Once Upon a Time: Season Five Mid-Season Finale – “Swan Song”

First Aired December 6th, 2015.

Hook (played by Colin O’Donoghue) confronts Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold (played by Robert Carlyle) and gloats that he’s finally getting his revenge. Meanwhile, Dark Emma (played by Jennifer Morrison) resigns herself to stop Hook by whatever means necessary.

In flashbacks, a young Hook and his brother are sold by his thief father, Brennan (played by Adam Croasdell), while he escapes capture from law enforcement. Years later, Regina wants to recruit Hook but first puts him through a test to make sure he has no weaknesses and takes him to a tavern where his father works so Hook can confront him. Hook demands an explanation for why his father abandoned him and Brennan says that he was caught soon after he left and put under a sleeping curse for decades. Although he planned to kill his father, Hook decides to forgive him and help him leave while telling Regina he killed him and learns he has a younger half-brother. But after seeing Brennan named his new son after his dead brother, an enraged Hook kills his father with his hook.

Bad parenting was almost like an epidemic in the Enchanted Forest. It’s practically the default reason most people turn evil. Sleeping Curses were part of Enchanted Forest justice system; that hardly sounds like a punishment prisoners would sleep right through their sentences. This episode was great exposition for Hook’s character and made it clear why he was so hurt Emma lied to him. I feel like the purpose of these flashbacks was to show Hook making the “wrong” decision but his actions are understandable. His father sold him into slavery and had a replacement son. Maybe a punch would have been better than stabbing him but I get where he’s coming from.

The Dark Ones mark everyone with a sign that will drag them to the Underworld once Hook summons the ferryman back to Storybrooke. Zelena/The Wicked Witch of the West (played by Rebecca Mader) plans to steal her daughter once Regina/The Evil Queen (played by Lana Parrilla) and Robin Hood (played by Sean Maguire) are dead. Regina conjures a cyclone to take Zelena back to Oz where she won’t be a threat to anyone. Dark Emma asks Regina and Gold to help her take the darkness from Hook into herself and then use Excalibur to destroy it and her. Hook learns what Dark Emma is planning and steals Excalibur to ensure his plan goes through. Hook, Nimue (played by Caroline Ford) and the other Dark Ones take Regina and the others to meet the ferryman. Regina reminds Hook what happened with his father and he turns against Nimue and the others, absorbing them all into Excalibur. He gives Excalibur to Dark Emma and begs her to kill him so that he can die a hero. After professing their love for each other Dark Emma stabs Hook, they’re both turned human again and Excalibur disintegrates as he dies.

The premise of the Dark Ones’ plans was exciting but the execution felt rushed. Within a few minutes everyone was marked and the Dark Ones were gone. Most of the episode was everyone waiting for their inevitable death but really they knew there was no chance of dying so they figured, “Let’s hang out and relax.” Zelena and Regina’s scenes brought their usual biting wit, hopefully Zelena finds her way back from Oz soon. Since the main story ended up being whether Dark Emma would die for her family there was no real drama because obviously she wouldn’t die. It would have made more sense for the episode to focus on whether or not Dark Emma would kill Hook especially since he was the main focus of the flashbacks. Despite the rushed storytelling and lack of real action, the episode did a great job of closing Emma’s story as the Dark One. Although she never truly went evil so Emma was really more of a Slightly Morally Ambiguous One.

While Emma mourns Hook’s death, Belle (played by Emilie de Ravin) reconciles with Gold after realizing he tried to send her out of Storybrooke to protect her. Emma believes the dagger is calling to her and when she asks Gold about it she learns he is the Dark One again. Gold tricked Hook into giving him the darkness instead of destroying it. Emma makes Gold help her to get to the Underworld to save Hook under threat of telling Belle what he did. She plans to split her heart in two so that she and Hook can be together again with the help of her family. It’s great to have the evil Gold back, but it’s annoying having another arc of Belle inevitably getting heartbroken because of his love for power. This trip to the Underworld will mean reintroducing former dead villains who will be thrilled for the chance to get revenge. As exciting as this sounds, hopefully the narrative won’t be entirely set in the Underworld. The show benefits from changes of scenery and soon gets boring when stuck in the same place too long.

Quotes & Thoughts

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t watch one more person I love die.” “And now because of that you get to watch everyone you love die.”

From the previews, the Underworld looks exactly like Storybrooke. I was hoping for a little change of scenery. Not exactly fire and brimstone but why does it have to be an exact replica of the town they’re always in?

“We should all be scared. This is death itself. This is a fight we cannot win.”

Since there’ll be so many dead villains in the Underworld, there isn’t much need for a new villain like Hades or something.

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