In this episode, with Rumplestiltskin as her slave, Zelena challenges Regina to a fight to the death and shocks the Evil Queen with the revelation of their familial connection, even while the town lays Neal to rest.
Meanwhile, back in the past, in the land of Oz, a jealous Zelena asks the Wizard to send her to Enchanted Forest after discovering she has a sister, Regina, and that Rumplestiltskin is training her to become a powerful force to be reckoned with.
Fast forward to the years before the first curse, as Zelena shaves her father perfectly until she gives him a bloody nick, leading him to reveal to her that she is not his daughter and is nothing but a "witch."
He then asks her to look into a visionary portal and she discovers her mother Cora abandoning Zelena because she couldn't give her the one thing she wanted: royalty.
But as she continues to watch, the Wizard tells her that Cora would later groom her younger sister Regina for royalty and would be later trained in sorcery by Rumplestlitskin.
At Neal/Baelfire's funeral, everyone takes turns at burying his casket, while back at the farm Zelena taunts Gold about losing his son.
Later on at Granny's, Emma makes bulls eyes and scores perfectly while playing darts which Hook suspects is her way to exact revenge on Zelena.
As a result, they head to the farmhouse, and as Belle runs down to the cellar to free Gold, Zelena appears from the background, dagger in hand.
Hook then tells him Emma is trying to protect him, saying that Neal had just lost his father when he met him, and Henry has more in common with him than he realizes.
Zelena shows up first and means business; she threatens to use Gold to kill anyone after five minutes if Regina doesn't come, and she proves it after Emma steps in by throwing her into her parents.
Hillary Busis of Entertainment Weekly gave it a good review: "'Once's' version of the Man Behind the Curtain emerged for the first time tonight.
This week's episode gave his truncated origin story -- but more than that, it delved into Zelena's past to shed a glowing green light on how she became such a cold-hearted witch in the first place.
[4] Amy Ratcliffe of IGN gave the episode a 7.2 out of 10, saying that "This week's Once had too many over-the-top scenes, but Regina had some fantastic moments.
Club gave the episode a B+, noting that "In OUAT’s current Oz journey, Rebecca Mader has been killing it every week as Zelena, our latest villain.
It takes a special kind of screen chomping to effectively follow up a line like “This isn’t the wild west” from Regina with “No, dear…It’s the Wicked West.” The fairyback stories we’ve seen on this show can be hit or miss, but thanks to Mader and some effective CGI for once and even a nice ending twist, this Wicked-focused episode is the best OUAT outing we’ve seen in a while.