Once Upon a Time: ‘The Eighth Witch’ Recap & Review

This week on Once Upon a Time, a lot happened for their mid-season finale. We finally find out how the curse came to be and why Regina can’t just break the curse. Additionally, the writers take another stab at an LGBTQ+ relationship as they reveal the true villain of the season.

Full Recap

We pick up right after what happened in last week’s episode as Lucy’s rushed to the hospital. It quickly transitions into Henry holding Lucy as a baby as everyone gathers around him. But it doesn’t last long as Drizella interrupts the celebration. She announces she’s going to cast a curse on Lucy’s eighth birthday. Much like how Regina’s announcement at Snow and Charming’s wedding. But for the moment, the good guys win as she’s turned to stone thanks to a little blood magic and Victoria’s help. Then, we time jump eight years into the future when Drizella’s curse is supposed to be fulfilled. Mother Gothel then comes to Drizella’s rescue with the help of some faceless witches, who happen to be the evilest cult of witches. Given that Drizella’s been frozen for the last eight years, she has some catching up to do.

So, she leaves with all the witches, Mother Gothel included, and she starts to create her curse. Later on, Henry gets kidnapped, presumably by Drizella, and everyone finds out she’s poisoned Henry’s heart. Then, we find out via Weaver that Anastasia is in fact the guardian, who Weaver’s been looking for this whole time. This also means she has magic, which she doesn’t know how to use or control. Plus, Drizella ends up manipulating her and ultimately Mother Gothel into joining the evil group of witches. However, Mother Gothel has plans of her own and gets Anastasia to drain Drizella’s powers.

The Curse

Meanwhile, Regina and Henry go to San Francisco to see Zelena, or her cursed counterpart, Kelly. Turns out she’s a SoulCycle teacher and Roni’s ex-best friend. Luckily, Regina has just enough of a potion to get Zelena to remember who she really is. After some complications (which include the fact that Zelena’s engaged), she agrees to go back with Regina and Henry to help break the curse and/or help wake up Lucy. But more on that later.

Later, we discover that they can either wake up Lucy or break the curse. But they can’t do both because breaking the curse would literally kill Henry. Before casting the curse, Drizella kidnapped Henry and poisoned his heart so the only way to save him was for Regina to reenact the curse. But Lucy’s still comatose, even after true love’s kiss (which came from Henry, who got the idea from his own story), because she no longer believes. So, either Lucy dies or Henry does, both of which aren’t ideal.

Final Thoughts

Additionally, the writers took another shot at an LGBTQ+ couple this season. This time around, we see Robin (Zelena and Robin’s daughter) and Alice. We haven’t seen much of this relationship yet but I’m wondering how much more they’ll show. In the past, we saw Ruby and Dorothy’s relationship but they only designated one episode to that relationship. The same happened with Mulan and Aurora, although they didn’t end up working out. So hopefully, Alice and Robin’s relationship will be a more prominent one.

Although there have been curses in the past, this one’s different because there isn’t an obvious solution here. Mother Gothel seems to be becoming the villain of the season, which includes her witch army and Anastasia. But there are still a lot of questions about how the rest of the season will unfold. We still don’t know what Mother Gothel really wants. Drizella also no longer has her powers and we also don’t know who those other witches are or what they’ll get out of all of this.

Once Upon a Time returns on March 2nd.