Regina's Redemption Reversal

Once Upon A Time, S02E10

Regina was seeming to be turning over a new leaf until Archie ended up dead after being seen having an argument with Regina.  Emma was the only one who doubted her guilt until with Mr. Gold's help she was able to see the murder scene for herself with magic.  When confronted, Regina used magic again to attack Emma and went into hiding.  In the past, Charming tried to rid the kingdom of Regina's threat by having her executed, but Snow was against it.  After trying to give Regina a chance to start over, Regina's final attempt on Snow's life got her banished from the kingdom to live in solitude.

Regina pretty much deserves everything she's gotten, but I can't help but feel bad for her because she has for once learned from her mistakes and tried to change.  It's obvious that she does it all for Henry and would probably die if he wasn't in her life.  It was nice that despite all the horrible things she's done that Emma recognizes that Regina's desire to change is sincere.  No one else does, most of all her parents who seem like a duo of mistrust (with good reason).

Again, Cora is the one who seems to be there right when Regina is debating whether to go to the dark side or not (or Rump).  Regina was on the path to be someone that people didn't ask if her lasagna was poisoned (that was a good one, Grumpy), but her controlling bitch of a mother has to drag her name through the dirt when it wasn't squeaky-clean to begin with.  And since she's still moving around in the shadows right now, no one is going to believe or can even imagine that the Regina look-alike isn't Regina herself.  It sort of makes me mad.  Regina is no angel, but even a monster like her deserves another chance.

What also got me to sympathize with her was that in the other world, she was so blinded by her hatred for Snow that she wouldn't let herself be reformed.  It wasn't wrong of Charming or anyone else to want to see her dead (especially when she made her final words be regret that she didn't do more damage to all her victims), but I couldn't help but be relieved when Snow stopped the arrows from killing Regina at the last moment.  We all know that in the beginning Regina was just a young woman who wanted to live happily with the man she loved, but all her bad deeds sort of erased everyone's memory of that.  Everyone but Snow.  I was disappointed that Regina didn't take the free pass and tried to stab Snow in vain.  She wouldn't have made the curse if she had turned a new leaf in the past, but I still wished that she had seen the light then and there.

It's interesting in the past Snow was like Emma, the only one who believed in Regina's goodness until she failed the test.  It was funny to see Snow (and Charming--but he's always suspicious of people) fighting against Emma, who wouldn't back down.  With good reason because Emma has a natural gift for knowing when people lie.  I was hoping that even with that dream catcher showing her what had happened she would listen to her gut and refuse to think that Regina was guilty.  No such luck.

Speaking of Emma's parents, I really loved how Rump commented on how Emma was a combination of Snow and Charming:

[Rump] You have your mother's chin, Ms. Swan.

[Emma] We know that you killed him.

[Rump] And your father's tact.

That line was as golden as his name.  He made me realize that Emma is a lot like Charming in so many ways.  They both are sort of hardheaded, especially when they think they are right and rush into action sometimes without considering all of the evidence.  It's hard to change their minds once they made them up.  In a way, I sort of felt bad for Rump for having the whole Charming family assaulting him.  Haha.  They are a force of annoyingly persistent people.

I almost could shed a tear for Regina when Emma went to tell Henry that his mother was a murderer and a liar (for using magic again).  I mean, it wasn't as if Regina had done anything wrong this time, yet she was paying the ultimate price.  Emma doesn't want to let her be a part of her son's life anymore and the town hates her more than before (which is saying a lot with the whole curse thing in the first place).  As long as I know that Regina really does love Henry, it saddens me to see her unable to be with him.

I wonder what Cora plans to do with a broken Regina.  Team up with her to terrorize the townsfolk?  I thought she was coming to get revenge on Regina, but perhaps she's just collecting her so that she can use her powers for her own purposes.  I feel bad for Hook too who's just sitting around itching to end Rump's life with that hook of his (why is he sharpening it, though--it's not like it's getting dull from use).  I can't imagine why Archie would be value to their plans, either.  I'm pretty ambivalent about him still being alive (his character is all right, but definitely not one of the key people).

I liked this episode, but I was pretty sad about Regina being framed (though karma is a bitch).  It's nice that Emma is going to be more of a mother to Henry from now on, but I don't relish seeing Regina return to that dark place that convinced her to unleash a curse onto innocent people in the first place.  I'd like Cora's plan to start getting a little clearer from now on.  I thought once she made it to town, things would start getting less mysterious, but they haven't yet.  Also, I'm anxious to see Hook and Rump have another battle!  Can't wait to see how Rump handles an old enemy now that he's supposedly changing himself.