Once Upon a Time season 5 took us through Camelot, the Underworld, and The Land of Untold Stories. Do you remember it all?

Settle in, Oncers. It is time to refresh your memory with our Once Upon a Time season 5 recap. Remember Dark Swan? How about Hook’s dad? Or what about the weird passage into the light sequences of the Underworld?

So much happened in Once Upon a Time season 5 that this recap truly needs the stylings of Jane the Virgin’s incredible narrator to get us through the backstabbing, deceit, near deaths, and cheap exodus of Camelot.

We’re going to do our best to get you through all the highs and lows of season 5.

The race against time

One of the more ingenious aspects of season 5’s first story arcs was keeping the competing timelines in play for the entirety of the first half. Granny’s awesome realm traveling diner takes the heroes to Camelot where they find a newly inducted Emma struggling to keep Rumpel, and by extension the Darkness, out of her mind. Meanwhile, a few weeks later, everyone wakes up in Storybrooke with no memory of their time in Camelot, much less how Emma gave herself over to the Darkness.

Arthur, Lancelot, and Hot Merlin

There was a lot of back and forth on whether Arthur and the Knights of the Roundtable were honorable men. Short version: They were not. A bit longer version: This was the element of the story where the least attention was paid and acted as filler to move along Emma’s arc.

Merlin, easily the most attractive all-powerful wizard in the world, gave us the prophecy that Emma would become the Dark One and he also died by her hand. Remember when he was a tree? That was a good time.

Merlin was not completely wasted on us, however. Not only did he reveal that he is partially responsible for the creation of the first Dark One, but he set the heroes on the path of understanding more about what awakens inside someone when the Darkness takes a hold of them.

A ‘Brave’ addition

Merida served as the latest poster child for Once Upon a Time’s Disney-Pixar rights affair. Her story was much better than some of the earlier attempts to drag major properties into the Enchanted Forest. Linking her to Mulan in the training camps and seeing her respond to the pressures of ruling a throne that was thrust upon her underscored Emma’s journey in a nice subtle way.

But then, like Once did with the entirety of Camelot, they left her floating around Storybrooke while the group took a vacation to the Underworld.

What is truly important here?

Emma’s identity as the Savior is one that has rarely been explored in depth. The shift to her as the Dark One, a place where for the first time she could act upon a selfish urge to not serve the greater good but give herself a shot at happiness, was a welcome hiccup in her journey.

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 1000 times — Emma’s journey as the Dark Swan is my favorite arc in season 5.

To Hell and back

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it 1000 times– the heroes’ journey into the Underworld is my least favorite arc in season 5. It was sloppy, incohesive, and painted a deplorable portrait of Rumpel that eliminates all options for redemptive storylines his character may have had prior to this outing with Hades.

The Underworld arc was a huge stunt for the 100th episode that opened the door for many of the series’ deceased characters to come back for an episode or two. The major issue with this was that one deal with Pan was quickly written off with a note, another with Cruella left the ghost of her car driving around while Henry’s arc hung in limbo, and others with both Hook and Regina releasing their loved ones into the light failed to elicit any emotion.

The final deal

Rumpel and Belle are expecting their first child, which on any other occasion would mean a call for celebration. But after a deal made in the past comes back to haunt him, Rumpel takes on the burden of trying to win back the custody of his unborn child and leave Belle out of it. Belle, rightfully so, decides to put herself under a sleeping curse since she knows that Rumpel will not be able to break it.

True love between these two was never a guarantee. Belle is drawn to Rumpel’s darkness and in turn Rumpel is drawn to her good heart. There is just too much darkness, greed, and lust for power for Belle to sort out.

Did I mention that Rumpel also put Belle in a box and took her away to a swanky hotel room in New York where he was going to perform a spell that would unleash her from her current sleepy state? That and he still went on a quest for more power in the meantime by taking the Olympian Crystal.

The wicked reign supreme

Robin is dead. Hades is responsible for that heartbreaking news. Not only did Hades seduce Zelena in another lifetime, but he runs a campaign to win her back and take Storybrooke over for her. Meanwhile, all this woman wants is custody of her child. I cannot talk about how that child came into this world again because it is perhaps the most inappropriate storyline Once Upon a Time has committed to film.

In the end, however, Zelena was unfit to be a mother and with Robin gone the baby left right through the convenient “Exit Storybrooke” door with Little John and Roland. The woods are better for raising a child anyway.

What is truly important here?

To have a truly cohesive Once Upon a Time season 5 recap, one must sort out all of the trash from all of the threads that will be important in season 6. Luckily for the season 5B arcs, that is easy. Forget nearly everything you know from episode 13 forward and dive into the season 5 finale.

After cleaning up the Camelot mess and getting rid of Robin and Hades, we have a blank slate. Fortunately, the heroes cannot stay out of trouble for too long and a mysterious new portal sends some of the group to The Land of Untold Stories where we meet our Jekyll and Hyde.

The serum that separates the two comes back to Storybrooke with Regina utilizing it to remove her past self, the evil queen, from her present self, a woman trying to pave a new path in life. The destruction of the self proves to be quite difficult and the queen is out for blood.

Henry was given a taste of what it means to have an identity on the show in the finale when he stepped into his Author role and decided to rid the world of magic. The magic that once gave Henry so much joy has brought only pain and suffering into his life these past few years.

David offered up some much needed advice when he proposed that everyone needs to lean into their grief and deal with it. Moving ahead into season 6 it would be wise to not feed into the gimmicks that tend to drive Once Upon a Time, but to explore what actions got the heroes to where they are now.

Stray important plot points:

• Ruby and Dorothy are together! Perhaps they can make their way back over the rainbow and tell their untold story in season 6.

• Violet stayed behind in Storybrooke, choosing to explore her family heritage in Connecticut or her relationship with Henry. You decide.

• Emma and Hook are doing alright in terms of saying “I love you” without the world ending. I don’t expect it to last for too long.

• Zelena and Regina are going to be buddies now. I cannot imagine that every hatchet is buried between them.

• Rumpel is, once again, the Dark One. Some things never change.

Once Upon a Time season 6, episode 1, “The Savior,” premieres Sunday, September 25 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.