I keep harking back to the comment Hook made to Emma in 312, something along the lines of “WE don’t know what the side effect of this curse is” (sorry, can’t remember the exact quote), but he did in fact say WE so someone else has to either be in the know, or in collusion with him in casting the curse. I don’t really believe Hook had the wherewithal to cast this particular curse because he’s not magical. I still believe he found another way to escape the curse that brought him here, and that’s where the JR comes in. My first inclination on reading that Philora were going to be on 319 was that they cast the curse in order to get rid of the WW from the EF and maybe sacrificed Mulan to do it but I don’t think the show would go there (even though it would explain her absence).
@rumplegoldfan” 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.”
I’m really liking this train of thought. Maybe that’s why they sent Hook to NYC, because if whoever cast the curse knew the price would be memory loss, then they would need TLK to break it. But why then did Zelena retain her memories if she was part of the curse and not the one who cast it? UGH! WE NEED ANSWERS ALREADY!!!!