Looking Glasses, also known as Magic Mirrors, are portals featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time and Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. They first appear in the seventeenth episode of the first season of Once Upon a Time.
Looking Glasses are based on the item of the same name from the novel, Through the Looking-Glass.
History
In a desperate attempt to get rid of her mother Cora and escape an unwanted marriage to King Leopold, Regina steals her mother's spell book and accidentally summons a dark wizard named Rumplestiltskin. He offers a looking glass as a gift, instructing her to push Cora into it, and she will never have to see her mother again. On the day of her wedding, Cora visits Regina and voices her praise over Regina's future, noticing the looking glass. As Regina lunges forward to push her through it, Cora magically restrains her. With encouragement from Rumplestiltskin in the looking glass, Regina breaks free of the spell and uses the remaining magic to shove Cora into the portal. For a brief moment, Cora manages to hang onto the frame before completely vanishing into the looking glass, which shatters almost immediately after. ("We Are Both")
In the castle of a fearsome witch named Maleficent, she possesses a compact looking glass. While she is away, Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men enter in to steal her collection of gold for the poor. The newest recruit in the group, Will Scarlet, steals the looking glass, intending to use it so he and his beloved, Anastasia, can travel to another world. When Maleficent discovers the theft, she warns the Merry Men to return the stolen item. Robin Hood calls out the thief in the group, but no one steps forward. While trying to sneak off during the night, Will is reprimanded by Robin Hood, who realizes he is the thief, but allows him to leave, believing his punishment will come in the near future. Will returns to his sweetheart and as they prepare to jump into the looking glass, Anastasia's mother walks in to express disappointment at her daughter's actions. Nonetheless, the lovers leap into the looking glass to Wonderland, but their new life together is meager. They steal clothes and forge invitations to an upcoming royal ball, which ends disastrously after both are kicked out. Anastasia figures it'd be best if they returned to the Enchanted Forest, but before that, she wants to steal the crown jewels from the castle. The plan falls through when Anastasia betrays Will by accepting a marriage proposal from the Red King and ascends the throne as the Red Queen. ("Forget Me Not," "Heart of Stone," "Heart of the Matter")
The looking glass takes Cora to Wonderland where she rises to power as the Queen of Hearts. Due to the prevalent threat of her daughter Regina, she kidnaps her husband, Henry, to which Regina requests the assistance of a portal-jumper named Jefferson to help her get him back. However, she lies and says the Queen of Hearts stole an item from her, rather than a person. They jump into Jefferson's magical hat together and arrive in a room of doors with each one leading to a separate magical world. Through a looking glass, they enter Wonderland and travel through a great maze to the vault belonging to the Queen of Hearts in the center. After Regina plucks out a box containing her shrunken father, they are chased by the Queen's soldiers, but manage to lose them in the maze. Back at the looking glass exit, Regina tears a piece of growth mushroom, which her father ingests and returns to his normal size. Jefferson realizes too late that he has been tricked since the hat only allow the same amount of people to go in and come out. He is entrapped while Regina leaves for the Enchanted Forest with her father. ("Hat Trick")
Trivia
On-Screen Notes
- Contrary to most of the mirrors, these looking glasses are not portals to the World Behind the Mirror. ("Hat Trick," "I'll Be Your Mirror")
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 | Absent | Appears | 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": |
Absent | Appears | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Mentioned | 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": |
Mentioned | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
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 | Mentioned | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | 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 | Absent |
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 | Absent |
"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 | Absent | Absent | Mentioned | Absent | Absent |
Once Upon a Time: Season Five | |||||||||||
"The Dark Swan": | "The Price": | "Siege Perilous": | "The Broken Kingdom": | "Dreamcatcher": | "The Bear and the Bow": | "Nimue": | "Birth": | "The Bear King": | "Broken Heart": | "Swan Song": | |
Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | |
"Souls of the Departed": | "Labor of Love": | "Devil's Due": | "The Brothers Jones": | "Our Decay": | "Her Handsome Hero": | "Ruby Slippers": | "Sisters": | "Firebird": | "Last Rites": | "Only You": | "An Untold Story": |
Appears | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland | ||||||||||
"Down the Rabbit Hole": | "Trust Me": | "Forget Me Not": | "The Serpent": | "Heart of Stone": | "Who's Alice": | "Bad Blood": | ||||
Absent | Absent | Appears | Absent | Appears | Absent | Mentioned | ||||
"Home": | "Nothing to Fear": | "Dirty Little Secrets": | "Heart of the Matter": | "To Catch a Thief": | "And They Lived...": | |||||
Absent | Absent | Absent | Mentioned | 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 | Archive | Archive | Absent | ||||||
"Secrets of Storybrooke": | "Dark Swan Rises": | "Evil Reigns Once More": | "The Final Battle Begins": | |||||||
Archive | Absent | Absent | Absent |
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.