A huge secret in Zelena and Regina's past was revealed on 'Once Upon a Time'
There wasn’t a dry eye in the Underworld on this week’s Once Upon a Time.
When Cora reunited with both of her daughters, Regina and Zelena, it was bound to be emotional, but a buried family secret from their childhoods changed everything for the sisters -- and sent someone out of the depths of hell.
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That intense drama was just the tip of the iceberg, though. Before Zelena could tell Hades how she feels about their future together, she was stopped by a surprising person, and she may not be talking to anyone in the near future.
Let’s start with some other family drama, with brother vs. brother.
Property brothers
In addition to the Zelena and Regina issues, James finally confronts David face-to-face, but he doesn't exactly fight fair.
About a minute into their battle, James tazes David and poses as him for the rest of the day. He and Cruella kidnap Emma, Robin Hood, and Robin’s (still-not-named?) baby and try to walk them into the River of Lost Souls.
Apparently Hades wants Zelena’s baby, but that doesn’t end up happening because David breaks out of jail -- perhaps with some help from Hook -- and ends up pushing James into the river.
Goodbye, evil #charmattack.
Mother vs. daughter vs. daughter
On a romantic picnic, Hades tells Zelena he wants to whisk her away to the real Storybrooke to be a family. She reasons that Regina would definitely not allow that to happen, but he shrugs and reveals his plan to trap all the heroes down there -- all of their names are now on tombstones.
"Will you make chaos with me?" is his proposal, and he definitely doesn't have a ring.
When Regina sees this -- she was spying on Zelena with a Magic Mirror -- she tries to forbid her sister from seeing Hades again. That goes over about as well as you’d think, and Regina decides to go to Cora for help.
After Hook breaks Cora out of flour-milling prison, she gets some water from the River of Forgetfulness to make Zelena forget Hades ever existed. The plan is for Regina to slip some of it into Zel’s water while she’s distracted during a family reunion with Cora. And it turns out that Cora knows a lot about this memory-erasing water...
Blast from the past
In flashbacks, Regina is neglected by Cora during dress-up, so finds her mom’s wand and tries to turn her doll into a sister. Instead, the spell knocks her out, and Cora’s magic can’t heal her; only another blood relative who has magic can save her. So Cora goes and finds Zelena -- just as the young girl is about to be abused by her father -- and brings her to save Regina.
The sisters become fast friends, but when Zelena accidentally unlocks Cora’s box (which was sealed with blood magic), Regina and Zelena are shocked and confront Cora about it.
To their surprise, Cora immediately tells them that they’re sisters. But she adds that Regina should only depend on herself and sends Zelena away forever.
"Don’t worry, Zelena, I will find you!" Regina screams, but she can't -- Cora erases both of their memories.
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The truth comes out
In present day, Cora finally “meets” and apologizes to Zelena, but after pretending to go along with it -- and even sharing a tearful embrace -- the Wicked Witch reveals she saw right through mommy dearest and Regina’s plan to poison her.
Before Zelena and Regina can have it out, Cora interrupts to show them their past. "You were sisters once who loved and needed each other. I thought that love, any kind of love, was weakness. I was a fool," Cora cries.
She then gives them both encouraging words, and they take Cora to move on.
“Knowing I brought the two of you together, that’s all the peace I need,” Cora says before walking off into a happy afterlife.
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This emotional reunion prompts Regina to tell Zelena to go find Hades and try to change his mind about the heroes. But just as Zelena is walking up to meet her love, Rumplestiltskin interrupts her and tells her he’s throwing away his deal not to hurt her because a better one came up.
Peter Pan comes out of the shadows and says, "I hear you’re wicked. Well, I'm much worse" before throwing a sack over Zelena’s head.
Kidnapping was always his forte.
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Sandra Gonzalez was a Senior Television Reporter at Mashable. A Texas native, she spent almost four years in New York City before leaving the land of superstorms for Los Angeles, where she was introduced to these terrifying things called "rolling earthquakes."Previously, she was with Entertainment Weekly, where she wrote about every show that could fit into her perfectly crafted TV schedule and anything ever touched by Shonda Rhimes.You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @theSandraG
