I really don’t think we have anything to worry about guys.
I think ABC purposely made Neal’s character poster vague. Don’t want to make the SF ‘shippers unhappy, or make us freak out. So they found a middle, making it vague.
I think the ‘ship with Emma has sailed. SwanFire is over. Emma knows it. Hook knows it. The only people who don’t know it are Neal, Snow and Charming and more importantly, Neal.
“second chances” refers to Rumpelstiltskin and Henry. Think about it. Bae’s main story was never about Emma. It was always about his relationship with his father and how he can reconnect with him and not make the same mistakes again with Henry.
I think by the end of this season at least, Neal will (I hope realize), his father and Henry should be a priority and he lost his chance a long time ago with Emma.
I just re-read the transcript from NYCC:
Jen: Yeah it doesn’t eliminate 10 years of having her heart broken over him and feeling like he rejected her – not just rejected her but left her to be – or set her up to be arrested and all the things she thinks happened are deeply…wounding. Even though now she knows that they’re not true, she spent ten years believing them so she needs to re-understand her own history a little bit.
JMo’s also said:
“I love what [executive producers] Adam [Horowitz] and Eddy [Kitsis] did with her for that because I think it’s a very human reaction to him being back,” Morrison says. “You can fantasize that someone will say, ‘Oh, I love you, it’s great, it’s wonderful, it’s all fine now.’ But in reality, she spent 10 years thinking that he not only abandoned her in some way, but it seemed like he maliciously set her up. Ten years is a long time to suffer through that belief. Also, he found out that the curse was broken and could have come after her and still didn’t, so that’s the second betrayal she’s aware of. There’s so much for them to work through and so much that hasn’t been dealt with. There’s a tremendous amount of baggage there.”
Emma’s already faced her feelings for Neal in Neverland. If she really wanted to get back into a relationship with him, she wouldn’t have stood him up. There’s a lot of pain there. Neal’s responsible for a lot of pain in her life. You really think Emma’s going to give him a second chance?