Snow, basically, tells Regina she owes Emma since Emma saved her life.
Hook and Regina are catty with each other from the beginning of the episode over saving Emma and I think watching those two fight this season over Emma is going to be pretty entertaining. Robin is just chilling in the background for most of the episode; it seems like his only real purpose, at this point, is to be used by Zelena to get at Regina. You probably think I’m not sold on his character, and you’d be right. Half the series has been about Regina redeeming herself and getting her happy ending, and until Robin proves himself a little bit more deserving, I could do without him.
Anyways, now that I’ve finished that rant… Viewers are transported to the Enchanted Forest where we get our first look at Emma as the Dark Swan. The Dark Swan starts out basically looking like Emma just got out of a bath and hasn’t dried her hair and is wearing some oversized cloaks. Not so evil looking at this point. An interesting twist is the “voice” of the Dark One is going to be following Emma around, trying to tempt her into darkness. The voice in this case is taking the form of Rumpelstiltskin; which is nice for viewers who love Rumpel and his overall craziness. Emma tries her best to ignore the voice and stay true to her goodness, but it’s obvious pretty quickly that when things anger her or she gets desperate, she acts on emotion. Now that she is cursed with the darkness, that emotion no longer comes out in light magic, but in darkness. It’s going to be hard for her to resist, even if she is the savior.
The apprentice tells the Storybrooke crew that they can use a wand (that he provides them with) to find Emma. Regina tries to use the wand, which requires light and darkness, but fails. She and Hook are at each other’s throats, again, and he tells her that she’s done too much good to use the wand. Don’t mind me at this point, I’m just cheering for my baby Regina in the background. Who would have thought that Regina would ever be “too good” to help? Hook says they need someone more “wicked,” and we all know what that means. Regina basically says hell no, they are not letting Zelena out, but Hook and Henry team up and end up accidentally letting Zelena free. Everything works out (surprise, surprise) and by manipulating Zelena, they get the portal open and are headed to find Emma.
Emma teams up with Merida to use the wisps we saw in Brave, in hopes of finding Merlin, while Merida is trying to save her brothers. This doesn’t pan out for Emma because Merida hears Emma creepily talking to herself (aka Rumpel voice) and decides to get out of dodge before Emma goes on a homicidal rampage and kills her. This pisses Emma off more and she is plans to crush Merida’s heart when she finds her, but the Storybrooke crew shows up and stops her before it gets to that.
Arthur and his knights find the Storybrooke crew shortly after and take them to Camelot. Earlier in the episode we saw that Excalibur is missing a half of it, and the Dark One’s dagger appears to be the other half. Prior to leaving for Camelot, Arthur tells the group that Merlin prophesized their coming and he will be reunited with them soon. As everyone is walking into Camelot, we get flashed forward 6 weeks and are back in Storybrooke. Everyone has apparently been cursed again and lost the last 6 weeks of memories. Emma shows up and is in full “Dark Swan” mode; turns a dwarf to stone and tells everyone the savior is gone. Needless to say we are going to have to find out what happened in those 6 weeks, as Emma says they failed to save her from the darkness and, obviously, something important happened.
I, for one, was pretty pleased with the episode. I think we can expect some true love’s kiss to break this curse, as they have done in past seasons. Doubt it’s going to be something obvious like Emma kissing Henry or Hook either. Either way, it will be a fun ride!
What did you think of the episode? Comment below!
