Dark Castle

The Dark Castle is an Enchanted Forest location featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the fifth episode of the first season.

History
The Dark Castle is inhabited by Rumplestiltskin, who lives there alone for a long time. He is spinning thread when Jiminy comes to see him with his collection of stolen goods. As Rumplestiltskin gives him the gold thread in return, he asks Jiminy what else he wants. Jiminy admits that he wants to be free to be someone else, but something keeps holding him back. Rumplestiltskin asks if it is something or someone, and Jiminy admits that someone are his parents, Myrna and Martin. The Dark One offers him a potion, but points out that Jiminy has nothing to pay him with. He tells Jiminy to leave his parents for him as payment for the potion. Jiminy wonders what will become of them and Rumplestiltskin assures that they will be in safe hands. After a moment, Jiminy takes the potion and departs.
 * -|Before the Curse=

Taking in Regina as a magic trainee, Rumplestiltskin is surprised to learn she has an older half-sister named Zelena. He teaches her magic as well, and after the lesson, Zelena bakes him his favorite meat-pie. However, Rumplestiltskin informs her that he cannot stay since Regina still needs training. She reacts with resentment, believing herself much more powerful than her half-sister, though Rumplestiltskin coyly points out that her jealousy is literally turning her skin green. Shocked, Zelena takes a look in the mirror to see a patch of green skin on her neck.

Despite excelling in magic, Regina still desires to be with her deceased lover, Daniel, though Rumplestiltskin warns that "dead is dead". While heartbroken, Jefferson, who had been in the room doing business with Rumplestiltskin, offers her a chance to remedy that disappointment with the services of a “wizard” who has the power to bring back the dead. Eagerly, she accepts and gives Jefferson a royal passport to roam the kingdom freely.

In a deal with Sir Maurice to stop ogres from invading his land, Rumplestiltskin asks for his daughter, Belle, to leave her home and become a servant at his castle for an eternity, which she agrees to fulfill. Belle is thrown in the dungeon of Rumplestiltskin's castle. He lists all of Belle's tasks and when he jokes about one of the duties, she accidentally drops a tea cup and chips it.

After the death of her husband, King Leopold, Regina makes a deal with Rumplestiltskin to have a magical disguise, which will enable her to kill Snow White. He instructs her to say his name when she wants the disguise taken off. Though she calls him twice, Rumplestiltskin never responds. After a run-in with Snow White and failure to execute her own plan, the Queen angrily storms into his castle demanding to be returned to her former self. Frustrated, she admits he is right about how the commoners feel about her—they will never love her. He asks what she will do now, and with a tone of bitterness, Regina vows to punish them all. Only then does Rumplestiltskin reverse the spell, and Regina can see her own reflection again. She smiles wickedly; commenting the Queen is dead, and "Long live the Evil Queen".

After becoming Rumplestiltskin's servant, Belle misses her family and spends nights in the dungeon crying. One night, Rumplestiltskin conjures a pillow for her, which she thanks him for the gesture so she can sleep more comfortably, but he replies it's for muffling her noisy cries. Suddenly, a loud thud is heard, and both rush to see a hooded thief stealing a wand. The thief fires an arrow from his bow, which has a reputation for never missing. Eventually, the arrow hits Rumplestiltskin, but since he is immortal, it has no effect. He imprisons the thief and tortures him on a daily basis. Belle, feeling sorry for the man, frees him while Rumplestiltskin is away. The thief escapes with the wand; prompting Rumplestiltskin to haul Belle along as he tracks down the man. With Belle's persuasion, he lets the thief go and they return to the castle. Before heading off to bed, he gifts her a library room since she loves reading. Though Rumplestiltskin attempts to hide his kind intentions, Belle is pleased and reaffirms the goodness inside him.

While cleaning his drapes, Belle questions why he spins straw so much. She attempts to open the drapes and falls, to which Rumplestiltskin catches her. Later, Belle asks about some children's clothing she found in the castle, and he admits those were his son's outfits. Rumplestiltskin puts on a strong front when grilled about why he wanted her with him, to which Belle believes he isn't cruel, but simply lonely. He sends Belle into town to fetch straw; expecting her to never return. While on the road to town, she is manipulated by the Queen into attempting true love's kiss on Rumplestiltskin to revert him to human. On her return, Belle gives Rumplestiltskin a kiss of true love, but he angrily berates her; believing she is conspiring with the Queen to take away his powers. She is thrown into the dungeon, and later kicked out of the castle by Rumplestiltskin. Before leaving, Belle attests that he's a coward to believe she doesn't truly love him and will live to regret his actions. A short time later, the Queen lies to Rumplestiltskin about Belle's tragic fate after she supposedly returned home, was shunned by her family and eventually committed suicide. Despairing over her death, Rumplestiltskin places his only memento of Belle, the chipped cup, on a pedestal.

Snow White, having taken Rumplestiltskin's potion to erase her heartache over Prince Charming, becomes a ruthless and stingy person who is hell-bent on murdering the Queen. One of her dwarf friends, Grumpy, drags her back to Rumplestiltskin's castle hoping the wizard can undo the magic, but he cannot. Instead, Rumplestiltskin gives Snow White a bow and arrow as well as a map to track down and kill the Queen. After she leaves, Prince Charming arrives demanding Snow White's whereabouts, and gives Rumplestiltskin his cloak as payment for the information. From the cloak, Rumplestiltskin takes a strand of Prince Charming's hair and combines it with Snow White's to form a bottle of true love.

Following a mishap that causes Neal to fall through a portal with a gunshot wound, he lands in the Enchanted Forest and is found by Mulan, Aurora and Prince Phillip, who bring him back to a palace and tend to his injuries. After recovery, Neal, with Mulan's help, travels to his father's old castle in an attempt to learn the fate of Emma and Henry. Once inside, the castle looks to be ravaged and severely plundered, though Neal can tell someone has been living in it. Suddenly, they are surprised by a man, Robin Hood, aiming an arrow their way, and claims the castle is his. Neal explains the castle once belonged to the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin, and he is his son, Baelfire. Robin Hood decides to trust Neal's words and believes no one would make a claim unless it were true. Additionally, he mentions being indebted to Rumplestiltskin for sparing his life in the past.
 * -|After Broken Curse=

Neal looks around the castle for an unsuspecting magical item that may help to find Emma and Henry, and picks up his father's old walking stick. He grasps the item and swings it around; prompting a hidden door to appear. Robin Hood expresses astonishment as he once tried to wield the stick before, and nothing ever happened. Through Neal's words, he shares knowledge of his father's enchantment of the walking stick with blood magic that only allows the caster or those of his blood to be able to use it. From within the door, Neal discovers a crystal ball. Reluctantly, he agrees magic is the only thing that can help him now, and attempts to get the ball to activate by touching it, which causes no change. Mulan suggests to think about how he feels about Emma, and that will guide him to see her. Neal follows her instructions, and the crystal ball shows him an image of Emma in Neverland. Seeking a way to defeat the Wicked Witch of the West, Belle and Neal arrive at Rumplestiltskin's old castle. As they enter into a room, Belle lights a candelabrum; accidentally awakening Lumiere, who claims to have been imprisoned due to a broken deal with Rumplestiltskin. In truth, he is acting on the Wicked Witch's orders to trick the pair into using a key on the vault of the Dark one and resurrecting Rumplestiltskin. After the two agree to set out tomorrow for the vault's location under Lumiere's direction, the candelabrum is blown out as they leave. Moments later, the Wicked Witch relights it to summon Lumiere out again. Lumiere asks to be freed from his prison since he followed her orders, but she forces him to continue on until Rumplestiltskin is brought back.
 * -|After Undone Curse=

Items Seen

 * A candelabra and a clock
 * On display together, a scythe, a bow, and the Genie's lamp
 * A tapestry hanging on the wall showing a captive unicorn inside a fence. The tapestry is the seventh and final in the tapestry series "The Hunt of the Unicorn" created between 1495-1505, entitled "The Unicorn is in Captivity and No Longer Dead"
 * A trident
 * A golden chalice
 * Geppetto's parents in puppet form
 * Some type of sorcery hat with stars and moons
 * Rumplestiltskin's Spinning Wheel
 * A severed hand on a pedestal
 * A shelf of various potions
 * Golden fleece
 * The True Love Potion
 * The Enchanted Bow
 * A hammer resembling Thor's Mjölnir

Trivia

 * Two of the wall tapestries are replicas of motifs from an antependium in the Museum of Applied Art Frankfurt.
 * The scythe on the wall is similar to the one featured in the 1997 television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
 * One of the castle wall tapestries, "The Unicorn is in Captivity and No Longer Dead", is used in the sixth film of the Harry Potter series. In this film, the tapestry adorns the wall of a corridor near the Room of Requirement.

Appearances
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.