Seamstress90

Did he even tell Cecelia the truth about Rapunzel? Or did he just let her think she was some random maid?

Against_all_odds

Well,she told Rapunzel to spend her birthday with her daughter instead of working. Then the husband said that she's trying. It's still crappy to turn her into a maid. It doesn't give her the right to be a crazy B,but I can see how hurtful it must have been.

Austenphile

I didn’t interpret that she was their maid. She was working at the birthday party but the rest of the time she was in her own house or spending time with the kids. I thought she was just being a hostess at the party.

obisgirl

I'm a little confused about something. Did Rapunzel kill her husband?

GrhmLz

I took it that way too - that Rapunzel was relegated to the servant's quarters on the Manor property. She got to see her daughters that way and it fits the parallel that she later reversed these roles as Ella's stepmother and turned her into the servant girl in the family. I think she projected it onto her for being Cecilia's daughter and she couldn't do it directly to Cecilia herself.

It was a very odd situation indeed. Not to mention the added complication with Rapunzel's husband admitting he still loved her when she asked but then his admission that he couldn't leave his new wife because he loved her too. I felt very bad for Rapunzel, it had to be beyond uncomfortable. I know Gothel honored the deal for Rapunzel's family to thrive but was that through this new marriage? Is that where the security for Marcus & the girls came from? If so, a strong motivator for not leaving the new marriage even though Ella claims they truly loved each other. We still know nothing of Ella's real father, did he die, did Gothel remove him from the equation somehow to make way for the new union (ie. Rapunzel's husband and Ella's mother)? All speculation but lots of questions.

Seamstress90

Thanks, I forgot about that.

obisgirl

That's how I interpreted it, GrhmLz. The family was penniless and unless they stumbled upon a fortune themselves, marriage to a wealthy woman was likely the only way they could survive and have a good life.

Against_all_odds

That..is just awful. I don't see how it was true love if that's the case. Ella just doesn't know the full story. I wonder why Victoria never told her-It would be a huge dagger to the heart.

Why the hell did Cecilia make Rapunzel the servant? It was a crappy thing to do and it wasn't as if Marcus was leaving her for his first wife.

Killing her husband was necessary and excessive. yes,he didn't pull Anastasia out,but he didn't deserve to die for it.

GrhmLz

Perhaps they were TL and that was the real dagger to the heart for Rapunzel? It wouldn't be the first time this show implied a character could find true love with more than one person. I kind of think of it like what if both Daniel & Robin Hood were to come back to Regina at the same time & she had to choose? Ella certainly did seem convinced that her mother and stepfather loved each other. They weren't expecting Rapunzel back. But it does cause me to wonder how soon after Rapunzel disappeared did Marcus end up with Cecilia? A few days, a week, a month, a year? Gothel made it seem like the deal would be struck right away so how much did she manipulate? People's feelings?

That part is a bit unclear to me. We weren't really given the opportunity to get to know Cecilia all that well. I am not even sure who's idea it was - Marcus or Cecilia and considering the circumstances Rapunzel's family was coming from, it's probably not likely Rapunzel was in a position to refuse if she had nowhere else to go.

I am going to take a guess that resentment began over her husband saving Ella rather than Anastasia but what probably pushed the relationship into an even darker place is when Marcus found out Rapunzel cursed he & Cecilia to be apart with the poison. It became a very messed up situation all around. And without Anastasia around to ground her, Rapunzel transformed into Lady T, left with the daughter she resented for feeling rejected by her and with a stepdaughter she viewed as the daughter of her rival. Yikes.

Against_all_odds

Oh. That does make sense and Gothel probably made it a love at first sight thing.

Yeah,but it was still cruel. Why couldn't she just live in the cottage,period? Why did she have to be a servant? If Marcus still loved Rapunzel,I'm thinking it was Cecilia.


.

Wait,when did that happen? I didn't see it in the episode.

Anastasia will be horrified at what her mother did in her name. Ella was her sister and she didn't want her to suffer. She wound up comatose in an effort to save her.

fox24

I think Marcus loved both women. I don't think gothel put a love spell but perhaps set a situation for them to meet

sherry02

It does seem like Gothel set it up somehow that Marcus would be with Cecilia. That was both her way of keeping her half of the deal while also inflicting pain on Rapunzel to test her.

GrhmLz

I definitely agree it comes across bad considering Rapunzel's sacrifice is what secured her family's current state of comfort in the first place. If I were to guess, I would say you are probably right in that Cecilia made the suggestion if Marcus refused to ask his first wife to leave. I highly doubt this arrangement was all rainbows & sunshine on Cecilia's end with her being some saint, lol. She would have feelings about her husband still loving another too.

In the episode, Rapunzel eventually succumbed and used the mushroom Gothel gave to her, which contained the poison. We saw her putting it into one of the glasses she was going to serve at a function and I am certain we are meant to know Cecilia is the one who drank from it. Victoria admits it to Lucy when she explains what happened. The episode, Pretty in Blue, had Ella finding out from Alice that her mother was in Wonderland because she was cursed by the same Curse of the Poison Heart that Alice & Hook 2.0 are afflicted by. We also know Marcus tried to go after Cecilia. So I assume at some point Marcus figured out it was Rapunzel who cursed them to be apart. Going after Ceclia happened before Anastasia's accident, though, it's why Rapunzel was back with her husband when the accident happened. So I wonder if he found out before or after.

obisgirl

That seems more likely.

GrhmLz

I just find it strange for Marcus to have given up right away on Rapunzel like that if he really loved her. Unless Gothel manipulated feelings somehow within those first hours? We are talking a deal that was struck into place right in the moment otherwise her husband & children were doomed to starvation. They couldn't afford to wait weeks let alone years.