Regina’s Redemption

[Killian Jones]

I thought it was nice to see more of the Regina we met before when Regina was under the control of her mother and what set her on the road to becoming the Evil Queen. It was interesting to see how Regina had a real look in the mirror moment when she was able to see the control she wanted to put Henry under and the control she was subject to under Cora. Remembering that she didn’t want to become her mother and now at least some what trying to stop it from happening. I don’t know if I completely buy it but redemption for her is really gonna be process of fighting against who she let herself become.

[surayya]

Yeah, I agree with her redemption & realisations- I was totally engrossed in her story – both of them!

I really felt for her this ep (for once), not yet sure exactly what it will take for her to truly redeem herself (but if it turns out both Cora & Rumple wantingly corrupted her, it will be more likely that ‘full’ redemption is possible I think)- but I feel like there is more hope there than there was with her actions towards Henry, esp since she did actually listen to him this time & choose to do the right thing by her son.

[Killian Jones]

@Surayya wrote:

Yeah, I agree with her redemption & realisations- I was totally engrossed in her story – both of them!

I really felt for her this ep (for once), not yet sure exactly what it will take for her to truly redeem herself (but if it turns out both Cora & Rumple wantingly corrupted her, it will be more likely that ‘full’ redemption is possible I think)- but I feel like there is more hope there than there was with her actions towards Henry, esp since she did actually listen to him this time & choose to do the right thing by her son.

This is the first real time I felt sympathetic to Regina, maybe because she actually showed a lot of humility in allowing Henry to leave with David. I hope that she does redeem herself though and that it’s not a play the thing that keeps me reserved is that she did keep the book instead of destroying it.

[TheGoldenKey]

I think she will end up redeeming herself and perhaps we’ll find out that Cora is indeed the real Evil Queen. Her book of magic did have a red heart in the centre (confirming that Cora is the QofH?)

Keeper of Pandora's Box & The Yellow Brick Road.

[Slurpeez]

steliokontos1 wrote: I hope that she does redeem herself though and that it’s not a play the thing that keeps me reserved is that she did keep the book instead of destroying it.

Yes, that book is going to spell trouble in the future, pun intended. 😉

TheGoldenKey wrote: Her book of magic did have a red heart in the centre (confirming that Cora is the QofH?)

I think Cora is the QoH. Cora comes from the French word coeur meaning “heart.” Also, she went through the mirror, which is a clear and indisputable reference to the book Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll, part of the Alice in Wonderland saga. Also, right before Regina pushed Cora through the portal, Cora said, “Let everyone know where the new power lies, and you’ll hold the hearts of the people in your hands.” Let’s just say, Cora wasn’t just speaking about proverbial hearts. The QoH had a vault of actual hearts, which we later saw Regina imitating in the Enchanted Forest and SB. We also saw Cora crush Daniel’s heart, the same way Regina crushed Graham’s. 😥

"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

[mujie]

If they’re going to give all the villains a heart, I wonder who the new big bad will be. I thought that Regina couldn’t burn the book. And finally, it was like the book took over her. That wasn’t Rumple’s magic. I wonder if they’ll show the origin of magic.

[fairytaleprincess]

I think Whale is going to be one of the bad guys. Just listening to him “You are not my prince”. and “That is my business.” Also in season one he was mostly standing with Ragina so I think we will have a battle between Charming and Whale.
I am not sure how Ragina will redeem herself to Henry. I think she has to find a way to not only get Snow / MM & Emma back but also figure out a way for the town to forgive her.

[princesssnow]

I felt awful for Regina in Stable Boy when Daniel was murdered, but I felt even worse for her in this episode when her treatment of Henry was being mirrored with how Cora treated her. I think she genuinely realized she was morphing into her mother, and she truly never wanted that. I loved the end scene between her and Henry. 😥

[fairytaleprincess]

Ya, she said several times that she didn’t want to use magic and she didn’t want to be like her mother and yet here she is becoming just like her.

[timespacer]

I agree that by releasing Henry Regina took a big first step on what might become a path to redemption. But I expect it will be a long and difficult path, with many opportunities for backsliding, as we saw in her decision not to burn the book. I thought it was very telling that when she tried to return the spell book to Rumple she said we would never use magic again because she liked it too much. Apparently, magic is like an addictive drug.

In addition to her scenes with Cora, I thought the scene in which she brought Henry home revealed a lot about Regina. Even at the beginning when she had him in the tree and said,”Don’t fight it, honey. You might get a splinter.”, we could hear in her voice a conflict between her desire to use magic to control her son and her realization that she was hurting him. And of course, it was a reminder of when her mother used the tree branches to imprison her as well.

Then, her whole conversation with Henry seemed to be building to the moment when he said “I don’t want to be you”, echoing Regina’s statement to Cora. I think that was the moment Regina realized she had to let Henry go or she would just drive him away from her like Cora drove her away.

Of course, her decision to release Henry doesn’t mean she has automatically redeemed herself. She had almost no choice, but it is still a big step forward for Regina to put Henry’s needs ahead of her own and realize that keeping him prisoner would not “be what’s best for him” (as she so often rationalized in the past) but would have the same effect on him that her mother’s actions had on her. Now, the question is how far will she go in trying to earn Henry’s forgiveness and how tempted will she be to stick to her evil ways? I think the drug addiction analogy is a good one and she will start trying to do good but will often weaken.

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