Recap / Once Upon a Time S5 E5 "Dreamcatcher"

Season 5, Episode 5:

Dreamcatcher

In the Camelot of six weeks past, Emma tries to determine how Merlin was trapped in a tree and enlists Regina's aid. However, Arthur attempts to thwart Emma once she discovers the ingredient necessary to free the wizard. Meanwhile in the present, Merida trains Gold to be the hero that Emma needs, and Henry asks Violet out for a date.

Tropes

• Boyfriend-Blocking Dad: Sir Morgan warns Henry about staying away from his daughter. Ironically, when they meet later in Storybrooke, he's much warmer to Henry, not remembering their past.
• Broken Pedestal: After defending Emma to everyone, Henry is devastated when he sees in the Dreamcatcher that Emma ripped out Violet's heart and forced her to break up with Henry just to get a tear from her son. The same applies to a lesser degree to Regina, who notes that she'd been trying to see the good in Emma too thanks to his example, until she also learned the truth of what Emma had done.
• Call-Back: The final moments of the episode, when Emma looks up from the porch to Henry watching from his window, is a mirror image to such a shot from the pilot. Except there he was looking to her for help against his evil adopted mother, while here he's looking at her in teary-eyed betrayal while hoping for Regina to be the one to protect him.
• Continuity Nod:
  • We see Cruella's car parked on the street with "for sale" written in the window.
  • In order to power the spell to free Merlin, Emma uses the Dreamcatcher to have Regina remember Cora killing Daniel and catching a tear.
  • The dreamcatcher itself, which is both a reference to Neal and to when Emma had to use one (under Gold's instruction) to witness who "killed" Archie back in Season 2.
  • Henry mentions Granny's famous lasagna on his date with Violet.
  • Not only does Henry speak to Emma of "Operation Cobra", but she speaks about her bail bondsperson days when figuring out how to track down Violet's lost horse.
• Couch Gag: The title card features a pumpkin.
• Cutting the Knot:
  • Just when it seems Regina is about to be fooled and give the Dark One's dagger to the ensorcelled Snow and David, Emma shows up and freezes them. Why? Because thanks to the dreamcatcher, she was able to see the memory of what Arthur and Guinevere did to them, thus letting her know of his villainy and preventing Snow and David from aiding him until they could be freed by Merlin.
  • Having taken advantage of Henry leading Emma away to find Violet's horse, Regina and the others go to Emma's house to find out what she's up to with the missing Gold. They find Emma has put a protection spell on the door, specifically to keep Regina and Hook out...but after Belle points out she would let Henry in, Regina conjures something of his (his old scarf) to use on the handle, bypassing the spell.
• Dramatic Irony: As if the audience didn't already know it, the contrast between past and present is quite painful in how the flashbacks continue to show how untrustworthy Arthur is, while in Storybrooke with everyone's memories gone, the heroes just keep implicitly trusting Arthur, right down to believing Grif escaped from his cell with the magic bean he supposedly stole. On the other hand, the information Arthur gives them about what Excalibur can do once it's reforged is proven true in future episodes (although having seen the similarity between the blades, the heroes rather put him on the spot, and since he himself wants to use Excalibur to destroy the Darkness, he had no reason to lie).
• Expecting Someone Taller: After Merlin is freed and restores Charming and Snow's wills, they are told his identity and stare at him in shock. He sardonically begins invoking the trope name, only for Charming to interrupt and say "We were expecting someone...older."
• The Ghost: In a very strong way, the entire episode revolves around Neal—from the dreamcatcher, to Gold's speech about doing everything for his son but losing him anyway (and Dark Ones "always lose the ones they love most"), to Henry speaking about him to Violet, to the song he played for her turning out to be the same one Neal used to get Emma to fall for him. Despite the flashback to Cora and Daniel, we don't get to see any old footage, yet his spirit is very much at the heart of the episode.
• History Repeats: Just as Cora did to Daniel, Emma rips out Violet's heart for what she believes is her child's own good—since making her break Henry's heart would produce the tear they needed to free Merlin, save her from the Darkness, and get them all home. To underscore the repetition, Emma even asks Violet to keep a secret, just as Regina did to young Snow, and the heart-taking occurs, once again, in a stable. Also note that Violet has a few similarities to Daniel who was a stable boy.
• I Did What I Had to Do: How Emma justifies using Violet's heart to get a tear from Henry to free Merlin. In her defense, the devastated, tear-streaked look on her face as she did it shows she really didn't want to, but felt she had no choice. It also plays into why she flinched when Henry tried to touch her in "The Price" and why she insisted he had done nothing wrong.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Upon freeing him from the tree, Emma clearly recognizes Merlin as the "usher" who appeared to her as a child. What is not revealed is how this was possible (or him speaking to the Apprentice after the spell was cast on Emma and Lily); Astral Projection, or was he not imprisoned yet at that point?
  • Regina, Robin, Belle, Hook, and the Charmings find out Emma had been holding Gold and has Excalibur. Almost immediately afterward they confront Arthur about the similarity between the blade and the Dark One's dagger, leading to him confessing about the two having been one weapon once.
• I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: Variation, where it is Merida (not by her own will) threatening Belle if Gold continues to fail...at being a brave hero, rather than coming to (or staying on) the side of villainy. Also subverted in that while she's absolutely right that this will galvanize Gold to act, it turns out she isn't doing this to help Emma's plan, but to enable Gold to defeat Emma, which will also (she hopes) free her to go back and save her family and kingdom.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Regina warns Emma against this, from experience; unfortunately she brushes her off, not by the more reasonable point that if the spell works and Merlin is freed so he can save her from the Darkness, this would be the last time she'd ever have to use it, but by simply stating she's not Regina. Then she takes Violet's heart and breaks the relationship between her and Henry.
• Kick the Dog: An interesting variation. Merida is able to find a page in the storybook depicting Rumpelstiltskin and Belle together. Using this information, she breaks into Gold's establishment and steals...something. She returns to Gold's lump of a limping body and taunts him with Belle's chipped cup. After Gold tosses a few sword swings at her in retaliation, she realizes that now, Gold has something to fight for again, and that he can indeed be molded to become the hero he is said to be. So while he views her actions as this trope, the result is actually a good thing.
• Noodle Incident: While tracking down the lost horse at Peter Pumpkin Eater's farm, Emma comments not only on his having been in Storybrooke since the first curse, but that she'd had to make a number of calls there as sheriff due to "some very noisy parties."
• Now Do It Again, Backwards: The heroes need the same thing which originally trapped Merlin (the tear of one who had their heart broken by a lost love) to free him—so rather than a tear being shed and the spell being cast, a shed tear is applied (to the potion) to break the spell. As Regina puts it, sometimes to make antivenom you need the venom.
• Pride: Emma certainly seems to have developed an unhealthy amount of this, since she believes she is stronger morally, mentally, and spiritually than both Regina and Gold and thus will not fall to Darkness/allow it to control her after she has accepted being the Dark One. While it's true she is the Savior, and the Apprentice's spell put her darkness in Lily, nothing yet proves she is any more resistant to corruption than any other past Dark One.
• Sophisticated as Hell: For the most part, Merlin uses fairly formal diction, but when Emma, Snow, and Charming ask him to free Emma from the Darkness, he simply gazes at them solemnly, as if about to utter something of great portent, before saying, "Sure."
• Status Quo Is God: Thankfully, the Reset Button is pushed regarding Snow and Charming, since as soon as Emma frees Merlin, he breaks the Sands of Avalon's spell on them.
• Super-Toughness: While the Dark One (particularly Rumple) has been shown all along to be formidable in battle physically as well as magically, the unnamed Dark One in the flashback who imprisoned Merlin in the tree is an especially notable example—the fact he was able to wrestle the dagger away from Merlin to do it is no small feat. When it's revealed just who this Dark One was, it becomes even more impressive in retrospect.
• Swiss-Army Tears: A tear of lost love was used to trap Merlin in the tree. Later, when Henry's heart gets broken, his tear is mixed with a potion to free Merlin.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Regina gives Emma crap for manipulating Violet so they could free Merlin (which comes off as hollow since Regina's done a lot worse for more selfish reasons, and a lot of the heroes have made morally ambiguous choices in seasons past). It can't be denied, however, that Emma having to justify her actions to Regina of all people does make her actions and position highly questionable.
    • She also points out, when Emma tries to justify herself by saying she was helping Henry get Violet's horse back for her, that not only is this a very pathetic way to try and make up for taking Violet's heart (as if anything could), but that it's extremely likely Emma released the horse herself so as to give her this "redemptive" opportunity. "I've known a few Dark Ones, manipulations are what they do." The look on Emma's face and the fact she doesn't deny it suggests Regina was right.
  • Merlin gives Arthur one for falling so far from the ideal king he hoped he would become.
    • To which Arthur gives Merlin one for having him chase after false prophecies, something which Merlin doesn't confirm or deny either way.
• Yin-Yang Bomb:
  • The potion to free Merlin unleashes magic of both light and dark (because the spell which imprisoned him was originally cast by the Dark One), which in turn causes Emma to use both Dark One and Savior powers upon the tree.
  • Also, like the Apprentice's wand, Excalibur itself can cut two ways when reforged with the Dark One's dagger—capable of destroying all dark magic in the world...or all light magic.