Once Upon a Time: The Girl in the Tower (7x14)

This episode is an origin story for the Fremont Troll, and I love it.

Cons:

That said, while I'm a big fan of Tilly, and of Robin, I can't ignore the flaws either. There's something just utterly unbalanced in this season of Once Upon a Time, and I think it's taken me until now to realize what it is. This is not Season One of a new show. I know the creators were originally hoping that this season would be able to be a new launching point for a whole new direction, but that's not what happened. Instead, the show is being cancelled, and yet fourteen episodes in to the season it still feels like we're doing character setup. That would work if there were going to be more seasons to follow. But as it is, there's just so much happening in this show, and I'm losing faith that all the pieces are going to come together.

The subplot with Regina and Lucy was a little silly. I kind of can't believe Regina let Lucy sneak around in Facilier's apartment like that. Where was Jacinda? And how evil is Facilier supposed to be, anyway? At this point I can't tell if I'm allowed to root for Regina to find love with him, or if we're supposed to think of him as a bad influence. I like the actor playing him, and I'm intrigued as to where this is going, but there are a lot of problems, too.

For the most part, I quite enjoyed the main plot with Alice and Robin in the flashbacks, and then Tilly trying to figure out what happened, all with Rogers and Henry helping out. But as I was watching, I kept coming back to the inconsistencies in this whole thing. Where was Rumple, first of all? And secondly, why on earth would Rogers go to Henry for help? It's not as if the two of them are particularly close, or at least they don't remember that they're particularly close. It felt like an odd way to force Henry into the story. He could have pretty easily been removed from these scenes without much consequence to the plot.

Pros:

But enough of that. First of all, I didn't hate the Regina subplot. I love the fact that Zelena meddles and accidentally makes things worse. I love the fact that Lucy and Regina are actually working together. And I like that Facilier noticed that Lucy had been in his apartment, but decides to let her go. It adds a layer to this whole thing that I don't know how to unpack. Whose side is he really on? I'm interested to find out.

Ever since we found out about Robin and Alice being together, I've been waiting to find out how they met. And honestly? This was more than I could have hoped for. A whole episode focused on Tilly/Alice, on her past, on how she met Robin, and on the origin story for the Fremont Troll? Yes please!

It's so delightful to see the Fremont Troll featuring on this major series on ABC, because it feels like this fun little local secret. Everybody from the Greater Seattle Area knows about the Troll, so it's been really adorable to see it on the show.

Alice and Robin are really... sweet? It's just so gentle and pure. It reminds me of the early Snow and Charming stuff in some ways, as there's some betrayal, some misunderstandings, but underneath it all you can tell that these two people just click with one another from the start. Robin is still trying to figure out how to place her own sense of self in relation to the world and the legacy of her father, while Alice is struggling with being separated from the only family she has ever know, while trying to carve out her own place in the world. And they work so well together! I have no idea if this is realistic or not, but I kind of hope that it's Alice and Robin's True Love's Kiss that breaks the curse, instead of Henry and Jacinda's. Probably too much to hope for.

It is just so darn sweet that Rogers wants to help Tilly so badly. I love the concept that even though everybody is cursed and a lot of them don't remember each other, they're still drawn to the people that mean the most to them. We saw it with David and Mary Margaret in Storybrooke, we see it with Jacinda and Henry, and we also see it with Rogers and Tilly. Rogers just... believes in her innocence. Even if logic is telling him that he's found his missing girl and that this part of his life should be over, he's still drawn to his daughter. I cannot wait for their reunion once the curse is broken.

So there you have it! The Fremont Troll, and Alice's version of Emma's yellow bug, is excellent. The blossoming romance between Alice and Robin is excellent. And even some of the less excellent stuff still has wonderful potential. I can't wait to figure out what Facilier's plan is...

8/10