Once Upon A Time – Firebird

By starrymag | May 3, 2016

By: Stacy Miller

 

The big thing on the agenda on the “Once Upon a Time” episode Firebird was to get the hell out of Hell!

 

Regina (Lana Parrilla) tries to convince Team Storybrooke that Zelena (Rebecca Mader) has changed. Killian (Colin O’Donoghue) doesn’t believe the former evil queen. In his eyes it is once a wicked witch, always a wicked witch. Hades (Greg Germann) arrives and tells Regina, Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and Killian when he went to meet Zelena for their date he found a note. “Zelena’s been kidnapped by Gold and Pan,” Emma reads. Hades explains that they will return Zelena in exchange for him ripping up Gold’s contract. Hades offers a deal: If Emma helps him get Zelena back, he’ll remove everyone’s name from the tombstones.

 

A flashback from Maine 2009 finds Emma searching for information about when she was found as a baby. She meets a bounty hunter who was looking for her to bring her in for crimes she committed in Phoenix. Emma runs away, but the boot on her car keeps her from escaping.

 

Hades rips up Gold’s (Robert Carlyle) contract, but Peter Pan (Robbie A. Kay) tries to take Zelena’s heart. Emma arrives using magic to stop Pan. Gold and Pan then make their getaway. Zelena gives Hades true love’s kiss. “My banishment, it’s over. I can leave here,” Hades exclaims happily.

 

Peter Pan tells his son he’ll give him Pandora’s box so he can transport a sleeping Belle. He will only do it though if Gold gets him a heart so he can leave the Underworld.

 

Regina convinces Robin Hood (Sean MacGuire) to trust her so he gives his and Zelena’s daughter to Zelena. But when Robin Hood is alone, Gold appears and rips out his heart and promises he won’t remember any of this.

 

Hades keeps his promise and removes their names from the tombstones. They can now return home. Even though he gives Killian half of Emma’s heart, (because his dead body is rotting away above) Killian can’t leave. Emma asks whether anyone has returned from the Underworld.

 

In past, Cleo (Rya Kihlstedt) the bounty hunter handcuffs Emma to the bed and goes to take a shower. Emma picks the lock from the handcuff with a needle from a nearby sewing kit and steals money from the bounty hunter’s wallet. She also sees a photo of a little girl. But when Emma notices the laptop, she decides against escaping. Emma makes a deal with Cleo: She will return quietly back to Phoenix with her if she helps her find information about the boy who found her when she was a baby.

 

Hades explains that the only people who were ever able to leave the Underworld were lovers Morpheus and Eureysis who ate Ambrosia, the food of the Gods. Emma and Killian will take the elevator down and go find the Ambrosia, but she makes everyone to promise to leave before the portal closes even if she and Killian aren’t back. Hades rips out Emma’s heart because you must pass a test to be worthy of the Ambrosia and the heart is a crucial part of the test. He gives Emma her heart in a bag and tells her to keep it safe. Henry (Jared Gilmore) tells Regina that if they leave they abandon Operation Firebird, helping those trapped in Hell finding out what their unfinished business is.

 

In 2009, at the courthouse Cleo tells Emma she can’t let her emotions cause her to be reckless. Cleo says the jacket she wears is her suit of armor. Emma is frustrated her thin file didn’t tell her anything, but Cleo reminds her to honor their deal. “It’s Arizona, not Hell,” Cleo says.

 

As the author, Henry gives Stealthy (one of the Seven Dwarfs) the page with his unfinished business. Cruella (Victoria Smurfit) arrives, announcing with Hades gone the Underworld will need a ruler. She and the diner witch (Emma Caufield) lock Regina, Henry and David in the library trapping them. Will they miss the portal?

 

Killian and Emma weigh their hearts to determine if they have true love, thus making them worthy of the Ambrosia. They are, but unfortunately when Emma and Killian find the tree containing the Ambrosia it’s dead. Emma realizes the whole thing was a trick, Hades never intended for them to leave.

 

Regina realizes Hades lied and planned to trap them all along. Meanwhile, Zelena doesn’t want to leave without her sister, but Hades assures they’ll make it in time. Then, Hades and Zelena go through the portal.

 

At a motel in Maine 2009, Emma sneaks out of the room while Cleo sleeps and heads back to the courthouse to look at her file again. She hears a noise. It is Cleo, who tells her they have to leave. They hear the police outside. Cleo breaks a back window and she and Emma jump out of it. But later in an alley, Emma realizes Cleo is bleeding. She was stabbed by a glass shard. Cleo tells Emma the photo was of the daughter she gave away. Then, sadly Cleo dies.

 

Emma tries to gather Ambrosia seeds, but Killian tells her it’s too late. She has to leave now before the portal closes. Emma cries she came to the Underworld for him and can’t leave without him. Finally accepting Killian can’t go home, the lovers share a tearful goodbye. Emma tells Killian to promise that he’ll move on.

 

Gold gives Peter Pan the heart, but something is wrong. Oh yeah, it’s not Robin Hood’s heart, but a glamour filled with water from the River of Souls. “Villains don’t get happy endings,” Gold tells his father. Peter Pan cringes in pain and vanishes in green smoke. “Goodbye Papa, for good this time.” Gold opens Pandora’s box which contains Belle’s heart and then goes through the portal.

 

In Boston 2010, Emma comes to a store and shows the young woman inside the photo of the woman as a child. Emma tells her about her birth mother, Cleo, but explains Cleo is dead. Emma then buys a jacket, her suit of armor.

 

In the Underworld, Emma goes up from the elevator. After telling everyone about Killian and also about Hades trying to trick them, Emma and Regina combine their magic and break open the door. They rush for the portal which is quickly closing. Emma doesn’t want to leave Killian behind, but David takes her hand and they go through.