First of all, two important warning:

The first is that this post obviously has spoilers in it to “Once Upon a Time” Episode 3x18: “Bleeding Through”.

The second is that this post might not sit well with a lot of my Swan-Queen shipping followers.

You see, I only ever truly shipped Mulan and Aurora on Once Upon a Time, or “Sleeping Warrior” as they’re better known. Having so many friends on Tumblr who ship Swan Queen, though, I was – well, supportive of the cause. The truth of the matter though was that I never really got it myself. I never picked up on the chemistry and subtle hints Swan Queen Shippers swear by, and never cared one way or the other personally – but it was important to all my Tumblr friends and so it was important to me.

But the thing that was even more important to me personally was the character development and eventual happiness of Regina. I just love her. If Swan Queen is endgame and Regina is happy because of it – I’ll be happy. If Regina ends up paired with Robin Hood but keeps raising Henry along with Emma I’m fine with that too. I also couldn’t care less who Emma ends up with; her character is incredibly dull to me, and her entire purpose as I see it is to drive the story forward for the other characters. So it was that whenever some online poll would ask about Emma’s love interests and neglect to include Regina, I’d be upset because I didn’t care who Emma ended up, I just wanted Regina to find happiness.

And this week, while she may not have found happiness yet – she found something else that’s very important: Absolution.

I was very pleased with this week’s episode for several reasons, but mainly because Regina was finally at the center of the episode (and, well, Cora). This resulted in her character being very well written, something I’m afraid is usually not the case for her, and it allowed the always amazing Lana Parrilla to play with her range more than usual. I thought the fact that Regina finally had an actual conversation with Mary Margaret and that the two managed to forgive each other and accept the past for what it was rather than just ignoring it was key to Regina’s eventual acceptance of herself and her own worthiness. Only when she managed to forgive Snow White and be forgiven by her, was Regina finally able to actually forgive herself and accept Mary Margaret as family. Her protectiveness of Mary Margaret had a very strong impact on both MM and herself, and obviously, us the viewers.

I loved that the episode ended in absolution for Regina and finally focused on her rather than Emma, and the fact that she managed to let go of her fears and open up to Robin was obviously an important leap for her as a person and as a character, and despite not ‘shipping’ them – it made me happy. Because in the end, be it with Emma or Robin Hood or Zelena – I 'ship’ Regina and happiness, and it looks like she’s on the right path to it.

P.S. - On an unrelated topic, Rebecca Mader was smoking this episode, like DAYUM!