Once Upon a Time: Nimue (5x07)

This. Is. Awesome. Everything is falling into place excellently. I have a few little nitpicking complaints, but mostly I'm thrilled with the direction this is going. Things have to get worse for our heroes before they can get better, right?

Cons:

The back story about Merlin and Nimue was for the most part excellent, but the entire "shock" of the episode is built on the reveal that Nimue is the first Dark One. It was painfully obvious from the first moment, and so Merlin's constant elusive statements were a bit hokey. It would have been okay for us to know the whole time that Nimue was the Dark One. It wouldn't really have ruined the suspense at all.

Merlin and Emma go on a quest in this episode to get an ember from Prometheus' fire, with which Excalibur and the Dagger can be reunited. That's all well and good, but I never quite understood why the two of them needed to do this on their own. Wouldn't it have been better to have Hook or maybe Mary Margaret and David along? They might have helped Emma remember the goodness within her. Maybe she had to make the choice unfettered by her loved ones, but honestly I think Merlin was taking a rather silly and unnecessary risk.

Pros:

Merlin's backstory is pretty basic: he finds the Holy Grail and drinks from it, which gives him immortality and magic. Five hundred years later, he meets Nimue and falls in love with her. He wants to change the Holy Grail into a sword (Excalibur) which can then be used to sever his immortality from him, so that he can live an ordinary mortal life with his true love. Nimue is tempted by the power of immortality, especially because she wants revenge against the man who destroyed her village. Nimue drinks from the cup before Merlin can turn it into a sword. She kills the man who destroyed her village, turning her new magic to Darkness. She becomes the first Dark One, breaking the newly forged sword so that Merlin can't use it to take away her magic.

As I said, the twist was painfully obvious. But I actually enjoyed this a lot. Nimue was a good person. But faced with such overwhelming power, she wasn't equipped to fight temptation. Merlin's grief was really touching, and it was fascinating to see this version of the Arthurian myth.

Hundreds of years later in Camelot, Emma and Merlin go on a quest to confront the Dark One inside of Emma and get the ember that will reunite Excalibur. Emma has to come face to face with Nimue, and fight against the temptation of all that power. She succeeds, which is awesome. We know that Emma has already started to embrace her Darkness in certain ways. What she did to Henry, for example, was pretty awful. But at the same time, she chooses to reject Nimue's promises of glory. When Nimue says that Emma will go back to being nothing if she rejects the Darkness, Emma angrily declares that she was never nothing. She's found her self-worth through the strength of her own convictions, and through the love of her family. It's powerful character development for Emma. When she gets back to herself, she's going to be stronger than ever!

While this quest is going on, the others are back in Camelot gearing up for war with Arthur. They have the Dark One dagger, but they need the rest of Excalibur in order to reunite it. Zelena helps them with a plan to sneak into the castle and get the sword, but it turns out she's a double agent - she escapes Mary Margaret, who was supposed to be guarding her, and shows up to help Arthur with a tricky little spell. She puts the name "Merlin" on the broken sword Excalibur, this turning it in to a sort of "Light One Dagger" if you will. Arthur uses it to summon Merlin to do his bidding. Arthur refuses to listen to Merlin when he says that they can finally reunite the blade. Arthur doesn't want Merlin taking the glory for himself.

There are so many excellent things going on here. It's interesting to see a character like Arthur, who we know had a great destiny ahead of him, failing so miserably to uphold that destiny. Then there's Zelena, who finally got interesting again. I loved the scene where she and Mary Margaret were waiting back while the others broke into the castle. Zelena starts crying, saying that Regina always wins and she always loses. Mary Margaret isn't fooled, but when Zelena appears to be in physical pain, Mary Margaret checks on her out of concern for the baby. I actually felt a moment of true, strong sympathy for Zelena when she sobbed that Regina was going to take her baby from her. But of course, Zelena is just as crazy as ever, and the whole thing was a trick.

Hook spends the episode as the supportive and worried boyfriend. Every Captain Swan shipper has already watched the scene between them like a million times (or was that just me?) but let's talk about it anyway. Hook gives Emma the ring he wears around his neck as a talisman of protection. Emma reminds him that she's immortal now, so she can't die. Hook says that the Dark One is immortal, but Emma isn't. "Bring her back to me." Oh my God it's so adorable I might cry. And Hook reminds Emma that he loves her, and Emma says "I love you too," and they kiss twice, and my heart exploded.

Also, we see constant evidence of Hook's mounting worry. He gets angry with Merlin for the vagueness of his plans because he's freaking out about Emma, and when he learns at the end that Emma passed the test and didn't succumb to Darkness (yet), he has such a profound look of relief on his face.

The episode ends in Storybrooke, as Emma gets ready to unite Excalibur's broken pieces. Dark One Rumple and Dark One Nimue both appear to watch, telling her that they're proud of her. She unites the blade, but hesitates briefly before taking the sword in her hands. She remembers Merlin, posing as the usher in the movie theatre when she was a kid, telling her to stay away from Excalibur. However, with Nimue and Rumple's urging, she takes the sword, accelerating her Darkness one step further. It was so creepy when the other Dark Ones told Emma that they were proud. Emma should want to make her family proud, not the agents of Evil! I can't wait to see what this means. Now that Excalibur is finally whole once more, will Emma go forward with her plan to expel all Light magic from the land?

That's where I'll stop. This was a very strong episode. Zelena became interesting again, which was awesome. We got to see Emma face a challenge and succeed, but then later fail. We got the mother of all Emma/Hook scenes, and we're one step closer to learning the full truth. Next week's double episode should help answer a lot of our questions!

9/10