Previously on "once upon a time"...
You destroyed the only woman i ever loved.
Arthur knows we freed merlin,
And he's really not happy about it.
You ruined my life!
We both know that broken sword can't hurt me.
Emma has excalibur.
The restored weapon has great power.
It can destroy all light magic.
That's her plan.
To snuff out the light forever.
What are you?
Rumplestiltskin is but one of many.
All the dark ones inside you.
There is only one person
Who can help you defeat the dark one now.
Her name...Is nimue.
Beautiful, aren't they?
Both halves finally reunited.
You know what they represent, now, don't you?
Power.
It's much more than power, dearie.
It's history.
Excalibur's promise was born eons ago.
And now it's time for that promise...
To be fulfilled.
They following?!
No.
They wouldn't trail escaped generals into this,
Much less foot soldiers.
Look, look!
There it is again.
It's a mirage, merlin.
There's no water there.
I would rather find out for sure than lie here and die.
Come on.
That's a gift from the gods.
We are hardly worth notice of the gods.
The gods could do worse.
But if you don't want any...
Well, then...
To drink or die?
With your permission...
Thank you.
I have magic.
- Captions by vitac --
So you can really do it --
Take the dark one dagger and put it together
With arthur's sword to re-create the original excalibur?
I hope so.
And we can use it to save emma?
Perhaps, but i need two things.
The magical means to unite the two blades.
That's my and emma's quest.
From you, i need -- the two blades.
We're pretty much at the open-warfare stage.
Now, getting the partial sword from arthur won't be easy.
As long as you're looking at the future, any hints on how?
Well, the future isn't exact.
There are many parts -- of course there are.
You're willing to send us behind enemy lines,
But when it comes to specifics,
Everything's a little fuzzy, isn't it?!
Hook, merlin's helping emma. Is he?!
She's sitting out there right now,
Making things to pull memories out of people's heads,
Because that's what she does now instead of sleeping.
I'm not quite seeing the helping!
I understand.
I know what it is to lose someone you love
To the dark one.
All i can ask of all of you
Is that you bring me that sword...
...And that you have patience with emma.
Her kind of power, for good or evil --
It is a weight on the soul.
And love is a great help, if you can find it.
There. You're healed.
Gratitude, great merlin.
You're both very welcome.
I think that's it for today.
Wait.
I didn't see her arrive.
I'll get her to leave.
What does she want?
Don't you know?
You always know.
I'll talk to her.
Uh, you head back.
Check on the brooms.
Have you come to see me?
You're merlin?
Not all wizards have long white beards.
Please, tell me. What brings you here?
My village --
Uh, i was in my garden when a masked man rode in.
His name is vortigan.
He ransacks towns,
Burns them to the ground,
So i-i fled on foot to the woods.
I looked back from the hillside,
And everything was in flames.
He had killed everyone.
I'm so sorry.
Please, allow me to help you.
What can i grant you?
Revenge.
These were all i had on me when i ran.
They're seeds from the middlemist flower.
They only prosper around my village.
When vortigan scorched the earth,
He could have killed them forever.
My best revenge would be for them to live on despite him.
We will plant them here.
Thank you.
If the flowers survive,
At least something other than me lived on.
I'll try and pass through again in the spring.
i want to see them in bloom.
Well, why wait?
Stay close.
You can come and see them anytime.
You see the future.
Do i do that?
With you, for some reason...
I have no idea.
I hope so.
What's your name?
Nimue.
Emma.
Emma, there is a way to make excalibur whole again.
Will you come with me today so we can get what we need?
It's not far. What is it?
A spark from mankind's original fire,
The flame of prometheus.
Its heat forged excalibur,
And that's what we'll need to put it back together.
So will you come with me to collect the spark?
We'll be back by nightfall.
You look dire.
What is it?
When we get there,
We will need to deal with the first dark one.
The one who wore the mask?
The one who killed the woman you love?
The very same.
This is not a trivial task.
I was seeing rumplestiltskin.
Like, a voice in my head.
I just got rid of him.
And now you want me to let another one in?
Yes, and not just anyone.
This is the first dark one, the original,
The one from whom all the evil that followed was born.
Will we win?
I see two paths for our journey, emma.
On one, you resist the darkness and we succeed.
On the other, you succumb to the darkness
And i do not return.
I die.
You die? But --
Even immortality has exceptions.
A dark one does have the power to kill me.
But they won't even be there. Not really.
Oh.
It would be me.
If you died, it would be me.
If i die, it means that you lost your battle
And the darkness stained your soul.
Everything and everyone that you know
Will be at the mercy
Of the most powerful dark one ever --
Yourself.
No pressure.
You'll return by nightfall, right? Yes.
We go get this spark thing,
And then i'm working my way back to you, babe.
I know when you're quoting something.
And i love that you never know what it is.
Anyway, with a bit of luck,
We can put excalibur together tomorrow,
And then -- bam -- no more darkness.
Be careful, emma.
Whoa. whoa, whoa, whoa.
Calm down, swan. I'm not proposing.
You know i'm a survivor.
This ring is why. I've had it for many years.
It's the reason i'm alive.
Or it could be. Who knows?
You know i can't die today.
I'm immortal now.
The dark one is immortal.
Emma isn't.
Bring her home to me.
At the very least, it's a reminder
That you've got a piercing-eyed,
Smoldering pirate here who loves you.
Thank you.
I love you, too.
It's time.
Is this some new magic?
Are you frowning them into growing faster?
just thinking.
There's a man i'm considering helping.
He's tired.
He's spent his life tending to others,
And now he just wants to marry the woman he loves
And grow old by her side.
But there's an obstacle.
He sounds awful.
if i teach you nothing else,
It will be to laugh at yourself.
If you want to propose, go ahead.
Now, tell me about this obstacle.
Well, you know that i didn't always have magic,
But i've never actually said how it happened.
it was a gift.
I found the holy grail.
What?
The holy grail?
You found the holy grail?
Merlin --
I drank from it, and it gave me magic.
But it also gave me eternal life.
That was 500 years ago.
I don't age. I don't die.
So if i were to marry you,
Then i would have to watch as you leave me behind.
I would rather share a life with you to the end
Than go on without you.
If you still had the grail --
I do.
It's in the bottom of the chest,
In the main room of the tower.
It's in my living room.
Wait. There's your answer, o wise one.
Let me drink from the grail.
We can live forever together.
I'm so sorry, my dearest,
But i've already seen the cost of immortality.
Life is made of little moments,
Precious as diamonds.
But imagine there were an endless sea of diamonds.
They'd all be worthless. They'd be as common as sand.
I do have another solution,
If you'll accept it.
We take the grail,
And we remake it into a sword.
Such a blade could cut away my magic,
My immortality,
And then we can come back here,
And we can live normal lives together.
You would really give up so much?
For you.
I don't want this moment to get lost
In an endless sea of time.
Come.
Come make the preparations.
Okay, what's the plan?
We take them by surprise and go in through the front gate.
Well, after our jailbreak, they'll be on high alert.
We need a diversion at the drawbridge.
The rest of us can climb the wall on the side.
Are you forgetting? I've got magic.
I can just poof into arthur's bedroom.
What?!
Well, if you're going to make a scene,
You might as well make noise.
Oh! Thank you.
I do love hearing a sensible person talk.
Spit it out. What are you thinking?
I'm thinking going in the front -- suicide.
Diversion -- arthur hides the sword.
You need it on him.
And you could poof right in front of a blade.
Oopsie!
You need to sneak in so quietly...
No one knows you're there.
How? Hang glider? Oh, giant slingshot.
If sir-castic would let me speak,
I'd tell you that i wasn't idle during those days in there,
Playing mute handmaiden at regina's side.
I was plotting an escape.
I knew it.
And i found a way out.
And if i know a way out, i know a way in.
You're going to help us?
Of course.
Because you're going to help me.
I want my magic back.
It's a tunnel, abandoned for years.
It will take you to the courtyard.
Well, if it's so good,
Why didn't you escape through it?
Observe the massive metal grate.
See, without magic, i'm a delicate thing.
Well, it leads in the right direction.
Looks like your information is good,
At least this far. Thank you.
Now i've done my part. You can do yours.
Take off this bloody cuff.
For all we know, this leads to the guards' quarters.
We make it out safe with the sword, then we'll talk.
Mary margaret, how do you feel about guard duty?
Oh, i'd be delighted.
We'll chat, have plenty of pregnancy tips.
Good lord, this is worse than being in my cell.
All right, everyone.
Let's get this sword.
These are powerful ingredients, arthur.
I hope you know what you're doing.
We need something to protect us.
These people drop from the sky,
Then they turn on us, freeing prisoners!
They won't stop until they've taken everything from me.
Guards!
Infidels are on their way.
Call up the reserves.
Get every man on the parapet, and patrol every hall.
And, you, give me your helm.
The ladle and the caldron have special protection spells.
This helmet and our friends do not.
Throw this on any stranger you see,
And bring me what's left of them.
It will be nothing but teeth and bones.
This is war now.
Ing rumplestiltskin in my head,
He said he would only be with me
Until i embraced my dark powers.
So recently, i've been thinking maybe not seeing him,
Maybe that's a bad thing.
Have you embraced your powers?
I've done some dark things recently.
I hurt someone --
My son.
And if i dig deep down...
...The darkness is winning.
But there's hope, right?
You wouldn't be bothering to get this spark
If there wasn't still hope.
There is hope,
And it's up there.
That's a whole lot of up.
We can make it.
The question is, will i come down?
This was my village. My home.
Look what's become of it.
My house was -- was right here.
Or maybe -- maybe it was there.
Oh, it's so different now.
Sometimes the sole survivor of a tragedy can feel guilty.
In the future, they'll call it --
I don't feel guilty. I feel angry.
This shouldn't be the way
That those who cannot take are taken.
If i had magic like yours,
If i had a million lifetimes to hand out power
To those who need it and to strike down those who --
Nimue, shh.
It's been decided.
Look.
In the street, cups.
It looks like every household brought out their cups for him.
Why would they d--
Oh!
He was questing for the grail
And torching down each hiding place
as he annihilated it.
Will you check the pack and make sure the grail is secure?
I've never taken it away from the tower before.
I'm going to perform a detection spell.
vortigan.
He's here, over the horizon, the way we came!
Hurry!
He's just a man!
You could kill him with one magical word.
If i use magic to kill,
Darkness will take root inside of me.
Nothing -- nothing is worth risking that.
Come.
Back.
You suppose that's for us?
I have a feeling we don't want to find out.
Come on. Let's keep moving.
I keep waiting for the ax to fall.
I didn't think she had it in her, but...
Zelena hasn't screwed us...
Yet.
Good thing we're in the shade.
I guess the sun's a problem for you
Now that you're not green.
Oh, no.
I'm finally trying to do something to help,
And nobody believes me!
It's the hormones talking.
No! She's always the winner, and i'm always the loser,
And she's gonna take my baby!
Zelena.
Zelena?
Zelena, are you in pain?
Not now that you've shut up!
Oh, there's no rest for the wicked.
It's amazing.
Come. You'll see that's an understatement.
Are you sure this will work?
I'm quite sure.
This will give me the life i wish for --
Shorter...
And full of love and meaning.
Oh, my god.
Wait.
What?
Vortigan.
There's no more grail, sir. Leave us be.
He wants the sword.
The sword will bring you no joy.
Nimue, be still!
I can do this! You don't know!
No!
Nimue.
Nimue?
Oh, no, no, no!
I'm sorry.
Nimue.
Nimue?
Nimue!
This structure marks the end of prometheus' theft.
The stolen flame burned on for a great while --
Long enough for excalibur to be both forged and broken here.
This is where the first dark one killed nimue,
The woman i loved.
What happened to the flame?
The first dark one took it
And still possesses it in the form of a single ember,
With the spark deep inside.
So that's what i need to get.
Okay. Bring him on.
My family let you take this?
I didn't ask permission.
You need its power to talk to the first dark one,
To reach all the way back to the origin of dark magic.
It's buzzing, like... Ants crawling up my arm.
Is it safe?
Of course not.
Your power is totally unchecked,
And i've just handed you the power to kill me.
Now...
Call on the spirit of the previous dark ones.
Take the right path.
It's just in my head.
You did it.
You can see him, too? Yes.
Power has its advantages.
And it's not a him.
You killed her!
And now i'm going to kill you.
That power was never meant to be a weapon!
Then you shouldn't have turned it into a sword.
Nimue.
How?
When i cast the detection spell.
Yes. I drank from the grail.
You didn't tell me what it feels like to be strong, merlin,
To be immortal.
Nimue, you let me watch you die!
I'm sorry about the play-acting,
But it was my last chance to remind you
What death looks like.
What matters now
Is that you're holding a man's heart in your hand.
Please, spare him.
He doesn't deserve sparing!
If you kill, your magic will turn dark.
You'll commit atrocities that you can't even imagine.
This man took my home and my family.
I had nothing to care for but a handful of seeds!
I'm not fighting for him! I'm fighting for you!
I need you to be the woman that i know.
I cannot bear to watch you become this.
I know you feel you've lost everything,
But, nimue, if you do this...
...Then we've lost everything.
Let's not think about cutting away
Anyone's magic or immortality.
Please don't -- don't do this.
Nimue.
No!
I'm sorry.
No, nimue.
I'm sorry.
Nimue.
Yes. I'm nimue.
And you are emma.
How pretty,
The first dark one and the newest dark one
Standing as sisters.
It makes sense.
You killed the woman he loved
Because you killed the woman you used to be.
Why didn't you tell me?
I did tell you.
The creature over there is the first dark one.
It's not the woman i loved.
It's been a long time, merlin.
I've thought of you every day.
And now, on your last day,
I'll be your last thought.
How poetic.
Why are you doing this? You loved him.
Even when you love someone,
You have to say, "no, this is mine.
You can't take it away from me."
And if they don't listen,
If they try to stop you from being you,
Then you have no choice.
You have to kill them.
Oh...
...And you're doing this...
...Because we are one and the same now,
All dark ones, and we must destroy the threat to us.
We must destroy merlin.
Emma, please.
It's...Not me!
Finish the job! Don't listen!
He wants you to make a sword to destroy me,
To destroy us.
You can control this.
Don't listen to him!
He doesn't understand what you and i do.
He doesn't understand the power.
If you don't kill him now,
You'll go back to being powerless.
Killing is the dark path.
No! It's power to protect yourself and your loved ones!
Let the light win.
Kill him! Don't go back to being nothing!
I'm not nothing! I was never nothing!
The power you have i don't need!
Now i am going to take that ember from you,
And you are going to let me.
The spark you need is in there...
But the sword you will make has more than one use,
And i am not dead yet, girl.
You know where to find me when you want me.
I'll be right in there.
You did it.
I did.
How does it feel to take the right path?
To be honest, merlin,
It feels damn good.
Pened after she turned into the dark one?.Com
First, my apprentice and i made sure the sword would be safe.
Then, i created the dagger.
I tethered her spirit to it
So i could control and prevent her reign of terror.
But eventually, she got it away from me.
She put you in the tree.
She wore the mask then.
Yes.
She took that mask from a man who did her great harm.
It's easier to live with the darkness
If you can dress it up as vengeance.
I realize your heart was broken,
But now i know...
Nimue loves you still.
It's all twisted up, but i felt it.
Thank you.
That means a lot to me.
too bad you couldn't see her future.
You could have not talked to her in the first place.
No, no, my boy, no. Never think that.
Even now i would live through it again.
Life is made of moments...
And i had the best moments of my life with her.
Is it possible for someone to have the darkness,
But use it for good, use it to protect people?
Emma, don't let those thoughts tempt you.
But is it true?
Someday perhaps there will be a person
Who's worthy to hold that much power
And not let it burn through to darken their soul.
But if we can wipe out the darkness,
We'll never have to ask that much of anyone.
Sounds like we need to find the other half of excalibur.
Foul witch, you've overpowered the guards!
Sword's on the table. Don't touch it.
It could have protection charms.
Tell your timbers to stop shivering, pirate.
Nothing in here can hurt us.
Arthur doesn't know how to do magic.
Hi, guys!
Oh, hell no.
Mary margaret! If you hurt her --
Ooh, daddy's angry.
Let's undo that.
ahh.
How did --
Well, arthur was kind enough
To remove that constricting jewelry.
Fine.
I'd prefer an even fight.
No, don't! The baby.
You know, if you treated me fairly for once,
Maybe i wouldn't turn on you.
Yes, you would.
But i'd enjoy it less.
Oh! Here we are.
One of merlin's cookbooks.
Is it the right spell? Oh, yes.
It's quite an ingenious recipe for a tethering potion.
Excellent.
There -- you can take it now.
Cookies are done,
And by "cookies," i mean that artie here
May have a shorter sword than a man would like,
But it can control the world's greatest wizard.
His plan, but i like it. Happy to help.
Most obliged, my lady.
Arthur, please.
You can't see a way out, but there is one.
You can start over. Merlin!
We've all started over. Merlin!
Emma is worth more to you as the savior than the dark one.
Thank you, david.
But...
Merlin!
Henry -- my god, he's growing up so fast.
Sometimes i can hardly believe --
Ah, merlin.
How kind of you to come when called.
For your first task, please use your magic
To keep these
Fine people from attacking me in any way.
wow.
It is done, arthur.
You can put that down. We don't have to do this.
Emma has passed her test.
Oh, emma passed the test? How nice for her.
I have what we need to unite excalibur
And fulfill your legacy.
Give me the sword.
You mean give you the glory?
No.
Glory?
You seek glory?
Is that really what you've become?
I am so sorry i wasn't there to guide you, arthur.
This isn't the man you were supposed to be.
Oh, i am exactly what you made me.
"look at the half-man with his half-sword,
Solving riddles from a tree."
I bet you laughed.
I was trapped, and i put my faith in you.
You were meant to be like a son to me.
Shut your mouth.
I was never a son to you.
You lied.
You told me legend would speak of the great king arthur,
Using excalibur to strike darkness from the realm!
Tell me how this was not a lie!
Because you will do that.
You're a part of doing it right now.
A part of it?
We have what we need.
The future is in your hands, arthur.
Give me the sword.
We can repair everything.
No, not everything.
This is my charge and my right.
I will be known for more than defeating a stone.
Arthur, you cannot --
Be quiet.
We have intruders.
Make them leave.
Go on. It's time.
Why will you not leave me alone?
Well, how could we?
We're here to witness something historical.
Rumplestiltskin's eyes are fine to look through most days,
But i wanted to see this myself.
You tried to keep me from doing this.
Like them, there was a chance
That you would use excalibur to cut away the darkness,
But now you can douse the light instead.
We are proud of you...
All of us.
Merlin.
Leave the sword alone.
He told me not to do this when i was a girl.
And now you're a woman.
Take the power.