Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4050367-20140717023819/@comment-1894786-20141225062429

Well, Zelena WAS important. If she had never been born, then Rumple would never have been revived after his death due to her manipulations of Bae and Belle. He owes her his life, so she WAS in fact important. He just assumed Cora had never had a child (since she didn't have one with her) and that the "importance" was casting the Curse.