<p>It&#8217;s episodes like <em>Mother</em> that remind me just how much we can and <a href="https://bagogames.com/sisters-once-upon-a-time-lily-review/">should love Regina</a>. It&#8217;s always all about parents in <em>Once Upon a Time</em> and Cora&#8217;s one that just can&#8217;t leave Regina&#8217;s memory. Mothers. They&#8217;re like that.</p>
<p>Besides showing both Lana Parilla and Regina&#8217;s range as the Evil Queen, our maternal flashback added a lot of characterizing context to present day Regina. It&#8217;s really quite admirable when the writers can find ways to tell new stories in the past outside the established timeline but also enhance it. Managing the series&#8217; mess of canon, such as it is, has to be more challenging with the regular time-jumps, but here they pull it off. Motherhood&#8217;s hard to swallow and for Regina, it&#8217;s an easy choice to maneuver around.</p>
<p><a href="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/04234148/OUAT-S4-Mother-Cora-BagoGames.jpg"><img class="alignleft wp-image-82805 size-medium" src="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/04234148/OUAT-S4-Mother-Cora-BagoGames.jpg" alt="OUAT S4 'Mother' Cora BagoGames" width="300" height="174" /></a></p>
<p>The chilling dynamic between Cora and Regina&#8217;s always something to marvel at. At times, it&#8217;s just about over the top drama and two ladies in dresses yelling at one other. Other times? It&#8217;s actually quite powerful and <em>Mother&#8217;</em>s<em> </em>the latter. This turn of events explains so much about Regina&#8217;s personality – and not just regarding her reaction to Zelena&#8217;s baby bump – but her relationship with Henry. The new information makes me want to go back and re-watch Season 1 with different eyes.</p>
<p><a href="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/04234515/OUAT-S4-Mother-Robin-and-Regina-BagoGames.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-82752 size-medium" src="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/04234515/OUAT-S4-Mother-Robin-and-Regina-BagoGames.jpg" alt="OUAT S4 'Mother' Robin and Regina BagoGames" width="300" height="174" /></a></p>
<p>As often as the show&#8217;s seemed to redraft itself, the Author brings in some real questions about just how far you can go to rewrite history. Plus, it was nice to see Barbara Hershey&#8217;s haunting Cora and Tony Perez&#8217;s doting elder Henry again, though I wish we had more context about their relationship. And we got a super cool attacking lion tattoo out of it. The negative? Regina should have realized the Author was a loose cannon.</p>
<p>Regina just being Regina for a change wasn&#8217;t <em>Mother</em>&#8216;s only surprise. Maleficent&#8217;s girl-talk with daughter dearest sure took , an adorably dumb turn and it was a relief to see she didn&#8217;t want to support her daughter&#8217;s revenge plan – maybe the first time we&#8217;ve seen her be human. That she was willing to ask her enemies for a helping hand said so much about how much she loves her daughter and wants them to have a future together. It&#8217;ll be interesting to see if being with her mother will temper Lily&#8217;s darkness, or at least clip her wings while she&#8217;s ahead, so to speak. What we do know is that the Charmings sure won&#8217;t be playing tag with a dragon tail again, or at least you&#8217;d think.</p>
<p><a href="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/04234543/OUAT-S4-Mother-Lily-and-Emma-BagoGames.jpg"><img class="alignleft wp-image-82750 size-medium" src="https://cdn.bagogames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/04234543/OUAT-S4-Mother-Lily-and-Emma-BagoGames.jpg" alt="OUAT S4 'Mother' Lily and Emma BagoGames" width="300" height="174" /></a></p>
<p>Emma took a turn of her own, meanwhile. She hasn&#8217;t turned on the dark yet, but there&#8217;s still the season finale, and it could all go sideways but I&#8217;m having a hard time thinking of a situation dire enough to turn her after she overcame what her parents did. And I&#8217;m talking about her going DARK dark because the Author&#8217;s scribbling evil fan-fic about them.</p>
<p>The Author&#8217;s an enterprising and funny kinda guy and I like having him around causing mischief. As a benchwarmer for now, he&#8217;s still very much a &#8220;winning side&#8221; kinda guy, but also about being able to express himself. I&#8217;m surprised he went back to Rumple rather than choosing a freelance life, so to speak, just writing about&#8230;whatever makes him happy. But please, Mr. Author Sir, give us the <em><a href="https://bagogames.com/kingdom-hearts-iii-gains-another-western-developer/">Kingdom Hearts</a></em> crossover we need.</p>
<p><em>Mother </em>melded the past with the present to put the mom back in <em>Once Upon a Time </em>with a revealing look back into the women behind the evil. In the series&#8217; penultimate lead-up to whatever Rumple&#8217;s got up his and The Author&#8217;s sleeve, it&#8217;s refreshing to see things all come together for Regina for a change. If only I could say the same for Rumple, but if our &#8220;next week on Once&#8221; is any indication, maybe it can.</p>
<hr />
<p><em>Once Upon a Time</em> airs Sunday nights on ABC at 8/7 Central. Tune in this Sunday for the season finale and catch all the latest reviews here at <a href="https://bagogames.com">BagoGames</a>.</p>

BagoGames > Articles > Geek Culture > TV Shows > Mommy Dearest – Once Upon a Time: ‘Mother’ Review
Mommy Dearest – Once Upon a Time: ‘Mother’ Review
-
By Tim Gruver
- Categories: Geek Culture, TV Shows
- Tags: ABCDisneyGinnifer GoodwinMotherOnce Upon a TimeTV Episode Review
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