"Emma plays her cards very close to the vest — but that does not prevent her from interacting in very direct and close ways with characters like Hook, Regina and Henry," Horowitz said. "While there is this mystery that's going on of what may or may not have happened, we're going to see relationships move forward in a new way, in the present, which is where we have a very dark Emma appearing. At the same time, in the past, we're going to be seeing these relationships interacting. Choices are going to be made by different characters, by Emma and the people who care for her, and some choices that may seem like the absolutely correct thing to do, are going to turn out to be maybe the worst thing to do.”
There's also a mysterious new character in the mix: Elliot Knight's Merlin, who appeared to a young Emma (during a screening of The Sword in the Stone) and warned her not to pull the sword from the stone.
"We saw Arthur pull the sword," Kitsis acknowledged. "And we realized that the Dark One dagger and Excalibur were meant to be whole, so we’re going to explain to you why that is, why Merlin is where Merlin is."
"[And] why he was warning Emma all those years ago," Horowitz added. "It’s not something we’re going make you wait the whole half-season for … we’re well aware that introducing him as the usher is the world’s worst mystery, so we’re not planning to play that as a long mystery."
There's also a mysterious new character in the mix: Elliot Knight's Merlin, who appeared to a young Emma (during a screening of The Sword in the Stone) and warned her not to pull the sword from the stone.
"We saw Arthur pull the sword," Kitsis acknowledged. "And we realized that the Dark One dagger and Excalibur were meant to be whole, so we’re going to explain to you why that is, why Merlin is where Merlin is."
"[And] why he was warning Emma all those years ago," Horowitz added. "It’s not something we’re going make you wait the whole half-season for … we’re well aware that introducing him as the usher is the world’s worst mystery, so we’re not planning to play that as a long mystery."
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Henry’s new love: As we previously teased, Henry’s going to explore his first crushed, which will happen sooner rather than later. “I would watch the second episode, where we might meet Henry’s crush,” Kitsis says. “You can’t go to Camelot and not fall in love.” Plus: We’ll see more of Henry working with Hook in a bid to save Emma. “What we love with Henry is that he’s growing up and he can take a more active part in the adventures now,” Horowitz says. “You’re going to see that he takes a more pivotal role in some of the things that are coming up.” In fact, Kitsis says, “Episode 5 is Henry’s episode and it’s one of my favorites.”
Merida’s future: Though she revealed to Emma her plan to make her brothers’ captors pay, Merida’s near-death experience has changed her motive moving forward. “If you watched the movie Brave, you realize that Merida’s problem was she punches first and asks questions second,” Kitsis says. “That’s what we’re seeing here is we’re going to find her in the middle of a very intense situation and we’re going to definitely explore her story more.” Also, though we know her father died, we’re going to see both her parents in an upcoming Merida-centric flashback episode.
Merida’s future: Though she revealed to Emma her plan to make her brothers’ captors pay, Merida’s near-death experience has changed her motive moving forward. “If you watched the movie Brave, you realize that Merida’s problem was she punches first and asks questions second,” Kitsis says. “That’s what we’re seeing here is we’re going to find her in the middle of a very intense situation and we’re going to definitely explore her story more.” Also, though we know her father died, we’re going to see both her parents in an upcoming Merida-centric flashback episode.
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However, Horowitz promises that “it’s not gonna be the whole winter before we catch up [with what happened during those six weeks], and it’s not necessarily everybody at the same time.” Despite the influx of new characters in Camelot, Horowitz also insists that the story will focus on “our core group of characters and what they’re going through in Camelot with regards to Emma… We’ll see what seems to have happened to her and [explore] that mystery and how they can or can’t help her.”
Feeling Brave? We haven’t seen the last of Merida, whose origin episode will take us back to Dunbroch and give us a glimpse of her family thanks to flashbacks. “Merida’s problem [is] she punches first and asks questions second,” Kitsis notes. “We’re going to find her in the middle of a very intense situation. We’re definitely going to explore her story more.”
She’s not the only familiar face we’ll see this season — the Dwarfs and Granny will also play a much bigger role, having been sidelined for many of the show’s previous adventures. “It was a conscious choice to bring them along for the ride to Camelot so that we could see some of the people we’ve loved over all the years of the show and give them moments and fun and make them a part of it all,” Horowitz says.
“Being the fifth season, we’re going to hopefully see as many old faces as we can this year,” Kitsis promises. “For us, we just loved the idea of how annoying it would be to be a Dwarf and you were the guard in the pilot, and now there’s all these adventures and everyone’s like, “What was Neverland like? Oh, you didn’t go? I thought you were Snow White’s guard?” That’s what it really came down to in the writers’ room. We just loved the idea of Grumpy being upset about it and feeling jealous.”
Feeling Brave? We haven’t seen the last of Merida, whose origin episode will take us back to Dunbroch and give us a glimpse of her family thanks to flashbacks. “Merida’s problem [is] she punches first and asks questions second,” Kitsis notes. “We’re going to find her in the middle of a very intense situation. We’re definitely going to explore her story more.”
She’s not the only familiar face we’ll see this season — the Dwarfs and Granny will also play a much bigger role, having been sidelined for many of the show’s previous adventures. “It was a conscious choice to bring them along for the ride to Camelot so that we could see some of the people we’ve loved over all the years of the show and give them moments and fun and make them a part of it all,” Horowitz says.
“Being the fifth season, we’re going to hopefully see as many old faces as we can this year,” Kitsis promises. “For us, we just loved the idea of how annoying it would be to be a Dwarf and you were the guard in the pilot, and now there’s all these adventures and everyone’s like, “What was Neverland like? Oh, you didn’t go? I thought you were Snow White’s guard?” That’s what it really came down to in the writers’ room. We just loved the idea of Grumpy being upset about it and feeling jealous.”
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