Storybrooke:

When the crew returned to Storybrooke seemingly sans Emma, they didn’t remember anything past arriving at Camelot. Emma then presented herself to them as the Dark One bent on revenge for how they didn’t remember treating her. It turns out that this was really a ruse to keep them in the dark (pun intended).

Although she might not have been as dark as she first appeared, she still did some pretty crappy things as an end to her means of “atoning” for her mistake. She kidnapped Rumple so she could have him pull Excalibur from the stone for her, but only a hero could do it, and Rumple was still in a coma. So, she manipulated Hook into showing her the cutlass that touched Rumple when he was still just a man, which she needed to revive him. She then forced Merida (by controlling her heart) to help her turn Rumple into a hero. It worked, he pulled Excalibur, she set Merida free, and reunited sword and dagger.

Still, no one knew exactly what she was up to, until she somehow sped up Zelena’s pregnancy. With a little reconnaissance and research, they figured that Emma wanted Zelena’s baby in order to enact a spell of some kind. During their snooping though, they found one of Emma’s dream catchers that showed Emma controlling Violet’s heart to force her to break Henry’s. At that point, no one trusted her! Emma tried to explain that it was only done to set Merlin free, but it was all too confusing for everyone to accept.

Zelena had her baby and Hook confronted Emma. They both ended up in her basement in shackles. Emma had wanted to take all the darkness out of her, and out of the unaware Hook, put it into Zelena and strike her down, essentially ridding the world of the darkness. Of course, that isn’t possible, so it didn’t work. Once Hook and Zelena had gotten free, Hook immobilized Emma with squid ink so that she would have to answer his questions, but Zelena returned with the dream catcher that housed his memories making him realize he was the Dark One.

You would think all hell broke loose by the look in his eyes, and it turns out that’s exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted to bring back all the dark ones from the underworld. He took Emma’s memory and hid the dream catchers so that she wouldn’t know what he was doing. He confronted Rumple and challenged him to finish their duel. Rumple bested him, and spared him. After that, Hook moved on with his plan, and brought the dark ones to Storybrooke, but the only way they could stay is if someone went back to the underworld in their place. Hook exchanged them for Emma’s family.

Meanwhile, Emma and co. found the dream catchers, realized what he was doing, and tried to stop him. Nothing worked until Nimue took it upon herself to keep Emma at bay. Seeing Emma physically suffering was enough to shake him free from his hate long enough to trap all the dark ones into Excalibur. He then fulfilled Emma’s plan by sacrificing himself to save everyone, though it was Emma who drove the sword through him.

The worst part for Emma was finding out that Rumple managed to sneak the darkness back into himself so that he was once again the Dark One. Now he is more powerful than ever, because he has the power of each Dark One that came before him, including hers. She has one thing on him though…Belle. As frustrating as it is that everyone seems willing to let Belle remain blinded to his treachery as long as he does their bidding, it is her way of forcing him to take her to the underworld to go after Hook. Her plan this time is to have Regina rip out her heart, break it in half, and use it so that she and Hook can both come back without having to trade a life for his. Will it work? Tune in Sunday night at 8pm EST on ABC to find out what happens when our gang arrives in the underworld!