Belle realized that time was not on her side on Once Upon a Time Season 5 Episode 18 and took drastic measures to try and save her baby.

Will her scheme work, and has she changed her own rules along the way?

Belle was determined not to let Rumple use dark magic to break his contract with Hades, but as she used the sleeping curse on herself, she told him to do anything he had to to wake her once the deed was done. Does she really think Rumple won’t use the most expedient means necessary to get the job done, or does she no longer care?

Belle was also upset about pushing Gaston into the River of Lost Souls, but it was unclear whether it was because she traded Gaston’s life for Rumple’s or that dooming Gaston didn’t free her child from Hades hold.

Either way, it looks as though we won’t be hearing much from Belle for a while which is a bit of a shame. Now that she was getting mired down in the shades of gray, she was becoming more interesting.

Where Belle was inching her way closer to the dark side, Zelena was slowly making her way towards the light.

I actually enjoyed Zelena much more than I did Dorothy even though we know that Dorothy is supposed to be some sort of hero. Dorothy came off kind of cold and not that likable.

Zelena stole Dorothy’s magical slippers to get back to her baby. Is that really so bad? Belle just doomed a man to the River of Lost Souls to save hers. Stealing a pair of shoes doesn’t sound nearly as terrible.

It was even difficult to be mad at Zelena for putting Dorothy under a sleeping curse, given that Regina has cast her fair share of them.

Zelena and Belle’s conversation was one of the more interesting of the episode. They both love men who love power and will do anything to get it. As Zelena pointed out in this Once Upon a Time quote…

So you finally see the beast behind the man. Maybe you can understand why I'm not rushing to Hades with open arms.
Zelena

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The saddest part was hearing that Zelena doesn’t believe she’ll ever find her happy ending, not even with her daughter.

The other fun scene was between David and Killian where David admits Hook has grown on him a bit. I think that’s as close to a hug as we’re going to see from these two.

As for Red and Mulan’s visit…as always I enjoyed Red, plus she gets the coolest outfits. I thought she was going to have a relationship with Mulan instead of Dorothy, but I’m fine either way. I’ve never been a big fan of Mulan’s, and I doubt we’ll be seeing much of these characters moving forward.

With Snow back in Storybrooke with baby Neal, will part of the story move back there, or will she be off screen until the Underworld arc is wrapped up?

And is Zelena really starting to soften towards Hades, or does she have a plan of her own?

Check back later in the week to see what our Once Upon a Time round table team has to say, and if you can’t wait until then, you can watch Once Upon a Time online here at TV Fanatic.