Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: C | 376 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT PANache
By Cindy McLennan | Season 3 | Episode 9 | Aired on 12.01.2013
Oh dear. It's another Regina-centric flashback. These always leave me conflicted, because I enjoy the hell out of Regina. Gorgeous Lana Parrilla is fabulous in the role. I can't say enough about her. And yet? Every time we learn more about Regina's past, the character loses something. She becomes more pathetic, less redeemable, or grows even crazier than I thought possible -- even though I knew from day one that she ripped out her own father's heart in order to cast a curse that would tear everyone from their world(s) of origin, wipe their minds of their memories and identities, and then plop them down into a sterile, listless Groundhog Day reality. I mean do we need more crazy?
I'm a big fan of redemption. Heck, I'm a Redemptionista, and while philosophically speaking, I'd have to come down on the side of offering everyone a shot at redemption, some people are so horrific that I am unable to actively engage in their redemption sagas, even if I think, in theory, that everyone should have a chance. The more I learn about Regina's past, the harder it is for me to care about her in the now. That would be fine, if Once Upon A Time wasn't intent on making her matter in the now. Regina is not just written to be crazy, she is somewhat crazily written. Here, let me show you....
Once Upon A Time, 29 years back in the Enchanted Past, Grumpy shouts, "It's here," and sounds the warning bell, as the Smoke Monster's more colorful cousin blankets the Enchanted Forest reality with the Dark Curse.
In his enchanted prison cell, Rumpy grabs the bars and yells that he's waiting. Regina apparates into the cell in a plume of black smoke. She wants Rumpy to know she cast the Dark Curse, "...before you, like all the pathetic denizens of this wretched land, forgets (sic) everything." When Rumpy asks Regina how it felt, she assumes he's talking about watching the curse strike, which sets him to giggling. "Nooooooo. How did it feel to kill the thing you loved most? Ripping the heart out of your father -- how did that feel?" Regina says that since it was the price of the curse, how it felt does not matter. "He would have understood." Really, Reggie, because he pleaded with you not to do it, and offered you alternatives even. Then he hugged you, so you ripped out his heart.
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