Emma is going to notice patterns of Neal’s behavior which demonstrate he’s actually a self-sacrificing, long-suffering man who puts others ahead of himself. She is going to realize her own views of him were really just misconceptions as she realizes Neal has a history of risking his own well-being and doing the brave thing:
Being willing to fight in the Ogre War
Trying to save Rumple from himself by going to A Land Without Magic
Sacrificing himself for the Darling family
Fighting not to become acclimated as a Lost Boy in NL
Making a personal sacrifice for Emma to get home to SB to save her family
Returning to face his demons with his father to save Emma in Manhattan
Risking his life against Cora/Regina to save his father’s life
Sacrificing himself by falling through the portal so that Henry wouldn’t have to grow up without Emma
Hook, by contrast, has a history of doing the selfish thing:
seducing another man’s wife and then challenging a cripple to a duel leaving a little boy without a mother,
general pirating,
using Baelfire to learn how to kill his father,
not fighting harder to keep Bae aboard his ship,
b being an employee of Peter Pan,
trying to repeatedly kill/wound Belle to get revenge on Rumple
working for Regina in an effort to get revenge on Rumple
working for Cora in an effort to get revenge on Rumple
leaving Emma, Snow, Mulan and Aurora for dead to get revenge on Rumple
erasing Belle’s memories to get revenge on Rumple
nearly killing Neal’s dad to enact revenge on him for killing Milha
nearly getting the town blown up, along with Emma and her family, which resulted in Henry getting kidnapped
Helping to save Charming, Neal and Henry, but really just so that he can coerce kisses from Emma
Making a play for the love of Neal’s life, despite Neal supposedly being a “good friend” and son-figure
While people can change their patterns, I’m hoping that Emma will figure out for herself which man has the better track record of putting others first and would lay down his life for Henry without question. Even if Hook is reforming from his swashbuckling ways, Neal is the true hero of our tale,
YES, YES, YES, THANK YOU!!
I agree with all of the previous posts about Hook’s character so far in season 3. I had hoped that Hook was changing his attitude to TRULY being a man of honor, that he was once before, but this episode just reinforced what I’ve been thinking all along. Hook is still ultimately only in it for himself. All of his actions are because of Emma. As romantic as this sounds it can backfire (as evidence of what we saw with Rumple regressing back to his old habits when Belle was Lacey) since he is not doing good because he wants to change for himself and it’s the right thing to do, but rather to get into Emma’s good graces. I posted this on another website and got some backlash from some die-hard CS fans (as expected). I fear that Hook is going to be the “Regina” of season 3. He’s trying to be good but regressed back into being petty like he was before, as seen in “Dark Hallow” Does he not know the bro code????