Ruby Slippers

In this episode, we get to see a continuation of Ruby & Mulan's adventures, where they end up in Oz and meet up with Dorothy. When Zelena holds Toto ransom for the silver slippers Dorothy owns, the group decide to make a sleeping potion out of poppies to use on her and get him back. This leads to some bonding scenes between Dorothy & Ruby (up to the point where they call each other 'Kansas' and 'Wolfie'), where Ruby realises all that she's been looking for is someone like Dorothy. Once she goes to tell her how she feels, however, it turns out Dorothy has disappeared and Zelena sets up a trap for her and puts her under a sleeping curse. In the Underworld, after Ruby's arrival, the group manage to get the slippers from Zelena (after some sisterly persuasion), but need to find somebody to give Dorothy True Love's Kiss, with the only person they think up of is the now dead Auntie Em. Once they find her, Hades turns her into water using some from the River of Lost Souls before she can blow a kiss in a bottle, threatening anyone else who helps the group. Snow realizes after all the time Ruby's been worrying over Dorothy, she can be the one to do it. However, since Snow can't go with her to Oz, David sacrifices his ticket back home by having Hook carve his name on her headstone. With that, Ruby manages to wake Dorothy with True Love's Kiss in Oz, becoming the show's first LGBT couple & Snow safely returns to Oz and reunites with baby Neal. Meanwhile, Belle is having trust issues with Rumple & decides to go to Zelena for help. But once she realizes Hades could speed up her pregnancy like Emma did to Zelena & take the baby, Zelena gives Belle a sleeping curse. And the episode ends with Belle putting herself under, but not before telling Rumple that her father is the one who's going to wake her with True Love's Kiss and to do whatever it takes to get her back to Storybrooke after he rips up the contract.
The main problem I have in this episode is a bit...different compared to others. What is it? The Dorothy/Ruby pairing, Now, I'm not homophobic in the slightest & I really commend the writers finally having the balls to delve more into something like this in a Disney produced show of all things after the reveal of Mulan's bisexuality, but I felt that they were WAY too rushed. After only knowing each other a few hours, it just felt so sudden that they suddenly qualify as True Love unlike other couples who took time to get to know one another. And given that like I just mentioned, I felt it would have been better for the pairing to be Ruby & Mulan because 1) They know each other much longer & 5x08 seemed to imply they'd get together & 2) It should be about time that Mulan got herself a girlfriend & get over the heartbreak of not telling Aurora how she felt! By the way, speaking of Mulan I felt she was really wasted because she didn't really do much other than give Ruby a bit of advice over Dorothy. And I think what makes it worse in all of this is that we're probably not going to see them for a while given that they're pretty minor characters. Long story short, very good intentions & well done for finally doing this concept, but in execution it really fails.
The conflicts surrounding the Charmings also felt repetitive because we have seen it all before: Snow & Charming are separated, they manage to find a way around it via optimism & hope speeches and Emma's OK with it. It doesn't really help that we've known about Hades' plans since the start and yet nothing really has come out of it. And speaking of that, every time we see Regina trying to get through to her sister, nothing ever happens to make her change!
And the other big problem for me is Belle's sleeping curse. To be honest, it just felt like a lazy way to get her out of the picture for a bit while Emilie went on maternity leave. I mean, couldn't they do something like what they did with Snow & take her back to Storybrooke so she & the baby were at least safer than being stuck down in the Underworld? And I really don't like that they made Belle trust Zelena over her own husband & what makes it sadder in all of this was that he was actually trying to do things her way by researching other methods to save the baby in every spell book he could find. But still, at least it's now a bigger motivation for Rumple to save his child & rip up the contract.
So despite all those pretty significant flaws, I really can't say this is a bad episode. The acting was great, it was admittedly more fun seeing this team up compared to Ruby, Mulan & Merida in 5A & the subplots were interesting. But other than that, with contrivances (like Ruby & Mulan being in Oz around the time a banished Zelena is and Ruby ending up in the Underworld while the main characters just happen to be there), lack of plot development, inconsistencies with characters & not a very well executed LGBT couple despite good intentions, at most it's...on the low end of OK.
And to all the parents who sent complaints over the lesbian kisses, 1) Get over it! Children should learn that it's completely OK to love someone of the same sex. 2) The show isn't really specifically aimed at families 3) If you're OK about the show doing things such as murder, patricide and rape by fraud, why is a lesbian kiss the final straw?

Well, at least she's alive!

Hmm, where could that be from...?

Glad we're seeing more of their adventures!

AWW, Toto looks so cute!

Rather generous of Hades to reveal Ruby's presence!

Yeah, I get that she needs some time to think about what she did by herself, but she needs to consider the reasons why! At least Rumple's there to remind her...

So Ruby was looking for Zelena...why?

You bitch, Cruella!

Haha! 'How do you expect me to become mother material if you won't leave me be?

Leave Toto alone, Zelena!

Hmm, can't decide if Merida or Dorothy is the better addition to the Ruby/Mulan team-up...

How nice of you, Zelena!

She's really willing to set up a bargain involving her daughter? Pretty surprised though that Regina has faith in her changing despite her insanity in her plans!

Hmm, good idea using sleeping powder to knock Zelena out!

Pretty sad Dorothy's family tried to get her committed after her first trip to Oz...then again if somebody told you that you went to a world with whimsical midgets, witches melting from water and flying monkeys, surely you'd think they were crazy! But still, nice seeing the two bonding over feeling different and the Dorothy explaining why Toto means so much!

Yeah, sending the two back home would be a good idea if it weren't for Snow not being able to leave because of her tombstone!!

So Belle trusts the woman who enslaved Rumple and killed Neal over her own husband?! He's the only one who's actually been honest with her since she's been in the Underworld & is doing his damned best to save their baby!

Too bad Zelena can't share pregnancy tips or show her empathy over morning sickness given that Emma sped up her own pregnancy...

Ugh, stop trying to make Hook out like a saint my making David like him...

OK, that's pretty sweet giving each other the nicknames 'Wolfie' & 'Kansas'!

Pretty badass idea to get away from the flying monkeys!

Didn't expect Auntie Em to be running the rival diner to Granny's!

OH NO YOU DIDN'T, HADES!

Pretty sweet of Ruby to admit she was actually looking for somebody like Dorothy...even if they've just met!

Uh...where's she gone?

Aww, love seeing Snow being so supportive of her best friend!

OK, why's Emma happy that Hook changed the name on the tombstone? Seriously, if I were her I'd still be worried over her father being stuck down there even if it means Snow can go home!

There's no place like home (after a trip to Oz, that is)!

Well, that explains the sleeping curse & her disappearance!

Seems Zades is back on!

Well, at least they had the balls to actually show the kiss instead of balking out at the last minute!

Aww! 'You left without saying goodbye!' 'I couldn't lose you to Zelena.' 'Well, yeah, but I almost lost you.' 'You didn't. You came back for me.' 'I always will!' Hmm, 2 passionate lesbian kisses in a 'family' show about fairytales! Not bad! If only they were a main couple instead of minor characters...

Aww, looks like he's finally making an effort to find another way to save the baby!

NO DON'T DO IT BELLE! And do you really think your father will wake you AKA the one who kidnapped you, tried to erase your memories & has been against your decisions since day 1?!

And...you blew it! This is probably the laziest idea the writers could think of to write Emilie out so she could go on maternity leave!