After reviewing this episode in retrospect to the entire first season (and even now things I've seen in second season), here are some thoughts:
One of the most Swan Queen tantalizing scenes is Regina visiting Emma with a basketful of apples. And Emma answering the door in nothing but her skivvies. THIS is interesting on so many levels, but let's start with the storytelling one.
Regina MONOLOGUES. Not even batting an eye, she pours forth about the fruit's properties, the personal connection (a tree I've tended all my life), and puts herself forward like the "epitome" of every "Welcoming Committee" ever portrayed by a Stepford wife.
My thoughts kept running to how awkward it all was until I realized one simple fact: Regina has been ALONE in her awareness for 28 years. If she met anyone on the street, she could expound on anything and everything, and everyone would have no choice but to listen to her, and by and large, they probably wouldn't remember anything she said the next time they met.
The fact that in the previous scene Archie even speaks to her seems to surprise her, even though he seems to be doing so philosophically rather than planning to exchange more words with her. I think this is a key to understanding the Regina of Storybrooke at this moment in time.
I also wonder if Regina even NOTICES that Emma is standing there in her skivvies.
Lana doesn't once let her eyes stray from Jen's face. She's looking her rather unnervingly and directly in the eyes. She's trying to be persuasive: "have these and then get out of here." Regina is shown so clearly caught between ingrained manners and her quaking fear. As Gold tells her at the end, she has more than just a sneaking suspicion she who this woman is -- she is quivering with the fear that Emma Swan IS the fabled savior meant to break the curse. But she is so rusty at dealing with people with minds of their own that she ends up pushing Emma right into sticking around.
Gah. Talk about freaking out. But Regina Mills is nothing if not determined. And so begins her campaign to get Emma out of the way.
She hits upon the idea of telling Emma about Henry being in therapy, figuring the woman wants so badly to know about her son she'll hunt up the psychologist and ask to see the file. So she calls Archie and tells him that Emma will be by, and that he's to give her the file, but tell Graham that she demanded it, so that Emma can end up in jail again, which might just make Emma think this town is just too inconvenient to stick around.
Unfortunately for Regina -- but fortunately for Swan Queen fangirls everwhere -- Emma sees this crystal-clear attempt at a frame-up and we have what turns into the confrontation scene that launched many a "sex under the apple tree" smut... Emma takes a chainsaw to Regina's beloved tree!
