Once Upon a Time: Ruby Slippers (5x18)

OH MY GOD YAY! Let's talk about it.

Cons:

There's a brief subplot in this episode where Belle goes to Zelena and asks her for help in getting out of Hades' deal. Belle does indeed come up with a plan - prick herself with a magic spinning wheel and enter into a sleeping spell. That will suspend her pregnancy until Rumple can find a way to save their child from Hades. Then, Belle wants Rumple to bring her to her father so that he can administer a True Love's Kiss. She knows Rumple isn't the man to do it.

Belle... what the Hell. You're being so stupid! I was just getting excited about this new take-charge version of Belle, but now her great plan is to literally sleep through the fight and trust that Rumple will find a way to save the kid? Ugh. What? So dumb.

Zelena/Hades still isn't doing anything for me. This week we got more with Zelena wanting to leave to spare her child pain, and more of Hades telling her to buck up and try and fight for her kids. I'm sorry, but none of this is grabbing my attention, and it didn't really propel the A-plot forward at all.

Pros:

That being said, the one good thing about Belle's stupid plan is that she seems to be sticking to her guns about Rumple. She's done trying to fight for him to be a better man. Now, it's all about the baby. Don't cave, Belle! Stay the hell away from Rumple forever please and thank you.

The main plot this week involved Ruby, which I'll get to in a second. In the Underworld, everybody tries to find a way to help Ruby to help her friend Dorothy. In the process, Hook and David take a detour so David can use the phone booth to talk to baby Neal. They discover that Cruella, acting on Hades' orders, is destroying the phone booth in order to lessen the hope that has been growing in the Underworld since the arrival of the heroes. Snow is very upset, and this makes Emma realize that it's time for her mother and father to get out of the Underworld and back to their baby. Only one problem: Snow's name is still on one of Hades' headstones. David doesn't think it's fair that he's the one that can go back home and leave Snow behind, so Hook scratches Snow's name off the headstone and replaces it with David's. David is now stuck, and Snow goes with Ruby back to Oz using the silver slippers, and then manages to make her way back to Storybrooke and Neal. Henry, Author's Pen in hand, writes the story of Snow's return and shows it to the family.

I love that we're escalating things here. Also, given the relative ease of Snow getting back to Storybrooke, we're really emphasizing the fact that these heroes are sticking around in the Underworld in part because they're trapped, but much more so because they want to defeat Hades and help all of his victims. Snow's simple return home makes the journey of the other characters feel more voluntary, and thus more interesting.

Also, David and Hook had a cute bromance moment where David was complaining about being trapped, and Hook sincerely thanked him for his sacrifice, saying he never meant for anybody to get stuck because of him. David says that Hook has grown on him. Aww! He's really a part of the family now!

Snow going back home, and more importantly Emma giving her permission to go back home, was really sweet. Emma points out that her parents only came down there with her because she needed them. And now, since she has Hook back, Emma will be okay. Neal is the one who needs his mother now. (I do have a small complaint... given the dangers of the Underworld, couldn't Henry have hitched a ride back with Snow and Ruby? Ah, well. I guess Henry needs to stick around for plot reasons).

Now we get to the main thrust of this episode - Ruby's story. Last we saw her, she and Mulan had gone off to look for Ruby's pack. Now, they're in Oz. They run in to Dorothy, and help her find Toto. They decide to help her defeat Zelena, but when Dorothy goes after Zelena, Zelena puts a sleeping spell on her. Now, the only way she can be awoken is with True Love's Kiss. Ruby uses a tracking spell to find Zelena, which is how she ends up in the Underworld. She thinks that if they can get Dorothy's beloved Aunt Em to blow a kiss into a magic vial, they can use that to bring back to Dorothy and give her a TLK from afar. That doesn't work - Hades intervenes to prevent Aunt Em from helping. Snow has seen the way Ruby has been acting, and deduces that Ruby has feelings for Dorothy. Why not have Ruby give the True Love's Kiss? Ruby goes back to Oz, with Snow alongside her (so she can get back to baby Neal). She gives Dorothy a True Love's Kiss and is delighted to see Dorothy wake up and declare that she feels the same way. Awww!

Ahhh! I don't even know where to start with this. I'm so happy! I saw a number of people on tumblr complaining that Ruby and Dorothy got a True Love's Kiss before Emma and Hook did, and I've got to say I'm very disappointed in those people for complaining. This was a lovely and beautiful story! There was a big misdirect here, since we already know that Mulan likes girls, or at least one girl, and I sort of assumed it would be her and Dorothy, or her and Ruby. But instead, this episode canonically confirms two new LGBT+ characters! Yay! I loved the fact that the gender of Ruby's new love wasn't even mentioned, really. She was scared because she worried that Dorothy wouldn't accept her as a wolf, and because she had never felt so strongly for anyone before. The fact that Ruby, who has previously been shown to have a boyfriend, was now falling in love with a woman, was completely incidental to the narrative.

I loved the scene with Snow encouraging Ruby to talk about her feelings and confront her love for Dorothy. That was so sweet! Mulan was also very supportive. She was so happy for her friend, because she knows how beautiful love can be. Even if Dorothy hadn't reciprocated, Ruby had an amazing experience just getting to love her. Even though the love story between Dorothy and Ruby was really quick, it still felt real. They came up with nicknames for each other and talked about their deepest secrets and dreams. Sometimes you just find somebody and you know.

Gah. I'm a happy camper. This is not what I expected to happen in this episode, but now that it has happened, it was everything I didn't know I wanted. If it weren't for Belle being an idiot, I would rate this episode even higher.

8/10