The Eighth Witch

"Regina: I can't just... can't just cast a curse. It takes time, and... ingredients. Drizella: Eight, to be exact. And I have seven of them right here. The only one I'm missing... the most important one, and, of course, the hardest to find... is magic from a witch who crushed the heart of the thing she loves most. So... Regina. What'll it be?"

- Regina Mills and Drizella

"The Eighth Witch" is the tenth episode of Season Seven of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Jane Espenson & Jerome Schwartz, and directed by Ralph Hemecker. It is the one hundred and forty-third episode of the series overall, and premiered on December 15, 2017.

Synopsis
When Drizella threatens the realm with a dark curse, Henry and Ella take extreme actions to protect Lucy and the others; and Regina is forced into making an unimaginable choice. In Hyperion Heights, Roni recruits Henry to travel to San Francisco to search for her sister, but when he learns Lucy has fallen unconscious, Henry rushes to be by her side. Meanwhile, Gothel earns the trust of Anastasia and the consequences of their budding relationship could prove to be fatal.

Starring

 * Lana Parrilla as Evil Queen*/Regina Mills/Roni
 * Colin O'Donoghue as Hook (Wish Realm)/Rogers
 * Andrew J. West as Henry Mills
 * Dania Ramirez as Cinderella/Jacinda Vidrio
 * Gabrielle Anwar as Lady Tremaine/Victoria Belfrey
 * Alison Fernandez as Lucy
 * Mekia Cox as Tiana/Sabine
 * Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold/Weaver

Guest Starring

 * Emma Booth as Gothel/Eloise Gardener
 * Adelaide Kane as Drizella/Ivy Belfrey
 * Rebecca Mader as Zelena/Kelly West
 * Nathan Parsons as Jack/Nick Branson
 * Rose Reynolds as Alice/Tilly
 * Sara Tomko as Tiger Lily
 * Tiera Skovbye as Robin Hood
 * Yael Yurman as Anastasia

Co-Starring

 * Nisreen Slim as Doctor Sage

Uncredited

 * Unknown baby as Lucy
 * Unknown as Madame Leota
 * Unknown as Blind Witch
 * Unknown as Hedge Witch
 * Jaime Murray as Black Fairy*
 * Greg Germann as Hades*
 * Jared S. Gilmore as Young Henry*
 * Faustino di Bauda as Walter*
 * Unknown baby as Robin*

Trivia

 * -|Production Notes=

Title

 * The title card features San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid.
 * The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on October 14, 2017.

Production Notes

 * San Francisco's Transamerica Pyramid, Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower has been digitally added to a city wide shot of Vancouver in order to double as San Francisco.


 * -|Episode Connections=

Event Chronology

 * The Seattle events take place after "One Little Tear" and before "Secret Garden".
 * The New Enchanted Forest flashbacks take place over around nine years, starting after "Pretty in Blue" and "Sisterhood", and ending after "The Final Battle Part 2".
 * The first flashback scene takes place at least nine months after "Breadcrumbs", and before "A Taste of the Heights".
 * The rest of the flashback scenes take place eight years later. The opening events of these flashback scenes take place after "The Guardian" and before "The Final Battle Part 1". The rest of the story include the events from "The Final Battle Part 1" and "The Final Battle Part 2", and end after "The Final Battle Part 2".

Episode Connections

 * Lucy passed out due to her belief raising Anastasia in "One Little Tear".
 * The episode shows Lucy's birth. Lucy was first seen in "The Final Battle Part 1".
 * Drizella first vowed to cast the Dark Curse in "Wake Up Call".
 * Tiana's ascension as Queen is seen in "A Taste of the Heights".
 * After Gothel frees Drizella, Regina says that blood magic can never be broken. She said the same thing to Emma in "Witch Hunt".
 * How Drizella came to join Gothel's witch coven is shown in "Sisterhood".
 * Anastasia was brought back in "One Little Tear".
 * Mr. Gold first wanted to find the Guardian in "Beauty".
 * Roni and Henry decided to go to San Francisco to find someone in "Pretty in Blue".
 * The sign "There's no place like home" is seen above the entrance of Zelena's farm. This is the exact sentence that is used for the episode "There's No Place Like Home".
 * The origin of Robin's skill with a bow and arrow is explained in "Secret Garden" and her likeness to her father is further explored in "The Girl in the Tower".
 * How Zelena and Robin ended up in New Fairy Tale Land is explained in "Secret Garden".
 * In "Pretty in Blue", Roni said that whoever is in San Francisco won't be happy to see her again. This is turned out to be true in this episode.
 * Kelly West reunites with her daughter in "The Girl in the Tower".
 * Mr. Gold reverts to his old self, Rumplestiltskin, who was last seen in "A Curious Thing".
 * Mr. Gold and Alice's friendship first began in "Beauty".
 * The reason why Alice and Hook cannot be in close proximity to each other is because he was cursed with the Curse of the Poisoned Heart. It was first mentioned in "A Pirate's Life", and appears in "Pretty in Blue".
 * Sam had the same tattoo as the symbol on the wall of the Aurora Bridge. The tattoo is seen in "Greenbacks" and "Wake Up Call".
 * Sam was found dead in "Eloise Gardener". The person who poisoned him was revealed in "One Little Tear".
 * Roni gives Kelly the same potion that Ivy gave her in "Wake Up Call".
 * Regina and Zelena finally became sisters in "Sisters".
 * As Kelly's memories start to flood back, clips from "Witch Hunt", "It's Not Easy Being Green", "A Curious Thing", "Our Decay", "Last Rites" and "Where Bluebirds Fly" appear.
 * Anastasia can use magic in the Land Without Magic, just like the Dragon did in "Selfless, Brave and True" and "An Untold Story".
 * Kelly says that "I'm both", referring to her being cursed. This is similar to "We are both" expression that is used in "We Are Both".
 * Lucy's love for Henry's book is first seen in "Hyperion Heights".
 * Another enchanted tree appears. They are also seen in "Pilot" and "Tougher Than the Rest".
 * Henry makes a reference to his mother getting to the Land Without Magic via the magic wardrobe. These events are seen in "Pilot" and "The Stranger".
 * Tiger Lily was last seen in Neverland in "Awake".
 * Geppetto's ax was also used for the first enchanted tree in "Pilot" and "The Stranger".
 * The clip where Henry runs through the forest is the same one in "The Final Battle Part 2"
 * The scene where Lucy runs to her mother occurs right after "The Final Battle Part 2".
 * Victoria's struggle to save Anastasia was first seen in "The Garden of Forking Paths".
 * The "mommy issues" that Zelena and Regina talk about were seen in "The Stable Boy", "We Are Both", "In the Name of the Brother", "Mother", "Souls of the Departed" and "Sisters".
 * Zelena lost her magic in "Where Bluebirds Fly" and regained it in "Secret Garden".
 * Regina's healing spell does not work, just like it did not in "The Price".
 * Anastasia loses control of her magic because of her fears, just like Emma in "Smash the Mirror".
 * How Alice and Robin met is revealed in "The Girl in the Tower".
 * Regina enacts the Dark Curse, which was also cast in "Pilot", "Going Home", "A Curious Thing", "Broken Heart" and "The Song in Your Heart".
 * Rumplestiltskin gives Alice the chipped cup, and tells her to get it to him in the new land. Alice did what he asked her in "Beauty".
 * Henry reads Lucy a scene from "A Land Without Magic" from his storybook, and he kisses her, just like Emma did to Henry. However, it does not work this time.
 * Drizella/Ivy's hatred towards to her sister was first seen in "Wake Up Call".
 * Ivy's mission to steal Anastasia's magic was mentioned in "Eloise Gardener" and "One Little Tear".
 * Eloise sarcastically says to Ivy that she should have listened to her mother. Her mother warned her about getting Eloise out of the Belfrey Towers in "Eloise Gardener".
 * Eloise's goal to have Anastasia's magic was first seen in "Eloise Gardener".
 * Anastasia steals Ivy's magic by holding her hands, the same method that Rumplestiltskin used to steal the Seer's powers in "Manhattan".
 * Ivy and Victoria escape the pit in "Secret Garden".
 * Ivy and Anastasia make admends in "Sisterhood".


 * -|Cultural References=

Disney

 * Drizella warns the other that the Dark Curse will be cast when Lucy turns eight, which is similar to the movie Sleeping Beauty, where Maleficent warns that when Aurora turns sixteen, she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die.

Lost

 * Drizella says that the curse will be cast on Lucy's eighth birthday, a reference to the second Lost ''number.

Fairytales and Folklore

 * This episode features Cinderella, the Wicked Stepmother, and the Evil Stepsisters from the Cinderella fairytale, Captain Hook and Tiger Lily from the Peter Pan story, Jack from the Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale, Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story, Rumplestiltskin from the Rumplestiltskin fairytale, and Dame Gothel from the Rapunzel fairytale.
 * Kelly West's training instructions, "All right, my cycling monkeys. Grab onto your bikes and fly!", are a references to the flying monkeys from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
 * The Emerald Acres Farm, the home of Zelena and her daughter, is named after the Emerald City from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Popular Culture

 * The slogan of the Emerald Acres Farm, the home of Zelena and her daughter, is "There's no place like home", a famous line from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. The pigs in the pen are a reference to the movie scene where Dorothy walks along the pig pen fence on her family's farm and falls in.
 * Roni is wearing a T-shirt featuring the American punk band Ramones.


 * -|Set Notes=

Props Notes

 * The bow and quiver Robin is using is the same ones her father, Robin Hood, previously used.

Costume Notes

 * The yellow robes worn by Tiana's royal guards were previously worn by Prince Eric's guards in the Season Three episode "Ariel". The royal crest printed on the robes is also the same: A hauriant seahorse (in a vertical position with its head up). In heraldry, the seahorse is a hybrid with the fore quarters of a horse with webbed paws, and the hind part of a fish or dolphin. A scalloped fin runs down the neck and back in place of a mane.
 * The doublet Henry is wearing is the same one worn by Prince Charming in the Season Three episodes "New York City Serenade", "Witch Hunt", "The Tower" and "A Curious Thing".
 * During this episode Regina is wearing items of clothing previously worn by her Enchanted Forest counterpart, the Evil Queen.
 * The dress she is wearing while attending Lucy's eighth birthday celebration was worn by the Evil Queen in the Season Five episode "Labor of Love" (note that the shoulders have been altered and the underdress has been dyed another color).
 * The coat she is wearing while visiting her sister's farm and during the casting of the Dark Curse was worn previously by the Evil Queen in the Season Six episode "Page 23".
 * The vest Jack is wearing is the same vest Robin Hood wears in the Season Two episode "Lacey",, Season Three episodes "The Heart of the Truest Believer", "Quite a Common Fairy", "New York City Serenade", "Witch Hunt", "The Tower", and "A Curious Thing", the Season Four episode "Operation Mongoose Part 1" and the Once Upon a Time in Wonderland episode "Forget Me Not".
 * Robin Hood's Wish Realm counterpart, Robin of Locksley, also wears the vest in "Wish You Were Here, "Tougher Than the Rest" and "Page 23".
 * Roni is wearing a Ramones 76 Tour Men's T-Shirt from Amplified Clothing. Note that the sleeves have been altered for the show.


 * -|Goofs=

Goofs

 * Henry tells Lucy that the magic wardrobe took his mother to Storybrooke. However, the wardrobe did not take Emma to Storybrooke, but to the Land Without Magic. This was confirmed in "Save Henry" where Regina Mills tells Mr. Gold that Emma Swan was found in the woods outside of Storybrooke. By the time baby Emma and Pinocchio arrived in our world, Storybrooke would not have even been created yet.


 * -|Other Notes=

Filming Locations

 * The opening scene at the Resistance Camp was filmed in CRAB Park at Portside in Vancouver.
 * The Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, British Columbia doubles as the Hyperion Heights Hospital for this episode. It is the same location used for the Storybrooke General Hospital in previous seasons. The location has been used in numerous movies and television shows.
 * The same location doubles as the Hancock County Courthouse for the Season Five episode "Firebird". If you watch the entrance to the courthouse, you can see that it's a redressed version of the hospital entrance from the Season One episode "The Return".
 * Granville Island in Vancouver doubles as the San Francisco marina for this episode.
 * A real cycling studio doubles as Kelly West's place of work.
 * Vancouver's Stanley Park doubles as the New Enchanted Forest for the scene where Regina is reunited with Zelena, and the scenes where Alice is with Robin.