Home › Forums › Once Upon a Time › Season Six › 6×12 “Murder Most Foul” › Hook's Crime › Reply To: Hook's Crime
If you don’t feel a little bad for Hook, then you will never forgive him for the man he used to be. And if you feel that way, then you must believe people cannot change or at the very least, should never even try to become a better person bc no one should forgive them.
There is a difference between feeling bad for Hook, and even thinking that he should be forgiven, and forgiveness being recognizable mainly through him “getting the girl” (or not) — as the show sets it up. I actually like the twist in the abstract, and even how it was done — that Hook was so casual about this in the past (pure pragmatics) and presumably feels terrible in the present. Again, in the abstract — if OUAT weren’t OUAT but a Greek tragedy — I’d easily feel sympathetic towards Hook precisely fore the reasons you outline (or look at his past/karma catching up with him and screwing up any chance he has at happiness, what rotten luck — does he deserve this?) At least, I’d feel compelled to root for him.
But this is not a Greek tragedy, it’s a fantasy melodrama. So this episode, by putting the engagement ring and murder into a single narrative frame, presents the consequences for Hook’s past actions catching up with him as first and foremost a potential impediment to his prospective marriage, which we all know will happen regardless. For me, that’s the main issue. Hook as a character is overdetermined by his ability to “get the girl” — everything else seems to fall by the wayside, including the girl’s other familial relations. This particular focus does Hook’s character no favors.