Recap / Once Upon a Time S7 E10 The Eighth Witch

Season 7, Episode 10:

The Eighth Witch

When Drizella threatens the realm with the Dark Curse, Henry and Ella take extreme actions to protect Lucy and the others, while Regina is forced into making an unimaginable choice. In Hyperion Heights, Roni recruits Henry to travel to San Francisco to search for her sister, but when he learns Lucy has fallen unconscious, Henry rushes to be by her side. Meanwhile, Gothel earns the trust of Anastasia and the consequences of their budding relationship could prove to be fatal.

Tropes

• Arc Symbol: The symbol in Eloise Gardener's notebook; it is the mark of the Coven of Eight.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Rumple, who is now a good guy, has, in order, gone mad, been re-impified and, most importantly, gotten all the shit fixed. There is a reason most people crap themselves at the mention of his name...
• Big Bad: Gothel is finally revealed to be the true mastermind behind everything, and while Lady Tremaine was a patsy, Drizella was just as much the Big Bad Wannabe.
• The Big Bad Shuffle: Gothel is now on top after making everyone think Tremaine and later Drizella were the Big Bad.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Not only is Tremaine back here after the reveal everything she had done in Hyperion Heights was because Drizella and Gothel manipulated her memories, but Drizella is also one. She was being used by Gothel for her own ends.
• A Birthday, Not a Break: When is Drizella freed from stone, when do Gothel and her coven appear, and when is the curse to be cast? On Lucy's eighth birthday. Played with in that everyone knew the general timeframe in which Drizella would be restored (just not the specific day), and that they had openly discussed delaying the party so that this trope could not happen—but Jacinda insisted they hold it anyway since letting their lives be disturbed/ruined would still be letting Drizella win. At the same time, holding the party right near Drizella's petrified form was Tempting Fate to an extreme degree, but by the same token, the attack which breaks up the party only leads to Henry fleeing with Lucy; the appearance of the coven and casting of the curse happen later, and elsewhere.
• Blood Magic: Lady Tremaine used some of her blood to trap Drizella and turn her to stone for eight years. Also, it takes Regina's blood to cast the new Dark Curse because of her having sacrificed the heart of the thing she loved most (her father Henry) to cast the original Dark Curse.
• The Bus Came Back: Zelena and Robin. Also, Tiger Lily.
• Call-Back: In order to protect Lucy from The Dark Curse, Henry fashions a wardrobe out of the same kind of tree that was used to transport Emma in the Pilot (or rather, the version of it from this Enchanted Forest).
  • To David's titular speech in "We Are Both". In this episode, Zelena mentions that she's "both" herself and her curse persona when explaining how she still loves the man she's engaged to.
• The Chosen One: It's confirmed that Anastasia is the Guardian both Rumple and Gothel were seeking.
• Continuity Nod: Just like in the Pilot, a dark sorceress crashes what's supposed to be a happy celebration in order to announce the coming of the Dark Curse.
• Couch Gag: The title card features the Transamerica Pyramid.
• Cryptic Background Reference:
  • When Regina reveals to Zelena and Robin about the impending curse, Robin starts to insist they warn someone, only to be cut off with an assurance everyone they care about will be warned. Subverted once Alice leaves a letter with Hook to give to "her", and then fully explained when Robin comes to see Alice and it's revealed they're in love.
  • One which remains cryptic, however, likely used to set up future flashbacks, is whatever Rumple sacrificed for Alice that made her feel she owes him.
• Disposable Fiancé: Played with. Zelena is revealed to be preparing for her wedding as Kelly, and even though she understands the pressing need to save Lucy and stop Gothel and Drizella, she still has memories of her other life ("I'm both!") and so still loves her fiancé. Regina apologizes for ruining her life and says she never should have come, but then says Zelena can come back and still get married after they win. Zelena then points out she can't lie to her fiancé about who she is, and that saving their people takes precedence. So the fiancé has neither been forgotten nor disposed of, but what will happen with him or if she'll get to marry him is still up in the air.
• Double-Meaning Title: Anastasia as the eighth witch Gothel wants to join her coven, but also Regina as the eighth witch needed to cast the Dark Curse.
• Enemy Mine: Tremaine wants to bring Anastasia back to life and being in a land without magic is not something that she wants because she can't bring her daughter back without the magic that exists in the New Enchanted Forest. So what does she do? She allies with Henry and co since they have the best chance - namely numbers and magic - to defeat Drizella and Gothel and gives a "drop of [her] blood" to cast blood magic and turn Drizella to stone as the curse can't be cast with Drizella now a lump of rock.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Drizella learns to her chagrin that Gothel was just using her all along to get to Anastasia, whose power she needed for her Coven, with the result she's left magicless, dumped in a well, and faced with a mother who, quite rightly, refuses to even look at her.
  Gothel: Well, you should have listened to your mother, then.
• Fate Worse than Death: Zelena considers herself to be suffering this as she has become a fitness cycling teacher and a hippie under the curse.
• Genre Savvy:
  • Regina, in both past and present. As soon as shit starts getting fucked up, she goes to the one woman who knows more about fucking up shit than anyone else — Zelena.
  • It seems that Regina also hijacks the curse, taking specific people to Seattle, rather than just everyone it hits. Two guards are left behind when Lucy and Tiana are taken, for example, and the curse is at its largest and strongest when it takes Rumple, Robin and Alice.
• Heel–Face Turn: If we had any last lingering doubts after "Where Bluebirds Fly" that Zelena's had stuck, they're gone now. "We have to save our people, no matter the personal cost. That's what heroes do, right?"
• Heroic Sacrifice: A non-fatal example, as Hook is given a magic token which would ensure that he and Alice would remain related post-curse, but gives it away to Ella to keep her and Lucy together.
• Irony:
  • Robin, who is in love with Alice, is also the granddaughter of Cora... who was once the Queen of Hearts.
  • Both Alice and Robin were conceived by witches using disguises to pull off a Bed Trick.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Two incredibly accurate points, in fact. Both from Lady Tremaine.
  • First, there is a reason that she's been keeping Gothel prisoner — because Gothel is absolutely dangerous and cannot be trusted. Which is exactly what she's been telling Drizella from the beginning.
  • Second, why would she cast the curse to take them to a Land Without Magic? She needs magic to save Anastasia, so that would be absolutely stupid...
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: In addition to the other fake real world memories granted as part of the Dark Curse, Tremaine's memories are altered so she thinks that she's the one who cast it. Also, Zelena's cursed memories involve her believing Roni drove her daughter away, and thus she is back to the same hatred (albeit of a lesser grade) as she had toward Regina before her memories were restored in Season Five.
• Loophole Abuse: Sacrificing the heart of the thing you love most turns out to give the ability to cast the Dark Curse even without using that heart when casting the curse. At least, with the power of seven other witches backing you up.
• Magnificent Bastard:
  • Having gotten one over on, and manipulated, Lady Tremaine, Regina, and Drizella, this status is now cemented for Gothel.
  • To his credit, Rumple manages to go completely batshit insane in the flashbacks that he makes his old crazy self look sane and still gets all the shit done.
• Mommy Issues: Lampshaded by Tremaine when she taunts Drizella about having found another mother-figure to replace her; it's because of this that she refuses to listen when Tremaine warns her Gothel is just using her and will betray her when she doesn't need her anymore (and she's right). Also mocked by Zelena when she points out to Drizella that she has no room to talk about mommy issues when Zelena and Regina "wrote the book on them" thanks to their mother Cora.
• Mythology Gag: In the New Enchanted Forest, Zelena and Robin are living on a farm called Emerald Acres (with "There's No Place Like Home" written on the front gate). In San Francisco, Zelena's curse name is Kelly (as in kelly green, which was also one of the names she considered for baby Robin), she runs classes at a gym that results in her riding an exercise bike, and she calls her students "cycling monkeys."
• Noodle Incident: Somehow, Rumple was returned to his imp-like form, apparently as some kind of sacrifice for Alice.
• Once More, with Clarity: The flash forward scenes from the Season Six finale are revisited in their proper context. Including explaining a What Happened to the Mouse? from that same episode, how and why Tiger Lily could be present as a fairy with wings—because this is the Wish Realm version of her. Presumably because the Dark Curse never got cast in the Wish Realm, that's why she didn't strip herself of her wings and go into exile in Neverland.
• Power Incontinence: Anastasia's magic gets out of control whenever her emotions do, usually fear. Whether this is because she is completely new to using them (or even knowing about them), or because of their very nature as her being the prophesied Guardian of the Dagger, remains to be seen.
• Red Herring: Various plot points from Season One show up. Not one of them is able to save the day.
  • Henry and Cinderella attempt to use a tree of the same kind that brought Emma to the Land Without Magic to let Lucy escape the Curse, only for the Witches to interrupt Henry cutting it down.
  • Henry reads to Lucy from his storybook and starts to believe in the possibility of the Curse and tries True Love's Kiss to wake her just like Emma did in Season One. Since Lucy has lost her belief, it doesn't work.
• The Reveal: Aside from the circumstances behind the casting of the new Dark Curse, and how Drizella got around the "sacrifice the heart of the thing you love most" ingredient (blood from a witch who had already done that):
  • Whether Anastasia truly is the Guardian: she is.
  • Why Regina would lose everything if the new curse is broken: because the poison Drizella indeed finally used on Henry will kick in.
  • Why Victoria acted like she was the curse-caster and Big Bad: Drizella manipulated her memories and made her believe that she had cast the curse herself.
  • Gothel's reason for seeking the Guardian: Gothel needs her power for the Coven of Eight.
  • The meaning of the mysterious rune from Eloise's book: far from warding against evil, it's a symbol of the Coven of Eight, a group of the darkest witches ever to live, and they're led by Gothel.
• Sadistic Choice: Drizella and Gothel gave one to Regina in the past, to help them cast the curse or watch Henry die from their poisoning of him. In the present, Regina and Zelena are faced with the choice of either letting Lucy die or break the curse to save her, which would kill Henry because of said poison.
• Taken for Granite: Drizella was turned to stone for eight years.
• Time Skip: There's one of eight years in the flashbacks, between Lucy's birth and the casting of the curse. Also, the episode starts with Lucy having already been born, which means there was a skip through the rest of Henry and Ella's courtship, plus the pregnancy.
• Unwitting Pawn: Drizella is revealed to be one to Gothel, since she was only using her and the curse to get to a realm where the power of broken belief could restore Anastasia, whom she needed for her own dark plans. At the same time Tremaine/Rapunzel is a pawn to both of them, since Drizella explicitly sets up the curse to make her mother believe she cast it to save Anastasia, and Victoria having restored her daughter now puts her in danger from both Drizella and Gothel; Weaver calls her out on the latter.
• Wham Episode: Lucy's in a coma and can't be wakened, Zelena and Regina are powerless to help unless they break the curse which will kill the poisoned Henry, both Victoria and a depowered Drizella are imprisoned, and Gothel has Anastasia under her control and plans to use her to gather her Coven of Eight.
• Wham Line: "We can't stop them unless we get our magic back. The only way to do that...is to break the curse. If we do, Henry dies. But if we don't...Lucy does."
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It is unknown what happened to Tiger Lily when Regina casts the Dark Curse.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After transferring her magic to Anastasia, Gothel drops Drizella down a well.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!:
  • Henry plans to use the New Enchanted Forest's version of the magic wardrobe tree (and Geppetto's axe) to send them through to escape the new curse. However he hasn't succeeded in cutting down the tree by the time the witches arrive, so he is forced to face them while Lucy flees with the storybook, thus leading to his capture.
  • Weaver lays out a series of daggers, including the Dark One's, for Anastasia to choose which holds magic (rather like the Apprentice did with the Author's pen). She picks up the Dark One's dagger, but then claims it has no magic, suggesting she is not the Guardian. But then her magic goes haywire, sending all the daggers flying into a cabinet where the real dagger was located, revealing the one he laid out as the fake.
  • Regina, Zelena, Ella, Hook, and Jack face off with Gothel, Drizella, and their coven, and it appears they've won, as both Drizella and Gothel are held captive (by magic and hook, respectively), and Zelena teleports the curse scroll away. But wait—one of the robed "witches" is actually Henry, he's been poisoned, and the only way to save him is to take him to a land without magic...
  • Drizella places magic vines she got from Gothel on Anastasia's wrists to supposedly suppress her powers so they won't rage out of control. But no, she then puts on another pair and uses them to drain Anastasia's magic so she can have it all for herself and get revenge for her sister "stealing everything from me." But wait, the vines actually drain Drizella's magic into Anastasia, which will further Gothel's plans with her Coven.
  • Henry reads from his storybook to the comatose Lucy, just as Mary Margaret did to him (in fact, he reads the very scene from Season One where Emma woke him with True Love's Kiss). Afterward, just like Emma, he says he'll believe in something crazy if it will bring her back...but when he kisses her forehead, nothing happens — as Regina and Zelena point out, Lucy has lost her belief thanks to Victoria, and both sides need to believe for it to work.
  • Subverted somewhat in the final scene of the episode. After building up the creepy and rather terrifying reveal of the Coven of Eight waiting in the ritual room, Gothel pulls back one of their hoods to show they're just empty cloaks on stands. But then she states to Anastasia that the women who will wear them will be found, and Anastasia will help her do it.

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