Apparently, I’m not done writing about Once Upon a Time because breaking down Killian and Emma’s kiss outside of Granny’s in Season 3 made me a little nostalgic for my second favorite moment, the one where Emma learns that she’s Killian’s happy ending. In other words, the one where she recognizes he loves her and that what they’re doing here is bigger than she ever realized.
There’s a point in Once Upon a Time where storylines getting dragged on gets extremely redundant and exhausting, but the best part of the Queens of Darkness arc is the understanding of agency and choices. The realization that these characters can choose what they want, and their destinies aren’t set in stone. Meaning just because Killian started the story with villainous intentions doesn’t mean that he’s cursed with perpetual unhappiness. And more than anything, a large part of the reason that this scene has stayed with me is because of Jennifer Morrison’s performance.
Morrison was always exceptional in how she conveyed a full range of emotions through her eyes alone, but in this scene, she does something completely indescribable. When it comes to a character like Emma Swan and the pain she’s harbored from abandonment and the life she’s mostly lived alone, it’s understandable that her walls wouldn’t come down overnight. It’s something I’ve always had an easy time defending because I’ve understood how easily her fears could stand in the way of the truth she’s aware of deep down.
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Still, what “Poor Unfortunate Soul” does as an episode is that it tries to harp on this idea that what’s written in the book is the end all be all. It completely ignores free will, and it forgets to recognize that just because these are storybook characters, it doesn’t mean they’re without choices. Regina didn’t lose Robin because she was once a villain, but that’s a whole other thing to discuss. With this, it’s simultaneously easy to understand why Killian would be concerned with the fact that he could lose Emma because his past doesn’t make him worthy of her in the present, even though he’s tirelessly proven that he is.
More than anything, what this scene contextualizes is just how real all of this is for the two of them. It proves to the audience that Killian and Emma don’t just love each other, but they are each other’s person. The most important light. Hope personified. Happiness. Killian trading his ship for Emma shows her that he cares more about her than anything else, but this moment ultimately proves to her—with words—that she is the only thing he’d ever need. She’s his happy ending. She’s as important to him as he is to her. She’s someone he’s afraid of losing because he’s never known anything or anyone as important as her.
And so much of the reason the beat shines is that it happens while they’re alone together, fully vulnerable, and in a position where they’re both honest. She’s completely stunned. He’s completely open. The words, “don’t you know, Emma, it’s you,” are simple yet achingly profound. The way he punctuates the word you with his heart on his sleeve. The way she feels the gravitas of it. Her kiss confirms to him that he’s her happy ending, too, and the way they look at each other is exactly what makes the scene bigger than it is.
In the hands of other actors, everything that we get with Killian and Emma would be saccharine and mid at best. Yet, time and again, both Jennifer Morrison and Colin O’Donoghue proved that their intimate understanding of their respective characters is exactly what makes their interactions together so worthwhile. There are a handful of words the two of them actually speak aloud in the scene, but what they say in the silence is exactly why it’s lived rent-free in my mind since it first aired.
Fears are always bigger when love is involved, allowing them to be deeply overwhelming and daunting. For as long as she’s been alive, Emma’s been used to abandonment and people leaving her. She’s been used to pain and darkness. And when he was a villain, careless and all too familiar with loss, it’s been easy for Killian to go about his days not thinking of how his actions could harm others. Yet in this moment, they make it abundantly clear that their fears of losing each other are larger than anything they know. Terrifying, in every sense of the word. Haunting, to an unthinkable degree.
They still haven’t told each other they love each other at this point, but they do in the silence without all the words. In a lot of ways, this confession, like the one outside of Granny’s Diner, is more significant than love—it’s everything. It’s their happy ending. Their happy beginning. The strange, unclear yet happy middle. It’s fears and darkness and everything ordinary growing into something bigger because if they know one thing with certainty now, it’s that their relationship is the antithesis of fear.
In the silence, the conversations that are happening are so intimate, so warm and comforting that, despite my indifference to this show now, Morrison’s performance still makes me tear up. Because it’s in her performance that we have all of Emma’s emotions laid bare, her adoration and gratitude, coupled with all her fears, that prove how much she cares about Killian in return. It’s just…well, everything. Genuinely, breathtaking.
Once Upon a Time is now streaming on Hulu. What are your thoughts on Killian confessing to Emma that she’s happy ending? Let us know in the comments below.
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