If you thought that when everyone returned from the Underworld they’d get some time to relax and celebrate that they’re home, you’d be very, very wrong. With Hades now in Storybrooke, Once Upon a Time‘s “Last Rites” introduces a new weapon, one that claims the lives of two.
Meanwhile, Hook gets a new partner for his quest in the Underworld, and when he completes it, he finds himself somewhere he could not have expected.
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Arthur’s Just as Annoying in the Underworld
FYI: putting Sleepy on guard duty? They’d be better off having baby Neal on guard duty. After Arthur escapes custody, he runs into Hades, and while I may hate the Lord of the Underworld, at least he eliminates one of Storybrooke’s problems when he kills Arthur.
But that just makes Arthur the newest resident of the Underworld, which is how Hook finds out that Hades is wreaking havoc up in Storybrooke. While Arthur has a bit of trouble accepting that he’s dead, Hook is of course focused on finding a way to help Emma. And with Arthur basically his only option, he enlists him for his quest. After all, Arthur is going to need a “seriously good deed” to make up for basically his life.
First, they have to figure out Hades’ weakness, and that means finding those missing pages from the book. Having Arthur along turns out to be a good thing when the initial search of Hades’ throne room comes up empty and Hook wonders where he used to hide the most important stuff when he was king. But even once they find the pages in Hades’ throne and Hook sees that it contains the answer Emma needs (a way to destroy a god), they have to figure out how to get them to her.
That’s where Cruella comes in. The phone booth is completely destroyed because she refuses to let anyone resolve their unfinished business if she can’t, but there is the storybook. In order to get to it, Hook and Arthur just have to take a trip down the River of Lost Souls. Hook warns Arthur not to touch it, but I wouldn’t be completely opposed if he just happened to fall in (after he helps Hook, of course).
Souls from the river try to stop them from reaching the book, up in the hands of a gargoyle statue. And though Arthur tells him to get the book instead of helping him when he’s being dragged in, Hook saves him. He manages to grab the book just in time before it falls into the river after slipping out of a spirit’s grasp. Once activated, the Olympian Crystal has the power to obliterate anything, even a god, Hook explains as he slips the pages inside. His job is done. Now it’s Emma’s turn.
Hades is Still the Worst
And by that, I mean he’s still extremely manipulative. And I can’t help but hope that every time he opens his mouth, Zelena sees it. So when she tells him, “I trust you with anything,” and leaves her daughter with him while skipping off into town to tell everyone that Hades, the god of death, is totally a good guy now, I can’t help but cringe.
Snow’s reunion with her family is brief because they have to deal with Hades being in Storybrooke, and it doesn’t help matters that Regina and Robin’s attempt to get Zelena to see that her true love’s kiss may have started Hades’ heart up again but didn’t change who he is fails. Plus, there’s the matter of Emma being a bit too emotional since she just lost Hook (again). They don’t know how to defeat Hades and, yes, Storybrooke needs to be protected from him, but she also needs to see clearly, David tells her. So grieve, like other people do.
Upon joining Hades and her daughter in the mayor’s office, Zelena tells him that Regina’s going to try to hurt him. Hades pulls the “I’ll turn myself in, but I’m really just saying this to make you think I’ve changed” card, even saying, “For you, I would give up anything,” But whereas that sounds sweet from other people, from him it’s just creepy and clearly him manipulating her. But she doesn’t want to lose him. So before you know it, she’s casting a protection spell over Town Hall, not opposed to fighting back if they have to and watching as he repairs the Olympian Crystal, which belonged to his brother, Zeus, and is very powerful and dangerous. He’s practically drooling over the thought of using it.
With his daughter inside, Robin can’t just sit back and wait, but Regina knows a way inside via a secret tunnel. She tries to apologize for trusting Zelena with their daughter while also defending her sister, which doesn’t sit well with him at first. But by the time they reach the underground entrance to the building, he’s come around. Being with her has taught him that they can all change. “You are my future,” he says (and might as well be signing his death certificate).
While Zelena’s only thinking about her and Hades’ future together, with a nice little house and her daughter playing in the garden, Hades is already picking out his new throne. They can rule Storybrooke together, he tells her. And to do so, they may have to make a show of strength to survive. (Has he already rewritten the heroes’ names on their gravestones in his mind?)
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Meanwhile, Emma would rather be out there doing something than in the library with the others reading through every book there in hopes of finding a way to defeat Hades. She can’t grieve for him because he’s still trapped in the Underworld, she explains to her family, and the last thing she said to him was to move on.
But it’s the idea of finding a way to defeat Hades for Hook that gets her to join them, and therefore she’s there to see the storybook flip to the pages on Hades after she sets it aside once she’s looked at the page with her and Hook on it. And there’s the page with the Olympian Crystal on it.
Just as Hades finishes repairing the Crystal, Regina and Robin hide out in the hall and Emma begins trying to bring down the protection spell on the building. When Zelena goes to deal with her and finds the pages on her about the Crystal, Hades leaves to check the rest of the building. That’s when Robin and Regina go into the office to rescue his daughter, only for Hades to join them, wielding the Crystal. He’s planning to use it to end Regina — no Underworld, no moving on, one minute she exists and the next she doesn’t — but when he goes to do just that, Robin steps in the way of the blast.
Zelena rejoins them before Hades can kill Regina, and he still tries to make her think the others have turned on her, that they’re the ones who can’t be trusted and he’s the one she should believe. He trapped them in the Underworld for her, he says, and the only way they can be safe together is to create a new kingdom. But an ensuing struggle leaves Zelena the one wielding the Olympic Crystal and Regina appealing to her sister. She believed in her when no one else did, the former Evil Queen tells her. She wanted her to find love, but true love is what Robin did, dying to protect her. Hades won’t give up anything for her.
Though Hades tries to get her to kill her own sister, Zelena has realized by this point, “All I ever wanted was love. You told me that was enough for you. But now I realize nothing ever will be.” She uses the Crystal to kill Hades.
Saying Goodbye … and Hello Again?
In the Underworld, it comes time for Hook to move on now that his unfinished business is completed. And when he suggests that Arthur’s may be as well and he should come with him, he disagrees. Instead, Arthur sees the broken kingdom of the Underworld as one he can repair, to fulfill that prophecy.
But after Hook walks into the light, he finds himself before Zeus, who wants to thank him for helping to stop Hades. He’s there to escort him onward, to take him where he belongs.
In Storybrooke, Emma takes a moment at Hook’s grave to thank him for the pages. She hopes he’s in a better place, but now it feels like he’s really gone and she misses him.
Then comes time for Robin Hood’s funeral, and everyone puts an arrow on his coffin. Zelena joins Regina, and when Regina remarks that he never even got to name his daughter, Zelena reveals the only fitting name: Robin.
As everyone heads back into town, Snow assures Emma that it’s not her fault and leaves her to have a moment alone. That’s when magic washes over the cemetery and Hook appears behind her. Yes, Hook is alive again, he and Emma are happily together again, and he can only explain it as a reward from Zeus for defeating Hades.
Rumplestiltskin Spends His Time Threatening and That’s Pretty Much It
He really doesn’t do much else in this episode. He goes to see Belle’s father to wake her, but Moe’s just glad Rumple’s kiss didn’t work and thinks she’s better off asleep until he’s gone for good. Threatening him doesn’t do Rumple any good, as Moe says he’ll die before he gives in, but Emma intervenes before anything can really happen. (Unfortunately for her at the time, Rumple doesn’t care about helping her figure out how to kill Hades.)
Then when Rumple calls Hades to welcome him to town and let him know that he knows he has the Olympian Crystal and offers him a deal in exchange for a piece of it, the Lord of the Underworld turns him down. It’s not Rumple’s “kingdom” for long, he insists. “Can’t say I didn’t warn you,” Rumple says in reply.
“You should’ve taken my deal,” Rumple says as he pulls out a piece of the Crystal from what’s left of Hades at the end. “Like I told you, this is my kingdom.”
Once Upon a Time season 5 airs Sundays at 8pm on ABC.
(Image courtesy of ABC)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
If it’s on TV — especially if it’s a procedural or superhero show — chances are Meredith watches it. She has a love for all things fiction, starting from a young age with ER and The X-Files on the small screen and the Nancy Drew books. Arrow kicked off the Arrowverse and her true passion for all things heroes. She’s enjoyed getting into the minds of serial killers since Criminal Minds, so it should be no surprise that her latest obsession is Prodigal Son.
