Hook (Once Upon a Time)

Seasons 1 and 2

In the Enchanted Forest, Killian Jones is the younger brother of Liam Jones. As children, their father abandoned them and sold them into servitude to Captain Silver. However, with the help of the god Hades, the two escape servitude and become crew members of the Jewel of the Realm. In service to a corrupt king, the two were sent to Neverland to retrieve a certain plant called dreamshade. Killian is reluctant to follow orders after Peter Pan informs them it is poisonous. A stubborn Liam is ultimately killed by the plant. Devastated by his brother's death, Jones grew bitter, blaming the king for his brother's death. Rechristening the vessel the Jolly Roger, Jones became a ruthless pirate. Some time after, he seduces away the wife of Rumplestiltskin, Milah. When Rumplestiltskin tries to persuade Jones to have mercy, the pirate holds a sword to his throat and taunts him about his actions, which he deems cowardly. However, after becoming possessed with an entity known as the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin seeks out Jones, wishing to continue their duel. In this fight, Jones's life is saved by Milah, who opts to make a deal with her ex-husband. However, Rumplestiltskin is unable to forgive her for abandoning their son Baelfire, so he kills her. When Jones tries to exact revenge, Rumplestiltskin cuts off his hand, which he replaces with the hook he unsuccessfully used to kill the Dark One. From this point on, Jones became known as Captain Hook. Upon taking William Smee as his first mate, Hook returns to Neverland, as this would provide him with time to find a way to kill Rumplestiltskin. Shortly after his arrival, Hook gives shelter to Baelfire, who has arrived in Neverland and is on the run from Peter Pan. He forms an unlikely friendship with him, until Baelfire learns that his mother ran away with Hook, abandoning him. He is further enraged when he learns that Hook had been planning to use him to kill his father, beginning to realize that Hook is not so different from the man he wishes to kill. In response, Hook hands Bae over to the Lost Boys, the beings who serve Peter Pan.

Flashbacks have revealed very little about Hook's past on Neverland. The earliest known event after his separation from Baelfire is Hook's meeting the exiled fairy Tinker Bell, with whom he shares his reasons for desiring revenge: the Dark One killed the woman he loved. In doing so, Hook also shares his philosophy on how he would risk his life for just two things: love or revenge. Later, it is revealed that among his duties as Pan's servant, Hook smuggled food from the Enchanted Forest into Neverland. During one of these voyages, Hook was nearly killed by a mermaid; however, the mermaid went against her father's wishes and spared his life. In gratitude, Hook offered the mermaid in question, Ursula, passage away from her father Poseidon. However, after Poseidon takes away Hook's chance at revenge, Hook breaks his word and steals Ursula's singing voice, so that Poseidon would be unable to use it against sailors. At some point, around the early 1980s, Hook made a deal with Pan and escaped Neverland.

Upon returning home, he seeks out a prisoner named Belle (who had been the Dark One's prisoner for a time). However, after realizing that Belle had no knowledge or desire to kill Rumplestiltskin, Hook knocks her unconscious and turns to leave. Before he can, however, he is intercepted by Queen Regina, who promises that she can help Hook kill the Dark One. In exchange, Hook is to dispose of her mother Cora in Wonderland. In order to test him for weakness, the Queen revealed to him that his father still lived and ordered Hook to kill him. Though the pirate was at first resistant, he eventually murdered his father in cold blood upon realizing that he had tried to replace the sons he abandoned with a new son, also named Liam. The Queen's test eventually proved pointless, as while in Wonderland, Cora used Hook's own weakness against him. Hook betrayed Regina and forged an alliance with Cora, as Regina's deal would involve amnesia. As Cora points out, it would be difficult for Hook to kill someone he cannot remember. When the Dark Curse is activated, Cora protects them both and part of the Enchanted Forest with a barrier spell, frozen in time for twenty-eight years.

After this time period, the curse's power begins to weaken and time begins to move forward again. During this time, Hook is reached out by Captain Nemo, a sailor who seeks to ease Hook's pain and help him find a new family among Nemo's crew. However, while aboard the Nautilus, Hook learns that Nemo's first mate is none other than his half-brother Liam. Upon learning Hook is responsible for their father's death, Liam tries to kill the pirate, but ultimately shoots Nemo instead. Hoping to save Nemo, Liam travels to the Mysterious Island, where time stands still, and Hook returns to the Jolly Roger to wait out the rest of the curse. After the curse has broken completely, Hook encounters Emma Swan and Snow White in the Enchanted Forest. Working with Aurora and Mulan, Emma and Snow counter Hook and Cora's attempts to follow them into Storybrooke. However, Hook had captured a magic bean from a giant he and Swan encountered previously, a bean which is used to carry him and Cora into Storybrooke. While in Storybrooke, Hook confronts Rumplestiltskin (known in this land as Mr. Gold) and robs him from his chance to return to his son. After he is thwarted by Belle and Gold, he tracks them down at the town line and shoots Belle. Belle falls across the town's border and loses her memory again. After he is betrayed by Regina and Cora (who decide to use the Dark One's dagger for themselves), Hook flees into the Land Without Magic and strikes Gold with dreamshade, the same poison which killed his brother. After realizing that Gold's life was spared in a deal made with Snow White, Hook agrees to work with Greg Mendell and Tamara, two of Pan's agents. Per their plan, he forges an alliance with Regina, then betrays her, so they can capture her. However, upon realizing that Greg and Tamara's plan would involve his death and the deaths of everyone else in Storybrooke, Hook betrays them and allies with his former enemies. Though he originally attempted to do the honorable thing and help save the town, when the plan offered by the townspeople seems to have little hope of success, he steals the magic bean to use for himself. However, upon learning of Baelfire's supposed death, he returns to honor his memory. Afterward, he journeys with Gold, Regina, and the heroes to Neverland to rescue Henry.

Seasons 3 and 4

In Neverland, Hook becomes the group's guide. Though Hook’s original goal in rescuing Henry had been to honor Baelfire, over time he began to develop real feelings for Emma, and after rescuing her father David from death, he realized that he had fallen in love with her. This grew more confusing when it was learned that Baelfire was still alive. As such, a love triangle which formed between Hook, Baelfire, and Emma nearly drove a wedge in their plans. However, Hook and Baelfire managed to reconcile in time rescue Henry from Pan. Once in Storybrooke, Hook agrees to step aside, so Emma and Baelfire (Henry's parents) can have a chance to get back together. After Pan tries to reenact the Dark Curse, Hook is present when his old foe is killed by his nemesis: Pan's son, Rumplestiltskin. With Pan destroyed, Regina succeeds in reversing his curse, sending Hook and the other inhabitants back to the Enchanted Forest, while Emma and Henry escape to New York City with new memories. While in the Enchanted Forest, Hook tries unsuccessfully to return to his old ways. But after betraying the mermaid Ariel to get his ship back, Hook is consumed with guilt. After a new curse is cast by Snow White in order to combat Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West, Hook journeys to relocate Emma, in hopes of redeeming himself. After relocating Emma, Hook restores her memories with a potion and returns to Storybrooke with Emma and Henry to save Storybrooke from Zelena. While in Storybrooke, Hook is cursed by Zelena, who wishes to rob Emma of her powers. Using a resurrected Rumplestiltskin in her thrall, Zelena orchestrates a series of events which lead to Hook's inadvertently doing just that. Fortunately, Regina possesses enough light magic to stop Zelena for a time. However, after she is nearly killed by Gold, she opens a time portal, which Hook and Emma fall through. While in the Enchanted Forest, Hook and Emma inadvertently interrupt the meeting of Emma's parents: Snow White and Prince "James" David. With the help of Rumplestiltskin, Hook and Emma fix their mistake, but inadvertently rescue Marian, who was to die. To fix this mistake, Hook and Emma plan to bring Marian to the present, though they inadvertently bring Zelena instead (as the Wicked Witch had killed Marian and took her form). While in the Dark Castle, Emma uses her magic to reopen the portal to the present and begins a relationship with Hook, after he reveals he traded his ship for her.

Upon returning to the present, Hook becomes enthralled in a deal with Gold, after he is deceived by the Dark One. Through the course of Storybrooke's battle against the former Queen Ingrid, Hook serves Gold in gathering more magic for himself. After Hook tries to prevent the Dark One from absorbing Emma's magic, Gold rips out Hook's heart and controls him. Through this, Gold forces Hook to suck the fairies into the immortal sorcerer Merlin's hat. After Ingrid sacrifices herself to stop her own curse, Hook is taken by Gold to be sacrificed in the ceremony that would sever the connection between him and his dagger. Fortunately, he is rescued by the timely arrival of Belle, who has taken possession of the real dagger. Later on, Hook works with Belle to find a spell to release the fairies imprisoned in the hat, inadvertently also releasing the Chernabog. The beast is eventually defeated with the help of Ursula and Cruella de Vil, who have made an alliance with Gold. When it is revealed that Gold, Ursula, and Cruella have not only formed an alliance but have resurrected Maleficent, Hook decides to make things right with Ursula. After her singing voice is restored, with the help of Ariel and Poseidon, Ursula fills Hook in on the rest of Gold's plan: to turn Emma dark. This plan is eventually done through Isaac Heller, the Author, who creates an alternate reality which robs heroes of their happy endings. In this reality, a cowardly Hook aids Emma and Henry on their quest to restore their old reality. In a fight against the evil Prince Charming, Hook is killed. However, when the alternate universe is undone, Hook's life is restored. Upon returning to Storybrooke, Gold's life is nearly drained by his own darkness. In hopes of preventing this, Merlin's apprentice removes Gold's darkness, trying to store it in his master's hat. Unfortunately, the hat is not strong enough to contain it, and the darkness escapes. Though it originally targets the Apprentice, he is spared briefly by Emma, who expels it outside. However, when the darkness chooses Regina as its host, Emma selflessly accepts her role as the new Dark One, pleading with her parents and Hook to help remove her darkness.

Season 5

With a combination of the powers of Regina and Zelena, Hook and the others are transported to the Enchanted Forest, where they are reunited with Emma. It is Hook who prevents Emma from coldly killing the Scottish princess Merida in a moment of desperation. In Camelot, Hook and the others search for Merlin to help save Emma from her own darkness. Though they stalled by the deranged King Arthur, they eventually free Merlin. However, through Arthur's machinations, Merlin fails to revive Emma's goodness. After Emma passes her test and remains a hero, Hook and the others are betrayed by Zelena, who helps Arthur bind Merlin to the control of Excalibur, forcing him to abandon Emma in her time of need. Now under Arthur's control, Merlin holds Emma's family captive. Though Emma manages to free her family, Hook receives a fatal wound from Excalibur. In desperation to not lose another love, Emma uses her dark magic to tether Hook to Excalibur, making him another Dark One. Though Hook initially tried to fight the Darkness, he was eventually unable to resist his renewed thirst for vengeance. In determination to return to Storybrooke to kill Rumplestiltskin, Hook kills Merlin and uses his heart to enact the Dark Curse. Guilt-ridden over what she had done, Emma confronts Hook and steals his and everyone else’s memories. When Hook awoke back in Storybrooke, he remembered nothing of the last six weeks. While in Storybrooke, Hook tries to break Emma's curse through true love's kiss, as Belle tried years before with Rumplestiltskin. As before, this plan fails. A short while later, Emma tricks Hook into giving her his sword - the main ingredient she needs to reawaken Gold, who she plans to use to remove Excalibur. In this conversation, Hook takes responsibility for his past villainy, condemns his actions, and praises the man Rumplestiltskin once was as a man who was just "trying to keep his family together." In his mind, Rumplestiltskin became a monster, but Hook changed for the better. Eventually, Emma’s plan comes to fruition when she kidnaps Hook and Zelena, revealing her plan to kill the Wicked Witch after endowing her with the Darkness. The plan goes awry when Zelena restores her and Hook’s memories. Upon recalling what Emma did to him, Hook immediately renews his plot to revive every Dark One and kill Rumplestiltskin. However, after a confrontation with Emma and Regina, Hook has a crisis of conscience and turns on the Dark Ones. Subsequently, Hook sacrifices his life to destroy the Darkness once and for all. However, upon the discovery that Gold has betrayed Hook to take back his power, Emma blackmails him into helping her get into the Underworld, so that she may launch a mission to revive him.

In the Underworld, Hook is tortured by Hades. However, with the help of Milah, Emma rescues Hook from the Lord of the Underworld. Returning to the Underworld's replica of Snow and David's apartment, Hook confronts Gold about taking his sacrifice away, but lets it go for now, since he believes Gold helped save his life. Unfortunately, when Emma tried to split her heart in order to share it with Hook, it is impossible. Returning to the cemetery, the heroes discover that Hades has chosen Emma, Regina, and Snow as the souls who will have to remain in the Underworld. Later, a guilt-ridden Hook informs Emma that he cannot return with Emma, even if they do defeat Hades, as he no longer believes himself worthy of her. However, after confronting his brother about his betraying the heroes to Hades and another betrayal centuries earlier, Hook forgives Liam and helps him move on. Afterward, Hook agrees to help defeat Hades and return to Storybrooke with Emma.

However, it turns out that she cannot give him half of her heart, as his body has decomposed too much in the absence of his soul. They attempt to find ambrosia to restore his flesh to normal, but find Hades chopped down the tree. He agrees to resolve his unfinished business, promising to not let it be Emma. When King Arthur is murdered by Hades, Hook teams up with him to find his weakness. They find the pages Hades had tried to keep from them, which tells of his weakness. Hook manages to send them to Emma through Henry's book, so that she may defeat Hades. Hook then proceeds to move on, as defeating Hades was his unfinished business and finds himself in Olympus. There, Zeus rewards him for his actions by reuniting him with Emma. However, it had not been Emma who defeated Hades, but the god's true love: Zelena, who realized Hades cared more about his own power than her. However, it was too late to prevent Hades's cold murder of Robin Hood, Regina's true love.

At Robin's funeral in the season finale, Emma tries to delicately break it to Regina that Hook has returned, but as Gold tethers part of the Olympian Crystal to the magic in Storybrooke, Hook hastily runs in to make sure everyone is all right. Regina quickly puts aside her feelings and goes with the heroes to find out what Gold's plan is. After Henry and Violet run off to destroy magic, Emma and Regina join together to rescue him. However, due to Gold's machinations, magic in Storybrooke has become unstable. As Zelena uses Merlin's wand to return the people from Camelot, Merida, and the Merry Men home, another portal traps Hook, Snow, David and Zelena on the Mysterious Island Nemo and Liam had fled to years before: the Land of Untold Stories. There, they run into Dr. Henry Jekyll and his evil alter-ego Mr. Hyde. Initially, Hyde believes the heroes to be in the employ of Gold, whom he despises, and holds them captive. With the help of Jekyll, the heroes escape and assist Jekyll in creating a serum which separates Hyde from himself. With the help of Henry and the Dragon, the heroes manage to return to the Land Without Magic with Jekyll.

Season 6

Unfortunately, as the heroes return to Storybrooke, they learn that Hyde has arrived with several beings from the Land of Untold Stories. Shortly upon his arrival, the heroes manage to imprison Hyde in the asylum. During this time, Hook begins to suspect that something is up with Emma, but the Savior is reluctant to tell him as she does not want to cause him concern. Instead, she voices her fears to Archie Hopper. In the episode "The Other Shoe," after Hook and Emma help Cinderella and her stepsister Clorinda against Lady Tremaine and the Evil Queen (newly separated from Regina), Emma puts her fears aside, and Hook moves in to her house. During this time, as Gold tries to force Belle to share their child with him, Hook offers her asylum aboard his ship, out of guilt for having tried to kill her several times in the past. Ultimately, it is learned that Jekyll is not so different from Hyde. The Doctor manages to slip under the heroes' radar and get close to Belle, whom he hopes to kill, since he blames Rumplestiltskin for the death of Mary Lydgate. Fortunately, Hook manages to arrive in time and kill Jekyll. As Jekyll dies, so too does Hyde.

Later on, Hook learns that among the many people from the Land of Untold Stories who have returned are Nemo and his half-brother Liam. Believing Nemo dead, Liam seeks vengeance against Hook for both the deaths of Nemo and their father. On board the Nautilus, Hook is nearly killed by Liam, but is rescued by Henry, who begins to look at Hook as a surrogate father. Hook knocks Liam unconscious and manages to escape. Back on land, Hook and Liam mend their differences, as the latter learns that his brother is not the same man he was when he killed Brennan Jones. They are further able to reconcile when they discover that the doctors at Storybrooke Genral Hospital managed to save Nemo's life. However, as time wore on, the citizens of Storybrooke become plagued by attacks from the Evil Queen, who cannot be killed so long as Regina lives. As he and Emma help combat against the Queen, they also try to prevent her visions of her own death from coming true by forming an alliance with a former Savior, Aladdin. However, Aladdin too became a problem, as after becoming a genie, it was the Queen's wish that sent Emma to an alternate reality in which she had never been the Savior. Though Regina went on a quest to rescue her friend, Hook was now separated from the woman he loved. At this same time, the man destined to kill Emma arrived in Storybrooke: Gideon, the son of Hook's nemesis Rumplestiltskin, as well as the younger brother of Emma's ex-boyfriend. After training under the Black Fairy, Gideon returned, neutralized the Evil Queen, and sought out his parents.

Character development and reception

In 2012, O'Donoghue was cast as Captain Hook/Killian Jones in the second season and was initially hired as a supporting character, but he was made a series regular before his first episode even aired. Hook always had an interest in the Savior, Emma Swan played by Jennifer Morrison but he then realizes this is the first time he felt love again ever since his first love, Milah died. He knew there was always something between them and then finally after many challenges, Emma and Killian become an item, and were confirmed as true love in "Firebird" when their love managed to pass the test and open the doors to the ambrosia, which as said earlier, only true love could pass this test. Many fans call their relationship "Captain Swan." Christina Perri even dedicated her song "The Words" to this popular fictional couple. The couple has been nominated for People's Choice Awards best on-screen chemistry and Teen Choice Award's Best TV Liplock.