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.
Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.