Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[Slurpeez]

I look forward to the new perspective on things that Emma will have after regaining her memories.  In Emma’s previous reality (real reality?) she gave up Henry and put her feelings in a box, choosing not to deal with them. Her reaction to Neal in Manhattan was raw pain.  However, raising Henry will have forced her to deal with Neal and the way he left and to have processed some of her emotions.  Not all.  Neal left and it still hurts Emma, but everytime Henry makes a friend they both have to address where his dad is.  Every parent/teacher conference Emma has to confront Neal’s absence.  Anything that happened during the Lost Year are real memories.  I think that when Neal and Emma meet again, she will be coming from a different emotional place.  Still angry, but not raw.

Yes, this version of Emma will be less “walls up” and much happier overall, because she has Henry, her true love, in her life. Although she’ll still wonder how Neal could have left her to go to prison, she’ll also have the knowledge that something good (aka Henry) came from them being together. As much resentment as cursed Emma probably has, she also probably has a sense of acceptance and even gratitude that her relationship with Neal gave her Henry. She won’t have felt alone or as cheated by fate now that she believes that she at least got a chance to be happy with her kid. As she said at the end of 3×11, “My family is right here” meaning Henry.

I loved Emma’s apartment.  Emma and Henry had quite a lot of plants and flowers.  Subconsciously trying to connect with the Enchanted Forest?

Maybe. Potted plants represent rootedness. Her implanted memories are probably of being planted in one spot with Henry instead of being a loner who moved around a lot. Having a kid probably means she has a community where Henry’s school is. Emma may be friends with the moms of Henry’s friends. She might be a member of his elementary school’s PTA. Cursed Emma might even have a steady boyfriend. Everything in her life has changed, because Regina wanted her to have a good life with happy memories. It’s just going to be painful emotionally when she wakes up and realizes she never kept her son. 🙁

After meeting Henry, did Neal have time to draw his picture?  Is that something that Emma could have found in his apartment that has her saying, “This isn’t possible”?  The dreamcatcher suggests to Emma that Neal missed her, maybe loved her, and a drawing of Henry suggests that Hook is telling the truth and Neal knew about 11 year old Henry.

That’s a great point! Neal is an artist just like his mom, Milha! I’d love to see Neal have drawn a portrait of his son. However, I’m not sure he had the time between meeting Henry for the first time and his father nearly dying, and returning to SB. But perhaps Neal has drawn a portrait of Henry from memory since being back in the Enchanted Forest. If so, Neal might have given the portrait of Henry to Hook with the instructions to show it to Emma so that she’ll listen to whatever Hook has to say.