So I’m thinking the whole reason they had Killian remind us about Cora trying to rip Emma’s heart out (love is weakness vs. Emma’s response “Love is strength”) is because they also showed us that Emma’s response to the bridge exercise was much more intense than Regina expected and then Emma WANTED to see Ariel and Eric in the mirror and looked at Killian before finding the power to do it. I think they are trying to show us that Emma has truely figured out – with Killian’s help of believing in her – that she is powerful and that she is able to maximize her powers through love. And I think she has secretly, at this point, figured out that the thing she needs to focus on to reach her power is Killian (“Love is strength”). I think that is why she suddenly started started calling him calling him Killian, why she wanted him to stay for dinner, why she told him she doesn’t care what he isn’t telling her, and why she said she is tired of living in the last. She has finally realized she loves him. I don’t think she is ready to admit that to anyone else yet. Unfortunately I do think might be ready to tell Killian, but of course we have Killy’s kissing curse to deal with now. Ugh. But I do think we were supposed to think about “Love is strength” for a reason. Emma and Killian are TL and I believe she uses him as the thought to bring about her powers – I don’t believe the WW’s curse is going to be strong enough to overcome that combination.
Up until this point, we have had Killian trying to convince Emma that SHE is worthy of love and that she is strong enough to save people. She has at many times not treated Killian very nicely but he loves her so much he didn’t care. Now I think the tables have turned. Now we need Emma to help Killian to see how “powerful” he is. Being the person who is able to unleash Emma’s powers is a very important thing. Being the man that Henry WANTS as a father figure is a very important thing. Being the man that her father thinks is good for her and likes to hang out with on his own is a very special thing. Being willing to sacrifice the one thing that you never thought you would have again after 300 years in order to protect the people you love is an incredibly selfless thing to do. We need Emma to help Hook get over his self loathing just like Belle has helped Rumple. Instead of Hook seeing himself as a threat to her magic he needs to understand that he is what makes her magic stronger – and what will, therefore allow them to defeat the WW.
It will be interesting to see what happens because I don’t think the WW understand that Emma’s power is fueled by her love for Killian. So what would REALLY happen if Emma and Killian kissed now that Killian has admitted that he loves Emma and now that Emma has admitted to herself that she loves Killian (at least I believes she has admitted it to herself). Would the curse work? Or would the whole “love is strength” thing destroy the kissing curse and make Emma’s power even stronger because they have sealed their love with a kiss??