Summer Gets Tangled

**Summer Gets Tangled** is an episode of Summer's Adventures series.

## Plot

Long ago, a drop of sunlight fell from the sky and produced a magic flower with healing properties. An old woman named Mother Gothel hid the flower and used it to retain her youth and beauty. Centuries later, the flower was taken by soldiers from the nearby kingdom of Corona and used to save their pregnant and ailing Queen, who gave birth to a daughter with golden hair, named Rapunzel. Gothel snuck into the castle and discovered that Rapunzel’s hair had inherited the flower's magic, but turns brown and powerless when cut. To keep the flower's magic, Gothel kidnapped Rapunzel and now raises her in a hidden tower in the woods. Each year on their daughter's birthday, the king and queen release sky lanterns, hoping they will guide her home.

Eighteen years later, Rapunzel, with an overprotective chameleon named Pascal, is fascinated by the annual lights and, on the eve of her 18th birthday, asks for permission to leave the tower and investigate them. Gothel refuses, saying the outside world is too dangerous for her. Meanwhile, thief Flynn Rider steals Rapunzel's intended crown from the palace; he abandons the Stabbington brothers, his partners, while being relentlessly pursued by royal guard-horse Maximus ("Max"). Flynn discovers and takes refuge in the tower, where Rapunzel knocks him out with a frying pan and hides him in a closet. When Rapunzel attempts to show him to Gothel as proof she can defend herself, Gothel angrily berates Rapunzel and again refuses to let her leave the tower. Hatching a plan, Rapunzel instead asks for new paint as a gift, sending Gothel on a three-day journey.

Rapunzel hides the crown and strikes a deal with Flynn, promising to return it in exchange for taking her to see the lanterns. Along the way, they stop at the Snuggly Duckling pub. Menacing thugs try to capture the wanted Flynn, but Rapunzel charms them into revealing their softer sides. When royal guards arrive, the thugs help her and Flynn escape. Meanwhile, Gothel becomes suspicious, returns to the now empty tower, and finds the crown. She sets out to find Rapunzel and allies with the Stabbington brothers.

Flynn and Rapunzel become trapped in a fast-flooding cave; believing they will suffocate, Flynn reveals his true name, Eugene Fitzherbert. Rapunzel uses the magic glow of her hair to reveal a hidden exit beneath the water, and they escape. That night, Gothel confronts Rapunzel alone and gives her the crown, telling her to test Eugene's loyalty.

The next morning, Max tracks down Eugene and attempts to arrest him, but Rapunzel demands a birthday truce, which Max reluctantly agrees to. Rapunzel and Eugene enter the kingdom and attend a festival in honor of the "lost princess". After a day of celebration, they sail onto the lake to watch the release of the lanterns. Having fulfilled her dream, Rapunzel gives Eugene the crown, and they confess their love. When Eugene sees the Stabbington brothers on the shore, he goes to apologize and offers them the crown. Instead, the brothers tie him to a ship with the crown, tricking Rapunzel into thinking he abandoned her. They try to capture Rapunzel, but Gothel stages a rescue by knocking them out, and takes the heartbroken Rapunzel back to the tower.

Eugene is arrested but escapes with the help of Max and the pub thugs. Meanwhile, Rapunzel realizes she has subconsciously incorporated the kingdom's standard, a golden sun, into her artwork throughout her life. Realizing that she is the "lost princess", she confronts Gothel, from whom she realizes she should have been hiding all along, and says she will never allow Gothel to use her hair again. Eugene arrives at the tower and calls to Rapunzel. Her hair is lowered to him, but upon climbing up, he finds her bound and gagged, and Gothel fatally stabs him from behind. Gothel attempts to drag Rapunzel away, but Rapunzel angrily resists, assuring Gothel that she will never stop trying to get away from her. However, Rapunzel promises to go willingly if allowed to heal Eugene. Gothel reluctantly agrees to this, but Eugene, realizing Rapunzel would spend the rest of her life in captivity, cuts off her hair before she can heal him. A horrified and infuriated Gothel suddenly ages rapidly, then falls from the tower and turns to dust.

Rapunzel mourns her lost love, and one of her tears, which still has some of the flower's magic, revives him. In the aftermath, Rapunzel is reunited with her birth parents and the kingdom celebrates, sometime after which Rapunzel and Eugene become engaged.