Ivo's Cottage

Ivo's Cottage
Oz Location
Character Affiliations
Owner:	Ivo
Inhabitants:	Gretel † (formerly) Hansel † (formerly) Ivo
Visitors:	Zelena
Show Information
Only appearance:	"Chosen"
Relevant Pages

“

I'm always telling Hansel to leave a trail of breadcrumbs to find his way home. He must've forgotten this time.

”

—Ivo to Zelena ^src

Ivo's Cottage is an Oz location featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It appears in the seventeenth episode of the seventh season.

Ivo's cottage is based on the woodcutter's cottage from the fairy tale, "Hansel and Gretel," and De Lacey's cottage from the novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

History

Before First Curse

In the land of Oz, a woodcutter named Ivo lives in a cottage with his two children, Hansel and Gretel. One day, Hansel and Gretel go missing and Ivo spends his mornings searching for them, to no avail. During a morning while searching for his children again, Ivo finds an unconscious woman and takes her back to the cottage. He finds the necklace she was wearing is broken and puts a new clasp on it. When she wakes up, he lets her stay while she recovers and she introduces herself as Zelena. Zelena panics when she realizes her pendant is missing, but Ivo explains he repaired its clasp which was broken, and when he holds it out to her, Zelena notices he is blind and unable to see her. As Zelena is still too unwell, Ivo insists she stay until she feels better and he begins preparing a meal for her. Zelena sees two beautiful chairs at the table which Ivo once carved himself, which, to her uneasiness, were for his two missing children.

Ivo continues to search for his children every night. Some days later, a re-energized Zelena gets out of bed to start a fire in the furnace, hoping to cook for Ivo as thanks to him for taking care of her. Ivo smells the smoke before she can finish and then suggests they can do it together. As the fire is going, Zelena contently remarks on the dancing flames, but upon remembering Ivo cannot see, retracts her statement by apologizing. Ivo assures her it's fine, telling her he can picture the flames by feeling the heat, just as he can imagine what she looks like without having seen her face before. He describes her strikingly fierce physical features, in addition to her beautiful heart, which touches Zelena as no one has ever said those things about her. When asked, Ivo tells her about the accident that blinded him and how it was a blessing in disguise because it helped him become more attentive and loving towards his children. Guilt-ridden over knowing where they are, Zelena leaves the cottage, promising to return soon.

While she is gone, Hansel and Gretel arrive home, having escaped from the clutches of a witch who was trying to eat them. They warn Ivo that Zelena is not who she seems, as she left them to be eaten when they needed help. When Zelena returns, she tries to come clean to him about his children, but Ivo cuts her off, stating that he already knows as Hansel and Gretel told him what she did to them. Ivo confronts her for lying to him all this time and knowing where his children were. Zelena insists she was weak but as soon as she regained her strength, she went back to try to rescue them. When Ivo questions why she didn't just tell him that, Zelena points out that had he known, he would've gone there himself and gotten killed by the witch. She insists that she is trying to change from her wicked ways and truly appreciated him for seeing her as a good person, which no one has ever done for her before, even offering to return his eyesight with the eyesight that she stole from the witch so he can finally see the real her. However, Ivo refuses, believing he doesn't need his sight to see her for the monster she is, and tells her to leave. Angered by his rejection, Zelena tosses the powder that would have returned Ivo's sight into the furnace. Hansel proceeds to threaten her with a knife, declaring she doesn't deserve to walk away from the situation alive. She, in turn, manipulates coils of fire to curl around Hansel's wrists, making him burn in agony until Gretel douses the flames with a blanket. Zelena spitefully tells the family that when they mess with a witch, they get burned. At that, the witch teleports away in anger. ("Chosen")

Trivia

• Cultural References
• Set Notes

Fairy Tales and Folklore

• In Chapter 15 of the Frankenstein novel, the monster finds shelter with De Lacey, a blind father who lives with his two children, Agatha and Felix, in a cottage in the woods. One night where the blind man is alone in his residence, the monster musters the bravery to finally approach him. De Lacey is the only person who reacts to the creature without any form of prejudice: Being blind, he is unable to see the monster's grotesque form, and he responds to him with kindness and acceptance. However, their successful conversation is suddenly disrupted when DeLacey's children enters the cottage and, out of fear, attacks the monster, who is forced to leave the cottage. This mirror's Ivo's story in the TV series, with the blind Ivo accepting Zelena into his cottage and the two bond, with Ivo seeing her as a good person, which no one has ever done for her before. However, when his two children, Hansel and Gretel, return, they tell their father what Zelena did to them, and Ivo states that he now sees her as the monster she truly is. ("Chosen")

Filming Locations

• The scenes at Ivo's cottage were filmed on a television set at The Bridge Studios.

Appearances

Once Upon a Time: Season Seven
"Hyperion Heights":	"A Pirate's Life":	"The Garden of Forking Paths":	"Beauty":	"Greenbacks":	"Wake Up Call":	"Eloise Gardener":	"Pretty in Blue":	"One Little Tear":	"The Eighth Witch":	"Secret Garden":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"A Taste of the Heights":	"Knightfall":	"The Girl in the Tower":	"Sisterhood":	"Breadcrumbs":	"Chosen":	"The Guardian":	"Flower Child":	"Is This Henry Mills?":	"Homecoming":	"Leaving Storybrooke":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Appears	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent