Preston Smith
Once Upon a Time, in its March 23, 2018, episode titled “The Girl in the Tower,” finally gave viewers the long-awaited Alice (Rose Reynolds) backstory they had been teasing, and on top of showing how Alice escaped her tall prison, viewers were delighted with a Snow and Charming-esque love story for Alice and Robin (Tiera Skovbye).
An LGBT relationship was one of the things promised to viewers going into the current season after the series’ only queer relationship was left rushed and self-contained in the season 5 episode “Ruby Slippers.” Fans of course speculated who would be in the relationship and one of its members was confirmed pretty early in the season. In the fourth episode of the season, “Beauty,” Tilly (Alice’s curse persona) tells Weaver (Robert Carlyle) about an ex-girlfriend of hers that used to work for Victoria Belfrey (Gabrielle Anwar).
However, viewers of the fairytale drama first witnessed Alice and Robin’s relationship when the girls reunited and shared a passionate kiss in a flashback to right before the Dark Curse hit and they were transported to the Land Without Magic (where they have no memories of each other) in episode 10, “The Eighth Witch.”
Cut to four episodes later, and “The Girl in the Tower” gave fans everything they wanted with this budding romance. The episode’s flashbacks showed how the two originally met and fell in love, while the present day saw their cursed personas meet again for the first time. There were a ton of cute moments, including Tilly picking up a copy of Robin Hood to read and Margot (Robin’s cursed counterpart) mentioning that Alice in Wonderland is her favorite book.
The best aspect of this episode was the way that the writers made it feel natural. There was a lot of hype surrounding the previous LGBT relationship on the show, but it never ended up amounting to much. They learned their lesson, though, and gave Alice and Robin a love story in the vein of all of the other prominent couple throughout the series. Now, with Margot finally having arrived in Hyperion Heights, Seattle, in this episode, viewers will get to see them fall in love all over again.
Did you enjoy Alice and Robin’s epic story? Comment below and tweet us @Fuzzable with your love for all things MadArcher (their ship name)!
