I think that by having an outsider arrive in Storybrooke that was untouched by the Curse like JackBae and that she presumably knew before, at least Emma can have one person to go to when she’s stressed about everyone wanting her to be the Savior, or when she’s upset about her situation with her parents…
That’s a good point, AntBee. Being the ‘savior’ could turn into something along the lines of Harry Potter being the ‘chosen one’ – she could be hounded by people’s problems, fanboys, media at all angles. Knowing someone who, although he grew up in EF and is more familiar with fairytale culture than she is, came into adulthood and survived in our world would be comforting. And she can also use him as a source of information on what he remembers about the EF. I see both Emma and Baelfire as people who struggled, but survived and even prefer this world to fairytales. We all know Baelfire won’t be embracing magic when he finally appears, and I don’t see Emma relaying on it heavily (or at least hope she’ll remain fixed on ‘doing it yourself’). I can see them bonding over this…
Even if Baelfire isn’t Henry’s dad, I can see having this understanding of a ‘normal’ life easily connect the two during magic-mania.
I do get a feeling that a love triangle may be on the horizon for Emma, so maybe the other guy (a foil to Bae 😉 ) would relay heavily on magic/fairytale stuff to illustrate this fundamental difference.