S05.E10: Broken Heart

[KAOS Agent]

Colin said Hook's red magic is an homage to Captain Hook's red coat. 

[InsertWordHere]

I kind of think the purple curse was a continuity error. Snow's curse turned green when Zelena hijacked it with the memory curse. Hook's curse should be either his red or Emma's gray since Emma also put a memory curse into it. 

Edited December 6, 2015 by InsertWordHere

[kitticup]

In Barrie's Peter Pan, Hook's eyes are described as turning red when he kills. That should be part of his dark one change. It would be a great call back and a sign of the darkness physically manifesting in him. Right now there is little change.

[Camera One]

I just figured it out!  Maybe Merlin didn't say "Leave the sword alone".  Maybe he said "Leave the SORD alone".  Sord means a flock of mallards, which are ducks that like to live in lakes and ponds, like the one which became a portal to the underworld.  Now in hindsight, this episode and Merlin's words make complete sense.  The writers of this show are so intelligent.  I'm sure we will soon see the One Duck That Rules Them All. The question is whether it will be Donald or Daisy.

Edited December 6, 2015 by Camera One

[darkestboy]

That was pure tedium. Ugh, the back and forth between the Dark Ones, Emma and Hook and I just found myself bored to death for the most part of it.

 

The sooner this Dark One/Camelot plot is wrapped, the absolute better. And killing off Merlin. Yeah, thanks show.

 

I did like Emma and Henry making some progress though and the Regina/Robin/Zelena were actually decent but the episode itself was terrible, 5/10

[AudienceofOne]

I'm hoping the next episode resolves this satisfactorily because my reaction to this was mostly, "Fuck you, show". Like, a lot. And 5x08 was so good I was on this high and now I'm just mad. I hope everyone's right and Hook is a fifth column because otherwise I find it impossible to believe he'd go this dark this quickly - and just by remembering he was the Dark One.

 

Incidentally, if all you have to do to overcome the darkness is wipe someone's memory, why didn't Emma just wipe her memory too and let the curse take them back to Storybrooke where they'd never find out they were the Dark Ones?

[KingOfHearts]

The Rumpbelle crap... ugh. Rumple risked his life twice to prove to Belle he was a hero, then she chose that moment to walk away. She egged him on to do stuff to impress her, then turned around and said bye. Whenever Belle breaks up with him now, it comes off as hypocritical. If she broke up with him for good, that would be great. But "taking a break" doesn't cut it.

Edited September 18, 2016 by KingOfHearts

[KingOfHearts]

I had the misfortune of rewatching this episode. I've decided I hate it. It's the "let's dog Emma" episode. Dark Hook is depressing, Henry is the devil, and Rumple's heroism is ludicrous.

[daxx]

I hate how Snowing treated Emma, I hate how Regina treated Emma. Hook really was just throwing truth bombs at her. He always supported her and she did ignore his DNR blatantly.

The sword fight on the ship was stupid, no way Rumple could ever disarm Hook even when he’s drunk on power.

Can’t the writers think of a better name than Operation Cobra part 2, I mean really? Operation Pirate Rescue, anything.

[Shanna Marie]

I re-read (skimmed) the thread, and I have some thoughts that didn't seem to have come up the first time this episode aired.

Mostly, how did Emma end up with that house? It was awfully convenient that the house Hook and Henry picked out for Emma turned out to have a basement lair suitable for hiding Excalibur and keeping prisoners. Did the curse conveniently transport Excalibur to that basement, or did Emma have to poof it there from wherever it was sent? It turns out that Emma had very little to do with the curse other than the memory spell part of it, so she didn't seem to have sent Excalibur to "her" house. Did she use her Dark One powers to take the house once she got back to Storybrooke, or did she go to the bank and apply for a mortgage? Was that why she was dressed up in the dress and coat, rather suit-like, when she poofed Hook to the house the first time, because she'd just been to the bank to apply for a mortgage and then did all the paperwork? I guess the house was empty for her to have just been able to move in like that, but why would there have been an empty house in Storybrooke, when the curse seemed to have created the town for the people who were there? Was it a leftover from curse 1, but its residents weren't in curse 2? Are the real estate listings in Storybrooke more a case of "here are the houses that are available, claim the one you want"? Does Rumple still own most of the town and charge rent? Did Emma buy this house or is she renting it from Rumple, or did she maybe manage as Dark One to do something to the deed held by Rumple while he was in a coma? I figure he owes her a house.

It looked like the potion Merlin was brewing was his communication spell to hold his voice mail message. So, does any potion become the Dark Curse if you crumble a heart into it? It seemed a lot more involved when Regina cast the curse. Now Hook just tosses a heart into any convenient cauldron. And it's still bizarre to even bother with the Dark Curse when the barriers to travel between realms are down. I guess they wanted Merlin out of the way so he couldn't have been of any help (not that he would have been).

I've already talked about how it does seem to work that Hook became a Dark One when he was tethered to Excalibur since Merlin hadn't actually done any evil (stupid, maybe, but not evil). Now I wonder how/why he has a Clippy Rumple and Nimue in his head when his Darkness didn't go through them at all. Merlin drank from the Grail and got his powers. Nimue drank from the Grail and got her powers, then became the Dark One, then Merlin turned the Grail into Excalibur, broke the blade, and tethered her to the dagger. The line of Dark Ones came through her and many others before getting to Rumple, then that Darkness was removed from Rumple and taken in by Emma. Then Merlin was tethered to the rest of the sword and his "darkness" went into Hook when Hook was tethered to the sword. Hook's darkness never went through Nimue or Rumple. If anything, he should have had a Clippy Merlin. Unless maybe Emma inserted some of her darkness into Hook to keep him alive?

Supposedly, Merlin drank from the cup a thousand years ago, then he said it had been 500 years ago when he was talking to Nimue. They keep changing the amount of time Rumple has been a Dark One, but since in this episode he talked about Hook seeking revenge for hundreds of years, let's just say 200. That leaves 300 years for Nimue and all those others, at least a dozen of them. Those Dark Ones totally got ripped off because their "immortality" gave them less than a normal human lifespan.

It's so weird that Hook's Storybrooke clothes changed when he remembered being the Dark One. I'm still not crazy about the changed wardrobe when someone becomes a Dark One because that's not what they showed with Rumple, and he didn't get sucked into any vault. He just changed where he was. But I can kind of deal with Hook coming out of the vault in the dark robe. It's just silly when he's in Storybrooke that he changes to a slightly different black jacket when he remembers what he is.

Now, some things that did get discussed:

I still hate that Hook fell so fast when he actually knows how to fight darkness and has even been able to share strategies with others. But Colin knocked it out of the park playing Dark Hook, who is distinctly different from original evil Hook. He just radiated pain and anger. I'm rather stunned watching this that ABC didn't sew him up into a development deal and create a series for him or that he hasn't been snatched up in something big. He's had a few projects since the series ended, but they've been relatively small and low-key. Maybe, given the fact that one shot in Dublin, he's made a choice to spend time with his family after all those years of intense schedules? I just can't imagine anyone could have watched this episode and not immediately tried to cast him in all the things.

Shut up, Henry, and the rest of your self-righteous family.

[tennisgurl]

"Why do Dark Ones have to dress like monks?!" Thats our Hook, asking the tough questions. 

God, so much judgement from everyone, all day long. Shut up Henry, you little shit. Regina and the Charmings are insanely hypocritical, Rumple being sold as a hero so easily is ridiculous, I hate everyone dumping on Emma and acting like she is somehow the worst most awful person to ever awful for wearing too much black I guess, and Dark One Hook is just depressing. It really feels like he would be able to fight the darkness more, being as he has spent so much time fighting darkness even before being the Dark One, but I guess we can dump on Hook and Emma more, whatever. 

[Kktjones]

15 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Shut up Henry, you little shit.

Thank you - that's all I can think of when I watch that scene!

15 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Dark One Hook is just depressing. It really feels like he would be able to fight the darkness more, being as he has spent so much time fighting darkness even before being the Dark One, but I guess we can dump on Hook and Emma more, whatever

Yeah - this episode was really depressing on a number of levels. On top of the Emma-judging, I hated the way they had Hook immediately turn 100% dark and lay into Emma as well. It just seemed to go against everything they had built up between these two and only done for the sake of DRAMA. 

[Shanna Marie]

Emma goes back to sounding like her usual self the moment everyone finds out what's really going on, so maybe the annoying "Dark Swan" voice and mannerisms were a conscious act to make everyone think she was the darkest of the dark rather than what was actually done to her by the Darkness. Now I don't remember if she sounded like that in the flashback right after Hook was turned.

And it's dumb that she would magically change her wardrobe the moment she went darker (from saving someone's life, ugh). Maybe her body would change, with her face and hair affected, like Rumple turning into SparkleDark right away, but why would her clothes suddenly change?

[Camera One]

1 hour ago, Shanna Marie said:

Emma goes back to sounding like her usual self the moment everyone finds out what's really going on, so maybe the annoying "Dark Swan" voice and mannerisms were a conscious act to make everyone think she was the darkest of the dark rather than what was actually done to her by the Darkness.

Wasn't she also using the Dark Swan voice and mannerisms when she was alone too?  Maybe Emma had always wanted to act and decided to go method acting.

[Shanna Marie]

21 minutes ago, Camera One said:

Wasn't she also using the Dark Swan voice and mannerisms when she was alone too? 

Did we ever see her talking when totally alone, though? She was either with Rumple, Hook, or Merida, and she was trying to convince all of them that she was full-on dark. I think she softened up a bit when on the horse hunt with Henry. And, of course, she was perfectly able to sound normal when pretending to be her old self with Hook.

I guess there was a scene or two with Clippy Head Rumple, but she might have been instinctively acting as though he was real Rumple, or like she was trying to convince the Dark Ones inside of her that she really was dark and on their side. Or something.