History Recap / OnceUponATimeS7E14TheGirlInTheTower

** Aside from the bit mentioned above about the stolen VW, there's Robin's relationship with Alice. Even though she's only a Charming by marriage (via her aunt's adoption of Henry and marriage to Leopold), Robin still continues the family tradition of catching her future true love in a trap (a cage this time, not a net). Alice, meanwhile, persists in using a nickname her true love greatly resents. And also like Charming with Snow, Robin starts off as working against her true love if not actively disliking and thinking the worst of her, before eventually coming to her defense and fighting by her side. There's even still a troll involved, albeit in very different circumstances and personality in the end.

* CallBack: Emma's yellow VW appears again, or at least a magically-created version of it. The reason for this is because Robin told Alice the story of how she once broke into it and tried to steal it to run away -- which is the same thing both Neal and Emma herself did with it, years ago.

* AlphaBitch: Robin confesses to having been one back in Storybrooke (calling it a "mean girl"), because she thought it was what she had to do to become popular--but she hated every moment of it.

* TheAtoner: Ivy is truly revealed to be this this episode--she genuinely apologizes to Henry, is nearly in tears as she regrets her choices and how things between him and her could have been different, asks for his forgiveness, and swears she will make things right between her and Anastasia. It seems learning her mother really did love her before dying, plus being betrayed by Gothel, has changed her for the better.

-->'''Alice''': I hate that all I want to do is come back here [to the tower] and stay. At least when I was here, I could still have hope that one day I could escape. But I'm never going to be free, am I?
* ChekhovsGun:

* CloudCuckoolander: In the tradition of more recent adaptations/sequels (but not the original novels), Alice is shown here to be quite odd and not fully right in the head, even before becoming the cursed and medicated Tilly. To be fair however, living completely by herself for the years after Hook was banished by his poisoned heart, with no one at all to talk to or interact with, is not the most conducive situation to staying sane. Heartwarmingly however, her strange nature is something that Robin ends up enjoying and even admiring, planting the seeds for their love, and last episode, Hook referred to her unique way of seeing the world in a positive light, too.
* ContinuityNod:
** Emma's yellow VW appears again, or at least a magically-created version of it. The reason for this is because Robin told Alice the story of how she once broke into it and tried to steal it to run away--which is the same thing both Neal and Emma herself did with it, years ago.
** Emma's OnePersonBirthdayParty from the pilot returns again, this time with Alice, all alone in her tower, at a tea party with her stuffed animals and other toys.

* DramaticIrony: There are plenty of examples, past and present, with both Robin and Alice as well as Rogers and Tilly, but the biggest is probably the fact that Robin, coming back from Tibet to meet her estranged mother and aunt, just so happens to grab Tilly and pull her out of traffic before she can get hit by a car...then proceeds to give her a much-needed pep talk, and even indirectly inspires her to find out about the security camera with her admonition to "look up" to find the answer to her problems...and all this without either of them remembering who they or the other is. To underscore this, the "favorite book" Margot/Robin happens to be carrying with her is ''Alice in Wonderland'', similar to how Tilly happened to find and read a copy of a Robin Hood collection back at Henry's apartment.
* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: The leader of the band of troll-hunting villagers reacts this way, with mocking snideness, when Robin introduces herself--not just by invoking the trope name but also noting Robin's gender.
* {{Frameup}}: Even more so than the last episode it's revealed how this has been done to Tilly. While the symbol of the Coven of the Eight has yet to be explained (though it was likely planted), and the blind baker's time of death vs. when Weaver and Rogers found Tilly in her room don't match up, there's no alibi to prove she couldn't have done the deed a half hour earlier. No one can vouch for her (because of the trope below, something Gothel surely counted on); she can't remember anything she might have done due to her muddled memories (which, thanks to her comment about this starting "as soon as I laid eyes on that Eloise", is surely something Gothel magically induced when she taunted her); and when her backpack is found in the Dumpster, the locks of hair from the victims have been planted inside. It takes video footage with a timestamp (from the troll statue at the underpass) to exonerate her.

* HappyEnding: This is one of the few episodes so far this season with an unequivocal sweet and reassuring ending--even though it has not yet been proven who is killing the cultists (and Tilly is still in danger from them), and even though neither of them remember their true relationship, the episode ends with Tilly agreeing to stay at Rogers's place so that finally, after all this time, her birthday wish to be with her father has come true. Even the Enchanted Forest portion ended happily, with Alice standing up for her inner strength and worthiness, sending the troll away as not needed to protect her any more, and then going off with Robin while saying goodbye forever to her "Tower Girl" persona.

** When Margot appears at Roni's bar, still unaware who she, her mother, or her aunt actually are, Zelena bemoans how hard it is to lie to her own child about all this. Regina merely quips, "Welcome to my world" since she'd had to do the same thing with Henry not only in this season, [[ContinuityNod but way back in Season Three under the second Dark Curse]]--which, ironically, came about thanks to Zelena herself.

** How did Alice escape the tower? A troll appeared on her birthday and ripped the roof off, then carried her away and became her friend. This, and his later return and further smashing of the structure, explains why it was collapsed when Drizella and Regina visited it in "Wake Up Call."

* TitleDrop: Done by Robin with the episode title of ''The Girl in the Tower'' in her first interaction with Alice.

* TwangHello: Robin is as fond of this as Merida was and, of course, her father before her. Of particular mention is when she shoots an arrow right past the village mob leader's ear...and when he derides her for missing, she coolly and confidently reveals she just wanted to get his attention, so she missed deliberately.

* YourMindMakesItReal: Alice's wishing power, essentially. Her desire to be free on her birthday summoned a troll to break her out; it reappears again (and goes back to the tower) because after all she's been through she still wants to go back to the only "home" she's known; and when they need to escape, she thinks hard enough to make Emma's VW appear.