History Recap / OnceUponATimeS5E11SwanSong

** The only way that the Dark Ones can complete their resurrections is by having others (namely, all of Emma's loved ones) take their place.

* OrpheanRescue: Emma forces Gold into granting her the ability to embark on one of these for Killian. As a variation, not only is her whole family (plus Regina and Robin) going along, she compels Gold to join them, too.

* ArcWords: "I will always find you" and giving someone their "best chance" return. The former is especially meaningful since this time it's Emma saying it about Hook.

* TheAtoner: Emma has become this. Hook becoming it (again) is why he makes his HeroicSacrifice.
-->'''Emma''': I'm not giving in to the darkness. I'm giving in to love. I'm going to do it right this time.

* NotSoDifferent: Hook and Gold, again. Not only was he too abandoned by his father, but like Gold he ended up killing him. The man even dies in his embrace, the same way Malcolm did with Rumple; the difference is that Killian's father seems to have truly changed, become a better man, and pleads with Hook to do the same, while Malcolm was of course an unrepentant villain whose dying breath was spent on trying to tempt his son with a WeCanRuleTogether speech. Emma also draws the line between Hook and Gold by pointing out that if he goes through with his plan, Hook will be just like the monster he was hunting for hundreds of years.

** For the most part, the entire plotline of Camelot and Arthur going evil, as well as resolving matters for [=DunBroch=], was shoved aside (something which very much upset Amy Manson at least). While we do find out later on about [[Recap/OnceUponATimeS5E18RubySlippers Mulan and Ruby's adventures]], Arthur's fate is addressed in "Last Rites", and Merida does get to go home when everyone is sent back during the season finale, the rest truly was aborted.

* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: It's indirect and roundabout, and [[DidntSeeThatComing happened by the unlikeliest of methods]] [[DramaticIrony since it was the Dark One(s) themselves who did the deed]], but if Arthur hadn't worked against the heroes and specifically did everything he did to Hook and Emma, they never would have been able to destroy the Darkness, just as Merlin foretold. (In fact he was the one who wounded Hook with Excalibur.) By the same token, though, because of the way it came about, the Darkness ends up not fully destroyed after all; the implication is that it was only ''their'' darkness he was prophesied to destroy, and evil itself could not be defeated until the next two seasons.

* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: It's indirect and roundabout, and [[DidntSeeThatComing happened by the unlikeliest of methods]] [[DramaticIrony since it was the Dark One(s) themselves who did the deed]], but if Arthur hadn't worked against the heroes and specifically did everything he did to Hook and Emma, they never would have been able to destroy the Darkness, just as Merlin foretold. By the same token, though, because of the way it came about, the Darkness ends up not fully destroyed after all; the implication is that it was only ''their'' darkness he was prophesied to destroy, and evil itself could not be defeated until the next two seasons.