'Once Upon A Time' Season 5 Release Date, Cast, Spoilers: Rumpelstiltskin's Dual Personality, An Anxious Evil Queen Plus The Dark Swan Struggles

By Mitch de Leon
Once Upon A Time
"Once Upon A Time" Season 5 will be back on the small screen on September 27, 2015. Wikimedia Commons/vagueonthehow

Fans and followers of Once Upon A Time Season 5 are in for an exciting, albeit a tad confusing, ride when the TV series returns on air Sept. 27, at 8/7c on ABC. With Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) as the new Dark One, aptly called the "Dark Swan," things are definitely going to be different as the Evil Queen/Regina (Lana Parrilla) might be forced to step forward and become the hero - a character she definitely has no experience playing.

In an interview with Buddy TV, Parrilla shared her character is apprehensive and anxious on what Once Upon A Time Season 5 would bring. Admitting that Regina has always been perceived as an evil, conniving character, Parrilla believes that playing the "hero" and "savior" in the upcoming season would definitely be challenging. However, Regina is more than prepared to put her life on the line to save Emma from the darkness in "Once Upon A Time" Season 5.

"We don't know what's going to happen," revealed Parrilla, referring to the uncertainty faced by her character in Once Upon A Time Season 5. She further said, "Regina is very experienced when it comes to sort of crossing over into the dark side and committing evil acts and so she's worried about what that will do to Emma."

As viewers of Once Upon A Time would know, Emma has always been the good guy in the TV series. Hence, her transformation as the Dark Swan might be too much for the character and she "may never return back to her true self."

Meanwhile, Emma is reportedly trying to come into terms with her new power and strength. As she is not used to wielding such uncontrollable force, Emma will understandably struggle to command the power. With this issue in mind, the most logical thing for Emma, or the Dark Swan, to do is to seek the expertise of Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle). However, the final episodes of Once Upon A Time Season 4 showed Mr. Gold getting put in a coma of sorts following the departure of the Dark One from his body.

In an interview with Once Upon A Time executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, it was revealed that Emma will yearn to learn from the firsthand experience of Rumpelstiltskin. They then teasingly shared, "If you're going to be the Dark One, gotta learn from the best." To further validate the concept of Emma's Dark Swan getting mentored by the former Dark One, Rumpelstiltskin, a photo of the two in the same place was included in the piece.

The same piece of information was dropped by Carlyle himself during Comic-Con 2015. When the issue of Rumpelstiltskin's role of serving as the trainer of Emma came up, the actor insisted on drawing a clear distinction between Storybrooke's Mr. Gold and Rumpelstiltskin.

"Rumple's not in a coma. Gold's in a coma," he said, referring to the curse that took hold of Mr. Gold's body right after the Dark One left him. Carlyle then went on to say, "Gold's got a white heart, Rumple doesn't. It's a different thing."

A number of theories could be put forward regarding this comment. One would be the possibility that Carlyle's character is actually composed of two different parts - one would be Rumpelstiltskin and the other is Mr. Gold. While this could pave the way for a split personality disorder angle in Once Upon A Time Season 5, it remains to be seen if such will be the case.

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