August & Baelfire

[glothr]

*I posted this on the OUAT subreddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/onceuponatime) but I wanted to share it here as well*

So a lot has been revealed this last episode. We can now connect some dots that we couldn’t before. I will outline a few of them here. Keep in mind this contains massive amounts of speculation.

As of the episode “The Queen Is Dead” we now know that:

1) Neal is Baelfire (“Manhattan”)
2) Neal knows who Hook is
3) Neal went to at least one other land before ours (most likely Neverland being one)
4) Neal can sail a pirate ship

Building from these facts we can try and make some guess about some other mysteries of the show. Particularly surrounding Neal and August.

Firstly we must consider both of these character’s lives. Both Neal and August had fathers who loved them tremendously but sacrificed being with them: Rumple for power and Gepetto to help protect Emma and eventually help her break the curse. Both were left to fend for themselves as young boys in a strange land. These events could easily put both of them on a path to become Lost Boys in Neverland.

Baelfire noted that our world was not his first stop so we know he went to another land before ours. Taking into account what he revealed in regards to knowing who Hook was and that he could sail a pirate ship it’s also safe to assume he was in with Peter Pan in some fashion, most likely a Lost Boy. After Baelfire left Neverland, however that happened, the same Lost Boys remained. Memories of Baelfire intact.

Early in August’s life in our world he was an orphan on his own who was charged with looking after an infant Emma whom he abandoned to leave with a group of other orphans. Where they went has not been revealed but it’s no stretch to think that maybe they made their way to Neverland (or at least August did somehow). It’s possible that upon arriving in Neverland he joined with the Lost Boys and told them his story. They noted how it was similar to another Lost Boy’s story, Neal, and mention so to August. Naturally he inquires and learns about who Baelfire is. This would explain how August knew who Neal was.

However, Neal did not recognize August which suggests they were not in Neverland at the same time nor have they met face to face before. This brings up another question though: how did August know what Neal looked like? How did he know who to look for? Neal/Baelfire doesn’t really have any distinguishing feature(s) to be identified by and I doubt the Lost Boys had a polaroid of Baelfire. Did someone show him? Could there be another lost boy out there who came back with August? If not, who pointed August to Neal in the first place?

Like most things in OUAT we get some answers which only bring up more questions. Lots of things are still up in the air. To me this brings two storylines together in a very cool way and is by no means a stretch of the imagination. We’ll just have to wait for the long-overdue August episode to see what they reveal.

**EDIT**: I realized last night, and someone else pointed it out on reddit, that August’s age suggests he might not have gone to Neverland. Or, if he did, he only stayed for a short period of time. So that could disprove this theory.

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