Upon return to Storybrooke, Emma reenters the diner from the entrance, putting on a cold mask towards her confused family and friends. Seeing Mr. Clark wearing her trademark red jacket, Emma callously questions who he is supposed to be, and out of annoyance, she turns him to stone. Regina threatens to fulfill what Emma asked her to do if she ever went too far, but Emma reveals she has the dagger now. To keep Hook's secret under wraps, Emma lies to them, professing she will punish them for what they did to her. ("The Dark Swan," "The Price," "Broken Heart")
Hearing Henry summon her, Emma magically appears at the dock, where she warmly greets him and moves to touch his hand, but he pulls away. Recalling what she had said last night, Henry apologizes for failing her, but Emma assures him that she meant everyone except him. Regina approaches, telling her to get away from her son, while Emma coolly stands her ground. When Regina questions her about the memory wipe, Emma admits she removed those memories for a reason, causing Regina to vow that she will retrieve them no matter what. However, Emma confidently points out it's impossible as she built new curse to be unbreakable since there's no savior to undo it. Later, Emma appears before Hook, who accidentally calls her, before she whisks him to the front of her new house. She invites him in, playfully stating that they can still be together, and gives him a drink. He has other ideas, however, and kisses her. Much to his despair, true love's kiss doesn't work on her, but Emma insists it failed because she doesn't need fixing as she has accepted who she is now. Hook refuses to accept this and asks what happened in Camelot, though Emma dances around the question, citing that it'd be no fun to give him a straight answer. She tries to charm him into staying, but Hook leaves. That night, Regina confronts Emma about the fury that has kidnapped Robin because of an unpaid price of magic, asking her to call the creature off, but Emma reveals Regina is the one who didn't pay the price. With growing agitation, she challenges Regina to be the savior and do what needs to be done. After Regina defeats the fury and the townspeople are having a night out at the diner, Emma watches from across the street before leaving. At home, Emma sees Rumplestiltskin, who tells her that her weaknesses, such as her need to protect her loved ones, will always hold her back, as they did with all the other Dark Ones that came before her, but she can snuff out the light. He leads her to the basem*nt, where Excalibur is buried in the stone, tempting her to unite the sword with the dagger to be rid of any hope of light inside her. Emma attempts to pull the sword out, only to be thrown back by a barrier, as Rumplestiltskin cackles that she must pay a price first before extracting the sword. ("The Price")
In the mines, Emma surprises the dwarves by stealing Happy's ax, which she uses to try and unearth Excalibur from the stone, but instead, it breaks the ax. Prompted by Rumplestiltskin, she sets out to find a certain hero to pull it out. Somehow, Emma discovers Belle is making a healing spell to wake Mr. Gold, but the last ingredient must be something that once touched him when he wasn't the Dark One yet. Suspecting Hook may have it, Emma orders a takeout from Granny's with a note asking him to meet her on his ship. Below deck, she apologizes to him for how she behaved last time and asks him to have lunch with her. In an instant, Emma magically sets up their meal and changes herself into the same dress and hairstyle she had on their first date. As the ship sets sail by Emma's magical influence, Hook gets straight to the point, asking what is behind the door in her house. When she doesn't answer, Hook notes she is not the old Emma, as the person he knew didn't play games. Emma affirms she is better as the Dark One, free of her past closed-minded and judgmental personality, and suggests they can move forward together if he is willing. Hook is appalled at this, to which she exemplifies Mr. Gold, who used to be a coward and didn't find true love until becoming the Dark One. Recalling that Hook told her about how Mr. Gold had groveled at him, Emma believes that Mr. Gold became better after the change. Hook owns up to being the villain in that situation, and he explains how he had pointed a sword at Mr. Gold, who was a good man trying to keep his family together and becoming the Dark One made him evil and manipulative, while Hook himself changed for the better. Emma changes the subject, taking the sword, and tries to remind him of how she taught him to swordfight in the alternate reality. Tired of her games, Hook calls her out for wanting something from him. She asks if he loves her, promising to leave if he doesn't, but he states he loved her, causing her to depart shortly after. When Mr. Gold is close to waking from his coma, Emma kidnaps him to her house basem*nt, where she crushes the sword over him to complete the healing spell. Once he awakens, she reveals her plans for making him into the hero she needs. ("Siege Perilous")
While in her home basem*nt, Emma twirls a middlemist rose in her hand, while an imprisoned Mr. Gold tries to sympathize with her about knowing what the darkness feels like. He insists she needn't give into it and should set him free, but Emma reasons that he is the only one who can get the sword for her. He has doubts about being the hero she wants, though she hints there is a secret weapon to help him become that hero. She then goes to her car that is hidden in a tunnel, where she approaches Merida, who is tied to the front of the vehicle. After magically undoing Merida's binds, Emma rips out her heart, commanding the redhead to fetch her bow from the car. Emma then explains her plan to have Merida make a coward brave. ("The Broken Kingdom")
Afterward, Emma returns to free Mr. Gold, who continues to try and persuade her out of her plan, warning that no matter how good her intentions, she'll always lose her loved ones in the end. Emma considers his words for a moment, before ordering Merida to take Mr. Gold into the woods to begin making him a hero, as she herself enters a nearby shed, which is filled with hanging dreamcatchers. Taking down one particular dreamcatcher, which belongs to Violet Morgan, she clutches it to her chest and cries. Hoping to amend what she did to Violet six weeks ago in Camelot, Emma purposely releases the girl's horse, Nicodemus, so Henry can find it and earn Violet's admiration. Instead, Henry seeks Emma's help to track down the horse, while she remains unaware he is deliberately distracting her, giving Regina and the others time to search her house. Upon entering the yellow bug, Henry tells Emma about how he won over Violet with Yaz's "Only You," the same song Neal had used on Emma. Learning Nicodemus likes pumpkin, Emma takes her son to a pumpkin market, Peter Peter's, where the horse is hiding. With some patience from Henry, the horse calms down, allowing the boy to grab its reins. That night, Emma turns up on Regina's doorstep, asking to see Henry. Regina confronts her about what she did to Violet, and when Emma expresses anger at her unearthing the truth, the brunette considers that anything with the Dark One is always a manipulation. Emma argues she took Violet's heart with good reason, to which Regina compares her to Cora, who did horrible things with "good reason." Emma insists she didn't have a choice, though Regina recalls Emma has said many times there is always a choice. Pushed to her limit, Emma reveals it was the only way to free Merlin. Regina then questions why she is still the Dark One if they freed the sorcerer, but Emma refuses to say and instead asks again for Henry. Regina refuses, closing the door, and as Emma walks away, she stops to look at the second-floor window, where Henry briefly meets her gaze before closing the curtains. ("Dreamcatcher")
Once Merida has pushed Mr. Gold to his limit, she leads Emma to him, but he has since escaped during their absence. Rather than kill Merida, Emma orders her to hunt down and eliminate Belle as a way to force Mr. Gold into action. Appearing to Zelena in her cell, Emma teleports both of them to the house, where she attempts to get into Zelena's good graces with onion rings, which she has secretly doused with magic to eventually speed up Zelena's pregnancy. Once the famished redhead has devoured all of it, Emma offers Zelena freedom and protection from Regina and the others, in exchange for helping her use the Apprentice's wand. Having heard about Emma and how she forced Violet to break Henry's heart, Zelena recalls knowing what it's like to be betrayed by a mother and being angry about it for a long time. Emma believes Henry just needs time before he truly forgives her, even though Zelena insists some things can't ever be forgiven. Zelena turns down Emma's offer of protection as she doesn't want to start trouble that might have a bad influence on her baby. Emma is certain she will change her mind in the future, but Zelena considers that she doesn't mind being alone, while the same cannot be said for Emma. Wordlessly, Emma magicks Zelena back to her cell. When Merida is outsmarted by Belle, Emma commands her to drink a potion to turn into a bear, so that there is little chance of failure. By the time Mr. Gold and Belle bring a captured Merida back, Emma is already waiting for them in the basem*nt. Mr. Gold proposes that he'll pull Excalibur from its stone in exchange for Merida's heart. After Emma returns Merida's heart, Mr. Gold successfully pulls out Excalibur and tosses it at Emma's feet. Before leaving, he warns that she made a mistake by turning him into a hero, while she reminds him that though there are many heroes in town, they haven't stopped her yet. ("Birth," "The Bear and the Bow")
With all the previous Dark Ones, including Rumplestiltskin and Nimue present, Emma uses the last flame ember from mankind's first fire to merge Excalibur and the dagger into one weapon. As the completed sword lingers in the air, she moves to grab it, before recalling the warning Merlin gave her when she was a young girl about not taking out Excalibur. However, with encouragement from Nimue, Emma takes Excalibur into her hands. ("Nimue")
To keep Hook ignorant of the fact he is a Dark One, Emma saves him from Arthur's attack. Since Hook continues to press her, she admits that everything she's doing now is because of him. Hook, desperate to get the truth, purposely jumps from a rooftop, knowing Emma will save him, although she does it so he won't find out he's immortal. When he swears that his love for her will remain no matter what she did in Camelot, Emma takes him to her house. She explains that the house was actually his idea back in Camelot, and he had meant for it to be their future home. Emma proclaims her that the things she's doing now are to sustain their future. At this, Hook lets down his guard, waiting to hear what she has to say next, but then, Emma draws him into a kiss. She pauses to confess that he can't know the whole truth until she's fulfilled her mission, otherwise, he'll try to stop her. Shortly after, Hook passes out from the kiss' effects, and Emma shackles him in the basem*nt. After Zelena gives birth, the heroes come to believe Emma is after the baby, as the child's first cry is an ingredient for the spell to snuff out the light. Instead, Emma kidnaps Zelena, intending to put Hook's darkness as well as her own into the witch, and then kill her as a means to extinguish the darkness for good. Although she justifies her plan, stating that Zelena has killed without remorse and deserves to die, Hook won't stand for her murdering a person just to ensure their future together. During a confrontation with her parents and Regina, Emma professes they will thank her after she is done with Zelena, and then uses Excalibur to enact a barrier that affects everyone present outside the house. She reenters her home to find an escaped Hook, who paralyzes her with squid ink and demands answers from her. Zelena helps give him just that, by stabbing him in the chest to prove he's immortal, before showing him through the dreamcatcher of how Emma made him a Dark One. ("Birth")
As retribution for her lies, Hook steals some of Emma's memories to keep her from remembering what his ultimate goal in Storybrooke is, before allowing Zelena to put the cuff on her. After she finally admits the truth to her parents and Regina, a plan forms to return everyone's memories from the dreamcatchers so they can piece together Hook's objective, but Hook has already stolen them. At Regina's house, Mr. Gold reveals Hook has challenged him to a duel to the death. While it makes sense for Hook to want revenge on his worst enemy, Emma suspects there is more to it than just that. Since Merlin's message stated Nimue is their only hope of defeating Hook, Mr. Gold suggests researching The Dark One Chronicles to learn more about Nimue. Emma believes she can provide help to them faster if they remove her cuff, but none of them trust her with magic, especially since the darkness might influence her to do bad things. Even Henry tells her she's broken their trust too many times, and that she's hurt everyone with how she has shut them out in order to deal with the problem alone. While everyone else goes to the library, Regina has Merida stay to guard Emma. Emma resigns herself to this, but when Hook shows up, she tries to persuade him that the darkness is only helping him get his revenge so it can use him to get what it wants. Hook, however, could care less what happens as long as he gets his due. When he accuses her of being just as selfish, Emma insists everything she did was for his sake. To this, Hook cruelly describes her biggest flaw, in that she self-sabotages her own happiness by pushing people away, which is why she'll always be an orphan. Emma returns the remaining squid ink to Mr. Gold, asking him to paralyze Hook with it during the duel, so she can retrieve the dreamcatchers, but Mr. Gold refuses, wanting to win with honor instead of magic. Realizing she cannot fulfill the plan alone, Emma sways Henry into helping her make a locator spell to find the dreamcatchers in the clock tower, but they are protected by a spell. Since Emma proved she trusts him, Henry uses squid ink to remove the cuff, allowing her to get the dreamcatchers. She then returns everyone's memories, including her own, causing her to realize Hook intends to open the underworld gateway to let the previous Dark Ones into town. ("Broken Heart")
With the Dark Ones on the loose, Emma and allies to split up to search for and take down Hook. After not finding Hook at the pawnshop, she rushes outside when Henry calls for her help as he is cornered by Nimue. Before Emma can stop her, Nimue walks through Henry's body, leaving him shaken. The rest of the group, having similar experiences with the other Dark Ones, learn from Mr. Gold that they've all been branded with the mark of Charon, who will take them to the Underworld, so the Dark Ones can exist in the real world. Mary Margaret, resigned to fate, decides to spend her last hours with her family in the diner, and begs Emma to protect baby Neal after everyone is gone. Although Emma is invited to join her loved ones at the diner, she instead asks Regina to fulfill the promise of stopping her if she ever went too far. Together, the women get Excalibur from Mr. Gold, with Emma intending to absorb all the darkness and having Regina kill her to extinguish the Dark Ones. Emma drops the sword off at home before sneaking into the diner to leave a farewell note to her family. When she returns for the sword, Hook attempts to make her give it up to him. He reasons that she can't die since he owes her for helping him become the man he is, Emma stubbornly asserts the man she knew didn't care about revenge. Hook blames her for saving him without thinking of how it would change him, and now, her family will die. She tries to kill him, but he tricks her into giving him the sword by reappearing as Henry in disguise. Before Charon can arrive, Emma makes a final attempt to stop the Dark Ones, but Nimue intervenes by magically constricting her throat. For several seconds as this occurs, Hook does nothing, until he takes in the darkness and has Emma kill him, which she tearfully does. Both of them revert to their old selves after losing their powers, and Hook dies shortly thereafter. Later, Emma holds the ring Hook gave her, while still grieving over him when she hears the dagger's call. She discovers Mr. Gold used magic on Excalibur prior to giving it to her, in order to regain his Dark One powers after Hook's death. Because Emma threatens to tell Belle everything, Mr. Gold agrees to reopen the portal to the Underworld so she can rescue Hook. ("Swan Song")
On the boat ride to the Underworld, Emma falls asleep and wakes up in her car outside of an amusem*nt park. Very much like their first meeting years ago, Neal pops up from the backseat, surprising her, before moving to the front passenger seat beside her. He assures her that he is real, and Emma briefly tells him about how Henry is doing. When she mentions her journey to the Underworld, Neal tries to persuade her out of it, because once she is there, it won't be easy to leave. She insists she would've tried to find him, too, had she known she could, though Neal clarifies that he's already moved on to a better place, and the Underworld is for people with unfinished business. He attempts one last time to talk her out of going, but when she declines again, he accepts this and bids her a warm farewell. Emma awakens, startled from her dream, just as the boat arrives in the Underworld, whose town mirrors Storybrooke. The group split up to search for Hook, but after no luck, Emma finds Henry at the diner, after he unsuccessfully looked for Neal in the inn. Recalling the dream she had, she consoles Henry with the knowledge Neal knows he's all right. While Cora threatens Regina with her father's demise if she doesn't leave the Underworld, Mr. Gold procures magic ale, which Emma uses to summon Hook's spirit, however, Hook is unable to respond to her. He disappears sometime after, leaving Emma disheartened, as she believes he doesn't know she came to save him. Emma then urges Regina to leave the Underworld to keep Cora at bay, but instead, Regina confronts Cora and helps her father's soul move on from the Underworld. In addition to rescuing Hook, the group discusses possibly helping other souls in the Underworld move on. Mr. Gold, not interested in being a do-gooder, parts from the team, while Emma and the others continue with Operation Firebird, Henry's name for their mission. ("Souls of the Departed")
Continuing to look for Hook in the woods, Emma returns to a cold trail, where Regina decides they can cover more ground with a map of the town. After Robin and Henry are sent to get it from the mayor's office, Emma discovers blood and follows it, but instead of Killian, she finds Hades' escaped prisoner Megara. The girl barely manages to mentions Hook when a hellhound, Cerberus, approaches them, prompting Emma to teleport all three of them to the Underworld version of her parents' apartment. Megara tells them about Hook helping her escape Cerberus, whom she describes with terrifying detail. Hercules, with Mary Margaret's persuasion, attempts to face Cerberus, only to run back to his party after getting frightened. Emma, Regina and Mary Margaret then prepare to fight the beast, but before Cerberus gets to them, Hades calls his pet off and steps out to confront the group. Hades leaves Emma with Killian's bloodied hook, warning that he'll do much worse to her pirate in the future. While Mary Margaret goes to convince Hercules to give the plan with Cerberus another go, Emma keeps Megara company at the apartment, until everyone is forced to flee the building, just before Cerberus crashes in. Megara later reunites with Hercules and Mary Margaret to kill the hellhound together. Recuperating in the diner, Mary Margaret tells Emma about the person she once was in the Enchanted Forest, someone who took risks even when she was afraid. Having rediscovered herself by helping Hercules, she vows to no longer be Mary Margaret and be Snow White again. Before leaving for Mount Olympus with Hercules, Megara asks Emma to give her regards to Hook. ("Labor of Love")
With her friends and family, Emma preps for storming the cave that Megara previously escaped from, in the hopes of rescuing Hook. Mr. Gold convinces them to abandon the plan in favor of his own idea, in which he'll use the aura of a deceased person to sneak both himself and Emma to Hades' lair. Later, Emma joins up with Mr. Gold, who speedily introduces her to Milah, his ex-wife, as well as Neal's mother and Hook's ex-lover. Before things get too awkward, the trio focus on heading to a replica of Emma's house, where the basem*nt is blocked by a barrier. Channeling Milah's aura to get past it, Mr. Gold links hands with Emma and Milah to head underground. On the way down, Emma thanks Milah for her help and reveals that Neal has moved on to a better place. When their boat docks at the lair entrance, Emma goes in alone, while Mr. Gold and Milah stay behind. Spotting Hook hanging from a chain at the lair's center, she walks onto a thin ledge to reach him, grabbing him in time before the chain lowers him into the river of lost souls. Upon reaching the exit, the pair finds Mr. Gold, who claims Hades burned the boat and tossed Milah into the river. On return to the apartment, Emma allows Regina to attempt the heart split, but a barrier keeps Regina from taking out the heart. Afterward, Hook shows everyone the three headstones that Hades engraved with Emma, Regina and Snow's names, to make them stay in the Underworld forever, in place of the three people who already moved on. ("Devil's Due")
Relocating to her house, Emma heals Hook's injuries with magic. She leans in to kiss him, but he turns away, still hung up over how easily he gave into darkness as the Dark One. Emma reminds him that he wasn't in the end, but Hook feels he doesn't measure up. She reasons that she wouldn't be trying to bring him home if he hadn't become good, though he has doubts over whether he is worth saving, hinting that he doesn't want to go back. Emma answer the door, meeting Liam, Hook's deceased older brother. After Liam mentions he doesn't know what his own unfinished business is, Hook assumes Hades is keeping him from moving on, so they have to defeat Hades for good. Believing the storybook has information about Hades' weakness, everyone searches the apartment for it. During this, Liam privately warns Emma to stop being selfish about Killian's future, and that she should let his brother move on after they take down Hades. While her parents get the key for the Sorcerer's mansion, where the book is, Emma confides in Regina about Liam's warning. Although Emma confirms Hook wants to move on, Regina advises her to help Hook forgive himself for his dark deeds. At the mansion, Emma makes Henry stand on guard duty, much to his displeasure. Liam finds the book, with Hades' story torn out, leading Emma to suspect he took the pages. When she confronts Liam, Hook believes she is villainizing his brother so he'll feel less guilty about his own actions, and that they still have a future together. Hook decides he is staying in the Underworld after Hades' defeat, to which Emma gives up on trying to persuade him that she forgives him, and for his own closure, he needs to forgive himself. Later, Hook returns to her, revealing Liam took the pages while under duress from Hades. Taking the advice that Liam gave him, Hook thanks Emma for coming to rescue him, and that perhaps he is worth saving after all. Henry reveals to his family that he found the Author's quill in the mansion and wanted to use it to revive Cruella because he wanted to absolve Emma's guilt over her death. Now, however, he declares he'll re-record Hades' story. ("The Brothers Jones")
After Henry writes about Snow and David's plan to contact their son Neal in Storybrooke, Emma and the others have little enthusiasm about it, as they were hoping to read Hades' story. Having no control over how and when his writing happens, Henry becomes upset at their reactions and storms upstairs. Hearing a knock at the door, Emma peeps through the hole to see Zelena on the other side, before cautiously letting her in. In search of her baby who is with Belle in the Underworld, Zelena reluctantly follows Regina and Robin to find them. The couple later returns with the baby and Belle, after Zelena relinquishes her daughter to them, fearing she can't protect her from Hades. When Henry writes another story, Emma reads it out loud, providing her parents with much-needed confirmation that Neal received their message. ("Our Decay")
While Emma is on lookout duty for Hades with Hook on the library's roof, she falls asleep, having a dream about burning her, Regina and Snow's names from the headstones. Before she can finish, an incoming storm forces her, Snow and Hook to seek cover. Although the storm passes quickly, it brings a monster to the Underworld, which Snow goes after, only to be killed by the beast. After this gruesome end, Emma awakens from the nightmare and apologizes to Hook for sleeping on the job. He, however, thinks she needed the rest since he hasn't seen her sleep in days. Once Regina completes a spell on the library elevator door, she and Emma magick it open, but it reveals a brick wall instead of access to Hades' lair. Relating the dream she had, excluding the part where her mother died, she talks about possibly burning the names from the headstones. Not wanting the dream's end to come true, Emma protests when Snow insists on going with her, but she is unable to keep her from coming. At the graveyard, Emma begins burning away the names when the storm happens. Like in the dream, the trio seek cover from it, but the storm is gone in the next instant, leaving a monster in its wake. Emma prevents her mother from going after the beast, and later, in the vault, she finally reveals what happened at the end of the dream. When Regina suggests the dream is about her underlying fears, Emma is reluctant to admit she has issues, until Hook gently prods her into being honest. She shares regrets about bringing everyone to the Underworld and her fear that she will inevitably cause someone's death. Snow reminds her that everyone came with her out of free-will and some things, like love, are worth the risk. With Snow's tracking skills, the group finds the monster in the woods, where Emma and Regina magically stun it. On closer look, they realize it's wolf Ruby, who reverts to human after being covered by her cloak. ("Her Handsome Hero")
Once Ruby wakes up, she tells her friends about her search for Dorothy, who went missing in Oz after Zelena took her silver slippers. Emma joins Ruby, Snow, and Regina in confronting Zelena, who unveils in a mirror that Dorothy is currently under the sleeping curse in Oz. Only true love's kiss can break the curse, and Zelena believes it impossible, since Dorothy may have the love of the Ozians, but not true love. With persuasion from Regina, Zelena forfeits the slippers to her. Ruby can only recall one person Dorothy ever loved, her Auntie Em, who died long ago. They find Auntie Em's headstone is neither tipped or cracked and to get true love's kiss, Snow suggests bottling a kiss from Auntie Em and delivering it to Dorothy in Oz. David returns after attempting to contact Neal, but he tells Snow that the booth has been destroyed on Hades' orders. Snow fears this means Hades is going to attack Storybrooke, to which Emma to suggest both her parents should return home. She is grateful they came to the Underworld with her but believes Neal needs them more now. Since Snow is incapable of leaving the Underworld, she prompts David to go home alone, as one of them needs to be with their son. Upon finding Auntie Em, Emma makes quick work of explaining what happened to Dorothy and giving her a bottle to blow a kiss in. However, as soon as Auntie Em uncaps the bottle, her body disintegrates into a puddle, because of interference from Hades, who wants to ensure Dorothy stays asleep forever. Eventually, Snow convinces Ruby to attempt true love's kiss on Dorothy, knowing she has feelings for the girl. Instead of David journeying home to Storybrooke, he forfeits his freedom so Snow can go instead. Before Snow leaves, Emma says goodbye to her mother, who then departs for Oz with Ruby. Later, Emma happily regards an image of a reunion between Snow and her son, which Henry recorded in the storybook. ("Ruby Slippers")
Regina, after spying on Hades and Zelena's interactions, tells Emma and the rest of the gang about Hades putting their names on tombstones, and his plan to leave for Storybrooke with Zelena. While Regina and Hook work on stopping Zelena from agreeing with Hades' proposal, Emma waits for David to return with baby supplies before they find Robin in the woods. James, in place of David, comes back to the apartment, with Emma having no idea of the switch. She becomes perplexed when he mistakes her parents' anniversary photo for a birthday event, but James chalks up his bad memory to being preoccupied with their troubles in the Underworld. After finding Robin and his daughter, James surprises Emma by placing a cuff in her wrist, which disables her magic. Once James' identity is known to her, Cruella drives up to join him. Cruella proceeds to praise him for his handy work, promising him a private show of thanks later, much to Emma's disgust. As payback for killing her, she slaps Emma, before revealing she intends to kidnap the baby so Hades will revive her. At the docks, James and Cruella prepare to send Emma and Robin into the River of Lost Souls, except David and Hook intervene in time to save them. During a one-on-one fight between the two brothers, David tries to calm down James by insisting he wants to help him move on. As Emma and Hook watch nearby, James proclaims his unfinished business is to kill David, and he charges at him with a knife, only for David to block the hit and throw him into the river. David regrets what he had to do, because in spite everything, James was still his brother. Emma disagrees, telling him that some people are beyond help if they can't let go of their grudges. ("Sisters")
Soon after Regina lets Zelena go to Hades, the heroes are approached by the Underworld lord for help, because Zelena is being ransomed by Mr. Gold and Peter Pan. In exchange for Emma's assistance, Hades agrees to remove her and her family's names from the gravestones. As Hades fulfills his deal with Mr. Gold, Emma sneaks in, arriving in time to stop Pan from taking Zelena's heart. When she questions Mr. Gold on why he's still around if Hades has given him what he wants, Mr. Gold abandons his father, which makes Pan retreat. In the aftermath, Hades' kiss of true love with Zelena restarts his heart and triggers a portal which is set to open in a few hours. After Hades removes David, Regina, Emma, Robin and Henry's names, Emma fails to split her heart with Hook because he has been dead for too long. However, when Hades reveals Hook can be revived by eating ambrosia, Emma and Hook journey underground to retrieve it. In a test to reach the ambrosia, Emma offers her heart up for judgment by placing it on one side of a weight scale. When she suddenly feels intense chest pain, Hook tries to return the heart to her, only to be engulfed in fire. Having to choose between her heart or her lover, Emma knocks Hook out of the flames and passes the test. The door unlocks to the ambrosia tree, but they find it has been cut down, which they realize is Hades' doing. To get Emma out after a tremor causes debris to fall, Hook convinces her that they will find another way without the ambrosia. However, when Emma reaches the elevator, Killian decides he won't be going with her because there's nothing else that can be done for him. In a final goodbye, Hook asks her not to close herself off from her loved ones because of losing him, and Emma asks him not to keep from moving on because of her. As Emma departs in the elevator, she clasps her hand with Killian's, only to have to let him go the further up she travels. Back on ground level, Emma discovers Regina and her family are trapped inside because of Hades' magic. With her and Regina's combined magic, the group break out and run for the portal. Emma stays behind in the hopes of seeing Hook one last time, but she is pulled back by her father. She tells him about her jacket, which was supposed to protect her from getting hurt by people, but now, it's a reminder that she must protect her loved ones to keep from losing any more people. Emma has doubts whether she did her best for Hook, and she vows to never lose anyone else. With that, she follows David into the portal back to Storybrooke. ("Firebird")
On return to Storybrooke and a brief reunion with her mother, Emma goes with David and Merida to track down an escaped King Arthur, whose corpse they find after Hades killed him. Emma begins marching off to fight Hades, believing he will kill again, but David persuades her to slow down because they haven't got a plan yet, and she hasn't dealt with her grief over Hook. Zelena, in disbelief that Hades is evil, encloses the town hall with a barrier, as she, the baby and Hades are inside. To get in, Regina and Robin plan to go through an underground tunnel. Emma wants to join them, but Regina declines because she thinks the latter is not in the right state of mind to face Hades. Hoping for a quick answer on how to annihilate Hades, Emma goes directly to Mr. Gold, but he refuses to tell her and instead blames her for getting everyone involved in her problem. She finds her family and Merida looking up information on Hades at the library, where she has a meltdown over Hook, whom she knows is unable to move on from the Underworld because of her. To work towards defeating Hades and helping Hook, Snow urges her to pitch in with the book research. While Emma is still at the library later, she briefly opens the storybook to a page of her and Killian dancing at the ball during their time travel stint. She puts the book away after getting misty-eyed over the photo, but then, the book magically flips open to Hades' story, causing her to realize Hook put it there. Armed with the pages of Hades' story, Emma attempts to bring down the shield on the town hall, until Zelena stops her. After disarming Emma and grabbing the pages from her, Zelena demands to know if Regina is in on the plan to hurt Hades too. Eventually, Zelena learns the truth about Hades from Regina after he has killed Robin, and she kills Hades to stop his reign of power. Following this, Emma visits Killian's grave, where she brings him a canteen of rum and weeps over the knowledge that he has truly moved on now that Hades is gone. At Robin's funeral, after everyone has left, Emma prepares to say goodbye to him alone when Hook unexpectedly returns. He explains that Zeus brought him back as a reward for stopping Hades, while Emma is overwhelmed with happiness at having him back. In the midst of this joy, however, she reveals the battle wasn't without costs, namely Robin. ("Last Rites")
During Robin's wake, Emma makes Killian wait outside while she breaks the news of his return to Regina. Before she is able to tell Regina, a tremor shakes the town, with Killian rushing in to check up on her. Regina, despite being angered that Hook is alive while Robin remains dead, sets aside her emotions in favor of finding out the cause of the tremor. At the clock tower, the heroes discover Mr. Gold has tethered Storybrooke's magic into a piece of the Olympian Crystal. In private, Emma suggests Regina should take a break because of what she's going through. Regina realizes Emma doesn't trust her and believes she will revert to being the Evil Queen again. Henry tries to stop the argument, which ends with Regina teleporting out to find Mr. Gold herself since Emma doesn't want her help. After sending Henry to her house, Emma and her family try to figure out Mr. Gold's current location in Storybrooke. Regina arrives looking for Henry, who has stolen the crystal and left town to destroy it. When Mr. Gold suggests that destroying the crystal's magic will erase Storybrooke, Regina reluctantly allows Emma to join her after the latter provides a lead on Henry. Using GPS, they track Henry to a Boston bus stop, only to find he left his phone on the bus to throw them off. An upset Regina chucks the phone and accidentally sets it on fire, which causes her and Emma to fear Mr. Gold will harm Henry since magic outside of Storybrooke is now possible. In another plan, Regina convinces Emma to provide blood in a locator spell. Tracking Henry to Neal's apartment in New York, Emma runs a laptop scan to find out where he and Violet went. Regina reads an unsent letter that Robin wrote to her, which makes her come clean about her daily struggle to curb her darker instincts. She tells Emma about how being good has made her suffer losses and that she has to live with the evils of her past, or risk giving into darkness again and losing her loved ones. Emma believes Regina will prevail, but the latter thinks being miserable either way is her fate. When the scan reveals Henry is at the Midtown Library, the women arrive to find him and Violet passed out, after Mr. Gold has taken the crystal. Henry convinces Emma that she was wrong for not believing in Regina, and he defends his decision to destroy magic because he doesn't want to lose either of his moms to magic like with his father. Regina uses Henry's blood to locate Mr. Gold, which fails because Mr. Gold has disabled magic. ("Only You")
Leaving Henry and Violet to wait in the library, Emma and Regina pinpoint Mr. Gold after seeing a magic storm cloud above the Hotel D'or building. Emma receives even more troubling news in a text from Granny, which states their family in Storybrooke have been pulled into a portal. Since magic is needed to rescue their loved ones, Regina distracts Mr. Gold with a fake alliance as Emma sneaks in to steal the crystal. Mr. Gold busts the women's plan and reveals he only needed Regina's hair as a link to Zelena in the other realm, where Belle is also trapped. With no more use for either woman, Mr. Gold prepares to hurl a fireball at them, but Henry arrives to absorb the crystal's magic into a replica of the Holy Grail. Only after this, Henry learns from his moms about why they needed the crystal. After he storms off, Emma finds him by the fountain. She gives him a penny to make a wish since making wishes used to cheer him up, but Henry reminds her that only worked when he was living in New York with no memory of Storybrooke or magic. He feels guilty about destroying magic, as he believed it'd help their family, but now, he's made things worse. With the Dragon's help, Emma and the others are able to see their families in the other realm, but unable to open a portal. To find more magic, the Dragon advises that they seek magic with the power of belief. Back at the fountain, Henry persuades his family to make wishes on pennies, which creates magic in the crystal, but not enough. After Henry rallies a crowd of New Yorkers to make wishes, a portal opens in the fountain, allowing his family to return. As the crowd applauds, a disappointed Henry realizes they are mistaking real magic for a street act. Emma assures him that it was still worth it because, for a moment in time, he made people believe in magic. Before going home, Emma and Snow show their support for Regina as she faces the Evil Queen and kills her. On return to Storybrooke, Emma tells Hook that she loves him, as everything they've faced has finally given her the courage to say it. ("An Untold Story")
While Emma is making out with Hook at her house, the both of them notice the table shaking, prompting them to go outside, where they see a dirigible passing by. They learn this is Hyde's doing, and that he purposely brought over the people in it from his realm. Emma and Regina combine powers to take out Hyde, but it has no effect on him. Hyde leaves them with a warning about the dangers of untold stories, especially if those in the stories don't want them to be told. At the dirigible's crash site, Emma helps collect scraps to create a new weapon to defeat Hyde, during which she develops a hand tremor and sees a vision of herself battling an unknown enemy. Snow and Hook notice something off with her, but she assures them all is well before walking off into a clearing, where her hand begins shaking on its own. After the weapon is made, Regina lures out Hyde, but Emma is distracted with the vision again, which keeps her from using the baton on Hyde. She eventually snaps out of it and tasers Hyde. While being taken away by David and Hook, Hyde admits noticing Emma's hand tremor and suggests she come to him if she wants to know more. Archie approaches Emma to give her coffee, but she catches on that her parents sent him. He offers his assessment of her, in that she has become more open because of her friends and family, but the battles she's fought since then have left her more exposed to pain and emotion. She wants a shortcut to fix her issues, but he advises that giving herself time and effort. Emma gains information from Hyde about a red bird that she must follow, and that night, she sees the bird while Hook asks her about her tremors. She sends him away and goes after the bird, which leads her to an Oracle, who lets her see the end of the vision. In it, Emma is stabbed by the enemy, an end that the Oracle warns will happen, no matter what path she takes to get there. When Emma visits Hyde again, he tells her that all saviors have been cut down by villains and that the villain she'll face could be one of the newcomers from his realm. Emma keeps this to herself, and when she makes up with Hook, she lies about the tremors being caused by stress. Later, she helps distribute blankets to Hyde's people but then leaves the diner when her tremor acts up. ("The Savior")
At the diner, Emma witnesses Regina giving a formal welcome to the Untold Stories residents that is met with approval. Belle, now freed from the sleeping curse, arrives looking for a new place to stay. Emma deters her from the inn because the beds are not comfortable, but Hook offers Belle a new room elsewhere. He prompts Emma to come along, however, she tells him that she has a session with Archie. Hook is impressed by this, and Emma agrees that it couldn't hurt to talk things after everything she's been through. At therapy, with encouragement from Archie, Emma opens up about the vision she's been having. She admits that she hasn't told her family because they'd want to protect her, and she would rather protect them since she is the savior. Archie asks her to consider who she is outside of the savior label, but Emma is not interested in this and just wants help to stop the vision from coming true. When he tries to persuade her that she is having an identity crisis, Emma leaves the session. After receiving word from Regina that the Count, who wants to kill David and Snow, is on the loose, Emma begins driving her parents out of Storybrooke, but the car is thrown back by a barrier at the town line. Regina, after realizing the ingredients for the spell came from the vault, relates her suspicions to Emma and Snow about Zelena overriding the vault's blood magic seal. Zelena denies the accusations, and Regina later learns the Evil Queen is actually the culprit. Having killed the Count to save David and Snow, Regina agonizes over what she did, but Emma offers support by saying she didn't have a choice since the Queen put her in that situation. Snow suggests that Regina needs to think like the Queen in order to know what her darker half's plans, and asks her what the Queen meant by everyone having stories that they don't want told. Suddenly, Emma sees her vision again, accompanied by the tremors. Snow and Regina notice, but she pretends to be fine. Emma returns to Archie and tells him about a theory she has, in which the cloaked enemy in her vision is Regina. ("A Bitter Draught")
While Emma and Hook are at the diner, Henry arrives to show them his compiled list of Untold Stories residents. When a new person comes in, Emma goes with Henry to get information. Emma then humorously notices Hook entertaining Ashley's daughter by dabbing his nose with cream and making funny faces at her. Despite how happy Emma feels, her worries turn again to the vision and knowing that her happiness will come to an end. She interrupts Archie's session with Leroy, but Archie ends his time with Leroy to help her. Emma is surprised to hear Leroy mention that Dopey is no longer a tree, but Leroy notes that the dwarves got him out and they weren't waiting for her to fix things. She tells Archie about what's bothering her, and her reluctance in asking Hook to move in with her because she can't offer him a future where the vision doesn't happen. Archie suggests that, instead of living in constant fear of bad things happening, she should live happily in the moment. Afterward, Sean tells Emma that Ashley has gone after her stepsister Clorinda, and he is worried she means to kill her. Emma uses a locator spell on Ashley's shoe, and as she is following the shoe, she is joined by Hook and Henry. They find Ashley at the harbor, where the blonde admits she, not Clorinda, was the wicked sister in their story, and she is trying to make amends to her stepsister now. When Emma's tremor acts up, Ashley takes the opportunity to run away, with Emma unable to use magic to stop her. They meet the Queen, who reveals her plan to keep Emma from intervening in Ashley's story, as all stories have bad endings once the savior is gone. The Queen teleports the trio to the woods, where Henry and Hook give her a pep-talk about her ability to find people even without magic. When Emma mentions her knack for finding people by trying to decipher their stories, Henry realizes the storybook can tell them how Clorinda's story was supposed to end, and this will reveal Ashley's location. The three show up to a pumpkin farm, where Ashley has been stabbed by Lady Tremaine. With reassurance from Henry, Emma calms down enough to focus her magic and heal Ashley. She and Hook spend time on the farm, where she takes Archie's advice and asks Hook to move in with her. ("The Other Shoe")
One morning at the loft, Emma is surprised when her father makes her an abundance of pancakes for breakfast and asks what's wrong. David admits worrying that he won't see her as often now that Hook is living with her, but she assures him this changes nothing with her family. After learning from Jekyll that Hyde has escaped his cell, Emma accompanies her father and Regina to a lab so Jekyll can finish the serum. Hook notifies Emma by phone that Mr. Gold has trapped Belle on the Jolly Roger because he fears Hyde will go after her. While Regina gets Mr. Gold's help with the serum, Emma and David search for Hyde and the Queen. The pair finds him in the woods, but he overpowers both of them before taking off. Following Jekyll and Hyde's simultaneous deaths, Regina tells Emma that for the Queen to cease to exist, she must die and that although she and the Queen are separate now, her own capacity for evil is still there. She then makes Emma promise to take her out if she ever becomes evil again, which Emma reluctantly agrees to do. ("Strange Case")
In the woods, Emma is following the red bird to the Oracle, as Archie tries to talk her into returning to therapy. She declines because, after so many sessions, her tremors and visions are still happening. Emma finds the Oracle, except that she is already dead. She spots someone running away and apprehends the person under suspicion of murder. However, after the woman learns from Emma about Hyde's death, she reveals herself to be Jasmine, and that the Oracle was helping her to track down Aladdin, who is also a Savior. Later in the day, Emma runs into Archie again, except this time the Evil Queen is disguised as him, and she tells him about the possibility of her vision not coming true if Aladdin is still alive. Emma meets up with her family in the loft, where "Archie" follows her in and persuades her to tell them the truth. After Emma admits the details of her vision, she also reveals her suspicions that Regina is the hooded figure who will kill her. Snow expresses hurt over Emma's decision to keep it a secret, but she forgives her. David receives a call from Leroy, who can't find Archie, which causes Emma to realize the person she saw earlier was actually the Queen in disguise. With Regina's locator spell, Emma becomes linked to Aladdin and is able to track him down at a crypt. After Jasmine finds proof of Aladdin's death, Emma's hopes of escaping her impending death are dampened, and she steps away to be alone. Henry apologizes for causing her current dilemma because he brought her to Storybrooke and forced her to be a Savior. However, Emma attests it was worth it since she got to be his mother and find her family. Aladdin, overhearing their conversation, comes out of hiding to give Emma the Shears of Destiny. He admits his reasons for hiding, and that he is ashamed of his decision to use the shears rather than face his fate. Emma encourages him to go to Jasmine and tell her the truth, which he does. At the loft, Emma vows to not use the shears, and instead, find another way or accept that she is meant to die. That night, she meets Hook at the dock, after he has disposed of the shears into the sea. However, after she walks off, he pulls out the shears in his jacket. ("Street Rats")
At home, Emma leaves to search for Aladdin at Jasmine's bequest and finds him attempting to flee town. She drives him to the Storybrooke welcome sign, which she crashed into during her first night in town, as an example of her own attempt to run away from her Savior duties. Aladdin blames himself for the fall of Agrabah, but he eventually decides to own up to his mistakes when Emma advises him to do as she did by facing those he disappointed and making up his errors. Later at the hospital, Emma and Henry meet up with Hook in the waiting room, after Hook helps reunite his half-brother Liam and Nemo with each other. Emma is confused by the turn of events, including Liam having a submarine, and why Hook and Henry were at the harbor in the first place. After Henry leaves, Hook reveals his selfish decision to keep the shears because they were the only thing that could save Emma, even if she hated him for making a choice for her that she didn't want. He apologizes for his mistake, something Henry helped him see, and they have since thrown away the shears for good. Upon learning all this, Emma forgives him, stating that she understands and would've done the same thing for Hook. ("Dark Waters")
In a race to defeat the Queen, who threatens to kill everyone with Acheron water unless Snow and David forfeit their hearts to her, Emma's parents track down a sapling born from a spark of true love, while Emma and Hook clear out Regina's vault, where they intend to imprison the Queen. Emma's hand tremor is triggered when she grows frightened of what will happen if their mission fails, but Hook calms her down by reminding her of the story of Snow White and Prince Charming, and how she was born from true love, the most powerful magic that enables her to do anything. When the sapling is destroyed by the Queen, Emma and Regina prepare to counterattack with their combined magic, except Snow and David decide to give up their hearts in order to save the townspeople. Emma is aghast at their choice to die, however, her parents reassure her they are at peace knowing their lives have led them to each other and back to her as well. Instead of killing the couple, the Queen casts a sleeping curse on both heart halves, causing Snow to fall into a deep sleep before she teleports her away to another location. Emma and David's search for Snow in the loft lead them to the woods, where David uncurses his wife with true love's kiss, only for himself to be affected by the curse once she is awake. ("Heartless")
When Regina wants to confront the Queen for casting the sleeping curse on Snow and David, Emma persuades her it won't do any good and that she needs to be there for Henry. After a failed attempt to find the Dragon, she and Regina plan to trap the Queen within a mirror. Henry offers to help by baiting the Queen and explains his desire to have a distraction from Violet, whom he believes no longer likes him. Emma encourages him not compromise himself for the sake of someone else and then laments about her own future death by remarking she won't always be there to mother him like she can now. However, Emma and Regina are imprisoned by in the mirror instead, after the Queen switched mirrors without them knowing. In the mirror realm, they nearly gain Henry's attention when he hears them calling him, but the Queen draws him away before he realizes anything is wrong. They meet the Dragon, who also confined in the mirror by the Queen, and he shows them a portal that a previously trapped Sidney was working on. As Emma and Regina work on fixing one of the mirrors, the Queen forces the Dragon to morph into his dragon form and orders him to kill them. The women hide behind a pillar, while the Queen gives Henry a hammer to smash the Dragon's heart to save his family. Going by Regina's suggestion that the Dragon's fire breath can break the mirror and allow them to escape, Emma prepares to bait the Dragon since she's fated to die anyway. Regina insists on being the sacrifice, revealing she fears raising Henry alone knowing the Queen is a reminder of the terrible mother she could've been, but Emma assures her it won't happen as long as she is there to help her. The two lure out the Dragon together, and from Henry's side, he smashes the mirror, just as the Dragon's fire breath hits the other side. As the mirror explodes, Emma and Regina are thrown out to safety. Later that night, Henry's moms watch their son dance with Violet, with both of them feeling relieved that he will be all right, despite the worries each of them had about him growing up. ("I'll Be Your Mirror")
While Belle is searching for a way to protect her unborn child from Mr. Gold, who wants to use a potion to accelerate her pregnancy, she shows Emma and Hook a book that she suspects is related to her son's message about how to defeat her husband. After Hook figures out the book is written in squid ink, Emma uses it to freeze Mr. Gold, before she and Hook search the pawnshop for the dagger and shears. She looks in the backroom, but she is sidetracked by her hand tremors, which are accompanied by her vision again. This time, however, she sees the handle of the sword that kills her has a red jewel on it. When Hook rushes in to check on her, Mr. Gold escapes after the ink's effects wear off. The couple regroups with Belle at the diner, where they learn Mr. Gold did not use the spell after all. In a private chat, Hook asks Emma about what happened earlier, and she fills him in on the vision's new details along with her suspicions that something in the pawnshop triggered it. When Belle accidentally ingests the potion and her pregnancy speeds up, Emma helps her through the labor, and afterward, she and Hook witness Belle give up her son into Mother Superior's care to protect him from Mr. Gold. Later that night, Emma and Hook enter the pawnshop, which has since been trashed by Mr. Gold and find the sword from Emma's vision. ("Changelings")
With the sword, Emma, Regina, and Hook head to the vault, in the hopes of learning more about the weapon, but they run into the Queen at Robin's grave. The Queen taunts Emma about her parents' joint curse, to which the fired up Savior jabs her with the sword and cuts her cheek. Learning the sword can hurt the Queen without harming Regina, Emma makes plans of killing her with it. Henry fears she will die like in her vision since the sword is the same one that eventually kills her, but Emma insists she won't back down even if this fight may be her last, and that she needs to be the Savior. Despite her son's reservations, Emma goes ahead with the mission, with David, Regina and Hook by her side. They rush to Jasmine after hearing her cries for help, but they soon discover this was a ploy by the Queen to draw them in. With the genie lamp, the Queen uses a wish to grant Emma's wish of having never been the Savior. Emma then disappears to an alternate realm, where her parents defeated the Queen, and she grew up as a princess. On her birthday, Emma tells her parents about a dream she had, in which the Queen was still a threat to them in a place called Storybrooke. She also shows them a sword she found under her bed, but her parents shrug it off as a coincidence since the armory was cleaned recently. Henry, her son, talks to them about his upcoming knighting ceremony, and they briefly reminisce about his deceased father, Baelfire. While out picking flowers, Emma sees who she believes is the Queen, though it's actually Regina. When Emma refuses to listen to her, Regina disguises herself as the Queen and arrives at the knighting ceremony, where she proclaims her intent to destroy them and implies only a hero like Emma can defeat her. Emma simply begs for mercy, so Regina attempts to force into her Savior role by kidnapping her parents. Even with this, Emma surrenders and offer her the key to the kingdom. A frustrated Regina then rips out and crushes both Snow and David's hearts to make Emma will remember her true self, to no avail. Only when Henry prepares to kill Regina to avenge his grandparents, Emma freezes him with magic, after realizing this world is fake because she would've never wanted her son to become a murderer. Afterward, they gain a magic bean from Rumplestiltskin to return home, but before they can jump into the portal, they dodge an arrow from none other than Robin Hood. As Regina becomes distracted by the sight of Robin, Emma tries to urge her back to the portal, which eventually closes, leaving them stranded in this realm. ("Wish You Were Here")
With the portal gone, Emma and Regina acquiesce to Robin's demands and hand over their jewelry to him before he takes off as Henry and some knights approach in search of Regina. The women hide long enough for Henry to leave and soon set out to find Pinocchio, who agrees to carve a new magic wardrobe to help them go home. After Regina disappears to find Robin, Emma goes with Pinocchio to the enchanted grove to extract the wood. Pinocchio shows her the tool he'll be using, his father's magic chisel, while Emma tells him about her destiny as the Savior to die in the future. An aged Hook attempts to "rescue" Emma, as there is a reward for whoever returns her to her family, but Emma knocks him out and teleports him away. The chisel, now broken after Hook dropped it, causes Pinocchio to give up the mission, out of doubt that he can live up to his father's name. As Emma attempts to chip away wood using a regular chisel, she finds Pinocchio's birthday gift to her: a wooden swan. Upon learning his reasons for carving a swan, Emma realizes August was the boy from many years ago who advised her on using belief to change her own fate. She uses the same advice to encourage Pinocchio into believing he is a master woodcarver, which helps him to infuse a chisel with magic by the power of belief. Regina returns with Robin once the wardrobe is done, and despite her fear of consequences if Robin comes with them, Emma convinces her to make her own fate. Emma and Regina arrive back to Storybrooke, but when Robin seemingly isn't there, Emma leaves to give Regina a moment alone. The grown-up Gideon, actually the cloaked figure in her vision, disarms Emma in a duel, with her arriving friends and family being frozen by Gideon. As Emma's hand tremor acts up, she stuns Gideon with a burst of magic and moves to kill him but stops when Mr. Gold begs for his son's life spared. After Gideon's escape, Emma reunites with her family, before talking to August about their past run-in. Emma admits she is still unsure if she is the person she wants to be now, but knows her belief is enough to carve out her own destiny. ("Tougher Than the Rest")
The same night of Emma's return, she joins her father Hook, Henry, and Regina in celebrating her defeat of Gideon and their unity as a family. At some point after this, Regina gives her a box of potions to aid in possibly breaking David and Snow's joint curse, which Emma stores in her shed. The next morning, Emma goes canoeing with Henry, but she returns to get life jackets from the shed and runs into Hook, who tries to distract her by flirting. When she playfully calls him out for lying to her, Hook tells her about visiting Archie in order to process his emotions about almost having lost her. Emma is touched by Hook's confession and shares a kiss with him, just after David has left the shed with the potions, which Hook was helping him to get without Emma's knowledge. After the kiss, Emma continues onto the shed, oblivious to what is going on. Over the course of the day, Hook gains David's respect and gratitude, which cumulates with David giving his blessing to Hook so he can propose to Emma. However, Hook becomes conflicted upon learning a man he killed long ago was actually David's father. Emma comes out to welcome Hook back and then pops back into the house to make a snack, while Hook stays outside to study the ring box with a conflicted expression before snapping it closed. ("Murder Most Foul")
While Hook is away from home, Emma finds the ring hidden in Killian's sea chest and realizes he means to propose to her. She greets him with a kiss when he walks through the front door and notices he has been drinking rum. Intending to come clean to her about David's father, Hook explains he needed it to give him courage since he's unsure how she will react in response to what he's about to say. Emma, believing he means the marriage proposal, declares that her answer is yes. She then shows him the ring she found and becomes momentarily dismayed when Hook looks upset at her, though Killian assures her he is not. Despite that she already gave him her answer, Emma returns the ring to him and gives him the opportunity to propose to her as he intended. Hook obliges by kneeling and asking for her hand in marriage before slipping the ring on her finger, just as Emma says yes and happily hugs him. ("Ill-Boding Patterns")
In the loft, Emma shows off her engagement ring to Snow and Henry before deciding to hold off on planning the wedding until Gideon is caught. Regina and Zelena arrive with bad news about the Queen, who has escaped, and Henry later receives a storybook page from the Queen that depicts Regina and the original Robin, the same one that Regina once had. Knowing the Queen is using Robin as bait so Regina will come face her, Emma offers to go instead since she feels responsible for persuading Regina into bringing Robin to Storybrooke, but Regina insists on finishing things herself before anyone else she cares about gets hurt. Emma returns home and walks in on Killian sitting by the fireplace with his dreamcatcher as the events of how Hook once killed her grandfather appear in the net. She confronts him about planning to destroy the evidence without even telling her the truth, and Hook confesses he was fearful over how she would take the news and his inability to face her and her parents knowing he had ruined their family once. When Killian implies he doesn't know how to live with his guilt, a tearful Emma angrily suggests he could've come to her for support so they could deal with the weight of the burden together. She expresses her belief that the man she fell for knew all this, and that they could lean on each other in times of crisis without secrets dividing them. Emma assumed this is the version of Hook whom she was marrying, but seeing as he not able to trust her yet, she returns the ring to him, telling him that they can talk when he is ready. Hook decides to join Captain Nemo for his sea travels, in an attempt to find himself again for Emma's sake, but changes his mind in the end and intends to go back to Emma, however, he becomes trapped on the Nautilus when Gideon causes the submarine to submerge underwater and travel to another realm. Emma, who arrives home to an empty house, peers out the window before turning off the lights. ("Page 23," "A Wondrous Place")
Learning from Leroy that Hook was spotted at the docks leaving on the Nautilus, Emma comes believe Killian has truly left her for good and then tells her father the truth about Hook's involvement in Robert's death. As she buries herself in work at the sheriff's office with David, Regina invites her to a girls' night out at Æsop's Tables with her and Snow. Emma declines to go because she's getting ready to go on patrol, even though Regina thinks she would benefit from getting a break to work through her emotions about Hook instead of running away from them. The blonde continues to stand by her decision, stating that Hook was the one who ran and there's nothing more to say about the issue. At home, Emma packs up Hook's belongings into a chest and longingly looks at one of his rings adorned on a necklace. After assuring a concerned Henry that she is fine, she answers her phone and learns about a fight that broke out at Aesop's Tables. Emma begins leaving for the bar, and on her way out, she asks Henry to take the chest to the shed later. Only after getting to the location, she discovers the fake fight was an excuse devised by Regina and Snow to lure her to the bar. Later, Emma remains tight-lipped about her emotions when Regina tries to get her to open up about what she is feeling. The two attempt to intervene when a drunk Snow confronts a group of vikings for not paying before leaving, but then they watch from the sidelines as Snow challenges them to best her in dagger throwing and whoever loses must pay for everyone's drinks. Emma decides not to break up the contest and instead enjoys the distraction. Upon ordering another drink, she talks with the bartender, Aesop, who is actually Gideon in disguise. He shares his supposed real-life love story, in which he was an artist who loved his wife but she didn't love him. This reminds her of Hook, whom she has always believed to be a survivor yet he left her when things got tough between them. Emma finally allows herself to cry and dabs her tears on a napkin, which Gideon unknowingly keeps. Returning home, Emma notices Henry forgot to move the chest to the shed, so she begins taking it out herself, only to hear Hook's voice coming from a conch shell inside it. She hears Hook tell her that Gideon forced him out of town and his plans to get back to her, but when she tries to respond back to him, he doesn't hear her. Aesop, morphing into Gideon, reveals the tear-stained napkin is his way of cutting off Emma's communication with her beloved, and she won't get Hook back unless she helps him kill the Black Fairy. ("A Wondrous Place")
As Emma grows increasingly angry over Gideon banishing Hook to another realm, she grabs his neck in a vice grip while demanding he undoes what he did. Gideon refuses unless she assists him with his mission, to which Emma, furious at Gideon attempting to blackmail her into helping him after previously trying to kill her, drops her hold on him and slaps him hard, drawing blood from his lip. Gideon instead tells her about his experience with the depravity of the Black Fairy's soul and what she has done to other enslaved children, all of whom he promised to save and Emma will either have to comply with his demands or never see Hook again. With no other options, Emma goes with her mother to Mr. Gold about the Black Fairy, who is the originator of the Dark Curse as well as all darknesses and his mother. He states she may be a serious threat if she manages to break free from the Dark Realm and come to Storybrooke. After Mr. Gold and Belle convince her to aid their son so he can be on the side of good, she agrees to help Gideon if he returns Hrunting and brings back Hook. Gideon leads Emma to the Sorcerer's Mansion, where he tricks her into opening a portal to allow Hook to return through, but instead, it brings forth a giant spider, which he claims was summoned by the Black Fairy. As the two hide from the spider, Gideon continues to build up Emma's trust by apologizing for trying to kill her and assuring her that all he wants is to free the Black Fairy's prisoners, however, when they reach a dead end, he shoves Emma into a sticky web, trapping her in place while he steals Hrunting, revealing that he can open a portal to go kill the Black Fairy once Emma dies. Despite escaping the web after Gideon leaves, Emma is overpowered by the spider, who spins her into a cocoon, causing her to slowly suffocate. As Emma's life ebbs away, Gideon's portal opens briefly, letting the Black Fairy through, before it closes when Mr. Gold saves Emma. With her and Mr. Gold's combined powers, they shrink the spider before Emma kills it by stomping on it. In the aftermath, Emma proclaims to Gideon's parents that their son is irredeemable while Mr. Gold vows to take her out if she tries to kill Gideon. ("Mother's Little Helper")
When Emma finds out about the strange symbols Henry wrote in his Author trance, she enlists him to come with her to the library to research them. As she passes him the book of symbols, her hand tremor returns. Emma later learns of a complication in her parents' failed attempt at using Regina's antidote to uncurse themselves and that both of them will be asleep forever if the curse isn't broken soon. In Snow's latest video message to him, David notices pixie flower petals and believes they can break the sleeping curse. Before David goes to sleep so Snow can be awake to help track the flowers, Emma asks him about he can cope with being separated from Snow for so long, to which he explains his belief in knowing Snow is fighting as hard for him as he is for her. Knowing Hook is on his daughter's mind, David persuades her that Killian is doing the same for her wherever he is. Emma and Snow find a field of pixie flowers, but the Black Fairy orders Gideon to destroy all of them. In the aftermath, Snow recalls the vow she made to never leave Emma alone again and that she can't keep her promise now that the final battle is near, although Emma assures her that there wasn't anything she could've done to change her fate. Snow knows to be untrue and she begins telling her about something that happened to her and David during the first curse, but she is cut off when Emma finds the last pixie flower. Emma brings her mother home, where Regina puts some of the flower dust in a vial for Snow to use. Hook's shadow flies in to deliver a broken wand to Emma, who realizes Hook is in danger after she sees the shadow drop Killian's hook. Snow tells her to use the dust to reach Hook and also reveals she and David once used the same dust to find her when she was just a child but that they ultimately sacrificed their happiness to save the townspeople. Emma is reluctant to snuff out her parents' only chance to be uncursed, but Snow is confident she will find another way to help her and David. Creating a portal with the dust, Emma arrives in Neverland to stop the Lost Boys from executing Hook before the both of them return to the loft. Emma forgives Hook for not being honest about her grandfather's murder and contemplating to leave. She accepts his proposal again when he asks her to marry him. To help dilute Snow and David's joint curse in the hopes of breaking it, she is one of the many people to ingest a liquid form of the curse. Emma and those who drank the curse fall asleep, but after David and Snow wake up, they awaken as well. ("Awake")
One morning as Emma makes pancakes, Hook playfully interrupts her before she returns his ardor with heated kisses. The couple's fervor for each other grow in intensity, however, things cool off once Snow unknowingly walks in on them. After Hook excuses himself, Emma is somewhat surprised when her mother shows her a whole binder of wedding plans she has been putting together since the first curse broke. Snow explains that her enthusiasm is due to her desire to be involved when she wasn't able to be there for other milestones in Emma's life. Emma, touched by her mother's sentiments, embraces her in a hug before she is phoned by Regina. At the sheriff's office, Emma breaks up an argument between Regina and Zelena concerning how they are dealing with the Black Fairy. Zelena, incensed that the fairy threatened to take Robin earlier, wishes to finish her off herself, but Emma reasons that Regina's plan to find the other half of the wand is more practical so they'll have a weapon to use against her. While Regina works on a locator spell for the wand, Snow involves Emma, Hook, David, and Henry in picking out a wedding venue. Snow suggests the diner, which David believes is too small for a princess like Emma, to which Snow offers the town hall instead. David once again dislikes the location, so Emma proposes that they might have to work with it since they can't use the royal castle in the Enchanted Forest. When David actually suggests they do that, Snow drags him outside to discuss what is really bothering him. Emma overhears her father telling Snow that he doesn't want to rush the wedding knowing Emma could be on death's doorstep shortly after it instead of looking ahead to her years of marriage. She then convinces her mother that she would rather wait for the right time to walk down the aisle, and for now, she and Hook are happy being together as a couple. Later at the sheriff's office, Emma hears from Regina about Zelena's botched attempt at killing the Black Fairy that resulted in the fairy creating dark crystals by imbuing them with Zelena's magic. When Zelena agrees to use the Crimson Heart to remove all her magic to help revert the crystals, she asks Regina to take care of Robin if anything goes wrong, which Emma backs up by promising to look after the infant as well. After the crystals return to their light form, Emma suggests getting Mother Superior's help to obtain more from the mines. Zelena eventually reveals the nun is in the pawnshop, where Emma crushes a fairy crystal over Mother Superior's body to restart her heartbeat. ("Where Bluebirds Fly")
At the pawnshop, Emma watches Mr. Gold use an unhatched dragon egg to awaken Mother Superior. The nun provides a clue about the location of the other half of the wand, but before she can say any more, Snow starts to choke her and revealing the Black Fairy in disguise, with David as Gideon, before kidnapping her. With the real Snow and David looking for the wand, Emma goes to check in with Mr. Gold and Belle as they are attempting to talk to the restrained Gideon about where his heart is hidden. Since Gideon cannot reveal anything without the Black Fairy hurting him, Mr. Gold takes him to the dream world, where he also brings Emma to in order to keep her from going after the Black Fairy until he can find his son's heart. As the two look for Gideon, Mr. Gold recognizes an old shack as the place he was born, with Emma noticing that they are in his dream world instead of Gideon's. After Gideon suggests the Black Fairy's greatest fear is for Mr. Gold to discover the reason why she abandoned him, Emma encourages him to allow himself to be vulnerable for Gideon's sake in order to see the memories of his own past and find out the Black Fairy's secret. The trio is transported into a memory, where they learn Mr. Gold was destined to be a Savior and fight a great evil, but this evil turned out to be the Black Fairy. Later, when Mr. Gold returns after seemingly fulfilling his fate and offers up the fairy's blackened heart as proof that he killed her, Emma praises him for doing his duty as a Savior. With the final battle no longer an issue, Emma and Hook's wedding is resumed for the next day. Hook drops by her house to ask Henry to be his best man and then tells Emma that he's not staying over since it's bad luck to see the bride on the night before the wedding. ("The Black Fairy")
While Emma tries to pick out a dress to wear for her wedding, Snow offers her the dress she wore for her own wedding, but the Black Fairy ruins things by dyeing it black. The Black Fairy reveals her son never turned against her after all and she offers her the chance to forfeit her heart to her now instead of facing her in the final battle. She attempts to weaken Emma's resolve by bringing up her past as a lonely orphan who never stopped being alone, but when this fails, she directs her to the clock tower to get a taste of what is coming. There, Emma observes a cloud of dark fairy dust that is set to unleash a Dark Curse once the clock strikes six o'clock. After she makes plans to face the Black Fairy now and keep her loved ones safe, she says goodbye to Hook in case she dies. While Emma looks through old photos of her family to remind herself of who she is fighting for, Henry curiously presses her tape recorder, which plays audio of a young Emma humming a song. This reminds Emma of a period in her life when she felt truly alone and she turns the recording off without giving Henry an explanation for her reaction. When Emma faces the Black Fairy in the mayor's office, she loses her confidence upon seeing the frozen bodies of her family and friends. The Black Fairy broadcasts the audio of young Emma and mockingly notes the amount of misery she hears in it, to which Emma tries to magically choke her, but it doesn't work, as the fairy points out, because Emma finally understands the truth: that she can't fight alone. A shaken Emma opens up to Henry about the recording being a painful reminder of a time she was so alone that no one even cared enough to hear her sing. She describes how it was never about the little things she had to do by herself, but when she faced bigger things alone, she always ran away. Emma expresses regrets about not being brave enough to keep Henry at birth, but Henry emphasizes that she's changed since then and encourages her to believe she can still defeat the Black Fairy. To ensure her son will have the rest of his family after she is gone, Emma allows the Black Fairy to take her heart, however, the Black Fairy is unable to crush it into ash. Henry reveals with a new storybook page that Emma was never alone as her heart has always had the songs of those who love her. Equipped with this knowledge, Emma summons power from her own song to unfreeze her allies. Later, during the wedding ceremony, Emma recites her vows to Hook, telling him that her life changed when Henry brought her to Storybrooke and that although she was born from true love, she never expected to find it with Hook. The couple dance together after they are married, in which they sing about the future of a happy beginning as everyone else chimes in. When the curse arrives, Emma assures her husband that wherever it is taking them, they'll win in the end. ("The Song in Your Heart")
