Once Upon a Time star Rebecca Mader on Zelena's sacrifice

Warning: This story contains major spoilers from Sunday’s episode of Once Upon a Time. Read at your own risk!

Zelena made the ultimate sacrifice during Sunday’s episode of Once Upon a Time — the Wicked Witch didn’t technically die, but she did give up her magic.

After the Black Fairy (Jaime Murray) used Zelena’s (Rebecca Mader) magic without her knowing to turn the town’s pixie dust crystals dark, Zelena returned to Oz to obtain an enchanted heart — the one that she refused to give to give to the Tin Man in flashback because it would absorb her power.

In an ultimate sacrifice, Zelena used the heart to absorb all her magic, including what was within the crystals, rendering them useless to the Black Fairy. How will Zelena deal with no longer having magic as the Final Battle looms? EW hit the set during production of Sunday’s episode to find out:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Zelena gives up her magic to stop the Black Fairy.
REBECCA MADER: [Fake cries] It’s a lot. We shot that yesterday. It was intense.

How difficult is it for her to give up that much power?
It’s great to see growth in someone that’s so broken and healing, because putting other people first is not something that she’s accustomed to, and I think becoming a mother has really taught her a lot about love, and not having to do everything alone, and being part of something greater than herself with these other people.

How is she going to take to having no magic though?
I don’t know, man. That has not been written yet, but I don’t think that’s going to go down very well. I think it’s going to go down like a ton ‘o bricks, because she’s going to go [makes a gesture to do magic]… “S—.” And there’s going to be a lot of hand movements and nothing going on.

What do you think that’ll do though for her relationship with Regina? Do you think this is the turning point?
I think so because with the split for her, and the journey that she’s been through, there’s still aspects of the Evil Queen inside her. She’s more Regina. I think Zelena will always be wicked, but I think it makes it more of a level playing field. I think it will kind of bring them all together.

We’ve learned the book is coming to an end. How does Zelena feel about that? Is there some fear there?
Yeah. I think so. Really her magic has only ever been her only friend, so I think she’s going to have to figure out who she is without it, what kind of mother she’s going to be without it, what kind of person she’s going to be without it, and what is her future? Does she want to stay in Storybrooke? Does she want to go back to Oz? Where’s her tribe? Who are her tribe? Are these people her tribe or not? I think that’s what she really needs to figure out, and if they are surrendering into it and allowing people in and allowing people to be her friends, and to let some of her guard down, stop being so closed-off from everybody else, and then maybe someone new will come to town that she can make sweet, sweet love to. [Laughs] It’s been awhile.

If the show is renewed for season 7, do you feel like there’s more Zelena story to tell?
Yeah, definitely.

You just hope she gets her powers back?
Definitely. I mean come on, it’s like you lost your mojo, so it’d be like me losing my sense of humor — I’d be rubbish, I’d be boring. It’s like it’s your juice, so I would think season 7 would be me trying to get my powers back without trying to kill anyone or whatever blah, blah. [Laughs] Come on. Hashtag redemption.

Get the scoop on the musical episode here. Once Upon a Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.