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Memory Potions

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This page is move protected The subject of this article is involved with the Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is involved with a Once Upon a Time related Book The subject of this article is magical or capable of using magic The subject of this article is involved with the Enchanted Forest The subject of this article is involved with Arendelle The subject of this article is involved with Storybrooke The subject of this article is involved with the Land Without Magic The subject of this article is involved with the Underworld The subject of this article is involved with Seattle The subject of this article is featured in Season One of Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is featured in Season Two of Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is featured in Season Three of Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is featured in Season Five of Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is featured in Season Six of Once Upon a Time The subject of this article is featured in Season Seven of Once Upon a Time

It'll help you remember everything you have lost.

—Hook to Emma Swan src

Memory Potions, also known as Forgetting Potions in some cases, are magic potions featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. They first appear in the tenth episode of the first season.

History

Before First Curse

Horrified over his son Baelfire succumbing to darkness as he did, Rumplestiltskin douses a cup of tea with a memory potion and gives it to his son. Moments after drinking it, Baelfire loses his memories and forgets that he had commanded Rumplestiltskin with the Dark One's dagger to kill Beowulf. ("Ill-Boding Patterns")

In the kingdom of Arendelle, Gerda entraps Ingrid in an urn after discovering she accidentally killed their sister Helga with her ice magic. Grief-stricken over losing both of her sisters, she asks the rock troll Grand Pabbie to use a memory potion and erase everyone's memories of Ingrid and Helga. ("The Snow Queen")

In the Enchanted Forest, a young Regina learns Zelena is her half-sister, and she begs her mother Cora to let them be a family. Cora refuses as she believes everything she's worked towards for Regina's sake will be undone if people find out about Zelena. After ordering guards to take Zelena away, Cora takes out a memory potion, which she made by taking water from a nearby stream that is linked to Lethe. She later uses it on both Regina and Zelena to make them forget each other. ("Sisters")

Travelling to the past, Emma accidentally stops her parents, Prince Charming and Snow White, from meeting each other and falling in love. Desperate to fix the mistake, she and Hook ask for Rumplestiltskin's help. When Emma claims to be the savior who will break his curse, the Dark One seems doubtful, but begins to believe her when she attests his reunion with Baelfire will happen, though she later reveals his son will die. As Emma and Hook are sucked into the portal to the present, Rumplestiltskin drinks a forgetting potion to forget everything Emma told him. ("Snow Drifts," "There's No Place Like Home")

To forget the man she loves, Snow White accepts a potion from Rumplestiltskin to erase her memories of Prince Charming. Despite that Prince Charming also loves her, she rejects him to protect him from King George. Afterwards, Snow White leaves, heartbroken, and prepares to drink the potion, but Grumpy advises against it. Eventually, Snow White's feelings for Prince Charming become too much to bear, and she secretly drinks the potion without knowing he called off his arranged marriage with King Midas's daughter in order to be with her. Becoming cold and heartless due to the potion's effects, she sets out to kill her enemy, the Evil Queen. Since committing such an act will make her evil, Prince Charming stops Snow White by taking the arrow hit that she intended for the Queen. When she questions his motives, Prince Charming states he'd rather die than see her become evil. Touched by his actions, Snow White's expression softens and she leans in to kiss him, which breaks the potion's effects. ("7:15 A.M.," "Heart of Darkness")

During First Curse
Finding happiness after adopting a son, Henry, Regina shockingly discovers the boy's birth mother is none other than Prince Charming and Snow White's child, who is prophesied to break her curse. Regina fears this woman will one day take away the curse as well as Henry from her, but she decides to use a memory potion to forget what she learned so she can raise Henry without these constant worries on her mind. Bring Henry with her in a carrier, Regina goes to her vault, where she tells her son a fairytale story while she mixes the memory potion. After ingesting it, she forgets the identity of Henry's birth mother. ("Save Henry")

After First Curse

With the curse broken by Emma, Mr. Gold uses a true love potion on the wishing well to bring magic to the town. As the price for this, anyone who leaves Storybrooke will lose memories of their Enchanted Forest selves. Mr. Clark, chosen out of all his dwarf brothers as a test out what will happen now that the curse is gone, crosses the town line and loses his Enchanted Forest memories. ("Broken," "We Are Both")

With plans to leave Storybrooke to search for his son, Mr. Gold manages to create a potion that will allow him to retain his memories outside of the town. Since the potion must be poured on the user's cherished possession for it to work, he dumps some on Smee's hat and then pushes Smee across the town line, proving the experiment to be a success. Mr. Gold later goes to his pawnshop to share the good news with Belle, who wishes to join him in his trip, but he states there's only enough potion for one person to use. Back at the town border, Mr. Gold pours the potion over Baelfire's shawl and Belle places it over his shoulders. He then crosses the town line with his memories intact. The couple bend towards each other to kiss over the town line when Hook shoots Belle in the back. As Belle falls over the border, she is caught by Mr. Gold, however, she loses her memories and reverts to the amnesiac girl she was under the Dark Curse. In retaliation towards Hook, Mr. Gold prepares to hurl a fireball at him when a driver crashes his car into town and runs over the pirate. Later on, Mr. Gold uses the shawl and leaves Storybrooke with Emma and Henry. ("The Outsider," "Tiny")

As a dangerous trigger activated by the outsider, Greg, and his ally Tamara, threatens to destroy Storybrooke and all its inhabitants, Mother Superior finishes making a memory potion, with one of the ingredients being a strand of Pinocchio's hair, and gives two bottles to Leroy. Since the dwarves wish to restore Mr. Clark's memories before the trigger destroys Storybrooke, she instructs them to find an item that once belonged to him and have him drink the potion from the item. After finding Mr. Clark's beer stein in the pawnshop, Leroy gives Mr. Gold a second dose of the potion for Belle. As the dwarves leave, Belle's cursed self, Lacey, comes out from the back of the shop. Mr. Gold does nothing with the potion until Lacey accidentally uses his son's shawl as a wiping rag, which upsets him greatly, much to Lacey's confusion. Still not over Neal's death, he realizes Belle, not Lacey, would understand his pain. Taking out the remains of the teacup from the cupboard, Mr. Gold magically repairs it with the flick of his wrist. After pouring the potion into the cup, he offers it to Lacey, who takes one sip before regaining her memories. The two kiss and Mr. Gold apologizes for letting her remember right before the trigger is set to destroy them all. ("And Straight On 'Til Morning")

Before Second Curse
As a second curse is cast by someone, the Wicked Witch of the West creates a forgetting potion to add to the curse mixture and cause everyone to forget their memories from the last year in the Enchanted Forest. Flying back to the castle, she creates an antidote to keep her own memories, and after drinking it, she passes the vial to Rumplestiltskin so he can ingest some as well. After Zelena has left, Rumplestiltskin prepares to take a gulp of the liquid, but suddenly passes out after Neal, who has been possessing his body, temporarily takes control over him. Using his last bit of strength, Neal writes a note, without disclosing himself as the sender, to Hook asking him to give the potion to Emma, and he then attaches it to a messenger bird. After receiving the letter, Hook manages to trade his ship for a magic bean and goes to New York in search of Emma. ("A Curious Thing," "There's No Place Like Home")

During Second Curse

After escaping the effects the second curse in the Enchanted Forest and returning to the Land Without Magic, Hook shows up at Emma's New York apartment to tell her that her family in trouble, though she does not recognize him. He attempts to give her true love's kiss, but she dodges him and eventually shuts the door on him. On another attempt to shake some sense into her, he gives Emma a written address of an apartment that she must see in order to know the whole truth. Later, she confronts him about the camera strap she found at the written address—Neal's apartment—which has Henry's name on it. He tries once more to talk about her parents and the curse, but she brushes it off as nonsense. Hook exemplifies the camera strap as proof Emma was once at Neal's apartment a year ago except she doesn't remember it. She demands answers, so he offers a potion to restore her lost memories. Instead, she cuffs Hook and has him arrested for assault and criminal harassment. While jailed, he is later bailed out by Emma, who presents him with a copy of the photo from the camera, which shows herself with Henry in a town called Storybrooke. He pushes Emma into taking the potion, despite that she will have to give up her life in New York because knowing the truth is important. She ingests it and regains a flash of memories from the moment Henry came to find her in Boston to just before her family escaped Pan's curse by being sent back to the Enchanted Forest. That night, Hook explains that her family has been re-cursed again, to which Emma brings Henry with her for the journey back to Storybrooke. ("Going Home," "New York City Serenade")

Attempting to solve the mystery of who cast the curse, Emma quickly teams up with Regina to sniff out the suspect. While swaying the townspeople into believing Regina is responsible, the two women work in secret, using the last bit of potion that Emma was given by Hook, to create a substance capable of reviving memories from the missing year in the Enchanted Forest. It fails, so in an alternative plan, they publicly spread a rumor that Regina is nearly finished making a memory potion, and whoever drinks it can recall who cast the second curse. To ensure capture of the culprit, Regina seals her mayoral office with blood magic. Zelena, in fear the potion will help people learn her true identity, breaks into the office in the middle of the night to steal the potion. When Emma and Regina charge in to apprehend her, Zelena disappears in green smoke without being fully seen, much to Regina's disbelief as she is still unaware of her blood ties to Zelena. ("Witch Hunt")

After Second Curse
After Zelena reveals that she had glamoured herself as Marian, Regina and Robin Hood decide to use a forgetting potion on Roland to take him back to before the fake Marian showed up in order to prevent him from having to lose his mother again. ("Mother")

After Third Curse

Believing Hades is not good for Zelena, Regina and Cora formulate a plan to make her forget about him with a memory potion containing water from Lethe. While Cora distracts Zelena by reconciling with her, Regina sneaks in with the potion. Cora later gets a glass of water for Zelena, which has the potion mixed in. Zelena discovers the truth and picks a fight with Regina over it. To settle the bad blood between her daughters, Cora restores their lost memories of each other, to prove Regina and Zelena have always had a strong sisterly bond. ("Sisters")

Growing up under the Black Fairy's harsh teachings in the Dark Realm, Gideon learns to become immune to the effects of a memory potion. ("Ill-Boding Patterns")

In Storybrooke, after telling his father Mr. Gold about the psychological torture he endured from the Black Fairy, Gideon requests his help to prove to the Black Fairy that neither he or Mr. Gold are cowards. Mr. Gold agrees to assist him and then passes him a cup of tea, which he secretly spiked with a memory potion, in the hopes of erasing Gideon's pain for good. Gideon drinks it and notices something is off about the tea. When Mr. Gold admits what he did, Gideon hugs his father in feigned gratitude before snatching the Dark One's dagger and revealing the potion had no effect on him. ("Ill-Boding Patterns")

During Fifth Curse

Planting few hyacinth petals in the fertile soil that Ivy provided, the Gothel magically generates a spiky plant from it. Ivy then plucks one of the spikes and squeezes the liquid within it into a vial. The liquid, capable of returning someone's lost memories, is later used by Ivy in Roni's drink to make her remember her true self. After Regina is flooded with her old memories, Ivy goads her into recalling what will happen to Henry if the curse is ever broken. ("Wake Up Call")

Requiring help against Gothel, Roni goes to San Francisco to find Zelena, who lives as the cursed persona Kelly, with intentions of using a bit of memory potion on her. While Kelly clearly hates her, Roni persuades the redhead into having a shot of whiskey. Kelly takes a sip of it, not knowing Roni spiked it with the memory potion, but the concoction appears to have no effect except causing Kelly to cough over its strong taste. Roni, disappointed that it didn't work, decides to cut to the chase by telling her outright about their pre-cursed selves. Only then, the memory potion suddenly takes effect on Kelly, restoring her memories of her life as Zelena. ("The Eighth Witch")

At some point, Mr. Samdi manages to slip Nick a bit of memory potion to force him to remember his past as Hansel and how much he hates witches, in order to spur him into going after Gothel. ("Secret Garden," "Is This Henry Mills?")

With some magic that Mr. Samdi gifted her, Roni succeeds in combining it with some select ingredients to create a potion for restoring Henry's lost memories, however, Weaver steals it to track down the missing Dark One Dagger. Only after the dagger is found in Tilly's possession, he realizes his actions were for nothing as the weapon was never in danger. ("The Guardian")

After betraying Roni, Weaver gives her a dusting of memory potion, which he explains he got from distilling some of Nick's blood. When Roni prompts him about why he is helping her all of a sudden, he states it's because he realized his reunion with Belle may never happen and so he wishes to aid the only family he has left. ("Is This Henry Mills?")

Ingredients

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Appearances

"Archive" denotes archive footage.

References

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