It’s episodes like Mother that remind me just how much we can and should love Regina. It’s always all about parents in Once Upon a Time and Cora’s one that just can’t leave Regina’s memory. Mothers. They’re like that.
Besides showing both Lana Parilla and Regina’s range as the Evil Queen, our maternal flashback added a lot of characterizing context to present day Regina. It’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’ mess of canon, such as it is, has to be more challenging with the regular time-jumps, but here they pull it off. Motherhood’s hard to swallow and for Regina, it’s an easy choice to maneuver around.
The chilling dynamic between Cora and Regina’s always something to marvel at. At times, it’s just about over the top drama and two ladies in dresses yelling at one other. Other times? It’s actually quite powerful and Mother’s the latter. This turn of events explains so much about Regina’s personality – and not just regarding her reaction to Zelena’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.
As often as the show’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’s haunting Cora and Tony Perez’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.
Regina just being Regina for a change wasn’t Mother‘s only surprise. Maleficent’s girl-talk with daughter dearest sure took , an adorably dumb turn and it was a relief to see she didn’t want to support her daughter’s revenge plan – maybe the first time we’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’ll be interesting to see if being with her mother will temper Lily’s darkness, or at least clip her wings while she’s ahead, so to speak. What we do know is that the Charmings sure won’t be playing tag with a dragon tail again, or at least you’d think.
Emma took a turn of her own, meanwhile. She hasn’t turned on the dark yet, but there’s still the season finale, and it could all go sideways but I’m having a hard time thinking of a situation dire enough to turn her after she overcame what her parents did. And I’m talking about her going DARK dark because the Author’s scribbling evil fan-fic about them.
The Author’s an enterprising and funny kinda guy and I like having him around causing mischief. As a benchwarmer for now, he’s still very much a “winning side” kinda guy, but also about being able to express himself. I’m surprised he went back to Rumple rather than choosing a freelance life, so to speak, just writing about…whatever makes him happy. But please, Mr. Author Sir, give us the Kingdom Hearts crossover we need.
Mother melded the past with the present to put the mom back in Once Upon a Time with a revealing look back into the women behind the evil. In the series’ penultimate lead-up to whatever Rumple’s got up his and The Author’s sleeve, it’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 “next week on Once” is any indication, maybe it can.
Once Upon a Time 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 BagoGames.