Swan Song

In this midseason finale, Hook starts his plan with the Dark Ones, which involves the others being marked by the Mark of Charon as the Underworld works as one person leaves for one person entering. Since everyone is prepared to die, Emma tries to fix it by preparing to sacrifice herself since she's still a Dark One. However, Hook out of nowhere changes his ways and sacrifices himself to snuff out the Darkness forever, also reverting Emma back in the process. However, it turns out Rumple became the Dark One as he happened to have a potion put on Excalibur which transfered the Darkness into him instead of being gone forever, making him the most powerful Dark One that's ever lived (along with a new design for the dagger). After Emma learns this, she blackmails him into sending her and the others into the Underworld in order to free Hook & give him half of her heart otherwise she'll tell Belle (who he just won back) the truth. Oh yeah, and Regina banishes Zelena to Oz, I forgot to mention that! In the flashbacks, it's revealed before she had sent him off to kill Cora, Regina gave Hook a test to kill the father who abandoned he & his brother as children (he's still alive because he was under a Sleeping Curse) to see if he's man enough to do the job. At first he refuses to and plans on granting his father & his other son passage on a ship to leave, but when he learns that he named his new son Liam (after his dead brother), Hook decides to kill him as he believes he's still a lying scumbag.
Given that this solely focuses on Hook, this really grated on my nerves while watching this as he continues to be an abusive asshole showing no remorse for the fact he'd be killing everyone Emma loves just to get stupid revenge on Rumple. His 'change' came out of absolutely nowhere besides Regina telling him about the time he killed his father (which has little to no connection to the events) & it disgusted me he was portrayed as a saintly martyr despite the horrible things he's done. Hook's backstory...well, was without a doubt the least interesting one in a midseason finale so far! I get it's supposed to parallel Hook being the man he wants to be, but other than that it had little to do with what was going on. And his father hardly had any dimensional despite the attempts at emotional scenes & it just felt pointless within the events of Regina wanting him to kill Cora. It just didn't feel necessary to test him if you get what I mean.
But that's NOTHING compared to the 180 change they did in Rumple's character development because it was insultingly horrendous. It feels like the writers don't care about making Rumple's changes stick & think it would be better to make him a villain again just to make Hook look better in comparison. And the way he became the Dark One again just felt incompetently stupid because the deus ex machina potion he just happened to possess & he had no reason to want his powers again. This is just about insulting to a character as it gets & what makes it worse is that he FINALLY won Belle's heart & became the man he wanted her to be. And no, Rumbelle snogs & sex does not make up for the undermining of his character, writers!
And I must also bring up another MASSIVE problem for the arc overall: no closure. Seriously, Merida & the Camelot characters don't appear nor are mentioned in this whatsoever! It just feels even more ridiculous given that even the Frozen arc had scenes showing them leaving the town & what their ending was. But this. This just feels like a massive middle finger because after all the build-up and advertising surround these aspects, what do they do? Focus EVERYTHING on Hook. I know I'm ranting, but this isn't me being angry that they're giving Hook more bullshit screen time, this is me being angry at the writers for forgetting that one basic ingredient needed for ANY story and completely disregarding it.
I have to admit, I do kind of feel bad because the emotional scenes that do work are actually very strong, especially in Jennifer Morrison's acting when Hook dies, even if they drag it out & it was very obvious that his death isn't going to stick because the writers think that making EVERYTHING about Hook will make things better! And with the reasons for her dragging everyone to the Underworld just felt really selfish because it only accentuates the fact all she cares about is Hook & refuses to move on from him despite his pleas to die! If I were her, I'd respect his wishes as much as it'd upset me, but nope! Just cos she's not getting her own way, she has to throw a tantrum until she gets her 'perfect' boyfriend back! Oh yeah, and clearly the whole 'there's no coming back from death' thing doesn't apply to him!
As for the Underworld arc...I'll give it the benefit of the doubt because it does seem like an interesting concept, but given that it's to look for Hook, I'm just dreading seeing more of him hogging the screen time & being a plot device!
So yeah...this is possibly the worst midseason finale I've seen so far! Despite some genuinely strong emotional scenes and acting & an interesting tease to the next arc, the pointless flashbacks, Hook hogging the screen time & the insulting bowlderisation of Rumple's character all drag in beyond 6 feet under.

So we're seeing Hook's daddy troubles...? Well, the resemblance is striking between them!

Pretty harsh way of revealing their dad's a douchebag who sold his own sons for the ship!

Leave Rumple alone, Hook!

Squad goals! And about time Emma made the right choice to stop Hook!

How nice of you Zelena to change the custody arrangements for your daughter!

OK...this is scary!

So they've been marked to trade places with the Dark Ones to the Underworld...? Funny though that Rumple compares it to a tourist visa!

'The Underworld is worse than you can possibly imagine, It's gonna make you wish them old stories of fire and brimstone were true. it's gonna make you wish for death. And then the realization will hit...that death has already come and this fresh torture is all that's left.'  If we're seeing it the next half of this season, I'd hate to imagine what it's like...

Wait, Regina tested Hook before she sent him off to kill her mother?!

*Sighs* How I've missed that dress!

Nice idea to spend your last moments having dinner at Granny's!

Aww! 

'Am I going somewhere?' 'Well, that's up to you. You've always wanted to see the world. Well, all of it is right out there, the other side of that town line. Go when you can, See all the things you've dreamed off, and when you've tasted it all, maybe one day you will come back. Go today and have a life.' 'Is something wrong?' 'No. No,no, no, no! Nothing's wrong! I just...want you to live out your dream.' AWW! What a selfless thing to do!

Aww, poor guy!

Pretty generous of him to give her Excalibur for no price...

What a coincidence she wants him to kill his father!

Haha! 'Gina! Robbie! Come on in.' 'What do you think you're doing?' 'At the moment I'm trying to decide what colour would look best on your walls. Or rather, my walls. Kelly? Hunter? Pistachio? Oh my God, I just realized that all three of those work as baby names! It's all just coming together!

Pretty lazy way to get her out of the picture...at least she's gone!

Nice to see you again Moe even if it's from a distance!

Aww!

Very heartbreakingly awkward reunion...and lucky he found a loophole with a sleeping curse!

Still don't get why teenage girls are falling for this emotionally abusive man who'd happily let Emma's family die...

Aww!

Wait, the fairies are looking after Neal & Baby Hood...? And still can't believe Hook is going through with killing everyone!

Thank you Regina for telling Hook to stop with ridiculous charade!

Well, he certainly looks like his half brother! Bit of a dick move though naming him after his now dead son that he abandoned!

Wait, he killed his own father?!

Oh, so now he decides to change his ways once he sees Emma suffering...unlike before when she was suffering & he reveled in it!

Meh, don't care! Pretty obvious his death isn't gonna stick cos the writers love him all too much, so why should I be sad about it?

*Sighs* Please stop dragging it out...

AWWWW!!! 'For the first time, you were truely selfless.' Wait, what about the time he, I don't know, SACRIFICED HIMSELF TO SAVE THE TOWN FROM HIS FATHER?!

'I don't need to see the world to know what I want anymore. All I want is to be with you.' N'AWW!!!

Hmm, two steamy kisses for the price of one! Not bad!

YAY! Rumbelle tacos...could this FINALLY mean a Rumbelle baby given Emilie's pregnancy (I know, I know, but pretend I just watched it!)?!

OK...what does she want?

Fuck, You. Writers. How dare you undermine Rumple's arc & make him go back to where he started when you made such a big deal over him not being the Dark One anymore since the season 4 finale?! How the hell can you make him learn absolutely nothing when he literally nearly died because of his evil deeds?! Oh yeah, because you care more about your precious CaptainSwan than anything else! And I refuse to believe he happened to have a potion lying around specifically to put the Dark One powers back into him once Hook sacrificed himself!

As much as it's awesome blackmailing him, but if Belle deserves a way to find out, he should tell her himself! I just can't believe he's done this once he won her back from being 'selfless'!

So she really thinks the best solution is to share one heart like her parents?! Ugh, why can't she just learn to let him go! She didn't try to bring Neal back or even Graham, so how is this any different?!

Of course 'there's no coming back from death' dosen't apply to Hook! UGH, how can Emma be so selfish & let her son go to the freaking Underworld?!

'Hook, I will find you. I will always find you.' And made me feel like projectile vomiting everywhere.