Poor Regina

[Killian Jones]

She saved the day, she really did prove that she wants to redeem herself. In the end she’s left alone I felt so bad for Regina first she risked herself to restore the portal and while she’s on the ground Henry just rushes by her. Then they all go to Granny’s and Regina is left by herself after doing everything right only part of this episode that was a real downer for me.

[midnight dreary]

Ok, I’m a big Regina fan, but even I didn’t feel sorry for her at the end. Yes, she helped Snow and Emma. But let’s get real here. She destroyed everything Snow held dear. She killed her father and nearly killed her husband Charming. I love that Regina saved them in the end, but inviting the person who destroyed your life over for dinner would be ridiculously OOC for the Charmings.

[antbee]

@Midnight Dreary wrote:

Ok, I’m a big Regina fan, but even I didn’t feel sorry for her at the end. Yes, she helped Snow and Emma. But let’s get real here. She destroyed everything Snow held dear. She killed her father and nearly killed her husband Charming. I love that Regina saved them in the end, but inviting the person who destroyed your life over for dinner would be ridiculously OOC for the Charmings.

Yes, we also have to remember that Emma and Snow just returned and don’t know what’s been going on in Storybrooke since they’ve been gone. (Not that they should have invited her even if they had known she’s trying to change, but still, they’re not fully aware of what’s going on with Regina like the audience is.)

[snowfalls]

@Midnight Dreary wrote:

Ok, I’m a big Regina fan, but even I didn’t feel sorry for her at the end. Yes, she helped Snow and Emma. But let’s get real here. She destroyed everything Snow held dear. She killed her father and nearly killed her husband Charming. I love that Regina saved them in the end, but inviting the person who destroyed your life over for dinner would be ridiculously OOC for the Charmings.

Thank you. I’m glad that Regina is trying to change, but that doesn’t make up for all the tragedy she caused for the Charmings. Just because they didn’t invite her over for dinner at the end of the episode doesn’t mean that they’re not grateful. They are grateful. Henry hugged her and told her how much she had changed. Emma thanked her for saving them. They noticed the change in her, but that still doesn’t erase everything she’s done. She killed Snow’s father, people. And she made Snow spend her entire adult life on the run for something that she didn’t even do. She targetted her family and friends and killed countless innocents all because of her hatred for Snow. So yeah, the Charmings have every right to be stand off-ish.

[Killian Jones]

The way this ended though despite Regina doing everything good leaving her like that is just setting her up to regress. She’s done horrible things but in this episode she took such a big turn and did something so great I think she deserved some kind of acceptance from everyone. She definitely didn’t deserve being shunned out after everything she did for them just them.

[Phee]

@AntBee wrote:

@Midnight Dreary wrote:

Ok, I’m a big Regina fan, but even I didn’t feel sorry for her at the end. Yes, she helped Snow and Emma. But let’s get real here. She destroyed everything Snow held dear. She killed her father and nearly killed her husband Charming. I love that Regina saved them in the end, but inviting the person who destroyed your life over for dinner would be ridiculously OOC for the Charmings.

Yes, we also have to remember that Emma and Snow just returned and don’t know what’s been going on in Storybrooke since they’ve been gone. (Not that they should have invited her even if they had known she’s trying to change, but still, they’re not fully aware of what’s going on with Regina like the audience is.)

WORD to you both! Girlfriend has a whole lifetime of truly evil deeds to make up for. Saving Emma and Snow was a good start, but that doesn’t magically erase the whole sordid history she has with that family.

@steliokontos1 wrote:

The way this ended though despite Regina doing everything good leaving her like that is just setting her up to regress.

Exactly. They had to show her all emotionally wounded and vulnerable so that what happens to her next makes sense. Cora’s come back because she believed that Regina would need her to help pick up the pieces. Well, Cora was right, Regina’s pretty lost and lonely right now. So when Cora shows up, it’ll create some great drama when Regina is tempted to use magic for evil all over again. If she doesn’t think that using it just to do good has really got her anywhere, then she’s gonna have a major internal struggle and most likely a relapse, which frankly, is pretty realistic, because if they just had her drop the dark magic quick and easy, I wouldn’t buy it. Baby steps. But patience is a virtue that I don’t think Regina possesses.

I like that they’ve shown her to be genuinely trying to do better. Never thought I’d feel sympathy for her, but I have, and I like how they’ve had Henry encouraging her and rewarding her with a genuine hug and a smile when she comes through and does good. But at times her turn around has felt a bit rushed. I can see now, however, that they had to get her to exactly the state of mind and heart she’s in now, so it’d coincide with the return of her mother, so it’s set it up just right for the crap to hit the fan in a most spectacular way.

[craxyfox]

I do agree that an invitation to dinner wasn’t exactly expected, and noone’s saying that she should have joined everyone, but the tiny bit of gratitude she received was a little rushed, and it didn’t help having Rumple rub it in.
But yes, leaving her alone like that will be the set up of her possibly turning back to her evil ways, so I suppose that was needed ):

[Slurpeez]

@craxyfox wrote:

I do agree that an invitation to dinner wasn’t exactly expected, and noone’s saying that she should have joined everyone, but the tiny bit of gratitude she received was a little rushed, and it didn’t help having Rumple rub it in.
But yes, leaving her alone like that will be the set up of her possibly turning back to her evil ways, so I suppose that was needed ):

While I don’t think the Charmings should suddenly embrace Regina as a member of the family, I think even MIss Manners would agree that a courteous dinner invitation was merited, considering that if it hadn’t been for Regina, Emma and Snow would be toast by now. Excluding Regina is just setting her up to fall off of what little high moral ground she’s gained recently. Every recovering addict needs a support group. Leaving her alone is just setting her up to fail again. Henry and Emma especially needed to take the lead and include Regina, since Snow and Charming have the worst history with Regina. I’ve never been a huge fan of Regina’s, but I do want her to continue to recover. (Regretfully, I doubt Regina will stay on the straight and narrow now given Cora’s arrival in SB. If anything, it probably means at least a temporary relapse for Regina).

"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

[antbee]

@slurpeez108 wrote:

While I don’t think the Charmings should suddenly embrace Regina as a member of the family, I think even MIss Manners would agree that a courteous dinner invitation was merited, considering that if it hadn’t been for Regina, Emma and Snow would be toast by now. Excluding Regina is just setting her up to fall off of what little high moral ground she’s gained recently. Every recovering addict needs a support group. Leaving her alone is just setting her up to fail again. Henry and Emma especially needed to take the lead and include Regina, since Snow and Charming have the worst history with Regina. I’ve never been a huge fan of Regina’s, but I do want her to continue to recover. (Regretfully, I doubt Regina will stay on the straight and narrow now given Cora’s arrival in SB. If anything, it probably means at least a temporary relapse for Regina).

I’m not really an expert on etiquette, but someone in the chat pointed out that it would have been wrong for Henry or any of the other Charmings to invite Regina because Ruby is the one that invited everyone. It wasn’t their place to invite her.

Etiquette aside though, I don’t think it should fall on the Charmings and the others to help Regina from relapsing. She barely interacts with Ruby and the Dwarves, so they have no idea what is going on with her. All they know about her is that she’s the Evil Queen who kept trying to keep Snow and Charming apart, sent everyone to Storybrooke where they had a set of false memories, and then when that plan didn’t work, she used force on anyone that tried to keep her from her son, until he had to intervene and save everyone. They might know that she’s trying to change, but her past evil behavior is still pretty recent, and they’re probably very wary that she’ll eventually return to her old ways.

I don’t think it’s up to the Charmings to help Regina from relapsing either because imo it would be like asking a family that a murderer went after to help that person rehabilitate him/herself. I think that they’ve done more than enough in being nice to her, especially David, considering the circumstances. They didn’t have to protect her from the mob, but they did. They didn’t have to protect her from the Wraith, but they did. David didn’t have to let her be able to see Henry and even stay with Henry unsupervised, but he did.

It’s not up to Henry either because he’s only a child, and that’s too much responsibility for him to burden. It would be too much like Bae having the burden of his father being the Dark One and trying to change him.

I agree Regina does need a support system, and she has one in Archie, which is a start. She needs more than that, but right now I don’t think it should fall on any of the townspeople to be that for her because of all that she’s done to them in the past.

Exactly. They had to show her all emotionally wounded and vulnerable so that what happens to her next makes sense. Cora’s come back because she believed that Regina would need her to help pick up the pieces. Well, Cora was right, Regina’s pretty lost and lonely right now. So when Cora shows up, it’ll create some great drama when Regina is tempted to use magic for evil all over again. If she doesn’t think that using it just to do good has really got her anywhere, then she’s gonna have a major internal struggle and most likely a relapse, which frankly, is pretty realistic, because if they just had her drop the dark magic quick and easy, I wouldn’t buy it. Baby steps. But patience is a virtue that I don’t think Regina possesses.

Yes, patience is definitely not a virtue that Regina possesses. I’m just glad that I was right that it seemed too easy for her up until now and that when Emma and Snow returned, so would her struggle because they do set off all her issues. I agree that it’s much more realistic that Regina is going to be really struggling with trying to be better, which is great because if and when she finally is able to deal with her anger and feelings in other ways besides turning to dark magic, it will be more rewarding for her and the audience.

[Slurpeez]

@AntBee wrote:

I’m not really an expert on etiquette, but someone in the chat pointed out that it would have been wrong for Henry or any of the other Charmings to invite Regina because Ruby is the one that invited everyone. It wasn’t their place to invite her.

I love debating the finer points of etiquette, since Regina obviously doesn’t usually even abide by common decency, let alone curtesy. I suppose it really was up to Ruby, but it wouldn’t have been totally out of place for Emma to suggest extending an invite to Regina. I highly doubt Regina would’ve even accepted, but it least it would have made her feel like her former enemies were grateful to her for saving their lives. And yes, I know Henry and Emma both thanked her, but sometimes actions speak volumes louder than words.

Etiquette aside though, I don’t think it should fall on the Charmings and the others to help Regina from relapsing. She barely interacts with Ruby and the Dwarves, so they have no idea what is going on with her. All they know about her is that she’s the Evil Queen who kept trying to keep Snow and Charming apart, sent everyone to Storybrooke where they had a set of false memories, and then when that plan didn’t work, she used force on anyone that tried to keep her from her son, until he had to intervene and save everyone. They might know that she’s trying to change, but her past evil behavior is still pretty recent, and they’re probably very wary that she’ll eventually return to her old ways.

I don’t think it’s up to the Charmings to help Regina from relapsing either because imo it would be like asking a family that a murderer went after to help that person rehabilitate him/herself. I think that they’ve done more than enough in being nice to her, especially David, considering the circumstances. They didn’t have to protect her from the mob, but they did. They didn’t have to protect her from the Wraith, but they did. David didn’t have to let her be able to see Henry and even stay with Henry unsupervised, but he did.

It’s not up to Henry either because he’s only a child, and that’s too much responsibility for him to burden. It would be too much like Bae having the burden of his father being the Dark One and trying to change him.

I agree Regina does need a support system, and she has one in Archie, which is a start. She needs more than that, but right now I don’t think it should fall on any of the townspeople to be that for her because of all that she’s done to them in the past.

I know one major good act doesn’t cancel out a lifetime of evilness, but leaving Regina alone, high and dry, isn’t a very good long-term strategy either. It’s just not very smart on the Charmings’ behalf to leave Regina like a sitting duck unattended. There’s a proverb to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I’m not saying the Charmings need to invite her to Christmas dinner or have her join them on their family game nights. I just think Emma sitting down with Regina for a drink at Granny’s and talking about how they’re going to both be a part of Henry’s life would have been a really good strategy on how to manage Regina. It’s kind of like two divorced-parents putting aside their differences in order to preserve the best interests of the child. They must find a way to be civil.

While Regina going to therapy is an excellent first step on the road to recovery, it’s not going to be enough by itself. And really, a town-rehabilitation program for recovering magic-addicts is actually in everyone’s best long-term interests. No one, especially the Charmings, wants to see Regina go all haywire on them again. They know what she’s capable of when she starts using magic for evil. So, purely for the pragmatic reasoning of keeping Regina placated and on the no-magic bandwagon, she needs a support group ASAP, and there’s really no one else to help Regina. While it would make good sense for Archie to start a group-therapy session for recovering magic addicts, I think that group would be pretty small since Mr. Gold is the only other magician, but he has no real intention of giving up magic since he’s the one who brought it to SB. He’s also Regina’s enabler, as we saw him convince Regina to toy with words to con Henry. As Lana Parilla said recently, Rumplestiltskin is sort of the only one Regina has left to turn to (not a very good combination).

Yes, patience is definitely not a virtue that Regina possesses. I’m just glad that I was right that it seemed too easy for her up until now and that when Emma and Snow returned, so would her struggle because they do set off all her issues. I agree that it’s much more realistic that Regina is going to be really struggling with trying to be better, which is great because if and when she finally is able to deal with her anger and feelings in other ways besides turning to dark magic, it will be more rewarding for her and the audience.

Perhaps Snow and Emma aren’t her real issues at all; perhaps Regina’s real issues are with her twisted mother, Cora. While Snow and Regina may never be BFFs, we’ve just seen Regina risk even her mother’s return for the sake of saving Henry’s birth-mother and grandmother. They can find a way to coexist and to co-parent Henry, for his own sake. Regina’s bigger issue is how to deal with her mother. There’s no way she can handle that on her own and I have the horrible feeling that Cora is going to impersonate Archie, Regina's therapist and one confidant.

"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

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