Not to bring up any ship wars or whatever, but I have to think that if it was reversed and Neal and Emma’s proposal didn’t go as planned and was murky and the perfect proposal all SF fans were hoping for got ruined, you would be rooting for the show to turn that around and do a double take and give the audience the proposal they wanted to see. But maybe not…
It’s about Hook’s actions and what it says about his character, though. And for the record, if Neal lied to Emma, tried to hide things from her, tried to protect his own skin over giving her the truth, I’d be angry as heck at him Would I want them to work it out? Sure. Just like the CSers want CS to work this out. No one is going to deny that they want their ship to work.
It’s about what these actions say about the characters, not just the actions themselves. I *understand* on an emotional level why Hook didn’t tell Emma, I think we all do. It’s motivated by fear. But this isn’t the first time (not even the first time this season!) this same scenario has happened and it’s like Emma said, “we have to stop lying to each other!” These two keep doing this to each other and we have to question what that says about their relationship and themselves as individuals.
The writer’s plan backfired. So in order to properly fix Hook’s character, and give the main character, Emma, the proper happy ending, or at least a wedding to someone she loves, they HAVE to fix the proposal. They have to fix what Hook ultimately decided to do or this relationship’s final bow will not stick.
Oh I’m not disputing that at all. Obviously there will be a second go around that the writers feel is more genuine. In universe that’s the writers excuse (Hook messed it up the first time but now we’ll fix it so it’s UBER romantic for the shippers!) but I think we’re all thinking about out-of-universe and what this says, again, about those two and their relationship.