405: Critical Analysis

THIS! The way JMo played Emma’s reaction to the photo was perfect, but it wasn’t consistent for the character. It’s exactly how she should be feeling only a couple of weeks at most after that man she had loved, the father of her child, died in her arms. Instead she’s been running around town cracking jokes and going on dates like Neal didn’t just die in her arms two weeks ago. So this reaction to the photo, while it was perfect, it was out of the blue, inconsistent, and won’t be followed up on, and therefore it feels less like a genuine, heartfelt acknowledgment of him, and more like them saying, “Oh yeah, Neal was a thing, don’t worry folks, we really do remember he existed and Emma cared about him one time,” before they promptly move on and get back to business as usual and the loss won’t be bothering her that way ever again because who needs character consistency when we have plot to move forward. And that’s why the inclusion of the photo feels a bit like a slap in the face to SFers. As for the bootlace, we didn’t even know that it was Graham’s until it was mentioned by JMo after she’d been wearing it for two seasons without explanation, so that goes to show how well they documented Emma dealing with having HIM die in her arms.

I have to respectfully disagree with this. I think it’s very consistent with Emma’s character. She just had that very intense moment in the street with Hook where she expressed her sadness and fear at everyone she’s ever been with dying. She’s clearly grieving and struggling with this grief. She had to get those emotions out before she could ask Hook on the date so saying she’s just going out on dates and cracking jokes without grieving Neal just isn’t accurate. I think it’s a perfectly reasonable progression in character and storytelling. These little moments should be enough for the audience to see that she is dealing with it and it does still affect her. Any more than that would just not be good television. Not to mention that Emma showed no intention of getting back together with Neal. I guess that’s controversial opinion, but it is mine. And honestly to the casual viewer Neal died months ago and they don’t understand that it’s only been a few weeks in the show time line. I’m actually surprised at the amount of Neal references we’ve had this season. So yes, going on a date with Hook is perfectly reasonable as is her Neal-grief manifesting itself in this type of fear that she feels about losing Hook. I think it says a lot about her character development that she’s able to share these types of emotions with someone instead of holding them all in. Emma has never been a feelsy emotional character and I am LOVING the choices they’re making with showing us these little hints of her pain, but still keeping her very Emma during crisis mode. I loved too how the picture-moment could serve to show us how both Emma AND Hook are still grieving Neal specifically. The street scene kind of lumped him in with the rest of the crowd and this photo scene really set him apart as something more important and I think that’s great for Neal and SF shippers. I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet of Emma grieving any of the people she’s lost. Especially as her relationship progresses with Hook and this new revelation that she’s yet again had memories ripped from her.

Also LOL about Once using TWO screen caps as photos this episode. The SF one didn’t bother me quite so much as the OQ one… I mean just… lol. I felt like the SF one was kind of cute and selfie-ish anyways and an unframed polaroid makes sense. But Regina suddenly having a pic of her and Robin printed AND framed cracks me up.

But that street scene also came out of nowhere. After Neal’s death, we had one episode where she was angry and wanting revenge and then…nothing. She spent the rest of the season going back and forth over NYC or SB/magic but there was no grief-stricken feelings

I disagree that it came out of nowhere. It came out of her seeing her new romantic interest in danger. She is not going to just outwardly grieve Neal. It just wouldn’t be in character or interesting to watch. There’s too much other story going on. Her grief manifested itself in these emotions she was feelings towards seeing Hook in danger. She was self aware enough to correlate her annoyance with Hook putting himself in danger. to the fact that she’s still grieving the people she’s lost. I know people don’t like Hook so it’s hard for them to understand how important he is to Emma but he really is and those feelings are bringing out this fear and grief in her.

You don’t think Emma wanting to leave Storybrooke behind forever had anything to do with the grief she felt over Neal’s death? You don’t think she wanted to protect Henry from that pain by taking him away and not giving him his memories back? I feel like after Neal died is when Emma really went all gung ho and out in the open about wanting to go back to NYC. Emma’s a runner. She just wanted to get away from all of it to avoid having to deal with any of it. So why would she spend a lot of time grieving about it when she had decided she was going to leave and go back to NYC specifically to not deal with it? It makes sense that she’s dealing with it NOW since she’s decided to stay.

Let’s talk about Henry. He has mentioned his father a grand total of–what–once? And that was dropping his dead dad card on his still grieving grandfather as a form of manipulation. The writers aren’t very good at showing actual human psychology, in this case with grief. Henry should be a mess, or at least thinking about his father outside of just “this is how I turn the tables on Gramps!”

We’re in complete agreement here. Dislike dislike dislike.

How could they not understand this when 401 picks up literally seconds after 322 ended? And even if they do think it has been a few months–are we trying to say that grief has a timeline and after a few months, POOF…misery gone? Again, it goes back to the writers not really writing good human psychology.

I guess I meant more in the viewer’s lives Neal died months ago and many of them dealt with it or accepted it and moved on. They aren’t looking at the show under a microscope and examining days or hours. They’re just watching the show and experiencing it on their own time line. I’m not putting a time line on grief at all I just think on a television show where you’re trying to captivate your audience showing your main characters still hardcore grieving a character that died almost a half season ago isn’t very compelling. However, these moments of emotion and grief from Emma are compelling and special. Wish we were seeing them from Henry, too.

Good human psychology isn’t necessarily good television and that is 100% the goal here. It’s not a medical journal on psychology it’s a drama. It could also be argued that not everyone deals with grief immediately or in the same way. Maybe Henry just hasn’t gotten to that point yet. He’s young and maybe doesn’t understand the true loss yet. I really don’t think we can tell these characters how/when to grieve. They’re clearly not done referencing Neal so I don’t think it’s out of the question for him to come back up again in Henry’s future story (if we ever get any??? why so little Henry?? WHY?) I’m just trying to appreciate the moments that we are being shown that’s all I was trying to convey.

I disagree about interesting to watch. I think there needs to be something portrayed on screen as a manifestation of grief–and not some 12 episodes post-death.

My overall problem with Emma and her running in S3B was that she she never gives her motivation. She doesn’t really talk about her fears and her anxieties. And then she went back and forth and back and forth. I’m not asking for her to be curled up in the fetal position with a pint of Ben and Jerry’s. But they–the writers–need to start giving some more moments of characters talking about their inner feelings and psychology–and this goes a lot to how the write more ACTION and MAGIC and MYTH! than they do the human stories of season one.

I just don’t think it’s in character for Emma to deal with it right away. She’s been sooo closed off. She would only deal with things when she’s forced (calling Charmings Mom & Dad end of season 2 with death imminent.. Telling Neal she loved him as he was about to fall into a portal). Let’s not forget we’re talking about a character who literally told Neal that she had wished he was dead instead of alive so she wouldn’t be forced to deal with what it made her feel. I mean… it doesn’t get much more clear cut than that.

Her motivation for running was that she didn’t want to deal with magical stuff and she wanted to protect Henry (see dock scene with Hook). I think Neal’s death solidified her choice to go back to NYC, but she couldn’t examine that further because that would require her to deal with it. She’s intelligent – if she looked inside those feelings she would realize that running away wouldn’t solve them. Instead we see her internalize, avoid and run away.. that’s her character. I don’t remember her going back and forth I just remember her telling Hook like a hundred times that she was leaving and his sad faces – lol.

We’re dealing with it 12 eps post death because for the majority of those episodes she was leaving so she didn’t have to deal with it. She decided to stay a few episodes ago in the finale and now has to deal with it as she embarks on another relationship. Not to mention Henry didn’t have his memories at this point and she expressed how lost she felt trying to deal with Henry’s grief and that’s when Hook offered to bond with Henry over Neal. She was desperate not to have Henry get his memories back and didn’t know what to say/do that wouldn’t be confusing or suspicious to Henry. She’s not perfect and she doesn’t ever emotionally deal with this well. She never has. So expecting her to do so, especially after a traumatic loss, will leave you feeling disappointed. She’s not there yet.

I think these two Emma scenes (the street and the photo) are where we ARE getting a look into her inner feelings and psychology. It’s finally here so let’s appreciate it! It’s interesting to watch right now. We’re getting these moments and people are calling them OOC or out of nowhere and that just doesn’t make sense to me. I see how it might seem that way if you were expecting her to deal with her grief right away last season, but that’s not how it played out and I kind of think this way is better. We get to see her deal with these things as CS develops and she’s forced to confront her relationship struggles in a more Emma like fashion (when she’s forced or when she’s ready). I feel like we’re getting more to a point where she’s doing things more because she’s READY and less because she’s FORCED and that’s kind of exciting!

I think Henry has had a lot of loss. He did lose Neal once before, remember? When they all thought he died in 222. And we got to see a bit of his brokenness. Now he’s gone for good–lost his father yet again, after Neal promises they’d see each other again. I get that A and E don’t write heavily for Henry anymore, but…there should be something there. And I’m not trying to tell them how to grieve, but the fact that–in the case of Henry–there is apparently NO grief…does not compute.

True! The way I’m kind of justifying this to myself is that Henry now has a “we are both” thing going on with the year in NYC. He’s got years and years of fake memories of thinking Neal was a deadbeat loser. Processing that death now becomes more complicated. This isn’t being portrayed in the show at all, but it’s kind of my interpretation of how they could excuse the blatant lack of Henry dealing. I mean god this poor child. First he thinks his dad is a dead hero. Then he finds out the truth and bonds with his dad and has to say goodbye. Then he gets blasted with years worth of memories of his dad abandoning him and his mom. Loses his dad while he still thinks that’s true and then gets blasted with his real memories again which are already confusing. Ugh it makes me really upset to even think about it. It’s just so twisted and messed up how that all happened. How does a non fully developed child’s mind even begin to process that? I don’t even know. It just makes me sad. 🙁

1) Sorry to see you go Grimm. 2) I do want to touch on something Grimm brought up which is the whole “a family that loves me” bit. There seems to be a template for every seasonal villain arc. 1) Villain will be connected to Henry’s family somehow (in this case, Emma’s foster mother) 2) Villain will be misunderstood 3) Villain will be looking for love and going about it in the wrong way. Now I know that evil isn’t born it’s made is a big deal to them and back in S1 and even S2 that was a pretty great idea and message. But this is becoming the same song sung over and over. Pan (and Jafar in WL) were the exceptions which is, IMO, what made them so fascinating and refreshing. Now that they’ve got their template it’s a matter of filling in the blanks and they tend to fill in the blanks with an overdose of shiny! So: Snow Queen is misunderstood villain who wants a family that loves her and is connected to Henry through Emma. Now they fill in the blanks by inserting as much Frozen as possible. I will say…this is the first episode without a Frozen flashback and it was really nice, even if the flashbacks themselves were nothing new.

#3 still applied to Jafar.  Then he killed the guy.