I also don’t think that the shadow belongs to Bae, although it may have followed him. I think that the shadow is an entity in its own right (there is no body of Peter Pan that it has left) and that our story is basically going to be that Peter Pan was a bad guy, and Hook was actually all right, as far as pirates go. We’re definitely going to end up feeling more sympathetic towards hook by the end of the season.
I may not be accurate (I’m unable to access my episodes at the moment) but did Hook not see Baelfire in the pub when he followed Rumplestiltskin in? It is possible that if he saw him there, he might recognize him a few years later and know that this is Milah’s son. I can see him easily trying to be an adoptive father in that right because he sees Milah’s courage in her. (And, to be honest, he looks a bit more like her than Rumple- same hair, dark eyes etc.) I don’t know if Bae will find out the connection between Milah and Hook, it may be the sort of think that Hook keeps to himself.
(Ugh, and then there is the totally taunting line that Zoso laid on Rumple about Baelfire not being his? I am 99.9% sure he was just trying to get a rise out of Rumplestiltskin so that he would kill him- but I’m sure at this point there are also fans furiously writing fics where it turns out that Hook is actually Bae’s father and Rumple has to deal with the fact that his newly gained family isn’t his after all- well, not by blood at least.)
"Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him."
