[kindness is free]

7x19: Flower Child
April 27th, 2018 @ 8:00 p.m. Eastern

Description :

TBA:

“Once Upon a Time” stars Lana Parrilla as Regina/Roni, Robert Carlyle as Rumpelstiltskin/Weaver, Colin O’Donoghue as Hook/Rogers, Andrew J. West as Henry Mills, Dania Ramirez as Cinderella/Jacinda, Alison Fernandez as Lucy and Mekia Cox as Sabine/Tiana.

Guest starring in this episode are Rose Reynolds as Alice/Tilly, Tiera Skovbye as Robin/Margot, Daniel Francis as Dr. Facilier/Mr. Samdi, Nathan Parsons as Nick Branson/Jack and Jeff Pierre as Naveen/Drew.

“The Guardian” was written by David H. Goodman & Brigitte Hales, and directed by Geofrey Hildrew.




PROMOS:



RULES :

+ Some of you may not like everything about the episode. Please try to be constructive when you are criticizing something.
+ Do not insult characters/actors. Please stay positive.
+ Respect eachother's ships.
+ Enjoy!

[Imzadi]

thanks for the new thread

[GrhmLz]

Thanks for the new thread. I am a little curious about Gothel's background. It just feels like we should have seen it sooner in the season, though.

[sherry02]

Thanks for opening the thread.

I agree that we should have seen Gothel's backstory sooner, considering she's been on the show since 7x03. I think the serial killer story was a mistake and they should have focused on Gothel and the coven (the coven being minor characters) as the villains. Regina should have been part of the story considering she was the eighth witch. Facilier could have been around as a secondary villain who was after the dagger and connected to Tiana and Naveen, but the connection between he and Regina seemed to serve no purpose other than to prove that any romantic relationship she pursues is doomed.

[kindness is free]

You're welcome ladies

[sherry02]

Was anyone else getting Stephen King's "Carrie" vibes from that scene where Gothel goes to the party in the ruined dress and kills everyone? I did feel bad that she lost her home and her family, but hardly an excuse for wiping out the entire human race. I'm confused about the portal though. It took her to a land without magic - that didn't already exist??

I'm so confused about Facilier. Did he really heal Henry's heart? The magic was white and usually that indicates light magic. I assume that was created by true love from the slipper?

Promo: I'm really looking forward to next week. Regina finally has a scene with Gothel! She is going to try and fail to bash Gothel's head in with a baseball bat and she'll probably get knocked on her butt, but it's an action scene! Plus scenes in present time with Lucy and Henry and flashbacks with young Henry.

In the promo, Gothel says Henry's belief is gone and never coming back (sorry Gothel, you're wrong). At first I thought what Facilier did took Henry's belief, but when he went to see Jacinda it seemed like he still believed and again, the magic seemed light to me. So maybe what Gothel did took Henry's belief?

[GrhmLz]

Okay, my episode review.

For the first time this season and actually the first time in a long while before that, I can give it to the writing team and say they genuinely surprised me regarding the background on Gothel. I was never expecting her real identity to be that of a Wood Nymph of nature. Congratulations writers, a twist I couldn't easily guess or see coming. LOL

The second check in the box for "didn't see that coming" is the reveal that OUR world used to contain magic but became a land without magic after the tragic events of Gothel's own past. Gothel's origins is the garden location in Hyperion Heights, now modern day Seattle.

I was happy to note that Gothel's transformation to her hatred against humanity was fully prompted by the cruel extermination of her kind, her family, because for a minute I thought the "mean girl" act was going to be the sole trigger. That one single act for the foundation of her villanry was going to be weak for the levels of evil she reached herself.

Though her sudden realization about Alice|Tilly this episode seemed to come out of left field. How could she not have at least suspected from the beginning that a child of hers could be born of the same origins she herself came from? That is just simple biology.

Did anybody else understand how Henry suddenly lost his belief by the end of this episode going into the next? True love's kiss didn't work. Did it have something to do with the magic Facilier used to cure Henry's poisoned heart? Did something backfire, a price maybe came with the magic? Perhaps Gothel incorporated a magical backup with the poison if Henry were ever to be cured. Because all episode long Henry was talking about how his book might be real, lol.

Now for some good ole' ranting:

(1) No Regina.

(2) Regina's s7 purpose has essentially been wasted. She got to spend some time with Lucy to try and find a way to save Henry but ultimately she didn't do the saving. While it can be argued that Facilier looks to have done a decent thing by curing Henry's poison (aka. And I say looks because I still don't understand this consequence thing yet with the loss of belief and whether or not Facilier knew it would happen), saving Henry should have been done by Regina. It was the only thing s7 gave her to do.

(3) Ugh, the inconsistency with this Coven of 8 story is ridiculous. I counted 8 witches again, including Alice, when weren't 2 members of Gothel's coven murdered by Nick already? She lost Drizella & Anastasia. And Regina was supposed to be #8. Are they interchangeable now? How did Gothel get replacements so quickly especially when the rest were all being woken back up this episode? It makes absolutely no sense but I guess it's easy for them to forget their own details when they leave a story hanging for half a season and then cram it into one
episode.

Too bad they didn't keep more of the focus in s7 on Gothel actually being the big villain in HH & EF2.

So I guess going by the promo, Regina's BIG scene with Gothel next week consists of Gothel just bragging about Henry having lost his belief. Sorry, I want more than that, lol. But it looks like Roni|Regina tries to strike her down.

[sherry02]

I knew about Gothel being a wood nymph because it was in a spoiler article a while back. So Gothel's entire race was wiped out? Her family was the last of her kind? That explains more about her genocidal motivations (not excusing it, just an explanation). I must have missed that part. It was a bit loud at my house tonight.

I'm confused about how Henry lost his belief too. I think it was something Gothel did. I considered it might be Facilier's doing and maybe the magic he did hurt rather than helped, but since Regina's anger in the next episode seems to be directed at Gothel, I'm guessing it was her. I guess we'll find out for sure next week.

If Facilier did cure Henry's heart, then you're right that Regina's purpose in season 7 was just passed on to someone else. Somehow I think it's not over yet though. Maybe Regina will help him believe again? Maybe she tells him to call his past self? She knows the phone number after all.

[GrhmLz]

It sounded like all those thousands of years ago, Gothel's mother was THE Mother of their kind, even though she was also the literal mother to both Gothel & her sister, a role destined to pass to Gothel herself one day. I think the area, the location they lived (ie. Present day HH) was where the magic of our world was once harbored & protected by them and because they were linked to that magic, whatever the humans did to destroy it decimated them all along with the magic. Gothel probably got around it because she wasn't there with them but now it makes sense why she wanted to get back to a land without magic and take her coven with her. Our world was originally her home and they are her replacement family. She must be trying to harvest the magic again somehow and bring it back to our world again. There was all that talk about how nothing never really dies; roots remain.

My guess is that Gothel did something to the poison as backup. The magic probably made it so that when the heart is cured, the "heart" of the truest believer loses belief. Gothel doesn't want the curse broken. Facilier does, so that right there would be a selfish motive to help save Henry. His goal was to get TLK to break the curse. It sounds like Facilier definitely wants to help stop Gothel and for now, his motivations to help save Henry appear sincere. Which maybe at least shows he could have a conscience when it comes to Regina losing somebody she loves.

[sherry02]

Thanks for the explanation about Gothel.

Originally Posted by GrhmLz (View Post) My guess is that Gothel did something to the poison as backup. The magic probably made it so that when the heart is cured, the "heart" of the truest believer loses belief. Gothel doesn't want the curse broken. Facilier does, so that right there would be a selfish motive to help save Henry. His goal was to get TLK to break the curse. It sounds like Facilier definitely wants to help stop Gothel and for now, his motivations to help save Henry appear sincere. Which maybe at least shows he could have a conscience when it comes to Regina losing somebody she loves.

That's a good theory, that Gothel fixed it so that if the heart was cured, belief would be lost.

Since it became obvious early on that Regina and Facilier wouldn't last, my biggest concern after that was I didn't want to see Regina hurt again. While Facilier likely has selfish motivations regarding the dagger, I'm glad to see that he does not appear to have been using her or playing on her emotions. He does appear to care about her. I will not wish death upon him. He can just go back to his life as she will just be going back to hers.

ETA: It later crossed my mind that Facilier's motivation in curing Henry might be that he knows Regina and Lucy are trying to prevent the curse from being broken until Henry is cured. He wants the curse broken so he can have his full power back and he might have thought curing Henry would speed up the process. This might have been a case of he, Regina, and Lucy wanting the same things for different reasons.

[Imzadi]

Habent seen it yet. Was regina in this ep?

[kindness is free]

I haven't seen it yet hopefully get time later if not then tomorrow

[Imzadi]

I will watch it tonight

[kindness is free]

Hope you enjoy