Once Upon a Time season 5, episode 18 solidified that the series has lost focus and doesn’t know which story to see through.

Click your heels three times to break away from this storyline. The first half of Once Upon a Time season 5 focused on the unknown. The gray area. The murky area of characters’ stories where the show finally found its foothold. A great example of this can be found not too far back in the opening of season 5. The storytelling was difficult, twisted timelines, and left the audience with reasonable questions about the future of the series — How did Emma get everyone back to Storybrooke? What happened in Camelot? Can Arthur be trusted? Is Merlin alive?

But here we are, nearly done with season 5B and not a single storyline has progressed. All the questions we have now are shifted to another storyline. One that does not have any continuity to the story at hand and honestly, it is becoming quite frustrating. Once Upon a Time‘s season 5, episode 18, “Ruby Slippers” gave us a look inside the stories of Dorothy, Mulan, and Red at the cost of the greater narrative. Don’t get me wrong, the aforementioned characters are three of the best Once Upon a Time has created. In fact, I’d rather the stories focus on them as part of the greater narrative, rather than a plug in the endless “Story of the Week” model.

Instead we get the highly anticipated same-sex relationship on Once Upon a Time buried under the massive amounts of questions that plague a series. Ruby, working with Mulan and Dorothy to find Zelena and their way back to Storybrooke, uncover a relationship that needs far more than a passing glance from the series. We can do better, and this storyline deserves more attention than Snow and David working toward getting back to their child they barely mention. It deserves more time than Hook and Emma who are barely speaking in the episodes this season.

What exactly are the stakes of the Underworld? Lose your soul and you are destined for a darker place. Gain redemption and you are destined for a happier place. But stay in the Underworld and you are free to use your magic and live out your days until you can find a way back to the land of the living.

Ruby found herself in the Underworld following a tracking spell after Zelena trapped and Dorothy and placed her under a sleeping spell. This places Ruby Red in the hands of the heroes in the Underworld who are making very small progress in their hunt for their escape. Not only do they have three souls tethered to Hades’ terrain, but they have a pregnant Belle working against the same god to free her child from a custody battle gone wrong. If this doesn’t sound like a narrative with too many knots to handle untie than I don’t know what does!

There is no ticking time bomb, there is no alternate timeline creeping towards the present, there is no viable escape option to pursue. And yet, more people are joining the party each week and no one on the hero team seems to be making any reasonable effort to break free. In fact, this week Belle actually put herself to sleep and leave the work to the rest of them since that seemed like the best option to save her baby from Hades.

This is not to say that some points of interest moved forward this week. David and Hook finally had the first decent conversation of the gang’s visit to the land of dead in which Hook acknowledged David’s sacrifice, thanked him, and learned that his life means a bit more to David than just a consolation prize that comes with Emma’s happiness. It was refreshing. That is until David made sure to end the conversation by admitting that helping someone new to the group is the top priority over getting himself and/or Snow back to be with their son, Neal.

Fortunately for our good friend and underused guest-star Ruby, true love’s kiss waits for no woman or wolf. Rather than stall the season with the entire team lingering in the Underworld, two souls make it out of there. Snow, her soul traded for David’s, and Ruby gain access to the slippers and head back to Oz to find Dorothy under a sleeping curse that only true love’s kiss can cure. Unfortunately, their first option, Aunt Em, met the bad end of a melting spell in the Underworld at the hands of Hades, but little did he know that Ruby made a connection with Dorothy in Oz that no magic could erase. Another loss for Hades whose M.O. is still unclear this late in the game.

Beyond those two storylines, the focus of the season seems to have shifted to Zelena. Not only does she have some connection to Hades, but her relationship with Regina has begun to pull focus. Zelena is an incredible character and Oz is a dazzling place. But to pull those two storylines into the Underworld we thought we were getting with Hercules as our guide is causing a bit of jarring whiplash. Some surprise and connections are great, but rehashing Zelena’s troubled childhood and jealously of her sister for two weeks is enough. We know all of these facts. Where is the new storyline? How is this advancing the narrative?

There are only four episodes left in Once Upon a Time‘s fifth season. For most of the second half of Once Upon a Time‘s fifth season we’ve been stagnant or moving backwards. I’m not confident that the magic hat in the writer’s room can pull a storyline together in time to make the second half of season 5 make sense. But then again, I am on Snow’s side and still have a little bit of hope left in my heart.

Stray Observations:

• I’m over the fact that Henry conveniently write about how good things are in Storybrooke in order to advance the story.

• Cruella is criminally underused. She is the one character I am willing to go to bat for in this season. Forget the blind witch who had one story arc years ago, give us more Smurfit!

• The magic and rules of the Underworld are beginning to feel a bit too flexible. While I am all for loopholes to help our heroes, this week’s episode felt like a way to get both pregnant actresses out of the picture with cheap magic tricks.

• Kansas and Wolfy 5 eva.

Watch Once Upon a Time season 5, episode 19, “Sister,” Sunday, April 24 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.