The Rabbit Hole

The Rabbit Hole is a Storybrooke location featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the twelfth episode of the first season.

History
The Rabbit Hole is Storybrooke's bar frequented by town residents seeking alcoholic beverages and pool games. Ashley Boyd, Mary Margaret Blanchard and Ruby go there for a girls' night on Valentine's Day. While hanging out with her friends, Ashley finds it hard to enjoy herself since her boyfriend Sean is unable to be with her on Valentine's Day due to work. Suddenly, Sean comes in and kneels down on one knee to publicly propose to her. Ashley happily accepts and the two go out for a spin in Sean's truck.
 * -|During the Curse=

After the Dark Curse is broken, Mr. Gold creates a potion as a loophole around the town line's dangers, which cause anyone attempting to leave Storybrooke to lose their Enchanted Forest memories. By pouring the potion on a treasured item, namely his son's shawl, and then wearing it while crossing out of town, this will prevent him from losing his memories. Prior, he tested the potion on Smee's hat. After Smee steals the shawl for Hook, he attempts to leave town while his hat is still enchanted. Mr. Gold corners Smee on the street and pushes him against an the wall of The Rabbit Hole. He is turned into a rat as punishment for stealing the shawl.
 * -|After Broken Curse=

On their way into town via car, Regina wants her mother Cora to clear her name of the false accusation that she murdered Archie. Cora can tell that Regina doesn't want the favor of the townspeople by having her name cleared, but desires her son, Henry. Regina pulls over outside The Rabbit Hole while they converse. She is convinced by her mother that being cleared of murder still won't allow her to be with Henry. Instead, Henry's biological family, Emma, Mary Margaret and David, will keep Regina from truly being a mother to her own son.

An amnesiac Belle is being discharged from the hospital, but is visited by Regina, who triggers her false memories by enchanting a match card of The Rabbit Hole. As Belle gazes at the match card, she recalls the false memories, and leaves to go to The Rabbit Hole. Mr. Gold goes to the bar counter and describes to the bartender what Belle looks like. Puzzled, the bartender says the person he described sounds a lot like a woman named Lacey, and points her out. Belle, who has now taken on the persona and memories of Lacey, plays pool while chatting with Mr. Clark as Mr. Gold approaches her. He calls her Belle, but she corrects him and introduces herself as Lacey. She remembers him as the man who visited her at the hospital. Confused and lost, Mr. Gold goes to David for advice, and eventually the both of them reenter The Rabbit Hole in time to see a man, Keith, trying to flirt with Lacey. She quickly rejects Keith, and then Mr. Gold attempts to speak normally with her. He asks her out on a date that evening, which she accepts. The date goes badly, as Lacey is not attracted to Mr. Gold's "nice guy" personality. However, she finds herself drawn to the dark side of his character.

Outside the Rabbit Hole, Dr. Whale is apprehended by Mr. Gold after he accuses him of staring at Lacey. As Dr. Whale is on the ground, Mr. Gold hovers his foot over his face and demands he kiss the shoe as penance. Mr. Gold's son Neal sees the commotion from his guest room window and rushes down. With Lacey's approval, Mr. Gold is about to stop his shoe in the man's face, but Neal stops the incident from transpiring further. Thankful for the intervention, Dr. Whale flees the scene. Angrily, Neal confronts his father for what just occurred, though Mr. Gold tells him to stay out of it. When Neal brings up a past incident in which he transformed a person into a snail, Lacey excitedly asks to hear about it. Mr. Gold sends her off to wait elsewhere for him. Neal is frustrated that he is still up to his old tricks, and also hasn't bothered to meet his fiancée, Tamara. Mr. Gold shows no interest in getting to know the woman in his life. Upset, Neal decides they now have nothing more to do with each other, and the only person he's in Storybrooke for is Henry.

Visitors

 * Ashley Boyd
 * David Nolan
 * Lacey
 * Keith
 * Mary Margaret Blanchard
 * Mr. Clark
 * Mr. Gold
 * Ruby
 * Sean Herman

Trivia

 * The Rabbit Hole shares its name with a location in the novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
 * David and Archie visit this place in a deleted scene.

Appearances
Rabbit Hole