Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[Slurpeez]

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to you American watchers! Over the break, I watched 6×8. I have a lot of thoughts about that episode, but here is one main observation from a scene in I’ll Be Your Mirror between Emma, Regina, and Henry:

Henry: I don’t even know if she likes me anymore. I don’t even know how to act around her.
Emma: You act like yourself. Never compromise who you are. Got it?
Henry: Okay.
Emma: Now, I’m not always gonna be here for this stuff, so you got to hang on to these gems.

Does that scene sound familiar? It did to me. It heavily resembles another conversation Emma had with Henry in a deleted scene from S5b about Henry’s temptation to re-write history so that Emma had never killed Cruella.

Emma: Cruella, she was going to hurt you. And yes, does it tear me up every day thinking was there another way I could have saved you? But, I didn’t have a choice. I never wanted to hurt anyone Henry, and I know you don’t either.
Henry: That’s the only reason I got the pen, the only reason I kept it a secret.
Emma: We’re family. We can’t have secrets. We have to share.
Henry: I’m sorry.
Emma: I know. I know. You were just trying to help. Henry, never compromise your soul, never, not even for me. I couldn’t live with myself.

It’s as if Emma were speaking to Henry directly from her own first-hand experience. I think she has regret about when she compromised her own soul. As Merlin warned, he foresaw Emma tarnishing her soul by choosing to tether Hook to Excalibur. Emma has been lowering her standards to make her relationship with Hook work. Her submerging her real self to be with Hook is something that astute fans of Emma have noticed ever since she and Hook got together after Neal died. The real Emma Swan never would have looked at Hook as a good father figure for Henry.

So why is Emma so concerned about Henry never compromising himself? On a meta level, it’s as if the writers were hinting at their own awareness and Emma’s awareness of her having changed for the worse as a result of having a romance with a man who is wrong for her. Thematically, that scene from 6×8 also has a lot in common with another scene between Emma, Henry, and Regina in 5×5 Dreamcatchers:

Henry: Hey… Moms. I was, uh… getting in the Camelot spirit. You know… trying to understand this world.
Emma: By sword fighting?
Henry: W-well, Sir Morgan, Violet’s father, had a little advice for me to fit in. That’s all. Trouble is, I’m not sure if I’m ever gonna be good at this knight stuff.
Emma: Well, if you’re not, you’re not, but… changing so someone likes you never works. I mean, I… I liked your dad because he was always himself.

When Emma recalled what being in a relationship with Neal was like, she remembered how it felt to be with the right person. He was always himself with her, and Emma knows from experience what it feels like to be in a healthy and loving relationship. Neal and Emma never had to pretend because they were both just themselves around each other: two street kids who found a home together. Emma also knows that a relationship never works out if you have to pretend to be someone you’re not (which I predict foreshadows Emma and Hook not working out since both have had to deny their real selves for the sake of their romance).

I know people will disagree since it’s also been foreshadowed in a very heavy-handed way that Hook would propose to Emma (e.g. the wedding dress in the window display in the season five finale). I might suggest, however, that it could be there as a red herring to appease fans of CS (in the short term). Of course, Emma wearing Hook’s ring around her neck is also like Chekhov’s gun waiting to go off, so I do think Hook will propose sometime in season six. Their living together also seems like a step on the road to an engagement. The writers are having Hook, Emma, and Henry all living under the same roof, making us question if they’ll really become a family. The other thing that 6×8 put forward is another, stronger, already established family unit of three: Emma, Henry, and Regina.

Henry: You may not see it, but I’m strong, because my moms taught me that family makes you stronger than you’ll ever be by yourself.

Henry has stated that he doesn’t see Hook as part of his family. Also, Emma wearing Hook’s murder-victim ring around her neck instead of the swan pendant seems to be an obvious visual symbol of how much Emma has lowered her standards to be with Hook. Emma has now warned Henry three times not to compromise himself, not even for her, which seems to come from Emma’s own regret. In 6×8, Henry showed just how strong he is in comparison with Emma by refusing to compromise himself and do as the Evil Queen bade him do, even to save his mothers. It makes me think it will be Henry who helps Emma ultimately choose not to be with Hook in the end. Just maybe Emma will reject Hook’s proposal and go back to wearing the swan pendant, which was born out of true love, and which ultimately stands as a symbol of the real Emma Swan herself. Anyway, one can hope.