The Girl in the Tower

"Robin Hood: Wow. So you're the girl in the tower. Alice: I got out of that tower years ago."

"The Girl in the Tower" is the fourteenth episode of Season Seven of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Dana Horgan & Leah Fong, and directed by Antonio Negret. It is the one hundred and forty-seventh episode of the series overall, and premiered on March 23, 2018.

Synopsis
Rogers works to prove Tilly's innocence in the case of the Blind Baker's death, while Ivy attempts to make amends with Anastasia, and Samdi makes a revealing confession to Roni. Meanwhile, in a faraway realm, Alice forms an unbreakable bond.

Starring

 * Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills /Roni
 * Colin O'Donoghue as Hook (Wish Realm)/Rogers
 * Andrew J. West as Henry Mills
 * Dania Ramirez as Cinderella
 * Alison Fernandez as Lucy
 * Mekia Cox (Credit only)
 * Robert Carlyle (Credit only)

Guest Starring

 * Emma Booth (Press release only)
 * Daniel Francis as Mr. Samdi
 * Adelaide Kane as Ivy Belfrey
 * Rebecca Mader as Zelena /Kelly West
 * Rose Reynolds as Alice/Tilly
 * Tiera Skovbye as Robin Hood/Margot
 * Yael Yurman (Press release only)

Co-Starring

 * Peter Ciuffa as Deli Owner
 * Jasmine Lukuku as Produce Vendor
 * Cory Rempel as Clayton

Uncredited

 * Unknown baby as Lucy

Trivia

 * -|Production Notes=

Title

 * The title card features the Troll's statue form.
 * The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on November 29, 2017.
 * According to Leah Fong, the second choice for the title of this episode was "Goodbye, Tower Girl".


 * -|Episode Connections=

Event Chronology

 * The Seattle events take place after "Knightfall" and before "Sisterhood".
 * The New Enchanted Forest flashbacks occur in various places of the overall timeline.
 * The flashback where Alice escapes the tower takes place several years after "Knightfall", and before "Greenbacks".
 * The remaining flashbacks take place years later, after "Secret Garden" and before "The Guardian".

Episode Connections

 * How Alice was trapped in Gothel's Tower is explained in "Eloise Gardener".
 * Alice lights a candle on a cupcake to celebrate her birthday, just like Emma did in "Pilot" and "Wish You Were Here", and Zelena in "Our Decay".
 * Tilly was accused of murdering Hilda Braeburn in "Knightfall".
 * Henry's daughter Lucy was born in "The Eighth Witch".
 * Robin's skill with a bow and arrow was first seen in "Secret Garden".
 * Alice explains that she keeps a distance to her father because his heart is poisoned and he will die if she gets too close; referring to events in "Pretty in Blue", where Wish Hook became injured when he and Alice embraced.
 * Robin references Nook, the nickname Zelena first called Hook during "Secret Garden".
 * Robin says that she thought Henry and Cinderella left Alice in Wonderland looking for a cure for Alice's father, referring to events in "Pretty in Blue".
 * How Robin came to the New Enchanted Forest is explained in "Secret Garden".
 * Lucy and Roni continue Operation Hyacinth, which they began in "Knightfall".
 * Lucy mentions Henry was poisoned, an event that happened in "The Eighth Witch".
 * Ivy first spoke of her plans to find and reconcile with Anastasia in "Knightfall".
 * Victoria's death occurred in "Secret Garden".
 * While in Henry's apartment, Ivy is holding her childhood doll Beatrice, which she got from Jacinda in "Knightfall".
 * Rogers tells Henry that Tilly once shot Weaver. This event was seen in "Beauty".
 * Tilly references how upset she felt when she saw Eloise, which occurred in "Knightfall".
 * The book Robin Hood: Myth and Legend, which Tilly finds in Henry's apartment, is the same book that Regina finds in Robin Hood's old apartment in "Only You". According to Regina, she gave the book to Robin before he left Storybrooke with his family.
 * Tilly mentions buying marmalade sandwiches, a favorite of hers that Weaver gave her in "Beauty".
 * Robin talks about stealing the sheriff's bug. This well-known vehicle was first seen in "Pilot".
 * Robin says that her father died when she was a baby, an event that took place in "Last Rites".
 * Kelly is surprised to see that Mr. Samdi is awake. She and Roni attempted to find out if he was cursed in "A Taste of the Heights".
 * The lock of hair that the killer took from Doctor Sage was first seen in "Secret Garden".
 * Roni refers to her long history with Weaver when he was still Rumplestiltskin, which began in "We Are Both" when they first met.
 * Kelly left one of her 37 messages for Margot in "Secret Garden".


 * -|Cultural References=

Disney

 * At Alice's tea party, she wears a blue dress and smock, similar to what she wears in Disney's Alice in Wonderland. She also sings "The Unbirthday Song" with different words.

Fairytales and Folklore

 * This episode features Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story, Cinderella from the Cinderella fairytale, and the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story.
 * The Troll is an allusion to the BFG from the novel of the same name.
 * Alice has a tea party with her stuffed animals on her birthday, a reference to the Mad Hatter's tea party from the book. She also picks up a top hat and jokingly refers to it as "Mr. Hatter".
 * When Alice is looking at the stars, she mentions the "second star to the right", quoting the directions to Neverland in Peter Pan.
 * Alice says she sometimes believes six impossible things before breakfast, a line very similar to one from Through the Looking-Glass.
 * When she returns to Roni's, Margot says "There's no place like home", which is a reference to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Lost

 * There is a close-up of Alice's eye when she uses the spyglass, a recurring theme on Lost.
 * Robin says that she drove the Yellow Bug for eight minutes before she was caught, a reference to the second Lost number.

Popular Culture

 * Henry has a volume of The American Peoples Encyclopedia in his bookshelf.
 * In the Season One episode "The Stable Boy", young Henry had several volumes of The American Peoples Encyclopedia in his room.
 * When Tilly goes to fetch her backpack from the dumpster, Henry says, "Unless you ran into Oscar the Grouch, you're not gonna find an alibi back here." Oscar the Grouch is a character on the children's television program Sesame Street, who lives in a trash can.
 * The Triumphal Arch of the Star is pictured on a painting in Mr. Samdi's living room.
 * One of the Marvel comics in Henry's apartment is X-Factor Vol 1 #9.
 * According to the cover, Margot's copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is illustrated by Arthur Rackham, a famous nineteenth/twentieth century English book illustrator. The cover illustration is "At this the whole pack rose up into the air and came flying down upon her", one of several illustrations created by Rackham for Lewis Carroll's novel in 1907.
 * The same picture can be seen among the numerous fairy tale illustrations pinned to the wall in Henry's room in the Season One episode "Pilot" and the Season Three episode "The New Neverland".


 * -|Other Notes=

Filming Locations

 * The parking lot at Ki Sushi in New Westminster is used for the outdoor scene where Henry and Rogers are talking to Tilly after they find her on the street.
 * Santa Barbara Market in Vancouver doubles as the exterior and interior of Hyperion Grocery for this episode.
 * The Bridal Gallery, also known as The Vault, in New Westminster, doubles as the exterior and interior of Mr. Samdi's hotel.
 * CRAB Park in Vancouver doubles as the area where Kelly West confronts Roni and Mr. Samdi.