Once Upon a Time: Season 5 Episode 18 Recap

To understand the events of this episode, one first needs to understand the character of Ruby, my favorite character in the show until Captain Hook came along in the second season. Ruby is Once Upon a Time’s version of Little Red Riding Hood, though as you’d expect with this show, her story differs greatly from the tale that most of us have grown up with. In Ruby’s case, instead of the wolf being an external tormentor, her monster lives within. That’s right, in this universe, Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf are one and the same. In season one we learned that her grandmother knew about her apparent lycanthropy, and tried to keep it hidden from her, using an enchanted red cloak to neutralize the transformations. However, Ruby learned the truth in the most disturbing way possible when she ate her own boyfriend. In season 2, Ruby finally meets the clan of werewolves from which she originated, including her mother. Through her pack, Ruby learned to control her wolf form, but when she was forced to choose between her newfound family and her human friends, Ruby chose the latter and was forced to kill her own mother. From season 3 onward Ruby was largely absent from the show due to Meghan Ory being cast as the lead on another show. She was missed of course, but actors take other jobs all the time, it happens. However, what bugged the fans was that an in-universe explanation for Ruby’s absence was never officially given, at least, not until mid-way through the first half of the current season. In an unnecessary but ultimately fun and harmless episode, Ruby was revealed to have returned to the enchanted forest to seek out others like her and ended up helping Mulan and Merida save the Kingdom of Dunbrach from Arthur and Zalena. At the end of the episode, Ruby went off adventuring with Mulan. At the end of last week’s episode, our heroes found Ruby unconscious in the Underworld.

First of all, Ruby fans can breath easy, Ruby’s presence in the Underworld does not mean that she’s dead. It seems that over the course of their adventures, Mulan and Ruby found themselves in Oz where they encountered Dorothy from a few episodes prior. While initially, the two don’t trust each other, they quickly form a bond of close friendship that soon blossoms into something more. However, because it’s her job to ruin everything, a spiteful Zalena afflicts Dorothy with a sleeping curse before leaving for Storybrooke. Desperate to follow Zalena and save her new found friend, Ruby dons the ruby slippers, which were established in season 3 as a means of traveling between realms, and uses them to follow Zalena. And, since Zalena is now stuck in the underworld, the slippers brought Ruby there too. Naturally, Ruby is out for blood, but Zalena reveals that she can’t break the curse even if she wanted to as a sleeping curse can only be broken by true love’s kiss, and since Dorothy never found a significant other, her family tried to have her committed after she told them about Oz and Auntie Em is long since dead, the poor girl looks to be sh*t out of luck. Things only get worse when Hades turns the deceased Auntie Em into a pile of goop to send the message that he will no longer tolerate the heroes meddling in his domain. However, Snow deduces that Ruby is in love with Dorothy and believes that a kiss from her might work. So, Ruby returns to Oz and is able to break Dorothy of her curse as the two declare their love for one another.

This is a great episode and a lot of it is because of the Ruby sub-plot, though that’s not to say our main characters don’t get a few good moments. I especially liked Regina’s interactions with Zalena. While Regina doesn’t trust her, Zalena is still her sister, but more than that, she’s someone who’s on the same dark path that Regina was on back in season 1, and Regina doesn’t want to see anyone endure that fate, not even Zalena. Even Zalena herself is getting some character growth, clearly torn between her desire to be a good mother to her daughter and her complex feelings for Hades. This could possibly make me see Zalena as a more well-rounded and sympathetic character, until you remember that she’s an unapologetic rapist. David and Snow also get a nice ark in which David sacrifices his chance to escape so Snow can leave the Underworld and be with their son.

But like I said, the strength of the episode comes from the sub-plot with Ruby. I was especially disheartened when Ruby went missing from the show, so to see that she wasn’t forgotten about and to see that after all the horrific tragedies that have plagued her life, she has finally found true happiness. Even if the romance was rather hastily developed, it honestly never feels that way from the character’s interaction. Their dialogue comes off as very natural and you can see how these two would fall for one another. I’m also glad to see we finally have a full-fledged LGBT couple in this show. The idea has been played with a few times before, particularly with Mulan, but this is the first time we’ve had a same sex couple actually get together. I’m hoping this isn’t the last we see of these two. Maybe they’ll get their own spinoff, but since Doctor Who has yet to deliver that Vastra and Jenny series I’ve been hoping to see for the past five years, I won’t hold my breath.

Originally, I had planned to end the recap by addressing some of my issues with Hades as the season’s antagonist, but when I mapped out exactly what I was going to say, I decided to give it it’s own article. So stay tuned for a Once Upon a Time bonus article coming soon.