‘Once Upon A Time’ Spoilers: Hook And The Darkness And Casting News For Season 5B

Once Upon a Time may have taken a week off (ABC aired the American Music Awards this weekend), but fans aren’t left waiting for teasers about what’s to come now that how Emma became the Dark Swan has been revealed and what that means for Hook. Plus, more casting news hints at the underworld being part of Season 5B.

The first of two Once Upon a Time Season 5 episodes that aired a week ago focused on what went wrong in Camelot to lead to Emma becoming the Dark One. After she saved Hook from Arthur in present-day Storybrooke, she told him, “I’m doing this all for you,” and so Hook knew that she’d come running if he did something like jump off a building — and she did. However, as he eventually learned, the reason she saved him those two times wasn’t to save his life, but to make sure he didn’t find out that she didn’t really need to intervene.

See, in Camelot, Hook was cut by Excalibur, and though Emma healed the wound, they soon learned that it just doesn’t work that way when it comes to the sword. Instead, Emma did what she had to in order to save his life — tether his life to the sword — making him a Dark One and taking that final step herself into the Darkness. Upon learning the truth, thanks to the dreamcatcher with his memories, Hook turned to Zelena and was ready to take care of Emma.

As the promo for OUAT Season 5 Episode 10, “Broken Heart,” shows, the others find out what Emma did. (“It was the only way to save him,” she explains.) So what is Dark Hook like? Well, he’s going after Mr. Gold. And as for how he feels about Emma, he tells her, “I want to hurt you like you hurt me.” Uh-oh. This isn’t good.

That promo makes sense based on what Jennifer Morrison has told Entertainment Weekly about how Hook handles the Darkness.

“As soon as the Darkness is within him again, he goes straight back to his vengeful, pirate-y self, pre-Emma Hook, basically. He’s operating from the Darkness, instead of the goodness that he’s fought for for so many hundreds of years. In the immediacy of it, he’s very resentful, but he’s operating out of that Darkness that’s within him.”

There’s also still the matter of how the others are going to react upon finding out what Emma did other than that brief glimpse in the premiere. In Camelot, they were against her doing what she had to in order to save Hook, but that didn’t stop her. Will their reactions be the same the second time around?

Also coming up before the winter hiatus, TVLine has reported that more about Regina’s past will be revealed, and that “she shares a secret with another major character, one that will reverberate into the present.” Furthermore, Robin Hood and Zelena’s baby “will cause some fireworks” between the sisters.

Zelena did give birth — thanks to Emma speeding up her pregnancy because she wanted to use her in her plan to get rid of the Darkness forever by using her and then killing her with Excalibur — and when Emma took her away, the baby was left with Robin Hood and Regina. The pregnancy has been a source of contention for the sisters since the beginning, and considering Zelena isn’t exactly mother material and Robin’s the father, it’s not too surprising that there are going to be problems.

With Season 5A winding down, there’s 5B to look forward to, and the prevailing theory is that it will be dealing with the underworld, considering “hell” has been used to describe it. The beginning of this season already introduced the Furies and teased the ferryman, Charon, and in addition to reporting that Greg Germann is going to be recurring as a character known as “The Distinguished Gentleman” (who could be Hades), TVLine has revealed casting for two roles in Episode 13 that at least signifies that there is going to be some Greek mythology in the second half. Jonathan Whitesell will be playing Hercules, while Kacey Rohl is playing Meg.

Once Upon a Time Season 5 airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC.

[Image via ABC]