This is SO MUCH BETTER than the voiceover on the promo (which has gotten progressively worse this season) and was vastly misleading based on what’s in the press release / common sense based on character progression so far.
Sounds like this will be Hook’s version of what Charming went through in What Happened to Frederick? (Helping Ariel & Eric reunite like Charming did with Abigail & Frederick before going off in search of Snow, or in this case Emma. I <3 parallels).
LOVE that we'll get to see Hook and Ariel sharing some screentime. Always nice to have her interact with more people and I like the idea that Hook will be helping her in some way (and it sounds like she'll be helping him too in relation to the ship/Blackbeard!) Perhaps he will finally make peace with mermaids since he seemed to have an issue with them at the beginning of the season. *Hoping she urges him to go find Emma like Abigail was supportive of David when this mission is over* (Also major yay for seeing Eric again. Gil McKinney is awesome and we don't get enough Ariel/Eric)
We know there's the scene with Zelena so obviously it connects, they're just not giving that away in the press release. This ep is filling in what happened over the last year with Hook since that's been a mystery this half-season so I'm sure there's more to it than just helping Ariel. (As for helping someone not related to Emma - yay but it's hard to find people who aren't. 😉 But I am happy about that!)
Poor Snowing. They just don't know how to connect to this version of Henry yet and compared to boating/star-gazing/stories of his dad of COURSE they're boring to him. Poor kid was playing a video game while MM was reading a book on parenting the last time one of them babysat him - not the most exciting time. He needs to get his memories back already! Hook's making a start in trying to convince Emma of that which is good but it needs to happen soon. *Fingers crossed*
Promos & PR's are often missing a lot of stuff or are misdirects so I'm sure there's lots more going on than we know yet, ESPECIALLY regarding Zelena. Can't wait to see what happens and how it all connects! Headcanons are fun and we've all been filling in the gaps differently so it'll be nice to finally have some answers! (And there's gotta be way more going on in SB than just Snowing/Henry & Emma learning magic from Regina. Can't wait!)
Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.