Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4962906-20151021085039/@comment-24674051-20151022143658

At the point that she is 100% Dark One, fully embracing that inner darkness, is the time when they are sent back to Storybrooke. (probably a little before, unless the act of sending them back to Storybrooke is what finally pushed her over the edge). So, up until that point, everyone is trying to be cautious about how much magic Emma uses.

And once Emma goes full on DO, her interest in getting Merlin freed is going to drop dramatically. She (most likely) won't want to free him at this point.

And, as I said previously, there's more to this story that we have not yet heard.