Give Me My Remote: Colin, MRJ, JMo and A and E talk CaptainSwanFire

“Logically she believes that Neal is dead, for good reason,” Jennifer Morrison (Emma) pointed out. “But also emotionally she has to believe he’s dead because she’s already been through so much loss with him that I don’t think her heart could take hoping that he was still alive and in that situation. She’s pushed to the limit already so she has to believe that he’s dead for emotional and logical reasons. And in terms of Hook, just like everyone else in this group that you said has trouble working together, she’s making educated decisions moving forward without them. They all have a common goal — she believes they all want to save Henry — but she’s making educated decisions based on what their behavior has been in the past.”

To me, that sounds like Jennifer Morrison is confirming that Emma’s love for Neal is so strong that the only way she can carry on saving Henry is by allowing herself to think Neal is dead. She can’t allow herself to wonder if he’ll return for her, since she has spent the last 11 years wondering that same thing. Some fans want to say Emma’s sense of loss over Neal isn’t that pronounced because we haven’t seen her sobbing uncontrollably. Yet, Emma’s feelings for Neal are there beneath the surface. She just can’t allow herself to have false hope again, otherwise she’d be useless in finding Henry.

“You know obviously she knows Regina has tried to murder thousands of people, so that does go into play when she makes decisions — although she has decided to trust Regina and trust that she wants to save Henry, and she does form a union with her in a certain way on this island, and there is a different kind of connection because of that,” Morrison continued. “And similarly with Hook, she believes that he probably has selfish reasons for wanting to do that from the start because based on her experiences with him in the past, she believes he’s going to do something selfish, and he kind of continues to surprise her by coming through, by truly being supportive, by actually being helpful, by doing things that seem at the surface sort of selfless. So there’s an interesting dynamic that starts to play out when she starts to realize that he exceeds her expectations in almost every situation and that has its own way of putting her off kilter because she then doesn’t know what to expect from him, even though what she’s saying is good. So that definitely is an interesting dynamic that starts to develop. It feels like, whether it’s the island or the way that they connect or get along, he seems to be changing in a way, and she’s taking note of that.”

I think Emma will come to rely on Hook as a strong ally. He can currently offer her what Emma needs, which is a strong, dependable guy. Yet, I think Emma will be doubly surprised when she discovers Neal has been fighting to get to her in NL. So it should be interesting to see how Emma, Neal and Killian all interact in the present day when they’re finally thrown together.

“I think the relationship that they have is sort of complicated, because they both care deeply for Baelfire[/Neal],” O’Donoghue said. “Emma loves him, you know, and Hook was willing to give up everything to become his stepfather. And in the first episode you see that he has kept his sword. Remember that he would have had to have kept that sword for hundreds of years, and he says to her — cause she said ‘Obviously you guys were quite close,’ and he said ‘I miss him, too.’ And he was very, very genuine about that. They always saw an element of themselves in each other anyway, I think, from when they went up the beanstalk, but in particular this sort of thing you know is kind of, they’re not that dissimilar.”

Like I said, it’s going to be so fascinating to watch Hook and Neal interact in the present-day. Both were in NL for a long time together. I wonder if they even helped each other escape from NL the first time. I think that Hook really does have paternal love for Neal, so it’ll be interesting how that impacts Hook’s relationship with him in the current day. It’s nice to see Colin acknowledge that both Emma and Hook have love for Neal, and that is one thing they really share in common. I think that Neal and Emma’s mutual love will weigh on Hook heavily since he does have feelings for Emma, too. I think Hook is learning to be more unselfish. Should be interesting!

So where does that leave Neal? After all, he is currently trapped in fairytale land, trying to make his way back to the people he loves, unaware of what might be brewing between Hook and Emma.

“Neal is under no illusions that things between he and the woman that he loves are perfect,” Michael Raymond-James (Neal/Bae) admitted. “I think, now more than ever, he realizes that there’s work to be done and is prepared to do whatever work is necessary, because I’ve had an opportunity to sort of touch what Neal feels could be his happy ending, but I haven’t been able to grasp it yet. It was a fleeting sort of instant. So he’s trying to get back there and whatever he needs to do in order to have that I think he’s willing to do.”

I’m also glad to see MRJ give his perspective on Neal’s relationship with Emma. Obviously, Neal has a tremendous amount of guilt over leaving Emma, which he addmitted to her in 2×21 and they have a lot to work through. Nevertheless, MRJ is saying Emma is Neal’s second chance at a happy ending too.