6/10
This is the episode I have been waiting for since season 1….the ep where I get to see baby Regina and her mother’s relationship. I am afterall, a Regina fan.
And I was kind of disappointed.
-baby Regina looked nothing like adult Regina, nor acted like her (facial expressions etc).
-Cora was too nice to baby Regina. She was abusive when she separated Regina and Zelena, then gave them both the forgetting potion, but here it came from a place of misguidance. Even though misguidance can result in abusive parenting styles, Regina’s hatred towards Snow seems to have been caused by more than just misguided parenting….until now, when we find out that even in the past Cora did love her daughter. I just don’t know what to think about Regina’s turn to the dark side anymore. I guess Regina was quite isolated and therefore had no positive influences from anyone except a kind, weak father….the very epitomy of ”kindness/love is weakness.” Perhaps it is the combination of misguided parenting AND isolation that resulted in Regina’s broken psyche.
-I am not sure that it fits that Zelena can change so easily. It took Regina months, years to become the evil queen, and then months, years to change back to her former self. This shows that 1) it takes work to come back from evil and 2) Regina’s resistance to the darkness shows her strength in character. Compare all this with Zelena. Yes, Zelena was originally good, but she descended into darkness very, very quickly, as if her darkness was strong in her all along. It should follow that returning to her former self will be more difficult and a slower process than it was for Regina.
-I am in two minds about Cora going to ”the better place” so quickly. It’s a very nice ending for her, and it sticks to theme of ”hope” but I felt that she needed to suffer much more in some way first before moving on to the better place. I just felt that she didn’t work towards her Happy Ending.
-Regina and Zelena’s relationship was fixed too quickly. Happy memories and pretty words from their mother should not erase what they have done to each other as adults, especially after what Zelena has done to Regina as an adult.
-Robin shooting a dead man. Where is our intelligent Robin Hood gone?
-The message that one person can change another person. They can help each other but not change them (which is what they were really trying to say). Another person can be the carrot, the motivation for a person’s change (like Henry was for Regina), but that change needs to come from within (like it did for Regina). Change does not happen because another person directly causes them to change.
I did like Cora apologising to both daughters though, especially to Zelena. And it was very well acted by all three ladies.
This.