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
 * Nathan Parsons as Nick Branson
 * Tiera Skovbye as Robin
 * 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

 * A sequence involving Colin O'Donoghue, Robert Carlyle and Rose Reynolds was cut from the episode.
 * 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".
 * The New Enchanted Forest flashbacks take place during the eight-year time jump of "The Eighth Witch", between the first flashback scene and the rest of them.
 * The Storybrooke flashbacks take place after "Hyperion Heights", after Regina left to go help Henry in "A Pirate's Life".

Episode Connections

 * Victoria put Lucy to sleep in order to revive Anastasia in "One Little Tear".
 * Roni found Kelly and returned her memories of Zelena in "The Eighth Witch".
 * Gothel trapped Alice in her tower in "Eloise Gardener".
 * Zelena lost her magic in "Where Bluebirds Fly".


 * -|Cultural References=

Disney

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

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.

Lost

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

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.
 * Parts of the text that is printed next to the hand are micro-excerpts from Ars grammatica 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 words "accusativo casui ervit", which can be seen at the bottom of the paragraph at the top of the page (note that the book says "ervit", not "servit") are from the section De praepositione, "about preposition".
 * The paragraph at the bottom begins with "Legendus legenda legendum participia venientia a verbo passivo temporis futuri generis" (note that the book says "temprisum", not "temporis"), which is from the section De participio, "about participle".
 * 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 underlined :

quo modo? dicimus enim ad patrem, apud uillam, ante aedes, aduersum 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 ablatiui. 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 ca sus praepositiones. in sub super subter.


 * -|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".
 * 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).