The Witch is back! Wicked Witch that is. Yes, it was a Zelena centric episode tonight.
If you’ve been following my recaps, you know I’m not the biggest Zelena fan, but I can appreciate her in this episode.
(ABC/Jack Rowand)
Flashbacks reveal that in OZ, Zelena wishes to use time travel to go back to the day Cora gave her away and change her fate. The only way to do that is to get the scarecrow’s brain, use the life of an innocent and a kiss of true love. Zelena is interrupted by a warrior Dorothy who confronts the witch and runs off with scarecrow (with a great distraction thanks to Toto).
While Zelena is on the search for the scarecrow’s brain in OZ, Hades’ heart has been stolen by the Wicked Witch. Hades admires Zelena’s wickedness and helps her find the scarecrow by enchanting Dorothy’s bike. After a very Butch Cassidy and the Sundance moment with the two of them riding off to find Dorothy, Zelena succeeds in killing the scarecrow and taking his brain. She meets Hades back at the palace where he has dinner prepared. He confesses his true feelings for Zelena, explaining why they’re perfect together (sibling rivalries and all). But Zelena is weary of his affections and turns Hades down, thinking he wants a kiss for his own time travel. Being turned down, he leaves angry.
Which leads us back to present day Storybrooke…
Belle goes to visit the babies, when Zelena shows up disguised as the Blue Fairy. Suddenly a portal to the Underworld opens, taking Belle, baby and Zelena down. They arrive in the Underworld where Zelena has hurt her leg badly and tells Belle Hades wants her baby. Belle runs off and goes to her library. The elevator doors open and Rumple comes up from Hades’ liar. He explains he brought her down with his blood because Hades manipulated him. Rumple comes clean with Belle, telling her about her pregnancy, the baby being sold already and that he is the Dark One again. Belle walks off telling Rumple to fix everything and they’ll talk about their future after he solves everything.
Belle runs into Robin, Regina and Zelena in the woods. Zelena joined the heroes to find her daughter. Distraught, Zelena runs off with the child after shocking the other three with her powers. She hides in a house but realizes she can’t keep her child safe from herself (since using her powers earlier accidentally harmed her baby). She gives her daughter back to Robin and tells him and Regina to take care of her.
Zelena walks away to confront Hades on the main street. Hades tells Zelena he has never stopped loving her and even created the Underworld to look like Storybrooke for her. She almost gives in to Hades but says she still can’t trust him. He understands and tells her he’ll be waiting for her like he always has and she can come to him when she’s ready.
Meanwhile, Henry is slowly mastering his author skills and is able to tell Snow and Charming that their message to baby Neal earlier had worked. Snow and Charming are so happy to know that their attempt to get in touch with the living earlier worked. Snow is determined more than ever to take Hades down to get back to her family.
Although this episode was needed to explain certain plot points, I can’t help but feel like it was kind of unnecessary. Or maybe the pacing needed to speed up. I felt like this whole episode lagged. And the communication with baby Neal just felt like an excuse to see more characters in this episode than Zelena and Hades. I did like Rumple and Belle meeting up in the library. It was nice to hear him come clean, well as clean as Rumple can get. I love him saying, “I’m a better man, but I’ll never be a different man”. He needs to be honest with Belle and Belle needs to realize she did fall in love with a beast. It was a very powerful moment for Rumbelle.
What did you Oncers think? Did you enjoy the return to OZ? What do you think Belle will choose? How excited are you for the return of Gaston next week? Sound off in the comments below or tweet me @kristincarole13!
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