Once Upon a Time Review: Dark Waters (Season 6 Episode 6)

The Evil Queen continues her quest to destroy the extended Charming clan on Once Upon a Time Season 6 Episode 6 – this time turning her attention towards driving a wedge between Captain Hook, Emma, and Henry.

What actually results is Henry-Hook bonding time, which is undeniably cute, but does nothing whatsoever to abate how utterly boring this installment is.

We’re now six episodes into the season and the pattern is increasingly clear – every week, the Evil Queen will attempt her best effort to turn the family against one another, and every week, love will conquer all. Just as her attempt to sow seeds of doubt between Emma and her family by forcing Emma to reveal her vision failed, her attempt to induce a falling out between Hook, Emma, and Henry also fails.

I love Hook as a character, but the “Dark Waters” Hook-centric flashback sequence was easily one of the most boring and poorly conceived flashback sequences we’ve seen yet. Plus, it feels incredibly rushed.

There is a nice juxtaposition between present-day Hook attempting to be a family with Henry and Emma (and all its ensuing awkwardness), and the flashbacks showing Nemo attempting to build a surrogate family of his own aboard his submarine. That’s about all the flashbacks have going for them.

I’ve been waiting to be reintroduced to Liam ever since we learned of his existence on last season’s “Swan Song.” Finding out that, after Hook killed their father, Liam became the first mate on Captain Nemo’s ship wasn’t a particularly satisfying reintroduction.

In the past, Liam’s quest to find the man who killed his father (Hook) parallels Hook’s own quest to find the Dark One. Alas, Captain Nemo, a great, classic character, is woefully underutilized in Once Upon a Time‘s interpretation of the character. He essentially serves only as a surrogate father figure for Liam – his apparent accidental death is the catalyst that drives Liam to kidnap Henry and Hook in the present day.

While inconvenient, the kidnapping does provide some necessary bonding time for Henry and his mom’s boyfriend. We haven’t really dealt with the “growing pains” that come with a parent’s significant other moving into your parent’s house, but “Dark Waters” does this decently.

Hook’s attempts to bond with Henry pre-kidnapping don’t go over all too well. His inability to understand modern amenities continues to be hilarious – Henry’s reaction to Hook’s promise of a scurvy-beating “pirate’s breakfast” and throwing out his poptarts is classic. But the funny awkwardness of their early bonding is nothing compared to the anger that the Evil Queen is able to all too easily drum up in Henry against Hook.

How old is Henry supposed to be now? Shouldn’t this kid finally be less easily manipulated? He’s been around all manner of manipulative villains (including grandparents!), so I’d think he would know better by now.

But no – instead, he easily falls for the Evil Queen’s reveal that Hook kept the shears behind Emma’s back. Even more bizarrely, Henry falls for the Evil Queen’s interpretation of the shears-thieving as evidence that Hook doesn’t actually care about Emma or Henry. Say what?

This literally makes no sense. Even if you hate Hook, it’s obvious that stealing the shears is an act of love for Emma – for proof of that, just look at how Emma reacts to the reveal that Killian kept the shears at the end of the installment. She admits that she would have done the same thing – which is a great moment. How does Henry fall for the Evil Queen’s reasoning that stealing the shears is somehow a villainous act against Emma and Henry? Ugh, Henry.

In any case, the show manages to tie everything up in a neat little bow at the end – which, in itself, is an issue. There’s a lot of *stuff* just crammed into this episode, so the flashbacks and the present-day kidnapping resolution both feel incredibly rushed.

In the past, Nemo kidnaps Hook in order to try to force him to abandon his Dark One quest and in an attempt to induct Hook into his surrogate family aboard the Nautilus – because, hey, it totally worked on Liam. Except, just kidding, it didn’t really work on Liam at all.

Despite finding the hidden treasure with the key to the Mysterious Island (aka, the Land of Untold Stories), Liam all too easily picks back up his murderous vengeful rage when he realizes that Hook is the man he’s been seeking – his half-brother and the one who killed their father.

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Hilariously, Liam accidentally stabs Nemo instead of Hook, though the Land of Untold Stories allows Nemo to remain alive for years. Once they’re back in Storybrooke, courtesy of Hyde, Liam is under the impression that Nemo has died.

In the present, Liam kidnaps Henry and Hook because of this, but said kidnapping is (again, all too quickly) resolved once Henry acknowledges that Hook indeed is part of his family. The sole heartwarming moment of this episode is when Henry returns to the Nautilus after escaping to save Hook from Liam.

Because they’re unwilling to leave Liam a villain, his murderous quest against Hook is quickly resolved when he finds out that Nemo is actually alive – he was found in Storybrooke and brought to the hospital.

Their reunion is sweet and all, but I don’t fully understand why we’re expected to believe that Liam’s thirst for vengeance against Hook is now completely abated, just because Hook didn’t cause the death of one of Liam’s dads. Is Liam not sticking around in Storybrooke? Are they just going to ignore each other and not deal with their bad blood?

Elsewhere, Aladdin enjoys a very minor B-plot, struggling with his no-longer-the-Savior status.

Understandably, he feels that he’d be no use to Agrabah or Jasmine without his Savior abilities. Jasmine, on the other hand, is convinced that Aladdin can help either way. Given that this show centers almost entirely around characters giving other character pep talks, it’s no great shock that Emma gives Aladdin a pep talk which convinces him to talk to Jasmine.

So, what did happen to Agrabah? Weirdly, it just up and vanished while Jasmine was out looking for help, according to the princess. This surely has something to do with Jafar, who I’m sure we’ll be seeing at some point soon. I’m also sure that Aladdin’s season arc will see him coming to realize that he can be a hero without technically being the savior – and, hopefully, now that the shears are back in play, Emma will realize that too.

The shears get even more complicated and plot device-y on “Dark Waters.” Through the Evil Queen’s conversations with Rumple, we learn that the shears (which, courtesy of some convenient sea creatures, the Queen rescues from the depths of the ocean where Killian and Henry for-real-this-time abandoned them) can be used on other destinies besides Saviors’.

My first thought is that the scissors will be used on Rumple himself, once and for all cleaving his Dark One destiny from him – this seems like the only way he can save his relationships with Belle and their son.

Unfortunately, Rumple has other ideas – he wants to use the shears on Belle and their baby. I don’t fully understand how separating the two of them from their own destinies will change their relationships with Rumple, but I guess we just have to accept that it makes some kind of sense.

Double unfortunately, it now appears as though Rumple and the Evil Queen are working together – and that, for some inexplicable reason, she wants Snow White’s heart again. What she intends to do with it, I have no idea.

Stray Thoughts:

• Wet Killian is a very nice Killian indeed.
• Shockingly, Archie is released from his cage by Snow and Charming. I really thought he’d be trapped in there as a cricket for three more seasons.
• Regina sneeringly calls the Evil Queen “Queenie” during the confrontation at Zelena’s house – I die a little every time I watch that. Lana Parrilla is just the best.
• “You call this an entrance, Regina?” “How’s that for an entrance?”
• I’m so not into that Evil Queen/Rumple kiss. Yes, it’s hot and they have amazing chemistry, but Rumple is so obviously not into it. Juxtaposing that kiss with Belle slipping the sonogram photo under the door of the shop is just cruel – the latter is an undeniable sign of hope for Rumbelle, while the former is a death knell. At least we can be grateful that Belle doesn’t walk in on the kiss.

What did you think of this episode of Once Upon a Time? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Once Upon a Time airs Sunday at 8/7c on ABC.

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