Ingrid the Snow Queen/Synopsis

The story of Ingrid the Snow Queen from ABC's Once Upon a Time.

Before First Curse
Ingrid is the firstborn child of King Harold and Queen Sonja of Arendelle, and has two younger sisters, Helga and Gerda. As children, the three were very close, often playing in the gardens. One afternoon, they spot a punctured kite, and take a fancy to the kite's ribbons. The kite's owner arrives, but he proves to be a scoundrel as he grabs Gerda, intending to sell her for money. With Helga also restrained in his grip, Ingrid rushes to stop him, but he kicks her away. As she falls backwards, a stream of ice shoots out of her hands, which breaks a large tree branch and knocks him unconscious. Ingrid fears hurting her sisters with her new-found powers, but Gerda and Helga are thankful for what she did earlier. They promise to help conceal her powers and each girl takes a ribbon to solidify their sisterhood, promising to always be there for one another no matter what.

Years later, on the night of their father's birthday celebration, Ingrid opts out, despite that her sisters want her to come. At the party, she secretly watches as her sisters dance with their suitors. However, when snowflakes manifest around herself, Ingrid realizes that her powers are uncontrollable. Packing her things, Ingrid later explains to her sisters that, if she leaves, they can have normal lives. She also passes the throne to Helga, who has leadership qualities befitting a queen. To rid Ingrid's distress over her powers, they go to a Misthaven resident, Rumplestiltskin. In exchange for their ribbons, he gives Ingrid a pair of gloves to cancel out her powers as well as an urn to entrap her if she becomes too dangerous. Relaxing in the royal garden, Ingrid is approached by Helga's suitor, the Duke of Weselton, who makes romantic advances on her. Horrified, she blasts him away. When Helga arrives, the Duke accuses Ingrid of harming him after he rejected her feelings. Instead, Helga spurns him due to knowing his true nature, to which he threatens to reveal Ingrid's magic to all of Arendelle so everyone will know their future queen is a monster. Pushed to the edge, Ingrid fires her magic at him, but the Duke uses Helga as a shield and she takes the hit; turning into an ice statue and crumbling to pieces. A grief-stricken Ingrid cries over her sister's broken body when Gerda discovers them. Despite that Ingrid did not mean to kill Helga, Gerda, in grief and anguish, labels her a monster and entraps her in the urn. Soon after, Grand Pabbie, on Gerda's request, erases everyone's memories of Ingrid and Helga.

Many years later, Gerda's eldest daughter, Elsa, inherits ice powers similar to Ingrid's. Gerda goes to Misthaven once again with her husband to find a solution, but perish at sea. While Elsa is the ruling Queen of Arendelle, she learns Prince Hans of the Southern Isles intends to trap her in an urn so he can seize Arendelle. After finding the urn in a cave within the North Valley, Elsa is forced to hand it over to Hans when her sister Anna's fiance, Kristoff is almost killed by the prince. In a smug tone, Hans remarks that the people of Arendelle will be glad to finally have a real ruler instead of a monster, and he proceeds to uncap the relic. A white liquid pours out and it's suspected the substance is about to imprison Elsa. But instead, Ingrid materializes from it instead. Offended by the prince's cruelty, she freezes him solid as punishment, while his brothers flee. Returning to Arendelle's castle, she and Elsa walk in while chatting animatedly about their ice magic. Ingrid takes notice of a painting of Elsa's parents and soon reveals herself as Gerda's sister, thus Elsa's maternal aunt. Ingrid longingly asks to see her sister again, but Elsa regrettably reveals to her that she died at sea. Elsa expresses worry for her sister, Anna, who has gone missing, though Ingrid promises to help find her as that's what family does.

Ingrid begins teaching Elsa to hone control of the link between her emotions and powers. When Anna returns home, Ingrid meets her for the first time; remarking that she resembles Gerda. While Elsa accepts Ingrid as their aunt, Anna remains skeptical due to completely no records of her. Later, Ingrid overhears Anna voicing these doubts to Kristoff and her plans to ask the rock trolls for answers. During this conversation, Ingrid learns Anna discovered that her parents went to Misthaven intending to get rid of Elsa's magic with something, but she hasn't told her sister yet. Learning about Helga, her other maternal aunt, from Grand Pabbie, Anna realizes Ingrid is up to something and rushes to warn Elsa. She and her companion, Belle, make their way down the mountain only to be stopped by storm conjured by Ingrid. A fierce wind knocks Anna to the cliff ledge, where she desperately clings to keep from falling, as Belle tries to pull her up. Anna plunges to the ground and falls unconscious, to which Ingrid appears from the shadows and collects the sorcerer's hat from her niece's satchel. Belle yells at Ingrid to leave Anna alone, but the Snow Queen apologetically remarks that she'll have to excuse them for "this is family business". She then dematerializes away, taking Anna with her, as Belle helplessly watches. Imprisoning Anna in a castle cell, she accuses her of intending to use the sorcerer's hat on Elsa. Anna rejects the notion; arguing that she wasn't going to use it on anyone until Ingrid attacked her. She defends herself further with knowledge of the secrets Ingrid's been keeping, notably of Helga. Ingrid replies that some are better left buried. Anna asks her aunt what she wants, which Ingrid calmly answers "what [she's] always wanted: a family who will embrace [her] for who [she] is". And she thought her nieces could be that family, but now that Anna has proven to be the "odd woman out" with nothing in common with herself and Elsa, she vows to find someone else to replace her.

Burying the hat in a cave in Arendelle, Ingrid then goes to the Enchanted Forest where she asks the Sorcerer's Apprentice to find a third sister to complete her family. The Apprentice believes finding such a person is rare, but she insists on waiting as long as necessary. Returning to Arendelle, Ingrid tells Elsa about what Anna learned in Misthaven. She purports that Anna, intending to use the hat on Elsa, attempted it on her first. As Elsa's in doubt, Ingrid reveals her mother trapped her in the urn and that Anna, like Gerda, will never understand or accept a relative with magic. Instead of turning the girls against each other, they conspire to retrap their devious aunt in the urn, but Ingrid is one step ahead. She shackles Anna and, under duress, makes her tell the Norse legend of The Trolden Glass. A story about a king who made a mirror for his beloved daughter to see her own beauty, however, she died before receiving it. Thus, the mirror reflected the king's misery. Since Anna cannot remember anything else in the tale, Ingrid explains the grief-stricken king learned dark magic to make the kingdom share his pain, which caused the subjects to see the worst in others and turn on each other. Like the story, Ingrid wants to cast that very spell, the Spell of Shattered Sight, but requires a lifetime to harness enough power to cast on a kingdom. With a shard, she places Anna under the spell.

Elsa is bewildered at her sister's venomous anger when Ingrid shows herself. She admits she did it to show Anna's inner darkness. She pushes Elsa into using magic on Anna, but the latter refuses. Anna seals her sister in the urn, which is the opposite of what Ingrid planned. Just as she's about to harm her, Kristoff arrives with an ice pick against his future aunt-in-law. But this only provokes Ingrid's wrath further. Embracing herself as a monster that everyone sees her as, she freezes her niece, nephew-in-law, and all of Arendelle in ice and then erases Elsa's memories of her. Rumplestiltskin shows up asking for the Sorcerer's Hat, but she claims to not know where it is. As a result, he takes the urn with her amnesiac niece in it and promises to return her if she hands over the hat. When the Apprentice locates the third sister, Ingrid gives him the hat and gains passage to another realm as well as a scroll to find the sister and reunite with her other one in due time. From a portal door the apprentice creates, Ingrid walks through and arrives in the Land Without Magic in Boston during the year 1982.

While walking on the streets of this new world, Ingrid visits "a psychic", Madame Faustina, to find out information about the third sister, who will arrive in a town called Storybrooke in twenty-eight years. She then pays for the seer's service by giving up her necklace. Through crystal gazing, Madame Faustina proves herself to be a fraud after proclaiming the girl's name will be Susan, though Ingrid knows from the apprentice's scroll that her name will be Emma Swan. Storming out of the shop, Ingrid angrily berates the woman's trickery and tries punishing her with magic, but finds her own powers do not work in this land. She brushes it off, vowing she will get what she deserves in time

During First Curse
In 1999, Ingrid is now working in the childcare system for boys and girls and runs a group home in Richfield, Minnesota. Fourteen to fifteen years after Emma is born, she is placed under Ingrid's care. One day, she spots one of the boys, Kevin, toying with Emma's camera. Ingrid asks him to give it back because property is respected in the house. She approaches to turn it off and returns the device to Emma. Ingrid reassures Emma, who is the newest addition to the house, that she'll fit in. After Ingrid walks off to announce bedtime, Kevin threatens Emma into turning over her camera to him by tomorrow or he'll make her life miserable. That night, Ingrid catches Emma attempting to run away. She doesn't stop her, but casually lets it slip that Kevin happens to be afraid of spiders; including the rubber ones hidden in her own drawer. Realizing Ingrid is helping her, the girl agrees to stay. Soon, Ingrid secretly makes plans to adopt her. Spending time together, they have fun at the amusement park where Emma plays the claw machine and accidentally causes sparks of magic. Emma wins a dog plushie and a ring, to which Ingrid beams with excessive and genuine praise while shedding tears of happiness. Seeing papers in Ingrid's bag, Emma assumes she is being transferred to another home. However, Ingrid admits she is adopting her, which Emma happily accepts. As they wait for the bus, Emma suggests it'd be great to have magic to instantly return home. Ingrid, knowing the girl's potential, pulls her in front of an incoming car and pushes her to use magic. Instead, Emma, freaked out at Ingrid's insistence that she has hidden powers, deems Ingrid a nutjob and runs away for good.

In the year 2001, Ingrid packs her belongings and travels to Maine. Upon opening the scroll, she magically materializes in Storybrooke. Going by the name Sarah Fisher, Ingrid takes over an ice cream business, Any Given Sundae, from its original owner, Dopey. Then, she patiently awaits Emma, who walks into the shop years later in November to buy frozen treats for her son, Henry. Ingrid desperately reiterates what she tried to tell Emma years ago. Without either noticing, Sidney, who is spying on Emma for Regina, takes a picture of them from outside the store. Emma, believing her former foster mother is insane, prepares to call Sheriff Graham, until Ingrid absorbs her memories into a stone. Ingrid then pretends as if Emma, with no recollection of their prior exchange, was on the verge of fainting and helps to steady her. After giving Emma some pints of cherry vanilla and rocky road, she offers her a spoonful of rocky road. Emma finds the ice cream delicious as Ingrid says she made it with a lot of patience and love. As Emma leaves, Ingrid sadly watches her go.

It's unknown what became of her during the time between the breaking of the First Curse and the casting of the Second Curse, as she wasn't affected by the First Curse and, as such, he would've likely remained behind in the empty plains around Storybrooke. When the Second Curse is cast, Storybrooke is recreated, allowing her to start putting together her plans.

Season 4
After returning to Storybrooke, Ingrid resumes her job at Any Given Sundae. During a power outage, she uses her freezing powers to keep her frozen goods from expiring. Meanwhile, the Ice Queen, Elsa, recently created an ice barrier at the town line in order to keep everyone from leaving until she finds her missing sister. Having gained an ally in Emma, Elsa returns to the town line with her and agrees to remove the barrier after the town blackout ends. However, to her surprise, it fails. Elsa, believing she herself is the only one capable of harnessing ice powers, cannot understand why the barrier remains. Later, at Any Given Sundae, Ingrid scoops an ice cream cone for Leroy. He asks her if the power outage was a problem for her business. Smiling mysteriously, she says it wasn't. After he is gone, she uses magic to refreeze a melted carton of ice cream. As she leans against the freezer, it becomes frozen as well, signalling the start of her plans.

One day, Ingrid serves Robin Hood and his son, Roland, some rocky road ice cream. Not familiar with Robin Hood's wife, she is introduced to the woman, Marian, and offers to give her a cone of ice cream as a town welcome. As she is preparing the frozen treat, Ingrid casts a freezing spell on it and then hands it to an unsuspecting Marian. Soon after, Marian falls unconscious due to the freezing spell, which the townspeople suspect is Elsa's doing. While fixing a menu chalkboard outside of the ice cream shop, Ingrid overhears Archie state they cannot blame Elsa without proof, but Leroy loudly proclaims that Elsa, being the only one with ice powers, is enough evidence. Satisfied with the way things are going, she secretly smiles. Later, Ingrid enters the woods where she apprehends Hook by freezing his feet, but leaves Elsa untouched. Ingrid confirms that Elsa once knew her and no longer does because the rock trolls erased her memories. She also claims Anna put Elsa in the urn, but the latter is in disbelief. Elsa angrily confronts her for making the townspeople believe she caused Marian's affliction, but Ingrid coolly suggests she was trying to show her that everyone, even friends and family, will fear powers like theirs. To prove a point, she creates icicles over Hook and neutralizes Elsa's magic so she will look responsible for it. As she begins lowering the spikes, David and Emma arrive. Ingrid accidentally calls Emma by name before shrugging it off and challenging her to a magic match. Emma blasts her away, though Ingrid manages to collapse the icicles. As Emma uses magic to push both David and Hook to safety, her opponent mysteriously disappears. After the battle, Ingrid wanders the forest, where Mr. Gold questions if Emma remembered her, to which she confirms it didn't happen. When he asks if she requires his help, Ingrid makes it clear that she will come to him when she is ready. Once he leaves her be, she stares off into the distance.

Far off, she watches Emma throughout the day. When Emma suspiciously notices an ice trail that her car skids onto, and she discovers the Snow Queen nearby. Refusing to answer Emma's questions, Ingrid walks away, as the latter follows, though she manages to lose her pursuer.

Creating a replica of Anna out of ice, Ingrid uses her as a false illusion to lure Elsa out into the woods. After Elsa rushes to her sister as intended, she turns the fake into ice and withers it into mist before binding her niece with chains. As Ingrid tells her, the more fearful she becomes, the tighter the cuffs will become. Before she departs, Elsa questions her on what she intends to do. With a smug smile, Ingrid states she is going to build a snowman. Mounding a vicious snow orc into life, she sends her creation to attack an approaching Emma and Regina, who soon figure out that Sidney has been working for her. With combined powers, the two magic wielders defeat the orc. Ingrid then surprises them, taking away Regina's pocket mirror where Sidney is entrapped, and begins choking the women. An escaped Elsa blasts Ingrid away and then confronts her; commanding that, should she want a fight, to do so with her. In a tone of amazement, Ingrid congratulates Elsa for overcoming her fears. Before the trio can finish her off, she dematerializes away. Later, in her lair, Ingrid frees Sidney from the mirror. Though Sidney assumes he is now her underling, she allows him to go. Ingrid explains the mirror is more important than him as it contains an essence of his soul and is also infused with Regina's dark magic, which will give her what she desires most. He inquires what it is, but she remains tight-lipped. After he leaves, she walks over to a wall mirror with broken fitted pieces and one empty slot. Shattering Sidney's old mirror, Ingrid takes a piece and levitates it into the remaining hole. The mirror's reflection then dissolves its cracks as she looks in; stating it'll give her her deepest wish — a family that loves her.

Planting her ice cream truck in the woods near the Merry Men's campsite, Ingrid puts a file, containing drawings that a young Emma once made, inside the vehicle. Of all the items within the folder, Ingrid also left a scroll written in ancient text foretelling of a prophecy that the savior, Emma, will become her sister. As Emma and her companions approach the truck, Ingrid walks off. When called out by Mr. Gold, she confronts him over wanting to know her secrets. Mr. Gold offers to strike a deal, but Ingrid quickly recognizes he wants something in her possession — the sorcerer's hat. Though Ingrid does not actually have it, she pretends otherwise and asks him to stay out of her way. Later, Mr. Gold's wife, Belle, storms into the Snow Queen's lair looking for the sorcerer's hat. With her mirror, Ingrid toys with Belle's insecurities until she falls into a trance and injures Mr. Gold. Angered, Mr. Gold warns the Snow Queen that he won't let her use the mirror for the Spell of Shattered Sight and hurt his loved ones. Ingrid refuses to exempt anyone for his sake, but he reveals the Sorcerer's Hat, threatening to absorb her into it, if not.

Ingrid plants a false mirror within the top level of the clock tower and allows herself to be apprehended by Emma and her allies. Taken to the sheriff station, she is interrogated by Elsa about Anna. Coolly, Ingrid continues to insinuate Anna is not worth it since she put Elsa in the urn. A furious Elsa then leaves to cool off while Emma resumes questioning. When asked about the erasure of Emma's memories of her, she implies that all families are not perfect. Emma affirms they were never a family, but Ingrid insists she herself and Elsa have similar powers as her and thus belong together. Ingrid insists Emma's biological family love her, but they also fear her powers. Later, Ingrid freezes the station door entrance to prevent Emma's allies from coming in after they realize the mirror is fake. Having cracked some of the latter's confidence, Ingrid recalls Emma, as a young girl, was angry her biological parents gave her up and despite that they had no choice due to the curse, they are still selfishly using their daughter and her magic to constantly save them. She argues that they'll start to fear Emma if her powers become dangerous, and how her parents must be very thankful their second child was born without magic. As Emma, out of anger, unknowingly uses magic to heat up a glass of water, Noticing this, Ingrid proclaims her parents can't love their daughter if they don't understand her, so they will see her as a monster. Having enough, Emma's emotions reach a boiling point and she accidentally unleashes her power and destroys a wall. Pleased, Ingrid unbinds herself and escapes. From nearby, she watches Emma lose control and accidentally injure David; causing brief resentment from Mary Margaret. Feeling ostracized, Emma flees. Afterwards, Ingrid asks for the three ribbons in exchange for telling Mr. Gold the thing he needs to be free of the dagger since she once owned the the sorcerer's hat herself. In a whisper, she tells him he needs the heart of someone who knew him before his time as the Dark One. Ingrid then receives the ribbons and leaves to enact her plan of taking over Storybrooke.

Shortly after Emma unintentionally injuries Henry and fearfully forces him to leave, Ingrid appears out of nowhere and casually advises her that the only solution is to accept her own magic. Driving off, Emma rejects the idea as she doesn't want to hurt her loved ones. At her lair, Mr. Gold implies he has his own plans for Emma that will override hers. Angered he's trying to take another "sister" from her again, Ingrid tries attacking him only to realize he has trapped her in a circle of the urn's powder dust. Though the effect is temporary, it buys him enough time to keep Ingrid from interfering. Scouring for Emma through the mirror, Ingrid finds her driving on the road. Using projection, she manifests on the road to force Emma to swerve the car. Ingrid warns that Mr. Gold is using her, but Emma doesn't trust her word and leaves after realizing she's an illusion. Intending to be rid of her own magic, Emma almost falls for Mr. Gold's trap of absorbing her into the Sorcerer's Hat, however, Elsa persuades her into accepting the good and bad that comes with magic. Due to this, the true power of the ribbons is unlocked because both Elsa and Emma accept their magic. Later, the two ribbons appear on their wrists, and begin harnessing their magic into Ingrid's ribbon. In another confrontation with Mr. Gold in her lair, she explains the ribbons' functions and suggest its power will be enough to defeat even him, but he cautions her not to overestimate her own strength. As he leaves, Ingrid more fiercely counters him not to underestimate her magic, and she then shatters the mirror using the ribbon's power, unleashing the Spell of Shattered Sight.

As the spell slowly spreads, Ingrid studies the sky from within the woods. Though she wants the spell to wipe out everyone except herself, Elsa and Emma, Mr. Gold points out he himself is immortal and thus things will not go according to her plan. He agrees to leave Ingrid be if she allows him, Belle and Henry to leave Storybrooke forever, which she consents to.

When her curse begins affecting the townspeople, Ingrid prowls the streets before heading into Any Given Sundae. Hidden in the carrot sherbet ice cream scoop bucket, she takes two purple stones, which contain Elsa and Emma's memories with her. Outside, she is stopped by the two blondes, who fail at attacking with magic. As Ingrid explains, her love for them is channeled into the ribbons; preventing them from using their powers to hurt her. However, Elsa and Emma come up with a solution to counter Ingrid's love with Regina's hatred in order to get rid of the ribbons. Emma provokes Regina by proclaiming she wanted hurt her like her mother had and so she'd be jealous of seeing her and Hook together, causing the latter to burn them off in murderous rage. Escaping to her Snow Lair, Emma continues to deny that they'll ever love the Snow Queen. Thus, Ingrid shows them the stones containing their lost memories. She believes by returning the memories and letting them remember the good moments they had with her, they will love her. She knows the only way to end the curse is to kill her, but she's sure they don't have it in them. Holding out the stones, she urges them to become her sisters.

Just as Emma summons the gumption to strike Ingrid, Anna rushes in with a scroll written by her late mother and she reads it out loud. Gerda is remorseful for all her mistakes with her sisters and daughters. She reveals the existence of Ingrid and Helga and asks Anna and Elsa to restore the kingdom's obscured memories of their aunts. Additionally, Gerda wants Ingrid released from the urn and given her apology message, wanting to give anything to hold her hands one final time like she wanted. In denial and insecurity, Ingrid throws Elsa and Emma backwards and chokes Anna. Understanding her aunt's emotional pain, Anna proclaims that she can love Ingrid like Gerda had because, no matter what, they're family. After releasing Anna, she touches the scroll crystal and receives Gerda's happy memories with her and Helga. Realizing her sister's last words are genuine, Ingrid regrets what she's brought upon Storybrooke. She begins to destroy herself to ensure the curse is lifted, much to the three girls' sadness. As her body dissolves into mirror shards, she returns Elsa and Emma's lost memories and gives them and Anna a grateful blessing. Before disappearing completely, Ingrid assures a sympathetic Emma that the latter had lead her to her happy ending: her sisters' love. Now knowing that they had always loved her, she can happily reunite with them in death. With her reformation and demise, the Spell of Shattered Sight comes to an end.

In the afterlife, young Ingrid is shown catching up with Helga and Gerda and the three join hands, happy to be together again.