Secret Garden

"Kelly: She'll use the girl's magic to save Lucy's life. Roni: In exchange for what? Kelly: The Resurrection Amulet. [...] She wants us to bring it to the Botanical Garden Greenhouse at midnight."

"Secret Garden" is the eleventh episode of Season Seven of ABC's Once Upon a Time. It was written by Edward Kitsis & Adam Horowitz, and directed by Mick Garris. It is the one hundred and forty-fourth episode of the series overall, and premiered on March 2, 2018.

Synopsis
Eager to harness her burgeoning magical skills, Robin engages in a risky relationship with Mother Gothel. Meanwhile in Hyperion Heights, Roni and Kelly strike a deal with Eloise, desperate to save Lucy from her mysterious illness. But nothing comes without a price. As things finally come to a head between Victoria and Ivy, someone may have to pay with their life.

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/Jacinda Vidrio
 * Gabrielle Anwar as Victoria Belfrey
 * Alison Fernandez as Lucy
 * Mekia Cox as Sabine
 * Robert Carlyle as Weaver

Guest Starring

 * Emma Booth as Gothel/Eloise Gardener
 * Adelaide Kane as Ivy Belfrey
 * Rebecca Mader as Zelena/Kelly West
 * Nathan Parsons as Nick Branson
 * Tiera Skovbye as Robin Hood
 * Yael Yurman as Anastasia

Co-Starring

 * Ayzee as Witch Friend
 * Suzy Joachim as Madame Leota
 * Willy Lavendel as Nurse
 * Nisreen Slim as Doctor Sage

Trivia

 * -|Production Notes=

Title

 * The title card features Madame Leota in the "O" of "Once".
 * The title of this episode was revealed by Adam Horowitz via his Twitter account on October 18, 2017.
 * This episode shares its name with a song from Bruce Springsteen's 1995 album Greatest Hits. Adam Horowitz is a big fan of the singer.

Production Notes

 * This is the last episode to credit Gabrielle Anwar as series regular.
 * The establishing shots of the Hyperion Heights Hospital, Eloise Gardener's transitional housing and her hideout is stock footage from the website Getty Images.
 * The footage used for the exterior of the Hyperion Heights Hospital is stock footage of a New York City hospital. The footage was used previously in the episode "Beauty".
 * The footage used for the exterior of Eloise Gardener's house is stock footage of residential apartments in Chicago, Illinois.
 * The footage used for the exterior of Eloise Gardener's hideout is stock footage of a decaying brick warehouse in Los Angeles, California.
 * -|Episode Connections=

Event Chronology

 * The Seattle events take place after "The Eighth Witch" and before "A Taste of the Heights".
 * The New Enchanted Forest flashbacks take place after "A Taste of the Heights" and before the flashback with Alice and Robin in "The Girl in the Tower".
 * The Storybrooke flashbacks take place after "Hyperion Heights", after Regina left to go help Henry in "A Pirate's Life".

Episode Connections

 * More about Robin's time growing up and living in Storybrooke is mentioned in "The Girl in the Tower".
 * Regina first obtained Cora's spell book in "We Are Both".
 * Zelena lost her magic in "Where Bluebirds Fly".
 * Lucy was born in "The Eighth Witch".
 * Hook reunited and was separated again from Alice in "Pretty in Blue".
 * Roni found Kelly West and helped her regain her memories in "The Eighth Witch".
 * Henry's heart was poisoned in "The Eighth Witch".
 * Anastasia ended up with Eloise in "The Eighth Witch". Both Ivy and Victoria were trapped in the pit by Eloise in the same episode.
 * Rapunzel poisoned Cinderella's mother in "One Little Tear". Her murder of her husband Marcus was mentioned in "The Garden of Forking Paths". Rapunzel killed a prince during "Hyperion Heights" and had plans to rip out Drizella's heart in "Wake Up Call".
 * Victoria put Lucy to sleep in order to revive Anastasia in "One Little Tear".
 * Kelly's daughter references her mother's many calls to her in "The Girl in the Tower".
 * Gothel trapped Alice in her tower in "Eloise Gardener".
 * Victoria attempted to buy Roni's bar in "Hyperion Heights".
 * Rapunzel found her way home to her family by following the lanterns in "One Little Tear".
 * Zelena recalls how her father prevented her from finding herself, which was seen in "It's Not Easy Being Green".
 * Regina cast the Dark Curse to save Henry in "The Eighth Witch".
 * Robin's interest in following in her father's footsteps is further explored in "The Girl in the Tower".
 * Ivy deals with the aftermath of her mother's death in "Knightfall".
 * Weaver and Rogers continue to investigate the coven in "Knightfall".


 * -|Cultural References=

Disney

 * Madame Leota from Disney's The Haunted Mansion appears.

Lost

 * Jacinda buys an Apollo bar from a vending machine at the hospital. This was a fictional brand on Lost.

Fairytales and Folklore

 * This episode features Cinderella and one of the stepsisters from the Cinderella fairytale, Dame Gothel from the Rapunzel fairytale, the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz story, and Captain Hook from the Peter Pan story.
 * The Scarecrow from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is also mentioned.
 * Among the gardens and greenhouses on Rogers' list, there is a location called Pomona's Greenhouse. Pomona is the goddess of fruitful abundance in Roman mythology. Another location is called "The Garden of Proserpine". Proserpine is the Roman version of Persephone, the Greek goddess of grain and agriculture.

Popular Culture

 * Henry wonders if Lucy would say that Doctor Sage is in fact Doctor Dolittle or Doctor Strange.
 * Zelena and Robin compare themselves to Beyoncé and her daughter, Blue Ivy. They also compare Robin Hood to Jay-Z.
 * Among the New Enchanted Forest locations listed on Wish Hook's map are:
 * A castle called Thrushcross Grange. Trushcross Grange was the home of Edgar Linton in Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights.
 * Puddleby on the Marsh. Puddleby-on-the-Marsh is Doctor Dolittle's hometown in The Story of Doctor Dolittle, the first Doctor Dolittle novel.
 * A castle called Gateshead Hall. Gateshead Hall is the childhood home of the titular character of Charlotte Brontë's novel ''Jane Eyre.
 * A castle called Pemberley. Pemberley is the country estate owned by Mr. Darcy, the male protagonist in Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice.
 * Barchester Bridge, a possible nod to Barchester Towers, the second novel in Anthony Trollope's series "Chronicles of Barsetshire".
 * -|Set Notes=

Props Notes

 * When Zelena opens Cora's spell book, we see a palmistry illustration of a hand, with astrological symbols for the mounts on the palm. Mounts are the bumps of flesh on the palm, which are named after planets, and which play a very important role during a palmistry reading. Five astrological symbols can be seen on the illustration:
 * Venus (♀), the mount by the thumb. Below that, the word "Vita", Latin for "life", is printed.
 * Jupiter (♃) is erroneously printed on the mound between the thumb and the index finger, which is where Lower Mars should be.
 * Mars (♂) is erroneously printed on the mound beneath the index finger, which is actually Jupiter's mound.
 * Saturn (♄), the mount under the index finger.
 * Apollo, the sun (☉), the mount under the ring finger.
 * Note that the mount of Mercury (☿), which is placed beneath the baby finger, is obscured.
 * Next to the hand, there are micro-excerpts from Ars grammatica, a survey of Latin grammar by Aelius Donatus, a fourth century Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. The excerpts in the spell book are from Donatus' first Ars grammatica, known as Ars Minor, which is a brief overview of the eight parts of speech.
 * The paragraph at the top of the page consists of selected words from the section De praepositione, "about preposition". The paragraph from the spell book reads thus: "Vbi [six or seven illegible words] ablativo ubi onem alicuius facimus accusativo casui ervit". The following is the excerpt in its entirety, with the selected words (and pieces of words) in the spell book set in bold:


 * Vbi locum significat, magis accusativo casui servit quam ablativo; ubi mentionem alicuius facimus, ablativo tantum, ut "multa super Priamo rogitans". In quam vim habet? Etiam tum accusativo casui servit, cum significat contra, ut in adulterum, in desertorem.


 * The paragraph at the bottom begins with "Legendus legenda legendum participia venientia a verbo passivo temporisum futuri generis" (the rest of the text is illegible), which is from the section De participio, "about participle". Note that the original excerpt from Ars Minor says "temporis", not "temporisum".
 * Additional text from De praepositione can be glimpsed on the opposite page. The following is the excerpt in its entirety, with the parts that can be seen in the book (most of the text is obscured by Zelena or illegible) set in bold:


 * Quo modo? Dicimus enim ad patrem, apud villam, ante aedes, adversum inimicos, cis Renum, citra forum, circum uicinos, circa templum, contra hostem, erga propinquos, extra terminos, inter naues, intra moenia infra tectum, iuxta macellum, ob augurium, pone tribunal, per parietem, prope fenestram, secundum fores, post tergum, trans ripam, ultra fines, praeter officium, propter rem, supra caelum, usque Oceanum, penes arbitros. Da praepositiones casus ablativi A ab abs cum coram clam de e ex pro prae palam sine absque tenus. quo modo? Dicimus enim a domo, ab homine, abs quolibet, cum exercitu, coram testibus, clam custodibus, de foro, e iure, ex praefectura, pro clientibus, prae timore, palam omnibus, sine labore, absque iniuria, tenus pube, quod nos dicimus pube tenus. Da utriusque casus praepositiones. In sub super subter.

Set Dressing

 * The cymbal-banging monkey toy sitting on a table in Memento Mori It is the same toy that was sitting in Mr. Gold's pawnshop when Aladdin broke into the shop in the Season Six episode "I'll Be Your Mirror".
 * The painting hanging on the wall outside of Eloise Gardener's door is A January Evening in the Woods of The Hague (1875) by Dutch painter Louis Apol.


 * -|Other Notes=

Filming Locations

 * The Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, British Columbia doubles as the Hyperion Heights Hospital for this episode. The same location doubled as the Storybrooke General Hospital in previous seasons.
 * The Riverview Hospital also doubled 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 Storybrooke General Hospital entrance from the Season One episode "The Return".
 * A forest in Vancouver doubles as the New Enchanted Forest for the outdoor scenes with Wish Hook and Zelena.
 * The scenes at Memento Mori were filmed on a set built at The Bridge Studios.
 * The set used for the interior of Eloise's house is a redressed version of Henry's apartment from "Hyperion Heights" and "A Pirate's Life".
 * The same set doubles as the restaurant where Rogers confronts Michael Griffiths in "The Garden of Forking Paths". Notice how the doors, which were changed for the restaurant, are in exactly the same spots for both locations, and the wall with the cut-out by the doors is the same, as is the alcove in the wall that runs parallel to one of the doors (Henry has a bookshelf in his).
 * The scenes at the Botanical Garden Greenhouse were filmed on a blue-screen set at The Bridge Studios.