Merlin finds, then loses, love in "Nimue".
Well, Once Upon A Time fans, we finally receive some answers, though they may not be the ones we are looking for.
In “Nimue,” as the title suggests, we meet the woman who Merlin told the people of Storybrooke to find. This episode focuses mainly on Merlin’s past and how it relates to the gang in Camelot before they lost their memories. We spend very little time in Storybrooke — the last five minutes to be exact — and this uncovers some more adventures that took place before the memory loss.
One thousand years before the age of Arthur (Liam Garrigan), a famished Merlin (Elliot Knight) and someone that’s accompanying him are running through a desert looking for something. They come to a chalice. The guy with Merlin touches it and turns to dust. When Merlin drinks from it, the desert around him turns into a lush forest.
In Camelot, five weeks before the memory loss, Merlin tells Emma (Jennifer Morrison) they are going to go searching for the Spark of Prometheus. This spark will help forge the Excalibur and the dagger together. When they get to the location of the spark, they will have to defeat the very first and most powerful Dark One. This is the same one that killed Merlin’s love and turned him into a tree. Emma has two choices: She will either resist the darkness and be free of it or succumb to it and put everyone in danger. Dun dun dun.
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Two hundred years earlier, Merlin approaches a woman that is in need of help. A man burnt down her village, and she wants revenge. People come from all over to talk to Merlin because he can see the future of everyone, but for some reason he can’t see hers. The lady reveals herself as Nimue (Caroline Ford).
During the same time period, Merlin and Nimue are now a couple. Merlin wants to marry her, but something is preventing him from doing so. Merlin tells Nimue that he got his powers by drinking from the Holy Grail. He drank from it and received eternal life. He wants to marry Nimue, but he doesn’t want to be immortal. He just wants to grow old with her and live out their lives as husband and wife. He suggests they make a sword out of the Holy Grail that can remove him of his immortality.
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While Emma and Merlin are out seeking the spark, Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin), David (Josh Dallas), Regina (Lana Parrilla), Hook (Colin O'Donoghue) and Robin Hood (Sean Maguire) are trying to come up with a way to get the Excalibur from the backstabber, Arthur. Zelena, who is silently watching, finally reveals she knows a way into the castle. She will only help if Regina removes the cuff that prevents her from using magic.
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Years earlier, Nimue takes Merlin to her burnt-down village. On the ground they find cups. The person who burnt down the village was looking for the Grail. Merlin sees a vision of the first Dark One. He was the one who burnt the village and the people in it to a crisp.
While Robin Hood, Regina, Hook and David go into the castle to look for the Excalibur, Mary Margaret is put in charge of Zelena. Zelena tricks Mary Margaret to come close to her. Zelena kicks her in the face and knocks her out! “There’s no rest for the wicked,” says Zelena. Another play on words… Will they ever stop?
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Years earlier, Merlin is successful in making the Holy Grail into a sword. The first Dark One shows up. He tries to take Nimue. Nimue fights back but the Dark One stabs her. Merlin weeps as she dies in his arms. Even though Nimue wasn’t in the series for very long, I was still sad to see her go. I was hoping to see her and Merlin’s love story play out.
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When they get to the place of Prometheus’s Spark, Merlin gives Emma the power to summon the first Dark One. As the name on the blade changes, the Dark One appears. “You can see him, too?” says Emma to Merlin, who is looking right at the Dark One. He says, “yes, but it’s not a ‘he’.” The name on the dagger reads “Nimue,” and when she takes off her mask, Nimue’s face has turned old and green.
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I did not see that one coming! That is an evil plot twist. At this point, you have to feel bad for Merlin. The past Dark Ones have not been very successful with keeping relationships, and I don’t think this one will be an exception.
Years earlier, the Dark One is about to attack Merlin. The face of the Dark One contorts as if he’s been stabbed in the back. Sure enough, standing behind him is Nimue, and she rips out his heart! The only way she could have done that was if she had magical powers. When Merlin wasn’t looking, Nimue drank from the Holy Grail. Merlin begs her to put the heart back into the Dark One. Instead of obeying the one she loves, she crushes the heart, thus becoming the Dark One. Nimue doesn’t want Merlin to have the sword, so out of anger, she hits it against a stone and it breaks. FINALLY! We know why the Excalibur is broken!
In the forest five weeks before the memory loss, Nimue is trying to persuade Emma to kill Merlin. The darkness in Emma is taking over and she attacks Merlin. Emma is so close to killing him when she turns on Nimue. Emma doesn’t want to be the Dark One. The spark she needs to combine the Excalibur and the daggers lies within Nimue. Emma retrieves it. Merlin is very proud of Emma. This proves that Emma is still good! On their journey back, Merlin tells Emma that he and his apprentice put the Excalibur in the stone and made the Dark One’s dagger in order to prevent Nimue from creating a reign of terror. Merlin couldn’t keep the dagger away from her forever though. When Nimue got the dagger, she turned Merlin into a tree.
In Camelot, Zelena takes Mary Margaret into the castle. They find Arthur and the rest of the gang. Zelena helps Arthur with a spell that etches Merlin’s name into the other end of the Excalibur. This gives Arthur the power to summon and control Merlin.
We don’t find out what Arthur does because the camera cuts to present day Storybrooke. Emma now possesses both parts of the Excalibur and the spark they found back in Camelot. Before she can forge the two together, Nimue appears and so do all of the former Dark Ones. They watch her as she makes the two parts one, and they whisper, in very demonic voices, “Take the power.” She takes the now whole sword and the television screen goes black.
As usual, we see two different sides of Emma in this episode: the one that wants to rid the darkness and one that embraces it. It is frustrating to see her do good in Camelot and know that she becomes dark. I’m waiting for her to reveal that she hasn’t really gone dark, and she’s planning to get rid of all of the dark magic. This a highly unlikely scenario. What happened in the span of six weeks that caused Emma to become completely dark? This is the question that keeps me up at night, and at this rate, we won’t find out until the end of the season.
Once Upon A Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC
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