Once Upon a Time: Flower Child (7x19)

I didn't really need to know this much about Gothel's backstory.

Cons:

Apparently Gothel was a magical tree nymph or something, and horrible humans slaughtered her whole community. She then goes around collecting misfits, finding people who have magic, so she can build up her coven. I don't care about humanizing this character... maybe I'm feeling some burnout on giving all of the villains in this show a sympathetic backstory. Yawn.

I'm even more confused as to Facilier's motivations, and not in a good way. Can't we get something approaching a real answer soon? Does he want to help Henry and Jacinda? What is he doing with Drew? I don't know how to care about this dude. I don't know how I'm supposed to care about him.

Pros:

For all that Gothel's backstory didn't really do anything for me, everything gets 10,000 times more interesting when Tilly is brought in to the equation. I hadn't really stopped to consider that Gothel is Tilly's mother in more than an abstract sort of way, and I was so interested to see Tilly's reaction to that revelation. It doesn't make any sense, and yet there's a part of her that knows it must be true. I loved her reaction to Gothel's offer of family - Tilly rejects her, knowing that she already has people who love and care about her. Yay for Rogers and Margot being supportive!

The final scene, where Tilly has to help Gothel in order to protect Rogers, was pretty amazing. As I keep saying, the best element of this season for me is seeing the relationships that are developing despite nobody remembering their pasts. Tilly and Rogers would do anything for each other. And now, they've been told that they are father and daughter. It must be impossible to believe, especially for Rogers, and yet they can both feel that somehow it's true. And now Tilly is forced to do something awful in order to save a man she really cares about, even if she doesn't quite understand how this is all possible. Also, Gothel talks about needing blood from "old love," the love Tilly has for her father, and then blood from "new love," the person Tilly wants to spend her life with - referring to Margot. I just about fell over. Those two are the cutest ever.

This episode also features several characters starting to really consider the possibility that this whole fairy-tale thing is real. It was fun to see them work towards the truth. I loved it when Rogers and Tilly showed up at Henry's house, and he'd basically turned it into a war room, looking for evidence of the truth. The glass slipper thing is also a delight - I love how excited Henry and Jacinda both were to realize that they are connected in this magical way. Of course, they kiss, and it doesn't work.

Why? Well, there are a couple of theories... whatever Gothel is doing with her coven might be blocking it in some way. There's also every chance that Facilier screwed it up somehow. I like not knowing, and I like that the kiss didn't totally work. I'm still rooting for an unexpected kiss to break the curse, the way it did with Emma and Henry way back in Season One. But either way, I do root for Henry and Jacinda. Their hope for a magical curse-breaking kiss was just so endearing. The way the characters have been developed, especially Henry, it makes sense that they could get swept up and want to believe in the truth right in front of their noses.

This review is a bit short, but honestly I just got back from seeing Avengers: Infinity War and I'm still majorly shook, so I'm just going to leave it at that for the time being. Just a few more episodes until it's time to say goodbye to this show!

7/10