The Enchanted Forest/Camelot:

When Emma was swept away from Storybrooke, she was reborn in The Enchanted Forest as The Dark One. At first, she was confronted by what appeared to be Rumpelstiltskin, but it was actually the combined spirit of all the dark ones that had passed before her. She set off in search of Merlin, attempting to deal with her new powers and Dark One “guide.” Before long, she ran into Merida. They began to fight over who would use a whisp to find what they were looking for. Merida was looking for her kidnapped brothers, and of course, Emma was looking for Merlin. The darkness convinced Emma to kill Merida, but Snow, Charming, Regina, Hook and company managed to find her before she could crush Merida’s heart. Hook was the one who talked her down.

Being around the people she loved kept her from seeing “Rumpelstiltskin.” She went with them to Granny’s, which they had brought with them from Storybrooke. As they approached the entrance, Arthur and his retinue came riding up. Arthur explained that Merlin prophesied their arrival, and so the group accompanied him back to Camelot.

A lot happened in Camelot. To begin with, Arthur threw a ball in their honor. As they were getting ready for the festivities, Snow and Emma had a mother-daughter moment, and Charming taught Regina how to dance. Once they were at the ball, Henry met a beautiful young girl named Violet, but before that got too cute, Percival tried to kill Regina, stabbed Robin instead, and was killed by David. With much imploring from Regina, Emma used her powers to heal Robin.

There were two main problems in Camelot. The obvious problem was that Merlin was stuck in a tree. Regina found a spell that would allow them to talk to him using a magic toadstool called the Crimson Crown. Charming decides to quest for it, and Arthur offers to “help.” The problem that was not initially obvious was that Arthur was a schizophrenic, selfish bastard with a Napoleon complex. Of course, Emma’s struggle with the darkness was a problem all of its own.

At one of her most difficult moments, the dagger was calling for her. Hook found her by it, and she almost attacked him in an attempt to get rid of “Rumpelstiltskin.” She had a total meltdown, and the next day Hook ended up taking her horseback riding to distract her from “the demon in her head.” This allowed for some cutesy romantic scenes.

Meanwhile, Snow ran into Lancelot, who told her she couldn’t trust Arthur, a fact over which she and Charming argued. While they devised a plan to determine who was telling the truth, Arthur or Lancelot, Emma began using the dream catchers she was making to “see” people’s memories. It turns out that Lancelot was right, and Emma was able to see how Merlin was trapped.

Emma and Regina were able to free Merlin, but only with a tear from the loss of one’s first love (i.e. Violet rejects Henry, which was really Emma’s doing, but we didn’t find that out until later). Merlin had Emma face Nimue (the demon inside of her, the first Dark One) to get a spark of Prometheus, so they could re-forge Excalibur and the dagger into one sword. Of course Emma was successful, but then Merlin disappeared!

Merlin disappeared because Arthur had Zelena tether him to Excalibur the same way the Dark One was tethered to the dagger. This, Zelena did in exchange for Arthur’s help in releasing her. Arthur, controlling Merlin, demanded that Emma give him the dagger and the flame. Emma refused. She and Merlin started to battle, but she was able to talk him down long enough for Hook to escape from his binds and attack Arthur, getting nicked by Excalibur in the process. Arthur runs off, and the gang go back to Granny’s to reunite sword and dagger.

As Emma started to re-forge Excalibur, Hook’s wound burst open and he began to bleed to death. Emma immediately stopped, dropped by his side, and made the misguided decision to save him instead. The catch was that to do so she had to turn him into a Dark One. It didn’t turn out so well though, considering that Hook went full on dark and killed Merlin to get back to Storybrooke and put into motion a plan to snuff out all the light! Just so that no one could stop him, he put Excalibur back in the stone. Unable to reverse Hook’s curse, Emma knocked everyone out, and erased their memories so that no one, including Hook, would know that he was a Dark One.