The Chipped Cup is an item featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the twelfth episode of the first season.
History
After the Dark Curse is broken, Belle is reunited with Mr. Gold. He discovers she was previously locked up by Regina in the town psychiatric ward for twenty-eight years while the curse was still in effect. She makes him promise not to seek vengeance on Regina, but Mr. Gold's hatred is too strong. He brands Regina for death with a medallion and sends a Wraith to suck out her soul. In the pawnshop, Belle accidentally overhears him discussing the matter. Following a heated argument, she leaves in tears. Upon her return, she sees the chipped cup. Mr. Gold admits that among the many objects he keeps, that is the only one he truly cherishes. She is very happy that he kept something to remember her by and decides to stay with him. ("Broken")
After Belle loses her memories due to accidentally crossing the town border line, Mr. Gold visits her in a hospital room with the chipped cup. Placing it on her hands, he asks Belle to look at it and concentrate, in the hopes that if she tries hard enough, some memories will come back. He mentions the cup is charmed with magic, which only causes her to take the cup away. Mr. Gold insists she try, but she repeatedly refuses. In the midst of the two pushing the cup back and forth into each other's hands, Belle, agitated and frightened, hurls it against the wall. With the cup shattered to pieces, she urges him one final time to leave, to which he does in despair. ("In the Name of the Brother")
At some point, Mr. Gold returns to the hospital to collect the shards of the cup and keeps them in his shop. His close call with death at Hook's hands leads him to make a last confessional phone call to Belle. When Mr. Gold survives, she is incredibly relieved and begins to trust that he can help her recuperate from amnesia. Before that can happen, Regina intervenes to plant false memories in Belle so she takes on the persona of Lacey. Completely opposite of her old self, Lacey is drawn to the dark side of Mr. Gold and the two begin a relationship. ("The Miller's Daughter," "Lacey")
In a ploy to destroy Storybrooke, Tamara, who entered town under the guise of Neal's fiancée, teams up with her partner, Greg, to gather intel on magic. As a side quest of sorts, she helps Greg capture Regina for interrogation about his missing father's whereabouts. Tamara pockets a trigger from Regina, which in turn, after sending it into their employees, The Home Office, the item is discovered to be the catalyst for annihilating all of Storybrooke's residents. Eventually, Greg and Tamara are forced to flee as David, Emma, Mary Margaret and Neal close in on the building to rescue Regina. In the midst of Tamara's escape, she knocks out Emma and severely injuries as well as sends Neal to his death by opening a portal, which he falls into. Later, David and Mary Margaret give condolences to Mr. Gold about Neal's death, yet also ask for his help in halting the trigger's effects. Unfortunately, the news of his son's passing breaks any resolve in him to assist them. ("Second Star to the Right," "And Straight On 'Til Morning")
As the end of Storybrooke nears, Mr. Gold is given an extra brewed batch of Mother Superior's memory potion by Leroy, which will work to restore a person's Enchanted Forest memories if the user drinks it from one of his or her own precious items. Leroy pushes him to have Lacey drink it so at least she won't die without knowing her true self. He ignores the advice until a troubling moment when Lacey attempts to clean up a drink spill using a shawl as a mopping rag. Horrified, he snatches back the shawl, which belonged to his son, and shouts at her about its importance and how she would not understand. Confused, Lacey apologizes, but the incident helps Mr. Gold to realize the one person he needs most right now is Belle. Reluctantly, he takes out the cup shards and restores the object to its original state. Lacey doesn't understand his fixation with the cup, though he says it's something from their past. Then, he pours the potion liquid into the cup and she drinks it in a toast. Seconds after ingesting the potion, Belle returns and reunites with Mr. Gold as she comforts him over the loss of Neal. ("And Straight On 'Til Morning")
Eventually, the trigger is stopped with the combined powers of Emma and Regina. However, Henry is kidnapped to Neverland by Greg and Tamara; leading Mr. Gold to join in on the journey there to rescue him in honor of Neal. While he believes the only way to save Henry from the villainous Peter Pan is to sacrifice his own life, Regina's suggests that there must be a way to contain their nemesis. Mr. Gold has just the item for the job, except the weapon itself is sitting in his pawnshop in Storybrooke, so Regina barters with a mermaid, Ariel, to retrieve it. Ariel is sent off to Storybrooke with a request from Mr. Gold to give Belle a magically enchanted sand dollar. Once the item reaches Belle's hands, she activates it to project an image of Mr. Gold along with a specific message from him. He informs her that she can indeed find the necessary item to defeat Pan "with the strength of their love". The riddle puzzles Belle until she thinks of the one item that is symbolic of the wear and tear their love has been through, which is the chipped cup. Unsure what to do with the cup, she places it back in the cupboard on a saucer; triggering a spell to open a hidden compartment in the floor. Inside, Belle finds Pandora's Box. ("Dark Hollow")Trivia
On-screen Notes
- The chipped cup on Once Upon a Time is a reference to Chip, the character in Disney's 1991 film Beauty and the Beast.
Production Notes
- When creating the chipped cup, the prop department scoured the town for the right-looking retail tea cups, and each took turns breaking one. When they got the perfect break, they cast the actual prop in hard-impact plastic with the break already built into it, and added the blue painted embellishment.[1]
Props Notes
- The other cups on the tea tray[2] are Royal Albert Val D'or teacups.[3]
- The chipped cup that was used in "Skin Deep" was autographed by both Robert Carlyle and Emilie de Ravin and put up for the September 2012 With Kids charity auction.[4]
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": |
Appears | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
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": |
Appears | 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": |
Appears | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Appears |
Once Upon a Time: Season Three | ||||||||||
"The Heart of the Truest Believer": | "Lost Girl": | "Quite a Common Fairy": | "Nasty Habits": | "Good Form": | "Ariel": | "Dark Hollow": | "Think Lovely Thoughts": | "Save Henry": | "The New Neverland": | "Going Home": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Appears | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
"New York City Serenade": | "Witch Hunt": | "The Tower": | "Quiet Minds": | "It's Not Easy Being Green": | "The Jolly Roger": | "Bleeding Through": | "A Curious Thing": | "Kansas": | "Snow Drifts": | "There's No Place Like Home": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Mentioned |
Once Upon a Time: Season Four | ||||||||||
"A Tale of Two Sisters": |
"White Out": |
"Rocky Road": |
"The Apprentice": |
"Breaking Glass": |
"Family Business": | "The Snow Queen": |
"Smash the Mirror": |
"Fall": | "Shattered Sight": |
"Heroes and Villains": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Appears |
"Darkness on the Edge of Town": |
"Unforgiven": | "Enter the Dragon": | "Poor Unfortunate Soul": |
"Best Laid Plans": | "Heart of Gold": | "Sympathy for the De Vil": |
"Lily": | "Mother": | "Operation Mongoose Part 1": |
"Operation Mongoose Part 2": |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Mentioned | 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 | Absent | Absent | Archive | Archive | ||||||
"Secrets of Storybrooke": | "Dark Swan Rises": | "Evil Reigns Once More": | "The Final Battle Begins": | |||||||
Archive | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.
References
- ↑ Once Upon a Time - Behind the Magic - Page 41. London: Titan Books, October 2013
- ↑ File:112ImSoSorry.png
- ↑ http://www.royalalbertpatterns.com/a%20to%20z%20pages/rapgv.htm
- ↑ http://www.onceuponatimefans.co.uk/apps/blog/entries/show/16750075-broken-hearts-chipped-cups-an-interview-with-robert-carlyle