Once Upon a Time season 5 kicked off tonight with the tale of the Dark Swan’s beginnings. We gathered the best moments from the past, present, and future.

It would not be a Once Upon a Time premiere without a huge flash forward reveal, right? Tonight’s Once Upon a Time season 5 premiere set the stage for an exciting adventure that will take Emma Swan from novice Dark One to a force of nature that no one dares to cross. But whose fault is it for her transformation?

The Past

Merlin’s debut comes at an odd time in the season 5 premiere. The first glimpse of the master wizard is a familiar one. The Sorcerer and the Stone‘s Merlin is projected on a movie screen as a young Emma Swan swipes a candy bar from an unsuspecting woman. However, the jolly wizard in blue is not the Merlin we are looking for. Instead, he appears as a movie usher, one who offers Emma a cryptic warning — do not give into your selfish ways now and do not remove the sword from the stone, no matter how tempting it may be.

But Minneapolis is not the only place where someone receives a message about their destiny. Lancelot, Percival, and Arthur reach the stone where Excalibur stands. You know the tale: He who possesses the ability to remove the sword from the stone shall be the greatest king.

The best reveal from the this tale? Only half the sword exists. The other half? Well it is all too familiar for Once Upon a Time fans. The blade of the dagger is the tip of Excalibur. With Emma on her way to Camelot, her story and Excalibur’s are just beginning.

The Present

Emma’s journey into Darkness will span across the entire fifth season of Once Upon a Time. The present day answered many, many questions about what it is like for a novice Dark One dipping their toes in the waters of evil. For example, the Dark One is not alone when the journey begins. We jokingly predicted a few weeks ago that Emma and Rumpel may be able to communicate the same way Avatars speak to their past selves. We were correct. Rumpelstiltskin acts as the voice in Emma’s head, a familiar guide whose motives nudge her to use her new magic rather than resisting the Darkness.

The struggle to find balance between Darkness and Light is also crippling the heroes of Storybrooke. A wand gifted to the Apprentice by Merlin is pure light magic, but in order to use it to open a portal to the Enchanted Forest, it requires an equal amount of Darkness. Regina has ironically done too much good as of late to make it work, so Zelena must be coerced into doing their bidding. Just as Emma is having a hard time finding truth in Rumpel’s words, Hook and Henry fall for Zelena’s trickery and she escapes with the wand to head back over the rainbow to Oz.

Regina may have gone soft, but she is still able to trick Zelena into opening the portal and taking control of where it will lead them. Finding truth in Darkness is something everyone will need to work on this season.

Emma thinks she will be alone on her journey, but little does she know that the town has piled into Granny’s to join her in the fight against Darkness. They land in the Enchanted Forest just in time to stop Emma from nearly crushing Merida’s heart for a chance to find Merlin.

Related: Once Upon a Time season 5 first look: Is Merida a friend or foe?

Emma’s relationships with those who love her, from her parents to her son to Hook, all hinge on her ability to keep the Darkness subdued until they find Merlin. One thing that may help is Regina’s possession of the dagger. Emma chose to give Regina the final say, a symbol of great trust between the two, and a huge vote of confidence for Regina’s strength to do the right thing no matter the consequences.

Next stop, Camelot, where Arthur announces that Emma’s arrival comes at no surprise to them since Merlin predicted it long ago.

The Future

None of the heroic ventures matter much now, do they? Six weeks after the heroes arrive in Camelot, Granny’s makes its way back to Storybrooke with the heroes in their Arthurian best and Emma in her darkest frock. No memory of Camelot remains, except in Emma’s mind. Someone, maybe all of them, failed to recognize that she was on the edge of falling deep into the darkest part of herself. And now it is time to figure out who pushed her that far.

Once Upon a Time season 5 is on the path to tell its most compelling story yet. The fall of the Savior and the rise of the Dark One will test the residents of Storybrooke in new ways. It will introduce new mythology to the series, unveil a new realm or two, and set an operation in motion with stakes unlike any other. The quest to save Emma has begun.

Stray observations:

•Was Mary Margaret planning on holding baby Neal the entire trip? Why didn’t she roll a stroller into Granny’s?

•How much did we miss Zelena’s wickedness? Answer: A lot.

•Hook is rather on edge this season. Rightfully so, but his aggressive tendencies may lead to more trouble than triumph.

•Where is Will Scarlett? This is getting old, Once Upon a Time.

•We kind of missed this Rumpelstilskin and we are truly enjoying the new Gold. Nice and quiet.

•Speaking of Gold, using the rose as a timeline for his death is a clever addition to Belle’s tale.

Watch Once Upon a Time season 5, episode 2, “The Price,” Sunday, October 4 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.