Storybrooke

Storybrooke is a small town in Maine which is home to many fairytale characters. This is due to the Dark Curse that was enacted by the Evil Queen, Regina. The curse sent the characters to the town, replacing their memories with alternate ones. However, this curse was eventually broken by Emma Swan, returning everyone's fairytale selves.

Early History
Storybrooke comes into being on October 28, 1983 after Queen Regina of the Enchanted Forest enacts the Dark Curse, ripping everyone from their native land and bringing them to one without magic. A vast quantity of black smoke envelops a forest in Maine, startling two campers who wake up to discover that a humdrum little town has appeared out of nowhere. They are welcomed, while Regina is happy to wake up having won, now the Mayor of all the people who have ever wronged her. She approaches her arch-nemesis, Snow White, who is now an elementary teacher named Mary Margaret Blanchard; she proceeds to take her to the hospital to show her Prince Charming, now a John Doe in a coma, and gets a sense of immense satisfaction when she has no idea who he is. She then discovers the campers - a father and son named Kurt and Owen Flynn - at Granny's Diner and questions their presence. When she begins to grow bored of the same day repeating itself over and over again, she invites them over to dinner and begins to bond with Owen, the little boy. Kurt, however, grows wary of the goings-on in this town, witnessing Regina use Graham's heart to control him. He and his son are chased down and, while Owen gets away, Kurt is arrested and subsequently killed and buried at his campsite. Owen tries returning, but due to a magical barrier, he can't will himself to step back into Storybrooke and show the town to the police. Regina watches this from the other side, heartbroken.

Regina knows that the only time she was really happy in Storybrooke was when Owen was there, and so she adopts a baby to try and fill the void in her life, naming it Henry. She can't seem to get him to stop crying, unlike Mary Margaret, and fears a genetic problem. As such, she has the birth mother tracked down and learns that he's the son of the savior who's prophesied to break the curse. She plans to take him back, believing Gold to have set her up when he procured the child, but realizes that she loves him and so decides to keep him. Down in her vault, she makes a potion that will force her to forget her worries, allowing her and Henry to live out their days happily until his birth mother inevitably returns. 10 years later, Henry is sitting glumly in the school yard. Mary Margaret approaches him and decides that he could use a little hope, and so she gives him the book of fairytales that mysteriously appeared in her closet that morning. He comes to realize that the stories in the book are real, and that everyone in town is in fact a character from it, but trapped. He plans to liberate them by tracking down his birth mother, who he deduces is the savior who will bring back the happy endings.

Season 1
When Henry leaves to find his birth mother Emma Swan in Boston, she drives him back home to Storybrooke while learning that he believes everyone there to be fairytale characters who've lost their identities. She meets his adoptive mother, Regina, and his teacher, Mary Margaret Blanchard (her mother), and eventually decides to stay for a week in the local B&B, where she meets the town "owner" Mr. Gold. Her staying causes the town clock to tick, signifying the unfreezing of time. Emma is threatened by Regina in the morning, who's livid that the clock has moved; Henry remains hopeful, explaining the parameters of the curse to his mother. She is then framed by Mayor Mills and bailed out by Mary Margaret, retaliating by using a chainsaw on Regina's beloved apple tree. Eventually she burns the last few pages of Henry's book to stop the "Evil Queen" from ever viewing them. Having been kicked out of the B&B, Emma is sleeping in her car and is discovered by Mary Margaret, who invites her to live with her in her apartment. Emma agrees after an escapade involving the awakening of a coma patient, who Henry insists is Mary Margaret's true love Prince Charming. Just as she begins to believe he might really be her soul mate, Regina turns up along with the man's apparent wife, Kathryn. Regina confronts Emma about her flighty past before the blonde meets the young, pregnant Ashley Boyd in the back of Granny's Diner. Ashley is inspired by Emma to stand up to Mr. Gold, who wants to buy her baby, and tries leaving town when she goes into labor. Only Emma, whose things have now arrived from Boston, is able to leave because she's the savior, as is explained by Henry, and soon the girl is found and gives birth in the local hospital. Emma stops Gold from having the baby by agreeing to owe him a favor in the future, then establishing herself as part of the town by agreeing to be the deputy to Sheriff Graham, who's sleeping with the Mayor.

Emma discovers her old foster mother Ingrid is running the local ice cream shop. When she kicks up a fuss, Ingrid removes all memory of herself from Emma's mind. This moment is photographed by Sidney. ("Breaking Glass"/"Shattered Sight") When Emma officially becomes deputy, an earthquake ensues due to her changing things. The town mines collapse and she investigates with Graham. Henry knows this is a sign of the curse and, when no one believes him, he goes venturing into the mine alone. His therapist Archie manages to get inside before the entrance is sealed off, and the two are eventually rescued by Emma. It is then revealed that a series of underground caves exist beneath the town, containing things such as Snow White's glass coffin. Mary Margaret has been growing close to David, the former coma patient, while volunteering at the hospital. However, she quit out of guilt that he has a wife, who welcomes him home to their old house with a party. Being a victim of amnesia, he remembers none of it, but knows he wants to be with Mary Margaret. When he makes plans to meet her at the Toll Bridge and run away with her, Mr. Gold intervenes and returns his memories of being with Kathryn. Mary Margaret is left heartbroken and sleeps with Dr. Whale because of it. Emma now knows about Graham's affair with Regina and they have an ugly confrontation, during which he kisses her and his memories of being the Huntsman back in the Enchanted Forest awaken. He begins to believe in Henry's curse theory and that he's heartless and tries to prove it. However, fearing a threat to her curse, Regina makes her way down into her secret underground vault and takes out his heart. Just as his memories fully return and he's kissing Emma, his heart is crushed to dust and he dies in his deputy's arms.

Mr. Gold encourages Emma to become the new Sheriff, but Regina makes an effort to prevent this by submitting her own candidate into the ring: her former Magic Mirror Sidney Glass. An election is held, and Emma gains popularity when she saves Regina from a fire in her office. She then learns that Mr. Gold started it because he wants her to win, and when she exposes this to the town she gains their votes anyway because she stood up to the most feared man in town. As sheriff, Emma is called by Tom Clark to deal with two shoplifters. She soon discovers they are poor orphans and tries to find their father so that they don't have to go into the system like the one she grew up in. He doesn't want anything to do with them, but Emma schemes to make them meet and he ends up taking them home with him. Mary Margaret later learns that, according to Henry, she's Emma's mother, and when Emma meets with Henry (who she earlier lied to about his father), a mysterious stranger rides into town on a motorcycle… Regina is suspicious of the stranger, and Emma discovers for her that he's a writer named August W. Booth. Mary Margaret, meanwhile, realizes she needs to get David out of her mind and tries getting an injured bird from the pet shelter back to its flock before a pending storm hits town and they fly on without it, knowing too well what it's like to be alone. It becomes evident that she and David just can't keep away from one another, and they later start an affair.

Sidney approaches Emma, having been fired by the Mayor, and works with her to expose Regina for who she really is (he is in fact a double-agent, still gagging for Regina's approval). They think she's building a luxury home in the woods when they find mysterious funds, but it turns out she was actually planning to build a play park for children - having already knocked down Henry's castle when she discovered he and Emma liked to meet there. He and Emma are forbid from seeing one another, and his book goes missing too. Mr. Gold repossesses something from Moe French who then robs him. Emma gets his stuff back, bar one important item. Gold kidnaps Moe to get it back, but is arrested by Emma. It is then discovered that Regina in fact had the item - his beloved chipped cup - and she gives it back to him on the condition that he reveals his name to be Rumplestiltskin, meaning he remembers his past life. Regina later visits the hospital basement, where Rumple's true love Belle is locked away. Mary Margaret is stung on a girl's night out when David gives her the wrong Valentine's card, and Ashley's baby daddy Sean proposes to her. Battery charges remain against Mr. Gold and he goes to Regina with a revenge plot he's willing to help her with should she make them go away. He plans for Kathryn to disappear and for Mary Margaret to get the blame.

Mary Margaret and David's affair is exposed and Kathryn assaults the former in public. She eventually reaches a moment of clarity and decides to leave for law school in Boston, but she disappears on her way. Emma finds Henry's book after getting to know August Booth at the town well, which is rumored to restore things once lost. She later comforts Mary Margaret, who is hated by the whole town and branded a "TRAMP". Mary Margaret remains hated and can't get people to help sell candles for the Miners Day Festival. Leroy later helps out after developing a crush on one of the nuns who sells them, Astrid, but lies to her when he and Mary Margaret are unable to shift a single one. He later cuts out the power and the candles sell like hot cakes. Astrid forgives him for lying, and Mary Margaret finds herself re-accepted. However, David is arrested by Emma as a suspect in Kathryn's probable murder. David is let go due to lack of evidence but begins sleepwalking through the woods, to the worry of Mary Margaret. Ruby, a local waitress who quits her job at her Granny's diner, gets a job in the sheriff's office and manages to track him down, then discovering Kathryn's carved-out heart hidden in a box near the Toll Bridge. Too freaked out to continue, she apologizes to Granny and gets her old job back. The finger prints on the heart box are analyzed and confirmed as Mary Margaret's.

Mary Margaret is arrested and Emma promises to get her out of this, knowing her not to be a killer. However, evidence begins to stack against her thanks to Regina's busywork, and Emma goes to Gold for help; he becomes Mary Margaret's lawyer. David starts to believe her to have done it when Archie reawakens an old memory from the Enchanted Forest during hypnotherapy, and she is devastated because of it. She later discovers a key under her pillow and uses it to escape custody. While running through the woods, Mary Margaret is kidnapped by Jefferson, who similarly kidnaps Emma when she goes searching for her friend. He wants the sheriff to make him a magic hat so that he and his daughter Grace can reunite, knowing Henry's stories to be real, but she brands him as crazy and escapes. During a physical confrontation, he disappears, and Emma is able to convince Mary Margaret to return to her cell before Regina sees she's escaped. Emma later sees Grace when dropping Henry off at school and begins to have doubts about the curse not being real. August helps Emma find evidence against Regina, but she gets rid of it before anything can be done, thanks to her mole Sidney. All hope seems lost for Mary Margaret... until Kathryn is found, very much alive.

Mary Margaret is released but doesn't want to see David, for he thought she was actually capable of committing murder. Regina is mad at Gold for selling her out because Kathryn was meant to die, and she's later able to make Sidney confess to kidnapping her, after Emma discovers he's been double-crossing her. This spurs the sheriff into wanting to take back her son once and for all. August, meanwhile, poses as Gold's son Baelfire and tries to use the Dark One's dagger against him; Gold is not happy and learns that August is dying. He knows he wants to make Emma Swan believes, and allows him to go forth and do so. August takes Emma out of town in his mission to get her to believe in magic, revealing himself to be Pinocchio, but he fails and she merely thinks he's crazy. Mary Margaret confronts Regina about framing her and, in a last-ditch attempt to ruin her nemesis, Regina attempts seducing David and fails. Distraught after the day she's had, Emma invites Henry into her car in the middle of the night and begins driving out of Storybrooke. Henry stops his mother from leaving, needing her to break the curse. Regina summons Jefferson and makes him use his original magic hat to retrieve her poisoned apple. She wants to use it on the savior because the curse is noticeably weakening, and so she bakes it into a turnover for Emma to eat as she's leaving town (because she decides to do so, as is what's best for Henry). Wanting to stop her, however, Henry eats the turnover instead and collapses.

Henry is rushed through hospital and, when told that there's no medical reason for his coma, Emma is forced to believe in magic. Regina admits that the curse is real and the two mothers go to Mr. Gold for help. He needs Emma to retrieve a True Love potion from the caves beneath the town library, and she has to slay the dragon Maleficent to do it. On her way back up, Gold tricks her and takes the potion for himself. Jefferson frees Belle, Rumple's true love, so that Regina will pay for breaking her deal with him when Gold finds out she imprisoned her for all these years. Henry is declared medically dead but wakes up when Emma performs a kiss of true love, breaking the curse entirely in the process. Everyone's memories return and reunions are had… but Mr. Gold pours the potion into the town well, bringing magic to Storybrooke in the form of purple mist.

Season 2
With the curse broken, the townspeople are left in disarray, with some happy to be truly reuniting with their families and friends and others banding together to kill the Evil Queen, upon whom Rumple swears revenge. During a proceeding storm, Will Scarlet is taken to Wonderland to save Alice. Regina is protected by the Charmings, but Gold has managed to mark her with the Wraith medallion, having already summoned the Wraith to suck out her soul and therefore keep his deal with Belle, who sticks around, that he himself won't kill her. Ultimately the Wraith is banished to another land using Jefferson's hat... but so are Emma and Mary Margaret. A town line is established and it is discovered that those who leave lose their fairytale memories, remaining stuck as their counterparts like Sneezy. Regina struggles to use magic after its return to town because it's "different" there, but eventually she gets it back and uses it to take Henry back from David, who's struggling to control the town. He gives a speech which stops everyone from leaving, and Regina decides to let Henry stay with his grandfather while she quits magic and redeems herself. The prince remains faithful that his wife and daughter are okay. Grace searches for her father but is unable to find him, while Henry wants to help his grandfather but isn't allowed. He ends up sneaking into Regina's vault and needing to get rescued; meanwhile, Jefferson finally decides to reunite with his daughter. It is revealed that Albert Spencer, otherwise known as King George, is stalking Charming.

Belle grows suspicious of Rumple and ends up being kidnapped by her father, who tries forcing her over the town line so she'll forget all about the Dark One. She is rescued, however, and forgives Rumple when she learns he's been doing magic so that he can leave town and find his long lost son. As Henry trains to be a knight, Regina attends therapy and is harassed by Dr. Whale, who wants to know if his brother is in town. She insults him and so he resurrects her true love Daniel as a monster. He tries harming Henry at the local stables and so Regina is forced to destroy him for good. Henry wakes up after a nightmare about a burning room and David calms him. Henry's dreams continue and he receives a physical burn from them; Gold gives him something to control the flames and he realizes he can use this dream world to communicate with Aurora, who's with Emma and Snow. Meanwhile, Ruby fears losing control on the full moon because she hasn't turned in 28 years. When Billy dies, she is the prime suspect, and Albert Spencer raises a mob against her to make David look bad. However, he is behind the murder and David manages to help Ruby control the wolf again. Despite fairy dust having been found, Jefferson's hat is destroyed by Spencer, and David loses hope.

David's hope is restored when he learns Henry is communicating with their loved ones through his dreams, but when the burns continue the prince refuses to let his grandson go back. Instead, he puts himself under a sleeping curse so that he can tell Snow to find ink in Rumplestiltskin's cell that will be able to defeat Cora, Regina's mother, who's battling them for dominance of a portal. The White Rabbit brings Alice and Cyrus to Storybrooke to find Will's heart; they leave after. Fearing Cora, Rumple convinces Regina to block the portal with deadly magic, thus putting Emma and Mary Margaret in danger too. Henry is horrified and convinces her to reverse it, and his mother and grandmother end up returning home. David is awoken via true love's kiss, but all is not well as Cora and Captain Hook arrive to town on the latter's ship. The Jolly Roger is cloaked and Cora attempts to break her daughter, who attends Emma and Mary Margaret's welcome back party and feels unwelcome. When Archie is found dead, Regina is the prime suspect and ends up having to go into hiding. However, it was Cora in disguise, and Archie turns out to be safe and sound in the hold of the ship. Archie tells Hook about Belle and the pirate uses her to get to Rumple. He ends up stealing Baelfire's shawl, which Gold needs to be able to leave town, but Belle gets it back and convinces her true love not to kill Hook when he begins beating him. Archie returns, and Emma realizes she was wrong about Regina; at the same time, Rumple prepares to leave town with his memories intact and find Bae... until Belle is shot by Hook and loses her memories, and an outsider crashes into Storybrooke.

Belle, Hook and the outsider, Greg Mendell, are hospitalized and the townspeople consider letting the latter die so that he doesn't tell anyone about the existence of magic. They're ultimately unable to do so and Ruby convinces a runaway Dr. Whale to perform the life saving procedure. When he wakes up, it is revealed that he saw Gold do magic. Cora gives Gold a magic globe that will help find Bae, before tracking her daughter down and convincing her to join her side. In the morning, Rumple cashes in Emma's favour and makes her come with him to find his son in New York. Emma, Gold and Henry leave for the airport while it is discovered that the shrunken giant Anton is aboard Hook's ship. Regina makes him grow and he runs rampant through the town, until David saves his life and he owes them a favour; he reveals that he has a cutting of his beanstalk that will allow them to grow magic beans to return home. It is discovered that Gold's son is Henry's father, and the Charmings are shocked by the news. Cora, Hook and Regina search for Rumple's dagger and the former betrays Hook before disclosing that she plans on controlling the Dark One into slaughtering their enemies. Hook leaves for New York to kill Rumple while Snow finds Regina and Cora searching for his dagger. She makes an attempt to stop them but it is ultimately unsuccessful, and her old nanny Johanna dies in the process. At the end of it all, she vows to kill Cora.

A dying Gold is brought to town and Cora prepares to kill him and become the new Dark One. Mary Margaret intervenes by poisoning her heart and tricking Regina into putting it back in her body, thus killing her and reviving Rumple. The pure princess is wrought with guilt. Regina wants to kill Snow out of vengeance and have Henry still love her. Gold protects Snow while Regina works on a spell to force Henry's emotions. She eventually destroys it when he attempts to destroy magic itself. A guilty Mary Margaret begs Regina to kill her and end her suffering, but Regina reveals that Snow has a black spot on her heart, and as such she will destroy herself. Regina learns that Greg Mendell is the little boy Owen Flynn who came to town all those years ago. Mary Margaret discovers August hiding in the woods, completely made of wood, and Tamara, the fiancée of Neal (Bae) is brought to town and kills him with a taser, being a magic-hater who's in cahoots with Greg. Pinocchio is revived by Mother Superior as a little boy, but he can't remember who attacked him. Emma contemplates who attacked August while Regina gives an amnesiac Belle new memories as Lacey, the new town slut. Gold tries making her love him so that true love's kiss will bring her back, but they only end up sharing a bond when he shows his dark side. Greg and Tamara bring Hook back to Storybrooke.

Regina plans on retrieving a fail-safe diamond that, when activated, causes the curse to undo completely, killing anyone not from the Land Without Magic and reverting Storybrooke to the forest it once was. She burned the beans the Charmings were growing and took a sample so that she can make her escape with Henry. She betrays Hook when retrieving the diamond, and because of this he betrays her by letting Greg and Tamara (who Emma rightfully suspects is August's attacker) kidnap her. Regina is tied up and tortured and Emma remains adamant that Tamara is to blame. She is shown to be correct when she, Neal and the Charmings storm the local cannery, but Tamara uses a bean she took from Regina's office to open a portal. Neal, who she shoots, ends up falling through it and Emma assumes him to be dead. Greg and Tamara activate the fail-safe diamond and Storybrooke begins reverting. Emma and Regina manage to halt the destruction with their combined magic, but Henry is kidnapped in that time. Greg and Tamara take him to Neverland, and so Emma, Regina, Mary Margaret, David, Hook and Gold follow them aboard the Jolly Roger using the very last bean. Belle, who's made to stay behind, receives her old memories along with Sneezy and is tasked with protecting the town from others like Greg and Tamara.

Season 3
Per Rumple's directive, Belle casts a spell that seals off Storybrooke from the outside world, but Michael and John Darling still manage to get in. Five days later, Ariel comes ashore with news from Rumple on Neverland; he needs Belle to find Pandora's Box and send it to him. John and Michael provide obstacle, but it's soon evident that Peter Pan, Neverland's evil ruler, has their sister hostage and they just want her safe. Ariel gives the box to Rumple on the condition that he save Wendy. Everyone returns from Neverland safe and sound, including a few new additions, but Pan's shadow begins running amok and it's soon clear that, prior to being concealed inside Pandora's Box, Pan switched bodies with Henry. Henry is freed, but all is figured out too late - Pan has already stolen the Dark Curse from Regina's vault and plans on enacting it, forcing the residents of Storybrooke into a new Neverland of his design.

The only way to stop Pan's new curse is for Regina, the original caster, to tear the scroll and undo what she enacted in the first place. To get the scroll, they use a powerful fairy wand to return Henry and Pan to their own bodies, but Pan manipulates the situation and begins to threaten Rumple's loved ones. Rumple sacrifices his own life to kill Pan, and with the curse scroll in tow Regina becomes aware of what she has to do if she wants to be able to tear it: she has to give up the thing she loves most. Since Henry was born in the Land Without Magic, he can leave, and so can Emma because she's the savior. Storybrooke being erased will revoke their memories of it, and so as they leave forever Regina gives them new ones - ones in which Emma never gave Henry away and they were always together. Once Regina gives up her son for good, she's able to destroy the scroll and nullify Pan's curse. This causes Storybrooke to cease its existence and for everyone to be returned to the Enchanted Forest.

Season 3
Storybrooke once again comes into being when Snow and Charming re-enact the Dark Curse so that they can find Emma and have her defeat the Wicked Witch who's threatening their baby; however, a forgetting potion is put into the mix, and so everyone ends up back in town with absolutely no memory of the year spent back in the Enchanted Forest - they only know it's been a year because David and Mary Margaret are suddenly expecting a child. Hook, however, was able to escape the curse and finds Emma in New York, living her happy life with Henry. He gives her a potion that restores her memories (though there isn't enough for Henry) and she returns to Storybrooke to save everyone from whatever threat they're dealing with. The town is in utter panic after this new curse, and everyone but Emma is quick to blame Regina. It is discovered that those who try to leave town this time around are captured by Flying Monkeys, and then they themselves turn into one, such as with Little John. Mary Margaret finds a new midwife named Zelena, unaware that she's actually the Wicked Witch who wants her baby for a spell, while Emma and Regina are busy trying to find out who really cast the curse. They end up deducing that the Wicked Witch of the West from the Oz stories is responsible. Said Wicked Witch then goes down into her storm cellar where she's keeping a resurrected and quite insane Rumplestiltskin hostage.

David has doubts about being a father due to how things turned out with Emma and these fears manifest when Zelena spikes his tea with Night Root, causing a cloaked version of himself to chase him around. He ends up facing his fears quite literally by killing the manifestation, and his courage transfers into the broken sword he used to do it... only the sword is stolen by the Witch. The group then discovers Gold's cage, which he's somehow managed to escape, in the Witch's basement, now knowing he's somehow alive. Neal remains to be found after the new curse, while his father remains on the run. Belle is told that her true love is alive and she and Hook work to find out how. Neal soon bursts into the store with a strange burn on his hand, and through her books Belle is able to deduce that the mark from the burn comes from the key to the Vault of the Dark One - if that's how Neal resurrected Rumple, he should be dead right now. It's then revealed that after Rumple was resurrected he absorbed Neal into his own body to stop his life force from being drained - only this turned him insane. Emma is forced to separate the two of them so that the identity of the Wicked Witch can be exposed as Zelena, but this tragically leads to the death of Neal. With the dagger now working properly, Rumple is once again held captive. Neal is buried and Zelena crashes his wake, revealing herself to be Regina's half-sister on their mother's side. She challenges the Evil Queen to a fight and manages to defeat her with ease; however, what she's after is Regina's heart, which the Queen removed beforehand and placed safely with her fated true love Robin Hood. Meanwhile, Hook teaches Henry to sail and tells him stories about his father, since the boy now has no memories of him. Zelena reveals to Rumple that she plans to cast a spell that will give her a second chance at life.

Ariel washes ashore and tells all that she's been searching for Eric since the new curse hit, which stirs up guilty feelings within Hook. He eventually reveals that, during the missing year, he let the prince remain missing so that he could get the Jolly Roger back, and she forces him to swear on the name of the woman he loves (Emma Swan) that he's sorry. He does this, and Ariel curses his lips... only it's not Ariel, it's Zelena in disguise. She explains that the next time Hook's lips touch Emma Swan's, all her magic will be taken. After some vigorous magic lessons with Regina, Emma uses a mirror to find out that the real Ariel is happy with Eric on Hangman's Island. Zelena is able to get her hands on Regina's heart for her spell, which Belle finds out is a time travel spell, and to find out more about the Wicked Witch Regina decides that they need to talk to her mother. Her and the others conduct a seance to summon Cora's ghost, but she ends up haunting the Mayor's house and possessing Mary Margaret. This possession reveals to her that her mother, Queen Eva, betrayed Cora when she was pregnant, meaning she couldn't be the one to marry Prince Leopold. They deduce that Zelena plans to go back in time and stop this from happening, effectively erasing Regina, Snow, Emma and Henry while she herself gets the good life she always wanted. Regina ends the night by approaching Robin Hood and kissing him.

The curse needs breaking so that the missing year can be remembered, but to do this Emma would need to restore Henry's memories; she's reluctant to do so because she was hoping to return to their good life in New York. However, she goes through with finding the storybook and allowing him to remember. Zelena then threatens the boy before the curse can be broken and Emma uses light magic against her, her apparent weakness. She leaves, and a harmed Regina kisses Henry's forehead instead, unleashing a burst of true love that breaks the curse. Hook is shunned for not telling Emma about his cursed lips, while Regina reveals her new relationship with Robin Hood to Henry. Henry later visits his father's grave, now able to remember him, when Mary Margaret suddenly goes into labor. Zelena makes a golden brain from Rumple's spun straw, meaning the last ingredient for her time travel spell is Mary Margaret's baby, which she knows is on the way. Emma and Hook attempt taking the fight to her before she can act, but she ends up forcing Rumple to drown Hook, meaning Emma has to perform CPR to revive him. This causes her magic to be drained, and when Zelena storms the hospital, she takes Snow White's baby with ease. She is confronted as she tries to cast her spell and Regina is able to use light magic against her, taking her pendant and robbing her of her powers. Mary Margaret is given her baby back, while Zelena is locked up and her pendant is stored away. After proposing to Belle, a now free Mr. Gold betrays her trust by murdering Zelena in her cell. This causes the magic in her pendant to be released, and the time portal is opened as a result.

Mary Margaret and David plan to hold a coronation at Granny's Diner to celebrate their baby's birth, at which they plan to announce his name. However, while there, Emma is chastised because she plans on moving back to New York. She leaves to get away from people grilling her, and Hook follows. He tries implementing a pep talk, only for her to grow distracted by Zelena's open time portal. When she investigates, both she and Hook are sucked in. Emma and Hook return from the past with Marian in tow, who turns out to be the formerly deceased wife of Robin Hood. Regina's relationship looks to be in ruins because of this, but this is after Emma, who's now accepted Storybrooke as her true home, begins her own relationship with Hook, who reveals that he traded his ship away to find her in New York. Mary Margaret announces to everyone the name of her baby: Prince Neal, and Rumple and Belle marry in the woods. As it turns out, Emma and Hook accidentally brought a magic urn with them when they returned, which opens and releases the prisoner from within - it's Elsa, the Ice Queen, who now walks free in Storybrooke.

Season 4
As Elsa wanders through town, Regina deals with the implications of Marian being back in Robin's life, made worse when he officially ends things with her to stay true to his marriage vow. In retaliation, Regina frees Sidney Glass from his hospital cell and restores him as her Magic Mirror, needing his help in her plot to kill Marian. She ultimately goes back on this when Marian and the others are attacked by a giant snow monster which causes much ruckus in Storybrooke; Regina destroys it, while Elsa, its creator, finds her sister's necklace in Gold's shop (the owner of which is on his honeymoon with Belle and finds the Sorcerer's hat, tiding her over with a fake dagger while he keeps the real one in secret) and vows to find her. Regina decides to find the Author of Henry's storybook and make him write her a happy ending. Elsa erects an ice wall around the perimeter of Storybrooke to stop anyone from being able to leave until Anna is found. The ice wall inadvertently cuts of the town's power and, as Emma investigates, she becomes trapped. While the savior and the Ice Queen bond, Mary Margaret is established as the Mayor by the townspeople because they're living under her curse, and she manages to get the power back on. Because he knew Anna, David earns Elsa's trust and gets her to free herself and Emma; she can't take down the wall, however, because the Snow Queen (the local ice cream vendor) is keeping it up. Bo Peep's crook proves that Anna is alive.

The Snow Queen curses Marian to collapse and Regina stops her heart from freezing by removing it. The townspeople blame Elsa and go on a witch hunt, only for the Snow Queen (Ingrid) to be exposed in time. It appears that she recognizes Emma, and she definitely knows Rumplestiltskin. Regina and Henry start Operation Mongoose: the mission to find the Author. Hook asks Emma out on a date and, because he knows Rumple gave Belle a fake dagger, he blackmails him into giving him his hand back so that he can hold Emma with both hands... only the hand is apparently cursed, and forces him to act out (he attacks Will Scarlet, for example, who is later arrested for breaking and entering). He himself is blackmailed into helping Rumple absorb the Sorcerer's Apprentice into the hat, and he ends up giving up his hand because he fears what it will turn him into. Emma finds a photo from when she first arrived in town that depicts her and the Snow Queen fighting; she asks Regina about it, but Regina doesn't know, merely working on a way to unfreeze Marian. She uses Sidney to lead her to the Snow Queen's lair, while the Snow Queen forges a fake Anna to lure Elsa into the woods. She locks her in ice chains while she confronts Emma and Regina, who become trapped due to Sidney's betrayal, and he is freed after Regina's compact mirror is stolen. The Snow Queen uses this to complete the Trolden Glass, wanting a family that loves her. Will Scarlet escapes and is caught by Mary Margaret, who thinks her husband set this up and lets him go. Emma, meanwhile, finds an old video tape which shows Ingrid used to be her foster mother.

Belle feels guilty for having betrayed Anna years ago and wants to help find her by using what she thinks is the real dagger to "force" Rumple to take her to the Snow Lair. There, she encounters the Trolden Glass, which tells her of the fake dagger... but she doesn't believe it. Elsa finds out that Ingrid is her aunt, and that she had two sisters, and Belle finds out through her books that the Snow Queen plans on enacting the Spell of Shattered Sight with the mirror that will make it so that everyone in town kills each other, except Emma and Elsa who will become Ingrid's "sisters". Ingrid gets captured on purpose and begins manipulating Emma into thinking her family is against her, made worse when the savior's powers go out of control. She ends up retiring to the woods while her family try to find her. Robin, meanwhile, decides to deviate from his moral code and sleep with Regina. Rumple takes advantage of Emma's state after she accidentally harms Henry and offers to take her magic away using the hat, not telling her that she'll be sucked into it. Elsa and Ingrid both want to stop this, but the latter is trapped. However, Elsa makes it to her in time and convinces her not to go through with it, while Hook has his heart ripped out by Rumple, who needs it to complete a spell that will cleave him from the dagger and let him leave town with his magic intact. Regina feels guilty for sleeping with Robin, but Mary Margaret reassures her and soon a mysterious book page arises which depicts her and Robin kissing when they were supposed to meet for the first time, showing her she has hope. When the Snow Queen is free, she puts magic ribbons on the wrists of Elsa and Emma and casts the Spell of Shattered Sight.

The spell is looming and the ice wall can't be destroyed, so everyone is stuck in town. Elsa rediscovers Anna's necklace and tries using a locator spell on it, only to be led to a dead end. The necklace could be used to make an antidote to the spell, but Elsa betrays the townspeople to keep on following the spell, breaking through the dead end and eventually finding Anna (and Kristoff) by accidentally making a wish on the Wishing Star - which the necklace turns out to be. An antidote can't be made, however, because Rumple forces Hook to absorb the fairies into the hat; the spell becomes complete and everyone becomes their worst selves. The only way to reverse the spell is to kill Ingrid, but Emma and Elsa can't harm her due to the ribbons on their wrists. They manage to get a once again evil Regina to destroy them and face off against the Snow Queen, who reforms her ways upon hearing her sister's last words, found in note form by Anna. She sacrifices herself to be with them, and the spell is broken. Rumple, however, still has plans to wreak havoc on Earth. The ice wall is taken down, but if one is to leave town they can never return due to another spell by Ingrid. This is bad news for Regina, who's forced to part with Robin Hood when Marian needs to leave town to stop the ice curse. Rumple opens a portal for Elsa, Anna and Kristoff to go home, and they do... only Anna lingers, and reveals that she and Rumple know each other, meaning he lied when he said that they didn't. They deduce that he's been playing them and aren't in time to stop him when he begins his ritual to cleave himself of the dagger - but Belle is. She found the real dagger and learned the truth, and she proceeds to save Hook and banish Rumple from Storybrooke forever. Henry discovers a bunch of empty storybooks in the Sorcerer's mansion, and he and Regina clue Emma in on Operation Mongoose.

It's been six weeks since Rumple was banished and the people of Storybrooke has moved on, except for Hook and Belle, who eventually find a way to free the fairies from the Sorcerer's hat... but this causes the Chernabog to be released too, and he targets those with the darkest potential. Ursula and Cruella De Vil wait outside town to be let in, and help the heroes defeat the monster. They are let in using the Apprentice's scroll because Regina believes in giving villains a second chance, being a reformed villain herself; however, they let Rumple back in with them, and he plans to resurrect Maleficent and turn Emma Swan dark. Ultimately he wants the Author to write him a happy ending. David and Mary Margaret are guarding a dark secret - because of them, Maleficent lost her child, and to keep this secret covered up, they inadvertently help to resurrect her. Rumple is hurt to learn that Belle is dating Will Scarlet, while Regina summons Pinocchio to help her learn more about the book; being a child, though, he doesn't remember anything. However, Geppetto does find a mysterious page depicting a door amidst Augsust's things. Rumple disguises himself as Hook to trick Belle into giving him the dagger. Regina pretends to join the Queens of Darkness (Maleficent, Ursula and Cruella) to gather info, and ends up having to help them kidnap Pinocchio. Gold turns the child back into a man.

Hook makes a deal with Ursula to help her get her happy ending, but first they have to retrieve the Jolly Roger from the Enchanted Forest. They do so, but it's in a bottle, and when they release it, Ariel is released too. She saves Hook when Ursula throws him overboard, being unable to regain her singing voice from the magic seashell that took it, and it is realized that this is because it needs to be released by the one who made the shell. Ariel collects Ursula's father King Poseidon and he returns her voice; she then leaves with him, as is her happy ending. Before she goes, she tells Hook that Rumple plans to turn Emma dark so that the Author will be able to change the fates of people in Storybrooke. Emma nurses a tortured August back to health after rescuing him and he reveals that the Author is literally trapped inside the page depicting the door. Gold finds out about the page, making Maleficent put everyone in town under a sleeping curse while he searches for it. However, because Henry, Snow and Charming have all been under before, they're immune, and the former runs to the Sorcerer's house. When the Queens of Darkness find him, he gives them a fake (meaning Regina is found out as a traitor and kidnapped) and the Charmings consider burning the real one to bury their secret forever... only to end up coming clean and having Emma shun them. August is visited when he wakes up and, needing answers, Emma uses a key Henry found in the mansion to free the Author from the page. He's the one who put Snow and Charming on the path to hurt Maleficent, and he runs away.

Rumple finds the Author, Isaac Heller, before the Charmings do and manages to get him on his side with the promise of a magic quill and ink. Regina wakes up in chains in her vault and learns that Zelena is in fact alive - and she's been posing as Marian this entire time. She's currently living with Robin and Roland in New York, threatening to kill them if Regina plots against Gold. Regina takes Belle's heart to have leverage over Gold, meaning she can leave town and save Robin. However, Cruella kidnaps Henry before she can do so, telling Emma and Regina that if they want him to live then they have to kill Isaac, whom she has history with. He reveals that Cruella cannot kill anyone due to his writings, meaning she's defenseless. Gold sets everything up so that Emma is forced to kill her, putting her on the path to darkness. Emma learns that her old friend Lily is Maleficent's daughter and plans to find her, going on a road trip with Regina that has the dual objective of saving Robin Hood. Regina loses her leverage over Gold when Will takes back Belle's heart, and Belle begins to question who she really wants to be with. ("Lily")

Emma and Regina return to Storybrooke with Lily, Robin, Zelena and Roland. Zelena, who's pregnant with Robin's child, is locked away, while Lily wants revenge on Snow and Charming for what they did to her as a baby. When Regina steals her blood to serve as the Author's magic ink, she turns into a dragon, and Emma finally decides to forgive her parents when she sees Mary Margaret in danger. Isaac defects back to Rumple when Regina decides she's happy as she is, and he begins writing a world wherein the villains win. The Apprentice is freed by Blue, but he doesn't find Isaac in time to stop him from writing everyone into a new world. Storybrooke is left empty, save for Henry, who drives out of town to find out what happened. Henry becomes the new Author and returns everyone safely to Storybrooke, later snapping the magic quill; however, because Gold was dying, his darkness overwhelms his heart and has to be taken out with the Sorcerer's hat. It escapes, and Emma uses the blank dagger to bind herself to it when it attempts to kill Regina. She disappears afterward, and her name is left engraved on the dagger, signifying that she is the new Dark One.

Season 5
After Emma vanishes and the Dark One's dagger can't be used to summon her, Regina and the others decide to visit the Sorcerer's Apprentice who, with his final breath, passes over his wand, which can only be wielded by someone dark enough to balance out the light magic already inside. Naturally, Regina tries to use it; however, due to all the good she's done, it doesn't work, and Hook suggests using someone wicked (meaning Zelena). Regina is hesitant and, when Zelena wants the anti-magic cuff off her wrist, refuses to let her partake in the rescue mission. Hook recognizes the Wicked Witch as his only chance to save Emma though, and so he employs Henry to help break her out... which ends in her escaping and kidnapping Robin Hood, holding him ransom for the wand. Regina hands the wand over and a portal is summoned to Oz, but Regina is able to trick her sister and get the cuff back on her wrist, then redirecting the portal to the Enchanted Forest where Emma is. It hits Storybrooke in the form of a cyclone, and the entirety of Granny's Diner is whisked away to another realm by it.

Season 5
Everyone who was in Granny's Diner returns, along with the diner itself, after six weeks of being in Camelot. Sneezy, now sheriff, discovers them there in their new clothes... and so does Emma, now completely dark. She turns Sneezy to stone when she sees he's wearing her red leather jacket and, when asked why she's doing what she's doing, she replies that it's because she's the Dark One. The dwarfs try to leave Storybrooke because they no longer feel safe there, but when Dopey crosses the line he turns into a tree. Emma warns Regina that there's a problem coming to town that only a savior can solve, and so Regina steps up and is able to defeat the Fury; she later returns Sneezy from stone. It is discovered that King Arthur and his Camelot citizens came over to town with Emma's curse, while she has Excalibur in the basement of her new house and needs a way to pull it out of the stone and recombine it with her Dark One's dagger. David and Arthur locate a thief who's stolen the latter's valuables; however, it's a setup by Arthur as a part of his secret ploy to turn Storybrooke into the new Camelot. David is able to recover the Crimson Crown though, while Emma uses Hook to get her hands on an item that awakes Gold from his coma - she plans to mold is blank heart into a hero's so that he can relieve the sword for her. Gold assures Emma that he can't be the hero she wants, but she has Merida captive, as well as her heart, and orders the princess to make the former Dark One brave.

Merida has a hard time making Gold brave, but eventually gets him to stand up and fight her when she steals the chipped cup. Meanwhile, Mary Margaret and the others decide to host a block party to raise morale; Henry wants to invite his crush Violet, but she's upset because her horse is missing. Emma helps Henry find it while the others break into her house and find Excalibur, allowing them to learn that she plans on snuffing out all light magic. They also discover that she's housed their memories in dreamcatchers, and that she ripped out Violet's heart during the missing six weeks. Henry rejects her because of this.