Killian has been saved from Hades, going home with Emma.
He’s pretty badly beat up leading to this very very true exchange:
Killian: Hades knocked the handsome out of me
Emma: No-one’s that powerful
I agree Emma, no-one has that power, nope nope nope. Thankfully
Emma does have the shiny power to patch him up (I don’t know why but I really
like to see her using her magic – it seems like such a progression for her
character after what she’s been through over 5 seasons)
Of course she can’t magically cure his self-hate and
guilt. Especially since Emma has set a high bar to compare himself against: she
became the Dark One and fought it or weeks. Killian became the Dark One and
succumbed almost instantly.. yes he’s not feeling good about himself, and doesn’t
think he deserves saving from the Underworld
Killian, you just got saved – everyone risked their life
to save you. You don’t get to unsave yourself now, it’s a rule.
They also run into Liam – Killian’s beloved and saintly
big brother. Killian is horrified because he’s put Liam on such a high pedestal
he can’t imagine him ever having done anything bad to have unfinished business
(they seem to mix up “has unfinished business” with “being bad” here. After
all, no-one can call Regina’s father bad). Killian decides that Hades has
rigged the game and they absolutely must kill Hades to free everyone. Liam also
isn’t a fan of Emma – he self-righteously points out Emma’s choice to keep
Killian alive and make him a Dark One continually tempted him to darkness when she
should have known better. He’s not entirely wrong, but he’s also a lot of a git
about it (which, when Emma talks this through with Regina, she’s happy to point
out because Regina and Emma are awesome), super judgemental and not recognising
any of the nuance of the situation
It is a nice subversion of the trope to have a protective
older brother worry about the woman his little brother is dating. This kind of
protectiveness so often carries a huge chunk of policing female sexuality with
it which makes it so very different and new when it’s the little brother being
protected.
Anyway, a weakness for Hades? The gang gathers and
decides they need the Underworld equivalent of a The Storybook since it has
everyone’s stories – and, therefore, their weaknesses. Which means they need a
stash of magical artefact which Henry knows about (more on that later).
Plan made, it’s time to poke some holes in Liam’s shiny façade.
Killian thinks the sun shines out of his brother’s arse because his brother was
always there for him, even after their father sold them both into indentured
servitude and even after Killian screwed up several times. Through incredible
bravery and noble heroics and constant honesty he even managed to save them
both from a terrible captain and a terrible storm and get them both a place in
the King’s navy.
Well… except the version Killian knows misses out the
part where Liam sold the souls of a ship load of men to Hades in exchange for a
gem that let him buy that naval commission (which, by the way, I think Liam
really short changed them on, but still)… and it’s that information Hades holds
over Liam’s head when he demands Liam destroy the pages of the Storybook that pertain
to him – which Liam promptly does.
Emma, not being a fool (and not liking the guy), suspects
Liam when the book turns up nothing, but Killian can’t believe anything wrong
of his precious brother… which is when all those sailors Liam doomed to die
show up to gets some revenge, dragging the Jones’s brother to the fiery lake of
Hell which is when Hades intervenes: Liam gets to live since he fulfilled the
bargain while Killian gets all burned up for daring to escape
That’s the plan. It’s derailed when Liam moves to save his
little brother and gets almost thrown into the lake of fire himself, caught by
Killian so they can have a heartfelt brother moment. Killian is horrified by
all the lies but Liam says he just wanted to set a perfect example for his
brother and we get this awesome line:
“You raised the bar so high I couldn’t help but fail.”
And this, coupled with Killian comparing himself to Emma, is the awesome point of this episode which is so excellently done. Here’s Kilian beating himself up for not being as good as other people, often because he doesn’t realise the story behind what they’ve done or what they went through: he has all this guilt and self-hate because he continually compares himself to others and potentially impossible standards. An excellent lesson and an excellent character development moment.
Liam owns up to everything while dangling over the lava
but decides he cannot forgive himself – he needs to atone by dropping into the
fiery pit… and lo Liam has just resolved his unfinished business which means he
gets a ticket out of there: as does all of his crew. While Killian has taken
the lesson to heart and finds Emma – he wants to go home with her, to have the
future he and his brother dreamed he could have
Hades is not amused.
There are a couple of other storylines here that need
chasing down – one is David who is due an encounter with his brother soon since
he’s been confronted by the fact their mother gave up James, not him and James
has a whole lot of angst about it (and now so does David).
While Henry is looking for his awesomely powerful Author
Pen – with extra insight from the Apprentice who is in the Underworld pending
Henry deciding what to do with his power. Henry goes after and finds the pen
because he is frustrated about always being the look out, always being rescued
and never really being the hero – he’s always on the sidelines and he wants to
help and be a prime actor
However, after talking things other with David he decides
he can help with his pen – but not by rewriting the stories: instead he’s going
to write the stories they’ve lost about Hades (he is the Author after all)
Which means they will find out about Hade’s apparent
secret association with Zelena…
