Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20161205015930/@comment-24674051-20161208183827

Ok, here's a thought.

Regina went to the Wish Realm thinking that everything was "Make-Believe", except for Emma. And seeing Snow and David as older people reinforced this perception. And, up until a certain point, the people she encountered responded as she might have expected, though not necessarily the way she wanted them to. The responses were all consistent with the sudden appearance of the Evil Queen that had just returned from exile, and she could deal with that. Even her conversation with WR Rumple indicated that Regina believed that none of the things existed except for her and Emma.

Her goal was simply get Emma to remember who she really was, which was proving difficult due to Emma being a complete doormat and wimp. Regina took WR Rumple's advice and tried to APPEAR to be the Evil Queen. But it was just and act (and one that would never win Regina an Emmy or Tony). So, when she interrupted the knighting ceremony, that was Regina ACTING the part of the Evil Queen. (side note: Regina was not worthy of an acting award, but Lana definitly does deserve one).

This is reinforeced by Regina's response to watching the knighting ceremony prior to her grand entrance. She watched the Knighting scene with interest, and happiness, because even if it wasn't 'real', the thought of Henry being knighted brought some happiness to Regina, and that was displayed with her smile from her hiding place. This part of the "Make Believe" was enjoyable for her to witness.

When she ripped the Charming hearts, her own heart was not in it. she was still acting the part. Even when she crushed their hearts, that whole scene came across to me as Regina acting the part, and not into it.

What changed was when Henry walked in and pulled the old 'Throw the sword at the enemy' trick we've seen from Emma and David (nice bit of consistency from the writers there). Henry's actions may not have clued Regina in on the full reality of the situation, but they definitely impacted her deeply and caused her to drop her guard (and her act), which might have led to her forgetting that she thought the Wish Realm was "make believe". Fortunately, that was also the point that Emma regained herself.

Which leads to Robin. Why was she caught off guard? She was still grieving his loss, and being met suddenly by a very much alive Robin crashed through any walls like a wrecking ball. She was not mentally, or emotionally, ready for this encounter, and the shock of it went all the way to her heart. Whether she thought the whole place was make believe, she all of the sudden desperately wanted it to NOT be make believe. All of that is a lot to hit you in 5-10 seconds, and that type of emotional shock is crippling. and that is, again, exactly what we saw with Regina.

To cap it off, I think that Emma was also of the impression that everything around them was make believe, which is why she was trying to get Regina to stop following the 'mirage'.

I hope that the next episode helps to solidify the concept that the WR is now a very real place with very real people.