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Son: まずいよ、このクッキー。

Mother: やっぱりまずい？ニンニク味だから。

The above excerpt is part of a dialogue in which a mother gave her son a garlic-flavored cookie because he asked for a cookie. After tasting it he says it tastes bad and the mother says "やっぱりまずい？" I thought やっぱり meant "I knew it" so I thought the mother was trying to say "I knew it would taste bad." What is confusing me is why is "やっぱりまずい？" a question. It sounds like she is saying instead "I knew it would taste bad?" which doesn't make sense.

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This やっぱり is being used to express to the son that the mother either had a hunch or the expectation that he wasn't going to like the cookie.

It doesn't really translate well, but if I were to try to capture the same feeling in English I might say:

まずい？ → "Is it bad?"

and

やっぱりまずい？ → "Is it bad? I thought/knew it might/would be."

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