Finally, a little back story. This episode wasn't as shattering as last
week's, and that's a good thing. I
needed a little time off, you know? But
it was still a packed episode with some good background on Zelena. Plus we got a nice cameo there at the end.
I just wonder how many people are going to complain about
those slippers. I like the fact that the
producers did their homework (although part of it might be the copyright issues
with MGM). But more on that later.
Let's start with our flashback, shall we? And our flashback starts in…Oz as a tornado
delivers a baby in a basket to a couple walking along the yellow brick
road. The woman wants to keep the child,
but the husband isn't interested, especially when the baby keeps a tree from
falling on them. The wife dismisses it,
however, and sends adopts the baby, whom she calls Zelena.
The next time we check in to Oz, Zelena is a grown woman and
her mother has died. She is tending her
father, shaving him as she did Gold a few episodes back. When she slips and cuts him, she congers a
handkerchief, but her father flips out, calling her wicked. And that's when he tells her the truth about
her being adopted.
Upset, she goes to see The Wizard to find out more about her
past. He stays behind his curtain, but
he does use a nice projection in the floor to show her Cora abandoning her to
the tornado. Why? Because Zelena could never become royalty, so
Cora didn't want her. Then he reveals
that Zelena has a sister who is being trained by Rumplestiltskin. Zelena wants very much to meet her family, so
the Wizard gives her silver slippers to travel between realms. All he asks in return is something from
Rumple.
Zelena arrives in Enchanted
Forest to be met by
Rumple who immediately takes to her and her power. He starts to train her, getting her to draw
on her anger and then trying to counter that with happy memories. Rumple is up front with her that he is
training Regina
to cast a curse for him. Zelena is sure
she can do it.
However, Rumple has his doubts and keeps training Regina . When Zelena finds out, she turns very
jealous, and starts to turn green with envy.
(I knew it!) Then she tries to
kill Regina ,
only it turns out to be Rumple in disguise.
He tells Zelena that she can never cast the curse since she'd have to
give up what she loves most, and that is clearly Rumple. When she finds out that he really wanted to
go to a land without magic, she reveals what her slippers could do, but it is
too late at this point. Zelena is too
mad at being rejected and goes back to Oz.
Now much powerful with her magic, she rips the curtain
hiding the Wizard off the wall to reveal the man behind the curtain. Pay attention to him because the man, in this
case, is Walsh. I'd seen that Emma's
would be fiancee was supposed to be back tonight, but I'd forgotten that
fact. Anyway, he is a circus performer
from Kansas ,
but Zelena decides to use him as her henchman, turning him into a flying monkey
inspired by a poster from the circus that Walsh had kept on the wall behind his
work station. As the scene ends, she
talks about a plan to get revenge and turns fully green.
So, what is everyone up to in Storybrooke?
The first shot there was of the funeral for Neal. Not a word was said, but the various
characters shoveled dirt on his coffin.
And without a word being said, it was still a hard scene to watch. I'd almost recovered from his death, and
watching it all again was so hard.
Hook offers to take Henry and tell him some about his
father. After all, he knew Neal as a boy
- a fact that he slips up and tells Henry.
But when they finally start talking about Neal's past losing his own
father at about the same age Henry is, he begins to soften toward his father.
Also Tinker Bell was back in this episode. She spotted the tattoo on Robin Hood, and
immediately tries to nudge Regina
a bit toward her soul mate. Regina seems very
reluctant, however.
All this is happening at the wake for Neal at Granny's. Right after Hook takes off with Henry, who
should crash the wake but Zelena. She
challenges Regina
to a dual at dusk. And why? Because they are half sisters. Regina
doesn't believe it, but she starts going through the stuff of Cora's she has in
her vault and finds an old letter that convinces her.
She won't talk about the contents of the letter to the
others but goes into the woods. It's
there she runs into Robin Hood, and she allows him to read the letter. It's from Rumple, and it talks about finding
Cora's oldest daughter and how powerful she is.
Regina
always thought it was about her, but now she knows better. (Of course, I thought the letter could still
be interrupted to be her from what Robin read, but what do I know?)
Meanwhile, the rest of the town thinks maybe they can get
Gold on their side even though Zelena controls his dagger. They go out to the farmhouse with Belle, and
she goes into the cellar to try to get through to him. (And yes, she did volunteer.) However, Zelena is hiding down there, and she
gives them a warning. If they try to
interfere again, she'll kill them.
Which leaves us with the confrontation on the streets of
Storybrooke. Regina waits until the last possible second
to appear, but when she does, it goes much like she and everyone else
feared. She is no match for Zelena's
power. In fact, after not too long,
Zelena grabs Regina
and throws her into the clock tower. And
then she tries to get what she really wants from Regina - her heart. Only Regina
takes a lesson she learned from her mother - never take her heart to a witch's
fight. (And when exactly did she learn
this from Cora?) Temporary set back,
Zelena flies off.
But the last scene finds Zelena back with Gold in his
cell. It's then she reveals her master
plan - she wants to go back in time and make herself be the one that Cora and
Rumple choose. Somehow, she thinks that
David's courage and Regina 's
heart can do this, but I'm not sure exactly how that will happen. I mean, it would have taken all three genies
and rewriting the laws of magic in the Wonderland spin off, so how does Zelena
think she can do it?
So, I promised to talk about the slippers. In the book, they were indeed silver, so
anyone who complains about them getting the color wrong is actually wrong. They were changed to ruby for the movie to
take full advantage of Technicolor. Of
course, MGM also has the rights to ruby slippers (at least that's my
understanding), so they might have objected to them being used in a Disney
controlled show, which forced the producers to go back to the book. Either way, they got it right (you know, just
in case you were wondering).
I also got to noticing tonight that the three major witches
we've met so far have names that end in A, Cora, Regina, and Zelena. I know this is a naming convention that was
used most of the time on both Bewitched
and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. What I'm wondering is why this has become a
witch naming convention.
Oh, you want some thoughts on the show and theories about
the future. I'm afraid I have none. Hook did warn Emma (someone else with powers
and a name that ends in A) that revenge was not all it was cracked up to be,
something he learned from his quest to get Rumple in season two. But how will that play out? And what does Zelena need to enact her new
spell? Will she get what she needs?
I really have no idea what is coming next story wise. Next week looks like it will focus on Hook
and bring back Ariel, so that will be fun.
But beyond that, I'm in the dark.
You got a good theory on what is coming next? Lay it on me.
My sister and I look forward to reading your re-cap blog after each episode (of Castle and Once Upon A Time/Wonderland) to see what we might have missed and other theories you have.
ReplyDeleteLast night after watching this episode we both noticed a theme with the items Zelena is collecting - David's courage (from the sword), and Regina's heart.. With Zelena being the Wicked Witch of the West we're thinking that the items she is collecting are the same from the Wizard of Oz story. The Lion's courage, the Tin Man's heart.. next would be the Scarecrow's brain. Could that be Mary-Margret's baby? Its our theory at least.
Thanks for the posts, we do enjoy them so!
Of course! That makes perfect sense. You can see it's been a long time since I read/watched Oz since I didn't pick up on that.
DeleteAnd thanks for reading and commenting. It's nice to know people are enjoying what I write.
Wow - good theory and it would tie in so nicely with the whole Oz thing. Good job thinking that one through!
DeleteThis is why I love getting comments from people. It gives me new theories to work with as I think through the show. Really do appreciate both of you commenting.
DeleteAnother excellent episode. I also enjoy reading your recap because sometimes I just find it difficult to follow the storyline or I'm not hearing what is being said on the TV. Reading what you write helps to clarify some things for me.
ReplyDeleteBut that being said, maybe you can help me out with something. I don't understand why Cora gave her first born up. Because she could never be royal? Zelena is only a baby for heaven's sake. Is it because Cora never married the father so she is out of wedlock? If memory serves me correctly, Regina's father wasn't royal. She had to marry a royal to become royal. So why couldn't Zelena marry to become royal? I think I'm missing something here.
It was a really good, packed with information episode. And I like the fact that Zelena turning green is due to the envy she has for Regina. And something else. Did Zelena fall in love with Rumple? Or did she just want to keep him to herself to learn all the magic and be the spell caster?
Loved the ending so that we know who the flying monkey is. Liked that in that scene he kind of looked like the actor who portrayed the wizard in the latest Disney movie. But there is more than one flying monkey, right? Because one of the dwarfs was turned into a flying monkey.
I did know about the slippers - that they are silver in the book and were made red to show up more in the movie :)
I'm not sure on that either. Maybe Rumple saw that with the eye? I'm trying to remember, but I think that Regina's father was a minor royal, like the younger brother of a crowned prince or something. When we learned that in season two, it surprised me since it wasn't something that made sense with what we'd already seen. Unfortunately, I didn't make it that far in my rewatch of season two during the hiatus.
DeleteThis really wasn't clear last night, so maybe we'll learn more about that down the road.
Zelena definitely wanted to keep Rumple to herself, but maybe she did fall in love as well. That was my impression, although they didn't come out and state it.
There has been speculation that some of the missing, (including at least one dwarf, I believe) is now a flying monkey. The only person we've seen be turned into a monkey is Little John.
I really need to watch the recent Disney Oz movie. I didn't make that connection, but it isn't a big surprise and very cool.
Oh, and I'm every so excited that Ariel will be back next week!
ReplyDeleteThat was a very pleasant surprise in the preview. I hadn't heard she was coming back.
Delete