Season five of ABC’s addictive fantasy series Once Upon a Time will premiere on September 27, 2015 and with it comes the new darker version of Emma Swan (played by Jennifer Morrison). Teaming up with Emilie de Ravin (‘Belle’) at Comic-Con to talk about the upcoming season, Robert Carlyle said that even though the darkness has passed to Emma, that doesn’t mean Rumple will find any redemption.
“I don’t think so. I don’t think you can. Anyone who knows anything about the show knows that Rumplestiltskin is in the middle of everything. If you take a maleficence away from that character or that character away from the story, the whole thing crumbles. So I think that no one would be surprised to see that Rumplestiltskin is again in the middle of everything you’re about to see,” said Carlyle, adding, “Everyone’s assuming that he’s lost all of the power and he’s no longer the Dark One. Just because Emma has this thing happening doesn’t mean he’s saved.”
“Regardless of the force and the hold of the dagger and the power of the dagger and being the Dark One or being influenced to be, as she is currently, not the Dark One but trying to fight off that desperately…we’ll have to wait and see if she can fight off the darkness. Will goodness prevail or will evil, or will it be some sort of amalgamation of both? Apart from that, there’s good and evil in everyone anyway,” said de Ravin. “I’m really interested to see see what you’ve learned from this power that’s had a hold of you, that’s changed you as a person. Everyone has that darkness in them.”
And Carlyle pointed out that Rumple’s been around for hundreds of years and he’s addicted to the darkness. “Even though he loves Belle more than anything that still wasn’t enough to prevent him from doing dark work. So the idea that he has lost that and will never do that again seems to be unlikely,” explained Carlyle. “See, you need to separate Gold and Rumple because even though they are the same, they’re also like a separate entity. Gold might have been cleansed of this thing, but there’s another person in there, and he isn’t going anywhere.”
As for Belle, de Ravin agrees that her character is getting stronger each season. “I think trials and tribulations in life make one stronger, though it depends on how you deal with them. You know, trauma in your life and things happening, you can let yourself be really brought down and just emotionally hide away, or you can use that to develop into a stronger, better person – more of a person that you know you can be,” said de Ravin.
She added: “She’s always been a strong individual, but I think this is definitely a point in her life that she’s come to a realization that as hard as all she’s had to do recently and the decisions that she’s had to make, that if she’s not making those decisions for herself, she’s not going to be herself anymore. She’s not going to be there for anyone else if she can’t be herself physically, emotionally, and mentally. She’s not going to be there to try and help the man. As much as she loves him, it’s not going to work.”
And speaking of being there for someone, de Ravin said it will take a village to help Emma refrain from completely embracing the darkness. “I imagine from the little I do know everyone has their own part that they’re bringing to that party, so to speak. That’s a pretty big thing they’re taking on, to try to deal with, so anybody’s strong points and talents and everything they can do [to help]. It’s cool. It’s everybody coming together and uniting.”
