After a whole season of our characters being tormented by Gothel, we finally get to see her backstory so let’s organise this week’s recap a little differently because it is very confusing and needs to be understood properly!
Gothel’s Backstory
The episode begins with young Gothel watching a group of girls try on fancy dresses and she later sneaks into their home to touch and admire the dresses. When she sees a damaged flower on a dress, she uses magic to fix it, but is caught in the act by the girls. They are intrigued by her magic and ask her if she’ll teach them. They also invite her to a fancy party that is being thrown the next day, which is not suspicious at all…
When Gothel returns home, we can see that she lives in a magical grove and Gothel has altered her appearance in order to look human, but she is actually a tree nymph. Her mother tells her she will never belong and says that she has a destiny to be the future leader of their people aka the ‘Mother’ of all magic. Gothel’s mother says that she has faith that Gothel will embrace her destiny.
The next day, Gothel is thrilled to be attending the party, but it turns out that her ‘friends’ lured her to the party so they could harass her and call her an abomination. Gothel returns home to find the grove destroyed and rushes to her dying mother’s side and her mother explains that humans attacked their home and killed everyone. With her dying breath, she encourages Gothel not to seek revenge, but to take the magic inside of her and start anew.
Gothel ignores the advice and heads back to the party to confront the people who took everything from her. She starts attacking the humans with her magic, but when she targets one girl, she counters with her own magic. She says that she hid her powers for years because she was afraid the humans would come after her so Gothel asks the girl to join her and she becomes Gothel’s first new ‘sister’. Gothel then finishes what she started and kills the remaining humans—reminds me so much of Carrie the Musical!
Gothel and her new sister return to the destroyed grove and explains that she has turned this realm into a Land Without Magic, and they will return to it one day. Now, they have to find others like them. According to the episode, these flashbacks all took place thousands of years ago.
Gothel Makes a Move
In Hyperion Heights, Gothel arrives at the police station to compel a cop to help her wake up the rest of her coven. It works and she tells her sisters that it is time to get back what was once theirs.
Rogers is questioning Drew at the station and realises that something impossible happened to Nick. Drew explains that Nick was killed with magic by Samdi, but Rogers isn’t ready to buy into the magic stuff although he knows something weird is happening. Naveen tells him that a war is coming and no one is safe.
Later, Gothel stalks Tilly and tells Tilly that she is her mother. Gothel claims she wants a second chance, but Tilly doesn’t want this and says she already has people who care for her. Tilly goes to see Rogers afterwards and tells him what happens so they go to see Henry because they want his help to figure out what is going on with Gothel. They arrive to see Henry already putting together information about everything happening in the Heights. Henry tells them that his book might be true and he’s looking for proof.
Gothel is heading to the bar to see Margot and chats her up before using magic to compel her into giving up a drop of blood.
Rogers and Tilly discuss their theories about Gothel with Henry who easily believes she’s a witch and thinks that she doesn’t have a lot of magic in this realm. Henry says that they if they prevent the coven from restoring their magic, they can stop Gothel. Unfortunately, Rogers gets a call from the same cop Gothel compelled who gives Rogers a ‘lead’ in order to lure them into a trap.
Gothel Manipulates Tilly
Tilly talks to Rogers about how she always wanted a mother and he tells her that biology doesn’t make someone a parent. He then promises her that he will help her figure out the truth and she says she’s so lucky that he shows so much kindness to her even though she’s a stranger to him. When they spot Gothel, they follow her right into the trap she set up. The compelled cop grabs Tilly and Gothel and her sisters capture Rogers. Gothel tells them that she is a witch and claims that if she knew Tilly was ‘special’ like them, things would’ve been different for her. Gothel claims that they are Tilly’s family, but Tilly asks who her father is. Gothel reveals that Rogers is her father and threatens to kill Rogers unless Tilly helps her with a spell.
After taking a drop of blood from both Tilly and Rogers, Gothel says they have all the ingredients they need for the spell. Rogers pleads with Tilly not to help Gothel, but she says that she can’t be responsible for his death. Tilly then joins the rest of Gothel’s coven and they cast the spell.
Lucy Turns to Facilier For Help
Earlier in the episode, Henry and Jacinda (Ella) are discussing the blood test results that reveal Henry as Lucy’s father. While Henry is convinced the test results are real, Jacinda is not sure. Henry believes the book is real and Lucy was right. He tells Jacinda that he loved her from the moment they met and thinks it’s because they knew each other before. Henry ends up freaking her out and she leaves.
Across town, Lucy goes to visit Facilier and tells him that she needs more magic. He says magic is hard to find here, but wants Lucy to find an object to represent her parents’ love. Facilier also wants to break the curse as he needs magic to survive whatever Gothel is planning. Lucy goes home and starts searching through boxes of Jacinda’s things. When Jacinda gets suspicious, Lucy says that she’s looking for proof that Henry is her father. They both search and find items from Granny’s diner. In a bag, Lucy finds the rest of the glass slipper and takes it as proof that her mom is Cinderella. Lucy gives it to Facilier and he uses the magic found inside to draw the poison out of Henry’s heart. Apparently it did work as Henry is now cured.
Jacinda invites Henry over to her place to tell him about the slipper. Jacinda is only starting to believe but she tells Henry that she wants to kiss him as Jacinda and they finally share their first kiss (it’s been forever, guys). But something must have gone wrong because the curse is still intact and Lucy is both shocked and disappointed.
Final Thoughts?
This episode was pretty good. I am surprised by Tilly’s immediate acceptance finding out who her parents are!
