“She ends up confiding in and connecting to one character, and this person enlightens her and helps her see things differently and to see the world from a more positive position as opposed to this, ‘All is doomed and my life is worth nothing now,’ which is where she is in the first episode back,” Parrilla says. “She has given up and she’s lost all hope.”
Who could her new BFF be, I wonder? It’d be cool if it was Henry-without-his-memories-of-her.
I’m thinking the person whom Lana confides in is actually Snow White. Both are grieving mothers who have lost their children. Snow has been through it before, albeit briefly (since she was cursed not to remember it). Now Regina is going through the same feeling but Snow is there to be the step-daughter to her. They’re going to put aside their three decades of strife and hopefully even become close again. If not Snow White, then I’d say it could be Tinkerbell; however, I don’t think Rose MaIver is in 3×12, and isn’t seen again until 3×16. So, I think Snow is the most likely person to be a comfort to Regina.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy