So I just wanted to talk about these scenes for a bit since their similarities (and disparities) have been bugging me since the finale. Serious rambling ahead.
So, as you can see from these two scenes, the way Emma and Killian are positioned is just way too similar to be a coincidence to me. And in both scenes, Killian is sitting outside at a table.
And let’s be real, Emma’s jacket was chosen to deliberately parallel 3×22 and 2×05. She’s wearing this jacket on both of her trips to the Enchanted Forest, and both times she spent a lot of time with Killian. It’s not a coincidence.
Emma is herself in both scenes, and her goal is the same; she’s trying to get back to her family. (Even the way she gets home is paralleled in that both times she has realisations – that love is strength, that Storybrooke is her home.)
Killian is the most interesting for me – obviously his peasant clothing is covering up his pirate clothes, and he’s adopting a different persona than his usual (because Captain Hook is a persona) in order to get close to Emma & Co. You can see when he takes off the peasant clothes and puts his hook back on in 2×06 that he’s happy to be back in a persona he knows and is comfortable with, even if it’s not a persona he particularly likes.
“You should be used to people not trusting you.”
“Ah, the pirate thing.”
His self-loathing is pretty evident in that statement alone, and the way he doesn’t even object to Emma’s accusation. Anyway, my point is, Killian isn’t himself in 2×05 when he’s dealing with Emma for the first time. Killian ‘Hook’ Jones is hiding, buried beneath the years of revenge fuelled hatred of his Captain Hook persona.
In 3×22, that has completely changed. His attitude towards himself has changed. He doesn’t associate being a pirate with being a bad person anymore, because being a pirate is what brought him back to Emma. So Killian ‘Hook’ Jones is on display now, no hiding. He is completely himself, and proud of it. And he’s showing that to Emma, and Emma likes it.
“I’m a hell of a Captain.”
In the scene in 3×05 where they are speaking for the first time on our screens; the staging of it also speaks volumes to me. Emma is standing above Killian; he has to look up at her, and she’s looking down on him. She’s in the position of power, and she’s making it very clear with her body language that she doesn’t trust him. Both of their faces are closed off, and both are wary of the other.
The way he has to look up at her is a visual representation for us that (and also from Killian’s perspective) Killian is not Emma’s equal right now in terms of his behaviour and the way he feels about it. This perspective is only enhanced by the way Emma’s lit up IMO – he’s in the more shadowy, dark part of the scene, and she’s illuminated by the sun in her half of the scene.
As Killian comes to realise how much he cares for Emma, the perspective that Killian has of himself in relation to Emma is only solidified by his own sense of self-worth. He doesn’t think he’s good enough for her – “a one-handed pirate with a drinking problem”. Meaning that in his view, he will have to strive to get her “level” – to be good enough, in his view, for her. Which is what he does, from 2×22 onward, when Emma offers him the chance to do so.
You can see in the second scene that he has achieved Emma’s “level” in his own mind. He has been changed irrevocably by his love for her, so he now feels like maybe he DOES deserve her. He’s no longer looking up at her. They’re looking directly into each other’s eyes – and the body language couldn’t be any more different. Visually, both of them are equally illuminated – neither one of them outshines the other. Their genuine smiles are indicating that now they’re completely open with each other. They’re equals.
I just think it’s incredible how similar and yet dissimilar the introductory scene of their romantically charged dynamic is to the introductory scene of their romantic relationship.
I just love them ok.
http://i-love-you-swan.tumblr.com/post/88310254884/so-i-just-wanted-to-talk-about-these-scenes-for-aAKA Captain Eala – how I miss her gifsets and freakouts and dyings! It’s not the same on tumblr. No one else is allowed to defect the forums. GOT IT?!