Chipped Cup

> There are many, many things in this shop, but this.. This is the only thing I truly cherish.
>       —Mr. Gold to Belle

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

### Before First Curse

To save her family and friends from the warring ogres in the Enchanted Forest, Belle willingly adheres to a deal with the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin, by becoming his eternal castle servant. At her arrival, she begins serving him tea when Rumplestiltskin makes a joke about skinning children he captures. Surprised at his remark, she drops a cup and picks it up to see the rim is now chipped. She apologies for the damage, but he has little care for only a simple cup. Despite the less than ideal circumstances, Belle falls in love with Rumplestiltskin and begins to see a softer side to the man everyone fears so much. Wishing to free him from darkness, she chances upon a meeting with a Queen who tells her of one way to break Rumplestiltskin's curse with true love's kiss. Belle follows through with the plan, but Rumplestiltskin wrongly accuses her of conspiring with the Queen to take away his powers. Furious, he locks her up in the dungeon while hurling various items at the wall. Upon grabbing the chipped cup, however, he sets it down on the table. After much due, he forces Belle out of his castle for good. Some time passes and the Queen pays a visit to mention Belle's miserable end, culminating in the girl's suicide, after he threw her out of the castle. Once left alone, Rumplestiltskin is so upset at the news he replaces a massive golden chalice on a display stand with the chipped cup. *("Skin Deep")*

### During First Curse

In Storybrooke, Sheriff Emma receives a message about a residential break-in and goes to Mr. Gold's house to investigate. Mr. Gold draws a gun and enters, walking slowly through the house. He turns to find Emma, also with a gun drawn. He claims he has been robbed. When Emma says that it keeps happening to him, Mr. Gold replies that he is a difficult man to love. When Mr. Gold says Emma can go home because he has got everything under control, she refuses and threatens to arrest Mr. Gold if he does not tell her everything. He accuses Moe of robbing his home because of a "disagreement" they had earlier. Emma recovers the majority of Mr. Gold's items, but there is still something missing which upsets him. When Emma says that she will get it now that Moe is apprehended, but Mr. Gold rushes off to deal with the matter first. After kidnapping Moe to a remote location, he interrogates and beats him about the location of the cup. At one point, Mr. Gold blames him for "her" death. Emma bursts in to rescue Moe and arrest Mr. Gold on charges of physical assault. While he is jailed, Regina privately reveals she is the one who stole his precious cup. She promises to give it back, but only if he tells her his "real" name. He admits his name is Rumplestiltskin and only then she pulls out the cup. Regina teases him about his hostile behavior over a "sentimental little keepsake", which he counters with a subtle threat. Left alone, Mr. Gold clutches the cup tightly in his hands with visible relief. *("Skin Deep")*

### After First Curse

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
* Production Notes
* Props Notes

### 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.

### Props Notes

* The other cups on the tea tray are Royal Albert Val D'or teacups.
* 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.

## References

1. ↑ *Once Upon a Time - Behind the Magic* - Page 41. London: Titan Books, October 2013
2. ↑ File:112ImSoSorry.png
3. ↑ http://www.royalalbertpatterns.com/a%20to%20z%20pages/rapgv.htm
4. ↑ http://www.onceuponatimefans.co.uk/apps/blog/entries/show/16750075-broken-hearts-chipped-cups-an-interview-with-robert-carlyle