Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[Slurpeez]

I re-watched segments of 3×12. Some things really stood out to me. Recall what Emma told Hook outside of the police station.

Emma: If, if what you’re saying is true, I’d have to give up my life here.
Hook: It’s all based on lies.
Emma: It’s real, and it’s pretty good. I have Henry, a job, a guy I love.
Hook: Perhaps there’s a man who you love in the life you’ve lost. Regardless, if you want to find the truth, drink up.

I think it’s interesting that Hook tells Emma there may be a man in the life Emma lost. Hook was hoping maybe Emma returned his feelings, just as he was hoping his kiss would jog her memories. And yet, it was the potion, not the kiss which awoke Emma. Also, the words of Peter Pan probably still are in the back of Hook’s mind: “Neal, the guy Emma loves.” Hook is no fool. He probably knows in his heart that Emma loves Neal, not him. Maybe he’s still hoping he can win Emma, but she hasn’t given him any real reason to hope beyond that one kiss they shared in Neverland. I think Hook is also starting to realize that Emma’s idea of a good life is the one she had in New York….which just so happens to be where Neal’s home is. Hmmmmm…

Hook, by contrast, made it perfectly clear to Charming that he was still a pirate and that his idea of home is his ship. He was much more keen to split up with Emma’s family than to stick around with them. Remember the other conversation Hook and Emma had inside of her apartment once her memories had been restored.

Hook: Snow and the queen settled their differences. Frankly, I was bored. I had a life to get back to, a pirate’s life.
Emma: Glad to see you haven’t changed.
Hook: There wasn’t anything for me in the Enchanted Forest. Why would I stay?
[awkward silence, a forced toast, and Emma uncomfortably avoids making eye contact}

Hook is implying he’d rather be with Emma than make a home in the EF, since Hook is not domesticated. He’s a pirate for heaven’s sake and he’s proud of that fact. He’d rather pursue Emma while remaining a pirate. Hook relished putting his hook back on in SB. Emma recognizes that about him, too, that he hasn’t changed. I think she realizes by his words that he’s happy being a pirate, but she’s probably also thinking to herself that he doesn’t fit into the life she’s made for herself in NYC. In my opinion, it’s clear that Hook’s idea of a happy ending is what he had with Milha: a woman who fully embraced his life as a pirate and made her home on his ship. That’s his idea of fun, when he and Emma were climbing the beanstalk together or setting sail for NL. As a pirate, Hook lives for that sort of adventure and goes wherever the winds take him.

By contrast, Emma loves being a mother and having a settled life in NYC. She even seems to resent Hook a little for taking that away from her:

Emma: “You came all the way back to save my family?”
Hook: “I came back to save you.”

What struck me is that instead of looking flattered or grateful, Emma looks down and away, rather than looking back into Hook’s eyes, and she sort of grits her teeth. Instead of romantic string music, the music sounds ominous. Emma doesn’t reply directly. She seems to be resentful, almost like she didn’t want to be saved. It seems to me that if Emma were really glad to see Killian or glad he came to save her that she would have acted happier. Yet, she seemed the opposite of happy. She seemed to be burdened. And what they say next says it all.

Emma: Who could have done this?
Hook: Someone powerful enough to reach into this world.
Emma: Any more specific thoughts?
Hook: Alas, you’re the savior, not me.
Emma: You know what I was yesterday? A mother. ‘Til you showed up and started poking holes in everything I thought was real. I drank that potion and it was like waking up from a dream. A really good dream.

Emma is describing that it was like to be rudely awakened from a good dream. Her dream is all about being a mother to Henry. She loves her life in NYC. As she describes this dream, the True Love music starts to play as she thinks about Henry. I think that is a huge contrast, since just a moment before, the music had been ominous when Hook told her he came to save her. Emma didn’t really want to be awakened and she doesn’t wish to be the savior. All she really wants is a normal life with her kid. And the person who best fits into that life isn’t the one-handed pirate with a drinking problem. It’s Neal, Henry’s father, whose idea of home is with Emma. He even is a native New Yorker, which perfectly harmonizes with what Emma and Henry’s happy life.

Also, there was an interview with J-Mo in TV Guide which reinforces the idea that what Emma wants is to keep Henry safe in New York away from the craziness of magic.

What’s Emma’s relationship like with her parents now?
Morrison: Everything that we’ve gone through has informed them getting closer and closer. She’s also very excited for them to be having a child because she knows they never had a chance to raise her. She wants that for them. She’s being told she has something to do with breaking this new curse, so a lot of Emma’s motivation is that she wants to solve this so she can take Henry back to New York and keep him safe there.

Emma wouldn’t want to go back to the Enchanted Forest and enjoy a life with her family?
Morrison: I don’t think that’s what she wants. I don’t think she’s there yet. The only thing she has to hang onto is that year in New York. That’s the first time she’s ever had a positive stretch of time in her life. When someone experiences something positive when they’ve never had something positive before, you’re going to cling onto it whether it’s right or wrong. She thinks this is how to keep Henry safe and have a good life.