Once Upon a Time: The Cricket Game

Have you never done anything worthy of binding or of worse punishment? However, that is not for me to judge, happily. --Faramir, The Two Towers 

 Since the "winter finale" of Once Upon a Time, I've been nervous about Regina's redemption arc, and last night's episode, "The Cricket Game," fulfilled some of those fears. It started out fine--even humorously, with Emma and Henry walking on ....er Snowing. I mean, they're married, so it's fine from a moral standpoint, but so, so awkward. And David's response:

It's impressive that we can still provide her with a few traumatic childhood memories at this stage of the game.

That's absolutely hilarious. But then...it went downhill from there. Cora, disguised as Regina, killed Archie (except she didn't, not really).  The moment she started throttling him, I knew it was really Cora, but I could see the whole episode laid out. They'd believe Regina did it, and Emma would defend Regina for no logical reason. But what made it worse was seeing all the chances  Snow had given her before. They knew she was dangerous, a threat to them and the whole realm as long as she lived, but they still let her live, judging her actions by a clearly generous standard.
The whole plot makes me want to gag. Because Regina's innocent of this particular murder, it makes people more inclined to consider her innocent of all her previous shenanigans.  It goes back to the Tolkien quote I put at the top of this review. When Faramir captured Gollum at the Forbidden Pool, he expressed gratitude that he didn't have to judge Gollum on any charges besides trespassing, but implies such charges still exist. I wish something like that had been put in this episode.
Emma's characterization here was incredibly sloppy. One moment she's all REGINA IS INNOCENT and the moment after seeing Pongo's memory she was all REGINA MUST DIE. I just want Snow and Charming to sit down with her and say: This is everything Regina did to us. We gave her chances--so many chances--but I wouldn't trust her for five minutes.  It feels so wrong, so unlike her...