What about Emma’s comments in the last episode about her past? Is she only talking about the kind of past we know from Tallahassee (when she was a thief and car thief?)… because… for her to be all “I was NOT mother material” as adamantly as she did to Snow and Charming at the end, doesn’t really line up either. Firstly, because she was totally set up when she went to prison, and she must know she didn’t really commit that horrible of a crime… and because… being a 17 year old and being a bit rebellious doesn’t make you a bad mother 11 years later.
I definitely like that they are contrasting it that way you said, Evil Queen… however, now they are talking about how much Emma has changed (and we know that she even changed between jail in “Tallahassee” and the pilot when she is doing good by tracking down criminals, but we also know, or it’s been majorly implied, that she was a “one night stand” kind of girl before SB and now she’s barely looked at another man since ‘he who shall not be named’ died, and even then, she was pushing him away).
So… big holes between “The Stranger” and “Tallahassee” flashbacks AND between “Tallahassee” and “Pilot” (once Emma was out of prison, not to mention the entire thing of how Gold got Henry).
When Regina made that comment (can’t remember the episode) about Emma moving around a lot (I think it was episode 2?) and Regina said “What was so interesting about Tallahassee?” – I am wondering if that was her implying that Emma went to Tallahassee after she got out of prison for two years to “wait for Neal”, but Neal never showed because of what August did? So that is when Emma’s heart truly broke and she became the Emma we saw in the pilot?
I think I care about the missing pieces between “Tallahassee” and “Pilot” much more than I care about the stuff from her childhood (because like I said, it’s been done, anyone who has ever watched TV can fill in what might have happened to her as a foster child in America being bounced from one home to the other).