Once Upon a Time postmortem: Burning premiere questions answered

In the Once Upon a Time Season 5 premiere, Emma fought to stay good after becoming the new Dark One but in the process, she picked fights with the ones she loves the most. “It’s going to take the 11 episodes to get there”. My eyes never left the screen as I didn’t want to miss a thing. “While a lot of this story in the first half we tend to wrap up in the midseason, there are bigger issues that are introduced as early as [the premiere] that will carry over for the whole season….” The flashback was of a young Emma at a movie theater that was very fittingly showing The Sword in the Stone.

Regina proves you don’t have to be bad to be a badass, and tricks Zelena into opening an Oz portal, for them to hitch a ride to Camelot, just in time for the gang to stop her from crushing Merida’s heart. In typical OUAT fashion, I’m afraid we will have to wait until that is fully revealed.

“Once Upon A Time” season 5 will also have new characters in the show like Merlin, played by Elliot Knight, King Arthur by Liam Garrigan, as well as the lovely Queen Guinevere, played by Joana Metrass. If the changes in the retelling of a classic fairy tale work, then I am behind it 100 percent. ONCE does this well, and in spades.

Emma is warned as a child to not pull the sword from the stone. What does this mean regarding the dagger’s power in controlling Emma?

Henry distracts the nurse and Hook goes into Zelena’s cell.

Merida leaves Emma behind after overhearing her talking to herself about betraying her for the wisp. Or is she destined to become The Dark One, regardless of her friends’ efforts? The writers were also playing to their strengths by giving Robert Carlyle, one of their best actors, the part of the dark aspect of Emma’s mind, as it would be unrealistic for Rumpelstiltskin to be already out of his coma.

How about that Merida eh?

One of the most poignant parts of the episode was Emma’s progression into her role as the Dark One. But hey, that’s just a typical Sunday for these characters.

Emma apologizes to Merida, and Merida thanks her for showing her the darkness inside. Her portrayal of Emma as the Dark One was absolutely wonderful. Before it touches down, Leroy and two other dwarves arrive and demand to go with them to fetch Emma. But Emma knew that she still couldn’t be trusted, so she decided to give the dagger to Regina and made her promise to use it to destroy her if she can’t be saved.

Zelena explains that her baby is her future and that she doesn’t want anyone to take him from her or turn him against her. Her plan is to use the wand to create a portal to return to Oz. After Regina leaves, Zelena tells Hook she may be the only way for him to find Emma.

Once Upon A Time is back!

“We’re not just planning to drop them back in the show with no explanation and just say ‘Oh, they were over in the corner, ‘” Horowitz said of Mulan (Jamie Chung) and Red (Meghan Ory), who will both appear in multiple episodes of Season 5. Merida took aim, and Emma caught every single arrow. “There are bits and pieces of all of the Darkness from before that come with the Darkness once you’ve surrendered to it. There is an element of Rumple, and Zoso, and whoever else we may establish was, at some point, a Dark One”. I totally support that friendship and happily ship it. I am a major fan of the Hook, who would have ever thought it?

“Once Upon a Time” stars Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan, Lana Parrilla as the Evil Queen/Regina, Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David, Emilie de Ravin as Belle, Colin O’Donoghue as Hook, Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills, Sean Maguire as Robin Hood, Rebecca Mader as the Wicked Witch/Zelena and Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold.

On their way back to Granny’s Diner (which is now taking up residence in the Enchanted Forest), Emma and Co. were interrupted by King Arthur’s arrival. Amy Manson captured the spunk Merida displayed in fearless. Emma showed up looking all kinds of fierce. What’s that I hear? King Arthur reveals they’ve come specifically to find the time travelers, which shocks the Storybrooke crew. Remember Merlin and his prophecies? Clearly, that Camelot trip didn’t go quite as planned, dearies. It seems all will be well until…..cut to….

Tell Us: Did the Once Upon a Time premiere cast a spell on you? Granny’s Diner landed back in Storybrooke….six weeks later…can’t say it enough….six weeks later, with everyone wearing Camelot period style clothing and no memory at all. However, they know that that’s not the real Emma speaking. “We went to Camelot to get the darkness out of me then you failed”, she says before turning poor Sneezy into stone.

I also liked the introduction of Brave’s Merida, which sets up Emma’s first test in her struggle against the Dark One Curse. He invited them all back to his kingdom of Camelot. “For us, we just loved the idea of how annoying it would be to be a Dwarf and you were the guard in the pilot, and now there’s all these adventures and everyone’s like, “What was Neverland like?” “The people that love me”.