Firebird

"What about Operation Firebird? We can't leave the Underworld without helping the people trapped here."

- Henry Mills to Regina Mills

"Firebird" is the twentieth episode of Season Five of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Jane Espenson, and directed by Ron Underwood. It is the one-hundredth and eighth episode of the series overall, and premiered on May 1, 2016.

Synopsis
Hades turns to the heroes to ask for help with getting Zelena back from Rumplestiltskin and Peter Pan. In return, he offers to take all their names off their tombstones. However, when Hook is still unable to leave, he and Emma must journey into the depths of the Underworld. Meanwhile, Cruella De Vil is determined to keep the heroes trapped in the Underworld. In flashbacks, Emma searches for answers about her family and makes an unexpected friendship.

Starring

 * Ginnifer Goodwin (Credit only)
 * 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 as Robin Hood
 * Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold

Guest Starring

 * Emma Caulfield as the Blind Witch
 * Greg Germann as Hades
 * Geoff Gustafson as Stealthy
 * Robbie A. Kay as Peter Pan
 * Rya Kihlstedt as Cleo Fox
 * Victoria Smurfit as Cruella De Vil

Co-Starring

 * Max Chadburn as Tasha
 * Anthony F. Ingram as Clerk
 * Bronwen Smith as Cashier

Uncredited

 * Unknown baby as Baby Hood

Trivia
Production Notes=

Production Notes

 * The title card features Emma's yellow bug.
 * The title of this episode is a reference to "Operation Firebird", the name Henry gives to the rescue mission in the Underworld, and the firebird from Slavic mythology, a magical glowing bird from a faraway land, which is both a blessing and a bringer of doom to its captor.
 * The floor of the Ambrosia Temple forms a pentacle: A pentagram with a circle around it. While often associated with evil and the devil, the pentacle and the pentagram are also seen as positive and spiritual images. These symbols have been used by major world religions, and can be found in ancient scriptures of Christianity and even Judaism. In earlier times, Christians have widely used the pentagram as a personal charm and a protective amulet, and at one time, the pentagram was used to symbolize the five wounds of Jesus when he was hanged on the cross. The pentagram and the pentacle have also been used by occult faiths and magicians, and today, the pentagram is used as a symbol for Wicca, Witchcraft, and Paganism. It is also said that the five points of the pentagram represent the five elements, fire, earth, water, air and spirit.
 * The edges of the pentacle show the pitchfork-like motif from one of the flags in Hades' Lair.
 * The platform over the River of Lost Souls from "Devil's Due" was also shaped like a pentagram.
 * -|Episode Connections=

Event Chronology

 * The Underworld events take place after "Sisters".
 * The Land Without Magic events take place in 2009, eight years after "Save Henry", and before "Pilot". The last flashback scene takes place at Boston one year later, in 2010.

Episode Connections

 * Chantey's Lobster House, the diner Emma was brought to as a baby, first appeared in "The Stranger".
 * The newspaper clipping that Emma has, was first seen in her file in "True North", and in Ingrid's file in "Family Business".
 * Emma wonders who brought her to the diner as a baby. Her question is answered in "The Stranger".
 * Emma runs away from Cleo Fox after she compliments her, says not to stop her if she's wrong, and then tells her her criminal actions and stops Emma's car before she can get away, just like Emma later does with Ryan in "Pilot".
 * Peter Pan and Mr. Gold kidnapped Zelena in "Sisters".
 * Hades' backstory with Zelena was revealed in "Our Decay".
 * Zelena says that her heart has got a protection spell on it, something that was first established in "The Dark Swan".
 * Emma says that someone taught her how to pick a lock, which was shown in "There's No Place Like Home".
 * Hades engraved names on tombstones in "Devil's Due".
 * Snow White's heart is split in half to share with Prince Charming in "A Curious Thing".
 * Pan tells Mr. Gold to let him go to Storybrooke with him in "Souls of the Departed".
 * Operation Firebird was first established in "Souls of the Departed".
 * Stealthy died in "7:15 A.M.".
 * Cruella De Vil asked Henry to write her back to life in "Labor of Love".
 * David pushed James into the Acheron in "Sisters".
 * The Blind Witch brings up how Regina tricked Hansel and Gretel into burning her in her own oven in "True North".
 * After Mr. Gold fools Pan into taking water from the Acheron, he once again tells him that "villains don't get happy endings", just like he said when he killed him in "Going Home".


 * -|Cultural References=

Fairytales and Folklore

 * This episode features Captain Hook and Peter Pan from the Peter Pan story, Robin Hood from the ballad, the Blind Witch from the Hansel and Gretel fairytale, the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story, Cruella De Vil from The Hundred and One Dalmatians story, and Hades from Greek Mythology.
 * Also featured is the Underworld from Greek Mythology, and ambrosia, the food of the gods.
 * In addition, this episode contains several references to the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Lost

 * Hades says that the portal to Storybrooke will stay open for "15 minutes tops", a reference to the third Lost number.
 * At the end of the episode, the hands on the clock tower spin and stop at 8:15 before moving to 8:16. 8, 15 and 16 are three of the Lost numbers.

Religion

 * The entrance to the Ambrosia Temple is decorated with crosses.
 * -|Props Notes=

Props Notes

 * A loose page from the Underworld storybook contains an illustration by the famous English book illustrator Arthur Rackham: "Lord what fools these mortals be" (1908), which depicts Puck from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
 * The inscription on the true love scale reads "ΜΟΝΟ ΜΙΑ ΚΑΡΔΙΑ ΓΕΜΑΤΗ ΜΕ ΑΛΗΘΙΝE [sic] ΑΓΑΠE ΜΠΟΡΕΙ", which is Greek for "only a heart full of true love can pass". (Note that "ΑΛΗΘΙΝE" is a misspelling of "ΑΛΗΘΙΝΗ", the Greek word for "true".)
 * According to Emma's file, Cleo Fox was declared dead on February 12. 2009, at 10:31 A.M. She was cremated at Ellsworth Crematory in Ellsworth, Maine.
 * -|Other Notes=

Filming Locations

 * The Boston flashback scenes were filmed in Vancouver, British Colombia.
 * The Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, British Columbia doubles as the Hancock County Courthouse. It is the same location used for the Storybrooke General Hospital. If you watch the entrance to the courthouse, you can see that it's a redressed version of the hospital entrance seen in "The Return".