Did anyone else notice or catch THE MISTAKE AND PROBLEM made in “The Cricket Game” in the final scene between Queen Regina and Rumplestiltskin about the Dark Curse? Please bear with me; I believe my point to be valid. So in Season 1, Episode 2, Regina calls upon Maleficent, asking for the Dark Curse, which she traded for a “sleeping curse” (Snow’s apple) which Regina said “failed”. Remember that Maleficent said specifically that it was Snow and Charming’s wedding night. But the point I’m making is: Regina TRADED the Curse for the sleeping curse, which means that Snow’s ‘apple incident’ had not taken place before the trade. Now, in “The Cricket Game”, Snow and Charming are obviously past the “apple incident” and are fighting Leopold for the kingdom. Here is where I got confused and thought there was a problem: When Rumplestiltskin calls upon Regina (after she’s been cursed never to hurt Snow and Charming again), he brings to her attention that ‘they cannot be harmed in this land’, implying that she should send them to another land in which she can inflict pain on them and enact her revenge. Basically, he’s giving her the idea for “The Dark Curse”. In the episode, Regina had never thought of this because she did not need to send them to another realm to enact her revenge. This is the problem: at this point, Regina SHOULD have already known about The Dark Curse BECAUSE she’d traded it to Maleficent for the sleeping curse (Snow’s failed apple), which happened BEFORE Snow and Charming’s attack on Leopold. So, according to the story, the timeline is: Regina trades The Dark Curse with Maleficent for the sleeping curse, Snow eats the apple, she is awakened when Charming kisses her, they plan on taking the kingdom back. Regina calls upon Maleficent wanting The Dark Curse back, (now according to the Cricket Game) Regina goes to war against Snow and Charming with Leopold, she loses and is cursed, then is approached BY Rumplestiltskin implying that she cannot fight Snow and Charming in this land, but she can seek her revenge on them in another. But she’s already supposed to know about The Dark Curse according to the timeline given to us by the writers. Now before you disagree with me and say that she could have already had the Curse by the time Rumple proposed it, I answer: Then why would she have needed it in the first place before she was cursed and unable to attack Snow and Charming? Think about it. I think the writers messed up.