The argument that bugs me right now is that Neal died to make way for CS. That I don’t get. All Emma has to do is make a choice and that is the ship that sails. If A&E want CS, Neal wasn’t going to stop that. If any story required the death of Neal, its Rumple’s and Rumbelle’s arc. It is the only way to keep Rumple interesting and hopefully breathe some life into Rumbelle as Belle will finally have to truly acknowledge Rumple’s dark side.
I agree with this. Especially after last episode it was very clear that as usual Neal was a plot device to support Rumple’s character decisions. What I found interesting about his death is that the writers seemed to have wanted to be able to have Neal repeat his father’s mistake to complete a story arc but also be able to blame Zelena for his death. I don’t think it worked out very well because I don’t really blame Zelena for Neal’s death. She gave him the gun but he was ultimately the one that pulled the trigger. Now if she would have taken Belle and threatened her life if he didn’t do it or threaten to hurt Emma/Henry then it would definitely be Zelena’s fault but then Neal would have had his hand forced and wouldn’t be following in his father’s footsteps. By blaming Zelena though they were able to martyr Neal, make Zelena look more “wicked” and give some justification to Rumple betraying Belle’s trust. The writers made their choices though and it is what it is. It is certainly not the first time that I have not liked where a part of the story has gone and I doubt it will be the last 😛 I enjoy the broader story being told though even if there wasn’t CS.
Usually I will look at chat to see what people think of the episode after the EST airing. I haven’t spoken in chat yet though. I listen to a variety of podcasts about Once and generally they have seemed to progressively become a lot more pro-Hook. The chat here is hit or miss with regards to Hook 😛
I can’t wait for this episode. This week is going soooo slow! I know we probably wont get a sneak until Thursday but I am still hoping we get lucky and get one today 🙂