Reply To: Regina's Regret

[Slurpeez]

“I did cast a Curse that devastated an entire population. I have tortured and murdered. I’ve done some terrible things. I should be overflowing with regret, but…I’m not. Because it got me my son.” She’s very “end justifies the means,” but her means were about as mean as you can get, and can she really admit to herself and accept how truly horrible many of her actions have been? I think if she could admit and accept that, then she would have some regret.

The way I read it is that she acknowledges the sins she’s committed but her heart is now full of love for Henry. She sees her errors, but she can’t do anything much now about it except fight to get back her son. He’s all she has. She can’t afford to wallow right now. She’s a mama bear on a mission. She told Tink that she finally got something right with Henry, which means she recognizes all of her other past actions were things she got wrong. Sure, she could retreat into deep depression over all the atrocities she’s committed and live with a huge sense of guilt, but that’s not going to get her son back. So, in this case, I was actually glad to see Regina’s  tenacity and refusal to fall victim to PP’s mind-tricks. Not going to work on Regina. I think the best way forward for Regina would actually be just to move on. She’s already done her part for everybody else in SB by being willing to sacrifice her life to save the town. Sure, it was her own craziness in wanting Henry all for herself which drove her to retrieve the fail-safe in the first place, but at least she was willing to atone by sacrificing herself so that Henry wouldn’t have to be alone. And in this particular instance, I don’t think Regina regressed. I think she just did what needed to be done so that she, Emma and Snow survived to save Henry.