Season 3, Episode 20:
Kansas
As the birth of Mary Margaret and David's child nears, Emma and the others must find a way to defeat Zelena once and for all before she can enact her time-traveling spell. Meanwhile, years ago in Oz, Zelena is offered a chance for redemption and a new destiny by Glinda the Good... until the arrival of a very special girl.
Tropes
- Alas, Poor Villain/Pay Evil unto Evil: Zelena's death and her final moments straddle the line between these tropes. On the one hand, after all the horrible things the Wicked Witch had done (culminating in this episode with stealing and preparing to sacrifice a newborn baby) seeing Zelena cower, snivel, and beg for her life is deeply satisfying. On the other hand, knowing her backstory and what made her the way she was (especially after seeing the chance at redemption she had almost received in Oz), it's hard not to feel sorry for her, especially when it sinks in she's being killed by the man she loved and wanted more than anything to train her. Even Regina pities her.
- All Your Powers Combined: The four Witches of Oz can combine their magic in this way by drawing on the qualities they represent: love, wisdom, courage, and innocence. Interestingly these same four qualities are also symbolized by the ingredients in Zelena's time-travel spell, suggesting that Glinda was quite right to say combining their magics would allow great miracles to come to pass.
- Batman Gambit: Zelena fake attacks Dorothy, fakes her death, and thus the prophecy “comes to pass” so Zelena can reign when Dorothy is sent home.
- Chekhov's Gun: Zelena's pendant, the source of her power, is stripped from her and locked away, but not destroyed. So it isn't much surprise when it turns out killing her leaves all that magic free with nowhere else to go...
- Children Are Innocent: Turns out to be why Zelena wanted Snow White's baby for her spell (aside from being the product of True Love). Ironically this is also why Dorothy is believed to be the witch of the prophecy, and it is this very quality which Zelena herself was supposed to represent—if she had been able to do so, she wouldn't need it for the spell because she would let the past go and create a future of goodness, but since she couldn't she instead made sure the one who did have it was sent away from Oz and then sought it out in a baby.
- The Chosen One/The Unchosen One: Happens twice.
- In the past, Glinda and her sister witches think Zelena is the one who will fulfill their prophecy of saving Oz, but as soon as Dorothy shows up and seems to fulfill it too, they set their sights on her... leaving Zelena as unchosen and, as far as she's concerned, the villain again. Glinda tries to tell her that this doesn't have to be the case—that she can in a sense choose herself for the role and become the prophesied one by being good, but she doesn't listen.
- Meanwhile in Storybrooke everyone is convinced that once again Emma, as the Savior and the only one to possess light magic, is the one chosen to stop Zelena... but after she loses her magic, it ends up being Regina, the last person anyone would suspect, who steps up and becomes the hero they need to win.
- Chronic Villainy: Gold points out that even if Zelena manages to change the past, she will never change who she is and this will be the undoing of any kind of future she tries to make for herself. He's right, since when given the chance to change by Glinda she fell right back into her bad old ways as soon as someone else came along to be envious of. Sadly, this also applies to Gold himself since he isn't able to let go of vengeance... and so both lies to and manipulates Belle (using his father's sleight-of-hand trick, no less) so that he can kill Zelena, something which is surely going to come back to haunt him.
- Cliffhanger: Zelena's magic escapes her pendant with her death... and re-opens the time portal.
- Continuity Nod: Emma's whispered line when she uses CPR to save Hook, "Come back to me," followed by how she cradles his head afterward, mirrors how Mary Margaret saved David in the woods in "Snow Falls."
- Couch Gag: The title card features the Emerald City.
- Darkest Hour: Emma has been forced to kiss Hook and thus has lost her magic (which also brought down the protective spell at the hospital). Zelena, having gained all her other ingredients, is able to easily brush aside Robin Hood and his men, Belle and Regina, and Whale and David so as to take the baby from Mary Margaret. Triumphant, she goes to cast her spell, seemingly unopposed...
- Faking the Dead: The water-melting trick turns out to have been this on the part of Zelena. She's even clever enough to pretend to be the Wizard as part of the ruse (to prove she and her spells are no more) and send Dorothy away with the slippers just in case she really does have the power to defeat her.
- Foregone Conclusion: Since Zelena is alive and well in Storybrooke and still carrying out her plan, it's obvious from the start that neither her joining Glinda and the sisterhood nor her death by Dorothy will take; what matters of course is how and why things go wrong.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All: Zelena finally gets all the elements for her spell in this episode, since Gold's "spinning the madness out" turns out to be how she gets his brains in symbolic form.
- Good is Not Nice: Regina proves in the end to be capable of compassion, heroism, and mercy, stopping Zelena, stopping Gold from killing her, and offering her a Last-Second Chance, and she can use light magic. Despite this however she is still quite willing to do what it takes to protect those she loves and makes it quite clear that if Zelena squanders her chance she will still crush her heart.Zelena: So you're a hero now.Regina: Today I am.
- Hope Spot: Glinda offers Zelena a seat with the other witches of Oz, a chance to have the power she craves as well as being accepted in a place she belongs, if she will only let go of her vendetta. She's able to deny Regina as having any importance to her life any more, and her green skin is restored. She's even presented with an untouched portion of Oz she can lead, develop, and reshape into something inspiring. But then a cyclone appears carrying a farmhouse...
- Idiot Ball: Rather than staying safely behind the protection spell until the baby is born, Emma decides to go face Zelena... alone. Her father understandably demands she take backup. Who does he suggest? Not Regina, the only one capable to defeat her, but Hook, the pirate with the curse on his lips that will remove her powers.
- Ignored Epiphany: No matter how Glinda appeals to her to believe in herself and her inner goodness, and to either reject the prophecy or decide it means something else, Zelena cannot overcome her jealousy (and self-loathing) and so turns on Dorothy and embraces evil once again. She also seems to reject it when the same choice is offered to her by Regina.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: After all the danger and evil magic and constant need to be saving the day, Emma just wants out, to get away from Storybrooke and have a regular life in New York. Hook thinks she should stay (not just for him, but because of her family, her life before having been based on a lie, and her needing to get over her fear of others depending on her). Henry thinks he can convince her to stay. But Archie isn't so sure...
- Karmic Death: Zelena suffers one of these. It's glorious. And deserved. Oh, so deserved.
- Kill It with Water: Zelena deliberately invokes this to trick Glinda into thinking she'd been destroyed (because water, being the source of life, is seen as pure as the light magic that is her antithesis). For added irony, see how she uses water herself in the trope below.
- Kiss of Life: Emma is forced to give one of these to Hook to save him after drowning. In a deliberate irony on Zelena's part, this also turns it into a form of a Kiss of Death since while it doesn't kill Emma, it does strip her of her magic—which means Zelena can enact her spell, thus killing the baby and rendering a number of characters Ret-Gone.
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- Zelena gets hit by this big-time when, captured and powerless, she is finally confronted by a freed Dark One...
- Gold kills Zelena to avenge Neal but this triggers the time portal, possibly dooming everyone, especially him.
- Literally Shattered Lives: Zelena's fate.
- Mythology Gag: Played with. Dorothy arrives in the same manner she always did, in the familiar gingham dress; is thought a witch by Glinda; incurs the Wicked Witch's wrath; seemingly melts her with water; visits the Wizard; and gets home with the help of the slippers. However, her companions never appear, and not only do neither the Witch of the North nor East look anything like their book/film/musical counterparts, the Witch of the East in this version of Oz is good (representing courage, no less).
- No Ontological Inertia: Glinda invokes the trope when describing how all of Zelena's spells end along with her life. However the Wizard being restored turns out to be a trick (since she isn't really dead), and while all of the Winged Monkeys do change back when she is stripped of her pendant and powers, Emma's magic remains gone... and the time-portal can be re-opened.
- Prophecies Are Always Right/Prophetic Fallacy: According to the Book of Records, a powerful sorceress would come to Oz by cyclone, would sit at the West's chair at the table, and would defeat the greatest evil the land has ever known. Because Dorothy arrived the same way she did but seems much more innocent, Zelena believes this must mean she is the great evil. Glinda points out that prophecies rarely mean what they seem to, and that she has the power to choose what she will be and what the future holds. (For example, the prophecy could mean Zelena defeats her own evil by forsaking it.) But Zelena doesn't listen and embraces the darkness once again... and while Dorothy doesn't actually destroy her, she seems to—and then Zelena is defeated and depowered by Regina, who was once one of the greatest evils the Enchanted Forest had ever known.
- Positive Friend Influence: Gildas real reasoning for inviting Zelena into the coven is to be this to her and save Oz from a potential threat. However, it starts falling when Dorothy comes along and she and the other witches start gravitating towards her as a possible candidate for the fourth witch. Comes across as Fair-Weather Friend later in while Gilda tries encouraging Zelena to stay in the light she doesn’t react with much sadness at her “death” by Dorothy’s hands, simply accepting that she gave into her darkness and decides Dorothy IS the fourth with and offers her Zelena’s old seat. Then when Zelena comes back alive and speaks wicked intentions Gilda’s first response is that she will find another to fight her, only trying to reconvince Zelena to change after realizing Zelena can overpower her.
- Protagonist-Centered Morality: Gold is wrong for wanting to kill Zelena because heroes don't kill, even though Emma and the Charmings have at least considered if not attempted to carry out Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him? solutions.
- Spoiler Title: It gives away the fact Dorothy was going to show up, of course.
- Tranquil Fury: Gold is furious when he stabs Zelena, although he doesn't let it slip past a Pre-Mortem One-Liner.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Dorothy goes back to Kansas, Glinda is exiled to the Enchanted Forest; what happens to the Witches of the East and North during Zelena's subsequent absolute reign of terror is never specified. Also, while we see Little John restored to himself (and Aurora and Philip next episode), it's never revealed whether any of the Winged Monkeys they fought and killed were Walsh, if when Emma threw him off the building she killed him, or what.*
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Regina of all people needs to be given this speech. While it starts from Emma once she realizes what True Love's Kiss means in this context, and is of course joined in by Robin, its deepest and most emotional aspects come, heartwarmingly, from Henry.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: Zelena succeeds in getting all the ingredients and beginning to cast her spell before the final showdown.
