This article is about the character from Once Upon a Time. For the episode with the title Queen of Hearts, see Queen of Hearts (Once Upon a Time).
- “Love is weakeness.”
- ―Cora's catchphrase
Cora Mills, also known as the Queen of Hearts is a character featured in the ABC series Once Upon a Time and its spinoff Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.
Background[]
Powers and abilities[]
Powers[]
- Ghostly Physiology: As a ghost; Cora has special supernatural powers.
- Possession: She has the ability to possess other living creatures.
- Flight: She is able to hover above the ground.
- Intangibility: She can pass through anything and everything.
- Magic: Cora was one of the most powerful sorceress from both Wonderland and the Enchanted Forest. She has great knowledge about dark and forbidden magic and has a large arsenal of spells, curses, and magical traps.
- Telekinesis: As a witch, Cora was capable of manipulating objects or people without physically touching them.
- Teleportation: Cora could move from one place to another at will, disappearing into what looks like a purple smoke formation.
- Summoning: Cora was able to summon objects or beings through the magic, often materializing it in one hand via a purple smoke.
- Alchemy: Cora was able to turn straw into gold, it's one of his more signature and iconic abilities.
- Chlorokinesis: Cora could manipulate plant life. She was able to summon vines that are strong enough to immobilize her daughter.
- Pyrokinesis: Cora was able to create and manipulate fire, often in the form of a fireball, effectively using it as a weapon against her enemies.
- Transfiguration/Shapeshifting: Cora was able to turning human beings into animals or changing the physical aspect of herself or others.
- Healing: Cora had the ability to heal herself from the wounds or diseases of others or themselves.
- Heart Extraction: Cora could remove the hearts of other living beings without killing them and use them to control the owner or kill them by crushing the heart.
- Magical Immobilization: Cora could freeze people with just a thought.
- Protection Charm: Cora could protect a place or an object by creating a magic barrier.
- Potioncraft: She has showcased the ability to create liquid substances for various purposes by combining a set of ingredients.
Weaknesses[]
- Laws of Magic: Like any magician or sorceress, Cora was subject to the laws of magic, as a result she was unable to raise the dead, create love and time travel.
- Enchanted Cuffs: As shown (on-screen) cuffs that are enchanted to block magic have the same effect on her as anyone else.
Appearances[]
Once Upon a Time[]
Before the First Curse[]
The Queen of Hearts appeared in Once Upon a Time played by Jennifer Koenig. In Season Two, it was revealed that she is really the Evil Queen Regina Mills' mother Cora (played by Barbara Hershey) as well. She is also the mother of Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West.
A young Cora.
As a young woman, Cora (played by Rose McGowan) serves as a popular bar wench and has her hand asked for in marriage by a man named Jonathan claiming to be a Prince. He proposes to her and gives her a straw ring, claiming to give her a real one made of gold in two weeks. When Jonathan tells Cora that he has to leave the next day, Cora decides to give herself and her body to him that night. The two conceived a child though Cora discovers he is really a gardener, and that the whole thing was merely a ploy so that he could bed the naïve young beauty. Hurt and upset at being used she demands that at the very least, Jonathon provides enough for her to raise their child, but he laughs it off and leaves her destitute.
She then meets Prince Leopold and the two formed a bond until Cora learned he was engaged to Princess Eva. Jonathan later blackmails Cora, threatening to reveal her pregnancy, and so she then promises him gold for his silence on the matter. Unbeknownst to her, however, Eva was listening and after Eva learns of Cora's pregnancy, she informs Leopold. Cora is then banished from the kingdom and abandons her daughter, Zelena, in the woods, who is sent to Oz, in order to become royalty.
Rumplestiltskin teaches Cora how to spin straw into gold.
Sometime after she returned to her father's house, Cora finds herself exasperated by his constant drunken misgivings placing their lively hood in danger. After the Miller forgets to deliver flour to King Xavier, she fed up with his foolishness delivers it herself. She is then purposefully tripped by Princess Eva who she insults. The King tells her she will receive no money for her flour and to apologize to Eva. Cora angrily begs her pardon. The same night Cora sneaks into a castle ball with a stolen dress and mask to disguise herself. She unknowingly meets the King's son Prince Henry and criticizes the King's actions to sell off his son Henry to a bride to solve the kingdom's financial problems. When she discovers that the man she is talking to is Prince Henry, she immediately apologizes to him who laughs it off. The two dance but are interrupted by the King who asks to dance with her. He informs her that he knows of her identity and tells her she be nothing more than a miller's daughter. Claiming she is more than the miller's daughter, she tells the King that she has the ability to spin straw into gold. He tells her that if she is able to do so, she will have the Prince's hand in marriage, but if she fails to do so, she will be killed.
While locked in a tower left to spin straw into gold for the night, she encounters Rumplestiltskin, who offers to spin straw into gold for her in exchange for her first-born child (not knowing she has already given birth to her first-born). She has him change the deal however so that he teaches her how to do so instead of him simply doing it for her. The two later embark on an affair and the deal is changed so that Rumplestiltskin is promised his own child with Cora. She becomes engaged to Prince Henry and the two plan to run away together, but the King convinces her otherwise. She states to the King that she does not love Henry, which the King agrees is understandable, showing disdain for his own son's lack of a backbone. He does tell her that the Prince can offer her something love cannot provide, power. Taking the King's words to heart, she marries Prince Henry and rips out her own heart leaving an angry Rumplestiltskin behind. She later gives birth to her second daughter Regina.
Years later she is then responsible for the death of Queen Eva by launching an incurable disease by magic. Posing as the Blue Fairy, she gives Eva's daughter, Snow White, an Enchanted Candle that can heal her mother, but the price is by taking the life of another and Snow refuses to do so. Once Eva dies Cora looks at her body and promises to destroy her legacy by turning Snow White's heart to darkness.
Cora crushes Daniel's heart.
Cora watches her daughter ride a horse, with annoyance, telling her that she rides like a man and that a lady must be graceful. Angered at her constant criticisms Regina walks away only for Cora hold her up in the air telekinetically for her insolence. She ties Regina up with a saddle until she complies with her mother's wishes to more lady-like. Manipulating events to make her daughter Queen, she causes Snow White's horse ride away with her stuck on. Regina saves Snow and in turn, the King proposes to Regina. Cora answers on behalf of Regina who is now to be Queen. Cora later converses with a young Snow, telling her that she only wants her daughter to be happy. Believing what she is doing for the best despite being against Regina's wishes, Snow then goes on to tell Cora about her daughter's affair with the stable boy Daniel, and that the two are planning to run away together and get married. She confronts her pair and angrily blasts them with her magic across the room, and then tells Daniel that it is a parent responsibility to do what's best for their children. She then proceeds to rip out his heart and crushes it, telling Regina she knows what's best. Regina is then forced to marry King Leopold and become a mother to Snow White, leading her to become the Evil Queen.
On the wedding day, Cora finds a looking glass, given to Regina by Rumplestiltskin, and tells her daughter about Regina's future role as Queen. Regina once again voices her desire to be nothing like her mother. She lunges to push her mother into the mirror, but Cora is too fast and uses magic to restrain her daughter in place. Cora reminds her she can't get rid of her that easily but is unaware of Rumplestiltskin appearing in the mirror from behind, urging Regina to do what must be done. Gathering strength in anger, Regina breaks free of the binds and uses magic for the first time, causing Cora to fly back towards the looking glass. Cora manages to hang on briefly with a look of surprise and sadness on her face before slipping through the looking glass, which shatters into pieces almost immediately.
Cora is sent to Wonderland and becomes the Queen of Hearts. At some point, she captures Henry, Regina's father. She shrinks him in size, puts him in a box, and seals him in one of her vaults. As he is her husband, he is, presumably, not harmed in any other way. Regina, determined to get her father back, enlisted the help of a magician, Jefferson, and took Henry back. However, as only two people could leave Wonderland through the Looking Glass, she concealed the information about her father from Jefferson, who ended up being left behind. The Queen of Hearts' guards captured Jefferson and brought him to her. The Queen interrogates him on how he got to Wonderland, and he refuses to answer her. As a result, she orders his head to be cut off. Jefferson panics at the loss of his body and tells her the truth. The Queen tells him thought her knave that in order to get out of Wonderland, he must make another hat of magic that will allow him to do so. He is imprisoned in a room filled with hat-making materials, and that is where he becomes the Mad Hatter.
Cora as the Queen of Hearts.
Sometime later, Captain Hook is tasked by the Evil Queen with traveling to Wonderland and killing her mother, Cora. He arrives in Wonderland with a dead body in tow and is brought before the Queen of Hearts. She asks through the Knave of Hearts why Hook is there, and Hook tells her that he is seeking a woman who goes by the name Cora in a native land. She lowers her mask to reveal that she is, in fact, Cora, and immediately dismisses the Knave and the Courtiers so that she can speak with Hook in private. She asks why Hook is here, descending her throne, and Hook lunges forward and plunges his hook into her chest to take her heart. But he is stunned to find that there is no heart there. Cora throws back her head and laughs and states that she is the Queen of Hearts, and she would be a fool to keep her heart where everyone else does, and so easily accessed. She then plunges her hand into Hook's chest, and grabs his heart, forcing him to tell her that he was sent by Regina to kill her. Rather than rip out his heart, Cora leaves it and goes back to sit upon her throne.
During the First Curse[]
Cora instead allies with Hook, traveling to an island, casting a barrier to protect them from the curse, frozen in time for 28 years.
After the First Curse[]
Cora with Aurora's heart.
After the curse on Storybrooke is broken, Mary Margaret (Snow White) and her daughter Emma Swan are transported to the Enchanted Forest, where they encounter Cora, who with the help of Hook, steals Aurora's heart to control her. Cora learns that Regina and her adoptive son Henry are in Storybrooke and retrieves a magical bean, following the two back to Storybrooke with Hook. Once she and Hook travel to the town, they part ways, and Cora frames Regina for the murder of Archie Hopper, turning Regina into her ally when everyone turns against her. Cora and Regina then go out to find the Dark One's Dagger so they can control Mr. Gold and kill their enemies, but after Cora learns that Rumplestiltskin is dying, she chooses to kill him and transfer the Dark One's powers to herself instead. While she proceeds to do this, Regina returns her heart which has been poisoned by Mary Margaret, with the same candle that Cora poisoned Snow's mother with. Upon repossessing her heart, she admits that she loves Regina until she dies in her daughter's arms.
After the Third Curse[]
Cora in the Underworld.
Cora is later summoned from the Underworld as a spirit by Regina and Snow White to find out their parent's dark past involving Zelena. She possesses Mary Margaret and gives her a vision of her past involving the situations surrounding her abandoning Zelena. She also shows Snow her mother's cruel and vindictive nature that Cora constantly had to endure in all of their encounters.
She returns in the second half of the fifth season in the episode "Souls of the Departed", when the heroes travel to the Underworld. Originally, she does everything she can to make Regina leave the Underworld even trying to send her father to a place of eternal suffering. When this fails, it is revealed that she made a deal with Hades and because she did not succeed, he makes a miller's daughter once again and she is forced to work for him for all eternity. She is later rescued by the heroes in order to stop Hades. It is then revealed that she had both of her daughters meet each other during their childhood years, but she took away their memories because Zelena would have interfered with Regina becoming the next queen and sends the former back to Oz. When her daughters are fighting Cora restores their memories and apologizes for how she raised both of them and for also abandoning Zelena. With Cora making everything right, she is able to go on to a better place in the afterlife.
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland[]
Cora meets the new Red Queen, Anastasia.
After receiving an invitation to the upcoming wedding of the Red King, she shows up at the royal castle to greet the soon-to-be Red Queen, Anastasia. As they casually talk, Cora manifests vases of roses hall, despite that she knows the Red King dislikes magic since he believes it separates them from their subjects. Seeing Anastasia's likeness to herself, as Cora came from humble beginnings as well, she offers to teach her magic without the Red King's knowledge. Anastasia declines, not wishing to start a marriage with a secret, to which Cora departs, or so it appears. She eavesdrops on a conversation the future Queen has with a former beau, Will Scarlet, who pleads for Anastasia to meet him at their old wagon and run away together. The next morning, Cora sabotages any reconciliation between the two lovers by telling Will that Anastasia decided to marry the Red King.
As he expresses a longing hope that his beloved, in time, would've changed her mind and returned to him, she gently pushes him to give up. Cora consoles him, stating that he helped Anastasia realize her calling as a Queen, and now is the time to move on. When prompted with a request to take out his heart, she warns him of the consequences, but he insists. Once the task is done, she sends him off from the wagon and pockets the heart in a bag. Later, Cora stops Anastasia from leaving the castle for her sweetheart by giving the girl a glimpse at the wagon where Will is nowhere in sight. She manipulates a heartbroken Anastasia into believing all hope of regaining Will's trust and love is forever lost and that her place is a Queen. Eventually, Cora teaches her how to conjure fire by channeling all the unworthiness she feels like a person into power, to which Anastasia successfully uses magic.
