This. This tiny, insignificant moment lets us in to see Regina as she truly is. Yes, she’s the Evil Queen and yes, there’s no doubt that evil lurks in her heart. But you know what else is in her heart? Love. And the incessant, desperate need to have that love returned.
One of the things I find most fascinating about Regina is that she simply doesn’t know how to do it. Her giving Henry a gift to make up for tearing down his playground is pathetic - in the truest, original sense of the word. She’s not trying to buy his affections, I believe that she’s just trying to compensate for the loss of something he loved and held dear. There’s an underlying theme in this show of loss - of losing one’s most precious thing or person. It’s never more visibly underlined than when Regina is involved.
She knows, you see, that she’ll never be Emma. And while she plots and schemes to rid Storybrooke of Emma or to thwart her efforts as Sheriff, what Regina really feels is fear. Because Henry has ALREADY chosen Emma as a mother. And all Regina can do is watch while Henry gives his affections to someone else - affections that she clearly craves. I wonder what would happen if Henry were to love her back; if the boy was to show some sort of affection or at the very least, consideration of Regina’s feelings towards him?
But this moment was gorgeous and painful for me to watch. Regina doesn’t lambast him with rules and regulations. And when she tells him to go and do his homework, it’s in the weary voice of a woman who knows that she’s already lost the game. But the look on her face? Resignation, sorrow, pain. The same things that made her the Evil Queen in the first place.
She wants so desperately to be his mother and the fact that he continually casts her aside is heartbreaking. I love how she describes the game to him - that Henry can get to be the hero and save princesses. That’s Regina’s desire for him - to be a hero of her own making. What I suspect is true is that Henry CAN be a hero. Perhaps he can even save his own mother, with Emma’s help.
But the look on her face. Oh god, the look on her face here is a woman who feel defeat resting heavily on her shoulders. Because all she wants is for him to love her. For SOMEONE to love her.
They say there’s a thin line between love and hate. I feel that Regina balances precariously on that line with Henry. And I just want him to reach out and tug her over it so that she can invest her heart in him without having it broken all the time.
Exactly.
The way they’re setting up love at this point is that it’s as though there’s only so much love to go around. That’s pretty bleak now that I think about it. It also sells love short.
Love (of any kind, not just romantic love) is perhaps the most powerful and transformative of all human experiences. And I’m not defining love here not as a feeling or mood (which is fleeting), but in the way St. Augustine says that “Love means ‘I want you to be’.”
Even the idea that someone wants you to exist just because you’re you is tremendously powerful. It’s enough to get people through some of the most harrowing experiences a human being can endure. It’s enough to get people to completely turn their lives around. That’s why, no matter what a person does, if they can love, they can still be redeemed.
I’d love to see the show delve into that, but I fear what we’ll get is the usual good vs. evil thing.
(Source: ahkna)
