"The Evil Queen" - With the aid of Hook, Regina attempts to put a plan in motion that will help transport herself and Henry back to Fairytale land. But her plan revolves around a fail-safe that was planted within the curse, which if triggered could wipe Storybrooke off the map - and kill all of its inhabitants; and Emma's suspicions about Tamara grow. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, the Evil Queen asks Rumplestiltskin to transform her into an unrecognizable peasant in order to kill an unsuspecting Snow White, with the twisted aim of earning the love and respect of her subjects, on "Once Upon a Time," SUNDAY, APRIL 28 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network.
"Once Upon a Time" stars Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan, Lana Parrilla as Evil Queen/Regina, Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David, Emilie de Ravin as Belle, Colin O'Donoghue as Hook, Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills, Meghan Ory as Red Riding Hood/Ruby, and Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold.
Guest starring are Lee Arenberg as Leroy/Grumpy, Michael Raymond-James as Neal Cassidy, Ethan Embry as Greg Mendell, Sonequa Martin-Green as Tamara, Aleks Paunovic as Berkley, Michael Teigen as Rivers, Hrothgar Mathews as carny, Max Montesi as peasant boy, Bri Neal as peasant girl, William Phillips as peasant man, Jennifer J. Angeli as weaver and Harold Davies as fisherman.
"The Evil Queen" was written by Christine Boylan & Jane Espenson and directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton.
Source: ABC
"Once Upon a Time" stars Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White/Mary Margaret, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan, Lana Parrilla as Evil Queen/Regina, Josh Dallas as Prince Charming/David, Emilie de Ravin as Belle, Colin O'Donoghue as Hook, Jared S. Gilmore as Henry Mills, Meghan Ory as Red Riding Hood/Ruby, and Robert Carlyle as Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold.
Guest starring are Lee Arenberg as Leroy/Grumpy, Michael Raymond-James as Neal Cassidy, Ethan Embry as Greg Mendell, Sonequa Martin-Green as Tamara, Aleks Paunovic as Berkley, Michael Teigen as Rivers, Hrothgar Mathews as carny, Max Montesi as peasant boy, Bri Neal as peasant girl, William Phillips as peasant man, Jennifer J. Angeli as weaver and Harold Davies as fisherman.
"The Evil Queen" was written by Christine Boylan & Jane Espenson and directed by Gwyneth Horder-Payton.
Source: ABC
I hope they make Michael Raymond-James a regular next season, tbh.
ReplyDeleteAnd whoa, Regina, bad plan! That is not going to endear Henry to you at all.
I don't know if I will continue watching the show.
ReplyDeleteSo sad, but this season is really really awful.
These characters keep running in circles and it becomes repetitive and annoying. I get it, action - reaction. But there's bound to come a time when they start learning and their characters start growing. Here's desperately hoping that the ep will be better than what this sounds like.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me wonder whether the supposed torture scene we saw in one of the promos wasn't in fact Regina setting her plan in motion. I don't know what's worse, if her being tortured or her getting hurt on purpose because she desperately wants Henry back.
ReplyDeleteAnd Regina asks for Rumple's help. Again. And he obviously grants her wish, because he knows things will work out for him. I love their scenes together more than anything on this show, but even they are getting old.
I partially agree, but I don't think this press release is what makes me think the show has been bad in S2. At least here we have tons of Regina, which, IMO, is one of the only characters that was consistently interesting throughout the season, despite plot issues.
ReplyDeleteRegina, your plans are always terrible.
ReplyDeleteJust leave the kid alone for a while. The Charmings will inevitably die from something stupid because they can barely feed themselves. And he's a pretty shitty kid who treats you just like your mom did.
At this point, I doubt Regina becoming Holy Mary herself will grant her Henry's forgiveness/sympathy/whatever.
ReplyDeleteRight? There has been literally no character growth at all, and actually regression on the parts of most characters. Snow and Charming are as stupid and wilfully blind as ever, Emma is a non-entity, Regina is exactly where she was in Season 1, Rumple is just as vicious as ever, Ruby is an occasional guest star like in S1 and Belle is an awkwardly placed character shoved in when they want to do something with Rumple.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they've specifically made Henry's behaviour match Cora's in how he treats Regina on purpose.
ReplyDeleteI do admire your attempt at making them sound smart, Courts, but I must say I very much doubt it.
ReplyDeleteAnd, honestly, at this point I'm almost hoping Regina just gives up on the kid, because, god, how much shit can one person handle before they, I don't know, curse an entire land and try their happy ending some other way? Regina's tolerance is something else. If I were here, Storybrooke would be on fire by now.
I know. I want them to be deep! But I do find it interesting how manipulative Henry's behaviour towards her is (to everyone actually) but only she is held to a different standard.
ReplyDeleteRegina is WAY more tolerant than I would be. Emma would not have made it past the second episode of season 1 if I were in her position. If, god forbid, I am ever in that position, I would do far, far worse than Regina did to Emma.
And Henry, don't forget Henry. He is just as ready to believe in the black and whiteness of the world as he always was, even after the breaking of the curse, Regina's redemption arc, the revelation about Neal and Cora's death. Frustrating.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Henry isn't really a character, he's just something Regina wangsts over.
ReplyDeleteWell, she keeps fucking up so why would he trust her and/or forgive her yet? She's done nothing to earn it. She just tried to murder the entire family!
ReplyDeleteAnd hey, guess what? Now she's trying to kidnap him and murder an entire town and take them to another land.
I'm so done with Regina, she has to be the most flaky evil character I've seen in a while, with the most idiotic plans ever. If you want Henry to love you JUST STOP BEING EVIL, this whole season has been so dumb for Regina and not even Lana's amazing talent can save it for me
ReplyDeleteAre you seriously comparing an eleven year old to an abusive woman here? I'm so shocked (and a little mad) I don't even know how to respond to that.
ReplyDeleteFair enough.
ReplyDeleteI kinda agree. Most storylines are flimsy as hell, but I'm still interested, but is the Regina plot what has really gone to the crapper; her story has been such a waste after a stellar season one. I just can't with Regina's constant "nobody loves me" wangst and unrepentant evilness; the last of consistence is maddening!
ReplyDeletelol. then don't.
ReplyDeleteAs opposed to THE OTHER people who are trying to kidnap him, murder and entire town and take him to another land?
ReplyDeleteIf she can only get Henry to love her by doing what he wants, it's not love.
ReplyDeleteRegina fucks up, but the fact is, at this point, everyone has fucked up and still, Henry forgave all the Charmings, but he never forgave her. God, he is friendly with Rumple of all people! I understand him not completely trusting her, but the truth is the writers use Henry as plot device and have him act however they see fit, no consistency whatsoever, to move the story forward.
ReplyDeleteAnd she DID do things to earn his trust. Apart from the whole saving Snow and Emma from the green curse, she didn't curse MM with Cora's enchantment. And then she didn't kill MM (but this one was for selfish reasons, so I'll understand if you wanna wave it).
The problem I see is this: she does good, she gets shit in return. She does bad, she gets shit in return. What is the difference? Do they keep some sort of score and she'll start getting something good in return after she completed a certain amount of good deeds? Honestly, doesn't make sense.
And guess what. The Charmings plan on kidnapping HER son, taking him to another land, and not the other way around. A lot of people forget she has legal custody of the kid. Might seem irrelevant, but, IMO, it is not. She is his mother, whether people like that or not. She is freaking out because she just found out about the beans. In all sincerity, I don't think many mothers would act differently, they would do absolutely EVERYTHING in their power to keep their child, even if that something is illogical, dangerous and very likely a bad idea. But most mothers happen not to have magic at their disposal, so they most likely won't be able to do the exact same thing Regina is doing here. As I said, although I find it a BAD idea, I don't think it is entirely illogical, from her POV.
Freaking out because she just found the beans, yeah. And she has the knowledge that Emma actually already HAS kidnapped Henry and basically threatened to again at the waterfront.
ReplyDeleteIt's particularly egregious because we've now had the "WE'RE FAMILY" thing with Rumplestiltskin several times. For that to happen, that means that either Henry forgives him because biology or the book is hideously biased and left out all the horrific things Rumple has done.
And honestly, why does he not care that Snow killed his grandmother?
They're not trying to murder an entire town. And right now, they do have custody of him because Regina gave it up after she nearly killed Henry.
ReplyDeleteRegina, I love you, but for you Henry goes with you to fairyland? Force him?
ReplyDeleteAuthors, you just please-_______________-
I'm still not convinced Regina's adoption of him was even legal because nobody could see the town at that point and Gold arranged it.
ReplyDeleteAnd she gave up custody of him after nearly killing him to get revenge on Emma.
I am up for a joint custody arrangement eventually, though, once Regina redeems herself.
Aren't they? I guess we'll have to find out what the failsafe is then.
ReplyDeleteNo. Looking after him because Regina is a pushover and wants Henry to be happy is not the same as custody. Meaning that taking Henry away from Regina without her permission is kidnapping. Something they've already done this season.
According to Adam & Eddy, the adoption was legal.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's cause I'm a law student and therefore I go for the details, but were on earth did you see she give up custody? I'm not a specialist on family law, but I'm fairly certain you don't immediately have your custody revoked, you need a judge to rule on that, even if you tried to kill your child (which was NOT the case, btw. From a legal point of view, he ate a poisoned/magical apple turnover, which was not intended for him, and went into a coma. At best, you'd get a ruling on culpable homicide attempt).
Oh, how much I wanted a fail safe BUT NOT THIS. My version had characters somehow survive it if they died of magical causes while the curse was intact. Yep. That's how I wanted them to bring back Graham AND Maleficent...
ReplyDeleteIf she can't stop being evil, she deserves no love. She's the one that has to prove she is not evil, that she has changed to be "deserving" of Henry's love.
ReplyDeleteHenry is such a non character to be honest, but theme-wise he is "pure", he's rather a prop than a character by his own right.
I mean, how can you seriously try to put the blame on a 10 yo? Henry is not a manipulative little shit -as much a fandom LOVES to paint him as such, as worst he is just obnoxiously naive- He has been portrayed as nothing but pure of heart and intentions and he honestly wants Regina to change, to be good.
And that's because he loves her, she still does: but Regina has continually undermined her own efforts of be deserving of that love. Personally I think Henry is a bore, but thematically that shit is clear as water.
What? Love isn't about DESERVING it.
ReplyDeleteTheme wise he's not really that pure. His intentions are good but he is praised for bad things, like stealing, committing fraud, manipulating, putting people in danger, etc.
No, NO THINKING.
ReplyDeleteCharmings right. Bio family NATURAL FAMILY. Murder okay when they do it. Deserve Henry because biology! Custody = biology!
So what's your plan for joint custody while the Charmings redeem themselves?
ReplyDeleteHe was dead when Emma and Regina arrived at the hospital. Emma revived him with True Love's Kiss.
ReplyDeleteBut she technically did give up custody or at least guardianship when she told Henry to go with Charming after she tried to kidnap him and force him to stay in their home.
Hey, Henry is Regina's son. She is his mom, too. And Cora was trying to kill them all. Yeah, I don't approve of Snow's methods, but the Charmings are better than the murderer, kidnapping, rapist at the moment.
ReplyDeleteThat's...not custody nor guardianship.
ReplyDeleteAnd no, she did NOT try to kidnap him. Because a mother is perfectly within her rights to take a kid home and, you know, ground him.
Yeah, so if someone's gets shot, his heart stops, but the doctors somehow revive said person, how will the author be charged? For culpable homicide. In these cases, the result is the only relevant thing. Henry is alive, hence there can be no homicide charge.
ReplyDeleteNo, technically, she didn't. It's precisely the technicality that makes it so. In order to give up custody, because you are dealing with a child, with fundamental rights and so on, you need a ruling. You can't simply say "take it, the kid is yours, I'm giving up my rights".
That awkward moment you say subjective instead of objective. (sorry, couldn't help it)
ReplyDeleteOk, so, just so we make this clear [get ready for lawyer talk]: Storybrooke's identities are CURSED, not false, and Regina's is not even cursed, she truly is Regina Mills. So, I'm sorry, but that argument is invalid.
ReplyDeleteAt no moment in time did ANYONE ever say her adoption was under false pretenses. Besides, even if it was, that is legally entirely irrelevant. She used the rightful legal means, so she is his mother. She does have rights over him, whether people like it or not.
She could be charged for her crimes, but that still doesn't mean she's not his mother. What might have happened is, had she been charged for her crimes BEFORE adopting Henry, the adoption would probably never have been granted, because she would have been found unfit to be a mother by a judge. However, that NEVER HAPPENED. And we could go even further and argue that, in truth, no judge in Storybrooke or even on planet earth could find her guilty of absolutely anything, because the crimes she committed were all committed outside of any recognizable jurisdiction, so no one would be able to rule over them.
The law. Gotta love it.
I love the show to pieces but you're so right there.Overall plot aside, there has been little to no character development and some very important issues are either being brushed to the side or being discussed off screen.I know that there's been a lot of stuff happening but we're 2 episodes away from the finale and Emma's relationship with her parents (or henry for that matter) hasn't really evolved into...well anything. For me there needs to be -at some point- some in depth interaction between these core characters that isn't purely plot driven.
ReplyDeleteRegina's -and everyone in Storybrooke's papers- are forgeries, magical forgeries at that, but false documents none the less. The weren't born in the united states, they aren't even citizens.
ReplyDeleteWe know those identities aren't real, but the skinny is, there's no way to prove it, because its "magic". Then what's is more important, the law, or the spirit of it?
Morally, Regina shouldn't be able to keep Henry, legally, she only has rights on him because she created an identity with magic. Can we apply the law in this case?
So beyond the identity fraud, rampant yet unable to be proven to any court, what about all of Regina's crimes since she arrived in Storybrook? We have murder, murder, accessory to murder, several homicide attempts -one of which almost costs Henry's life- and all the intimidation, assault and general unlawfulness.
If the Charmings could come clean with the nature of her crimes, they definitely would strip her of her rights faster than you can say objection.
I repeat, cursed identities are nothing but forgeries, good ones, but forgeries all the same. But legally they can't prove it.
You can't just apply the law to this situation without oversimplyfing things. There's the whole deal about American laws meaning jack squat on FTL, Regina just has a bunch of papers that mean nothing as the Charmings are Henry's family, what would a FTL court say about Henry's adoption? Storybrooke isn't even a real town legally speaking; it's not on maps because it's fabricated. Then under what jurisdiction is under? Does Regina's "parental rights" ovtained through flase documents mean anything to the town?
There's just too much intertwined to try to use earth law in this situation, ultimately is just an exercise on futility.
How can you you develop a character that has been developed already¿? remember that in season one they get all their memories back so what can they possibly growth in a character that has become it`s full selfe¿?, i think that they have to do is change things up, maybe an evil snow white or something so we can see more interesting stuff
ReplyDeleteThe problem is: if we go out of the positivist-legalist aspect, we fall into morality and there is no consensus on that in this case (the very fact we are discussing this proves it). I'm not saying it shouldn't be discussed and, well, to be fair I have my doubts whether morality should even be considered as a separate issue, but I won't turn this into Philosophy of Law I.
ReplyDeleteAs for Regina's crimes in Storybrooke, we don't know exactly what she did before adopting Henry. She committed murder (Graham) and all the other charges afterwards. Only concrete evidence of something she did before Henry: Gregowen's father, but we also don't know what truly happened to him.
All I'm saying is: if you want to be a strict positivist (and I'm doing that simply because people argued based on the letter of the law), you will probably end up concluding Regina has rights to Henry, even if we consider the curse and all her crimes.
I agree with everything you said Meaty. Regina needs to stop thinking that being evil can give her everything she wants. No matter how annoying Henry might be, he is still a pure character/non-character and what he said about Magic ruining everything is true (although him exploiting the privelege of having two moms is quite irritating).
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling that the writers just want to make the Regina is evil and Snow is good as the one constant theme of the show and I have a feeling they are failing at that. They need to move forward and introduce a new villain. And move forward again and on and on and on because audience wants the show they like to be fresh and creative. One way to save the show: The writers need to be told explicitly that what they are doing right now is not working.
In what way, bb?
ReplyDeleteLOL. The kid treats her like her mother did and is very manipulative. That doesn't make Regina sweet or innocent, it just makes Henry's behaviour manipulative.
ReplyDeleteUm, actually ALL those things are bad.
ReplyDeleteSure, the show presents him as good. The show is also highly racist and sexist and pro-abuse and portrays rape as fine, so I'm not sure what you're trying to say about what the show is doing.
ReplyDeleteI think we do know that Regina loves him and is at least attempting to be selfless, she let him go multiple times, she was willing to kill herself to so he could have Snow and Emma back, etc. I don't believe Henry is better off with his mother, but I know he's NOT better off with the Charmings.
I agree, I hope they use Snow's darkness right. It could be a turning point.
ReplyDeleteThey're not developed. It's a continual process.
ReplyDeleteOkay you went straight to crazy for cocoa puffs land now.
ReplyDeleteHuh? I'm not sure what you're saying. Either you think that unless something is pointed out within show as inherently problematic, it isn't. Or you think stealing, lying, manipulating, putting others in danger, etc isn't wrong.
ReplyDeleteThere's just too much mind screw in your posts, how is Neal/Emma rape? It's offensive how you trivialize something so serious and I just can't.
ReplyDeleteI'm NOT trivializing it. I find these VERY serious topics, hence why I find it problematic that people like you are unwilling to examine them.
ReplyDeleteAnd how it's rape: he's 300 years old, she was 16. A couple years until the legal consent age in all the states they were shown to be in.
In that promo, when they have the torture scene, they have Tamara saying something like "We know how to kill magical creatures." So I think the torture scene is related to Tamara's taser, the thing she used on the Dragon and August.
ReplyDeleteI'm so freaking done with you.
ReplyDeleteThis pretty much this. She was underage, and he has her wind up in jail because some wooden dude told him too. Hell let's take in the fact that Regina was 'destined' to cast the curse, and then Emma in turn was 'destined' to break it, even it meant seriously screwing up both of their lives.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet Rumpel continues to get away with everything scot-free. Thus SEXIST and Biased versus certain characters.
That would make sense, but at the same time, promos can be very misleading. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess we know who trivializes serious issues then. O.O
ReplyDeleteThis season of the show is SO sexist that I can't believe it's related to the first season.
ReplyDeleteThis season's Rumple has gone from sexist to flat out misogyny, it's really creepy. And all about men taking away the agency of women, although considering the age of Regina and Emma in their flashback episodes, they were only teenagers.
I don't want to outright insult you on you feeble state of mind so
ReplyDeletethat.
Oh, you're so sweet and cute. Unable to understand laws and such.
ReplyDeleteNow you are just embarrassing yourself pretending to be smart. Do everyone a favor and just be quiet.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the wraith? Isn't that still waiting for her in Fairytale land?
ReplyDeleteI just fully agree with this sentiment. And for f**s sake seriously, Regina raised him np for 10 years, she's ran the town for 28 years. She could've done a great great deal worse all things considered. I find Regina's logic of trying to take Henry with her as opposed to getting duped by the Charmings (again) without her consent (again) to be a completely normal move by someone who just doesn't have anything left to lose.
ReplyDeleteThink of it this way, she only has Henry to help ground her, he's rejected her over and over no matter what she does (same for the town actually) While people like say Rumpel continue to get away with everything.
This show really needs to drop it's extreme moral highground and bias versus certain characters. Now as for Regina redeeming herself, I do agree she needs to do more, but it doesn't exactly help when Henry doesn't encourage it, and when people continue to conspire against her.