“Take it from me, you’ll always lose the ones you love most.”
- Mr. Gold
It’s hard to believe that the first half of season 5 is nearly halfway done already! Where is the time going? As you can see this episode is called “Dreamcatcher” and for anyone who follows the blog at all, you know I’m a huge Swanfire fan. So naturally I hoped this would mean at least some references to Neal. I wasn’t disappointed! Sure they didn’t specifically speak his name but he was felt throughout the episode. In Camelot of the past, we see how Merlin is turned into a tree (by the Dark One who used to be his lover) which Emma sees through a dream catcher. Regina warns that using such dark magic will push Emma further down the path of evil but Emma says it’s worth it. If she can find a way to free Merlin, all their drama will be over. She also used said dream catcher to see what Arthur did to her parents so she freezes them before Regina can cough up the dagger to them. I have to say it was great to see Emma and Regina working together again. They do make a good team when they try.
Elsewhere in Camelot, Henry and Violet are hanging out and share the fact that they both lost parents without really getting to know them. Violet is kind of surprised that she and Henry have this in common. It touched my heart to see Henry admit he misses his dad! Anyway, they are sort of flirting and it’s adorable for 13-year-olds and then Violet goes to put her horse’s saddle away and henry is messing around with a sword and he doesn’t know how to handle it. He does a little property damage to the stable (totally fixable!) but Violet’s father finds him and basically says “you’ll never be good enough for my daughter”. So while Emma and Regina are trying to find a way to free Merlin, they find a bummed out Henry. They both tell him to be himself (including Emma saying that she loved Neal because he was himself….a con artist and a thief?) and Regina says she loved Daniel because he wasn’t the same as all the other boys. This leads Henry to ask Violet on a date (thank goodness for some of Granny’s lasagna!). Unfortunately, Violet totally puts Henry in the friend zone. Poor boy! But it’s kind of fortuitous because Regina remembering Daniel’s death via dream catcher (nice use of archive footage) doesn’t produce the tear of lost first love like they need. Emma points out that Regina has moved on and healed from that loss (much like I guess Emma has moved on from Neal…grr). Anyway, just as Arthur and his goons arrive to stop them from freeing Merlin, Emma and Regina bust out some magic and Merlin is a tree no longer. Goodness he looks so handsome! He chastises Arthur like a small child (good on you wizard man) and he frees the Charmings and removes the sand. Too bad he couldn’t do that for Guinevere. Anyway, we leave Camelot with Emma saying she’s ready to let the darkness go.
Clearly something went awry since in Storybrooke in present day, Emma is full on Dark One still. She sets Merida the task of making Rumple brave and the hero she needs to free Excalibur. She sends them out into the woods for training and then goes to visit her field of dreams (or rather her shed of dream catchers where she cries over one). Rumple is not having it at first. He can’t even stand thanks to his limp. I’d forgotten how severe it was. I mean he didn’t seem to have it so bad before but I guess it was more a reminder as the Dark One. Now he actually needs a cane or walking stick. Merida needs to find what motivates Rumple and for this she’s going to do a little breaking and entering; first into Regina’s office to check out the story book and then the pawn shop for a little item browsing. She returns to the woods and dangles the chipped cup in front of Rumple’s face. It’s enough to get a decent swing of the sword out of him but yeah, it’s going to take a lot more than that to get him in fighting form.
Perhaps the saddest story of the episode turns out to be a renewed Operation Cobra. Violet’s horse has run off and so Henry determines he’ll find it and win her over. For this, he needs Emma’s help. They share a sweet scene in the yellow bug when he tells Emma that he played Violet a song. It turns out to be the song Neal played for Emma when they were together. We actually see some emotion from Emma at that point. At least he still holds a special place in her heart, dark or not. They end up finding the horse at Peter’s pumpkin farm and Henry tames the horse. Good on you, kid! Things are looking not too bad for him and Violet at the town block party for a while. Too bad things go horribly pear-shaped. While they were out horse hunting, Regina, Hook, Robin and Belle break into Emma’s house, note Rumple’s recent absence and Excalibur. Oh and they find a dream catcher. I think they are a bunch of idiots for letting Arthur know they found his sword but at least they know Emma’s plan (to reunite sword and dagger and snuff out light magic forever). The worst part of this sub plot is when Regina makes the dream catcher work; she and Robin see them as Violet’s memory where Emma forced her to tell henry she didn’t like him to get the tear to free Merlin. Definitely an un-motherly thing to do but Henry sees it, too. Regina turns Emma away she the Dark One pops by to see Henry. Regina rightly accuses her of doing exactly what Cora did to her when she killed Daniel. I have a feeling it will take a very long time for Henry to get over this betrayal. And as the episode quote proves, Emma will always lose the ones she loves the most.
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