I definitely admit that I was disappointed with the simplicity of it all after all the fun theories about it, but I’m also just bugged by how they didn’t even really make it clear how it played out. Like I said in my previous post, it would have just taken one extra line from Mr Gold in that scene in his shop. I’m not saying we needed to see the whole process play out, I’m just saying that a bit more info to clarify the situation would have been appreciated, because the first time I watched it, the story felt disjointed and I was sitting there all tilted head with a confused expression all “WUT was that?” It was sloppy execution of the story they wanted to tell IMO, and it made the ep as a whole weaker for me.
I’ve seen a fair amount of comment about this ep where people are along the lines of, “Seriously, the guy wasn’t concerned that SB doesn’t even exist and just approved her anyway without even a home visit, that is so completely unrealistic.” So if the writers had it in their heads that Regina was supposed to be coming off as having been pre-approved years ago, then that point flew way over a lot of people’s heads. And that’s poor story telling.