And how did people in other worlds get pulled into the curse? Jefferson and Victor? Storybrooke isn’t big enough to have imploded *every* magical realm in existence!
This we know. Regina brought with her people from other lands that she wanted to come over. People she’s had dealing with. She told Archie this in The Doctor:
Archie: About the curse only taking the living. The grave of your father’s here, right?
Regina: I don’t care about Whale or his brother. I brought who I wanted.
Then of course there is the much debated issue of how did they get supplies? How did they get updated technology? How were they so cut off from the rest of the world if they had access to the internet?
I feel like this is one of those questions that bothers people because we’re modern and think there has to be an explanation. It’s like I’ve said before: the Curse provided. It was designed to keep the residents alive forever, not knowing who they were. It provided everything they needed to keep them alive. As far as technology goes, I think the Curse updated itself every so often. It’s magic. Magic will not explain itself to you, it doesn’t have to. It’s magic. That’s the answer: magic. They weren’t cut off from the world, the world was cut off from them. The world could not reach them, but obviously they had to internet and phones but they didn’t use them because they had no reason to. They walked around in a fog. It never occurred to them to reach the outside world because they saw no point.
Now that the curse is broken, what are their memories of their cursed years like? Did the haze lift and they now remember 28 years worth of repetitions and not aging? Or does it still feel as if it wasn’t much time at all?
This is a good question and one I’m interested in. What do they think of all the time they spent cursed. We know they are both, but is there more to it?
What was it like for Belle during her time in the asylum? We know she was a blank slate, but did she truly have no knowledge of how our world works? She didn’t seem startled by technology when she was in the hospital.
As Belle spent most of season two rather underdevloped, I’m hoping she may reflect on her time at the asylum. She didn’t seem startled by tech, but as a blank slate she has no memory of anything. None if is weird to her because she has no previous experience with which to compare it.