Previously on OUAT: Hades’ big secret is none other than Zelena! Our favorite bad girl ever! Also, Henry is the most important person in the Underworld at the moment. Oh! And let’s not forget Hades literally owns Rumplestilskin right now because Rumple made a bad deal.

Flashback! To Oz!
The very first image we see in tonight’s episode is the Royal Palace of Oz, one year prior to the events in the show, as Zelena is seen celebrating her “Abandonment Day.” (We’ll later learn she does not know when her birthday is). This is somewhat important, as it does remind us where does it all begin for her, and by the end of the episode, it is quite the journey Zelena has taken. 
We can also draw a small tiny parallel to a similarity with Emma, who also did not know when she was born, but when she was found. I feel like Zelena is that one character every other character can draw a little piece from.

As she mirror-dvds the fateful day, she is interrupted by a flying monkey dropping off the scarecrow. This particular memory brings us back to Zelena getting the Time Travel spell ready, and also face up against a grown up Dorothy (But let’s face it, it was all Toto on that fight).

If you remember back to season 3, the Time spell used baby Neal, Regina’s Heart, Charming’s Courage, and a brain for ingredients. Now we know that they are symbols of innocence, love, courage and wisdom, respectively. Also, during this flashback is Zelena hunting for the wisdom ingredient, which I will come back to in a while. 

Back to the present in the Underworld
Hades is seen walking with the page from the storybook featuring him and Zelena and looking not as evil as usual, but it is only for a second because he is back at taunting Rumple, and pushing him to do the heavy lifting and the dirty work. 

Let us lay down Hades’ plan: he wants to open a portal. He is planning on using one to bring a living person to the Underworld. Specifically, someone in Storybrooke.

Back in Storybrooke
Well, now we know what happens when parents go off to save the world: Blue and the fairies become the nannies. Somehow this should have been obvious. In this scene, we see Belle visiting baby Neal, and little baby girl Hood. Blue walks in as Belle starts to feed the babies, and doppelgänger hijinks ensue, and the real Blue appears. Belle is smart enough to know is Zelena immediately. 

Zelena has come back for the baby, and at the same time in the Underworld, Hades reveals he is after Zelena’s baby, sending Rumple after it, and opening the portal. Rumple hears the double threat from Hades: he’ll tell Belle that he owns her baby, and that Rumple is still The Dark One.

In Storybrooke the portal opens, and pulls Belle and the baby, with Zelena jumping in after them. The portal does not work quite the same as usual and they end up where the Convent is supposed to be. Zelena is the one that recognizes the place as the Underworld, and immediately knows Hades is after her and the baby.

The best part about this episode honestly is Zelena, and how for the first time on the show she is the one in danger, and the one who has to do the saving. 

Back in Oz!
Zelena is torturing some midgets to see who blabbed to Dorothy when Hades walks in and offers his help to Zelena who refuses and poofs away. Greg German delivers one of his best performances of his season. All the flirting and manipulating combined are probably the way to go, and Rebecca Mader as always is the villain of the show, and for the first time, the one we root for. 

Side Plot that’ll probably come back at some point
Charming and Snow are getting breakfast at Grannies when the blind witch serves them before they even order because they are regulars now, and Snow realizes she misses the baby, and (not at all like Emma) they are missing the early moments in his life. 

The blind witch tells the Charmings that they can Haunt their own kid. Like seriously this was more funny to me than a lot of other things on the show. Snow and Charming are so worried about their kid, they trade “Breath of the Living” (that is valuable in the black market apparently), and go off to haunt the baby. 

The coolest loft ever
Henry is showing his moms and Hook and Robin (his moms and his dads ran through my mind and to all honesty I cooed at the image) pages that he wrote, which he doesn’t remember even writing, and more so, they happened a few minutes ago. Hook complains (he seems whiny), that Henry was supposed to write about Hades. 

Henry points out that he woke up and the pages were done… I’m starting to consider his Author powers much like Isaac Mendez’s powers on Heroes. He could see the future but it was all a trance, and it was a matter of analyzing the paintings to figure it out. 

There is a really cute moment when Emma and Regina try to encourage Henry and suggest he focus harder, and Henry’s response of “Oh, so you are all author’s now, everyone is a writer, everyone’s got an idea,” is such a family fun moment, made all too perfect when Emma finishes with “Oh, we officially have a teenage on our hands.” This scene is amazing. It is what makes us love the characters. Just stop the scene frame by frame and look at the expressions on the cast. When Hook complains, Regina and Emma give him that look of wanting him to be quiet; Regina’s pursed lips and withering glare. When the scene pulls out we see Robin sitting on the counter, looking very much like he does not want to join the fight. When Emma and Regina are placating him and he immediately becomes aggravated and sulky, and moody… and he really is a teenager. In those few scenes, look a Hook in the background as Henry complains and storms off: he looks at Robin, Robin and him are having a silent but hilarious conversation about what the hell they got into, and then the smirk Hook has when Emma says the word teenager. Beyond everything plot set, or flashback set, this was the scene of the episode for me: the simple fact that all these fairy tale characters are family. 

The scene ends with a visitor at the loft, and it is Zelena, whom Regina assumes, someone kills but Zelena lets her know she is still alive and looking for her daughter, who so happens to be in danger. 

Back in the past
Zelena heads back to her palace, and finds Hades already there and intruding. He is after the same thing, and uses their similarities to get her on his side. 

We do get a bit of backstory with Hades in this scene: He is after Zeus, and hates and is jealous of the fact that Zeus got it all and gets to rule Olympus while he is stuck in the Underworld. The important part of the backstory is that Zeus stopped Hades’ heart, so he is unable to feel love and joy, and therefore is filled with anger and need for revenge. We also see the return of True Love’s kiss and how Hades can be freed from his job (and his immortality and godliness?) is he finds his true love. Hades also points out that he is the most hated person ever, but Zelena says she could give him a run for his money. 

I find the similarities of the two characters less important than the fact that Hades admits that he was originally only helping her out of self-interest, but has now evolved into wanting to help. This particular comment does stay with Zelena, as she is constantly at odds with trusting him (and later on anyone else). This almost feels like Regina not wanting to meet Robin when she had the chance ages ago, but giving into the fear of being betrayed or losing. The sisters are more similar than they know. 

Let us also point out how well balanced these two characters are: not only do they understand each other’s motives, but they understand the methods they follow. 

At the Loft and other places
Robin and Regina are immediately setting out to track the baby, as they have nothing to spell track her with. Zelena tags along. 

Belle takes refuge in the library, and we are treated to a scene we have seen one too many times before: the confrontation about Rumple’s past and his darkness. Now everything starts when Rumple realizes why his spell didn’t work and mentions it out loud. Belle notices (like she wouldn’t) and questions him about his reasons. Rumple admits to being forced by Hades to steal the baby, and then tells the truth about the contract where he signed away his second born baby. He then tells Belle she is pregnant, which she didn’t know, and she is all happy and excited, until she realizes what that means. Rumple then says he will fix it with all his power, and lets it slip he is still the Dark One, when Belle seems unable to accept him, he lays down the ultimatum: him as the Dark One or not at all. 

This is a variation on the dance these two have been having for a while now: Belle wants him to be better and he keeps failing. He now tells her, he has always wanted the power, but that he is capable of wanting power and loving her. (This will come back to bite him in the ass.) Belle is offended he won’t give up the power even for her, and he rebuts with the fact that she did not fall in love with the man behind the beast, but with both the man and the beast (yes and no, she fell in love with the man, and accepted the beast when it was doing good; not quite loved it though). Belle tries to walk away and Rumple stops her with manipulation. While some may want to bite my head off about it being love: he was manipulating her; twisting her feelings into loving him, and choosing his darkness as well. 

Also, now it has been clearly established that this Dark One, while more powerful works the same way the other ones did: dagger controls him, and dagger kills him. 

The Haunting of Neal Charming
As Snow and Charming wait to haunt the baby, they talk to a man who tells them, he doesn’t know if the other side even hears them. It is a sobering moment for them, when they are faced with the knowledge, they might lose the opportunity to raise the baby entirely. The record their message with hope. 

The other thing this scene struck with me was that the man they talked about has been there for 30 years, and he truly does not know if the messages go through. It struck me because, you do realize some people cannot move on, even with the help of the heroes. 

The Archer, the girlfriend and the baby mama
This scene has them looking for the baby, and Robin explodes because he hasn’t been able to name his daughter, since they have spent so much more time protecting her from Zelena. Regina is quiet until she makes everything all too clear: Once her enemies became her family, she relied that helping each other meant everything, that this family made her truly happy. You can see as the speech goes on, how hard the message hits Zelena. (The scene breaks for a moment for Oz and we see how Hades and Zelena connect there). 

In the forest we see a lovely moment when Robin and the Hood find Belle and the baby. Regina seems awfully trusting in this scene, and when the baby starts crying, she and Robin allow Zelena to feed the baby. This is Zelena and the moment the baby has been fed she tries to run away with it. 

At the loft
The Charming’s are telling the Jones’ (God that sounds good), about the haunting of the baby, and how they wish it helps the current situation. 

This is the third scene in the loft, and as they are probably guarding Henry as he writes, this is the third time Emma and Hook are seen together, close by. Not in any individual couple moments, but much like how we see Robin and Regina, and David and Snow… together, coexisting, with not extra lovey dovely things to make the ship stick. This is the ship, and it has sailed, and it doesn’t seem like it can be sunk. The Battleship Captain Swan has been upgraded to the unsinkable level people.

Take a moment to look at the picture above and note that the Jones-Swans are looking at blueprints. Battle plans on the way? Warfare and Chill day?

Zelena and Into the Woods
As Zelena is running away we see that she has accidentally hurt the baby, and she breaks down under the knowledge that her magic has hurt her baby. 

Back in Oz
Hades sends off Zelena with a compliment, and Zelena quite easily defeats Dorothy, and takes the scarecrows brain. Zelena does the ultimate form of winning, by breaking the strongest quality of Dorothy: the fact that she cannot protect anyone from Zelena. This particular scene feels even stronger with the broken Zelena we have just seen in the Underworld. 

Siege of the Wicked is broken
Zelena completely breaks down, and tells them the truth about what Hades plan is, and how the baby factors into it. Zelena then gives away the baby, selflessly, as she knows she cannot protect her. It is a beautiful scene, with a Zelena you can’t but sympathize for, and it is such a character development that Rebecca Mader has to be credited for the performance. 

Back at the loft (too many setting and scene changes on this ep)
As they coo over the baby, and wonder the baby name, Robin is worried about even giving her one, as Hades could carve it unto a tomb and trap her there. Hook and Regina assure him that Zelena seemed truthful about giving up the baby. The plan is for Robin to hide in the forest with the baby. Henry has one of his Isaac Mendez moments and writes about Baby Neal hearing his parent’s voices and being lulled to sleep. Everyone feels very happy then and there. Snow gets her mama bear claws and sets them on the path after Hades. 

Also, love the shot in the picture above, loved the framing. 

Oz
Hades cooks/magics dinner hoping to woo Zelena; who seems reluctant to take his word for it, on the basis they just met (smart). Hades goes into a romantic moment, Greg German delivering an amazing performance, but then Zelena gives into her fear, and believes him to still be selfish as they are so similar, she realizes this is what she would do. He puts his heart out for her but she doesn’t accept it seemingly breaking him. 

Also nice to point out, the Hades disappearing fire has gotten a lot better in terms of special effects. 

Underbrooke
Zelena and Hades meet in the street, seemingly in a confrontation about Hades’ revenge, but then it is all revealed. Hades still loves Zelena, and getting her daughter was about rescuing her from the heroes. He reveals that Underworld looks like Storybrooke for her, how he has been manipulating things for her, and beyond his revenge he still loves her. 
Even after all, Zelena cannot trust Hades; broken and sad, she vows to get her daughter back on her own. Hades does a beautiful deed in telling her the date of her birth (and how he tortured Cora for it), He promises to wait for her. 

RATING 8.5: REALLY GOOD. While the development of the Zelena character and the reveal of Hades’ plan was really, really good; the Charming/Hood/Mills/Jones family moments were my favorites. The heart of the show shines through, and for the first time, you root for both heroes and most villains. The one drawback was the Rumple and Belle repeat confrontation. The show is at the point where they either let it go on or sink the ship altogether, as the on and off has become quite the drag.