If you were watching ABC in the early 2010s, you remember the hype. Once Upon a Time was basically the ultimate crossover event before Marvel made it cool. It was a show that lived and died by its casting choices. Some worked. Some didn't. But when the news broke that Rose McGowan was joining the cast, people lost it. It made sense. She already had that "witchy" pedigree from years on Charmed. Bringing her into the fold of Storybrooke and the Enchanted Forest felt like a cosmic inevitability.
Most fans remember her as the young Cora Miller. She played the younger version of Barbara Hershey’s iconic villain, the Queen of Hearts. It wasn't just a cameo. It was a pivot point for the entire series’ lore. If you want to understand why Regina (the Evil Queen) became the monster she was, you have to look at the mother. And Rose McGowan didn't just play Cora; she channeled a very specific, hungry kind of ambition that redefined the character's origins.
Why Rose McGowan as Cora actually worked
Recasting a younger version of an established character is risky. Usually, the actor just tries to do a bad impression of the older star's voice. McGowan didn't do that. In the episode "The Miller's Daughter," which aired back in Season 2, she brought this raw, desperate energy to the screen.
Cora started as a nobody. She was a girl literally covered in flour, mocked by the royalty she served. Rose played her with a chip on her shoulder that was visible in every frame. You could see the transition from a girl who just wanted respect to a woman who would literally rip her own heart out to stop feeling the pain of being "less than." It was a heavy performance for a show that often leaned into camp.
Honestly, the chemistry she had with a young Prince Leopold (Eric Lange) and King Xavier (Joaquim de Almeida) was what sold the tragedy. You weren't just watching a fairy tale. You were watching a social climber realize that her soul was the only currency she had left to spend.
The Once Upon a Time Rose McGowan episodes you need to rewatch
You can't talk about the show's peak without mentioning the "Miller's Daughter" arc. This was the moment the series stopped being a "monster of the week" drama and started being a generational Greek tragedy.
McGowan’s portrayal of Cora showed us the origin of the "love is weakness" mantra. It’s the philosophy that poisoned Regina and, by extension, screwed up Emma Swan’s life decades later. When Rose’s Cora chooses a crown over a life with Rumplestiltskin—yes, that weirdly steamy chemistry with Robert Carlyle was a highlight—she sets the entire plot of the show in motion. Without that specific performance, the stakes of the later seasons just wouldn't have landed.
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She also returned later in Season 3's "Bleeding Through." This episode focused on the secret of Zelena (the Wicked Witch of the West). Here, we see Rose's Cora dealing with the fallout of an unplanned pregnancy and the brutal reality of what a woman had to do to survive in the Enchanted Forest. It was dark. Much darker than the Disney-fied version of these stories we grew up with.
The Charmed connection and the fan reaction
Let's be real. A huge reason the internet went crazy for Rose McGowan in Once Upon a Time was the Charmed factor. She spent years playing Paige Matthews, the "long-lost sister" who saved the Power of Three. Seeing her jump from being a savior witch to a villainous, heart-ripping social climber was a total trip for millennial viewers.
It felt like an inside joke between the writers and the audience.
Interestingly, McGowan has always had this edgy, slightly detached screen presence that fits perfectly in a world of magic. She doesn't act like a normal person. She acts like someone who sees things other people don't. That worked for Paige, and it worked even better for a young Cora Miller. She made you believe that she really was the same woman who would eventually grow up to be Barbara Hershey. That’s a hard needle to thread. Hershey has a very specific, cold elegance. McGowan matched it but added a layer of frantic survivalism that explained why Cora became so cold later in life.
The production drama and the "What If" factor
Hollywood is small. Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, the creators of the show, were known for picking actors who could handle high-concept dialogue without sounding ridiculous. McGowan was a veteran of that style.
However, her time on the show was relatively brief. Some fans wondered if she would become a recurring staple, similar to how other "past" versions of characters popped up. But the show's timeline was always messy. They moved on to the Peter Pan arc, then the Frozen era, and Cora's backstory was largely considered "finished."
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There's a persistent rumor in fan circles that Cora could have had a much larger "flashback" presence, but McGowan's own career was shifting toward directing and activism at the time. She wasn't looking for a multi-year TV contract. She came in, crushed a specific role, and left. That's probably why the performance holds up so well—it wasn't diluted by three seasons of filler.
What people get wrong about Cora's origins
A lot of casual viewers think Cora was just "born evil." They see the older version of her and assume she was always a power-hungry psychopath.
Rose McGowan's performance proves the opposite.
The brilliance of those Season 2 and Season 3 episodes was showing that Cora was a victim of a rigid class system. She was a miller's daughter who was literally tripped and humiliated by a princess. She was someone who worked her fingers to the bone and got nothing but mockery for it. McGowan played her as a protagonist in her own movie who just happened to be making the "wrong" moral choices to get ahead.
If you rewatch it now, you might actually find yourself rooting for her to trick the King. You want her to spin that straw into gold. You want her to stick it to the people who looked down on her. That nuance is what makes the show's early seasons so much better than the later ones. It wasn't just good vs. evil; it was about how trauma turns people into the villains of someone else's story.
The visual storytelling of the character
Look at the costume design for Rose in these episodes. It starts with burlap and dirt. As she gains power, the colors shift. The red starts to creep in—the signature color of the Queen of Hearts.
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McGowan’s physical acting changed too. In the beginning, she’s slouching, looking at the ground. By the end of her first episode, she’s standing with this rigid, almost painful posture. It’s the posture of a woman wearing a corset made of ambition. She nailed the physical transformation that happens when someone stops caring about being "good" and starts caring about being "powerful."
How to dive back into the Cora Miller lore
If you’re looking to revisit this specific era of the show, don't just binge the whole thing. Focus on the Cora-centric episodes to see the character arc Rose McGowan built. It’s a masterclass in guest-starring.
- Start with "The Miller's Daughter" (Season 2, Episode 16). This is the definitive Rose McGowan episode. It’s the origin story. It’s where she meets Rumple. It’s where the "no hearts" rule begins.
- Move to "Bleeding Through" (Season 3, Episode 18). This adds the layer of Zelena's birth. It explains the rivalry between the two sisters that eventually dominates the show's later narrative.
- Watch the Barbara Hershey episodes afterward. If you watch McGowan first and then jump to Hershey’s scenes in Wonderland, the continuity is actually pretty shocking. They didn't just share a role; they shared a vibe.
The reality is that Once Upon a Time was a show about mothers and daughters. While Ginnifer Goodwin and Jennifer Morrison were the leads, the shadow cast by Rose McGowan’s Cora was the real engine behind the plot. She was the one who decided that love wasn't enough. Every tragedy that happened in Storybrooke can be traced back to that one girl in a flour-stained dress who decided she’d rather be feared than forgotten.
To understand the show's legacy, you have to understand the Miller's daughter. McGowan didn't just play a guest spot; she built the foundation for the entire series' most compelling villain. It's a reminder that even in a show about fairy tales, the most interesting parts are usually the human tragedies hiding behind the magic.
Actionable Insight: If you're a writer or a creator, study how McGowan took an established villain and made her sympathetic without erasing her "evil" traits. It's about finding the wound. Every villain has one, and in Cora's case, it was the humiliation of her birth. Identify the "wound" in your own characters to give them that same level of gravity. For fans, just enjoy the fact that for a few hours, the Enchanted Forest was home to one of the most interesting actresses of her generation.