"Where Bluebirds Fly" is the eighteenth episode of Season Six of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by David H. Goodman & Brigitte Hales, and directed by Michael Schultz. It is the one hundred and twenty-ninth episode of the series overall, and premiered on April 23, 2017.
Synopsis
In flashback, Zelena befriends a young woodcutter who has been cursed and turns to her for help finding a new heart. Zelena is forced to choose between keeping her powers and her friendship with him. Meanwhile, in Storybrooke, Zelena decides to take on the Black Fairy and put a stop to her, once and for all, against Regina’s wishes, and the Charmings disagree over Emma and Hook’s wedding plans.[2]
Recap
In Oz, a young Zelena is testing out her magic on a bird's nest by restoring it back on top of a tree after a group of kids knocked it off. When a young boy named Stanum sees Zelena, he tells her that he likes her, regardless of whatever the children say about Zelena, whom they see as a freak. Flash forward years later, where a now-adult Zelena (now the Wicked Witch at this point) receives a surprise visit from an adult Stanum, this time requesting her help. He explains that Wicked Witch of the North cursed him and he is slowly turning into a tin man. Stanum is seeking out the Crimson Heart, which could restore him to human form, but moments after Zelena turn him down, Stanum accuses her of being afraid, prompting Zelena to change her mind. During their quest, Stanum tells Zelena that she doesn't have to be lonely but she is doing her best to deny his advice. Suddenly, a lion comes out of nowhere to attack Stanum, and Zelena uses her magic to make the lion go away (at this point the lion has become as Zelena would put it, cowardly). When they finally arrived to the location of the Crimson Heart, the two learned that the only way to make it work is through the absorption of another person's magic. Unfortunately, Zelena's actions and selfish greed for magic causes her to betray Stanum, whom she suspects is aligned with Dorothy (at this point has not returned to Oz yet). By keeping the Heart for herself, leaving Stanum to transform into the Tin Man permanently.
At Zelena's farmhouse, Zelena is ready to give Robin her bottled milk, when she is surprised by the Black Fairy, who is holding her child. She offers Zelena a chance to join her in the final battle against Emma, but Zelena is furious with her unwanted visitor and asks her to leave after she turns down the offer, knowing that this was far from over. At the same time, Emma and Hook's planned morning is interrupted; Snow is ready and excited to help plan Emma and Hook's upcoming wedding, which is followed by Regina asking them if they'd seen Zelena. Hook then gives the wand piece he brought back from Neverland to Regina for her to examine. Snow encourages David, Emma, Hook and Henry to go looking for wedding venues to take their mind off the Black Fairy.
At the Pawn Shop, Gold tells Belle about how Mother Superior, when she was the Blue Fairy, knew about how his mother turned to Darkness, but since he had to put Mother Superior into a coma in order to protect Gideon, Gold decided to research more on what his mother is planning. When Zelena stops by the shop, she asks Belle to watch Robin while she goes after the Black Fairy. Moments later, after she studied the fragments, Regina shows up at the shop and realizes that Zelena has gone, leading her to the mines, since she finds her sister there and is hunting down the Black Fairy. This leads to a fight between the sisters with Zelena escaping the scuffle just in time to find the Black Fairy and Gideon, who then holds back Regina while the Black Fairy shows Zelena how powerless she can be, admitting that she was using her in order for Zelena to make the wrong decision. The Black Fairy absorbs Zelena's unstable dark magic to create the crystals needed for the final battle, then she sends them back to the outside of the mines. This causes more tensions as Regina tells Zelena that she should go back to Oz.
Around the same time, David notices the loft opened and finds Henry still trying to write the final chapter but discovered he can't do anything to change the outcome. Snow is looking at a series of venues, including Granny's and the Town Hall, to hold the wedding, but David isn't happy with his wife's ideas. Snow pulls him aside to voice her anger over this, but David says that the timing isn't right as long as the Black Fairy is in Storybrooke. Snow argues that they might not be around to give Emma a peaceful wedding. Emma however, takes her father's side and tells her parents that she's willing to wait until after the Final Battle for the right time.
Back at the Pawn Shop, Zelena is ready to take Robin and return to Oz, when she suddenly changes her mind after she created a tornado to take her back. She soon meets up with Regina, Emma, Snow, David, Hook, and Henry, and reveals that she still has the Crimson Heart (that was bought from Oz via the tornado), which she used to absorb all of her magic in order to render the crystals useless. Zelena decides to sacrifice her magic in order to help Emma and Regina by restoring the crystals in the mines - it gets the attention of the Black Fairy and Gideon. After Zelena told them about what Gold did to Mother Superior, the three then visit the Pawn Shop, where after they convinced Gold and Belle, allow Emma to use one of the magic crystals to free Mother Superior from her coma. At the same time, the Black Fairy sees this on her crystal ball and finally tells Gideon the truth about her real reason behind why she fears the Blue Fairy, and it is tied to her secret behind why she abandoned Rumpelstiltskin in the first place when he was an infant.
Deleted Scenes
"Wedding Lasagna" (Scene 7)
This scene is included on Once Upon a Time: The Complete Sixth Season.
An extended version of the scene where Emma and her family check out Granny's Diner as a potential location for Emma and Hook's wedding. The extended version features additional dialogue with Granny, which was cut from the episode.
Cast[2]
Starring |
Guest Starring
Co-Starring
Uncredited
|
Trivia
Title
- The title card features the Emerald City.[3]
- The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on February 3, 2017.[4]
- MUSICAL INSPIRATION: The title of this episode is an allusion to "Somewhere over the rainbow bluebirds fly," a lyric from Judy Garland's song "Over the Rainbow" from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
Production Notes
- PRESS RELEASE: The press release misspells Isabella Blake-Thomas's name as Isabella Black-Thomas.[2]
- The pancake scene was a late addition to the episode. According to Brigitte Hales, they "actually hadn't planned anything like that."[5]
- ABANDONED IDEAS: When Emma is making pancakes, Hook comes over and says, "Something smells delicious." In the episode script, he simply says, "Mmm... delicious."[6]
- ABANDONED IDEAS: In the episode script, Regina says, "Emma? What are you thinking?" and Emma answers, "Maybe we can."[7] This exchange is not in the final episode.
- A segment where Mary Margaret says, "So where do we look? And is anyone else surprised Tiger Lily was a fairy?" and Zelena replies, "You can all drop dead from shock for all I care"[8] is also not in the final episode.
- ABANDONED IDEAS: When Belle and Mr. Gold are talking about their son, Belle says, "You know, this means he can be saved." In the episode script, Mr. Gold answers, "Yes. But that's not all it means."[9] This line is not in the final episode.
- For unknown reasons, the beginning scene with Emma, Hook and Mary Margaret at the Swan house was shot or reshot on the final day of filming for Season Six.[10]
- Furthermore, Emma's wrist tattoo appears and disappears continuously throughout this scene.
Event Chronology
- The Oz flashbacks occur in various places of the overall timeline.
- The first flashback take place after "Sisters," and before "It's Not Easy Being Green."
- The rest of the events take place sometimes after "Our Decay" and before "Chosen." (For more details, see the Oz timeline)
- The Storybrooke events take place after "Awake" and before "The Black Fairy." (For more details, see the Land Without Magic timeline)
Episode Connections
- Emma makes pancakes for Hook, which David suggested as something she could do in "Strange Case."
- Hook and Emma got engaged in "Awake."
- David mentions Mary Margaret's first date with Dr. Whale, an event that took place in "Snow Falls."
- David talks about how the Evil Queen crashed his and Snow White's wedding, which was shown in "Pilot," "The Thing You Love Most" and "The New Neverland."
- Mr. Gold took Mother Superior's magic to save Gideon's soul in "Ill-Boding Patterns."
- Zelena mentions how she killed Hades to save Regina in "Last Rites."
- Zelena talks about how she banished Walsh by turning him into a Flying Monkey, referring to events in "It's Not Easy Being Green."
- Zelena briefly mentions Dorothy return to Oz. which took place in "Our Decay."
- Zelena gets her magic back in "Secret Garden."
- When Zelena attacks the Black Fairy, she says, "Wicked always wins," just like she said in the final scene of "New York City Serenade."
Disney
- The fairy crystals are based on the diamonds mined by the seven dwarves in the animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (in the "Snow White" fairytale, they mine for ore and gold[11]).
Fairytales and Folklore
- This episode is rendition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story, focusing on the Tin Man's quest for a heart and the adventures in Oz.
- Also featured is the Wicked Witch of the West, the Royal Palace Guards and the Cowardly Lion from the same story.
- This episode also features the ugly duckling from the titular fairytale, Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story and the wicked fairy from the Villeneuve version of the fairytale of "Beauty and the Beast" (who is also the Beast's mother from the same story).
- The Wicked Witch of the North from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz's sequel, The Marvelous Land of Oz, is mentioned as being the one who cursed the Tin Man.
- According to the Tin Man, he chopped down a tree belonging to the Wicked Witch of the North and as punishment, she cursed him to slowly turn into a tin statue. In the novel, the character turned to tin after the Wicked Witch of the East cursed his axe to chop him up piece by piece, forcing him to replace each amputated body part with a new one made of tin, until eventually his entire body was made of metal.
- Zelena summons a cyclone to go back to Oz. In the novel, Dorothy Gale was transported to Oz by a cyclone.
- This episode features fairy dust, a substance originating in the Peter Pan story.
Set Dressing
Costume Notes
- The coat was also worn by the character Mandy Baxter on the Last Man Standing episode "The Force."[15]
- BRAND INFO: Belle is wearing[16] a Lace Trim Floral Print Silk Shirt by The Kooples[17] (no longer available).
- BRAND INFO: Regina is wearing[18] a Ted Baker Aurore Long wrap coat[19] (no longer available).
- The uniforms worn by the guards of the Emerald Castle are inspired by the design created by Adrian Greenburg for the winkie guards in The Wizard of Oz.[20]
Filming Locations
- Parts of this episode were filmed in Everett Crowley Park in Vancouver.[21]
International Titles
International Titles | ||
---|---|---|
Language | Title | Translation |
French | "Plus Jamais Seule" | "Never Alone Anymore" |
German | "Zelenas Geschichte" | "Zelena's Story" |
Italian | "La magia di Zelena" | "Zelena's Magic" |
Portuguese | "Onde os Pássaros Azuis Voam" | "Where the Bluebirds Fly" |