Storybrooke has a big Dark One problem on its hands as Once Upon a Time Season 5 reaches its winter finale with “Swan Song” – and it’s not the Dark Swan like everyone thought it would be once they returned from Camelot and woke up to their memories gone and Emma gone Dark. Instead, it’s a Dark Hook (or Captain Dark One, as Regina called him), who doesn’t care what happens as long as he gets his revenge.
In order to save Hook after he was cut by Excalibur (a wound that no magic could heal) in Camelot, Emma used the sword to save his life by tethering him to it and turning both of them into Dark Ones. The flashbacks to Camelot in Once Upon a Time Season 5 Episode 10, “Broken Heart,” revealed just how everyone came to wake up at Granny’s in Storybrooke without their memories, and both Dark Ones played a hand in that. Channeling the original Dark One, Nimue, Dark Hook crushed Merlin’s heart to cast the dark curse so he could return to Storybrooke to get his revenge on Mr. Gold. However, Emma stepped in and took his memories away so he’d never remember he was a Dark One – and the others’ memories as well, so they wouldn’t know. Everything she did since was to save him from the darkness.
Once Hook had his memories back, thanks to Zelena, it was like there was a switch and he embraced the darkness, challenging Mr. Gold to a duel – though he didn’t come out of it a victor – and carrying through with his plan, the exact plan Emma knew, which was why he took her memories. The Dark One (the voice in Hook’s head) guided him in opening the portal the underworld, where the Fury had tried to drag Robin away to, using Mr. Gold’s blood (because he has died and come back), and out of the portal came a boat (remember that glimpse of Charon in Once Upon a Time Episode 502?) filled with Dark Ones. Nimue stepped off it and joined Hook, ready to snuff out the light.
For Hook, it’s all about getting his revenge on Mr. Gold , as Colin O’Donoghue told ET Online .
“Hook, like all Dark Ones, wants to bring the Dark Ones back and use people to open the portal back to hell, and that’s what the darkness does,” he explained. “[Rumplestiltskin] would be one of the people who would be sent to hell, or to the underworld.”
While Hook knows he’s being used, he’s just happy “as long as he gets what he wants.”
With Hook carrying out this plan and standing on the opposite side of this fight as Emma, does that mean there isn’t any hope left for their relationship as OUAT Season 5 continues?
“If they’re both dark, I don’t know if that could work,” O’Donoghue told the Hollywood Reporter when discussing Hook and Emma’s relationship and if there could only be hope without the darkness. “It’s pretty much a complicated thing.”
Just look at their actions as Dark Ones. Emma made some dark choices to save him. Hook became completely focused on his revenge. Neither move is the best thing for a relationship.
Complicated is certainly the right way to describe it, especially since, as seen in the promo for the OUAT winter finale, as tweeted by the network, the Dark Ones march on the town and attack everyone.
“You get to watch everyone you love die,” Hook tells Emma, and while she is willing to do whatever she has to in order to protect her family, is it going to come down to her having to him? Will she even be able to if it comes to that?
Hook will stop at nothing to get revenge. Don’t miss the #OnceUponATime Winter Finale this Sunday. https://t.co/2nZGQccQ3G
— Once Upon A Time (@OnceABC) December 3, 2015
Co-creator Adam Horowitz offered up a further look at the winter finale when he tweeted a script tease featuring an exchange between Emma and Regina, with the former telling the latter she needs her to keep a promise and not tell anyone.
#OnceUponATime #scripttease — winter finale Sunday pic.twitter.com/FK4g0ShCad
— Adam Horowitz (@AdamHorowitzLA) December 2, 2015
Once Upon a Time Season 5 airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC.
[Image via ABC]
