Regina Mills (Dark Half)

"There was a battle raging inside Regina. And she may have won the fight, but this is a war. And it's just begun."

- The Evil Queen

The Evil Queen, also known as Queen Regina, is one of the two main antagonists of Once Upon A Time (along with Rumplestiltskin), serving as the main antagonist of Season 1, the secondary antagonist of Season 2, a supporting antagonist in Seasons 3 and 4, the secondary antagonist of the Season 5 finale (now a seperate entity from Regina), and the main antagonist turned anti-villain of Season 6. After her redemption in Season 6, the Black Fairy takes over as the new main antagonist of the series.

In the finale of season 5, Regina used Dr. Jekyll's separation formula to get rid of The Evil Queen, just like how Jekyll got rid of Mr. Hyde. She thought she killed the Evil Queen, but in reality she survived and swore revenge upon Storybrooke. Her former identity in the Fairy Tale World is Snow White's evil stepmother, and serves as the main antagonist of the Fairy Tale Land flashbacks.

She was is portrayed by Lana Parrilla (the same actress of Regina) for most of the series, while Ginnifer Goodwin (the actress of Snow White/Mary Margaret) portrayed an alternate Snow White in Season 4B, who is under the Evil Queen persona as well

After Third Curse
Eventually Regina had enough and makes a wish to remove the Evil Queen from inside her. Moments later, Mary Margaret and Emma divulge a plan with her to do so, by using the leftover serum that Dr. Jekyll created to separate him from Mr. Hyde, Regina was able to separate herself from the Evil Queen. As the Evil Queen emerges, she comments on the woman that her cursed self had become and before she has the chance to attack her, Emma locks her arms in chains, giving Regina a chance to destroy her, which the Queen doubts will happen. She then states how weak she is, that no matter what she can't destroy their darkness, and that deep down inside she needs her, to which Regina denies as she rips out her heart, and after a heartfelt apology, Regina crushes the Evil Queen's heart turning both the heart and the Queen into dust, which blows away, seemingly killing her, and leaving Regina in shock.

After everyone returns to Storybrooke, the remains of the Evil Queen travel with the wind and reform in the Dragon's shop, (as she no longer needs a heart to survive) where she confirms to him about the battle going on between her and Regina, and that while she has won the fight, she has yet to win the war that has just begun. She then rips out the Dragon's heart, much to his shock, and she coldly remarks to it that the Queen is back. ("An Untold Story")

At some point after this, the Queen uses everything in the Dragon's shop in order to make her way into Storybrooke, although what she does with the Dragon remains unknown. She turns up at Zelena's farmhouse, where she goes inside to prepare two drinks and await her unsuspecting sister. When Zelena does show up, the Queen coyly pokes fun at Zelena's desire to have a sister, only for Regina to be the wrong one for her. A wary Zelena asks her what she wants, to which the Queen pushes one of the drinks towards her and tries to interest her a sisterly chat. ("The Savior", "A Bitter Draught")

With a reluctant Zelena, the Queen heads into Regina's vault, which is sealed with blood magic. Zelena remains unsure whether to trust her or not, but the Queen is certain that she won't rat her out to Regina. Inside the vault, the Queen gathers ingredients to enact a protection spell at the town line, the same one that Regina used during the curse to keep everyone trapped in Storybrooke. She casts the spell at the town line, and seizes control of the Edmond by taking his heart. The Queen later enters Mr. Gold's shop to steal a coin that a young David gave his father as a good luck charm. Mr. Gold discovers the theft and she willingly forfeits the coin when he asks for it. Knowing she has plans to cause trouble in town, he offers her the coin if she doesn't involve Belle or her unborn child. The Queen agrees, and she tries to seduce him by suggesting this is a story that never got to play out in both of their pasts. Mr. Gold is not interested, however, she predicts he will get tired of waiting for Belle to fully accept him, and that's when the fun will begin. To force Regina into seeing she can never get rid of her own darkness, the Queen weakens Regina's powers by baiting her with a magic dampening spell on Charlotte's cloak, and then having Edmond go after David and Snow. Regina loses in her duel against Edmond, and with no other way to stop him, she kills him. The Queen suggests that the darkness she reawakened in Regina will only grow, and when David and Snow's untold stories play out, it will destroy their family. That night, the Queen leaves the coin for David to find and questions him on whether his father's death was truly an accident. Later at the farmhouse, she soothes baby Robin with a rattle that Cora used on her when she was a child. She gifts the rattle to Zelena as thanks for not telling Regina about her, and agrees to never doubt her again. The Queen insists she herself is the sister that Zelena should have since they both want the same things, and Regina is not dark enough for Zelena. ("A Bitter Draught")

By providing Mr. Hyde with comfort and food in his cell, the Queen gains information from him about the people he brought from his realm. The Queen wishes to have one of these people's stories play out and then prevent Emma from saving the person. To start with, she helps Lady Tremaine track down her daughter Clorinda's past love, Jacob, whom she wishes to kill. The Queen later appears to Emma, Hook, and Henry at the harbor after Emma is unable to recast a spell to locate Ashley, who is looking to reunite Clorinda and Jacob. When Henry denies that the Queen is his mother, she reminds him of all she did for him as he grew up, even if she and Regina are now separate. She even gives Henry advice on good posture and recalls Emma was the mother that was never there for him. Emma owns her past mistakes, but takes the Queen's comment as proof that she is the worst part of Regina. The Queen professes herself to be stronger than her other half, in that Regina never got her happy ending because she didn't allow her own story to run its course, which is the exact opposite of what she intends to do. She implies Ashley's story won't end well once she proves to Emma that all stories will end badly once she isn't there to save people. Ending on that note, the Queen teleports Emma, Hook, and Henry into a clearing in the woods, to keep them from finding Ashley. Later, after the trio have rescued Ashley and Clorinda by consulting the storybook, the Queen complains to Hyde about taking the Savior off the chessboard and yet she still won somehow. Her main concern then shifts to Jekyll, who is working on a way to get rid of her. Hyde becomes annoyed when the Queen hints that he should be helping her, to which he reminds her of the cuffs binding him. The Queen gladly magicks them off him and asks him to take a walk with her, to which both of them leave the cell together. ("The Other Shoe")

The Queen accompanies Hyde to retrieve Mary's necklace from the pawnshop, where Mr. Gold unsuccessfully tries to strangle Hyde to death. She reaffirms to Mr. Gold that she won't hurt his wife, while Hyde implies he has something in store for Belle. Afterwards, the Queen casts a locator spell on the necklace before Hyde leaves the item for Jekyll to find. Once Jekyll has the necklace, the spell allows the Queen and Hyde to track him to a lab. Doc and Leroy, having been left to protect Jekyll, prepare for battle against the two evils, but Queen quickly ends things by putting the dwarves to sleep. Hyde goes on to destroy the recreated serum and also switching out Jekyll's hidden serum vial with a decoy. ("Strange Case")

At some point prior to Hyde's demise, the Queen learns from him that the Oracle showed Emma a vision of her own future. She questions the Oracle for information, but when the girl does not comply, she poisons her to death with Agrabahn Viper poison. The Queen then seeks out Archie, who has been seeing Emma for therapy, for the truth. Archie refuses to say anything, so the Queen disguises herself as him, while she has Zelena keep the real Archie as a hostage. As Archie, the Queen tries to get Emma to come in for another session, but Emma explains she is busy looking for Aladdin, another Savior who may be alive. Emma states that if Aladdin is not dead, it means her vision of her own death can be prevented too. With this in mind, the Queen decides to make Emma reveal the truth to her family, as a way to drive a wedge between them all. "Archie" follows Emma to the loft, where he insists she can't keep lying to her family. After Emma admits the truth, "Archie" leaves and reverts back to the Queen, as she overhears Emma's family reacting in shock over the revelation. The Queen returns to Zelena and takes her out for a day at the spa, where they chat about how Mr. Gold has changed since his separation from Belle. Zelena asks if she's ever gotten intimate with Mr. Gold, which the Queen doesn't answer and instead asks her the same question. The redhead denies it and admits she did try once when she was still "wicked". The Queen notes that Zelena no longer embraces her darker side, but only because the other townspeople, including Regina, do not appreciate Zelena's gifts like she does. Zelena worries her daughter won't accept her if she becomes wicked again, but the Queen points out that she needs to give Robin a chance to learn how to. The Queen recalls her own mistake of hiding her darker side from Henry for years, and the reason he turned away from her is because she never let him embrace her true self. Upon returning to Archie, Zelena goes through with her sister's advice by transforming Archie into a cricket in front of baby Robin. ("Street Rats")

Outside the farmhouse, Regina summons the Queen to her in order to boast about her failure to drive a wedge between Emma and her family. Zelena arrives to join her dark sister for the confrontation, during which the Queen begins to suspect Regina is up to something, just as Snow and David have already snuck inside to free Archie, who is still in the form of a cricket. Her suspicions are confirmed when baby Robin starts crying, and after Zelena has retrieved her daughter, the Queen produces a fireball to throw at Snow and David, only for Regina to teleport in and stop her. Later, the Queen nudges Henry into finding the Fates' Shears that Hook hid in the shed near Emma's house, as proof Hook doesn't actually care about him or Emma. Mr. Gold visits the Queen at the farmhouse, where he clues her in on a key lesson he once taught her that she has forgotten: to never take what is his. Realizing he means the shears, which once belonged to him, the Queen figures out he wants them to change the fate of Belle and her unborn child, however, she tells him that the shears are gone now. After Henry accepts Hook as part of his family and the two throw the shears into the sea, the Queen calls upon a sea creature, who owes her favor, to retrieve them. She then finds Mr. Gold in the pawnshop and reminds him of another lesson he taught her, which is to go after what she wants with everything she has. When he asks what she desires, and she responds by kissing him, Mr. Gold takes this to be her answer, however, the Queen returns the shears to him and states that what she truly longs for is Snow White's heart. ("Dark Waters") In exchange for the shears, Mr. Gold gives the Queen a vial of water from Acheron, which she intends to use to destroy the town residents if Snow and David don't forfeit their hearts to her. The Queen goes to confront a sleeping Snow and wakes her by transporting her from her bed to the middle of the woods. She talks about Snow's fifteenth birthday, in which King Leopold gifted her a trained pony and how Snow was so pleased that she dubbed it her "perfect day". The Queen declares her longstanding desire to have Snow's heart, and that having David's heart will be a bonus since he shares half of Snow's heart. Although Snow contends both her and her husband's hearts have protection spells, which prevents her from taking their hearts, the Queen gives Snow the vial, declaring this will force them to comply. The Queen goes home to tell Zelena about her alliance with Mr. Gold and denies that her relationship with the dealmaker is anything besides professional. To distract the villains while the heroes look for a sapling to defeat the Queen, Regina pretends to be the Queen, by sending a note to Zelena asking her to meet her in the pawnshop. In the backroom, the Queen and Mr. Gold are making out, as Zelena walks in on them. Zelena is furious over her sister's secrecy and lies, while the Queen realizes the heroes have played them. The Queen finds Snow and David, after they've retrieved a sapling, and she snaps it in half, destroying their chance of defeating her. Later, in the cemetery, the couple have Regina remove the protection spell, allowing the Queen to rip out their hearts. However tempting it is to crush their hearts, the Queen instead wants them to feel what it means to be alone. She casts a sleeping curse on both heart halves and shoves them back into Snow and David. When Snow immediately falls victim to the curse, the Queen teleports her away and dares David to find her and see what happens. ("Heartless")

When Regina enchants a mirror in order to trap the Queen inside it, the Queen switches out this mirror with a fake and takes the real one for herself. She is lured by Henry to the beach, where Regina and Emma attempt to ambush her with the mirror, only for themselves to be absorbed into the Queen's mirror. The Queen, disguised as Regina, returns to the loft to tell everyone else that the plan was a success and that Emma has left for New York to find the Dragon. To not incur Hook's suspicion, she plants a convincing voicemail from Emma on his phone. After the Queen goes helps Henry pick out a suitable tie for his date with Violet, she makes a deal with Mr. Gold to obtain the hammer of Hephaestus for her plan to win over her son. She offers a true alliance with Mr. Gold in return, which he neither accepts or declines. Before Henry leaves the diner with Violet for the dance, he hears something in the hallway mirror, not knowing Emma and Regina are calling him from their side of the mirror. The Queen pulls his attention away from it in time, and then gives him advice about being confident and poised in front of Violet. However, when she suggests that he should work on his posture, Henry realizes she is not Regina. Henry confides in Violet about the Regina impostor, but since the Queen is watching them nearby, Violet makes up an excuse so she and Henry can leave to find Emma and the real Regina. The Queen catches Henry trying to communicate with his moms at the vault, where she uses the Dragon's heart to make the man shift into dragon form and attack Emma and Regina in the mirror world. Hoping to toughen her son up by forcing him to make a difficult choice, she gives Henry the hammer, telling him to smash the Dragon's heart to save them, but instead, he shatters the mirror just as Emma and Regina lure the Dragon into breathing fire into the mirror, allowing the women to return to Henry. The Queen accuses Regina of making her son soft, but Henry affirms he is strong because of his family, and it's something she will never have. Hook arrives to threaten the Queen, and she retreats after professing she only wants what is best for Henry. After Mr. Gold accepts the Queen's prior deal to be on the same team, he tasks her with killing Zelena. ("I'll Be Your Mirror")

As Mr. Gold prepares to use an aging spell on one of the nuns as a warning to the heroes, the Queen shows up, hoping to join in on the fun. Instead, Mr. Gold continues to press her to kill Zelena, with the promise of ruling alongside her if she does. The Queen expresses reluctance to kill her only blood relative and is doubtful he is truly over Belle. He insists he is, having realized Belle will never accept him for who he is, and further persuades the Queen that she can have him all to herself as soon as she takes out Zelena. Tempted by this prospect, the Queen viciously attacks Zelena with magic, but before she can deliver the killing blow, Regina uses her heart to make her stop. Regina proves she means business, by squeezing the heart, which affects both herself and the Queen, before interrogating her about why she went after Zelena. Learning Mr. Gold made the Queen choose between him or her sister, Regina suggests it was an empty promise, and that the hole in the Queen's heart made her so desperate to believe him. The Queen refuses to accept this until she confronts Mr. Gold and finds out he didn't use the aging potion on Belle as he previously intended. She mocks him for backing down because of Belle's persuasion, but in time, his wife will once again see him for who he truly is and leave him along with their child, making him as alone as he was when Baelfire left him. After being kicked out of the pawnshop by Mr. Gold, the Queen secretly steals the potion and poisons Belle's tea with it, in order to make Belle believe Mr. Gold did it. Later that night, when she gloats to Mr. Gold about what she did, he vows to make her pay for her actions. She believes he isn't capable enough for it, to which Mr. Gold admonishes her for not remembering he plays a long game and that she is one of his pawns. Before taking her leave, the Queen derisively wishes him luck in finding his son again, with a sarcastic quip about fairies making wonderful mothers. ("Changelings")

When the Queen visits Robin's grave, Regina, Emma and Hook catch her there during their trip to the vault. She recalls that, like Regina, she loved Robin too, and her belief that losing him was the best thing to happen to both of them because this led Regina into splitting herself. A furious Regina prepares to throw a fireball at the Queen, who snuffs it out and advises Regina that the only way to hurt her is to harm herself. The Queen also takes an emotional jab at Emma about her cursed parents, which causes Emma to lunge at her with her sword. She sustains a cut on the cheek from the sword, but strangely, Regina is not affected. As the Queen attempts to heal herself, Emma takes another swing at her, except the Queen teleports away before the sword can puncture her. Mr. Gold relishes in the Queen's current dilemma, and after placing a tracking bracelet on her, he warns that if Emma fails to kill her, he'll gladly do it once he's done finding his son. Upon stealing the genie lamp from Jasmine, the Queen lures out the heroes by holding the princess as a hostage. She then summons out Aladdin and uses her first wish to grant Emma's wish of having never been the Savior, which causes Emma to be sent to another realm. Relocating to the mayor's office, the Queen keeps the lamp close to her as she has Aladdin brew an appletini for her. She openly makes advances on Aladdin, but he rebuffs her. The Queen attempts to win over Regina with a toast in honor of both of them, especially since she has cursed Snow and banished Emma from Storybrooke, the two things Regina herself once wanted. Instead, Regina reminds the Queen that, while they are indeed one and the same person, this also means they share ownership of the lamp, to which she uses the second wish to be sent to where Emma is. During a face-off with the Queen, David gains the lamp and wishes for her to get what she deserves; however, nothing happens. The Queen believes that this is because she deserves her victory and begins choking David, but is forced to retreat after Jasmine, Hook, and Henry arrive. While strolling through town, the Queen sees a portal form in the diner, which she mistakenly believes is Regina and Emma returning. Instead, a hooded figure walks out and flings the Queen backward before turning her into a snake within a cage. She is found in this state by Leroy, who brings her to the Blanchard Loft, where David is pleased to see that his wish appears to have had an effect.

Still in the form of a snake, the Evil Queen is stolen from David and Mary Margaret and brought to the town line by Zelena, who hopes to break the Protection Spell the Evil Queen set up so that she can leave with Robin of Locksley from the Wish Realm. Though this plan fails, the Evil Queen sees that the anti-magic potion that Robin attempted to use on the Protection Spell spilled on his hand and escapes from her cage, tracking him down in the forest and biting him, triggering its effects on herself and returning her to normal. She introduces herself as a doppelgänger of Regina and offers to be his tour guide through Storybrooke, as she believes that he will enjoy it much more through her eyes

With Robin's help, the Queen regains the buried shears, which she wants to use to separate her link to Regina. She also steals the Apprentice's wand from the pawnshop while Mr. Gold is away and takes the Author's quill to prevent Henry from writing her out of existence. Henry denies he was going to do that to her and instead believes there is good in her just like there is bad in Regina. He notices she isn't even satisfied after getting revenge on Snow, but the Queen implies she will be once she's finished with Regina. She asks Henry to give Regina a folded up paper, actually the storybook picture of Regina and the original Robin, and insists that no matter what anyone tries to tell him, she loves him. At the mayor's office, the Queen keeps Robin as bait to lure Regina in. Robin frees himself, but is restrained again because the Queen enchanted the ropes to retie themselves. He tries to call off the mission because he's since realized neither of them belong in Storybrooke, and the Queen will make more enemies if she succeeds in killing Regina. The Queen scoffs at this, especially Robin's theory that perhaps he isn't in this realm to save Regina but to help her instead. When Regina arrives, the Queen teleports Robin back to his realm and then uses the shears on herself and Regina. As Regina duels with her, the Queen expresses loathing and disgust over her better half's attempt to fill the darkness in herself with love and friendship. After binding her doppelgänger to a wall, Regina ferciously declares that the Queen will never again be able to take away the good in her life, before ripping out the Queen's heart. The Queen spitefully tells Regina that she hates her, to which Regina begins crushing the heart, only to catch her own reflection in broken mirror shards. Reminded of how much she hated herself as the Evil Queen, Regina decides not to kill her evil half and instead pulls out her own heart to allow both her and the Queen's hearts to absorb equal amounts of light and dark. She returns the Queen's heart, and accepts her doppelgänger by hugging her. In the aftermath, the Queen wishes to have a fresh start, which Henry writes for her after she makes amends with the people she hurt. The Queen is transported to Robin's realm, where she finds him in a tavern and has a drink with him to solidify their growing kinship.

Enemies

 * Regina Mills (arch enemy)
 * Snow White
 * Mr. Gold (flirted with)
 * Prince Charming
 * Henry Mills
 * Emma Swan

Other appearances

 * The Evil Queen is featured in Once Upon a Time's Season One novelization, Reawakened: A Once Upon a Time Tale.
 * The Evil Queen appears in Henry's storybook in "The Thing You Love Most", "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter", "The Stable Boy", "Lady of the Lake"， "Queen of Hearts", "The New Neverland", "The Snow Queen", "Smash the Mirror" and "Darkness on the Edge of Town".
 * The Evil Queen appears in the page Robin Hood finds in "Smash the Mirror", "Heroes and Villains", "Darkness on the Edge of Town", "Poor Unfortunate Soul" and "Mother".
 * The Evil Queen is mentioned in the storybook in "Snow Falls", "Snow Drifts", "Best Laid Plans" and "Operation Mongoose Part 2".
 * The Evil Queen's photo appears in a locket in "Welcome to Storybrooke".
 * The Evil Queen is mentioned on Lily's bulletin board in "Lily".

Trivia

 * So far, if her Regina counterpart counts as well, the Evil Queen is considered to be one of the most recurring villainesses of Once Upon A Time.
 * The Evil Queen is considered to be one of the most evil villains on Once Upon a Time as Ursula said "Maleficent was bad but Regina's dark heart is much worse".
 * According to Lana Parrilla, the Evil Queen is without a conscience after the season 5 finale, so she (at least after being divided from Regina's heroic self) becomes pure evil.
 * According to Edward Kitsis, the Evil Queen has all of Regina's memories up to the point of being split from her, and thinks that Regina ultimately failed by being soft.
 * The Evil Queen was initially the secondary antagonist of Season 6, but after Hyde's death, she was promoted to the main antagonist until the end of "Wish You Were Here", where Gideon effortlessly defeats her and turns her into a small black cobra in a cage.