"It's Not Easy Being Green"

Years ago, a woodcutter and his wife are walking in the woods when suddenly a tornado manifests, dropping a basket containing a beautiful baby girl. The man is hesitant, but his wife accepts the baby readily. While the woman remains unaware, her husband witnesses the infant use magic to move aside a falling tree. The woman names the child Zelena and raises her as their own daughter in Oz.

In Storybrooke, Emma, Henry, Hook, and other townspeople quietly take turns shoveling dirt onto Neal's coffin. Emma steps up to shovel some dirt and she stares at her necklace.

In Zelena's cellar, Mr. Gold mourns for his son while Zelena cruelly taunts him over his death, dagger in hand. She asked him if he was worth all the trouble. Mr. Gold retorts that she knows nothing about family.

Many years after Zelena's adoption in Oz, Zelena is shaving her father's facial hair when she accidentally cuts him. Apologetically, she conjures a wiping rag for him, though her use of magic only frightens and angers him. He furiously calls her "wicked" for using witchcraft, driving Zelena to tears, reasoning she can't help her magic use. Abruptly, her adoptive father reveals she is not his biological daughter and recalls how he and her deceased adoptive mother found her as an infant. Hurt by her father's words, she leaves home to see the Wizard of Oz. In the Wizard's audience room, Zelena asks to know about her past. Zelena is shown the day her birth mother, Cora, abandoned her because she wished to gain royal status, which was something her first-born child could not give her. At first, upon learning she has a half-sister, Regina, Zelena is happy. However, she is troubled that unlike herself, Regina was able to marry into royalty and fulfill Cora's desires. In one image, Zelena sees Regina being taught magic by Rumplestiltskin and becomes angry that he is teaching her sister and not herself.

Back in Storybrooke, Emma is throwing darts at Granny's as Hook tries to comfort her about Neal's death. Hook offers to talk to Henry and tell him stories about his father. Tinker Bell enters, sees Regina looking at the lion tattoo on Robin Hood, and realizes he is Regina's soulmate. Tinker Bell is confused and lectures Regina for not opening herself up to love, and that if she did her life wouldn't end up the way it did. Regina is offended and Tink gives up and walks away. Zelena storms in with the dark one's dagger. Emma tries to attack Zelena, but Snow holds her back. David threatens Zelena to not come any closer and Zelena admits she is not here today for their baby but here to pay a visit to her little sister, Regina. Everyone is surprised and confused. Zelena reveals that Cora lied to Regina; in that she was not her only child. See demands that Regina meets her on Main Street at sundown. Regina asks why and Zelena replies that she will destroy the Evil Queen.

At the docks, Hook is showing Henry his boat and Henry jokes that his mom is always pawning him off with people who have boats. Hook admits to Henry that he was friends with his father Neal when he was a boy. Henry asks what his father was like as a child. Hook invites him on board the ship and he can see for himself.

Back at Granny's everyone is trying to figure out why Zelena wants to kill Regina. They all argue, disagreeing with each other when Regina leaves to try to find out what Zelena thinks Regina did to her.

In Oz, Zelena is walking through the castle to meet Oz. The guards quickly pull away from their staffs. Oz knows Zelena came because she wants to find her family. Oz offers to help but tells her that it won't be easy. Oz shows Zelena that Cora left her, and she was brought there by a cyclone. Zelena asks why Cora abandoned her and Oz tells her that it was because she couldn't give Cora the one thing she wanted, to become royalty. Oz shows Zelena that Regina is her sister and that she was able to give Cora what she wanted. Regina is a Queen and being trained by Rumplestiltskin to do magic. Zelena becomes envious that Rumplestiltskin should be teaching her magic and not Regina. Oz grants her a pair of shoes that she can click the heels three times to find Rumple, demanding she brings something back that belongs to Rumplestiltskin. Zelena clicks her heels three times and appears in Regina's castle. She is rummaging through her closet. Rumplestiltskin appears thinking it was Regina but finds Zelena instead. Zelena admits she is Cora's firstborn, but Rumplestiltskin admits this is a surprise. He holds out a flask to find the truth and find that Zelena was not lying.

Back in Storybrooke, Regina and Snow are looking through her vault to find some proof that Zelena might be telling the truth. After funding a letter, Regina says it's true and leaves without telling them why she knows. On Main Street, David, Emma, Snow, Tinkerbell, and Belle gather to try to protect the town and realize Regina is missing. Belle offered to try and convince Rumpelstiltskin another way. Emma points out that Regina is pretty clear she doesn't want help.

In the woods, Regina is looking over the letter she found when Robin Hood appears behind a tree. Robin Hood stole it out of her pocket and asks if he can read the letter. Regina doesn't stop him.

The letter was written by Rumple to Cora letting her know she has found her firstborn and that he thinks she is even more powerful than Cora. Regina admits to Robin Hood that she has seen the letter a million times before and found comfort in it but only now she realizes the letter wasn't about her, but it was about Zelena. If Rumplestiltskin, the man who taught her everything she knows about magic, thinks Zelena is stronger than her, there is no way she can win the fight with Zelena.

In Oz, Rumple is teaching Zelena magic and she is to find Rumple by channeling her anger and emotions. She quickly loses control and Rumple suggests she think of a happy memory to control her magic. Zelena asks Rumple to give her an example and reveals that it is the meat pie that the spinsters, who took him in after he became orphaned, made for him that he ate and felt happy enough to forget the pain he had from his father's abandonment of him.

In Storybrooke, Belle, Emma, David, Tinkerbell, and Snow find Rumple in the cellar. Belle tries to talk to Rumple, but Zelena is hiding in the shadows of the cellar, controlling him. Bella runs out and tells everyone that it was a trick. Rumple comes out of the door of the cellar and tells them that Zelena has a message for them; the next time they try to stop her from confronting Regina she'll make Rumple kill them.

In Oz, Zelena finds her moment of happiness and bakes Rumple a meat pie and asks to be the one to cast his spell. Rumple tells her no because in order to cast the spell, she has to give up something she loves and that thing is him, and he can't have her do that. As Zelena rants about how Regina doesn't even deserve to have him as her teacher, Rumplestiltskin points out that her skin is starting to turn green with envy. Hook is seen showing Henry how to use the sextant like he showed Baelfire. Henry only wants to learn about his dad.

Later in Storybrooke, Zelena goes to town and gets ready to battle Regina with Rumplestiltskin in tow. Regina shows up and demands to know what she ever did to Zelena. Zelena says her mistake was that she was born, in which Regina replies by slapping Zelena.

Zelena thinks that Rumplestiltskin is wasting his time on teaching Regina and threatens to kill her in her castle. When she stabs Regina, a cloud of green smoke reveals Rumplestiltskin, who was shapeshifting. Zelena tries to convince Rumple to let her cast his curse, though this is shown impossible because she would have to give up the thing she loves the most. Zelena's most beloved item is Rumple, and he isn't willing to sacrifice himself. Zelena's skin becomes even greener. Her magical slippers intrigue Rumple, but she uses them to go back to Oz. Right before she goes, she tells Rumple that he should've chosen her. Zelena wants to know what it is that Regina can do that she can't. Rumple tells her she can't get him to a place with no magic. Zelena remembers she has the shoes that Oz gave her that can take him wherever he wants to go. When Rumple tries to change his mind since he wants the slippers, she tells him it is too late since he already chose Regina, and the only way he'll get the slippers is by killing her. Rumplestiltskin lunges at her, but Zelena teleports away and promises she will see him again. She then clicks the heels of the slippers and disappears.

Back to the fight, Zelena tells Regina that Rumplestiltskin should've chosen her, and Regina realizes that she's jealous of her. Everything she's done, all of the terrible atrocities she's committed, were simply because Zelena couldn't get over her envy. The fight starts, but Zelena is more powerful. After Zelena tosses Regina through the clock in the tower, she transports inside. Regina tells her to just go ahead and kill her, but Zelena states that she never wanted to kill her; she just wants to take everything she has. Zelena says that in order to do it, she just needs Regina's heart. Zelena pushes her hand into Regina's chest then pulls out her empty hand, demanding to know what Regina did with it. Regina tells her that Cora taught her to never to bring her heart to a witch fight, something she would know if Cora didn't abandon her. Zelena again threatens that she will take everything Regina ever had, in which Regina replies "not today." Zelena conjures and then flies off on a broom.

Emma, David, and Snow show up and Regina reveals to them that Zelena wants her heart. She points out that Zelena already has David's courage and with her insistence at needing Regina's heart, means she is gathering ingredients for some type of spell. She not sure what spell it is though.

Regina runs through the forest to find Robin Hood guarding her heart. He asks if everything went alright, and she tells him it did. He tries to give her the heart back, but she asks him to hold onto it for longer. Robin points out he's a thief and Regina tells him he can't steal something that's been willingly given to him already. As she starts to leave, Robin tells Regina she still owes him a drink.

Hook returns Henry to his mother and tells Emma that she needs to tell Henry about Neal.

Zelena locks Rumple back in the cell, and he tells her that he would still pick Regina. Whatever spell she is casting won't change anything. She tells him she's not casting a spell but a second chance.

Zelena goes back to see Oz demanding the Wizard bring her back to the past to the moment where her mother abandoned her. He tells her he can't do that; even his powers have limits. Zelena rips off his curtain to reveal that Oz is really Walsh, Emma's ex, and he was behind it. He tells her that the shoes are real even though he has no magic. He collects things that can do magic to carry on his charade. He tells her no magic is strong enough to do what she wants. She then tells him she has no use for him. What she needs is someone to do whatever she wants without any question, like a circus animal, and turns him into a flying monkey.

In Oz, Zelena sees Rumple praising Regina as the best student he has ever had and Zelena vows to take it away and turns fully green. The episode ends on "When I'm done, Regina, you'll never have been born."