Once Upon a Time season 5, episode 19, “Sisters,” needs some motherly advice, and who better to call upon than the best mom of all, Cora?

Once Upon a Time needs a gardener, someone to plant narrative seeds and nurture them to a full blossom. Season 5, however, took the Underworld’s tendency to decay any sign of life to a meta level. Just as some flowers meet their early end, so do the storylines of the most prominent characters in the latter half of this season.

Emma and Hook need not be the center of attention in the latter half of this season, but there are loose ends that are going untied in their story that could be addressed as the rest of gang accomplishes the bare minimum. Hades mentions at the top of “Sisters,” during his dream date with Zelena, that his plan means nothing to him if a future with Zelena is on the table.

Wait, what was his plan again? To be honest, the second half of season 5 is not great at keeping storylines straight, let alone fleshing out ones that could possibly be pivotal for the characters’ development. There was the teaser reminder this week that gave us some hope that Zeus might come along, but instead it was a quick nod to the fact that Hades needs to jump start his heart to get out of the Underworld and give Zelena the life she wants. A life above ground. Another lost opportunity for greatness, but at least next week we get some mazes!

Against every plea and wish I could conjure, the show is running with the Zelena/Hades relationship, pushing it to the forefront of the episode. Luckily, Barbara Hershey can do no wrong and she swoops in to give that storyline a much needed boost. Regina tries to play the motherly role, waiting up for Zelena, trying to talk her out of a silly crush with a kid from the wrong side of town, but nothing works quite like the real thing.

In what starts out seeming to be another unfortunate addition to the collection of flashbacks, we wind up with a lost chapter to the tale of two sisters. Not only did Zelena encounter her mother years ago, but her children lived together for a brief time after a younger Regina foolishly used a wand to knock herself out cold. Turns out Zelena was always more powerful than the sister she was trying to outwit years down the yellow brick road. Could Zelena have benefited from having a mother like Cora in her life? Maybe. If it threatened Cora’s livelihood in any way, it would never happen. We see the side of Cora that makes everyone cringe when she is on screen. Talk about a well-built villain.

One seed planted many moons ago paid off in this episode with Cora standing between her two daughters. A trip to the river of forgetfulness quite obviously foreshadows Cora’s use of the liquid on her daughters so they could never remember finding one another all those years ago. Once the memories flood back, all the pain and hatred Regina and Zelena harbored for one another gets tossed into question. Cora kept them apart, Cora benefited from leaving Zelena out of sight and out of mind. But Cora carried that pain and those memories with her through her reconciliation with Regina, to Wonderland, and beyond. Though the sisters may not be in a place of peace with their mother in this moment, it was a cathartic moment for Cora. She took the first step toward redemption. Whether or not she receives it… well, let’s take it to the bridge.

Cora delivers what will quite possibly be her greatest, most heartfelt, and possibly last lines of the series: “We never got to say ‘Goodbye.’ And we never got to say ‘Hello.'” But after we bid farewell to Cora, who ventures on to greener pastures, possibly with a great view of a galley for hanging people, Regina sends Zelena off to get her love in the diner. Maybe she can save Hades. Regina? Really?

For once, I’ve never been more grateful for Rumpel to show up! And with Peter Pan! Okay, I’ll give Once Upon a Time this one. It was a nice twist that I did not see coming and for the first time in season 5B I felt something other than an eye roll coming along.

Elsewhere, more compelling stories were unfolding. Robin and Baby Hood are living a rather sterile life in the woods about a half mile away from everyone else. David is heading to bring provisions, but is stopped Western-style by his brother James, Prince James. The evil power couple of the Underworld’s People magazine is not Zelena and Hades, but rather the prize goes to James and Cruella.

Unfortunately, we do not get much screen time after James pulls the switch on Emma and Robin. Cruella delivers a swift punch to Emma’s face for killing her in Storybrooke, the duo take the baby as payment for their ticket out of the Underworld and everyone meets at the docks for the final showdown. This unfortunately does not pan out in the most satisfying way. Their was only room for one sibling therapy session this week and so David pushed James into the River of Souls.

But hey, “Sometimes people cannot ever move on.”

In other poor character development:

• Gold repeats his pledge to be a horrible person by apologizing to Belle and heading off to “take things into his own hands.”

• Henry is MIA, once again.

• Hook provided a helping Hook and a hug for Emma.

Once Upon a Time ended this week’s episode with a touching In Memorium card for producer and writer Scott Nimerfro, who passed away this past week.

Once Upon a Time season 5, episode 20, “Firebird,” airs Sunday, May 1 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.