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This article focuses on the bracelets that block magic.
For bracelets that give mermaids human legs, see sea bracelets.
For the bracelets worn by genies, see genie bracelets.

It renders anyone with magic utterly powerless.

Mr. Gold src

Enchanted Cuffs are magical items featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. They first appear in the sixth episode of the second season.

History

After First Curse

In the Enchanted Forest, the witch Cora enchants two of her own cuffs to allow herself and an ally, Hook, to climb up a beanstalk and retrieve a compass for the journey to Storybrooke. Rather than wait for Cora, Hook decides to align himself with Emma and Mary Margaret, who are also looking for a way home. When he is unable to fool Emma, Hook admits his true agenda and offers to lead them to the beanstalk with the compass. Due to the enchantment on the cuff, Hook can only take one other person up with him. Emma chooses to go along, and is clasped on with the other cuff. They reach the top where the giant guarding the beanstalk is put to sleep with poppy dust. Inside the lair, Emma faces a solo confrontation with the giant after Hook is buried under some rocks, but convinces him to give her the compass. Afterwards, Emma asks for a favor to him to hold Hook back while she and her friends get a head start. ("Tallahassee," "Into the Deep")

Following Hook's descent from the beanstalk, Cora confronts him about taking her cuffs and climbing up the beanstalk without her. The pirate claims he intended to take the compass for the both of them. Noting his failure, she asks who had beaten him to it, to which he admits Emma did. Deciding Hook is no longer trustworthy, since he used the cuffs without her consultation, Cora severs ties with him. ("Into the Deep")

After a journey to Storybrooke, Cora is killed while Hook has realigned himself with magic hunters Greg and Tamara to trick Regina. Greg and Tamara take the cuff from Hook and give to their employers, The Home Office. The two are ignorant of the fact The Home Office is a fake organization name, and they're actually working for Peter Pan, who then enchants the cuff to have the ability to absorb away magic. When Hook regains an alliance with Regina, they head down to a cavern to procure a trigger to destroy Storybrooke and its inhabitants. On the way there, Regina sees her mother's cuff on him and takes it back; placing it on her own wrist. The cuff begins stunting her magic, which she doesn't realize until after betraying Hook and returning alone to ground level with the trigger. Once there, she is accosted by not only Hook, but Greg and Tamara. Her magic is rendered useless due to the cuff, to which Greg and Tamara kidnap and take her to another location for interrogation. Eventually, she gets rescued and is taken to Mary Margaret's loft, where Mother Superior heals her with a magic wand. The head nun explains that, now that the cuff has been removed, her powers will return soon. Later, Mr. Gold somehow manages to steal the cuff. ("The Miller's Daughter", "The Evil Queen", "Second Star to the Right", "Going Home")

Peter Pan becomes a menace to Storybrooke after secretly switching bodies with Henry and stealing the scroll for the Dark Curse from Regina's vault. As the curse is cast, Mr. Gold clasps the cuff, previously owned by Greg and Tamara, onto Pan's wrist before using a wand to force Henry and Pan back into their original bodies. While the rest of the townspeople rush to find Henry, as he now possesses the Dark Curse scroll, Mr. Gold confronts Pan in his pawnshop. He prepares to kill a powerless Pan, who surprises him by ripping off the cuff, as it is ineffective to him, since he is the one who enchanted the cuff. Then, Pan magically passes the cuff to Mr. Gold's wrist, stripping him of magic, as he himself goes to find the curse scroll. Out of desperation, Mr. Gold contemplates cutting off his own hand to regain his magic, but he ultimately decides to sacrifice himself to stop Pan. ("Going Home")

After Second Curse

Upon returning to Storybrooke, Regina places the enchanted cuff on Zelena's left wrist to prevent her from using magic, before escorting her to her prison cell. ("Mother")

While still locked up, Zelena is approached by Regina, Robin Hood and Hook for information about the Apprentice's wand, which someone with light and dark essence must wield to cross realms and find Emma. When Zelena asks to examine to wand, Regina looks at her skeptically, while the latter assures her that as long as she still has the cuff on, she is powerless. Regina then hands over the wand to her, and after a moment, Zelena deducts that they need something important of Emma's to direct the wand's portal to her. Although Regina is not powerful enough to activate the wand, she refuses to let Zelena try, fearing what her sister might be. Out of desperation to find Emma, Hook frees Zelena, who outsmarts him by stealing his knife and severing her left hand to get rid of the cuff. After reattaching her hand, Zelena magically poofs out and later coerces Regina into forfeiting the wand to her, in exchange for Robin's safety. Zelena succeeds in creating a cyclone, intending to go back to Oz, but she is weakened by her magic being drained, giving Regina the chance to reclasp the cuff on her. Rendered powerless again, Zelena is taken to the diner, where David and Robin bind her to a chair, while Regina redirects the cyclone into taking them to the Enchanted Forest, where they eventually are welcomed into Camelot by King Arthur and his men. ("The Dark Swan")

Inside Camelot's castle, Zelena pressures Regina to remove her bracelet or she’ll tell Arthur that Emma is the Dark One, but Regina swiftly shuts her sister up with a magical wave of her hand, rendering her mute, much to Robin’s amusement. ("The Price")

Zelena continues wearing the cuff as she is forced to play the part of Regina's mute handmaiden, but she begins plotting to escape after finding an unguarded passage that leads in and out of the castle. She reveals this secret to the heroes in the hopes Regina will reward her with the cuff's removal, however, her sister decides to honor the deal once they've retrieved Excalibur from Arthur. Taking matters into her own hands, Zelena allies herself with Arthur to double-cross the heroes, and in return, he frees her from the cuff, allowing her to cast a spell to tether Merlin to the Dark One Dagger. ("Siege Perilous", "Nimue")

Before Hook's newly cast curse can affect everyone, Emma decides to erase everyone's memories of their time in Camelot, in favor of figuring out a way to return Hook to his pre-Dark One self. When she erases the memories, she also returns the cuff onto Zelena's wrist. ("Broken Heart")

After Third Curse

When Zelena is taken back to Storybrooke by Hook's curse, she is still in her Camelot dress, with the cuff clasped on her wrist. She continues to have the cuff on her when she accepts and eats onion rings that Emma gave her, not knowing the food has been laced with Emma's magic to speed up her pregnancy. This later advances Zelena's pregnancy until she is ready to give birth, with the heroes suspecting Emma wants the baby for a spell. While having contractions, Zelena begs Regina to remove her cuff so she can protect her child from Emma, but Regina refuses. When Emma does show up after the baby's birth, she snatches Zelena instead, and imprisons her in the basement alongside Hook. Hook learns of Emma's plans to place her own darkness in Zelena and then kill her to extinguish the Dark One line forever, however, he rebels against Emma by removing Zelena's cuff and freeing her. ("The Dark Swan," "The Bear and the Bow," "Birth")

As retribution for her lies, Hook steals some of Emma's memories to keep her from remembering what his ultimate goal in Storybrooke is, before allowing Zelena to put the cuff on her. After she finally admits the truth to her parents and Regina, a plan forms to return everyone's memories from the dreamcatchers so they can piece together Hook's objective, but Hook has already stolen them. Emma believes she can provide help to her family faster if they remove her cuff, but none of them trust her with magic, especially since the darkness might influence her to do bad things. Emma sways Henry into helping her make a locator spell to find the dreamcatchers in the clock tower, but they are protected by a spell. Since Emma proved she trusts him, Henry uses squid ink to remove the cuff, allowing her to get the dreamcatchers. ("Broken Heart")

In the Underworld, Cora is forced to endlessly stacking mill flour day after day. She is unable to use magic, after having her wrist clasped with an enchanted cuff. During one day, she finds Killian Jones's hook on a bale of mill wheat, using it to tear away the cuff. She quickly takes out the guards with magic and flees through the tunnel, where she runs into Hook, who helps her escape. Meanwhile, Prince James, shows up at the Blanchard loft in his brother David's place, with Emma having no idea of the switch. After they find Robin Hood and his [[Robin Hood (Birth)]|daughter]], James surprises Emma by placing a cuff in her wrist, which disables her magic. Later, after Regina gives her blessings to Zelena and her growing romance with Hades, Zelena shows up her date with Hades, but before she can go into the Underbrooke diner, Mr. Gold confronts her about giving the sleeping curse to Belle. In retaliation against her, he cuffs Zelena and then allows Pan to throw a bag over her head. ("Sisters")

By Mr. Gold and Pan's request, Hades comes to the diner alone to bargain for Zelena's freedom by tearing up the contract on Belle's unborn child. Once both villains retreat, Hades magically severs the cuff from Zelena's wrist. ("Firebird")

After being magicked unconscious by Mr. Gold, Gideon finds himself bound to a chair in the clock tower, with an enchanted cuff on his wrist. Having once given into darkness for an initially good purpose, Mr. Gold talks about becoming the Dark One to protect his first-born son Baelfire, but as a consequence, once the darkness took hold inside him, it never stopped. He worries the same will happen to Gideon, who remains unconvinced that his father's fears will come to fruition. Gideon persuades his father to untie him, and accepts his father's offer of a cup of tea. Gideon drinks it, which Mr. Gold spiked with a forgetting potion, in an attempt to erase his son's pain for good. After Mr. Gold admits to what he put in the tea, Gideon feigns gratitude towards his father by hugging him but suddenly pulls away once he has grabbed the Dark One Dagger from him. With it, he magically removes the cuff and commands his father to help him repair the Hrunting sword. ("Ill-Boding Patterns")

With Gideon disguised as David and the Black Fairy as Snow, the pair are present in the pawnshop when Mr. Gold uses residual magic in a dragon egg to awaken Mother Superior. The two shed their disguises and Gideon moves to teleport away, however, Mr. Gold quickly clasps a cuff on him to block his magic. ("The Black Fairy")

After Fifth Curse
After killing Mr. Samdi, Wish Rumplestiltskin gags Weaver, places a cuff on him to disable his magic, and traps him in the space behind the wall waterfall display in Mr. Samdi's office. Weaver remains stuck until Roni frees him, and when he is finally out, she magics away the cuff and he reveals what Wish Rumplestiltskin did to Samdi. ("Homecoming")

Known Owners

Known Users

Trivia

On-Screen Notes

  • At the Underbrooke docks, when James gets up after David pushes him to the ground, in the background, you can see the enchanted cuff that James placed on Emma, lying on the ground next to Emma and Hook;[1] indicating that Hook used his hook to remove it from Emma's wrist off-screen, just like Cora used it to remove her own cuff earlier in the episode. ("Sisters")

Appearances

Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.

References

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