‘Once Upon a Time’ season 5, episode 7 review: Nimue, Merlin, joy, and darkness
In some ways, it feels already like Sunday night’s new “Once Upon a Time” episode was the show doing the “Lost” episode “Across the Sea,” one of the most polarizing over the course of the series’ run. There was very little of the main cast, a whole lot of flashbacks, and a story that was all about lightness and darkness.
This episode was a formal introduction of sorts to the character of Nimue, the very first Dark One and a woman who Merlin once loved. She had a chance to go down a different road, but chose not to. This was a parallel choice to the one that Emma had to make in Camelot with Merlin at her side: Join the forces of evil, or try to create a new path that could finally lead to the destruction of darkness once and for all.
What we learned through this that was particularly interested is that it was not solely Nimue who was responsible for Emma starting to descend into chaos. Instead, it was a power-hungry King Arthur. Merlin claimed to have the answers, but Arthur became more about the glory and the ego more so than the generosity. Arthur’s betrayal led to one of the most heated confrontations that we’ve seen on the show to date.
Under Arthur’s control, Merlin was forced to remove many of our heroes from the King’s presence. Sad.
The biggest mystery? We still do not know entirely how Emma became the Dark Swan in the present day. However, the pieces are starting to come together, and we’re realizing that her transformation is more of a product of the greed of others than a weakness within her. This still does not help to make us feel any better about her seizing Excalibur, though, as she can now dispatch of what is good entirely. Pretty major cliffhanger, right? Grade: B+.
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