We have different perspectives.
Emma is of the genes of Snow and Charming, they are her biological parent, their flesh and blood, but that is it. I know, for foster children, adopted children it can be a very strong and important moment with great impact to meet their biological parents, and they might be able to instantly build good rapport to them. But genes, flesh and blood make people only related on the biological level. I know, there is the saying, blood is thicker than water, and a lot of people seem to belief more in nature than nurture, but I am not one of them. Nature and nurture are equally important in the sense, that our genes give us the set we play with, but how we do it, that is nurture. I have a bond to my parents and siblings not because they are blood related to me, but because they raised me and I grew up with them. I know them in intimate ways and they me that not many other people do, that is the bond we have.
The bond Emma and Henry have is because if their shared experience and belief in each other.
Emma was the biological result of Snow and Charming meeting, but they had to give her up, not their choice, but it is what happened. That means, Emma grew up without them, for 28 years she knew nothing about them besides that there must have been two people and that they left her alone, and they had no influence on her besides being the absent parents. Emma has just begun to have a relationship with them, and half of that time she spend not remembering them again (New York).
Emma as a person with self-awareness, views, dreams, quirks, skills is a result of 28 years of life, not just of the romance of her parents.
I criticize, that the writers send Emma into the past of her parents to make a connection that should be build in the now, and barely has been build. A sentimental journey. I find that image skewed. I know, a lot of people say, that learning, knowing about your roots, where you are coming from tells you who you are and where you will be going, I did so myself, but I see it differently by now. I am not saying, the past should be ignored, but we are in the here, what we decide and do now, that is what defines us.
That sentimental journey had impact, I don’t deny that. It means there is now more more or less shared experience for Emma to build on, and building a relation with the parents she knew nothing about for 28 years is well adding to her view on herself. But the journey was not a journey of Emma to herself, it was about building relationship to her parents, her family, an aspect of herself. But one can say, that is just a matter of perspective.
But I wouldn’t say, Emma was running away from who she was, she was running away from who she was expected to be and who she could eventually become. Change can be a scary thing, even if it is to the better.
Maybe we can agree it was just a part of her big journey to herself or a better self? She might have learned to love herself a little more, accept that there is more to her than she felt she could handle so far, but I am very sure, she is not done with her journey.
And we won’t agree on Hook either. Yes, he was there, he was the writers choice of a chaperone or guardian of you like on this sentimental trip, of course he was not just her love puppy following her trail. Agree, it was important for her to be not alone on this journey. I question, why it was Hook, why the male lover, the romance. And I know they build it up for all of the season, he was made the logical companion, that is not my point. What the show lacks, and especially when it comes to Emma, is women empowering women.
Worse maybe even. So that Emma and Snow will build a positive relationship (again) it looks at the moment that it takes the joint efforts of Hook, Charming, Henry, a bit of Neal and probably even little Snowflake Neil (to keep them apart decided to use different spelling). This show was more progressive at the beginning of season 2, sending Emma and Snow on a shared trip in present EF. Sometimes it seems to me, like different from many in the audience the writers have chosen to forget about the first half of season 2, or that their memory about it is very selective. Remember that beautiful scene in season 2 at the end of episode 3, in the nursery? Well, I do. As I remember Snow saving her daughter from an Ogre with bow and arrow, them fighting together the zombies Cora send after them, and then Cora herself, not to mention mother and daughter teaming up with warrior Mulan and courageous princess Aurora. Where did that experience go? Is it worth so little that we now needed this sentimental journey to build new rapport? So that Emma now can embrace that part of herself, the family, relying on others and letting others in part? This trip was redundant, and it wasn’t, because they have butchered what they had build up in season 2A since 2B, so, right they had to do it again. Indeed, if I remember it correctly they have spoken of rebooting the show in season 3.
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