Short Synopsis

While I know what Cora and Regina are looking for (the dagger obviously), my question is WHY. Why does this help Regina get Henry back? Last in in In the Name of the Brother Regina admits that she doesn’t want the town’s love or anything else, she just wants Henry. If Henry is off with Gold and Emma looking for Nealfire, then how does getting Rumple’s dagger help in this? I think this synopsis makes it pretty clear that Cora is just using Regina’s love for Henry to get her to go along with whatever Cora’s true plan is.

As much as I really want a Bae flashback of him arriving in this world, the creators did say that the formula may change and that some episodes wouldn’t have flashbacks/FTL. If they have Cora, Regina, and Hook searching for the dagger in Storybrooke and Emma, Henry, and Gold searching for Neal – there might be too much going on to do justice with Bae/Neal’s backstory. Just my opinion (and the title card definitely seems to hint towards Bae’s arrival in this world..) but I kind of want a Bae centered episode – and if this is it, and we get everything packed into one mega episode – I might go into emotion-overload. 😆

^Or maybe because this was Cora’s plan all along and her giving Rumpel the globe was just a trick to get him out of town so that she could get her hands on the dagger. Come on people, her initial plan was to help Hook kill Rumpel. There’s no way she’s going to change her mind about that.

Perhaps Cora tells Regina that if they have the dagger, they can control Rumple, which in turn means the three of them have a combined power that the Charmings can’t stand against, which means they’ll have to give Regina what she wants and hand Henry over.

But Cora’s actual plan is to get the dagger so she can take Rumple down, kill him, and steal his powers for herself.

Also, I’m still entertaining the idea that Regina is onto her, at least so far as knowing that she’s not genuinely helping her get Henry back, so she’s playing along to lull Cora into a false sense of security, until the moment when she can take her out once and for all. I’d have a whole new respect for Regina if she pulled a stunt like that.

I think Regina is helping Cora because she sincerely wants to believe her mother loves her and wants to help her get Henry back. But if Cora really knows that Neal and Bae are the same person the whole thing could be designed to bring division even further between Regina and Henry. Cora wants to control Regina…as long Henry is in the picture someone else will have a hold on Regina’s heart.