…sure? But Ingrid arrived in SB in 2001–so wouldn’t Regina know by that point that Dopey was the original Ice Cream Guy and New Blondie Girl isn’t?
Well the ice cream shop didn’t just magically appear when Ingrid showed up, so it had to always be there with someone else running it prior. Plus, the whole bound and gagged under the counter trope is common for when someone steals somebody else’s job. I mean why else would he be in the scene like that at all?
No I get what you’re saying and I agree. But by this time the ice cream shop, run by Dopey, would have been operational for many “years” and with Regina going to visit it, obviously. So now she walks into her favorite ice cream parlor and sees some new blonde girl working and not her favorite muted former dwarf.
Honestly, the real purpose of the scene is to establish that Regina and SQ had met–something we all questioned–and show that SQ has those crystals. Why Dopey is there…to demonstrate the latter.