What’s funny is how much the writers either consciously or unconsciously recycled elements from Season 2, and Neal’s storyline.
Exactly. Lily is the new Neal. Except she’s not.
Goes without saying really that there are also huge differences, which is why I’m not saying “parallels” and implying some sort of intentional foreshadowing or anything like that but just calling it recycled plot points and mechanics.
The show has become practicably bad. There just is hardly any foreshadowing except for Lily’s star mark, but only because Lily is the new Neal. Sure, we may have some hints about what’s in store (e.g. Emma won a toy dalmatian just a few episodes before Cruella first appeared), but it’s pretty clear the writers are just making this stuff up as they go. All of the intricately pre-planned foreshadowing was done away with when the writers hit that blasted re-set button.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy