Ruby Slippers

"Ruby: Well, yeah, but I almost lost you. Dorothy: You didn't. You came back for me. Ruby: I always will.'''"

"Ruby Slippers" is the eighteenth episode of Season Five of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Andrew Chambliss & Bill Wolkoff, and directed by Eriq La Salle. It is the one-hundredth and sixth episode of the series overall, and premiered on April 17, 2016.

Synopsis
In flashbacks, Ruby and Mulan find themselves in Oz, where they meet Dorothy. After the three witness Zelena’s return to Oz, they look for a way to defeat her once and for all. However, Dorothy mysteriously disappears, and Ruby’s search for her new friend lands her in the Underworld. Reunited with the heroes, Ruby teams up with Emma, Regina and Snow to continue looking for Dorothy. Meanwhile, Snow and David struggle with not being able to be with their son, Neal, and devise a plan so that one of them can escape the Underworld.

Starring

 * Ginnifer Goodwin as Mary Margaret Blanchard
 * Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan
 * Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills
 * Josh Dallas as David Nolan
 * Emilie de Ravin as Belle French
 * Colin O'Donoghue as Hook
 * Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills
 * Rebecca Mader as Zelena
 * Sean Maguire (Credit only)
 * Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold

Guest Starring

 * Emma Caulfield as the Blind Witch
 * Jamie Chung as Mulan
 * Greg Germann as Hades
 * Meghan Ory as Ruby
 * Teri Reeves as Dorothy Gale
 * Victoria Smurfit as Cruella De Vil

Co-Starring

 * Paul Lazenby as Claude
 * Gina Stockdale as Auntie Em

Uncredited

 * Unknown dog as Toto

Trivia
Production Notes=

Production Notes

 * The title card features Ruby in the woods.
 * Ruby Slippers are mentioned in the third episode of Season Three by Neal, when he is looking for a way to travel to Neverland. However, they do not appear in the show.
 * They are a reference to the magical items of the same name from 1939 The Wizard of Oz, which is the film adaptation of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
 * Instead, the Silver Slippers are introduced in "It's Not Easy Being Green".
 * -|Episode Connections=

Event Chronology

 * The Underworld events take place after "Her Handsome Hero".
 * The Oz flashbacks take place years after the flashback scenes from "Our Decay". They also take place immediately after Zelena is banished to Oz in "Swan Song", and before she goes back to Storybrooke in the present day scenes in "Our Decay". The Oz present events take place not long after Zelena leaves.

Episode Connections

 * Mulan and Ruby met in "The Bear King".
 * Zelena was sent to Oz in "Swan Song".
 * David and Mary Margaret previously haunted Prince Neal in "Our Decay".
 * Claude was killed by Hook in "Queen of Hearts".
 * Hades tried to force Hook to etch names into gravestones in "Labor of Love".
 * Mary Margaret says that when she first met Prince Charming, she hit him in the face, which is seen "Snow Falls" and "Snow Drifts".
 * -|Cultural References=

Fairytales and Folklore

 * This episode is a rendition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story with the Wicked Witch of the West, Dorothy Gale, and Toto.
 * Auntie Em, the Munchkins and the Poppy Field from the novel also appear.
 * Also featured in this episode are Hades from Greek Mythology, Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story, Cruella De Vil from The Hundred and One Dalmatians story, the Blind Witch from the Hansel and Gretel fairytale, and Mulan from the legend.
 * The Underworld from Greek Mythology also appears.
 * The name of the river Styx, one of the five rivers of the Underworld from Greek Mythology, appears on an archway in Hades' Lair.
 * Auntie Em melts into a pool of water, just like the Wicked Witch of the West does in the book.

Disney References

 * Dorothy mentioned that she was committed to an asylum after telling her family about Oz. This is a reference to the 1985 Disney sequel film Return to Oz.

Popular Culture

 * This episode revealed that Dorothy is Lesbian. "Friend of Dorothy" happens to be a LGBT term that started out as a euphemism for stating or asking if somebody was homosexual without others knowing, back when homosexual acts were illegal in the United States.

Religion

 * While talking to Belle about the latter's fear of Hades taking her baby, Zelena is drinking whiskey. The label on the bottle says Moloch. Moloch was the sun god in Ancient Canaanite religion. In the 8th-6th century BCE, firstborn children were sacrificed to him.


 * -|Props Notes=

Props Notes

 * The Underworld storybook pages about Dorothy and Ruby that Henry is writing say:
 * -|Other Notes=

Filming Locations

 * Vancouver's Everett Crowley Park doubles as Oz for this episode.