Episode Report Card Cindy McLennan: A- | 689 USERS: A- YOU GRADE IT The Unstable Girl
By Cindy McLennan | Season 1 | Episode 18 | Aired on 2012.04.01
Storybrooke, Mayor's Office. Flashback. Regina, clutching a ring, is lost in thought until Mr. Gold arrives. He wants her to make his legal problems (from when he beat Mr. French to a pulp) disappear. In exchange, he'll help her torment her mortal enemy, Mary Margaret Blanchard. He points out that if something were to happen to Kathryn Mary would be blamed. Regina salivates at the idea of Mary's ruination but says a trial could be messy. Gold suggests that once Mary is locked up Regina can plant her jail cell skeleton key in the cell. Mary will use it to break out and flee.
Gold: We all know what happens to people who attempt to leave town.
Regina: Give me one good reason why should I trust you.
Gold: I always honor my agreements.
Audience: Yes, but he's all about the letter of the law, not the spirit, Regina. You really shouldn't trust him because.... Oh, wait. You're evil. Never mind us. Trust Gold!
Enchanted Forest. Regina is probably in her twenties here. I've seen people suggest she's as young as 16, because women used to be married off when they were but girls. That's in our world history, folks. Lana Parrilla is a gorgeous, youthful woman in her thirties. In these flashback scenes, I can accept her Regina as a twenty-something, but teens? Come on. The thing is I don't need to see her as a teen, because again, on this show, the fairy tale reality is not our world's Middle Ages. While there might be some similarities everything does not need to map, and in fact does not map, so I do not have to pretend Parrilla is playing someone half her age. Sorry to digress so early. Let's get on with the show.
Anyhow, young Regina rides her horse. Her father, Henry, cheers her on as she makes her jumps. When she is done, doting daddy raves about how beautifully she rides. Regina's mother Cora (Barbara Hershey) is another story. She's disgusted that her daughter "rides like a man" and without a saddle. Mother says Regina is becoming an old maid. No one will want to marry her. Daniel (Noah Bean), this episode's titular stable "boy" (also played by an actor in his thirties, whom I will accept as a character in his 20s), offers a saddle to Regina. She cuts him off mid-sentence, says she's done riding for the day, and tells him never to interrupt her and her mother, again. Dejected, Daniel leads the horse away.