Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A- | 88 USERS: B YOU GRADE IT Live Together. Die Alone.
By Cindy McLennan | Season 2 | Episode 2 | Aired on 10.07.2012
Sidebar: I sort of feel like I just got spoiled for the entire series -- at least Regina's arc. What do we know about magic? There are always consequences, sure, but true love is good, so if it's used lovingly for good motivations, the consequences should be, too. What else do we know? We know that true love is the most powerful magic of all. Regina says when she has one (magic), she will have the other (her son). She's completely right, but so wrongheaded that she cannot see it. Henry's most persistent problem with Regina isn't that she's his adoptive mother -- it's that she's not capable of love... at least any love that isn't selfish. The only reason Storybrooke exists is that she's overrun by hatred and a thirst for vengeance. If she had love -- the most powerful magic of all -- she would indeed have her son. Adopted children who are well and truly loved by their families don't stop loving those families if/when they meet their biological families. Love doesn't subtract from love; it begets it. Were Henry an ordinary adoptee, he might want a relationship with his bio-mom too, but if he'd been loved right for the first ten years of his life (and if his bio-mom's and grandparents' lives hadn't been compromised by his adoptive mom), his relationship with Regina would be solid. Her only chance at motherhood -- at redemption -- is learning to love.
L'enchantement, prior to Regina and King Leopold's wedding. On horseback, Regina races away from Knifingham Palace. She's grabbed right off her horse by magical tree limbs that hold her suspended over the road. Her mother Cora (Barbara Hershey) appears. She tells her daughter she thought they were done with all this nonsense. When Regina asks what evil her mother has conjured, Cora chuckles that it's just a barrier spell. Open grimoire in hand, she blows magic off the pages and toward her daughter. The trees release their hold on Regina and she falls to the ground. Cora will not allow her daughter to leave without the King. They're to be married in two days, after which Regina will be free to do as she will. Regina doesn't want to marry Leopold. Cora speculates she's just frightened of all that power, but Regina doesn't want power. She wants freedom. Cora says they're the same thing. "Don't worry. I'm here to show you." I'd tell Regina to run, but when your control-freak mother can magic up the trees, there's really no point. [Note: How badly did you want Regina to pull a Cersei and prove that power is power? -- Rachel.]