Regina offers the villagers gold for information on Snow, whom she denounces as the murderer of Leopold, but they remain silent.
He tells her it would take too long to teach it, instead offering to cast it on her himself, in exchange for her cutting off trade with King George's kingdom in order to bankrupt him.
She will be unable to use her own magic while under the spell, but she plans to get close enough to Snow White to murder her with her own hands, and then cast herself as a hero instead of the "Evil Queen" her subjects call her.
In a marketplace, Regina is unable to contain her anger at seeing the public defacement of an effigy of herself; blamed for the crime and mocked as a madwoman when she proclaims herself the queen, guards take her to be beheaded.
Snow White appears and rescues her from the chopping block, taking her to a forest hideout to nurse her injuries.
Snow explains that a stranger saved her life when she was a little girl on a runaway horse, and that two people can form a true connection through kindness.
The following morning, Regina approaches Henry at the park and tries to manipulate him into believing that his family is about to take him away from her by showing off the magic beans that would transport them back to the Enchanted Forest.
Before he can warn the family, Regina takes out her book of spells and gives him a short-term memory block to make him forget about the conversation and they start over as if nothing happened.
Meanwhile, at Granny's Diner, Emma Swan bumps into Tamara moments after she picks up sandwiches for her and Neal/Baelfire (Michael Raymond-James).
When Mary Margaret, David, and Leroy arrive at the bean field, they discover the crop was burned, leading to speculation that someone found out at the last moment.
Regina agrees to this alliance and explains that the curse has a fail-safe trigger that will wipe Storybrooke off the map and retrieving the device would be the only way to take Henry with her now that she has found out about the magic beans.
As Tamara takes out her list of Storybrooke residents and identities, Greg tells her that Regina is the "Evil Queen" before they bag her.
"The Evil Queen" was co-written by Christine Boylan & Jane Espenson, while Gwyneth Horder-Payton served as the episode's director.
When changing Regina back into the Queen, Rumpelstiltskin says, "So sad, so true," a reference to the song "Poor Unfortunate Souls" sung by Ursula in The Little Mermaid.