Join us as we untangle Rapunzel and her backstory, Gothel and Rumplestiltskin’s quest for the Guardian, as well as Lucy’s belief and more in this in-depth discussion of “One Little Tear”!

Contrary to what we predicted last week, it turns out we stayed in Seattle instead of following Regina/Roni and Henry in San Francisco. Furthermore, it’s interesting because season 1’s penultimate episode to the season finale ended with young Henry collapsing after eating the poisoned apple turnover, much like Lucy did for this episode, only it was because of her one little tear when Victoria stole her belief.

Untangling Rapunzel

We liked how woven the storyline is; it gave us information about the Guardian, Mother Gothel and Eloise Gardener. It answered a lot of the questions that we had, like what happened to Anastasia? How did Drizella become this bitter? It tied up everything. Even Gothel’s comment is very foreshadowing of what we discovered in the end, which is that she was actually looking for the hero pure of heart; the Guardian. However, if Gothel adapted the blood magic in the tower which was designed specifically for Rapunzel’s bloodline, and was later trapped in the tower herself which she had a baby in, does that mean the blood magic adapted to Gothel’s blood?

On the other hand, they could’ve used the same actress who plays Victoria now to play Rapunzel. Lana Parrilla, for example, once played a younger version of Regina and it worked, same with Jennifer Morrison who also played a younger version of Emma Swan so there doesn’t seem a reason for them to recast a younger actress to play Rapunzel. That said, the story is very clever, even the order of telling it as it gives a little more history to little things we don’t know, such as the tower. The backstory gave us sympathetic side to the villain but also didn’t have that bad. She was really not justified to poisoning Cecelia in any way.

The weird thing is it makes Drizella sort of a psychopath for shutting her mother completely out. She also seemed closer to Cinderella in the flashbacks. The lanterns, however, was straight out of Tangled and the sun in the lanterns was their family’s sigil. But while they strayed too far from the movie Tangled, it was nice that Rapunzel got out of the tower on her own using her hair, rather than throwing her hair down and having some prince come up to rescue her from the tower. And despite Drizella being cold to her mother, Rapunzel seemed like she wants to hug her daughter. On the other hand, Anastasia isn’t too bright going out on the ice, as was her father for not jumping back in to the water for her.

A lot of this episode reminds us of Frozen, but also Into the Woods. Gothel and her garden, for one, is a reminiscent of The Witch from Into the Woods. The three young girls playing with a snowman also looks like something pulled from Frozen and The Little Women. After all, Rapunzel was in Into the Woods.

And when Rapunzel rushed into the garden, it showed Gothel’s cards as well, revealing that she was seeking for the Guardian. Is she thinking about passing the torch of being the Guardian or simply looking for the Guardian? What is she looking for the Guardian for? Is she the Dark One of this realm? What was the purpose of putting a spell on Anastasia? Does this mean that Anastasia, or Lucy, might possibly be the Guardian?

Heroes always find a way

Lucy, in this episode, is disappointing. She knows that Victoria is her evil grandmother, but it was also clever of Victoria to give Lucy enough to believe and lose hope in...