Ever since then, there seemed to have been simply too much damage for them to repair their relationship, and Snow rightfully blamed her for all that happened from that point on (not to mention killing her father), including cursing her and her family, and ripping her apart from her daughter. Now, however, things have truly changed. Not only has Snow seen Regina perform a quantifiably selfless, noble act that ripped her away from her own child, who also happens to be Snow’s grandson, but the two have something in common that they never had in the past. They are both mourning the same loss. They are both now mothers seemingly forever separated from their children (one of which, Henry, is one and the same), and so whereas before, Snow’s pleas to Regina would fall on deaf ears, now they can relate to each other as never before.
The fact that Regina’s first impulse is pluck out her own heart and bury it in the woods is so consistent with who she is as a person (always trying to use magic to take the easy way out of complex emotional situations), not to mention a dark echo of her own mother’s actions, and the fact that Snow reasons with her not to is equally consistent with Snow’s character. And I absolutely love that, after all this time and all they have been through together, Regina actually recognizes the wisdom in Snow’s words. She is no longer being petulant or willfully ignorant but finally allows herself to understand that Snow is coming from a place of love, as well as, again, a shared loss from which they are both suffering. Snow doesn’t directly mention the similarity between Regina’s actions and Cora’s. She doesn’t have to, as they go without saying (and might have hurt her case, given the part she played in her death).
Even though they begin to bond, however, Regina is still Regina, and that’s important. Her reaction to the winged monkey and the stranger having taken her castle is both hilarious and spot-on, and comes with Goldilocks references to boot! I legitimately can’t wait to find out what is going on here. Who exactly is this version of the Wicked Witch? Why does she want revenge and on whom? And how long has she been in the Enchanted Forest? Was she there in the background but unseen when Snow and Emma were first sent back there (does she have anything to do with the trolls ravaging the land, for example?), and/or when Neal fell through the portal, or is this an even more recent development?
Other odds and ends:
–Although we only see her for a split-second, I’m glad that they got Meghan Ory back to appear as Red when the group reappears in the Enchanted Forest. I’m sure she was too busy with filming her new CBS show, Intelligence, for a longer appearance now, but for continuity’s sake, it’s nice that they were able to establish that she did make it back with everyone else and is still a part of that world. And this way, it also leaves future appearances for her in both present-day Storybrooke and the Enchanted Forest flashbacks open as an option. They could, of course, have simply later said she reappeared elsewhere in the Enchanted Forest, but this feels more right.
–Emma’s early restaurant scene with Walsh is a lovely callback to the first time we saw Emma in the pilot, meeting a guy for dinner who seemed to be a date but was actually one of her bailbondswoman targets. And by the end of the episode, we realize the irony that, just as that seemingly nice guy was actually a thief who was cheating on his spouse, so is Emma’s new guy also not what he seems.
–It’s exciting to see Robin Hood back again, especially due to the earlier indication that he just might be Regina’s new true love. And although I was kind of hoping that the show would eventually reveal that he had been the one who trained Snow White in her outlaw skills, I do love that they both recognize each other as fellow bandits from back in the day, and that there is mutual respect between them. And I love that Regina gets to insult Little John, because of course. But where is Mulan?
–And what fate Rumple?
–How did Hook find out about the new Storybrooke, get that potion, and return to our world? So many questions to be unraveled over the coming weeks!
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17 June 2015
Henry left his camera at Neal’s apartment, when he, Emma and Rumpelstiltskin made their trip to New York in the Season 2 episode, “Manhattan”.