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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 to 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. 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 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's fears about this woman taking away the curse as well as Henry drive her to make a forgetting 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 a price, anyone who leaves Storybrooke will lose memories of their Enchanted Forest selves. Mr. Clark, chosen out of all his dwarf brothers as a test subject, crosses the town line only to lose his memories. ("Broken", "We Are Both")

Mr. Gold plans to leave town in order to search for his son, but is afraid of losing his memories while doing so. After some work, he manages to create a potion to keep his Enchanted Forest identity. The potion must be poured on one's cherished possession. Mr. Gold uses Smee as a test subject. The test is successful and Mr. Gold goes to his shop to share the news with Belle. She asks to join him in his trip, but he states there's only enough potion for one. 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 in a kiss over the town line when Hook shoots Belle in the back. She falls over the border, thus losing her memories. In retaliation towards Hook, Mr. Gold prepares to hurl a fireball at him when a car crashes 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, she instructs them to find an item that once belonged to him. Then, Mr. Clark should 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. Still not over Neal's death, he realizes Belle, not Lacey, would understand his pain. Taking out the 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. With one sip, Lacey remembers her past as Belle. 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. She then passes the vial to Rumplestiltskin. Left alone, he prepares to ingest 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 the savior. ("A Curious Thing," "There's No Place Like Home")

During Second Curse

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 it has no effect and she 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 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 her memories. That night, Hook explains that her family has been re-cursed and the couple, as well as Henry, lead to Storybrooke. ("Going Home," "New York City Serenade")

Returning home to Storybrooke, Emma quickly teams up with Regina to find the caster of the second curse. 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. In fear people will learn her true identity, Zelena breaks into Regina's mayoral office in the middle of the night to steal the potion. When they realize the culprit has taken the bait, Emma and Regina charge into the office to capture the villain, but she disappears in green smoke without being fully seen. ("Witch Hunt")

After Second Curse
After Zelena reveals that she had glamoured herself as Maid 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")

Ingredients

List of Creators

List of Owners

List of Users

Appearances

"Archive" denotes archive footage.

References

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