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Recap / Once Upon a Time S3 E16 "It's Not Easy Being Green"

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Season 3, Episode 16:

It's Not Easy Being Green

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/16_its_not_easy_being_green.jpg

Before Emma and the others have barely recovered from burying Neal, Zelena appears before them with an ultimatum: dropping the bombshell that Regina is her half-sister, she challenges the Evil Queen to a duel of magic, or else she will use the Dark One to kill everyone in Storybrooke. But killing Regina is not her motive at all...

Meanwhile, years ago in the Land of Oz, a young Zelena learns the truth of her heritage and, with the help of the Wizard, goes to the Enchanted Forest to meet Rumpelstiltskin in hopes that he can give her the sense of belonging she seeks.

Tropes

  • The Alcoholic: Zelena's adopted father.
  • Alcoholic Parent: The Woodcutter's inability to get over his daughter Zelena's magic made him turn to drinking, causing him to become a drunk. Which only made things worse for Zelena.
  • Backstory: Zelena's. Abandoned by Cora because she could not bring her the power of royalty, she was swept away by a tornado to Oz where she was adopted by a childless couple...but displaying from birth incredible, uncontrollable magic.
  • Break Her Heart to Save Her: In an incredibly painful callback to Skin Deep, once again, Rumple throws Belle out (of his cell, rather than his castle)... but this time it's not because he's selfish - it's because he's afraid, like he was last time. But, this time, he's not afraid of Belle taking his power. He's afraid of her being hurt by Zelena and not being able to save her.
  • Couch Gag: The title card features the jets of fire from the Wizard of Oz's throne room.
  • Dartboard of Hate: After Neal's funeral, Hook suggests that he get a picture of Zelena so Emma can make one of these when she's throwing darts in the diner... just like Graham did after Emma caught him with Regina, in the episode where he died.
  • Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Regina has a moment of this when Robin Hood finds her alone in the woods.
  • Dramatic Irony:
    • Zelena has stronger magic than Regina, and is far more willing and eager to cast the Dark Curse than her half-sister at that point in time...but she can't do so because the price is the heart of the thing you love most—and thanks to how attached she is to Rumple and his tutelage, that's him.
    • At the same time, if Rumple had told Zelena what he wanted the curse for—to go to the Land Without Magic and find his son—she could have easily taken him there with the silver slippers. But by the time she learns this, he has already rejected her in favor of Regina, so she refuses to help him.
  • Entitled Bastard: Zelena's adopted father, who cruelly reveals she was adopted after his wife's death, blames her for his own alcoholism, claims she is wicked and always was, and then still expects her to take care of him.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: Subtle but still there. Zelena's hair is frizzy and unkempt in the past. In the present, it's elaborately curled.
  • Eye of Newt: It turns out Zelena isn't just collecting the attributes of Dorothy's companions—they're the ingredients for a spell. What that spell is isn't revealed for a few more episodes though.
  • Freudian Excuse: Zelena's Backstory has a classic example, since her becoming what she did is completely understandable, it does inspire great sympathy... but it still doesn't justify the things she does.
  • Genre Savvy: Regina. Realizing that what she has that Zelena didn't was a heartless mother (and generally knowing better than to leave herself vulnerable in a battle of magic), she removes her heart and keeps it under Robin Hood's protection so that Zelena can't take it.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Literally in Zelena's case, as her envy is why her skin turned green. But more generally it is envy that drives her—believing she has been denied everything by Regina, whether a mother's love, the magical tutelage of Rumpelstiltskin, or power and a place to belong. And she is determined to get it all, while also making Regina suffer for getting it instead.
  • Happily Adopted: Played with. Zelena's adopted mother was as sweet, kind, and loving as could be, either dismissing her as having magical power at all or rejecting the idea that it made her something to be feared and loathed, instead loving her unconditionally and being a wonderful parent all around. Her adopted father, on the other hand, distrusted her from the moment he laid eyes on her, was cruel and abusive, hated her for her magic, and eventually maliciously revealed that she had been abandoned—in his opinion, because she simply was "wicked".
  • Heroic BSoD: Regina has one of these when she re-reads a letter Cora had kept from Rumpelstiltskin, one she had always thought was about her but which she now realizes referred to Zelena.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Belle attempts this to free Gold from Zelena's control. But the whole thing was a trap for the Wicked Witch to taunt them.
  • Insistent Terminology: "Not evil dear. Wicked."
  • Internal Reveal: Thanks to the curse wiping out everyone's memories of the last year, the relationship between Zelena and Regina which the viewers already know has to be revealed again to the characters. While it's still Zelena who does it, this time it's in front of the whole town rather than just Regina...and unlike before when Regina was severely skeptical at first but then accepts the truth fairly quickly, this time she both takes longer to accept and has a lot more angst and distress over it.
  • Ironic Echo: When Zelena confronts Regina, their lines are almost exactly the same as when Regina confronted Snow White at her wedding, way back in the pilot:
    Regina: I don't want a gift from you.
    Zelena: But you shall have it. My gift to you is this sad, sad day.
  • Kick the Dog: Zelena is horribly cruel to Gold, taunting him about how everything he did to get back to Bae has all been for nothing. If the viewer didn't hate her before...
  • Lie to the Beholder: Rumpelstiltskin uses this to disguise himself as Regina, as part of a Secret Test of Character for Zelena. She fails.
  • Magic Is Evil: This is apparently the view of Zelena's adopted father, despite the fact we only ever see her use her supposedly uncontrollable magic to help—as a baby, knocking away a tree branch that was about to fall on him, and as an adult, conjuring a cloth to staunch a shaving nick.
  • Mr. Exposition: The Wizard of Oz is this when explaining to Zelena about her true history. Despite the fact he's manipulating her, everything he reveals is true.
  • Mythology Gag:
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: After Zelena discovers Regina didn't "bring her heart to a witch fight", Regina twists the knife by saying she'd have learned that tactic from Cora "if you hadn't been abandoned."
  • Psychopathic Womanchild: When the Affably Evil mask comes off, Zelena is a temperamental, vicious, shrieking brat. Her words and expression just before flying from the clock tower are particularly unhinged.
  • Pun-Based Title: Referencing not just Zelena but also Kermit the Frog.
  • The Reveal: Walsh wasn't always a flying monkey... he was the Wizard of Oz. And because he lacks a scar on his neck in the Oz flashbacks, it's confirmed where he got the one seen in "New York City Serenade."
  • Rule of Symbolism: Regina giving her heart to Robin Hood to hide and protect, not once but twice.
    Regina: Can't steal something that's been given to you.
  • Secret Test of Character: A variation. Rumple tells Zelena he's going to train Regina. She poofs into Regina's room and tries to kill her...only for Rumple to reveal that it was all a trick to see if Zelena's jealousy was romantic in nature.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: From Zelena's POV, this is what the spell she's plotting is intended to do by preventing Cora from ever giving her up.
  • Shout-Out:
    Zelena: So, you've finally accepted me into your family.
    Regina: I've accepted we share a mother.
  • Shown Their Work: In a rarity for adaptations, the slippers are silver like they were in the book. This isn't quite the first adaptation of Oz to keep the shoes the right color, but it's still noticeable.
  • Start of Darkness: For Zelena.
  • Stealth Pun: Regina entrusts Robin Hood with her heart. As in she literally gives him her heart.
  • Stepford Smiler: Zelena's father encouraged her to be this.
  • Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Zelena delivers her ultimatum to Regina at Granny's Cafe with all the Evil Gloating, viciousness, and epic villainy you could expect.
  • Unwitting Pawn: Zelena, to the Wizard, until she turns the tables on him.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Zelena, sadly.
  • Was It Really Worth It?: Asked of Gold by Zelena; backfires when he defiantly tells her yes, it was, because he still got to meet Bae and make amends before the end. He also says later that he would still choose Regina for the Dark Curse, probably for the same reason.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: We never did find out what became of Zelena's adoptive father once she ran away from home.
  • Witch Duel: Self-explanatory—and short but glorious.
  • You're Insane!: When Zelena calls Rumple this, he just replies "Beside the point".

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