Neal & Emma

I’m pretty sure that Neal says “I didn’t mean for Tamara to be a surprise” so he brings it up, not her. But her reaction is so quick, so defensive… she does care. And Nealfire knows that.

However, I think Daddy Charming also knows that – or at least suspects. Nice timing to just wander in as things are getting awkward.

@LisaS wrote:

I watched that exchange a few more times between Emma & Neal in Rumple’s shop when the two are in the front of the shop and Emma is making that line with the invisible chalk.
Neal – “You missed a spot”
Emma – “You’re hillarious”
Neal – “I didn’t know you were magical”
Emma – “Oh my are you being judging about this, because you’re not allowed to an opinion about surprises mister son of Rumpelstiltskin”
Neal – “Ooh”
Emma -“What Ooh”
Neal – “I didn’t mean for it to turn out to be a surprise”
Emma – “You think I care about a guy that I dated a decade ago is engaged ?”

Neal had a smile/smirk at what Emma said because Neal NEVER ONCE brought up his engagement to Tamara with Emma during that exchange in fact when David comes back in the room and those two are silent he asks if everything is alright and looks at Emma who nods yes and Neal is looking at his sword smiling.

I think he was smiling because Emma is jealous and now he knows she still cares about him and could want him back

Thoughts anyone ?

They had so many wonderful moments together even though they weren’t in the episode a whole lot.

First, they did what they had to do with getting Henry to safety and working with Emma’s parents despite the whole awkward situation to get Rumple to his shop. Then, they were able to joke around despite the pending danger of Cora and Regina coming. Then, things got all awkward when Neal tried to apologize about Emma finding out about Tamara the way she did, and Emma’s dad coming in. It was great to see Charming go all protective because I have no doubt had Emma been allowed to be raised by David and Snow, he would have been the stereotypical overprotective dad.

Next, when Neal and Emma started fighting against Cora and Regina because they reminded me of how they use to be in their thieving days which was my second favorite moment this episode for them. They had excellent teamwork even if they weren’t too successful against mother and daughter; although, I have to give them credit for holding out as long as they did. (Yes, I know it was the writers who did that to draw out the Snow drama longer, but I’ll take it.)

Then, of course there was father and son’s emotional reconciliation in the backroom. Although, most of the focus was about Rumple and Neal, as a diehard SwanFire shipper, I loved that Emma got to see that part of Neal and see how that shaped his life. I’m not saying that he doesn’t have a long way to go to make up for what he did, even if he had good intentions, but hopefully seeing those kind of Neal moments helps take down some of her walls concerning him. Also, I don’t know how both of them could not be moved by Rumple’s phone call with Belle. I hope that they have Neal making a grand gesture to Emma like that, and hopefully it will be soon. (Swoon worthy moment for sure.)

My absolute favorite SwanFire moment was them being sent out into the woods together. It was just so funny, and even though I know that they rushed back to town as soon as they were deposited out there, my imagination is just going wild thinking about what they could have gotten up to. In fact, I expect a lot of SwanFire shippers’ imaginations are running wild too, so I want to see lots and lots of stories and soon about what happened out there. 😀

During the Bae/Rumple moment, Rumple says something like “I’ve spent a life time looking for you so I could tell you I loved you.” There’s a reason they cut to Emma at that moment. We know at some point Emma does go to Tallahassee and despite what she told NealFire in “Manhattan” she did NOT keep the swan charm AND the car only to remind herself never to trust anyone again. I think she’s been looking for Neal for a long time. That girl loves him.

The thing that bugs me about it is that NealFire has no right to be smug about Emma potentially still caring. It was bad enough with the whole David is married but drawn to MM but they were cursed. NealFire has known all along who he is, he knew that August would be sending him a postcard when Emma was available again (well when the curse was broken but same idea), he didn’t go to SB and instead was off getting engaged somewhere, is still engaged, has introduced her to Emma (although awkwardly) and is still being coy about the whole thing. He didn’t have to get involved with Tamara. He could have pined away waiting for a postcard and then come into town saying he loved her all along and this was just what had to happen. When she confronted him at the bar and opened up about her feelings in the past (including saying she LOVED him, he never even said that he loved her back! He just carried on with the fate and destiny stuff).

He chose this life (away from Rumple, which meant away from Emma, and apparently with Tamara…) and then he has that smug little smile about her possibly being upset with him over it. Grr. (I like him a lot more now than I did…but that point always bugs me that he knew everything and could have come to find her but didn’t. Did he seem pleased that she showed up? Well YES…until he realized that his dad was part of the deal.) NealFire (Pan?) you have a long way to go mister. You are an engaged man and flirting with your ex and then having to say “it’s complicated” that he’s engaged (which was totally only said because now it IS complicated, you just spent 2 days flirting with your ex and making her think that you guys might have a little family now that you want to be in your son’s life and now a fiancee pops up outta nowhere. He MADE it complicated because he wasn’t up front about it.)

I loved Bae as a kid so I’m hoping he can sort all of this out. And I do love the Neal / Emma moments, I do, they’re mostly sweet (even though I love CaptainSwan moments too, yes you can appreciate both!)…but then I look at them closer and get very aggravated with how smug he looks about it all. It shows that they did care about each other in the past and they’ve got a lot to work out and still have some feelings but they don’t KNOW each other in the present day or for the past 11 years or w/e it is at this point. They just still have those feelings they did when they were younger. Their lives have both changed drastically and with that amount of time and other issues they need to get to know each other NOW and then see if there’s anything there.

He can hope all he wants but at the end of the day Emma knows that he knew about all of it, abandoned her in jail, and as annoyed as she will hopefully be with August someday she’ll know that Neal had the option to come find her the moment the curse was broken and confess all and say he did what he did out of love…and instead was off avoiding her because of his dad and getting engaged to someone else. That does not scream love to me. Coward sure, like father like son, but he CHOSE this path. He may be nice and sweet but Emma’s right about the hurtful side. He makes bad choices and apparently hasn’t stopped making them…yet.