We’ve been told and shown that the Darkness is like a parasite that causes the host to have actual symptoms.
Including not needing to sleep. If Hook’s a Dark One, he shouldn’t have been needing to sleep, so I guess he’s just not noticed that he’s awake 24/7 without getting sleepy ever?
Lots of knitting apparently.
For me, this is really the big one. We know they’ve been back in SB for several days (minimum) and he’s never once noticed that he doesn’t need sleep? And that’s he not getting tired?
We can fan wank away the voices. The ability to do magic is trickier (for me) because magic is tied to emotions, especially dark magic. We’ve been shown that pretty consistently over the years. When Emma first became the Dark One and was moving through the EF in 501, the magic she did was during moments of anger (choke holding the merchant who wanted money; Merida). Hook’s been plenty angry lately. And yet no magic shoots from his fingers, lights don’t explode over heard, object don’t move. Those are all telltale signs of someone doing magic without realizing it. It’s called forshadowing and it’s pretty gosh darn important in narratives. But the show doesn’t do that. They just spring SHOCK! on you during big reveals with no set up. The fact that Hook hasn’t felt different/hasn’t noticed any changes in his habits/hasn’t had even one moment of sudden magic is super problematic because there’s no set up to him being another Dark One.