Raise your hand if you ever expected to see Mr. Gold plead for mercy. No? Well, get ready...
In this first look at the new episode of Once Upon a Time, exclusive to E! News, Emma (Jennifer Morrison)—excuse us, we mean, the Dark One—is setting her plan into motion to turn the erstwhile Rumplestilkskin (Robert Carlyle) into the hero she needs to extract Excalibur from its stone. And Gold seems, dare we say it, scared of what she has in store for him.
"You should really just let me go. Please," Gold, still weak from his coma, begs. "I need to see Belle."
But Belle will have to wait because Emma has Merida (Amy Manson)—namely, Merida's heart—to do her bidding and she's going to use the Scottish lassie to whip Gold into fighting shape. "Now, take him to the woods and make me a hero," Emma demands before sending them away.
Though Emma's has Merida's heart in her clutches, the Dark One's bidding isn't all that's in store in the coming weeks for the Pixar heroine. As executive producer Edward Kitsis told reporters prior to the season premiere, "We're going full on. She's going to get her own hour. We're going to go to Dunbroch and see the dad and the mom and everything." Hopefully we'll see her get her heart back, too!
Be sure to press play on the video above to see Gold at his lowest, Emma at her darkest, and to find out who gives who this sad prediction: "Take it from me. You will always lose the ones you love the most."
Can Mr. Gold actually become a hero or is that too topsy-turvy, even for current Storybrooke standards? Sound off in the comments below!
Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC.