Board Thread:WARNING ALL USERS False Info\Spoilers/@comment-13965604-20140112182436/@comment-19765459-20140113035615

Since Cora was a last minute substitute for Erica, I don't think that the writers had time to build a storyline for her. Hence the fact that the matter of why she wasn't home during the fire had to be answered in a Q&A and not on the show. She was a very shallow character because she was unplanned. Plus, Adelaide committed to Reign, so it was understood that she was not going to be in 3b. Thus the writers probably felt that there wasn't much of a point to wasting screen time on character development for her.

At the beginning of the season she was blatantly playing the role meant for Erica. In the middle she was kind of an interloper character not really doing much. Towards the end she was comatose enough of the time that she didn't need to do anything at all.