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For the first iteration, see Night Root. |
Golden Flowers are magical plants featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. They appear in the seventh episode of the seventh season.
Golden flowers are based on the flower of the same name from the Disney film Tangled, and the rapunzel plant from the fairytale "Rapunzel."
History
When Rapunzel states she would do anything to ensure her family's survival, the witch Gothel pours out some powder from golden flowers and flings the substance at Rapunzel, causing her to be entrapped in a tower. Six years later, Rapunzel escapes and returns to her family, only to resort to dark means to drive away her former husband's current wife. After Rapunzel's older daughter Anastasia dies, Gothel preserves the girl's life and announces her intentions of keeping her in the tower to see if she is the Guardian. Rapunzel refuses to let this happen, and after revealing she already stole Gothel's powder, she throws some on the witch, effectively imprisoning her in her own tower. ("Eloise Gardener," "One Little Tear")
When Hook comes looking for a golden flower, which can kill an immortal such as his nemesis Rumplestiltskin, he climbs into the tower, where Gothel is already disguised as Rapunzel. She shows him a box containing a golden flower that was used to seal her in the tower and informs him the only viable one can be found by singing in the witch's garden, to which Hook agrees to come back for her after he has gotten the flower. In the garden, Hook sings a pirate's tune, triggering a giant-sized gnome into coming alive and chasing after him and his companion Smee, but he sings a lullaby to reveal the flower's location. He manages to grab the flower in time, causing the gnome's destruction, before going back into the tower to show the flower to Rapunzel. Hook asks how she intends to use it to free herself, but Rapunzel remains secretive about the details. She seduces him into sleeping with her, and unknown to Hook, this union causes her to fall pregnant. In Gothel's plan to escape the tower, she needs to leave behind someone of her bloodline in her place. As such, Gothel uses the golden flower to accelerate her pregnancy, resulting in a fully grown infant daughter by the next morning. After coming clean to Hook about everything including her true identity, she mentions leaving one flower petal for him to complete his revenge, but Hook abandons his plans to care for his daughter. ("Eloise Gardener")
As prospective candidates, including Drizella, gather for a chance to join a witch coven, Gothel informs them that there are only two vacant spots left and they must prove their worth to her by gathering two golden flowers from beyond the river. She also stresses they each will work alone and be both savvy and cutthroat if they wish to outshine their competitors. Once the witches go their separate ways to begin searching for the flowers, Gretel persuades Drizella to work together with her, and in the brief time that they talk, they form a fast friendship. The girls split paths later, during which Gothel comes clean to Drizella about the test being nothing more than a ruse as there are no golden flowers in this forest and instead she has already picked her as the only witch she wants in the coven. However, as the real test, Gothel hands her a dagger, telling her to kill Gretel. Drizella tries to convince Gretel to give up joining the coven so they can instead work with each other to accomplish their individual goals. At first, it seems Gretel agrees with the idea before mentioning she did manage to find one of the flowers and urges her to come have a look at it. Drizella, realizing her friend is lying to her and has turned against her, clenches her dagger, to which Gretel concludes Gothel must have offered her the same thing. ("Sisterhood")
Trivia
Props Notes
- The petal that Gothel left for Wish Hook is lying on the table next to him when he is holding his newborn daughter.[1] ("Eloise Gardener")
Disney
- After escaping the tower, the first iteration of Rapunzel wears a cloak embroidered with golden flowers,[2] a reference to the golden flower from Tangled. ("The Tower")
Appearances
| Once Upon a Time: Season Seven | ||||||||||
| "Hyperion Heights": | "A Pirate's Life": | "The Garden of Forking Paths": | "Beauty": | "Greenbacks": | "Wake Up Call": | "Eloise Gardener": | "Pretty in Blue": | "One Little Tear": | "The Eighth Witch": | "Secret Garden": |
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Appears | Absent | Appears | Absent | Absent |
| "A Taste of the Heights": | "Knightfall": | "The Girl in the Tower": | "Sisterhood": | "Breadcrumbs": | "Chosen": | "The Guardian": | "Flower Child": | "Is This Henry Mills?": | "Homecoming": | "Leaving Storybrooke": |
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Mentioned | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
