Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20170327005929/@comment-31616555-20170328034515

Your point about Regina/EQ and fulfillment is exactly what I took away from the episode.

All of the cursed characters have two personas. Mary Margaret and Snow White. David and Prince Charming. Regina and the Evil Queen. Regina may not have lost her memories, but she did live for 28 years as a regular person with very little magic in a world with limited magic. She was the mayor of a town. She didn't live as the Evil Queen for 28 years. Even at the end of Season 2 she says "Please let me die as Regina." I think the separation of the two happened before the serum actually split them in two.

I never personally saw the need for Regina to reabsorb the Evil Queen. I think the way the writers ended the Evil Queen's storyline is fanservice. We all still get the Regina we love, both good and bad, but without the baggage of Queenie or her broken heart. And they found a way for Wish Robin and Regina/Queenie to be together. Queenie and Wish Robin are what could have been if Regina had chosen love in the first place. And now there is a Regina that DOES choose to go up to her Robin and give things a chance, and they can do it without the baggage of Marion/Roland/Zelena/Robyn. It sounds like a fresh start to me.

I personally would like to think that Queenie and Wish Robin are living their lives as outlaws. Maybe they start stealing from the rich and giving to the poor as means of redemption. I envision a scene of the two of them riding horses together off into the distance, and then the camera cuts to them being chased by Henry's knights, the Sheriff, or Rumplestiltskin.

I found it to be a satisfying end to one chapter of Regina's story. Now we can move on. Find her a new love interest or something to throw herself into like becoming more proficient with magic or something to benefit Storybrooke.