@PriceofMagic wrote:
Neal initially thought August was a cop then I think he thought August was a nutjob. The idea that Bae may have repressed his memories of fairytale land could be quite interesting. It could lead to a nice contrast between August claiming to be Bae in season one and Neal denying being Bae.
Yes, I like this theory a lot because I could see Nealfire repressing his memories of the magical world because the memories were too painful to deal with and because once he landed here, I’m sure he learned quickly that no one would ever believe him if he told them the truth. So I think over time, those memories have become so repressed in him that he thinks that those things never really happened, he just created memories of a magical world to deal with his father and mother abandoning him.
I’m sure the writers could fill in the holes in some way if the go this route too.
I don’t think they’re going to have Neal (Bae) be schizophrenic.
I don’t think they would go that far either, but I think it could work since denial is pretty powerful. Although he would have the missing money and car as proof that he met up with this guy that showed him a mysterious magical box, Neal could have just convinced himself later on that something else happened instead like he got robbed and blacked out and someone took his money and keys, or something along those lines.
Further, 10 years is a long time, so maybe he’s been seeing a therapist in NYC and is on medication now for his “delusions”, and maybe this is why he runs off when he sees Emma because either he's not ready to deal with the possibility that his “delusions” were real, and/or he thinks he's unworthy to be with her now because of his “delusions”.
This would be a great reason, imo, as to why he didn’t go to Storybrooke right away. I could just imagine him trying to explain everything to a therapist. “Well, this guy had a magical box, and he said that he’d send me a postcard when the Curse was broken so that Emma and I could be together, and yesterday I just got this postcard from a pigeon.” The therapist would be like, “Neal, I’m very concerned. See there’s not even a Storybrooke, Maine on this map, and there’s nothing on the Internet about a town of that name ever existing. Maybe we need to up your meds.”
So staying in NYC equals not being insane in Neal’s mind, but going to search out Storybrooke would equal him being insane.
It would definitely be an interesting twist, imo, if they had Neal being very reluctant to accept that his memories were real, and I think it would be different enough from Emma not believing in season 1. She didn’t accept it mostly because she felt unworthy of being the Savior. However, in Neal’s case, if he believes, not only does it might mean that he’s given in to being crazy, but then he also gets even more guilt that not only did he not help save his father from the curse of being the Dark One, but because he got separated from his father due to the magical bean, his father destroyed their whole world just to be reunited with him.
I think it would be really juicy material that MRJ, Jennifer Morrison, and Robert Carlyle could knock out of the park.