Board Thread:Show-Related Questions and Answers/@comment-24942479-20151207104557/@comment-6175354-20151222035558

Givernian wrote: Excalibur needed to be whole in order to take all the darkness out of Dark Hook in the winter mid-season finale. That is not what happened, though.

Excalibur needed to be whole to destroy the Darkness, once and for all. When Emma multipied the Darkness, by creating a second Dark One, she make it impossible to destroy.... not without paying the steepest price. Hook used the reforged Excalibur, to trap the previous Dark Ones. The Darkness only left his body, when Emma stabbed him. No matter how that sword was used, Hook would have died.