Pardon the all caps but this bears repeating…..STOP. BELIEVING. WHAT. THAT. PA. TWEETED. She’s admitted more than a few times that even she doesn’t always know what’s really going on so please stop taking what she says about the show as gospel. More than anything she’s a rumor starter with her tweets but even with that, someone took the wording of those tweets and turned it into something that wasn’t originally written which still bugs me to no end. This thing has stressed us all out so much all ready so we really don’t need to add to it (again…I feel like we’ve all ready been through this). I understand that this sort of rumor spreading happens with the internet and all but PLEASE stop making that PA bigger than they actually are with the spoiler that shall not be named. /end rant 🙁
That said, I have a new head canon and bear with me while I skip some of the details and ramble for a bit:
Neal hasn’t been present in some of the outdoor scenes that have been shot and we’ve been told that there’s a reason why he’s not the one to go find Emma. There’s also speculation that he’s the one on the gurney in the hospital. My working theory that I just thought of today while I’m supposed to be working 😉 is that the WW did something to him post new curse. I think Neal figured out what the WW was plotting while they were in the EF and also knows that she’s controlling Rumple somehow so she did something to injure him upon their return to new/fake Storybrooke which covered up the fact that she cursed him and took away part of his memory to protect her secret. She erased Emma, Henry, and most of the memories of his father (maybe Neal thinks he never went through the portal but that his father just left him behind and eventually died…not sure of this part yet) and all the memories he has are of the EF and the current people around him. When he wakes up, he’s aware of his surroundings and knows almost everyone but can’t remember Emma or Henry and simply thinks his ‘deadbeat’ father is dead. He integrates fine into the town because he does remember most of them but Emma is devastated that he doesn’t remember her or Henry. Some episodes go by and everyone is trying to figure out what’s going on with the WW while hoping that Emma can help Neal recover his memory because they are starting to think the two things are related to each other. Eventually, as Neal keeps learning the truth about his own past (how he left Emma, Neverland, his father’s sacrifice to save them from Pan, etc), he keeps finding himself drawn to Emma on a more personal level without understanding why. He’s upset about all the bad things that he doesn’t remember and asks her why he should want his memories back since it appears that his life has been nothing but heartache. He also can’t believe that he would ever hurt someone the way he did to Emma because it sounded so selfish and he’s never been that way. She finally understands and accepts what a sacrifice Neal made when he left her all those years ago and she tells him, “You weren’t thinking of yourself, you were thinking of me.” She tells him that he was thinking of her loneliness, sadness, and abandonment issues when he decided to leave because he thought this was her best chance of finding her family. He understood how much family means to a person and sacrificed his own desires and hopes for his own family so that she could find hers. He wanted her to understand that her parents didn’t abandon her; they just wanted her to have her best chance. Neal is moved by her emotion and says he very badly wishes he could remember her. Emma suddenly flashes back to her memory of Graham when she kissed him and he said to her, “I remember” and realizes that she helped break the curse over him before he died and because she’s true love incarnate along with the fact that she still loves Neal, she thinks her kiss might bring his memory back too. They had gotten closer while talking so she leans over and kisses Neal which of course, jogs his memory and everything comes rushing back just like it did for Graham. They’re both elated and embrace again once they realize that he remembers everything but then it turns tense again when he also remembers that his father is being controlled by the WW and he knows she’s up to no good. They decide not to let everyone know that his memory is back yet until they figure out more of her plan and then this heads into some of the scenes we’ve seen recently of them outside (minus Neal who’s hiding away to keep the secret of his memory being back) and eventually, when they realize the truth about Rumple themselves, Neal’s able to rejoin everyone, memory intact, to help them fight the WW. Maybe it’s total crack and unrealistic but hey, it could work! And we’d get the uber romantic reunion and powerful kiss that we’ve all been speculating about for months….hmm, I may or may not need this to happen now, LOL
Wow, sorry that was so long. Its been in my head all day though! 😮
#MoreBOOMLessGloom