Season 7, Episode 9:
One Little Tear
Victoria strikes a deal with Weaver in an attempt to free herself from jail and wake Anastasia, but the cost of saving one life could mean the loss of another; Rogers, however, becomes suspicious and investigates his fellow officer. Meanwhile, Jacinda and Nick share an exchange that could alter her future with Henry. And in the Enchanted Forest, Rapunzel reunites with her family with the aid of Mother Gothel, but it comes with a cost.
Tropes
- Arc Words: "I'll/you'll do anything for my/your family" and "For my family, I'll always find a way."
- Artistic License – Biology: Rapunzel’s hair is shown to be long enough for her to escape the tower, even though it would take a lot longer than 6 years for it to grow that long.
- Batman Gambit: And how. Rumple is playing one with the dagger (which, to judge by how he showed it to Sabine under the pretence it was used to break into the kitchen of Cluck's, and from later episodes, is to try and locate the Guardian); Gothel is playing one on Drizella for unknown reasons and in the past was playing another gambit to find the Guardian herself, while in the present day she seems to be playing a tentative one with Rumple too; and Victoria Belfrey has been playing one to wake Anastasia.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With Victoria having gotten easily out of prison, she is no longer quite the Big Bad Wannabe she seemed, particularly with her plot to destroy Lucy's belief going off without a hitch. As both something of a Dragon Ascendant to Gothel (because she explicitly turned the tables on her in multiple ways) and the source of Drizella's Start of Darkness, she occupies far more of a central role than it seemed only a few episodes ago. At the same time, the evil she created in Drizella and the release of the dangerous Gothel has resulted in multiple villains with equal power and roles in the plot, although in this case they have only worked together out of convenience and coercion and are shaping up to be quite the Evil vs. Evil or Eviler than Thou situation.
- Blatant Lies: Victoria's speech to Jacinda about how the whole thing with the custody of Lucy was a Secret Test of Character which she first failed by signing her over, then passed by going to Nick for help, how she learned from being locked up "what really mattered—Lucy's happiness", and saying she was proud of Jacinda is so out-of-character and (thanks to previous scenes with Ivy and Weaver) so obviously insincere, Jacinda is understandably wary. And she was right to be.
- Breaking Speech: Victoria shows Anastasia's unconscious body in the hospital to Lucy to break her faith in happy endings.
- Cardboard Prison: Despite having no money, lawyer, or assets, Victoria is easily able to escape jail—first by rebuffing Ivy (and using her meeting as an excuse to meet Weaver), then procuring Weaver's aid in restoring Anastasia by offering him the means to find the Guardian and escape the Dark One's dagger. Weaver's claim that Rogers didn't get a search warrant is the icing on the cake, since Rogers accuses Weaver of simply leaning on the judge to achieve this decision when the circumstances actually justified his rush.
- Chekhov's Gun: The spell that Gothel uses to trap Rapunzel in the tower is used by Tremaine to imprison her. Also, Lucy's doll that Victoria gives to Jacinda contains a spy camera which is used to film the latter kissing Nick.
- Circling Monologue: Gothel does one to Weaver, both to taunt him about Belle and to drop the bombshell about Lucy being in danger from Victoria.
- Composite Character: Rapunzel is revealed to be Lady Tremaine (the name having been her husband's). Somewhat lampshaded when Gothel remarks to Weaver, "Rapunzel, Lady Tremaine, Victoria Belfrey—whatever role she's taking today."
- Continuity Nod:
- Once again, the Once Upon a Time storybook factors into the power of belief—with the inversion that after being shown it to prove her belief in the fairy tales was right, Lucy is eventually broken of that belief by hearing the "rest" of the story (with judicious, self-serving editing and some out-of-context video). Then, like Emma in the Season Six finale, it is Lucy's loss of belief that is key (this time in restoring Anastasia's heart rather than destroying all the realms), and it's the book itself that is used to deliver her tear.
- Also once again, the young child believer is the target of an antagonist's manipulative machinations, with the end result of collapsing in near-death/magic catatonia in front of their mother in her apartment (from her tear of broken belief restoring someone to life vs. eating a poisoned apple turnover).
- Rumple speaks to Victoria about Baelfire, everything he did to get back to him, and all the costs he paid to do so; he also cautions her against not doing everything she can to reconnect with Ivy, before it is too late and she's lost the chance forever.
- When Rapunzel promises Gothel "anything", Gothel's reaction and words very much parallel how Rumple reacted whenever someone offered him an open-ended deal (particularly to Hook and Anna in Season 4's "The Apprentice").
- Couch Gag: The title card features the floating lanterns.
- Enemy Mine: Rumple and Gothel, though they don't say it in words, are both aware that Gothel is playing Drizella like a very small fiddle and that they're both searching for the Guardian. Neither expressly agrees to team up - Rumple is, in fact, against it - but it seems that neither is actively working against the other, making it a tentative case of Gothel and Rumple working against the Tremaines. And, as seen earlier in the series, Gothel also seems to not want Lucy's belief broken, something which she warns Rumple about when she gets the chance.
- Even Evil Has Standards: We're not sure if Rumple classifies on the "evil" scale anymore (if he even actually does anymore as he's doing morally ambiguous things for good reasons), but he is decidedly against anything happening to Lucy. Gothel, while she also seems not to want Lucy's belief broken (earlier in the series she mentions it to Tremaine) and gives Rumple the warning about it, is most definitely evil so fits the standard to a 'T'.
- Evil Mentor: Gothel was briefly one to Tremaine.
- Exact Words: Rapunzel said she would give anything for "her family's happiness", but Gothel didn't specify when she promised this that this happiness would include Rapunzel's own—or that the happiness would last, considering what happens to Cecelia, then Anastasia, and eventually Drizella and Ella.
- Failed a Spot Check: Gothel didn't notice Rapunzel/Tremaine taking the tower-banishment potion from her cloak.
- Freudian Excuse: Rapunzel had a very good reason to be upset and heartbroken, her family and happiness destroyed in one way or another by Gothel, and it's understandable why she would be upset her husband remarried or that her youngest daughter no longer loves or is attached to her. But it was her choice to poison Cecelia, and it's hardly right of her to blame Ella for what happened to Anastasia simply because it was her chasing the hat out onto the ice which led to them falling in, or that Marcus could only save one of them.
- Hoist by Her Own Petard: Gothel. See Chekhov's Gun above.
- Internal Reveal: Weaver finally confesses to Rogers that everything he has done, including helping Victoria, has been to reunite with Belle (although of course he doesn't reveal the full details of this). This honesty convinces Rogers to trust and join forces with him.
- Manipulative Bitch:
- Victoria has nastily re-ascended to this role again. First she uses Ivy's desperation to claim Anastasia's heart to arrange a meeting with Weaver (and so she can taunt her); then she reveals she knows Weaver's real identity and offers him the means to free himself of the dagger and rejoin Belle if he will help her; then she delivers the custody papers to Jacinda (which Nick proves are on the up-and-up) all so she can secretly stash her phone there and record Jacinda and Nick's caught-in-the-moment kiss; then finally she shares the storybook with Lucy and confesses everything, but adds in enough cruel and cynical twistings of the truth, plus the previously-recorded kiss, to break Lucy's belief so she can bring back Anastasia.
- Gothel is also proving to be a good one as well. Everything she does in the flashbacks was a means of seeing whether Rapunzel was worthy of being the Guardian she is seeking (which is also the same one Rumple wants). When Rapunzel turns out not to be the Guardian, she decides to do the same to Anastasia to see if the Guardian is in her bloodline. In the present day, Tremaine and Rumple are fully well aware Gothel is using Ivy as a puppet for her own plans.
- Meaningful Name:
- Weaver asks Gothel why she calls herself "Mother" Gothel; the witch replies the word means different things to different people, saying that she "tends to people's needs" (also implying it refers to her garden- and plant-based powers).
- In retrospect, having Victoria's last name be Belfrey is even more this than it seemed — instead of just being a villain who traps people in towers (Cinderella, Gothel), she herself was trapped in one as Rapunzel.
- Also in retrospect, Drizella's cursed name being Ivy when she is the daughter of Rapunzel and protege of Gothel (not to mention how much she seems to cling to things, as Tremaine herself had noted before — Cecelia, a need to be loved or at least respected by her mother, magic, Gothel, revenge...).
- Mythology Gag: Multiple ones, to both Tangled and the original Grimms' fairy tale.
- At the start of the episode, a parent seeks out a means to cure their dying spouse and in the process runs afoul of a witch. Like the fairy tale, this involves trespassing in her garden and stealing some of her magical plants, but it's the mother trying to save the father (inverted from both the fairy tale and the Disney film), the father is actually dying rather than simply craving a certain food, and the mother is Rapunzel herself, and is trapped in the tower by means of a deal rather than stolen by the witch or given in return for sparing the parents' lives.
- Rapunzel uses lanterns as a means of connecting her family together, telling Anastasia that as long as they can see her light they'll know she's all right, and as long as she can see theirs she can find her way back to them. This later inspires Anastasia to send up the lanterns from Tangled's Signature Scene, and like in the film seeing them pushes Rapunzel to leave the tower (although here, she knows exactly who she is and what they mean, and this just guides her back to the family she's already seeking).
- As in the film, Rapunzel's hair goes from long, blond, and braided (both before and after the extreme growth) to short and brunette, but it's never explained how or why beyond her cutting it off to escape, though it is apparently something she adopted sometime after Marcus's death since her hair already has this appearance as Lady Tremaine in the flashbacks.
- In the present day, a tear is once again the key to saving someone's life, but with a twist — while in the Disney film there was a cost (Rapunzel losing her magic), it was one she was more than willing to pay to heal Eugene, but here Lucy (although she likely would have gladly restored Anastasia if she could, and didn't know the price) has to sacrifice her belief. Whether this will have further repercussions for Hyperion Heights, or perhaps even magic and the curse itself, remains to be seen, but for now it has certainly endangered Lucy's life, just as happened to Henry twice before (the turnover, Pan).
- There are also a couple small ones to Frozen: aside from the fact the Tremaine girls were building a snowman just before the tragedy, it's Ella falling through the ice that puts her sister Anastasia's life in danger. The difference is that no magic is involved, that Anastasia actually would have died if Gothel hadn't frozen her last breath in her lungs (although Anna was close to it as well), and that the incident resulted in the girls' mother hating Ella and blaming her for it all rather than merely fearing or trying to control her.
- Prior to poisoning Cecelia, Rapunzel became something of a servant in her own house (serving tea and the like). One can imagine it was resentment over this which led her to inflict the same punishment on Ella after her stepfather's death.
- The Reveal:
- Lady Tremaine is her world's version of Rapunzel.
- Tremaine/Rapunzel favors Anastasia because the latter remembered her better after her absence — Drizella was younger, and bonded more with her stepmother Cecelia, causing Tremaine to resent her.
- The circumstances of Anastasia's near death are revealed — while building a snowman with her sisters, she and Ella fell through the ice, and their father was only able to save Ella.
- We also learn it was Rapunzel who used the poisonous mushroom to curse Cecelia, thus forcing her to flee and allowing her to rejoin her husband and become mother to all the girls.
- Gothel, too, has been seeking the Guardian of the Dagger (for reasons unknown). She thought it was Rapunzel until she proved susceptible to temptation, and implies it might be Anastasia.
- Secret Test of Character:
- Gothel reveals the whole situation she engineered with Rapunzel was this — the initial deal to trade her life for the happiness and safety of her family was predicated on the notion that Rapunzel might be the Only the Pure of Heart Guardian. But she allowed her to escape the tower so as to prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt by tempting her with the means to destroy the innocent Cecelia, after discovering what happened to her family in her absence. Rapunzel passed when initially making the deal, but failed after her escape.
- Victoria claims that her taking custody of Lucy from Jacinda was this, though she's almost certainly lying.
- Shout-Out: Seeing Lady Tremaine's prison outfit, Drizella remarks that "Orange looks better on the women in that Netflix show."
- This Is Reality: Variation. Victoria confesses to Lucy that the fairy tales she believes in are real, and even shows her the original Once Upon a Time storybook to prove it... but then tells her the terrible things which happened after the "endings" which she blames for ruining her life, then uses this to claim that happy endings aren't real.
- Wham Episode: Victoria knows that Rumple is awake, and he likewise knows the same about her. Also, Lady Tremaine manages to wake Anastasia, at a terrible cost to Lucy.
- Wham Line:
- Rapunzel calling her two daughters Anastasia and Drizella, making it clear she is Lady Tremaine.
- Victoria makes it clear via talk of deals, knick-knacks, the dagger and the search for the Guardian, that she knows Rumple is awake.
- Gothel telling Rapunzel she wants the Guardian too.
