The entire premise of Once Upon a Time has always been Regina/Evil Queen's (Lana Parrilla) hatred of the beautiful Mary Margaret/Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin). But unlike the children's fairytale, the Evil Queen didn't start hating young Snow because she became the fairest of them all. Rather, in the ABC fairytale drama, the story of hatred started with one of love -- and one very evil mother of Regina, Cora (Barbara Hershey).
All of the Evil Queen's plotting with the curse and moving the fairytale characters to Storybrooke has led to "The Stable Boy." Mary Margaret is going to trial for Kathryn's death, and "confession or not," Regina says, "you're leaving Storybrooke."
So what did Snow White do to Regina to make her hate her so? Some have said this tale of woe would lead fans to turning to Team Regina. But, no, Once Upon a Time "The Stable Boy" just shows how she decided to blame a little girl for the evil that her mother Cora was.
Cora has a lot of magic, and she's used it to turn from a miller's daughter to a woman with power. And she has big plans for her young Regina, ones that involve getting married to King Leopold after Regina saves a young Snow (Bailee Madison) on a runaway horse. Regina and Snow even seem like they'd get along well, but that's not to be.
Because Regina loves the stable boy, Daniel (Noah Bean), and she plots to run away with him, especially after the King proposes to her. Of course, young Snow sees Daniel and Regina kissing, and she doesn't understand. But after Regina talks to her, she thinks she does. "True love is magic," Regina tells her. "Not just any magic. The most powerful magic of all."
But she's young. She's a child, and when Cora tells her she's afraid she's losing Regina, and that she just wants her daughter to be happy, why wouldn't Snow believe her? Even though Regina asked her to keep her secret love a secret?
Cora stops Regina and Daniel from running away on Once Upon a Time -- even tearing out Daniel's heart. But does the evil Regina blame her mother? No, because she's long believed her to be evil. Rather, she decides to take it all out on Snow, even years later, when Snow is the fairest of them all. All because of what Snow believed: "I didn't want you to lose your mother, like I lost mine."
But the Evil Queen never planned on Emma (Jennifer Morrison), who decided to do whatever it would take to save her friend. Thanks to some advice from August (Eion Bailey), Emma starts from the beginning and discovers another clue: a broken part of the shovel that buried the box that supposedly held Kathryn's heart.
At first Emma traces the broken shovel to the Mayor, but then when she gets a warrant, the shovel is magically gone. And now Emma doesn't know who to trust. She discovers Sidney Glass (Giancarlo Esposito) was bugging her office, and Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) didn't help Mary Margaret like he promised.
But while talking to August on the steps of the diner, Ruby (Meghan Ory) screams, because she saw someone in the alley. Emma comes running. And it turns out Kathryn (Anastasia Griffith) is alive, heart and all.
Looks like the Evil Queen won't have her way after all.
What did you think of Once Upon a Time "The Stable Boy"? Did you turn to Team Regina, or are you Team Snow?
© 2012 Elizabeth SanFilippo at Gather.com
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