- “Wicked Always Wins.”
- ―Zelena[src]
Zelena, The Wicked Witch of the West is a major character in the hit ABC fantasy series Once Upon a Time. She is Regina Mills' half-sister from Cora's affair with a gardener name Jonathan. Abandoned by her mother as a child, she wished for family love but grew envious of her half-sister getting everything she ever wanted. After training with Rumplestlstkin, in hopes of changing the past, Zelena collected ingredients to activate a time portal, but her plan has evolved. Zelena later chose to mend her sisterly bond with Regina after the birth of Robin.
She is based on the character of the same name from the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Role in the series
The Wicked Witch of the West first appears in the episode "New York City Serenade" where it's discovered she's absconded with Regina's palace in her absence. However, prior to her actions with the Evil Queen, we learn that Cora abandoned Zelena. Zelena was then taken to Oz and taken in by a childless couple. Her adoptive mother dies and her adoptive father tells her he never wanted her. Before Zelena leaves her house, he tells her to always put on a good face.
Zelena then goes to the wizard who tells her Regina is her sister and is a queen making Zelena furious. He gives her magic slippers that take her to the Enchanted Forest. Zelena arrives in Regina's castle and Rumplestiltskin notices her. He offers to teach her magic. Zelena gladly accepts. Despite being great at magic Rumple tells her Regina will cast the dark curse making Zelena jealous and her skin starts turning green. She goes back to Oz and discovers the wizard is a mortal and in her anger transforms him into a flying monkey. She then seethes as she sees a projection of Regina being called the best student Rumple ever had. Her skin then turns completely green as she vows to go back in time and stop Regina's birth.
Zelena is invited to join the Sisterhood of Witches.
After turning the wizard into a flying monkey Glinda appears to Zelena. She thanks Zelena for turning the wizard into a monkey and offers Zelena a place in her sisterhood of witches. Zelena is hesitant to accept at first but she joins them and her skin turns back to normal. Glinda then gives her a pendant that will harness her magic but if she loses it she loses her magic. As Glinda shows Zelena the west a cyclone appears and carries a house in it. The house has a person in it a girl named Dorothy Gale. Glinda takes the Dorothy back to her fellow witches but Zelena doesn't trust her. At first she fears Dorothy will take her place in the sister hood then Zelena learns from The Book of Records Dorothy was meant to come to Oz and kill her. Zelena skins then reverts to green again as she is jealous of Dorothy. She then decides to make both Glinda and Dorothy think she is dead by having Dorothy splash her with water and she pretends to melt.
Glinda then thinks Zelena is dead and she takes Dorothy to the wizard who they believed is a person again since they both think Zelena is dead. Zelena then poses as the wizard and when Dorothy asks to go home Zelena does this for her. Once Dorothy is gone Zelena shows herself to Glinda and banishes her to the Enchanted Forest.
Some years later, Zelena celebrates her "Abandonment Day", when her mother abandoned her in the forest. Since she didn't know when her birthday was, she measures her years by this day instead. After watching a memory of her mother abandoning her, and blowing out the candle on her cupcake, the wizard flies in, dropping the Scarecrow on the ground before flying off. She tells the Scarecrow that he is going to help her with creating a time travel spell and needs his brain as one of the ingredients. As she is about to extract the brain from him, Dorothy bursts in, stopping her. Selena shows surprise at Dorothy's return thinking she sent her back to Kansas. Dorothy explains she came back after learning from the Munchkins that Zelena had taken over Oz. After asking Zelena to let the Scarecrow go, and she refuses, Dorothy tells Zelena that she will never defeat her because she has the most powerful weapon: the love of the people. As Zelena prepares to shoot a ball of magic at Dorothy, Toto jumps out of the basket he had been hiding in, and pulls on the string of the curtains, which fall down and trap Zelena as he and Dorothy escape.
That night, Zelena goes to Munchkinland to interrogate the Munchkins on the Scarecrow's whereabouts. After she kills one of the Munchkins, and is about to kill another, Hades appears, introducing himself to Zelena and scaring off the Munchkins with his blue-flame hair. He says he had heard the rumors of Zelena wishing to make a time travel spell, and offers his help and an alliance. Selena tells him she doesn't need anyone's help before disappearing in a puff of smoke.
Later as she returns to the Emerald City, She finds Hades waiting for her, siting at her mirror. He holds up the cupcake asking her if it was her birthday. She tells him she doesn't know when her birthday is, only the day she was abandoned by her mother, and asks him to leave. Hades however, stays, telling her that his offer of help did come from a place of self interest but he can still help her. He tells he that he knows she is thinking of her sister, who got everything she wanted while Zelena got nothing. He tells her he is in the same situation with his brother, Zeus. While Zeus had gotten what he wanted and became ruler of Mount Olympus, Hades had been trapped in the Underworld, his heart stopped by Zeus. He then tells Zelena that only true love's kiss can restart his heart. He also tells her that he wants to use the time travel spell to go back in time and see to it that he becomes the ruler of Olympus while Zeus is sent to suffer in the Underworld.
Zelena rips out the Scarecrow's brain.
Hades brings Zelena to the sight where Dorothy originally arrived in Oz, picking up Dorothy's bike. When Zelena asked what it is and how will it help them find the Scarecrow, Hades tells her to hop on and he'll show her. They take a ride through the forest, with Zelena squealing with enjoyment throughout the entire ride. They crash into a tree root, falling over. They both giggle with delight, before sitting up. Selena asks again how it will help them find her prey. Hades tells her it is Dorothy's bike, and if Zelena enchants it, it will take them right to Dorothy and the Scarecrow. She waves a hand over it, making briefly grow green. They get back on and the bike takes them to a small hut in the forest, where Dorothy and the Scarecrow are sitting by the fire outside. Hades tells her that Dorothy is no match for her, and that Zelena is the most brilliantly wicked, clever witty and beautiful woman he has ever met. After encouragement from Hades, she then goes to get the Scarecrow's brain. She is about to celebrate his death with Hades, but turns around to discover he is gone.
After arriving back home, Zelena finds Hades has set a table for dinner for the both of them to celebrate. He also feels Zelena to be his true love, saying he felt his heart flutter during their bike ride, and believes that once they share true love's kiss, his heart will start again. She pulls away, saying she doesn't believe him and that he is only after the time-travel spell. He denies her claims, saying that he loves her. Selena says no one can ever love her, and if he did, he would not want to take away her chance at revenge. She tells him to leave. Hades angrily tells her she will regret this before disappearing in front her.
Years later as the second half of Season 3 begins everyone who was affected by the Dark Curse returns to the Enchanted Forest. Sometime before this occurred, monopolizing the castle abandoned by Snow White and Regina, Zelena threatened to harm Aurora, Prince Phillip, and their baby. Zelena agrees to not hurt them as long as they give her valuable information. When they tell her of the return of Storybrooke's residents, she sends flying monkeys to get blood from Regina, who are successful in procuring the blood. When a flying monkey attacks Regina and Roland (the son of Robin Hood), Regina transforms the monster in plush. Belle who had read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, understand that the new occupant of the castle is the Wicked Witch.
Zelena and her half-sister Regina.
However, at the great surprise of all, Regina does not know her. After that, the Evil Queen enters in the castle by a secret passage which she had put under magic shield, making of her the only person be able to enter it. As the Queen makes her way through the passage she notices her mother's crypt had been opened despite being sealed with blood magic. Making her question just how powerful the witch is. Regina finds herself face to face with her new nemesis who reveals to her that she is her half sister. Denied by Cora because Zelena could not give Cora the one thing she wanted most (being royalty) Cora abandoned Zelena. Zelena tells Regina she learned magic with Rumplestiltskin just as Regina did. Zelena shows herself warlike and jealous to Regina although the latter tells her that to life with Cora was not enviable. However the witch dismisses this comment and tells Regina she will take everything away from her and flies away on a broom.
Zelena entraps a man named Lumiere into a form of a candelabrum; forcing him to manipulate Belle and Neal into reviving Rumplestiltskin by using a key to open the Vault of the Dark One. Unknown to the pair, whoever resurrects the Dark One will lose their life. Shortly after Neal opens the vault, he begins dying while Rumplestiltskin is resurrected. During the chaos Zelena is able to grab the dagger that controls Rumple. Zelena then orders him to kill Belle, but before he can, she is entrapped by Lumiere's flames. The girl flees unharmed; taking Lumiere with her, while Zelena furiously seethes.
After learning Aurora and Prince Phillip told Snow White that she desires their unborn child, Zelena makes a speedy entrance to the palace to turn them into flying monkeys as punishment. Then she approaches to touch Snow White's belly and promises the child will soon be hers. Snow White learns from Glinda to defeat Zelena they need a wielder of light magic (which is Emma) but the only way to get to Emma is to cast the Dark Curse. Zelena interferes with the curse being cast by Snow White and Regina by dropping a forgetting potion into the mixture, which will erase their memories of the past year in the Enchanted Forest. Victorious, she flies off back to the castle to ingest a substance to retain her memories. Zelena then hands the same vial to Rumplestiltskin; daring him to keep his memories or be foolish enough to want to forget.
Before she is sent to Storybrooke with the others she sent Walsh, whom she had turned into a winged monkey many years earlier after uncovering his charade as the Great and Powerful Wizard, to live in New York City in his human form. There, he is to seduce and occupy the Savior (Emma who Zelena believes is the only person who can defeat her), who is also living in New York amnesic after the battle against Peter Pan.
In Storybrooke, she appears the same, except for the green skin she unwillingly acquired due to envy. When the inhabitants assemble together, she sits among them while remaining quiet. She smiles when Regina is accused for the new curse. Afterward, Zelena approaches Snow White, who is pregnant. She claims to have been a midwife in the fairytale world. Zelena then goes in the storm cellar where she holds Rumplestiltskin prisoner.
Rumplestiltskin escapes the cellar and is able to inform Emma Zelena is the Wicked Witch. Zelena however is able to bring him back to the cellar as she controls the dagger. After her cover is blown she challenges Regina to a witch fight which ends in a draw.
After the showdown between her and Regina, Zelena distracts Regina one day because she is having Rumple retrieve Regina's resilient heart. Her plan is to alter the past to claim a life with her mother, who abandoned her after birth. Zelena kidnaps Mary Marget's baby and begins the time travel spell but is stopped by Regina who has learned light magic. Following her defeat she is killed by Mr. Gold who makes everyone think Zelena killed herself.
It was revealed however, that once Gold had stabbed her, Zelena's life force left her body before she could physically die and she activated the time portal that sent Emma and Hook to past. When she found out that Emma and Hook were planning to bring back Marian with them to the present, she killed her and disguised herself as Marian from then on.
Regina protects Zelena, who is disguised as Marian.
When Elsa arrived in Storybrooke, she created a snow monster when trying to protect herself which chased Emma, Hook, Robin Hood, and David out of the area where they were trying to track her. They tried to defeat the monster in the woods, only to all got knocked unconscious. Marian (who unbeknownst to them was really Zelena in a disguised form), also shot an arrow at the monster, but this only serves to incur its wrath. The monster then heads towards Zelena, when Regina shows up, she merely smiles when Zelena asks her to help, and disappears. However, at the last second, Regina changes her mind and defeats the snow monster by burning it. Zelena thanks Regina, with Regina welcoming her to Storybrooke still thinking that she is really Maid Marian.
Afterwards, Regina disappears, still heartbroken Robin Hood, Zelena, and Roland visit "Any Given Sundae," where the Snow Queen serves them ice cream, but unknown to them she casts a spell on the ice cream cone that she gave Zelena. Afterwards, the family joins the other residents at the Mayor's office. Mary Margaret then tells the residents about Elsa's presence in Storybrooke and is trying to reassure everyone that she is not dangerous, only to have Zelena beginning to start feeling as if something was glossing over her and she passes out. Elsa's presence has also resulted in her becoming a prime suspect, and with her heart slowly freezing, a cure must be found before Zelena's heart completely freezes and kills her.
Regina pulls out her heart.
Robin arrives to tell Regina about Zelena's frozen state. Regina is quick to suspect Elsa, as she believes that darker magic is behind this, but Elsa denies it to Regina. They believe a true love kiss will wake Marian up, but after Robin kisses her, nothing happens. Later on that evening, Robin confesses that he knows why the kiss did not work, although he kissed Marian, he's still in love with Regina, however, his theory may not have been true at all as he was kissing Zelena who he thought was Marian. Regina then tells Henry to bring her a box and pulls her heart out before her body freezes, indicating it is alive and promises Robin that she will find a cure for his "wife".
After the Snow Queen sacrificed herself, Regina and Robin were able to wake Zelena up from her ice curse, and later on she thanks Regina for saving her even though she was aware that Robin still has feelings for her and vice versa; Regina tells Zelena that she wants Robin to be happy for Roland's sake. However, as Regina tells Robin that he needs to be with his wife, the spell quickly resurfaced to freeze her heart. Regina tells Robin that in order for "Marian" to live, she must cross the town line and enter our world (and along with it, will no longer be able to return to Storybrooke), meaning the spell would not be able to harm her, but at the same time she tells Robin that both him and Roland have to accompany her as she is new to the world and has no experience of it.
Now living in New York City, she reveals herself to Gold, who is in the hospital and who was banished from Storybrooke and had suffered a heart attack. When he tries to drink a vial that will save his life, it is revealed that it had been swapped by Marian. When he questions her as to why she swapped the vials, claiming he did her no harm, she takes off her disguise and reverts herself in her true form revealing to still be alive. She reveals to him that she was posing as Marian this whole time to spite Regina, finally taking her true love and happy ending away from her.
After Gold arrives back in Storybrooke and has figured out Regina had been lying to him, he gives her a phone which is calling Robin's number. Marian reveals her secret identity to Regina and tells her that she can kill Robin Hood at any moment.
Zelena later comes home to find Regina, Emma and Lily there with Robin. Regina shouts and threatens Zelena to reveal herself. Zelena takes off the glamour spell and reveals her true form to Robin. When Regina tells him to take Roland and leave with her, Zelena smiles smugly and tells Robin to tell her that Zelena is pregnant. Regina then takes Zelena back to Storybrooke and puts a magic proof cuff on her and then decides to lock her into the mental asylum until she can decide what to do with her.
Later the author writes everyone into an alternate universe, where Zelena is engaged to Robin. They get married but Zelena begins to turn green again, however, Henry becomes the new author and writes everyone out of the alternate universe. Zelena is locked in a cell beneath the hospital until her child is born.
Zelena is mistakenly freed from her cell by Hook. She kidnaps Robin Hood, the apprentice's wand being ransom. She states that she wishes to transport her and her baby back to Oz so she will be free from Regina. As she conjures a tornado, the spell fizzles, but carries on. This distracted Zelena long enough for Regina to put a magical binding cuff to her sister's wrist. Zelena travels with the heroes to Camelot in search of Emma, after becoming the Dark One. She is told to pretend to be Regina's mute handmaiden (Regina having taken her voice).
In Camelot, Zelena is threatened by Regina that her baby will be taken by Regina once it has been born. She takes this as a strategy to kidnap Snow/Mary Margaret as the rest of the group tries to sneak into Camelot (having been thrown out) and regains her magic with King Arthur's help. She enchants the main hilt of Excalibur to bind Merlin's soul, allowing its holder to control him. Zelena, Arthur and Merlin hold Emma's friends captive with the Protheum flame and the Dark One Dagger as ransom. Before she can do anything, she is tricked by Emma and tied by magic around a tree. After a battle between Merlin and Emma, Zelena transports herself and Arthur back to Camelot. Arthur and her plan to take a magical helm from the kingdom of DunBroch. After many failed attempts to reach the helm, including a battle between Arthur, Zelena and Red, Mulan and Mérida, she transports herself back to Camelot, where Emma casts the Dark Curse, ripping everyone back to Storybrooke without their memories of ever stepping foot in Camelot.
Zelena reading a pregnancy book while locked in the asylum.
Zelena awakens in Granny's Diner and is almost immediately put back in her cell. Zelena is met by the Dark Swan (name for Emma as the Dark One) and is told she will need an ally in the town after people learn the truth. Zelena eats darkly enchanted onion rings (made by Emma) and as a result, her pregnancy is sped up from two months to nine. She gives birth to a baby girl and is taken away by Emma into her basement with Hook at her side. She is freed from her cuff once again and leaves Hook in Emma's house, wanting to get answers. Zelena steps back inside after Emma finds him. She brings in an enchanted dreamcatcher, which holds the memories of Hook becoming a Dark One (it is Emma's fault) in order to save him. Zelena learns that Robin and Regina are allowing her to see her baby, as long as one of them is with her. This is when she shares a bonding moment with her child. During the Dark Siege of Storybrooke, Zelena plans to take Regina's place in Storybrooke including her office. After claiming full custody of her baby, Zelena is transported by Regina (and the apprentice's wand) back to Oz. She claimed they will see each other again.
Unfortunately, this proves true when Zelena returns to take her still-unnamed daughter back. This leads her into a struggle with Belle and Mother Superior as a portal to the Underworld is opened. Now in Hades' realm, Zelena leaves her daughter with Robin and the heroes. She later runs into Hades, who reveals that the love he's felt for her since their first meeting has never died; he remodeled the Underworld to look like Storybrooke because he wanted to give her everything that Regina wanted. Shocked, but worried about her daughter, Zelena vows to get her back alone; Hades is willing to wait until she's ready to accept his love, and eventually gives in.
Zelena and Regina reunite as sisters.
When Hades asks Zelena to be his partner in chaos, the news leaves Zelena awkward and Regina (who saw this through her mirror) furious, prompting her to bring Cora in to stop this relationship from happening. The tensions between Zelena and Regina worsens until Cora intervened and restored their previous memory of having met each other as young girls, which also became Cora's "Unfinished Business" to make peace with Zelena and Regina, restarting their relationship with Regina giving Zelena a chance to help Hades. However, Gold is upset with Zelena giving Belle the spindle that placed his wife in a sleeping state in order to protect their child, and with the help of Peter Pan kidnaps her as payback to what she done to him back in Storybrooke. When Hades realize that Gold used Zelena as leverage, Hades tore up the contract to take Gold and Belle's unborn child, allowing Zelena to be with Hades, whose true love's kiss freed him from being confined to the Underworld. When Hades agreed to let everyone return to Storybrooke through a portal, he told Zelena to go first but left out the part that he wanted to trap the others (but they escaped before it closed).
When they returned to Storybrooke, Zelena felt that Hades truly loved her but when Emma, Regina and Robin told her that he was using her in order to create a new kingdom, Zelena thought they were going to kill Hades because he hasn't changed, until he revealed a family heirloom, the Olympian Crystal, which he wants to use on the living Storybrooke residents that he posed as a threat. Emma showed Zelena the new pages that confirmed his plot and when she returned to Regina's office she saw Robin's deceased body on the floor and after Regina knocked the crystal out of Hades' hands she picked it up and killed Hades instantly. During Robin's funeral Zelena told Regina that has named her daughter Robin in honor of her father.
A caged Zelena.
After a tremor erupts in town, Zelena and the heroes investigate the clock tower, where they learn the tremor resulted from Mr. Gold tethering Storybrooke's magic into a piece of the Olympian Crystal. While Emma and Regina pursue Henry, who has disappeared with the crystal, Zelena uses the Apprentice's wand to create a portal so Merida, the Merry Men, and the Camelot natives can return home. Afterwards, Zelena tries to close the portal, but her control on the wand goes awry because the town's magic is linked to the crystal. She, Snow, David, and Hook are then pulled into another realm named the Land of Untold Stories, where the wand becomes broken. They seek magic from a groundsman, Jekyll, to fix it, but he is too terrified to help them. An orderly, Poole, shows up and magically tasers them into unconsciousness, before locking them up in a caged cell. There, a warden named Hyde accuses them of working for the Dark One, and though Snow convinces him otherwise, he still refuses to let them go. While Hyde is away, Jekyll agrees to fix the wand for them if they take him with them when they return home. As the heroes wait for Jekyll frees them, however, he lost the wand to Hyde.
When they reach the outside city, Jekyll provides the heroes with a backstory of this land, which is home to people of all backgrounds that have fled from various dangers. They stop by Hyde's house, where Jekyll finishes making a red serum to defeat the warden for good, but Poole makes him to ingest a blue serum that forces Hyde to manifest in the body. When Zelena's magic apparently has no effect on Hyde, the heroes flee the house. After Hyde takes the red serum to separate himself and Jekyll, the group return in time to save Jekyll. Poole tries to stop their leaving, but Zelena takes care of him with a bolt of her magic. As the heroes and Jekyll attempt to get out of the city, they run into Hyde. With magical help from the Land Without Magic, a portal opens, allowing them to return home. On return to Storybrooke, Zelena joins David as he shows Jekyll to the town diner.
Regina eventually invites Zelena and baby Robin to move in with her; however, after Regina reveals to Zelena that she blames her for Robin Hood's death, their sisterly bond is nearly broken once more and Zelena and Robin move out of Regina's house. However, over the course of the season, the two sisters eventually make amends. Zelena also plays a big part in defeating the Black Fairy.
In Season 7, after another Dark Curse is cast by Drizella, Zelena becomes Kelly West, Roni's sister. She is pushed out of Hyperion Heights by Victoria Belfrey and becomes engaged to a man named Chad.
Gallery
Trivia
- During the witch fight in the episode "It's Not Easy Being Green" Regina (the younger half-sister of Zelena), wears red gloves. In Oz the Great and Powerful, the Witch of the West wears red and is the younger sister, whilst the Witch of the East wears green attire and is the older sister.
- Zelena wore a pendant similar to Evanora's.
