We begin this episode Many Years Ago, with a young Gothel and her little sister watching with envy as a group of girls in a nearby house are trying on ball gowns. Gothel wants to get a closer look and maybe even touch the fabric. Little sis wants none of this so she takes off as Gothel sneaks into the house.

After wiping her sweaty palms all over the gowns, she spies one with a rosebud pinned to it. Using her magic, she makes the bud bloom. The girls who own the gowns return and are thrilled to have found someone who knows magic They beg Gothel to teach them all she knows and she readily agrees. They call her sister and invite Gothel to return the next day for her very own ball gown and also to attend a fabulous society party with them.

Gothel returns home to the secret grotto where she’s welcomed by her mother and tattletail of a sister and we learn the truth of her origin: she is a wood nymph, and a naturally bilious shade of green.

When her mother passes on, Gothel will take over the role of “mother” and become the protector of all magic in the wood, except she is far from thrilled about. She would much rather have her freedom and live in the human world. Her mother encourages her to let these human yearnings fall by the wayside and take up the mantle for which she was born, but it’s clear Gothel has another path in mind.

Ahead to Hyperion Heights now, and Gothel is at the police station speaking to the sergeant on duty. Apparently, her magic now extends to some form of vocal persuasion. She enlists the sergeant’s help to wake the rest of the coven.

The sergeant walks with her down into an underground cavern that is remarkably dry for being in a city that’s right on the water.



Over at Jacinda’s house, Henry is doing his best to convince her that his story book is the real deal. He even digs out the piece of glass slipper that gave him a flat tire and urges Jacinda to open her mind to the possibility that what Lucy believes is entirely true. Jacinda is still not ready to go there, and when Sabine texts her to come into work and replace the absent Drew, she gratefully uses that as an excuse to get the hell out of Dodge.

Drew meanwhile, is being grilled by detective Rogers over at the station house. Drew was apparently the one who suggested to Rogers that he look carefully at the autopsy report for Nick, and Rogers wants to know what the hell is going on. Drew doesn’t try to sugarcoat anything. He lets Rogers know that Samdi killed Nick with magic. Rogers understandably scoffs at that, but Drew goes all in, letting him know that magic is real, the fairy tales are real, that there is a magical war brewing and if Rogers wants to survive he better start believing in all of this crazy stuff.

Next on Gothels agenda, she tracks down Tilly and lets her know that she is her mother. Tilly greets this news about like you would expect her to and she listens stoically as Gothel weaves a tale of woe about how cruel the world was to her and how it in turn made her cruel as well. Tilly hears her out , but isn’t buying it. She tells Gothel that she already has people that care for her, and then she turns and walks away.

Tilly rushes straight over to the station and frantically tells Rogers about her conversation with Gothel. Rogers assures her that no matter how crazy it sounds he’s already seen plenty of crazy, and he believes her firmly and without reservation.

Tilly is clearly touched by his show of support and he further vows that whatever is going on in this town the two of them will figure it out – together.

Across town ,Lucy makes a surprise appearance at Samdi’s office. She’s come to enlist his help in finding just a bit more magic that Regina can use to cure Henry, since Rumple double-crossed her and took the only magic she had.

Samdi agrees to help but he needs Lucy to find something that symbolizes Henry and Ella’s love. He warns her that a storm of witches is brewing and if they’re going to survive – there’s that word again – they’re all going to need that magic.

Flashback now to Gothel’s realm, where she is attending her first society party with her new-found “sisters.” Only it turns out her sisters are actually a group of Mean Girls led by the meanest one of all – a girl named Ayla – who tricks Gothel into showing off a bit of flowering magic before she stomps it into the dirt and pours a bucket of mud over Gothel’s head, reminding her that she’s not human and has no place among the rest of them. Before the Mean Girls flounce away, a girl named Serafina give us Gothel a sincerely regretful look.

Next on the Gothel to-do list in Hyperion Heights is a visit to Margot. Gothel uses her special witchy voice on her and and then pricks Margot’s finger with a thorn, drawing blood. She leaves with her bit of blood, and Margot is clueless as to what just happened.

Tilly and Rogers knock on the door of Henry’s apartment and a very surprised and flustered Henry answers. After Tilly rattles on about witch covens and voodoo magic, he finally lets them inside where they can see what he’s been working on. Henry has somehow managed to get pictures of just about everybody in town – I have no idea how – and has set up storyboards calling out people’s alternate identities from his book and linking them to each other where appropriate. He tells them that he’s investigating the possibility that his book is true.

Henry postulates that whatever magical source Eloise Gardener is looking for, it’s got to be a big one. If they can somehow manage to keep her from getting her hands on that sourcwe, they just may be able to stop the coven. Their brainstorming session is cut short buy a call on Roger’s cell phone from the sergeant. He’s received a tip and Rogers rushes off to follow up. He allows Tilly to tag along because like any good cop, he frequently takes civilians on what could be dangerous assignments.



As they stake the theater out, Tilly wonders aloud about Eloise actually being her mother. Rogers reminds her the biology isn’t the only thing that makes a parent. Tilly then remarks that have Henry is right, a lot of people are “right next to the truth and don’t even know it.”

They spy Eloise entering the theater and rush in after her, o and of course, they’ve walked into a trap. Some of the coven members drag Tilly off and two scrawny girls hold on to Rogers. He gives a semblance of a struggle and vows to Eloise that if she hurts Tilly he’s going to kill her. How he’s going to do that when he can’t escape two ninety-pound girls, I have no idea. Gothel reassures him that Tilly isn’t the one she came here to hurt. Ooooh.



Over at Jacinda’s, Lucy is going through boxes of memorabilia searching for something, anything, that ties her mother to Henry. She comes across a box labeled ”BL” (as in Before Lucy – you know we all label boxes that way) and begs her mother to believe with her just for one moment. Jacinda opens the box and lo and behold, inside is a t-shirt for Granny’s Diner and a take-out bag. Lucy opens the bag and inside is the broken glass slipper.

Flashback again to Gothel’s realm, where she discovers that in the attack by the Mean Girls she also lost her magical key to the secret grove. She rushes back and finds her home laid waste and her mother dying. The humans have come and torched and axed all the growing things, taking the spirits of her sisters. Her mother urges her to nurture the seed of good within her because “the best blooms grow from the good”. Gothel vows instead to make the humans pay as her mother takes her last breath, leaving Gothel as “mother” now.

She returns to the society party, which apparently everyone resumed after they razed the secret grove to the ground while wearing their fine party attire. In Carrie-esque fashion Gothel seals the doors and starts killing people, beginning with the lead mean girl. She whips up some Little Shop of Horrors plants that belch green acid fog, but when she tries to use her magic on Sarafina it encounters a wall of magic in return. A tearful Sarafina confesses that she’s not as brave as Gothel – she’s been hiding who she is for fear of retribution. Gothel offers her a hand and recruits her, vowing that Serafina never needs to feel afraid again.

Ahead in Hyperion Heights, Eloise reveals herself as Gothel and let Tilly in on all the juicy news: that she has a magical gift, and that Rogers is indeed her father – even if she doesn’t remember it. Rogers is startled at the news but you can tell something within him recognizes a kernel of truth. Gothel vows to Tilly that if she helps her cast a spell she will become the mother that Tilly has always wanted. Tilly stands her ground so Gothel takes a different tack, putting a knife to Rogers throat and giving Tilly the choice help her out or watch her father die.

Back again to the Gothel’s realm, except we learn that it’s not the her realm at all – where we are is our realm the land without magic, now that the humans have destroyed the only bastion of magic when they destroyed the secret grove. Sarafina asks Gothel how many are dead, and Gothel replies that she has laid waste to all of humanity in her retribution. She digs out one surviving magic bean and opens a portal, telling Serafina that they must move on. They will one day return to the land without magic because humanity will surely find its way to evolve there again and when it does, Gothel will come back to exterminate it once more.

And with a segue announcing that it is now Thousands Of Years Later, we return to the cavern under Hyperion Heights where Tilly has agreed to help Gothel rather than watching Rogers die. Gothel meanwhile has found the magical key that once opened the secret grove entombed in the rock of the cavern. She uses her thorn to take a bit of Rogers blood.

Across town, Lucy brings both parts of the broken slipper to Samdi. He pulls out a red voodoo doll- so colored to emulate the fire of the poison within Henry’s blood. He crushes the slipper and it’s magical components infused the doll. We see the magic flooding Henry’s body.

Jacinda shows up at Henry’s apartment, excited about having found the slipper and about the possibility that she may actually be Cinderella. Henry goes to kiss her but unfortunately, she’s not quite ready to believe all the way yet. The stupid, irritating bitch. Instead, she reminds him that she has a lifetime of memories as Jacinda, the whiny single mom, and that puling, spineless creature would rather kiss him – Henry Mills the Swyft driver – rather than believe that she might be more than that. They kiss and as Lucy rushes in, she realizes to her dismay that the curse is still not broken. Way to go, Jacinda.

Now armed with the blood of an old love – Tilly for her father, a new love – Tilly’s love for Margot, and love betrayed – the key to the magical grove, the coven is now ready to enact the spell. Rogers begs Tilly once again not to do this – as a father (which you can see he’s now close to believing he is). But Tilly has to do it, because she knows he is her father within her heart. Gothel spews out a creepy nursery rhyme and the red magic swirls as we fade to black.

I’m giving this three magical death plants out of five.

It’s good to have some magical backstory, but surely, if an advanced society and its trappings flourished on the earth, it would take more than “thousands of years” to wipe all traces of it away. It’s bad enough they screw with timelines in the magical realm, but rewriting our history is just kinda lame, I think.

My thoughts:

Fuck you, Jacinda. I’m glad Tilly’s got some backbone, and I think her bloodline (and the dying words of Gothel’s mother) are going to be Gothel’s downfall: the best blooms grow from the good. At least Henry and Stupida didn’t get the honor of breaking the curse. Oh, did I type that out loud? Another Regina-less episode. *sigh* And Rumple-free, too. I still say Facilier may end up as The Guardian. Here’s a thought: we know Sean Maguire is back for the finale. If Facilier is indeed the new Savior/Guardian – well, like the song says, “he’s got friends on the other side.” Maybe he brings Robin Hood back.

What did you think of the new creation theory? And Stupida Jacinda?