by Chelsea Dee, Editor, and Jachelle Overstreet, Reporter

Flashback: Regina is delusional. Completely delusional. Okay more of a description than that. Regina finds out Snow has been hiding out in a village and she questions the villagers. They refuse to help her so she has her guards slaughter them all. Back at her castle, frustrated, she tells Rumpelstiltskin she knows they’ll love her if she just destroys Snow. See, delusional? He sarcastically remarks on her delusion since killing a load of villagers isn’t going to help, but she’s looney tunes. He says he can get her to Snow by putting her in a disguise. She goes from delusional to dumb since she defends herself at town when they’re burning her effigy and smack talking her. She’s going to be executed when Snow comes to the rescue. She nurses Regina back to health since she was injured, and the queen’s heart starts to melt when Snow talks about how she saved her from a horse. She asks if Snow would forgive her if she was sorry and they could start again, and Snow swears she would … until she sees those dead bodies of the villagers. She says there’s no redeeming Regina now (although she counteracts that by saving her later on) and realizes Regina is in disguise. She doesn’t kill her though and Regina flees to Rumpelstiltskin. She accepts her people will never love her, so fear will have to be enough. Or you could stop being evil, but she doesn’t think she’s evil, she thinks she’s a hero. Whatever, Regina.

In Storybrooke: More Regina delusion yaaaay. She goes to Henry and says she knows a way to use the beans. She wants to go with Henry at the others back home, despite the fact the Charmings are thinking of ways to stop her and/or put her in jail. She tells him it’ll kill everyone else, and he’s like SERIOUSLY WHY ARE YOU SO CRAYCRAY. He points out the obvious, she can’t be a hero if she kills innocent people, and she seems baffled. So she wipes his mind and says nothing. She meets up with Hook, who has struck a deal with Tamara and Owen. He tells Regina about it, of course so she will lead him somewhere important. It turns out Maleficent was not killed by Emma and is some kind of ring wraith. She throws Hook down there as bait so she can get a special magical object. When she goes back upstairs however, Hook has been saved. He says that the bracelet she took from him, the one Cora gave and she had to have, is actually using some kind of science that will refuse to come off her. Um that doesn’t sound like science that sounds like magic. Anyway she’s trapped and has no magic now. Maybe it’ll be good for her.

Also Emma is suspicious of Tamara and says her “super power” points to Tamara lying. Snow responds that her super power never works, which lol ikr? Henry believes Emma, and he also wants Tamara to be evil so he can get his parents together. They spy on Neal and Tamara and break into their room, but Neal comes back. He says the list Emma saw with everyone’s names on it, that made her suspicious, he’s the one who wrote it. He thinks she’s just being jealous and she leaves, humiliated, but Henry insists he knows they’re right. And that’s about it for this week.

General Opinion of the Episode

Dee: I’m just really really frustrated with parts of this show, and I’ll get into why at the bottom of this because a lot of it has to do with Regina. I think a problem I’m having is I can tell these are LOST writers, but at least on LOST I felt like the characters were capable of changing and growing. Sawyer and Jin for example started out in one place and ended up in a completely different place by the end of the show. I feel like on OUAT every time you think something about the character might develop or change, they just are thrown back to the default. I can’t even name a time so far where I feel like a character truly changed, that hasn’t led to them eventually going back to who they were. Maybe this is all intentional, but it is really frustrating for me, because I enjoy watching characters grow and this just feels like them regressing over and over again. Grr argh. I still feel like very little happened this episode to move the real plot forward, outside of okay now Regina can’t use magic and Emma suspects Tamara. I think they have to stop using flashbacks unless there is information we can get from it that’s important. I don’t know. I’m just frustrated. It wasn’t a bad episode. Is it weird I’m on Team Tamara/Owen/Hook at the moment? I mean yeah I’m on Team Charmings first, but I don’t really care what they do to Regina. I like that science can mess up magic, they put a little science/magic arguments in with Frankenstein, so I’m interested to see what more of that looks like.

Jachelle: Usually I don’t have much trouble getting through an episode of this series. Even when I’m not into the current plot, I’m still generally pretty invested in what’s going on and things keep my attention. But I went to fast forward through a commercial break this week and when I realized I was only 15 minutes into the episode and annoyed with it already? I let out a little sigh because I knew it was going to be tough for me to get through. Dee and I have made no secret of the fact that we’re irritated with Regina’s storylines this season, so I suppose another Regina-centric episode just caught up with that and left me restless and annoyed. This was a “push through it until the end” sort of episode for me, which was a let-down, because there are only two episodes left! I should be a lot more invested in things. But the last few minutes aside, the episode didn’t go anywhere. I felt like it was just another excuse for the writers to try and make us feel bad for Regina. “Oh, she really just wants love and when she was ready to change, Snow ruined her.” Ugh. NO. I am so damn tired of this nonsense. No, I don’t feel sorry for Regina. I’m not going to feel sorry for her again, because you won’t let her learn or grow from her mistakes and now she’s just annoying as hell.

Favorite Scene

Dee: I don’t know. So much of this episode made me grit my teeth. I guess I like that someone has the drop on Regina? When it turns out Hook tricked her into wearing the bracelet, I was like oh look, he was finally useful for something. And like I said above, I’m interested to see where the science/magic line is going to go. It looks like they plan to torture her? Or maybe get her magic out of her somehow? My guess is the latter, since Tamara wants magic.

Jachelle: I guess maybe the scene where Emma and Henry are on a stakeout in her car outside of Granny’s. While I still think it was ridiculous that she allowed Henry to be a part of the whole thing, the scene in itself was quite charming. (Pun sort of intended?) I think Jennifer and Jared have a very sweet chemistry together and it’s been awhile since we’ve gotten to see them one on one. The scene actually left me with a smile on my face, which was a nice break from the rest of the episode.

Least Favorite Scene

Dee: I think for me it’s when disguised Regina is talking to Snow and she’s like but what if Regina felt bad and wanted to be a family. Because it’s infuriating that they keep going LOOK SHE COULD BE GOOD and then it’s like Snow’s fault she goes evil again. I don’t know. It’s just so irrational. And then she’s like oh whatever, the villagers are dead, ehhhh. I mean she still doesn’t get it. I hate when they tease us with moments she breaks through because it makes it more infuriating when she goes backward.

Jachelle: I really disliked the scene where Regina goes to talk to Henry. Homegirl has just completely lost touch with reality, if she said what she did to him and expected any sort of reaction other than the one she got. Unless the point was that she knew he wouldn’t understand it and just needed someone to talk to. But I feel like that might be grasping at straws. Either way, my annoyance at THAT part of the scene was nothing compared to the flat out rage I experienced after she erased Henry’s memories. Oh my God, whenever someone’s mind is erased/influenced/changed/whatever through the use of magic or any other sort of supernatural force, it will send me into a fit of blind rage. And not only that, but she did it to her SON. The ONE PERSON who still believes in her, and she’s mind raping him because she needs someone to talk to. Ugh. I just cannot anymore.

Favorite Character

Dee: I really don’t have one this episode. I’d say Emma but her storyline kind of made me cringe. Mostly because I felt bad for her to be in such an awkward spot with her ex. Ooh maybe I’ll go with Henry. His response to Regina when she told him her true plan was so intense and kind of everything I wanted to say to her, unfortunately she wiped his mind so it didn’t matter. I do think it’s unfortunate he thinks his parents could get back together, but it is realistic for a kid.

Jachelle: I’m going to go with Henry too. After being such a big part of the first season, I feel like the kid has really taken a backseat in everything in season two. He’s kind of just become a prop to help along bigger storylines, which is unfortunate. Hey, here’s a thought, show…instead of showing us Fairytale Land flashbacks that don’t tell us anything new, how about a flashback to Henry’s life growing up in Storybrooke? I want to know more about how he went from loving his mother to suspecting she was the evil queen. But that’s off topic. As I mentioned earlier, it was nice to get some one on one Emma/Henry time again and made me nostalgic for their sweet moments together in season one. And I completely agreed with everything he said to Regina. I’m still pissed off at what happened afterward, but up until that part I was like HELL YES.

Has Regina finally just gone too far?

Dee: Yes but of course I thought she’s gone over the edge like half a season ago. As soon as she really went along with her mother, I’m like nope nope nope. And it gets worse with time. I am so sick of her, and it’d be one thing if they let go of her redemption. If they let go of trying to make us both love and hate her. I think what really sets Rumpelstiltskin and Regina apart is the self awareness. Rumpelstiltskin is no better than Regina, he’s worse in some ways, but he never pretends to be anything else. He is completely aware of what evil and good is, and I think he’s only interested in good when it serves him, to be honest. But I don’t feel like he has illusions about it. That’s why in this episode he was making all those sarcastic responses to Regina about her subjects and why they hated her. He gets it. That doesn’t make him better than her, but it makes him far less annoying. I really think she’s just crazy at this point. She’s learned nothing, these flashbacks only tell me more and more about how she’s learned nothing, and I’m kind of rooting on Tamara now.

Jachelle: Of course she has. Regina can’t even see the line anymore she’s flown so far past it. She just never freaking learns, and it’s getting so tiresome to watch. Regina has always been a bit on the crazy side. She’s clearly not all there if she’s spent over half her life obsessing because she’s convinced a freaking eight year old ruined her happiness forever. She uprooted an entire world to get her revenge and then got bored. Now she’s ready to KILL EVERYONE and she thinks she’ll get her happily ever after with Henry? Here’s what’s really bothering me. Despite her crazy side, Regina has still been presented as a fairly intelligent woman. She’d have to be to manipulate as many people as she has over the years. Season one Regina? BAMF. It’s when I loved her. But Season two Regina? She’s basically ruled completely by her emotions and seems to be incapable of rational thought anymore. If she were, she’d realize that killing everyone and forcing Henry to love her isn’t going to satisfy her in the end. But nope. She just keeps running around in denial that she’s going to run away, force Henry to love her again, and everything’s going to be just fine. Come on. Really? I am so done with her.

Rating: – We're increasingly frustrated by the show and its inability to let characters develop. Plus there's only two episodes left, get to the point already!

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