Ingrid the Snow Queen

Ingrid the Snow Queen, also known as Sarah Fisher, is the main antagonist on the first half of the fourth season of ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the second episode of the fourth season. She is portrayed by guest star Elizabeth Mitchell.

The Snow Queen is based on the main title character of the same name from the fairytale, "The Snow Queen".

Before the First Curse
Ingrid is the firstborn of the royal Arendelle family, and she has two younger sisters, Helga and Gerda. As children, the three develop a close bond. One afternoon, they spot a punctured kite, and Gerda and Helga take a fancy to the kite's ribbons. The kite's owner arrives, but the man 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 comes 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. Her sisters promise to help conceal the powers, and each take a ribbon to solidify their sisterhood. 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 cryokinetic, frigiokinetic abilities are quite strong and 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 Mist Haven resident, Rumplestiltskin. In exchange for their ribbons, he gives Ingrid a pair of gloves to cancel out her powers as well as a urn to entrap her if she becomes too dangerous. In the royal garden, Ingrid is approached by Helga's suitor, the Duke of Weltson, 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. Angered, Ingrid fires ice magic at him, but Helga takes the hit; turning into a 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 deems her a monster and entraps her in the urn. Soon after, Grand Pabbie, on Gerda's request, erase everyone's memories of Ingrid and Helga.

Many years later, Gerda's firstborn child and eldest daughter, Elsa, inherits snowy abilities similar to Ingrid's. When Elsa herself rules as Queen, 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's fiance, Kristoff is almost killed by the prince. In a smug tone, Hans remarks that a monster shouldn't rule Arendelle, and he proceeds to uncap the relic. A white liquid pours out, but while all three believe the substance will trap Elsa, Ingrid arises from it instead. Having taken insult to Hans' previous comment, she turns him into an ice statue while the prince's brothers flee. The remaining trio then return home. Arriving at Arendelle's castle, she and Elsa walk in while chatting animatedly about their ice magic. Noticing a painting of Elsa's parents, Ingrid reveals herself as her mother's sister. Ingrid longingly asks to see her beloved sister, but Elsa regrettably states that her parents died in a sea voyage. Elsa expresses worry for her own younger sister, Anna, who has gone missing, but Ingrid promises to help find her.

Ingrid begins teaching Elsa to strengthen and enhance further control on the mental link between her abilities and feelings. When Anna finally returns home, Ingrid meets her for the first time; remarking that she looks very much like Gerda. While Elsa accepts Ingrid as their aunt, Anna remains secretly skeptical. Later, Ingrid overhears Anna voicing these doubts to Kristoff and her plans to ask the rock troll, Grand Pabbie, for answers. After learning of the existence of Helga from him, Anna and her companion, Belle, make their descent down the mountain only to be stopped by Ingrid's storm. 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 drops down to the ground and is knocked unconscious, to which Ingrid walks up to collect 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 since "this is family business". She then materializes away, taking a hurt and unconscious Anna with her, as a helpless Belle watches. Imprisoning Anna in a 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. Ingrid admits she thought of having her two nieces as part of her family, but now that Anna has proven to be the "odd one out" with nothing in common with herself or Elsa, she vows to find someone else to replace her.

During the First Curse
Due to unknown reasons, Ingrid ends up somewhere in the Land Without Magic, and works in a childcare system for boys and girls. Thirteen to fourteen years after Emma is born, she is placed under Ingrid's care. One day, she spots one of the boys toying around with Emma's camera. Ingrid asks him to give it back because property is respected in the house, and she approaches to turn it off.

Years later, as a local resident of Storybrooke, Ingrid, going by the name Sarah Fisher, works at the ice cream shop Any Given Sundae. Emma visits the shop and has a conversation with Ingrid. Outside the shop, Sidney, who is spying on Emma for Regina, takes a picture of them.

After the Second Curse
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 her extremely strong cryokinesis to refreeze a melted carton of ice cream. As she leans against the freezer, it becomes cryokinetically frozen as well.

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 hovering 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. In genuine surprise, she calls Emma by name; seemingly recognizing her. However, Ingrid quickly shrugs this off, stating that Emma's reputation as savior precedes her, and challenges the blonde 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 and bumps into Mr. Gold. He 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 when 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 an icy replica of Anna out of snow, Ingrid uses her as a false illusion to lure Elsa out into the woods. After Elsa rushes to her precious younger sister as intended, she turns the fake into ice and withers it into mist before binding her eldest niece with ice 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 materializes 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 and cares about her for who she is.

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 injuries 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 abilities and her entire being 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, Ingrid proclaims her parents can't love their daughter if they don't understand her, so they will see her as a real monster. Having had enough, Emma's negative emotions reach a boiling point and she explodes 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.

Trivia

 * Her innate cryokinetic, frigiokinetic abilities are far much stronger and more powerfully effective than her eldest niece's are, and is far more experienced; capable of using them more freely without her negative emotions of fear and anxiety holding her back.
 * According to herself, she has hundreds of mirrors. Some of them can be seen decorating the walls in her ice cream shop.
 * The name "Ingrid" is from the Old Norse name "Ingríðr", which means "Ing is beautiful". Ing is the name of an obscure old Germanic fertility god, and could possibly mean "ancestor".