Edred

Copernicus blasts Melinda’s soul towards Emma and the Reawakening begins — and then it stops, so Melinda can embrace Emma with a warmth not present in their first meeting. They merge and then Copernicus takes everyone else’s souls — Merlin and wolf Winston included — into Melinda, forming a powerful being that beats back the Evil (embodied by a large, angry face). But then, a voice calls out to Melinda, the same voice heard in the pilot. This time, Melinda/Emma recognizes her mother Morgan crying out for help and — against the wishes of Edred — goes towards her. First, a younger Merlin pops out of the entity exclaiming that Morgan cannot be alive; then, when they approach Morgan, the current-day Merlin arrives.

Turns out the Evil is not Morgan herself, but her powers using Morgan’s life force to drain her essence. It makes sense why Morgan wanted to remove Melinda’s powers all those years ago; she knew what they could do to her child, and it makes sense they only ripped Melinda’s soul from Emma, like Morgan tried to do thousands of years ago. Unicorn tries to rip Morgan out, but, as Morgan puts it, “It won’t let go, I am its heart.” Morgan, unfortunately, tells Unicorn to kill her to stop the evil and “end this” — the same language Emma used seemingly minutes prior, but Melinda/Emma won’t do it. They let go and hurl out of the Cosmic Realm.

The pain captured in the chosen one narrative is continued throughout this season, showing Edred’s sacrifices and woes leaving his home for a woman who’s gone, but it also shows Melinda/Emma rising because they listened. Emma helped Melinda forgive herself for her mother’s loss and allowed her to heal in a way she hadn’t before in thousands of years, and that healing helped them become even more powerful and whole than before.