Mean Girls could have given Cady (Lindsay Lohan) and Regina (Rachel McAdams) a different ending with one seemingly unimportant deleted scene, but it wouldn’t have been different for good. The 2000s saw a peak in teen movies across different genres, and one of the most successful and beloved ones is the comedy Mean Girls. Directed by Mark Waters and based on Rosalind Wiseman’s self-help book Queen Bees and Wannabes, Mean Girls takes the audience to North Shore High School to follow Cady Heron.
Cady has just moved from Africa to the US with her family, and after being homeschooled her whole life, she’s joining North Shore High. There she meets outcasts Janis and Damian, as well as Queen Bee Regina. Janis uses Cady to get revenge on Regina, but Cady’s new popularity brings her more trouble. Mean Girls was a critical and commercial success and is regarded among the best comedies of the decade. However, had one deleted scene stayed, Cady and Regina’s endings would have taken a different turn.
Mean Girls Cut Regina’s Redemption Scene At Prom
Cady & Regina Came Across In The Bathroom At Prom
Cady is used by Janis to get revenge on Regina, but she also doesn’t know how to handle the attention that being one of the “Plastics” brings. Cady turns into a mean girl just like Regina, and leaves Janis and Damian aside. After learning how Cady has been sabotaging her, Regina shares copies of the Plastics’ Burn Book, which then leads to Janis revealing the truth of her, Damian, and Cady’s plan to the entire school. When Cady tries to talk to Regina outside school, Regina is hit by a bus.
There is an extra scene between Cady arriving at the prom and the Prom Queen’s announcement.
Unfortunately for Cady, that only makes her reputation even worse, as many believe she pushed Regina in front of the bus, while Regina receives a lot of support from everyone at school. It isn’t until the school prom near the end of Mean Girls that Cady and Regina reunite, where Cady breaks the tiara she gets as Prom Queen and shares it with everyone, including Regina. Now, as it turns out, there is an extra scene between Cady arriving at the prom and the Prom Queen’s announcement.
The scene sees Cady going to the bathroom after seeing her parents looking for her. In the bathroom, she comes across Regina, and she apologizes for the bus accident (even though it wasn’t her fault) and everything she did to her. Regina forgives her because she’s a “very zen person”, though she admits to being on a lot of pain meds at the moment. Regina then tells Cady that Aaron really likes her, and shares a childhood memory before her mom rushes in to get her as they’re about to announce the Prom Queen.
Although it’s a brief scene, it’s Regina’s big redemption moment, as even though she’s a bit high on pain meds, she forgives Cady, who is clearly carrying a lot of guilt. Exactly why this scene was cut from Mean Girls is unknown, but I’m glad it was, as it’s not so much a thing of pace, but how much it would have changed the ending of Cady and Regina, both separately and together.
Why Mean Girls Is So Much Better Without Regina’s Redemption Scene
Regina & Cady’s Stories Flow Better Without The Bathroom Scene
It’s implied that Regina is still herself, with the difference of learning to channel her anger after a lot of therapy.
Without this scene, and as mentioned above, Cady and Regina’s next interaction is when Cady shares her tiara with Regina and everyone else. Mean Girls then shows that Regina makes a full recovery and is advised by her therapist to practice sports to channel her anger, and so she joins the lacrosse team. Cady and Regina acknowledge each other one final time at the end of Mean Girls and simply smile at each other. It’s implied that Regina is still herself, with the difference of learning to channel her anger after a lot of therapy, and that’s a much better and more believable ending for her.
The bathroom scene also makes Cady’s tiara moment feel less genuine.
The deleted scene gives the idea that Regina became a good person because of the accident, as if this had magically made her a decent, caring person. The bathroom scene also makes Cady’s tiara moment feel less genuine, as she had already made amends with Regina minutes before, and without the scene, this gesture feels a lot more real. Ultimately, Mean Girls made the right decision to drop that scene.
