So my speculative mind is at work right now. Perhaps Hook spending time Henry and Emma might be the foil to try sway Neal to the dark side. If WW is offering Neal temptation (and for what reason, to try keep Swanfire family a part?) perhaps by trying to show him through her crystal ball that Hook is once again try to “take his family away from him,” aka “You tore apart my family” bit. I like to think Neal will refuse the darkness.
I’m just truly confused by the Hook insertion to point he almost like the Neal replacement in everything. He gets to go after Emma, he gets to be good cool friend paternal like figure to Henry, he gets to hang out with the Charmings. Hook is teaming up with Henry. And it just seems really, really, really odd and out of place and just peculiar. Especially since we know Father and Son dynamic and relationship is a big thing with stiltskin family. If Neal is the one to go wouldn’t you want to focus more on the relationship with Emma, his son, belle, and his somewhat dead father. There has to be more than this then we just want to replace Neal with Hook, and make Hook Neal 2.0., because you know he is supposedly not popular enough or we need to end the triangle. And this just seem like an awesome idea to kill this character between S2 and S3 when we just hired the actor full time and everyone thought he was already dead. When you think of it those terms it makes little sense what-so-ever.
Its not easy when things are so hush hush concerning Neal but one thing we know, he was filming in studio. So I am assuming that he is in Oz trying once again to fight his way back to his family while keep his inner goodness and light intact. I like the idea of Emma and Neal both fighting there way back to each other, that this journey led the lost girl and the lost boy Home
I have hope, all happy endings in begin with Hope.
"I will be kind but I will speak my mind."