I pondered last night, why bring the pendant back into it? Yes, our tiny corner here was clammoring for it. But *clearly* they don’t care about our corner, if they are killing him off. And for the general audience, I am sure they don’t key in on the importance of it – an item we saw for a few moments in 2×06, briefly discussed in 2×14, and then never touched on again. GA does not key in on a necklace that she wore for the first three dozen episodes but is now gone. This is not Rumbelle’s cup, which is both a pre-existing icon AND frequently discussed on the show. This is an item that had not been mentioned in OVER a season – and at that time, was a cheap convenience store keychain-turned-necklace. Why drudge it back up, assign it worldhopping status, label it of true love? If Neal’s death was to further another ship, that is COMPLETELY counterintuitive. There was ZERO reason to mention the thing – just let it fade into the ether, never to be mentioned again after it was thrown back into the giver’s face. Seems like it would be an excellent parallel for the story they appear to be telling
Good point. the GA doesn’t pick up on stuff like that but we do because we’re obsessive freaks. For the first half of the season, the necklace was just part of Emma, mostly in the background; S2 it got a story, then was forgotten about until 315.
And what of Hook? I maintain that there has been TOO MUCH for it to swept under the rug. Things like the Tink incident, or Milah’s identity – yeah, they’re easily sweepable. But in the last several episodes, they have gone out of their way to have Hook do MULTIPLE sneaky underhanded things. Emma may have told him she doesn’t want to know about the missing year, that she’s tired of living in the past (an item I still maintain was far more about regrets with respect to her history with Neal than it was about Hook,) but WHEN she finds out, it won’t be pretty. And it’s a when, not an if. You don’t spend an episode on establishing a guy as “still a pirate” in the lost year, where he murders someone in cold blood, have him insinuate he’s changed, and then have him teach a preteen how to cheat at dice in the present, without a reason. They have set Hook up in bad bad shape, and I am FAR more confident we will see him take a fall than I am of Neal’s return. He is continually being written as a guy who is hiding stuff, which is a huge setup for the truth to come out and the repercussions to be felt.
If we’re right and Hook cast the curse, then it doesn’t matter what the intentions were. All magic comes with a price. Neal tried to get back to his family and died as a result. All. Magic. Comes. With. A. Price. They cannot RUG SWEEP someone casting the dark curse.
The ironic thing is that my logical brain tells me that I am setting myself up for a fall. That what we are seeing on screen really is just as bad as it seems, that this show really did take that turn from a show about hope, true love and happy endings to a show where underhandedness wins… witches burn the center of the show out of existence and lying pirates get the girl. And I realize how much I have HATED every bit of the last half-dozen episodes (save some Regina scenes – ironic since I have no particular love for her!) But then I logic myself out of it. No, no, this show cannot possibly have flown that far off course, that quickly. And yet again this morning, that’s where I sit. Thanks to massive ranting about the WRONGness of it all. Oh, the irony.
I am sure I am setting myself up for a fall come 321/2. And I can absolutely guarantee you, the last few days before it airs, I will be huddled with RG in the tent of doom, utterly REFUSING to believe in even the possibility of a happy ending. Self-protective mechanism. Yet for the moment, try as I might to reject it, I cannot help but believe there is more to the plan than what it appears.
There is always room for you in the tent. I do agree on the WRONGness of it all. None of it makes sense. But I also think A and E aren’t concerned with that anymore because their story has become trite and cliche and overworked and they don’t care about emotional depth like they used it.