"What I Really Want Is You"

[faux pax]

So there’s been a lot of discussion about why Neal went along with August–why he couldn’t have just been with Emma and then brought her to Storybrooke later.

I saw something on Tumblar that got me thinking. It was a theory that “Neal” had repressed his memories of “Bae” and that’s why the person who posted that idea thought the personalities didn’t match. Well i don’t agree about the personalities, but it got me thinking. Maybe all that was to protect Emma from Neal.

You take a kid pretty much from the dark ages and stick him in our world. Chances are he will eventually find his way into the foster system and because he has no clue what is going on around him, CPS will think he was abused and send him to therapy. The shrinks think he’s crazy (i mean they wouldn’t believe anything he tells them–other worlds, portals, fairies, ect) and that everything he remembers is really an elaborate fantasy he has developed to cope with whatever happened to him, probably throwing a few prescriptions at him along the way.

Over time he starts to question if maybe they’re right. If maybe there was something wrong with him. Eventually he gets so torn inside that he does the only thing he can think of: he runs away, putting BOTH his old lives behind him and picking up a new name.

When he sees whatever it is that August showed him, he knows one of two things is happening. Either August is telling the truth, or he’s just a figment of Neal’s imagination and he’s in the middle of some sort of psychotic break. If August is real and he’s telling the truth, then this is something Emma has to do. But if he’s not–if he was just something Neal’s mind had cooked up then Neal was breaking and he didn’t want Emma anywhere near him…either way he really didn’t have a choice.

What do you guys think?

[PriceofMagic]

I don’t think Neal thought August was a figment of his imagination. For one thing August physically pulled him off a fence and pinned him to the ground.

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[faux pax]

Hallucinations can be very real in some cases. Some people with schizophrenia really can’t tell what is real and isn’t and even swears that whatever they thought happened was real. I’m not saying I actually believe this, i’m just trying to start conversation.

[schmacky]

I could believe that Neal believes August was a figment of his imagination. I mean, within the given theory that Neal believes he’s unstable if he was Bae and had all sorts of therapy and whatnot when he first got here.

But, I don’t really want Neal to be Bae so…

[PriceofMagic]

Neal initially thought August was a cop then I think he thought August was a nutjob. The idea that Bae may have repressed his memories of fairytale land could be quite interesting. It could lead to a nice contrast between August claiming to be Bae in season one and Neal denying being Bae.

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[gypsy]

I don’t think they’re going to have Neal (Bae) be schizophrenic.

If he thought August was a figment of his imagination, why would he give the keys to the vdub and the money to a figment of his imagination?

[antbee]

@PriceofMagic wrote:

Neal initially thought August was a cop then I think he thought August was a nutjob. The idea that Bae may have repressed his memories of fairytale land could be quite interesting. It could lead to a nice contrast between August claiming to be Bae in season one and Neal denying being Bae.

Yes, I like this theory a lot because I could see Nealfire repressing his memories of the magical world because the memories were too painful to deal with and because once he landed here, I’m sure he learned quickly that no one would ever believe him if he told them the truth. So I think over time, those memories have become so repressed in him that he thinks that those things never really happened, he just created memories of a magical world to deal with his father and mother abandoning him.

I’m sure the writers could fill in the holes in some way if the go this route too.

I don’t think they’re going to have Neal (Bae) be schizophrenic.

I don’t think they would go that far either, but I think it could work since denial is pretty powerful. Although he would have the missing money and car as proof that he met up with this guy that showed him a mysterious magical box, Neal could have just convinced himself later on that something else happened instead like he got robbed and blacked out and someone took his money and keys, or something along those lines.

Further, 10 years is a long time, so maybe he’s been seeing a therapist in NYC and is on medication now for his “delusions”, and maybe this is why he runs off when he sees Emma because either he's not ready to deal with the possibility that his “delusions” were real, and/or he thinks he's unworthy to be with her now because of his “delusions”.

This would be a great reason, imo, as to why he didn’t go to Storybrooke right away. I could just imagine him trying to explain everything to a therapist. “Well, this guy had a magical box, and he said that he’d send me a postcard when the Curse was broken so that Emma and I could be together, and yesterday I just got this postcard from a pigeon.” The therapist would be like, “Neal, I’m very concerned. See there’s not even a Storybrooke, Maine on this map, and there’s nothing on the Internet about a town of that name ever existing. Maybe we need to up your meds.”

So staying in NYC equals not being insane in Neal’s mind, but going to search out Storybrooke would equal him being insane.

It would definitely be an interesting twist, imo, if they had Neal being very reluctant to accept that his memories were real, and I think it would be different enough from Emma not believing in season 1. She didn’t accept it mostly because she felt unworthy of being the Savior. However, in Neal’s case, if he believes, not only does it might mean that he’s given in to being crazy, but then he also gets even more guilt that not only did he not help save his father from the curse of being the Dark One, but because he got separated from his father due to the magical bean, his father destroyed their whole world just to be reunited with him.

I think it would be really juicy material that MRJ, Jennifer Morrison, and Robert Carlyle could knock out of the park.

[faux pax]

I just posted this more because all the other threads I follow are dry right now, but now that I see your post AuntBee, I kind of want them to do something like that. The thing about him being Bae wasn’t a surprise at all and now that it’s been all but confirmed, I do hope they have some kind of twist.

Besides, it would add another parallel between him and Henry.

[Josephine]

You guys all have such interesting theories. I just want Neal in Storybrooke bonding with Henry. Although I am a massive Swanfire/Swanthief fan, I not expecting anything this season between the two. It’s Neal/Henry I can’t want to see together. He is so much like his parents. I also want to see Neal with Gold, if Neal is Bae (I’m so sick of this phrase…come on, just confirm it already).

I wrote this in another thread, but what I’m most looking forward to is seeing Emma, Neal and Henry going to Storybrooke in the yellow bug. I wonder what conversations that would bring up…or just a complete and awkward silence. 😉

Keeper of Rumplestiltskin's and Neal's spears and war paint and crystal ball.

[midnight dreary]

^Aww, I’d love to see them all together in the yellow bug. 😀

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