Once Upon a Time: ‘Secret Garden’ Recap & Review

On Friday night, Once Upon a Time returned to TV on ABC. In it, Mother Gothel helps Lucy wake up from her coma just to serve her own agenda. But like all magic, it came with a price. And in a surprise twist, the price comes as a human sacrifice.

Full Recap

After getting Zelena in last week’s episode, Regina and Zelena return only to find Lucy still comatose. There waiting and hoping for her to wake up is Henry, Jacinda, and Nick (Lucy’s “biological father”, at least in this cursed world). Despite her condition not changing, Lucy’s nurse asks to have Lucy’s parents’ blood tested. Desperate to help, Henry offers to get tested as well to increase their chances. Later, Lucy’s nurse finds out that Henry is indeed Lucy’s birth father. However, someone kills her before she’s able to share that info. But on a happier note, Lucy does wake up in the end. But we still don’t know who killed the nurse. Hopefully, that question will be answered in next week’s episode.

Meanwhile, Gold continues investigating Eloise Gardner, AKA Mother Gothel. He knows she’s evil and tries to convince Hook that she’s part of a cult. At first, Hook doubts him but later realizes he’s right. Before that, Hook goes to visit her to talk after Victoria goes missing. While he’s there, he realizes there’s someone else in the apartment but doesn’t realize who it is or why. In reality, Anastasia’s hiding in the closet but he doesn’t get the chance to figure that out. Instead, Mother Gothel asks him to walk her to her art class to get him out of the apartment.

Zelena, Robin, and Mother Gothel

In the flashbacks, we go back to see Robin (Zelena’s daughter) trying and failing her hand at casting magic spells. As a teenager, Robin kind of rebels against her mother and casts a spell that summons Mother Gothel. Then, she decides she wants to learn magic from her rather than her own mother. Eventually, Robin disappears and ends up at Mother Gothel’s house where she’s trying to resurrect her mentor. To do so, she’s using a resurrection amulet that essentially has the power to, you guessed it, resurrect someone. But it comes with a price, as all magic does. It can resurrect someone in exchange for another life. However, Mother Gothel doesn’t tell Robin that last bit.

Zelena, with Hook’s help, finds Robin just in time as she almost becomes Mother Gothel’s human sacrifice. But before that, Mother Gothel does end up extracting some of Robin’s magic. However, she and Zelena steal the amulet and Zelena ends up taking that little bit of magic for herself. In the present day, Regina and Zelena eventually find the amulet in what used to be the sign for Ronnie’s bar. Then, they give it to Mother Gothel in exchange for waking up Lucy. But they’re a little too late. Originally, Mother Gothel was going to sacrifice both Lucy and Ivy but Victoria steps in before then. Instead, she sacrifices herself to save them. After that, Hook and Gold show up only to find Victoria dead in Ivy’s arms. And Mother Gothel and her revived mentor are now nowhere to be found.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I liked that they redeemed Victoria’s character. Even though it meant she had to sacrifice herself in exchange for Lucy and Ivy’s lives. But I’m still wondering who killed the nurse and how that’ll play into the story. What it means now is that someone really doesn’t want this curse to be broken. I think the obvious choice would be Mother Gothel or one of her witches. But I think that’s too easy of an answer. I also want to know more about Mother Gothel’s mentor. I mean, she did resurrect her so she must be good. But really, I’m just wondering which one of the two is eviler.