Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[dontstopbelievin]

I feel ya, Slurpeez. Completely. You are a girl after my own heart here, beginning to sound like me & Phee. 🙂

If we watch the story, what we see on screen, what is broadcast on TV – then a return of Neal (and death of Hook, if we want to fulfil spoiler of doom) by far makes the most sense. I maintain – have always maintained – that there are clues in 312-314 that should not be there if there is permanent death in 315. The fact that those clues persist PAST 315, as far out as into 319, really is a humdinger. A lot of the stuff in 319 is a head-scratcher; why take the time to set up those call-backs and parallels if you’re not going to use them? That Snow bit about looking for Charming and not knowing where he is or about his sacrifice… ugh. Could not have described Emma better for 313-315 if you tried. And then Charming is revived. Is it insane not to expect the same for Neal?

I was thinking today about my long history with soap operas. There, it is common for characters to come and go from the show, sometimes over decades, even. Sometimes they die and come back, sometimes they just move away and return. But the hallmark – the way you know a character has an impending return – is when their name is randomly spoken after years away. “Hey, I got a phone call from my niece Jane today.” Um, ok? Jane has been off the canvas for three years. A week later, someone else, “Remember when my sister Jane and I went to the sock hop when we were teenagers and she caught me kissing you, Boyd? Oh, those were fun times.” Yep. Jane is on her way back, probably within the month.

It’s the same principal for Neal. If they killed him to do CS, they needed to 1) let him fade as quickly as possible and 2) DO CS! Since he is still mentioned – mentioned and seen, even! – plus the lack of CS ramping up, I just don’t think that’s what’s going on here. We’ll see what happens in 320 but like it or not, I am looking toward that finale with a glint in my eye. I wish I wasn’t, the fall will hurt so much harder than if I wholeheartedly expected it, but yet I am.