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.

Recap
In the Underworld, Emma and her family criticize Regina for trusting her sister with Hades when Hades unexpectedly comes to them for help. He reveals Zelena has been kidnapped by Mr. Gold, who wants Hades to void the contract on his unborn child. Emma agrees to help him, after Hades promises that her and her friends' names will be erased from the gravestones, and they will be free to leave the Underworld.

In 2009, Maine, young Emma attempts to receive information about her past and her family. She meets a woman who seems emphatic, but turns out to be a bail bondsperson whose job is to bring Emma back to Arizona, where she is supposed to pay a penalty for her crimes, which include various robberies and skipping her bail after getting arrested.

Back in the Underworld, Hades meets Mr. Gold and Peter Pan. He tears up the contract and expects them to fulfill their side of the bargain, but Pan exposes his motive: He wants to come back to life. He is going to take Zelena's heart to this end, but Emma appears just in time to prevent him from achieving what he wants. Gold listens to Emma and departs, after getting what he wanted. Pan, feeling betrayed, understands he won't succeed and leaves right after him. Hades and Zelena reunite, and they share a moment of honesty and faith. With a true love's kiss, Hades' heart starts to beat again, and his banishment to the Underworld has ended, allowing him to finally leave this realm.

In the cemetery of the Underworld, the clock's hands' movements accelerate as it slowly becomes a portal. The heroes prepare to return home: Hades erases their names from the graves, and Regina splits Emma's heart to give Hook the second half. However, it doesn't work, since he has been dead for too long and his body have already decayed. Emma is not willing to give up, and she convinces Hades to reveal if there ever was anyone who managed to resurrect someone from the Underworld.

Back in 2009, Emma tries to escape from Cleo Fox, the bail bondsperson. She takes some money from her purse and sees a picture of Tasha, Cleo's daughter. On her way out, she sees Cleo's laptop is open to a search website for courthouse records. It catches her eye and she stays, hoping she could get Cleo's help in getting any information that will lead her to her family. They close a deal: if Cleo takes her to check her file in the Hancock County Courthouse, Emma will go quietly with her to Arizona.

In the Underworld, Hades tells the heroes the myth about Orpheus, who fed ambrosia, the food of the gods, to his lover Eurydice, thus enabling her to leave the Underworld. He admits he doesn't know what dangers are involved in the mission to get the ambrosia, except that Emma will have to offer up her heart for judgement. After Hades helps take out Emma's heart, he gives it to her for later use. Regina promises to wait for both Emma and Hook until sunset for them to return from the mission, but she is certain they will make it in time anyway.

Meanwhile, in Mr. Gold's shop, he attempts true love's kiss on Belle, but she doesn't wake up, due to the fact that they don't share true love anymore. Peter Pan comes in, pointedly suggesting that while Belle may not accept him fully, he does. He confronts his son for abandoning him earlier, which Mr. Gold is unremorsful about, considering Pan once did the same to him long ago. Pan offers a deal: Mr. Gold will obtain him a living heart for him, and in exchange, he will give him the Pandora's Box, where he can keep Belle safe until her father wakes her up.

While waiting for Emma and Hook to return, Henry suggests they use the time efficiently with "Operation Firebird" to help the Underworld residents with their unfinished business. Robin Hood enters with Baby Hood in his arms, and he is alarmed to see Zelena and Hades with Regina and her family. Regina persuades him that the pair can be trusted, and she updates him on news about the portal. Although the portal will open soon, Regina wants to stay a little long to help with Operation Firebird, so she tries to send Robin and his baby to the portal first. When he refuses, she asks him to give the baby to Zelena instead. Despite that he still mistrusts Zelena, he relents out of trust for Regina. After Zelena, the baby and Hades leave to wait by the portal, Robin disappears into another room to cool off, where Mr. Gold rips out his heart and makes him forget about it.

Back in 2009, Emma and Cleo reach a dead end in their search over Emma's files. They argue, and Cleo emphasizes the fact that Emma should keep her part of the deal, after Cleo has kept hers.

In the Underworld, Henry writes stories for the residents, so they will know what their unfinished business are. Suddenly, Cruella interrupt and declares herself the new ruler of the Underworld. She vows to keep the heroes from returning home, and while she doesn't have magic to do it, the Blind Witch does. The witch then traps the heroes in the library building to prevent them from leaving the realm.

Emma and Hook reach to the place where the ambrosia grows, and they put Emma's heart on a weighing scale, in hope they will prove themselves worthy of eating it. Emma falls in pain, and Hook tries to lift her heart from the scale to stop her pain. Before he get it, flames surround him and he starts to burn. Emma throws herself on him, thus proving she loves him more than herself, and the door to the ambrosia opens.

In Maine, Emma is determined to not give up on her search. She breaks into the courthouse to look at more files, but Cleo tries to convince her to stop. When the police unexpectedly show up, they are forced to flee. Cleo punches out a window, which she jumps through, followed by Emma, before they both take off running.

Unfortunately for Hook and Emma, they find out that the ambrosia tree has been cut off. They recognize this as a trick from Hades, who sent them in a false quest, because he didn't want them to return with him to Storybrooke. In contrast, Regina wonders why she can't break the Blind Witch's spell, and then she understands that it's probably not hers, but Hades's spell, which is intended to trap them in the Underworld.

After the clock face has opened into a portal, Zelena worries over Regina and her friends' continued absence. Hades ensures her the heroes will make it on time because if he couldn't stop them, nothing possibly can. With this reassurance, Zelena takes her baby and follows Hades into the portal.

When Mr. Gold return to his shop, Pan wonders what took him so long. He is concerned about the closure of the portal, due to the intensity of the quakes that the portal is currently causing. Mr. Gold tells him to have patience because the timing is important.

Emma is desperate to find anything left from the ambrosia tree, but her attempts are fruitless. The quakes endangers them, and the columns of the place start to crumble. Hook promises they will find another way to save him, and convinces Emma to leave this place.

In Maine, as Cleo is running down an alleyway with Emma, she collapses, bleeding from a wound after the glass from the window punctured her earlier. Emma wants to turn herself in so the cops can save Cleo, but Cleo tells her to save herself. Cleo admits she has no family, and that she once gave her daughter away. She observes that Emma holds on too tight, and she should let go. When the sound of nearby sirens grow louder, Emma listens to Cleo's advice and runs away.

In the Underworld, Emma and Hook get to the elevator to get back up to the library, and to the portal. Hook stops in front of the elevator and tells Emma that he's not going back with her. They won't find anything that will bring him back to life, and he admits that he promised this just to get her out of the dangerous place. When Emma doesn't accept that, Hook says they don't have a choice. Unwillingly, they say goodbye: He makes her promise not to wear her armor again just because she's going to lose him, and she asks him to not let her be his unfinished business. Although it is painful, they know they must let go. They say "I love you" one last time and kiss for goodbye. Emma takes the elevator go upstairs alone.

In Boston, 2010, a year after what happened in Maine, Emma is in a trial period and she has started working as a bail bondsperson. After a conversation with her boss, she enters a shop and presents the saleswoman the picture of Tasha, Cleo's daughter. After confirming that she is indeed Tasha, she gives her documents and pictures of Cleo that she collected, saying she thought Tasha might want to know where she came from. She also reveals the fact that Cleo has passed away. Tasha thanks her. On her way out of the shop, Emma sees a red jacket, similar to Cleo's, the one she called "her armor". She buys it, making it her own armor.

Back in the Underworld, Emma get back to the library. She doesn't explain about Hook, but helps Regina to break the spell that has trapped them there. Henry leaves the storybook for the Underworld citizens to find, and then, he and his family leave to find the portal.

In Mr. Gold's shop, he inserts the heart in Pan's chest. When Pan falls in agonizing pain, Mr. Gold reveals that, while he did take Robin's heart, this was only a showy display in case Pan or his Shadow were watching, and that he later returned the heart to Robin. Instead of a real heart, Mr. Gold explains he's given Pan an enchanted a wine-skin filled with water from the River of Souls. After Pan melts away into green smoke, Mr. Gold puts Belle in Pandora's Box and crosses the portal to Storybrooke.

Henry, Regina, Robin, David and Emma run to the portal. David and Emma are the last to stay, and Emma glances back with sadness. She tells David that her jacket was supposed to be a shield that protects her from being hurt by the people she loves, but now, it is a reminder that she has to protect them in order not to lose any more people. She debates whether she did all she could do to save Hook, and then vows never to lose another loved one again. After David and Emma cross the portal, it closes for good.

"Unappetizing"
TBA.

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 was announced by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on February 17, 2016.
 * The title of this episode is a reference to "Operation Firebird", the name Henry gives to the rescue mission in the Underworld, and to two mythological birds:
 * The Firebird from Slavic mythology, a magical bird from a faraway land which is both a blessing and a bringer of doom to its captor.
 * The Phoenix from Greek Mythology, a long-living bird associated with fire and the sun. It is cyclically regenerated or reborn, as it obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor.
 * 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.
 * In "Last Rites", an overhead shot shows that the floor in the Lair has the same design.
 * The platform over the River of Lost Souls from "Devil's Due" was also shaped like a pentacle.


 * -|Episode Connections=

Event Chronology

 * The Underworld events take place after "Sisters" and before "Last Rites".
 * 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, tells her her criminal actions, and walks calmly through the traffic 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 a man she dated 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 told Mr. Gold to let him go to Storybrooke with him in "Souls of the Departed".
 * Mr. Gold says to Pan, "Abandonment hurts, doesn't it?", referring to how his father abandoned him in "Think Lovely Thoughts".
 * 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".
 * Hook wonders why Emma can only admit how she feels about him when one of them is facing certain death, referring to events in "Operation Mongoose Part 2" and "Swan Song".
 * What happened to the storybook after Henry placed it in the library, is revealed in "Last Rites".
 * Hook says that Emma should have let him go in Camelot, referring to the events in "Birth".
 * Emma says to Hook that she is not good at saying goodbye. She said the same thing in "Ruby Slippers".
 * 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".
 * Hook comes back to life and is reunited with Emma in "Last Rites".


 * -|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.

Popular Culture

 * The books In Spite of Killer Bees by Julie Johnston, Howard Ruff from A to Z by Howard Ruff (upside-down) and Solar Heating and Cooling by Jan F. Kreider and Frank Kreith (also upside-down) are sitting on the library shelf where Henry leaves the storybook.

Religion

 * The entrance to the Ambrosia Temple is decorated with crosses.


 * -|Set Notes=

Props Notes

 * The book Henry reads contains a retelling of the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. The Once Upon a Time version of the story contains a reference to a "test of true love". The accompanying illustration, shows the moment where Orpheus is being yanked out into the daylight, while Eurydice is forced to stay behind in the Underworld forever.
 * A loose page from the Underworld storybook reads:

D arius was a wood troll who was unfortunate [illegible] as he had an irrational and severe phobia: the mere sight of miscellaneous bugs that were wont to crawl across the wooden floor would cause poor Darius to run, arms [illegible] of wild panic. It was, to say the [illegible] condition, especially for one such [illegible] habitat was the deciduous woodlands of the [illegible name].

Darius' behavior was a pressing concern among the Coun- cil of the Elders. One of them, a well-known hedge-witch called [illegible name] Maggie, made a potion that, she main- tained would diminish Darius' affliction. Darius did indeed take the potion, but he was told that its effects would be improved if he was able to harness the [two illegible words] in his soul. Darius decided to be brave and eventually he was able to [two illegible words] run a jamboree up his arm without so much [illegible].


 * The accompanying illustration is "Lord what fools these mortals be" (1908) by the famous English book illustrator Arthur Rackham. It 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 concession stand in the parking lot of Whytecliff Park in West Vancouver doubles as Chantey's Lobster House, the diner that Emma was brought to as a baby.
 * The Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, British Colombia 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 from "The Return".
 * The Boston flashback scenes were filmed in Vancouver, British Colombia.