Barbara Barnett’s spoilers

[Slurpeez]

Barbara: “Who is Regina’s enemy, fundamentally, once and for all? And that is the point of the whole thing. Who is Regina’s REAL enemy? Who is it that killed Regina’s happiness?”
Other chick: “Well it was her mother.”
Barbara: “But in CORA’S point of view?……Think about the whooooooooooole thing, at the beginning of the series, and you’ll see what they’re going for.”

@Phee wrote:

It’s just that she was making it sound like it’ll be some big new revelation that’ll make us look at things differently. Rumple screwing over Regina her whole life isn’t exactly a new revelation, I mean, DUH! 😆 Was about to say that maybe Regina didn’t realise the full extent of the manipulation, but then I remembered how I’d assumed that she’d figured out that Jefferson, Viktor and Rumple all conspired against her and set her up, (which is why she made sure that Viktor was cursed, and it explains her extra special disdain for Jefferson), so that wouldn’t really fit as a big twist for me either, if it’s Regina discovering what a pawn she’d been in Rumple’s game.

I beg to differ on this one. Granted, Regina has been catching on ever since S1 that Mr. Gold had some major secrets up his sleeve. Yet, I think it will still come as a major shock to Regina just how much Rumple has made her life a living misery. There are a lot of reasons I believe Regina could be blindsided by Rumplestiltskin’s expert manipulation over her life. Who is Regina’s real enemy? It’s not Snow White. It’s not even Cora. It’s Rumplestiltskin.

My mind keeps returning to the prophesy that Rumplestiltskin gave Snow White and Prince Charming about how the savior would return and the final battle would begin. That was at the very beginning of the show in the very first episode. Well, from Cora’s perspective, Rumplestiltskin stole Regina away from her, the miller’s daughter, even after she tried so hard to secure Regina’s freedom as a baby from Rumple’s control. Yet, Rumple orchestrated events such that he still managed to trick Regina into banishing her own mother to Wonderland and then to practice dark magic. Something tells me Cora’s “peace offering” is just a deploy in her greater quest to get revenge on Rumple by controlling him after he sought to control her and Regina. Despite how controlling and evil Cora is, one might argue that from her perspective, everything she did was done out of love to prevent Regina from becoming Rumple’s pawn to enact the dark curse. In Cora’s viewpoint, Rumple betrayed her and Regina, and there is going to be a final battle, no doubt in my mind.

Regarding Rumple, I don’t think Regina has yet fully realized how much she was his pawn in practicing dark magic or by enacting the dark curse. I think Regina has yet to fully realize the truth of the events that took place in The Doctor 2×5 or that Rumplestiltskin set up Dr. Whale being unable to bring Daniel back to life, otherwise she’d have stopped falling for Mr. Gold’s contuning manipulations of events. She never would have trusted Mr. Gold to help frame Mary Margaret for the murder of Kathryn Nolan in episodes 1×14 through 1×18, when it turned out he was secretly helping Emma and MM. After that, Regina especially never would have asked Mr. Gold for help in getting rid of Emma Swan without killing her in 1×21, even when he refused to help her. Then again in 2×9, The Queen of Hearts, Regina never have even dreamed of helping him close off the portal from FTL, even if it meant her mother’s return. A woman who is fully informed how horribly Rumple set her up to be miserable would never trust that man again. If Regina knew fully what Rumple had done to her, Regina would be more inclined to have listened to her mother, which is what we’re seeing now play out in SB upon Cora’s return.

With regards to her poor relationship with Jefferson, we don’t know what happened between the events of 1×17 and 2×5 that made Jefferson give up his realm-jumping ways or to cause a rift between him and Regina. In 1×21, Regina and Jefferson had a conversation that struck me as odd, since the events of 2×5 make it clear they both knew who Daniel was. Jefferson acts like he’s forgotten how important Daniel was to Regina when she shows him her magic ring, and Regina doesn’t hold it against Jefferson for being uninformed. IMO, Regina doesn’t know Jefferson was in on a ploy with Rumple to make it seem like Victor couldn’t bring back her deceased fiancé.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=io1o1IOxx7o

Regina: It needs to absorb the magic that’s here. I have some things left. A few trinkets.
(She takes a box from one of the side walls, and dumps its contents into the hat. Once again, nothing happens.)
Jefferson: It’s not enough. You need something that still works.
(Regina pulls out Daniel’s ring and holds it up. Produced by magic, Daniel’s face can be seen in the middle of it.)
Jefferson: Who’s that?
Regina: Someone long gone.
Jefferson: Well, whatever or whoever it is, it still has magical properties. Give me that, and let me see what I can do with it.

With Regards to Regina’s cursing Dr. Whale, I think she brought him over, not as punishment for tricking her the first time, but for the same reason she brought over Daniel’s preserved body to SB. She wanted to see if Dr. Whale could try again one day to bring back Daniel from the dead.

Also, I recall a few conversations from S1 that make it sound like Regina is still in the dark about Rumple’s true motives. In 1×2, The Thing You Love Most, it sounded like Regina really didn’t understand why Mr. Gold would want the dark curse to be broken by the savior or that he’d somehow procured Henry to intentionally bring Emma to SB:

Regina: I’m not in the business of making deals with you anymore.
Mr. Gold: To which deal are you referring?
Regina: You know what deal.
Mr. Gold: Oh, right. Yeah. The boy I procured for you. Henry. Did I ever tell you what a lovely name that was? However did you pick it?
Regina: Did you want her to come to town? You wanted all this to happen, didn’t you? Your finding Henry wasn’t an accident, was it?
Mr. Gold: Whatever do you mean?
Regina: Where did you get him? Do you know something?
Mr. Gold: I have no idea what you’re implying.
Regina: I think you do. Who is this woman, his mother, this…Emma Swan?
Mr. Gold: I would say you think you know exactly who she is. I really must be going.
Regina: Tell me what you know about her.
Mr. Gold: I’m not going to answer you, dear. So I suggest you excuse me. Please.

In 1×8, Desperate Souls, Regina was baffled that Mr. Gold would dare challenge her by backing Emma as a candidate for town sheriff or that he’d hold it over her that technically, Regina has no real legal claim over Henry, since Mr. Gold illegally trafficked him as a baby:

Mr. Gold: Regina. Shall I move some things? Make a bit of space for your rage?
Regina: You found that loophole in the town charter.
Mr. Gold: Legal documents – contracts, if you like. Always been a fascination of mine.
Regina: Yes, you love to trifle with technicalities.
Mr. Gold: I like small weapons, you see. The needle, the pen, the fine point of a deal. Subtlety – not your style, I know.
Regina: You’re a bastard.
Mr. Gold: I think your grief’s getting the better of you, Regina. Shame what happened to Graham.
Regina: Don’t you talk about him. You know nothing.
Mr. Gold: What is there to know? He died.
Regina: Are you really going up against me?
Mr. Gold: Not directly. We are, after all, both invested in the common good. We’re just picking different sides.
Regina: Well, I think you picked a really slow horse this time. It’s not like you to back a loser.
Mr. Gold: She hasn’t lost yet.
Regina: She will.
Mr. Gold: Never underestimate someone who’s acting for their child.
Regina: He’s not her child. Not legally.
Mr. Gold: Oh, now who’s trifling with technicalities?

In 1×17 Hat Trick, Regina said she made a deal with Mr. Gold because she approved of his getting results. At this point, Regina thought that she was seeking his help to keep Mary Margaret and David Nolan apart. Little did she realize that Mr. Gold was simply playing Regina the entire time in order to help push Emma along in the direction of believing Henry that Regina was batty-crazy evil and had it in for poor Mary Margaret.

(Regina arrives at the station. Inside, she is surprised to find Mary Margaret sitting in her cell reading the newspaper.)
MM: Madam Mayor.
Regina: Good morning. (Mr. Gold appears.)
Mr. Gold: Excuse me, but my client is not having any visitors.
Regina: Of course not.
Mr. Gold: I’ll see you out. (Mr. Gold and Regina go out into the hall.)
Regina: What is she doing here?
Mr. Gold: She came back.
Regina: You said this was going to work. That she’d take the key, that she’d go.
Mr. Gold: And she did. But, it seems that Miss Swan is rather more resourceful than we thought. Fear not, Your Majesty. Miss Blanchard is still guilty of murder. You may yet get what you want.
Regina: Oh, I better. The only reason I made a deal with you, Gold, is because I wanted results.
Mr. Gold: And results you shall have. See you at the arraignment.

Again, when MM was cleared of murder in 1×19 The Return, there is a very telling scene between Regina and Mr. Gold. She is incredulous and demands to know why Mr. Gold would betray her like that, since she still believes, after everything that the two of them have been partners since the beginning. This is not a woman who knows how Rumple manipluated her. She is stunned to discover Mr. Gold was actually helping Snow White and Emma.

(Regina and Mr. Gold are in Mr. Gold’s Pawn Shop.)
Regina: You broke our deal.
Mr. Gold: I broke one deal in my life, dear. And it certainly wasn’t this one.
Regina: Kathryn was supposed to die, and Mary Margaret was to get the blame.
Mr. Gold: Yeah, murder seems so much worse here, though, doesn’t it? You can’t just turn someone into a snail and then step on them, can you? You didn’t say ‘kill her’. We agreed that something tragic should happen to her. Now, abduction is tragic.
Regina: The intent was perfectly clear.
Mr. Gold: Oh, let’s not talk about intent. Intent is meaningless.
Regina: Intent is everything.
Mr. Gold: Please.
Regina: This is going to raise all kinds of questions about where she was and how the test results were fake.
Mr. Gold: Oh, yes. And, um… And who put the key in her cell.
Regina: It’s all going to lead to me, isn’t it? You bastard. This doesn’t make any sense. You and I – we’ve been in this, together, from the start.
Mr. Gold: Oh, have we?
Regina: You created the curse for me. The curse that brought us here, and built all this.
Mr. Gold: Yes, it’s about time you said thank you.
Regina: Why did you do it?
Mr. Gold: Well, you’re a smart woman, Your Majesty. Figure it out.

This is a woman who knows nothing about Mr. Gold having broken his deal with his son, Baelfire, or why he designed the curse. She still believes that Mr. Gold designed the curse for her and her revenge on the Charmings. She still has yet to figure it out Mr. Gold’s true motive, and at this stage, that he wants the curse broken.

In 1×21, An Apple Red as Blood, even after Regina was starting to catch on to Mr. Gold being responsible for bringing Henry to SB and wanting Emma to break the curse, Regina was still desperate enough to plead for another deal to get rid of Emma without killing her. Regina. still was willing to believe Mr. Gold’s lie that the way to break the curse was for Regina to kill Emma. In truth, however, I think Mr. Gold manipulated Regina into using the sleeping curse, because he wanted Emma alive to believe in magic, kiss Henry, and break the curse. Regina wouldn’t have pleaded for another deal with Mr. Gold if she knew what he’d really done to her.

Mr. Gold: Your Majesty. To what do I owe the pleasure?
Regina: My tree is dying. Why?
Mr. Gold: Perhaps, it’s your fertilizer.
Regina: You think this is funny? Well, I’ll tell you what I think. I think it’s a sign of the curse weakening because of Emma. But do you care? No. You’re content to just sit back and do… Whatever it is you’re doing, while all my hard work burns.
Mr. Gold: That’s not all, is it? Come on. You might as well get everything off your chest.
Regina: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Mr. Gold: Henry. Miss Swan wants him.
Regina: She’ll have that boy over my dead body.
Mr. Gold: The curse was meant to take away Snow White and Prince Charming’s happiness. Perhaps, you giving up Henry is just the price to keep the curse unbroken.
Regina: I think I’d rather just get rid of her.
Mr. Gold: Well, well. You’re going to have to be quite creative. We both know the repercussions in killing Miss Swan. The curse will be…
Regina: The curse will be broken. That’s because you designed it that way. Undo it.
Mr. Gold: You know… Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. Magic… Well… Is in short supply around here and dwindling by the minute.
Regina: You want the curse broken. Why?
Mr. Gold: That’s not something I care to discuss.
Regina: Don’t bother. You can shove your reasons. I want to strike a new deal. One where I can get rid of Emma without shattering the curse.
Mr. Gold: Unfortunately for you, a negotiation requires two interested parties, and I’m already planning a trip.
Regina: I’ll give you anything.
Mr. Gold: You no longer have anything I want, dearie. But I will give you a piece of advice, free of charge. I’d plan a trip of your own. Because, once people waken up and remember who you are and what you did to them… They are going to be looking for blood.

Despite questioning Rumple’s motives for wanting the curse broken, she’s never even stopped to consider how much he orchestrated her entire family’s sad history just so he could be reunited with his son, Baelfire. I bet Regina doesn’t even know Mr. Gold has a son! When Regina does hear this from Cora, who seems to know everything about Rumple, including the history with his son, about the full design of the dark curse, and about his dagger, I think Regina is going to want revenge against him, too. It’s even more twisted if she discovers from Cora that Rumple could be her bio-dad (though I don’t think Rumple has any notion of this being true. He’d never knowingly harm his own child). Not only was Rumple indirectly responsible for Regina’s misery, but he added to that misery.

It was only by the finale, 1×22 A Land Without Magic, that Regina realized Rumple had done everything to help the Charmings, her sworn enemies, find true love, that he’d bottled their true love to bring magic to SB, that he’d planned for their daughter to become the savior or for her to adopt their grandson. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TwgHJZ1S9E

(Emma and Regina enter Mr. Gold’s Pawn Shop.)
Mr. Gold: Do my eyes deceive me, or is that the look of a believer?
Emma: We need your help.
Mr. Gold: Indeed, you do. It seems quite the tragic ailment has befallen our young friend. I told you, magic comes with a price.
Regina: Henry shouldn’t have to pay it.
Mr. Gold: No, you should, but alas, we are where we are.
Emma: Can you help us?
Mr. Gold: Of course. True love, Miss Swan… The only magic powerful enough to transcend realms and break any curse. Luckily for you, I happen to have bottled some.
Regina: You did?
Mr. Gold: Oh, yes. From strands of your parents’ hair, I made the most powerful potion in all the realm. So powerful, that when I created the dark curse, I placed a single drop on the parchment. Just a little safety valve.
Emma: That’s why I’m the saviour. That’s why I can break the curse.
Mr. Gold: Now you’re getting it.
Emma: I don’t care about breaking the curse. All I care about is saving Henry.
Mr. Gold: Which is why it’s your lucky day. I didn’t use all the potion. I saved some… For a rainy day.
Emma: Well, it’s storming like a bitch. Where is it?
Mr. Gold: Where it is isn’t the problem. Getting it is what should worry you.
Regina: Enough riddles. What do we do?
Mr. Gold: You do nothing. It has to be Miss Swan.
Regina: He’s my son. It should be me.
Mr. Gold: All due respect, but it’s her son. And it has to be her. She’s the product of the magic. She must be the one to find it.
Emma: I can do it.
Regina: Don’t trust him.
Emma: What choice do we have?
Mr. Gold: That’s right, dearie. What choice do you have?
Emma: Where is this magic?
Mr. Gold: Tell me, Your Majesty, is our friend still in the basement?
Regina:Oh, you twisted little imp. You hid it with her?
Mr. Gold: Oh, no, no. Not with her. In her. I knew you couldn’t resist bringing her over.
Emma: Who is ‘her’?
Mr. Gold: Someone you should be prepared for. Where you’re going, you’re going to need this.
(He opens a long box on the counter, revealing a sword and a scabbard.)
Emma: What is that?
Mr. Gold: Your father’s sword.

Regina’s reactions to all this new information is rather revealing, “Oh, you twisted little imp.” She had no clue as to why Mr. Gold would care so much about her arch-enemies, the Charmings. Regina was in the dark when Mr. Gold told her there was no harm in his “please clause” since he’d never remember who he was in this new land without magic, and she continued to be in the dark during S1. She only really pieced it all together by the S1 finale. Yet, to this day, she still has no idea exactly why Rumple wanted the curse broken, where he was planning his trip once the curse was broken, why he’d want magic back, or who Henry’s dad would be. (I doubt Mr. Gold knew Baelfire is Henry’s dad either, but then again, Mr. Gold may’ve known something based on the seer giving a prophesy, which could potentially be about the savior leading Rumple back to Baelfire one day).

[ser_dragon]

Wow, great post there slurpeez.

But i really hope Rumpel will not end being seen as the Only Real Horrible Bad Guy in the eyes of all the others characters. It would be really sad 🙁

I know it’s only Cora’s viewpoint and i know he really messed up Regina’s life, but still.

[kalliopekisees]

I belive that we find out Rumple is Regina’s Father and that King George is her true enemy. I beleive Cora was destined to marry King George as part of her Miller’s Daughter background.

[kalliopekisees]

or that George is both her father and enemy.

[Slurpeez]

@KalliopeKisees wrote:

I belive that we find out Rumple is Regina’s Father and that King George is her true enemy. I beleive Cora was destined to marry King George as part of her Miller’s Daughter background.

@KalliopeKisees wrote:

or that George is both her father and enemy.

That’s an interesting theory, too. I don’t think Henry Sr. is Regina’s biological father either, which is why I wondered if Rumple were unknowingly Regina’s father. Also, I have long wondered if Cora, the miller’s daughter, was betrothed to King George at one point, whether they were even married and had a child together, Regina. However, I’d be really surprised if King George were Regina’s true enemy, because she was his ally against Snow White and Prince Charming in their quest to “take back the kingdom” in episode 2×10 The Cricket Game. Also, in 1×21, Apple Red as Blood, King George and Queen Regina addressed each other on a first name basis, and Regina offered King George gold in exchange for his prisoner, Prince Charming, promising a fate even worse than death for him when she put Snow White under the sleeping curse. In SB, Mayor Mills made King George’s counterpart the district attorney, which is a position of power and influence. King George would be really crafty to be Regina’s betrayer and enemy after all she’s done for him, but then again, so is Rumple very cunning to have used her like he did. You never know. 🙂

"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

[RumplesGirl]

Whoa! Just saw this thread. Some thoughts
1) Can’t believe “HER” isn’t important. What does this mean for the episode Lacey?

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[jen]

Barbara: “Who is Regina’s enemy, fundamentally, once and for all? And that is the point of the whole thing. Who is Regina’s REAL enemy? Who is it that killed Regina’s happiness?”
Other chick: “Well it was her mother.”
Barbara: “But in CORA’S point of view?……Think about the whooooooooooole thing, at the beginning of the series, and you’ll see what they’re going for.”

For me the key words that I’m getting from Barbara are “at the beginning of the series” If we’re talking about the beginning of the series Emma was Regina’s enemy, not Rumple or Cora. I think this also fits in with what mich7 was saying

by Mich7 » Yesterday, 12:45 pm

oceangypsy wrote:
Mich7 wrote:
oceangypsy wrote:
My guess is they want to make Rumple suffer. Force him to kill Belle or Bae.

I think she said that suffering wasn’t the reason either…that’s when she started talking about the devious plot that was afoot.

Hmmm… Then my guess is they need Rumple’s magic for maybe even. .. good? That would be a twist, right?

I think she was talking about Regina getting Henry back at the time she started talking about the plot. I’m wondering if Cora may not try and use Rumple to kill Emma…since Cora couldn’t crush her heart herself…maybe she thinks Rumple can off her … whatever the case if Cora is really helping Regina I think Emma is in danger.

Regina wants Emma dead because she is her enemy. The only thing Regina cares about is Henry. After trying to play fair and that not working out for her, I’m sure in Regina’s mind getting rid of Emma is what makes sense to her to get Henry back. I think Regina can control Rumple than she can have him do the dirty work and have Henry none the wiser. After all how else can she get rid of Emma in order to get Henry back without actually losing Henry.

[antbee]

@Ser_Dragon wrote:

Wow, great post there slurpeez.

ITA. Awesome post!

While I prefer Lana Parrilla in Evil Queen mode over Regina being sad and mopey, I was really annoyed that she was either dumb and/or too arrogant last season not to get that Rumple had his own agenda and wasn’t on her side at all at various times last season. Sometimes the good guys can be portrayed as being too naive, which is unfortunate but a pretty common occurrence on television or movies like OUaT, but when they had Regina acting like that, I couldn’t take her seriously as a real villain since it made her seem too much like a cartoon villain, imo.

It became even worse after “Skin Deep” because it became even more harder to swallow that she’d think Rumple would be okay with her part in breaking him up with Belle.

I could believe that they’re frenemies like the relationship Regina had with Maleficent, but as slurpeez108, at least in season 1, Regina still believed that Rumple was helping her and on her side despite all the evidence to the contrary.

I don’t know if it will be a part of the final battle, whatever that is or not, but it definitely adds another layer and more drama for when the Nealfire revelation comes out to everyone in Storybrooke. She’d probably already see Neal as a potential threat because it’s another relative that she sees competing for Henry’s affections, and she could also possibly be worried if SwanFire ever reunited that she’d never be able to get Henry back.

On top of that, then she finds out about everything else like how Rumple has basically spent the last 300 years doing nothing else but trying to reunite with his son, and ironically, she’ll be like Emma in many ways, since I’m sure both will wonder how far Rumple’s manipulations have messed with their lives. However, I think eventually Emma will accept Neal into her life whether as a friend or possibly more and will stop being hung up on whether Rumple had anything to do with Neal being in her life, but for Regina, I’m not sure she’ll ever be able to let it go. If they do redeem her character and not a redemption from her dying by saving another person or persons, but a redemption that we get to see gradually happen onscreen over how several seasons, I think she’ll have to eventually forgive Rumple to gain that kind of redemption. I don’t think she will be able to, but if she ever wants to start anew and really let go of the past, I think it’s necessary for her.

I think that the Charmings, Regina, Rumple, and Nealfire will eventually work together this season against Cora and Hook, but next season, it will be interesting to see how they all get along. Regina still has the Wraith’s mark, so maybe something happens there, and Rumple has to be the sole person or the main person to help free her soul.

[Phee]

@Mich7 wrote:

I think she was talking about Regina getting Henry back at the time she started talking about the plot. I’m wondering if Cora may not try and use Rumple to kill Emma…since Cora couldn’t crush her heart herself…maybe she thinks Rumple can off her …

Love that idea!

@slurpeez108 wrote:

Barbara: “Who is Regina’s enemy, fundamentally, once and for all? And that is the point of the whole thing. Who is Regina’s REAL enemy? Who is it that killed Regina’s happiness?”
Other chick: “Well it was her mother.”
Barbara: “But in CORA’S point of view?……Think about the whooooooooooole thing, at the beginning of the series, and you’ll see what they’re going for.”

@Phee wrote:

It’s just that she was making it sound like it’ll be some big new revelation that’ll make us look at things differently. Rumple screwing over Regina her whole life isn’t exactly a new revelation, I mean, DUH! 😆 Was about to say that maybe Regina didn’t realise the full extent of the manipulation, but then I remembered how I’d assumed that she’d figured out that Jefferson, Viktor and Rumple all conspired against her and set her up, (which is why she made sure that Viktor was cursed, and it explains her extra special disdain for Jefferson), so that wouldn’t really fit as a big twist for me either, if it’s Regina discovering what a pawn she’d been in Rumple’s game.

I beg to differ on this one. Granted, Regina has been catching on ever since S1 that Mr. Gold had some major secrets up his sleeve. Yet, I think it will still come as a major shock to Regina just how much Rumple has made her life a living misery. There are a lot of reasons I believe Regina could be blindsided by Rumplestiltskin’s expert manipulation over her life. Who is Regina’s real enemy? It’s not Snow White. It’s not even Cora. It’s Rumplestiltskin.

My mind keeps returning to the prophesy that Rumplestiltskin gave Snow White and Prince Charming about how the savior would return and the final battle would begin. That was at the very beginning of the show in the very first episode. Well, from Cora’s perspective, Rumplestiltskin stole Regina away from her, the miller’s daughter, even after she tried so hard to secure Regina’s freedom as a baby from Rumple’s control. Yet, Rumple orchestrated events such that he still managed to trick Regina into banishing her own mother to Wonderland and then to practice dark magic. Something tells me Cora’s “peace offering” is just a deploy in her greater quest to get revenge on Rumple by controlling him after he sought to control her and Regina. Despite how controlling and evil Cora is, one might argue that from her perspective, everything she did was done out of love to prevent Regina from becoming Rumple’s pawn to enact the dark curse. In Cora’s viewpoint, Rumple betrayed her and Regina, and there is going to be a final battle, no doubt in my mind.

That’s an excellent point. Looking at it from Cora’s perspective, like Barbara suggested we do, Rumple would be in the position of being the big bad. Regina certainly didn’t know all of Rumple’s motivations, and the finer points of his manipulation, but I do think that she knew enough that it wouldn’t be an overwhelming shock to her system if she discovers the whole truth now. I think that Regina thought that with the casting of this curse, she finally had the upper hand in her relationship with Rumple. She was finally his superior, and could look down on him as such. All that stuff in season 1 was her realising piece by piece that that really wasn’t the case after all, as her schemes came unraveling at the seams when Rumple’s schemes sliced through them.

Regarding Rumple, I don’t think Regina has yet fully realized how much she was his pawn in practicing dark magic or by enacting the dark curse. I think Regina has yet to fully realize the truth of the events that took place in The Doctor 2×5 or that Rumplestiltskin set up Dr. Whale being unable to bring Daniel back to life, otherwise she’d have stopped falling for Mr. Gold’s contuning manipulations of events.

I think that she spent her life, both as EQ and in SB, trying to best Rumple, and when she thought she had, she considered them to be on a more level playing field. Even as he started to shatter that notion in SB, I think she was still clinging to the hope that she’d learned enough by then to keep trying to play him at his own game.

With regards to her poor relationship with Jefferson, we don’t know what happened between the events of 1×17 and 2×5 that made Jefferson give up his realm-jumping ways or to cause a rift between him and Regina. In 1×21, Regina and Jefferson had a conversation that struck me as odd, since the events of 2×5 make it clear they both knew who Daniel was. Jefferson acts like he’s forgotten how important Daniel was to Regina when she shows him her magic ring, and Regina doesn’t hold it against Jefferson for being uninformed. IMO, Regina doesn’t know Jefferson was in on a ploy with Rumple to make it seem like Victor couldn’t bring back her deceased fiancé.

That does seem to be a plothole that he didn’t know who Daniel was. Unless it’s one thing Regina did wipe from his mind. I just think that there had to be an extra special reason that Regina cursed Jefferson to remember, so he could experience the agony of not being with the person he loved most in the world…so close, yet so far, never being able to be with the one he loved. In giving him that specific curse, she played him just like he played her with the Daniel farce…getting her so close, but never with the intention of letting her be reunited with her love…which is why I think she figured it out and gave him that specific punishment in SB.

Despite questioning Rumple’s motives for wanting the curse broken, she’s never even stopped to consider how much he orchestrated her entire family’s sad history just so he could be reunited with his son, Baelfire. I bet Regina doesn’t even know Mr. Gold has a son! When Regina does hear this from Cora, who seems to know everything about Rumple, including the history with his son, about the full design of the dark curse, and about his dagger, I think Regina is going to want revenge against him, too.

It would make her mad as hell, for sure. Like I said earlier in the post, I dunno that it’d be a complete shock to her, because she knows what a devious bugger Rumple is, but it would certainly inspire her to team up with Cora to help get Rumple. So maybe that is the “true enemy” bit that Barbara was alluding to. It just seemed to me, from the way she said it, that it was something that was a revelation to her as a viewer, as well as being something major for Regina. Perhaps I misinterpreted her comments though. We shall soon see.

While I prefer Lana Parrilla in Evil Queen mode over Regina being sad and mopey, I was really annoyed that she was either dumb and/or too arrogant last season not to get that Rumple had his own agenda and wasn’t on her side at all at various times last season.

That was actually some of my fave stuff, because I always laughed and shook my head when silly Regina went off half cocked and was bested by my man Rumple yet again. I loved re-living those moments, reading the quotes that slurpeez posted. 😛

[Grimmsister]

Barbara: “Who is Regina’s enemy, fundamentally, once and for all? And that is the point of the whole thing. Who is Regina’s REAL enemy? Who is it that killed Regina’s happiness?”
Other chick: “Well it was her mother.”
Barbara: “But in CORA’S point of view?……Think about the whooooooooooole thing, at the beginning of the series, and you’ll see what they’re going for.”

Couldn’t it be herself ? In the sence that -Regina think that she needs love, and Cora think that is in Reginas way of finding her true happiness, wich is power.
In the beginning, who stood in Reginas way because she loved him?- Daniel did.
Now, who is standing in Reginas way because she loves him?- Henry is

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