Recap / Once Upon a Time S5 E16 "Our Decay"

Season 5, Episode 16:

Our Decay

The heroes continue searching for a way to free everyone from the Underworld. At the mercy of Hades, Gold creates a portal to Storybrooke, which transports Belle, Zelena, and her and Robin's baby to the Underworld. Belle is reunited with Rumple only to learn shocking news that will change her life forever. Meanwhile, Snow and David hopelessly attempt to send a message from the Underworld to their son.

Tropes

• Act of True Love: Hades reveals that a "kiss of true love" can restart his cold heart—but of course, no one loves the lord of the Underworld.
• Blackmail Backfire: Hades figures he can get Rumple to go along with him by holding over Belle finding out about him being the Dark One and the deal for her child. Rumple realizes the only way to stop it is to confess the truth to Belle for a change.
• Break the Haughty: This episode puts Zelena through hell in its present day storyline.
• The Bus Came Back: Zelena as well as a grown-up Dorothy.
• Continuity Nod: Hades reveals Zelena's birthday is April 15th. When she asks how he knows, he replies that he tortured it out of Cora.
• Couch Gag: The title card features a group of Munchkins.
• Cruel Mercy: Zelena reveals she doesn't intend to kill Dorothy, and in fact doesn't want to—that instead she intends to leave her alive but prove to the people she can't protect them. Then she will lose their love, the one thing she has Zelena doesn't, and by this be left with nothing.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Horrible as she is, Zelena is determined to keep her baby safe from Hades.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
  • Turns out Hades has been carrying a torch for Zelena for decades, and he seems sincere about it. But Zelena is understandably wary of him.
  • Everything Zelena does in this episode is for the safety of her daughter.
• Everybody Hates Hades: Hades complains that people keep conflating him with the Devil, but then again, this version of the character rather lives up to it.
• Eviler than Thou: Hades notes, "No one is more hated than the Lord of the Underworld," and Zelena just smirks and states, "I could give you a run for your money."
• Freudian Excuse: Hades reveals that he's a monster because Zeus stopped his heart.
• Glamour: Zelena once again uses this, this time to disguise herself as the Mother Superior so she can take her baby from Belle. Belle notices her acting skittish but when the real Mother Superior shows up, realizes it's Zelena.
• Give Him a Normal Life: Zelena, realizing she can't keep her daughter safe or handle just raising her, gives her back to Regina and Robin.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Rebecca Mader and Greg Germann have a wonderful time playing off each other.
• Heel Realization: Variation—instead of realizing her villainy, Zelena realizes how dangerous she is to her daughter when she discovers she accidentally injured her with her unpredictable magic...and can't heal her. Still leads to a Villainous Breakdown on her part.
  Zelena: My magic did this. I did this! I'm sorry...
• I Am What I Am: Gold defends himself to Belle on being the Dark One by saying he was always this power-hungry and is as much a beast as he is a man.
  Gold: Look, y-you wanted me to be... a better man. A-A-And you've done that. But if you want me to be a different man... I'm sorry. This is who I am.
• I Know Your True Name: Although he also won't do so because he doesn't feel he actually knows her yet, this is the other reason Robin Hood won't name his and Zelena's child—because if he does, it could give Hades power over her.
• Internal Reveal: Belle finds out that Gold is the Dark One again, and how he owes Hades their unborn baby.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Zelena notes that Robin coming into the Underworld has prevented him from caring for his daughter. This fact is underscored by Snow and Charming's subplot in the episode.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Zelena's Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, especially in light of sincere efforts to reach out to her, means that no one is willing to trust her in the least even when she is begging for help. Even Belle won't take her at her word, saying "nothing good has ever come of trusting you."
• Mama Bear:
  • Although she isn't the mother, Belle very much proves to be this in how she dives into a portal the destination of which she doesn't know, just to protect Zelena's baby (from her, she thinks). She also stands up to Zelena herself, both in Storybrooke and the Underworld. Appropriate, as she finds out about her own impending motherhood when she gets there.
  • Zelena herself makes a good try at being this; at first she fails, due to being unable to control her magic, hurting (and being unable to heal) her baby, and being unable to protect her child from Hades. But by episode's end she is determined to get her back and protect her from Hades.
• Meet Cute: Hades and Zelena, of all people, on the bicycle.
• Motive Misidentification: Zelena believed Hades was out to steal her baby in order to use her for a time travel spell. Instead, he did it as an act of love for her.
• Must Make Amends: Belle forces Gold to do this before she'll even consider coming back to him.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Once again we get to see a wicked witch riding a bicycle...except this time it's Dorothy's.
  • Toto again pulls down the curtain in the Great Oz's throne room, except it just falls on Zelena, allowing Dorothy to escape.
  • After the goals of Dorothy's companions (but not the companions themselves) appeared as the spell ingredients in Season 3, the Scarecrow actually appears after all.
  • One to Wicked and the original novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum. The Munchkin Zelena turns to ash for refusing to tell her where Dorothy and the Scarecrow are is Boq.
  • Perhaps unintentional, but Hades' outfit in Oz is identical to Frank Morgan's when he plays the Wizard.
  • The original Hades tried to woo his queen by improvising his resources to make her a garden of gemstones, much like how Hades in this series remakes Storybrooke for his love using the limited resources he has.
• Never Recycle Your Schemes: Hades' plan appears to be a rehash of Zelena's from Season 3—use a time travel spell to go back and get revenge on their sibling and take what they think is owed them.
• Not Me This Time: When the nursery shakes thanks to Gold's spell, Belle tells Zelena to stop but Zelena cites the trope.
• "Not So Different" Remark:
  • Zelena refuses to kiss Hades as she believes that once he's freed of the Underworld, he'll just use her magic to gain revenge...as that's exactly what she would do.
  • Hades also says he knows what it's like to have a sibling who gets everything you ever wanted while leaving you with nothing. Given his brother is Zeus, sitting high and mighty on Olympus, he isn't wrong.
  • Regina speaks of this to Zelena, comparing her sister to her past self as the Evil Queen, thinking vengeance and not love was all she needed to be happy. By revealing how she found happiness, through the love of her family, Regina suggests Zelena can find redemption the same way.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Zelena realizing she's in the Underworld.
  • Belle's happiness at finding out she's pregnant is ruined by the realization Gold is the Dark One (again) and sold their baby long ago.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In a weird way, Hades taking the trouble to learn from Cora (by torture) when Zelena was born, just on the off-chance he could tell her if they ever met again.
  • Zelena letting Robin and Regina take her daughter to be protected from Hades proves that she does generally care for her daughter's safety. Then she threatens Hades to not hurt her daughter and turns him down when he offers to help get her back, clearly not fully trusting him. Then there is the implication that Zelena's method of getting her daughter back is pulling a Heel–Face Turn.
• The Reveal: Turns out Hades made the Underworld look like Storybrooke for Zelena, to give her what Regina had—her own version of a place where everyone served her and she had full control, a place created by the same Dark Curse she wanted so badly to cast for Rumple.
• Significant Birth Date: Zelena finds it appalling that because of Cora's abandonment, she doesn't even know what day she was born, so Hades takes steps to find out the date. It turns out to be April 15th... the same day the Titanic sank. The symbolism is likely unintentional, but it fits well with Zelena's destructive nature.^note It's also tax day in the United States.
• Sympathetic Magic: Hades takes Zelena back to Dorothy's smashed farmhouse to reveal her bicycle—because it can be enchanted to lead them straight to Dorothy and the Scarecrow.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself: Because she can't bring herself to trust Hades yet, Zelena declares she will reclaim her daughter from the heroes on her own before she considers accepting his proposal.
• Title Drop: When Hades reveals to Zelena he made the Underworld into Storybrooke for her—because it's the underworld, nothing will grow there, it only decays, but if she chooses him it will be "our decay."
• Villainous BSoD: Zelena breaks down upon realizing her actions have injured her daughter and she has no real way to protect her from Hades.