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This key will open the gateway to a place called... the Mysterious Island. It is a place where we can start over. This is your chance, Killian. You don't have to swim the dark waters any longer.

Captain Nemo to Hook

"Dark Waters" is the sixth episode of Season Six of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Andrew Chambliss & Brigitte Hales, and directed by Robert Duncan. It is the one hundred and seventeenth episode of the series overall, and premiered on October 30, 2016.

Synopsis

Emma tries to convince Aladdin to work with Jasmine to help Agrabah, while Regina teams up with Snow and David to free Archie from Zelena. The Evil Queen sows suspicion between Henry and Hook, even as Mr. Gold reminds her of his most important lesson. Meanwhile, in the past, Hook finds himself kidnapped by the mysterious Captain Nemo and held captive inside his legendary submarine, the Nautilus.[2]

Recap

This section is a detailed recap of this episode. There are major spoilers. Click to expand.
In the Past

The first scene is during the period of the first Dark Curse after Emma settled in Storybrooke, when time started moving again. Hook is yelling at his crew on the Jolly Roger when he is soon confronted by an unknown man who snuck aboard the vessel. But just as Hook is about to kill the unwanted guest, a Submarine appears, and the mysterious man pushes Hook into the ocean, jumping in after him. Hook then wakes up aboard the Nautilus and meets the stowaway, revealed to be Captain Nemo, who wants Hook to help out with a mission and shows him an enchanted spear blade to make a point. Nemo is aware of Hook's vengeance as he also once wanted revenge, but once he achieved it, he realized its meaninglessness and tries to persuade Hook to find something more important than vengeance, like a family. Inside the caverns, Hook and Nemo search the area and makes friends with a crewman who tells Hook that he also once wanted revenge on the person who killed his family until Nemo adopted him and taught him to accept a new family. Out of nowhere a giant squid attacks Hook upon reaching the location and Nemo uses the spear on the squid, allowing the crewman to save Hook.

As Nemo opens the treasure chest, he reveals a key to the gateway of the "Mysterious Island," where they can each start a new life that is devoid of loss. During their conversation, Hook recognizes a blade on Nemo’s desk, causing him to inquire about the crewman, and discovered that it belonged to his half-brother Liam, who is revealed to be the person that accompanied Hook and Nemo. As Hook decides to leave so he won't have to face Liam for killing their father, Nemo tries to stop him, but Liam discovers the truth and tries to stab Hook, his desire for vengeance returning. However, Nemo takes the hit and Hook escapes off the ship, as Liam is mortified. Nemo is able to survive, but only by going to the Mysterious Island, where his life is paused.

In Storybrooke

In the present day, Regina stands outside of Zelena’s house calling out the Evil Queen, and gets her and Zelena's attention, unaware that it was a ploy to free Archie (still in his cricket form), and succeeds. When Zelena and the Evil Queen hear Robin crying, they are given a warning from Regina, Snow, and David, and disappear.

At Granny's, Aladdin, who no longer sees himself as The Savior, is being convinced by Jasmine to help save Agrabah. When he leaves, she calls Emma for help. Emma kidnaps Aladdin after finding him trying to steal a car, bringing him to the city line to show him the crack in the sign left when she crashed her car there while trying to leave. She tells him that like him, she has run from her duty as the Savior many times, but always came back to it because it was right, prompting Aladdin to open up to Emma about what happened in Agrabah. Emma encourages Aladdin to own his responsibilities. When they return, Aladdin apologizes to Jasmine, who tells him the kingdom disappeared after he left.

While Emma takes Aladdin away, Henry, who was at home with Killian, goes outside to take out the trash, and the Evil Queen appears to tell Henry that Killian has kept the Fates’ Shears inside a box instead of burying them as he told Emma. When Killian leaves the house to look for Henry, he realizes that Henry knows the truth. He then heads to the docks to stop Henry from throwing the Shears into the ocean. As Henry becomes furious with Killian over why he lied to Emma, out of nowhere crewmen from the Nautilus take Hook and Henry hostage and bring them to the submarine. On board as prisoners, Killian opens up to Henry about how he killed his father, after he abandoned him and Liam, and later learning his father remarried and also had a new son, which Killian tells Henry it was too much for him to handle. As the two find a way to escape, they can find only one suit for escape, so Killian insists Henry use it to alert Emma. After Henry escapes, Killian is suddenly confronted by his half-brother Liam, who explains that Hyde took Nemo to the Mysterious Island which is revealed to be the Land of Untold Stories. Henry, realizing that Killian is family and that he must help, returns to distract Liam, allowing Killian to knock his brother unconscious.

While on patrol, David finds a man who has been gravely injured. He rushes him to the hospital where Snow is waiting for him. As the man is rushed into emergency surgery, Snow and David realize that he must be the latest arrival. Snow helps Belle in the waiting room get ready for her first ultrasound without Gold, who caught on to the Evil Queen's deception involving the Shears (of Destiny, as Gold called it), which he wanted to acquire to change the destiny of his unborn child, but she lies saying they're gone. Later on, Killian visits Liam at the hospital where he explains that he is no longer the man Liam knew. Liam and Killiam reconcile. Just as Liam laments that Nemo didn't get to witness their reconciliation, the mystery patient is wheeled in. It's Captain Nemo. Killiam explains that after he was found, he was successfully treated. Nemo and Liam share an emotional reunion. Killian comes clean to Emma about the Shears and that he and Henry disposed of them for good and she forgives him. Belle later drops a picture of the ultrasound at the door of the Pawn Shop as The Evil Queen visits and seduces Gold, but doesn't walk in. The Evil Queen then shows Gold the Shears she just retrieved from the ocean after having told Henry earlier that she didn't want them, and proposes a plan with Gold's help, which is to take Snow's heart.

This episode summary is adapted from Creative Commons Licensed content from Wikipedia (view authors).

Deleted Scenes

Doc and Archie were deleted from the episode, even though David Avalon and Raphael Sbarge are both listed in the press release.[2]

Cast[2]

Starring

Guest Starring

Co-Starring

Uncredited



Trivia

Title

  • The title card features a kraken.[3]
  • The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on August 23, 2016.[4]
  • The episode's title appears in a passage in chapter 3 of the first part of Jules Verne's novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and in chapter 3 of the second part of the novel. In the former, the first-person narrator Professor Pierre Aronnax describes, "The furnaces were stoked; the propeller churned the waves more swiftly; the frigate skirted the flat, yellow coast of Long Island; and at eight o'clock in the evening, after the lights of Fire Island had vanished into the northwest, we ran at full steam onto the dark waters of the Atlantic." In the latter, Aronnax narrates, "Under these dark waters there stretched the bank of shellfish, an inexhaustible field of pearls more than twenty miles long."[5]

Production Notes

  • REUSED FOOTAGE: The opening shot of the Jolly Roger[6] is a flipped version of a shot of Hook's ship sailing on Poseidon's ocean in the Season Four episode "Poor Unfortunate Soul".[7]
  • HIDDEN DETAILS: When Hook first meets Captain Nemo, Nemo introduces himself as "no one". Nemo is Latin for "no one".
  • REAL WORLD FACTS: Hook throws Henry's unhealthy breakfast in the garbage and suggests a pirate's breakfast of grapefruit and boiled mackerel instead, adding "there will be no scurvy here today". Scurvy is a disease caused by a lack of vitamin C in the diet. It is commonly associated with sailors in the 16th to 18th centuries who navigated long voyages without enough vitamin C and frequently perished from the condition;[8] this disease killed over an estimated two million sailors during the Age of Sail,[9] more sailors than were lost in all sea battles combined.[10] In the eighteenth century, it was discovered that scurvy could be prevented and cured by consuming citrus fruit (grapefruits and other citrus fruits are full of vitamin c), which led to the prevention of scurvy.[11]
  • REUSED FOOTAGE: The establishing shot of Granny's Diner is stock footage from the filming of the Season Four episode "Smash the Mirror".[12] This can be seen from the identical foliage on the trees and the climbing plants.
  • The segments with Belle and the two ultrasound pictures were inspired by Brigitte Hales' real life experience from when she was pregnant with her own daughter. When she got two ultrasound pictures, she asked why, and was told that it was standard procedure.[13]
  • ABANDONED IDEAS: The episode script features additional dialogue between Belle and Mary Margaret, in which Belle comments on the flowers at the Storybrooke General Hospital, and Mary Margaret tells her about how she used to deliver them, and that this was how she found David when he was in a coma.[14]

Event Chronology

Episode Connections

Biblical

  • The name of the Shears of Destiny is reminiscent of the Spear of Destiny, the Holy Lance's alternative name. Like the shears, the Spear of Destiny is closely connected to the Savior, as it is said to be the weapon used to pierce Jesus Christ's side as he hung on the cross.

Disney

Fairytales and Folklore

Popular Culture

  • REAL WORLD FACTS: He notes that "they clearly didn't design these things for people like me". In September 2018, Microsoft released the Xbox Adaptive Controller, which is designed for people with a disability.[18]

Props Notes

  • HIDDEN DETAILS: The magazine Belle is reading at the Storybrooke General Hospital is called Modern Maternity.[19]
  • ARTWORKS: The spell book that Mr. Gold is reading[20] contains an illustration (seen upside-down) of a crucified serpent, which is also known as an alchemical cross. This is an old alchemical symbol representing the "fixing of the volatile," as in making the elixir of mercury.[21] The picture is from a book about ancient alchemy: Uraltes chymisches Werk (Age-Old Chemical Work) by Abraham Eleazar, which was first published in 1734. Nothing is known about Abraham Eleazar, who was supposedly a Jewish alchemist. His name was most likely fictional, and the real author seems to have been a person called Julius Gervasius of Schwarzburg.[22]
  • Note that the illustration has been modified for the show. The show's version is mirror-inverted and colorized, and the size of the cross has been changed. Extra symbols have been added and the caption has been changed to "Rex Mundi", which is Latin for "king of the world".
  • The caption below the illustration cannot be deciphered on-screen. However, according to the concept art by graphic designer Neil Westlake,[23] and an online prop auction from October 2019,[24] it reads:


The Serpent points out to the Spiritus
Mundi Universalem, and penetrates all things
under the heavens. This is our Materia
so have we also of the coagulirten.
Air Repariren.


  • The text is adapted from another work by Abraham Eleazar, The Book of Abraham the Jew from 1774. The original excerpt is identical to the one from the book, except that it says "winged Serpent" instead of "Serpent".[25]
  • PAUSE AND READ: The opposite page[20] is adapted from The Book of Ceremonial Magic by the American-born, British poet and scholarly mystic A. E. Waite. The book was first published in 1889 and is an attempt to document many of the famous grimoires (textbooks of magic). The except in Gold's book is from chapter seven, "The Method of Honorius".[26] Note that most of the text is illegible on-screen. It can be read in its entirety in an online prop auction from October 2019[24] (the illegible text is set in fuchsia; in addition, one line of the transcript has been shrunken down to fit within the table):


SHOW VERSION

ORIGINAL VERSION
(differences are set in bold)
After the Office of the Dead the
operator shall extinguish the taper, and
at sunrise shall cut the throat of a male
lamb of nine days, taking care that the
blood does not gush forth upon the
earth. He shall skin the lamb, and
shall cast its tongue and heart into the fire.
After the Office of the Dead the
operator shall extinguish the taper, and
at sunrise shall cut the throat of a male
lamb of nine days, taking care that the
blood does not gush forth upon the
earth. He shall skin the lamb, and
shall cast its tongue and heart into the fire.
The fire must be freshly kindled,
and the ashes shall be preserved
for use at the proper time.
The skin of the lamb shall be
spread in the middle of a field, and for the
space of nine days shall be sprinkled four
times every day with water. On the
tenth day the lambskin shall be
coveredwith [sic] the ashes
of the heart and tongue,
and with the ashes. [sic]
The skin of the lamb shall be
spread in the middle of a field and for the
space of nine days shall be sprinkled four
times every day with holy water. On the
tenth day, before the rising of the sun, the lambskin shall be
covered with the ashes
of the heart and tongue,
and with the ashes also of the cock.
On Thursday the flesh
of the lamb shall be interred
in a secret place where no
bird can come,
and the magi with his right thumb shall
inscribe on the earth the sigil here indicated
On Thursday, 1 after sunset, the flesh
of the lamb shall be interred
in a secret place where no
bird can come,
and the priest with his right thumb shall
inscribe on the grave the characters here indicated


Set Dressing

Costume Notes

Filming Locations

Goofs

  • The knife that Hook discovers aboard the Nautilus is not the same knife that Hook used to kill his father in "Swan Song". The knife that Hook used had a double edge and a double-sided handle,[64] while Liam's knife is bigger, and has a single-edged blade and a different handle.[65]

International Titles


Videos

References

  1. Porter, Rick (November 1, 2016). Series lows for ‘Once Upon a Time,’ ‘Madam Secretary’ and more: Sunday final ratings. TV by the Numbers. “Once Upon a Time (ABC) (...) 3.06”
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 LISTINGS: ONCE UPON A TIME. The Futon Critic. “Air Date: Sunday, October 30, 2016. Time Slot: 8:00 PM-9:00 PM EST on ABC. Episode Title: (#606) "Dark Waters".”
  3. File:606Title.png
  4. TwitterLogo Adam Horowitz (@AdamHorowitzLA) on X, formerly Twitter: Hey #Oncers -- here's another #OnceUponATime #titlespoiler -- hope to see ya 9/25! (August 23, 2016). (backup link) (archive screenshot)
  5. The Project Gutenberg eBook, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, by Jules Verne, Translated by Frederick Paul Walter, Illustrated by Milo Winter. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved on September 22, 2020. “FIRST PART: CHAPTER 3 As Master Wishes (...) Three o'clock then sounded. The harbor pilot went down into his dinghy and rejoined a little schooner waiting for him to leeward. The furnaces were stoked; the propeller churned the waves more swiftly; the frigate skirted the flat, yellow coast of Long Island; and at eight o'clock in the evening, after the lights of Fire Island had vanished into the northwest, we ran at full steam onto the dark waters of the Atlantic. (...) SECOND PART: CHAPTER 3 A Pearl Worth Ten Million (...) Going up Ceylon's west coast during the night, the Nautilus lay west of the bay, or rather that gulf formed by the mainland and Mannar Island. Under these dark waters there stretched the bank of shellfish, an inexhaustible field of pearls more than twenty miles long.”
  6. File:606JollyRoger.png
  7. File:415JollyRogerAtSea.png
  8. Crosta, Pete (December 5, 2017). Everything you need to know about scurvy. James Cook Society. “Scurvy is the name for a vitamin C deficiency. (...) It is often associated with sailors in the 15th to 18th centuries, when long sea voyages made it hard to get a steady supply of fresh produce. Many died from the effects.”
  9. SCURVY: HOW A SURGEON, A MARINER, AND A GENTLEMAN SOLVED THE GREATEST MEDICAL MYSTERY OF THE AGE OF SAIL BOWN, STEPHEN R. 2003. James Cook Society. Retrieved on February 8, 2019. “Scurvy, "the plague of the sea," killed over an estimated two million sailors during the Age of Sail.”
  10. Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail. Goodreads. Retrieved on February 8, 2019. “Scurvy took a terrible toll in the Age of Sail, killing more sailors than were lost in all sea battles combined.”
  11. VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID/ASCORBATE). Nuts.com. Retrieved on February 8, 2019. “The first association between citrus fruit and scurvy was discovered in the eighteenth century by Johann Bachstrom; however, it wasn’t until the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries when vitamins and other nutrients became better understood that scientists discovered the role of vitamin C in preventing and treating the disease.”
  12. File:408GrannysDiner.png
    File:606FlyingCarpets.png
  13. TwitterLogo Brigitte Hales (@InkTankGirl) on X, formerly Twitter: Tiny behind the scenes look: pulled the two ultrasound thing from the fact that I got two with my daughter. When I asked why? They said... (October 30, 2016). (backup link) (archive screenshot)
    TwitterLogo Brigitte Hales (@InkTankGirl) on X, formerly Twitter: "... standard procedure." (October 30, 2016). (backup link) (archive screenshot)
  14. TwitterLogo Adam Horowitz (@AdamHorowitzLA) on X, formerly Twitter: Here's another #OnceUponATime #scripttease -- hope to see ya tomorrow night! (October 29, 2016). (backup link) (archive screenshot)
  15. TwitterLogo Justine D. (@Lady_Junky) on X, formerly Twitter: @AndrewChambliss Can you explain us when the flashback happens? And how Liam is so old? How is that possible? Please (October 30, 2016). (backup link) (archive screenshot)
    TwitterLogo Andrew Chambliss (@AndrewChambliss) on X, formerly Twitter: it happened during the Dark Curse. Liam aged because, as he says, Nemo took him outside the bounds of the curse's magic (October 30, 2016). (backup link) (archive screenshot)
    TwitterLogo Justine D. (@Lady_Junky) on X, formerly Twitter: But was not Hook supposed to be frozen by the Dark Curse? as Cora said in 209? (October 30, 2016). (backup link) (archive screenshot)
    TwitterLogo Andrew Chambliss (@AndrewChambliss) on X, formerly Twitter: Hook stayed in Enchanted Forest which was under the time freezing magic of the Curse. Nemo and Liam went outside its bounds (October 30, 2016). (backup link) (archive screenshot)
  16. 16.0 16.1 File:606JoinMe.png
  17. File:606PeopleLikeMe.png
  18. Chelsea Stark & Samit Sarkar (May 18, 2018). Microsoft’s new Xbox controller is designed entirely for players with disabilities. Polygon.
  19. File:606BelleReading.png
  20. 20.0 20.1 File:606GoldReadingFlipped.png (flipped screenshot)
    File:606GoldReading.png (original screenshot)
  21. Crucified Serpent (Alchemical Cross). Symboldictionary.net. Retrieved on February 6, 2019.
  22. Abraham Eleazar's Uraltes Chymisches Werk (Age-Old Chymical Work). Bildgeist (October 10, 2014). Archived from the original on March 30, 2018. “Nothing is known of Abraham Eleazar, supposedly a Jewish alchemist and author of this remarkable book about ancient alchemy: Uraltes chymisches Werk… ("Age-Old Chymical Work") which was first published in Erfurt in 1734 (Source). The Jewish Encyclopedia states that the Eleazar's name was likely to be fictional, and the real author might have been Julius Gervasius of Schwarzenberg.”

    Gottheil, Richard. ELEAZAR, ABRAHAM:. The Jewish Encyclopedia. Retrieved on February 6, 2019. “Fictitious author of an ancient work on alchemy published in Leipsic in 1760, and bearing the title "R. Abrahami Eleazaris Uraltes Chymisches Werk." The real author seems to have been Julius Gervasius of Schwarzburg, whose name is given as the editor on the title-page of the first part.”
  23. File:ManuscriptsVariousEpisodesConceptArt.png (second from the left)
  24. 24.0 24.1 Once Upon a Time - Rumplestiltskin's Spell Book (5018). iCollector (2019). (File:606Prop9.jpg)
  25. Rabbi Abraham ELEAZAR: The Book of Abraham the Jew. Rex Research. “The winged Serpent points out to the Spiritus Mundi Universalem, and penetrates all things under the heavens. This is our Materia, so have we also of the coagulirten Air Repariren.”
  26. The Book of Ceremonial Magic by Arthur Edward Waite [1913]. Internet Sacred Texts Archive. Retrieved on October 6, 2019.
    CHAPTER VII The Method of Honorius. Internet Sacred Texts Archive. Retrieved on October 6, 2019.
  27. Dark Waters:
    File:606GoldReading.png
    Changelings:
    File:609ThatAFact.png
    Ill-Boding Patterns:
    File:613BeMoreDifficult.png
    Notice the identical black binding/cover and the gold metal corner embellishments; it being the same book in all three episodes is confirmed in this online prop auction:
    Once Upon a Time - Rumplestiltskin's Spell Book (5018). iCollector (2019). (Page from "Dark Waters") (Page from "Changelings") (Page from "Ill-Boding Patterns")
  28. Morning Creekside. Canadian Art Prints & Winn Devon Art Group. Retrieved on February 8, 2019.
  29. Summer Secret By Megan Lightell. Art.com. Retrieved on February 8, 2019.
  30. File:606MaryMargaretSeesBelle.png
    File:606Wow.png
  31. File:212LettingHimDie.png
  32. File:213ComfortsFromHome.png
  33. File:219WhereIsShe.png
  34. File:320CharmingFamily.png
  35. File:206MotelRoom.png
    File:206CloseYourEyes.png
  36. File:704MightThatBe.png
  37. File:706RogersTilly.png
  38. File:606HookGetsUp2.png
  39. File:520CleoComesOut.png
  40. File:621TryingToSteal.png
  41. File:606YourLifeFamily.png
  42. File:212IDidIt.png
  43. File:212IPurchasedYouACommission.png
  44. File:403DiscoveredSomething.png
  45. File:407DiplomaticMission.png
  46. File:407WelcomeToMyKingdom.png
  47. File:417OffWithHisHat.png
  48. File:516OzGuard.png
  49. File:618ToRemindThem.png
  50. File:614GiveThatOrder.png
  51. File:615FromThoseBeasts.png
  52. File:606ThisIsNot.png
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  54. alice + olivia Kylie Long Shawl Collar Jacket. Shopbop. Retrieved on February 8, 2019.
  55. Zimmermann Lace Up Dress Booties. Shopbop. Retrieved on February 8, 2019.
  56. Younger: Season 3 Episode 3 Liza's Red Floral Print Dress. shopyourtv. Retrieved on February 8, 2019.
  57. File:606FirstUltrasound.png
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  64. File:511Killian.png
  65. File:606ThatKnife.png
    File:606HelloBrother.png

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