True Love Potion

True Love Potion
General Information
Origin:	Enchanted Forest
Physical Description
Appearance:	Fuchsia
Ingredients:	Prince Charming's hair Snow White's hair
Effects:	Bringing magic to a land
Usage Information
Created by:	Rumplestiltskin †
Possessed by:	Emma Swan (briefly) Maleficent Prince Charming (briefly) Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold †
Used by:	Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold †
Used on:	The Dark Curse The Wishing Well
Show Information
First appearance:	"Heart of Darkness"
Latest appearance:	"A Land Without Magic"
Latest mention:	"Broken"
Relevant Pages

“

If you can bottle love, you can do anything.

”

—Rumplestiltskin ^src

The True Love Potion is a magic potion featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the sixteenth episode of the first season.

History

Before First Curse

The deal-maker Rumplestiltskin becomes highly invested in creating a bottle of the ever elusive physical form of true love. Through one deal with Snow White, he gives her what she desires, a potion of forgetfulness, and takes a strand of her hair as payment. In another deal, he obtains hair left on Prince Charming's cloak after telling the prince of Snow White's whereabouts. With both, he places the hairs in a bottle as they entwine and glow. ("7:15 A.M.," "Heart of Darkness")

Prior to giving the Evil Queen the Dark Curse, he places a drop of true love on the spell parchment and then stores the remaining potion in an ornate golden egg. In yet another deal, he has Prince Charming hide the egg inside a dragon in exchange for enchanting his mother's ring to lead him to Snow White. During the negotiation of this deal, Rumplestiltskin reveals to Prince Charming that the remaining potion stored in the egg is "all I have left," indicating that he has already used some of it. Prince Charming successfully throws the egg into the dragon's body for safekeeping. ("A Land Without Magic")

During First Curse

After the Dark Curse is cast, the true love potion remains inside Maleficent's dragon body, who is also taken along to Storybrooke and imprisoned in the depths of the clock tower. Finally, there comes a day when the true love potion is needed when Emma and Regina come to Mr. Gold for help to cure Henry after his ingestion of a poisoned apple. He tells Emma that she must retrieve the true love potion by defeating a beast. Mr. Gold explains that because true love is the most powerful magic, it has the capability to cross any dimension; even into the land without magic. While Regina operates the elevator switch, Emma goes down to fight the dragon alone. Though she is able to procure the egg containing the potion, Mr. Gold deliberately intervenes by tricking Emma into throwing it up to him. Afterwards, he steals it for himself. In his pawnshop, he examines the potion briefly before an unexpected visitor, Belle, comes in. Mr. Gold takes her along with him to the wishing well where he pours the potion in. Combined together with the restorative properties of the water, a purple smoke quickly rises out of the well and begins spreading throughout town to bring magic to Storybrooke. ("A Land Without Magic")

Trivia

• Production Notes
• Set Notes

Production Notes

• The smoke of the true love potion that swept through Storybrooke in "A Land Without Magic" was originally green to match the mist that consumed the Enchanted Forest in "Pilot." It was changed to purple to be "more symbolic and magical."

Set Dressing

• The golden egg used to contain the bottle of true love potion, can be seen on the counter of the pawnshop in Mr. Gold's dream about Henry's birthday. ("Lacey")

Appearances

Once Upon a Time: Season One
"Pilot":	"The Thing You Love Most":	"Snow Falls":	"The Price of Gold":	"That Still Small Voice":	"The Shepherd":	"The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter":	"Desperate Souls":	"True North":	"7:15 A.M.":	"Fruit of the Poisonous Tree":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Skin Deep":	"What Happened to Frederick":	"Dreamy":	"Red-Handed":	"Heart of Darkness":	"Hat Trick":	"The Stable Boy":	"The Return":	"The Stranger":	"An Apple Red as Blood":	"A Land Without Magic":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Appears	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Appears

Once Upon a Time: Season Two
"Broken":	"We Are Both":	"Lady of the Lake":	"The Crocodile":	"The Doctor":	"Tallahassee":	"Child of the Moon":	"Into the Deep":	"Queen of Hearts":	"The Cricket Game":	"The Outsider":
Mentioned	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"In the Name of the Brother":	"Tiny":	"Manhattan":	"The Queen Is Dead":	"The Miller's Daughter":	"Welcome to Storybrooke":	"Selfless, Brave and True":	"Lacey":	"The Evil Queen":	"Second Star to the Right":	"And Straight On 'Til Morning":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent

Once Upon a Time: Specials
"Magic is Coming":	"The Price of Magic":	"Journey to Neverland":	"Wicked is Coming":	"Storybrooke Has Frozen Over":
Archive	Archive	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Secrets of Storybrooke":	"Dark Swan Rises":	"Evil Reigns Once More":	"The Final Battle Begins":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent

Other Appearances

The True Love Potion is featured in Once Upon a Time's Season One novelization, Reawakened: A Once Upon a Time Tale.

Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.