Birth

"Birth" is the 96th episode of Once Upon a Time.

Summary
Tensions in Camelot come to a head when Merlin, now under Arthur's control, delivers an ultimatum to Emma: hand over the Dark One's dagger and the Promethean spark or he will kill her entire family. Refusing to give in, Emma and our heroes face off against the King and his new powerful lackeys in an epic battle of magic and will; just when the end is in sight, the darkened savior is forced to make a gut-wrenching choice that no one sees coming. Back in Storybrooke, Zelena's pregnancy mysteriously accelerates while Hook goes to new and desperate lengths to get answers from the Dark Swan.

Trivia

 * The title card of this episode features Hook's figure rising from the Vault of the Dark One.
 * The comments made regarding Dr. Whale's hair being dyed are references to David Anders' show, iZombie, where all zombies (Anders' character included) have platinum blonde hair.
 * When leaving the pawn shop, Hook is seen carrying the snow globe that Rumple was inspecting in the previous scene. A sequence explaining its meaning was cut from the episode.
 * The bottle of wine Arthur and Guinevere share in their tent is the same wine that Regina shared with Robin Hood in "Snow Drifts".

Production

 * The title of this episode was officially confirmed by executive producer/co-creator Adam Horowitz, via his Twitter account, on September 26, 2015.
 * "Birth" and "The Bear King" were filmed simultaneously.

Gallery
Gallery of photographic stills released to promote the episode.