As “Once Upon A Time” begins its fifth season, the heroes must head to Camelot to save Emma from the darkness? (Photo property of ABC Studios)
By: Jacob Elyachar, jakes-take.com
Last season, Professor Emeritus in Dark Arts Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold hatched his thesis: “If the Savior goes dark, then the villains will get their happy endings.”
To support his thesis, he recruited three of the greatest villainesses of all-time as his assistants: The Queens of Darkness (Ursula the Sea Witch, Cruella de Vil and a resurrected Maleficent). The ladies were promised to receive their respective happy endings that had wrongfully been taken from them. Two of the Queens got their wishes fulfilled as Ursula was given back her singing voice and reunited with her father, Poseidon, and Maleficent was given a second chance to become a mother as she reunited with her daughter, Lily.
Luckily for everyone, the Savior put out Cruella de Vil’s lust for murder and mayhem after she was manipulated by Gold and Isaac the Author to believe that the deranged fashionista would kill her son. By pushing Cruella off of a cliff, almost killing Lily and losing faith in her parents left Emma in a vulnerable place. So vulnerable in fact that she sacrificed herself to the Venom symbiote-like “Dark One” darkness to save Regina from returning to the dark side.
Now as Emma is engulfed to the Dark One’s darkness, will her family find a way to save the Savior before she becomes a villain? Read on to find out…
The show promptly kicked off in the past (Minneapolis 1989) where a young Emma Swan was attending a screening of the Disney classic The Sword in the Stone. As Merlin was tutoring young Arthur, a mysterious usher caught Emma and foresaw that the future Dark One would pull Excalibur the sword and advised her not to remove the sword.
Next, the audience was transported to Camelot…where King Arthur and Lancelot claimed the sword Excalibur. Unfortunately, the sword was broken in two! Back in Storybrooke, Hook, Regina, Robin Hood and the Charmings horrify discover Emma’s name on the Dark One’s dagger. As Regina blasted Emma’s stupidity and the Charmings tried to defend their daughter’s actions, a shocked Henry (who is now the new Author) came to the realization that his mom is the new Dark One. An angry Hook tried to summon his girlfriend using the Dark One’s Dagger, but failed to summon Emma. Regina confirmed with the group that not only Emma Swan has left Storybrooke, but also might be in a new realm. They rushed to The Apprentice who revealed that Emma was in the Enchanted Forest and the only way that they could return to the Enchanted Forest was using Merlin’s wand to get in touch with the forces of good and evil.
As Hook argued with Regina about breaking out her psychotic sister, the former Evil Queen’s hypothesis was correct…Emma did travel to a new realm and encountered Rumple (who was to be her teacher). Rumple told her that she would not be easy to escape the darkness. As Emma was discovering her darkness and headed to Camelot, she encountered Merida and nearly fought each other for the wisp. Merida needed the wisp to save her brothers from the warring clans. Emma could not sleep because of the darkness and Rumple warned Emma to prepare for a double cross!
Back in Storybrooke, Captain Hook and Henry broke Zelena out of the asylum. Bad idea! Zelena broke out and wanted to return to Oz. Fortunately, Regina expected this move and caught her sister in the act. They used Zelena’s portal to travel to Camelot and this time, LeRoy and the dwarves joined them.
The heroes arrived just in time before Emma killed Merida and Hook’s words helped convince Emma to do the right thing and put Merida’s heart back in her body. As Emma apologized to Merida, her parents began to give her the dagger…. but she gave the dagger to Regina, who will do what is necessary to do what must be done.
The episode ended with the heroes’ arrival in Camelot! The show flashed forward six weeks later with no one remembering what happened to their adventures in the legendary land. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful with saving Emma succumbed to the dark side.
Next week, the battle to save Emma continues, as Regina must return to the dark side!
