I also read that theory about the “curse” really being a protection spell and thought it was interesting and made sense. I’ve decided there are some really smart and creative people in our fandom!
I do think one interesting piece of the puzzle that hasn’t been addressed that we are all now just starting to think about is why Zelena would want to come to SB. There is really no reason for her to need to come to SB to do what she wants to do, in fact it would probably be easier for her to do it back in the EF. She had everything she needed back in the EF and that’s where she was from so to redo history she would really want to STAY in the EF, right? So I am now pretty much convinced it was a “good guy” who either enacted the curse to get back to Emma because she is the only one whose magic is strong enough to defeat her or they came back to SB along with a protection spell for the baby and Zelena is now trying to break the protection spell. The only thing I’m not sure about is whether the protection spell would actually be considered a “curse” – I know the memory loss is bad but is it a side effect of the protection spell? It would seem odd to have TLK break a protection spell. That would be something good breaking something that is also good. Unless the protection spell was just part of the curse that brought them back to SB and erased their memories.
Who knows.
Where I get lost in all of that is that most of that seems like it would have been done by Snowing and Regina but it seems like there is still something big that Hook is hiding from not just Emma but from everyone else, so he MUST have had some part in everything. But if it’s big enough that he can’t tell Snowing and Regina then the above theories don’t work.
One thing I am still not clear on – has Hook actually seen Zelena in SB before she cursed him? Because I THINK every time she has been around Hook has been off with Henry. If that is the case, I do think it is odd that Hook knew who Zelena was as soon as she poofed out of being Ariel (not that that wouldn’t be a dead give away). But it makes me wonder if Zelena somehow tricked Hook into doing something back in the EF that he is ashamed of and THAT is really the big thing he doesn’t want anyone to know about. I feel like we have a very conflicted Hook in 3B – like he so badly wants to be Killian Jones again but doesn’t feel worthy of it, his confidence in himself has massively decreased even though his confidence in Emma is stronger than it’s ever been. It just seems like something major had to have happened for him to start doubting himself when he was so confident in Neverland that he could go back to being Killian Jobes again – he was able to fight off Pan’s temptations in order to go back to the man he wanted to be. But it seems like something happened that broke HIM. Only Emma is going to be able to fix it. I hope we find out what it was this week.