Once Upon a Time season five premiere introduces Merida from Brave.
The season five premiere of Once Upon a Time opened in Minneapolis in the year 1989. A young girl walked into the movie theater that was playing Disney’s The Sword in the Stone. Before she took her seat, the girl swiped some candy out of a lady’s coat pocket.
The usher stands by her side but instead of scolding her, he said, “Emma, one day you will have the opportunity to remove a sword from its stone, but you mustn't.” I sense some foreshadowing.
Fast forward in time to a different land with luscious green hills and knights riding on horseback. Who are these knights you ask? Why none other than Lancelot (Sinqua Walls) and Arthur (Liam Garrigan). They hop off their horses in front of a sword in the stone.
“You’re too late,” a random knight says. Where did he come from anyway? What kind of people just hang out in the woods? He approached the Excalibur, pulled hard on the sword and since he was not the knight destined to be king, he disappeared!
After seeing this, Arthur decided to try his luck by pulling out the sword. The odds were stacked against him, but he pulled out the sword with little effort.
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There was something off about the sword, though — half of it was missing! What?! So, King Arthur and his trusty sidekicks set off to find the missing half.
Next, a dagger lays on the cement with the name Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) inscribed on it. Could this be the missing end to the sword?
Once Upon A Time takes place in the town of Storybrooke, Maine — the place where all of the fictional storybook characters were banished to after the first curse.
Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas), who are Emma’s parents, along with Regina the Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla), Robin Hood (Tom Ellis), Captain Hook (Colin O'Donoghue), Emma’s love interest and Henry (Jared Gilmore), her son, stood around the dagger.
The dagger belongs to the most evil person in all of the realms, “The Dark One,” and Emma is thought to possess the Dark One’s powers now. Whoever holds the dagger controls the Dark One. Hook picked it up and tried to summon Emma to return to them, but it doesn’t work. Surprise, surprise.
In the middle of the woods, in some other realm, a portal appears. And from this portal arose none other than Emma Swan. She heard a voice coming from behind her. She turns to see the former Dark One, Rumpelstiltskin (Robert Carlyle). But here’s the kicker; it’s not really him. No, he was back in Storybrooke dying from performing too much evil sorcery.
The Rumpelstiltskin that Emma saw is just a figment of her imagination, a symbol of the darkness that is growing within her. In the first four seasons of Once Upon a Time, Emma was considered the savior. She was supposed to be the one saving the town of Storybrooke from evil.
In the season four finale, she saved the evil queen from darkness by taking the darkness on herself thus becoming the new dark one. She has always been a character that has battled with darkness and it seems she just might lose the fight. The only person who can stop the darkness from consuming her is Merlin (Elliot Knight).
Back in Storybrooke, Hook went to Merlin’s apprentice to take them to where Emma resides, which is the Enchanted Forest. He states that he is too weak and gives them a wand made purely of light magic right before he dramatically dies. In order for the wand to work, a dark, evil person must wave the wand. So, Regina scooped it up and… nothing! The Evil Queen has lost her touch! Hook suggests that they get “someone wicked.” Could this mean Regina’s sister, Zelena (Rebecca Mader), the Wicked Witch of the West? By the way, Zelena is pregnant with Robin Hood’s baby.
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In the enchanted forest, Emma arrives at a dirt road and nearly kills an innocent bystander for not giving her directions. Emma freaked out! This was her first taste of darkness and she did not like it. The darkness within her is progressing rapidly.
In Storybrooke, Belle (Emilie de Ravin) was seen sitting beside her husband, Mr. Gold (Rumplestiltskin), who is dying. The Blue Pixie gave Belle a rose. Yes, THE rose. As long as the rose doesn’t lose all of its petals, Rumple will be alive.
Meanwhile, Regina, Robin and Hook went to Zelena to see if she would help. Surprisingly, she complies, but she can’t help right at the moment because she is wearing a special bracelet that Regina put on her that prevents her from doing magic. I smell something fishy.
In the Enchanted forest, the voice in Emma’s head told her of a magical force that leads you to where you want to go. The voice then told her to picture a very specific place and BAM, she's there. Then a blue dot appeared; the blue floating dot that will lead her to Merlin. OK, this is getting a little weird.
Emma came to a small opening and saw a hooded figure stealing her light. Oh, no she didn’t! *snaps fingers* Who does she think she is? She whips out a bow and arrow and points it straight at Emma. Her red curls fall from beneath her hood and she speaks in a Scottish accent. A bow, red hair and Scottish accent can only mean one thing; Merida has made her Once Upon a Time debut.
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Merida needed the wisp to find her brothers who have been kidnapped, but they decided to team up and share. This should go well, right? Wrong. While they were resting for the night, the voice comes back to Emma and told her to betray Merida. Here comes the situational iron; Merida wasn’t really asleep and heard the whole thing.
Hook and Henry hatch a plan to free the Wicked Witch. Hook tries to use a potion on her to remove her heart so that she would be under his command. This obviously backfires like all “brilliant” plans. She put a protection spell on her heart years ago. She manages to get ahold of Hook’s knife and instead of killing him, she cuts her hand off! Yeah, she really did that! She took the bracelet off and reattaches her hand and disappears.
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Zelena goes to find Robin, who is dating Regina, because she wants to get back at her sister. She meets Regina and the gang in the middle of town and asks for the wand so she can “go over the rainbow” where no one can follow her. (If you haven’t picked up on it yet, this show loves the play on words.) Because Regina is in love with Robin, she trades the wand for Robin. Zelena opens a portal but she can’t leave because she is too weak. The heroes win and take over the portal. Yay! Now, they can finally get to Emma!
Emma goes to wake Merida the next morning but she’s gone. Emma found her not too far away. The darkness in Emma told her to rip Merida’s heart out. The light in her prevents her from doing so. Emma struggles with this internal conflict throughout most of the episode. Merida on the other hand attempts multiple times to kill Emma. Emma ends up pulling Merida’s heart right out of her chest and almost crushes it. Right as Emma is about to give in to her inner demons, Hook intervenes and in comes the rest of the gang, who persuade Emma to return Merida's heart. Phew! That was a close one!
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They explain to Emma how they got there and, while they are doing so, Arthur rides up to them.
In the prophecy, Arthur was to find them and were supposed to go to Camelot and await the return of Merlin. So that means Emma will be saved! That seems too easy.
Flash forward six weeks. They all awake in Storybrooke without any memory. They all look around to find Emma missing. She soon appears, dressed in all black. “You went to Camelot to get the darkness out of me and you failed. I am the Dark One,” she says.
With the former savior as the villain, who knows where this will lead. It’s a risky yet interesting twist that will be sure to keep people hooked. Until Hook, Regina and the gang can figure out a way to suck the darkness out of Emma, it looks like the town of Storybrooke is in for a world of hurt.
via accesshollywood.com
Once Upon a Time airs every Sunday at 8 p.m., on ABC.
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