I am watching the ep again. Something feels “off” to me about Neal.
Neal tries to convince everyone that Rumple wants to kill Henry.
When that doesn’t work he convinces Rumple to give him Pandora’s box and tells him he can’t use any magic. Yet Emma has used magic and although he hasn’t been thrilled he seems to accept it. When Rumple makes the comment about being the most powerful one there – Neal says that is why they should be concerned. So Neal is fine with Emma using magic since it’s not all that powerful yet but he firmly warns dad not to use his super powerful magic.
We see Rumple hesitate in giving Neal Pandora’s box and then we have the scene where young Rumple shows his father the bean and isn’t sure about letting his father have the bean because he is afraid he won’t use it for anything good. When they use parallels on the show they are NOT accidental.
We then see Rumple’s father toss the bean on the ground, just like Bae tosses the bean on the ground when Rumple let go of his hand – we now understand the significance of this scene.
When they are outside the Lost Boy’s Camp Rumple asks if he can at least use magic on the Lost Boys – Neal says no so Regina does it. Please help me here. Neal’s ultimate goal is to get his son back but he isn’t willing to use his father’s power to it’s advantage to HELP in the process??? Something isn’t right. It seems like Neal is attempting to stop the use of magic in the progression toward to Henry.
Go back to the last episode. Neal takes Emma and Hook to Dark Hallow and “attempts” to light the candle. He would probably know that Hook doesn’t know how to use a lighter and he gives him about a nanosecond to try before the lighter flies through the air. Then suddenly when it seems like there is no hope for the candle to be lit, the shadows – and how convenient, 3 of them – appear. And Neal tells Emma to save herself, meaning run and leave. How was she supposed to do that? Wouldn’t the 3rd shadow have gotten her just as easily as Neal and Hook? Yes, unless the plan was never for the 3rd shadow to actually attack Emma. To Neal’s surprise Regina has been teaching Emma magic and she has been able to light the candle on her own.
When Snow thanks Rumple for being able to cure David of the DreamShade poisoning when they get back to SB, Rumple says “Well appearantly that’s all the thanks I need these days” implying that Neal wouldn’t allow him to make a deal for the cure. Right after he says this the camera shows Neal deep in thought holding on tight to Pandora’s box. I don’t think that is an accidental scene.
Then when they get to the cave suddenly Neal decides that Rumple isn’t a threat anymore because he doesn’t have a shadow and can get through the protection charm?? So now he decides to just hand over Pandora’s Box with no trust issues at ALL and Regina, who had trusted him and helped him all along UNTIL Neal made her question him, is still concerned?? Sorry but that makes no sense to me at all.
When Emma and Regina are trying to Eclipse the moon, I don’t think Neal looks to happy about it when he moves behind them. In fact I think he looks like “This wasn’t part of the plan.”
When Rumple and PP are talking, listen to what Rumple says when PP is asking him to stay with and telling him they could make a new start. If you changed out the characters and had Rumple say PP’s lines and had Neal say Rumple’s lines, it would still make perfect sense.
The only time during the entire Rumple/PP speech that PP looks bothered is when Rumple tells PP that he is nothing like PP because he searched for his son the entire time after he lost him. In fact, PP looks surprised by this because there is no way he could have known this information while Bae was on the island.
Pandora’s Box – when Rumple can’t get the box to work he says that PP switched the boxes BUT PP tells Rumple “In NL all you have to do is think of something to have it – even something fake.” Well, Rumple certainly didn’t think of a fake Pandora’s box – and who had been carrying around the box and gave it to Rumple before he went into the cave?? Neal!!! And notice right before Rumple tries to make the box work he said “Oh, I’m gonna make a fresh start all right, just not with you.” Again, something that if Neal said it to Rumple would also make perfect sense.
And how would PP have known that Pandora’s Box made it back to Neverland in the first place? John and Michael are now working with Belle so I doubt they would have told him they found it and it is on the way back. It seems like he would need someone ON the island to warn him.
I don’t necessarily think I’m willing to go so far as to say that Neal isn’t trying to #SaveHenry (yet). But this is one seriously messed up family although it appears that the level of fatherly abandonment does seem to decrease somewhat through the generations. But it seems to me that Neal is so unable to forgive his father that his judgement is seriously clouded to the point that his decision making is affecting Henry’s rescue.
I have no problem with Neal wanting Rumple to give up being the DO (not sure if he can voluntarily do that though) or with him wanting him to give up magic. But it seems like now would NOT be the time to insist on it if you really cared about saving your son. It just seems to be a either a personal jab because Neal can just NOT forgive Rumple and he is TRYING to turn everyone against Rumple and is maybe using Pan to help him get Rumple out of his life or my more sadly sinister thought it that maybe Neal is following in PP footsteps and has decided that, like Rumple’s father, he was never meant to be a dad and maybe he wants to go back to having no responsibilities again. Which seems odd since he told Rumple he didn’t want to go back to being 14 again. But then again, I still find it strange that they brought Wendy back so young and have Neal so much older.