[dontstopbelievin]

Compasses

Not sure if the compass portion of my post was ignored or didn’t make sense or what, but I honestly think it’s *really* important, so I want to go back and revisit it.

As GA, the first time I remember an important compass is in Tallahassee. Yep, in the Hook/Emma scenes… that were built around her history with Neal. Anyways, she was on a search for a compass, to get her home. Hook, being Hook, hits on her, and Emma, being Emma, rolls her eyes in annoyance and says, “Let’s find the compass… and go home.” Compasses lead home. Ok? Ok.

When we did our rewatch a few months ago, we came to True North and I groaned. When it first aired, it was one of my least favorite episodes of the series. Perhaps my singular least favorite. I didn’t mind it quite as much the second time through – apparently the blind witch was less terrifying to me, or I’d been desensitized or something. Anyway, I still didn’t “get it,” until I saw Tallahassee the second time, and it dawned on me that there were compasses in both episodes. Since things like that on Once are usually related, I went back to TN to see if there was a connection, and um – yeah.

I had always seen TN as important for Emma because she could see herself both in Nicholas and Ava, as kids who were missing their parents and in their system, and as their father, who was very much her the month prior – parent ambushed with parenthood. But the interesting thing is, I think part of the reason she is so drawn to Nicholas and Ava, and so intent that they are not separated, is that she sees them less as “her” and more as “her and Neal.” Robbing convenience stores to survive? And of course, they drew Henry into it, with the stolen items in his bag – because one of the things Once does is uses Henry to tell his parents’ story. From 1×01 to 3×20, Once uses Henry to tell his parents’ story.

Anyways, Emma has her blanket, and Ava and Nicholas have their fathers’ compass. There are some interesting dialogue moments regarding this compass –

(The Father removes the compass from around his neck and places it over Gretel’s head.)
Father: Take this.
Gretel: Your compass?
Father: So you don’t get lost. A family always needs to be able to find one another.

Okay. The compass is a necklace, and also, families will “always find you.”

The EQ says, about Ava and Nicholas in the EF, “Two helpless children. Lost and alone. A family torn asunder. Such a sad and moving story.”

Lost boy. Lost girl. Family torn asunder. Parallel, check.

Then Emma, looking for their father –

Emma: I want to look for their father. They don’t know him. He may not know they exist.
Mary Margaret: And you think if he knows, he’ll want them?
Emma: I don’t know. But what I do know, is it’s hard enough finding foster families to take one kid that isn’t theirs, let alone two. It’s their best shot, or-
(Ava, who was eavesdropping, interrupts. She is in tears.)
Ava: We’re going to be separated?
Emma: No. That’s not going to happen.

Parallels in this scene are obvious… Dad doesn’t know kids exist. Emma wants kids to have their best shot. And Emma is VERY adamant that kids not be separated.

What does she do? She asks the kids for something of their father’s –

Ava: I might have something. But if I give it to you, you’ll make sure we stay together, right?
Emma: Right.
(Ava pulls a compass on a chain out of her pocket and hands it to Emma.)
Emma: A compass.
Ava: Our mom kept it. She said it was our dad’s.

This episode also features the Great Neal Lie… firefighter and pumpkin pie. At the end, Henry asks, “Do you have anything of his? Something you can remember him by.

Something I could see.” Emma declines, but throughout this whole scene, we can very clearly see the pendant, on a chain, around her neck. (Just like the compass… on a chain, around Ava’s neck.)

As the episode draws to a close, Emma has taken the compass to Rumple (of course, we couldn’t make this happen without Rumple!) and found the Zimmer twins’ father, working at a garage. He denies her request to take the kids, so she heads to Boston to take them to the system, defeated. Her car sputters out, and she calls a tow – and their father shows up. As soon as he sets eyes on them, he agrees to keep them – not unlike how it was said, this season, that if Emma had looked at Henry, she would have kept them. Ultimately, it was indeed the compass that led the twins home.

Last tidbit? “They said their mother was a woman named Dory Zimmer.” Dory? Dorothy? Perhaps.

All right. So now, we’ve had compasse-y things, leading lost kids home, two episodes. One a SF parallel and one a, well, S (lol.) Emma just wanted to get home to her kid, and the magical compass helped get her there.

Fast-forward to 3×20. Compasses, compasses, everywhere. The table in the witches’ hall. The chairs there, too. The barn floor – compass. As Rumple is drawing the compass on the floor, Zelena is holding a compass. Eventually the center of the compass opens, creating a portal, which will eventually draw in Emma… and lead her to find her identity of home. A lost girl… and a lost boy… find their way home. Because, you know, there’s no place like home.

They don’t have threads like that on this show on accident. It’s A Thing, and I choose to look upon it optimistically. 🙂

And to end, a funny. Not sure if it’s nationwide, but around here, we have a chain of convenience stores… called True North. Can never drive past one without thinking of our protagonists. 🙂

[dontstopbelievin]

That article is ridiculous. Romantic moments – Having someone say they were glad your heart was broken? Having your magic zapped, by someone you JUST made it clear you didn’t want to kiss? Dear ABC, please allow me to define a functional relationship for you. NOT THAT.

Cause this story needs some mending & a better happy ending...

[dontstopbelievin]

I spy, with my little eye… something lobster. 🙂

And a bison (!!!!!) and a potato…

SwanFire Mapping (not my map, the actual map!)

Cause this story needs some mending & a better happy ending...

[dontstopbelievin]

Nah. There were some answers in there.

Cause this story needs some mending & a better happy ending...

[dontstopbelievin]

Those lightening round answers are excellent. Every time we get something like that, I hold my breath for the slam down… it still hasn’t happened. Plus, there was this tidbit –

The lights flickered when Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Charming’s (Josh Dallas) new baby was born. Will that be explored?
Kitsis and Horowitz: Perhaps.

That, IMO, bodes quite well for us. Perhaps is generally A&E’s version of “yes” and if that is explored…

Plus, they sure left room for BO322.

And text, if we are still in the mood for fanning this summer, I have it in my head to do a major project boiling down to “Once through SF shipper goggles,” so maybe?

I think the funniest thing in all of this is that A&E are either giant evil trolls and I hate ’em, or giant awesome trolls and I am rooting for them to succeed in their massive fanbase trolling. I either love ’em or I want to throw many many things at them. Hilarious.

Cause this story needs some mending & a better happy ending...

[dontstopbelievin]

I know it will be super-shocking to all that I am riding in the train car with Slurpeez & Phee.

I expect that IF we get MO322, whatever changes to make that happen will “magically” fix it so that we don’t need life-for-a-life to get Rumple back.

What’s interesting about the tweets that Jaxer found is that Adam isn’t just his normal, “no spoilers.” He continues the conversation down the page with the fans, as if he needs to be really really adamant that he’s not going to spoil the finale. Why the need for adamancy if Neal is going to be dead in mere days?

I don’t know how much Emma will need to tell Rumple, but it’s going to be a decent amount. THAT Rumple is in the 110% mindset of “do these things to get to Bae.” He’s waited +/-200 years to get to the point in history where he has the right people to enact the dark curse. He manipulated Cora to get Regina; he trained Regina to get her magic to the right level; he played switch-the-twins to get Charming into a position to get together with Snow. He is now ALMOST at the point where his plot plays out – he is so close to getting back to Bae that he can taste it. Then all of a sudden, poof, in comes this girl and she screws it all up, messes up Snow and Charming’s meeting. Rumple will be PISSED. Then he finds out that this girl is the “what true love creates” that he’s going after, plopped back from the future? His FIRST questions – if she doesn’t offer – are going to be assessing who she is, what does she know, did she break the curse. Once he finds out whether or not the curse is going to be broken, he is going to want to know, “DID I FIND MY SON?” Emma is not a terribly good liar, so “Well, yes, but…” is going to ask more questions.

The thing with Rumple and Emma is that Bae IS the link. It’s what made Manhattan so brilliant. Rumple is a bright, perceptive guy – remember, he deduced from two words to each other that Emma and Neal knew each other, and all it took was Henry walking into the room for him to put the whole story together. Emma has never been afraid of him, she can go toe-to-toe with him, but she’s also no match for him, in terms of trying to hide what’s really going on in the situation. So sure, she can say, “I took you to him in New York,” but it’s only going to ask more questions. How is he? How old is he now? Did he forgive me? What’s his life like? Etc.

Conversely, if he doesn’t ask about his son – no one knows – it is the one thing that gives Emma credibility. She DOES know. I think it’s too big, too central, too juicy a piece of information to get left out. And once it’s brought up, yeah, Rumple’s gonna flip his junk.

It only matters if we get MO322, but incidentally, having Emma see Rumple as the DO in his prime DO form might have some really interesting repercussions in terms of having her understand some of Neal’s actions with regards to running from his father. The arguments for him leaving her in “Tallahassee” are either that he wanted to get her to her destiny, or that he was running from his father. I had always felt it was motivated primarily by the former, and I think that portion is resolved in the sense that it is aligned exactly with what Snow and Charming did. Letting her go to give her her best chance. They have done a very nice job of setting up that parallel; her parents did it to her, Neal did it to her, she did it to Henry. There seems to be understanding of that facet from multiple sides. But even though she’s seen Gold as kind of a scary butthead, seeing DO Rumple as manipulative and ruthless may provide some additional understanding to resolve that little voice of, “He did it because he was running from his father.” She’ll understand WHY.

A random thought, but the plot of WoO is that in order to go home, Dorothy must bring the Wizard back the broomstick of the witch. Perhaps, after Rumple finds out the future-past events that led to Bae’s death, he agrees to help Emma ensure her very existance for the price of the broomstick? That would neatly fulfil the book of records prophecy as Slurpeez was saying, setting her as Dorothy 2.0 in Oz (BTW I stole that from someone else, maybe Phee?) and setting Rumple as the Wizard. I guess it would be a little weird for him to be the Scarecrow and the wizard, when we already have a Wizard in Walsh but –

Oh HA HA HA if Emma goes to Oz and meets Walsh-the-wizard it’s gonna be epic hilarious. “WTFFFFFFF you haven’t aged a day in like 30 years either! No, no, we’ve never met before…” I want to badly for her to find out that she dated the wizard and not just some random flying monkey. Anyways.

It would be a little random, but since he’s Rumple and also the Beast and also the Crocodile and also the fairy godmother, scarecrow, probably more I can’t remember – why not?

(BTW, did Glinda write the book? She is the keeper of the book of records and she’s hangin’ in the EF…)

The biggest thing I wanted to address from the last few pages is, I don’t think there’s going to be any “hint” he is still alive. I think we are at MO322 or DO322. I know I was preaching AO322 but the spoiler of doom was quit clear that whomever dies will be toast, forever. I think we either get absolutely nothing, not a peep, not a whisper – or we get Hook dead in the past (which would explain why the character is definitively and completely gone) and Nealfire alive due to past-changing events.

I also like the theory of 3B being the alternate timeline, and this setting things right. The imagery throughout the season with broken stuff (dreamcatcher, wheel, etc) and the nightmares seeping through would go right on with that theory.

Gotta run. More later.

Cause this story needs some mending & a better happy ending...

[dontstopbelievin]

Just for giggles –

Got up this morning to see if there were any more gems from Adam. No such luck. The only thing I did find is a retweet (from a different friend) from Lisa Kudrow, reminiscing about how the last episode of Friends aired May 6, ten years ago.

1) I’m old
2) Thanks, Phoebs! That’s how my life goes – a little coincidental, but still. Miss “he’s her lobster” talks about yesterday’s date? How fitting.

(I did say it was just for giggles.)

Cause this story needs some mending & a better happy ending...

[dontstopbelievin]

Oh, the dreamcatcher is completely symbolic of the unraveling of Bae’s thread. Like with the principal of balefire, he was killed in the past. His thread had been burned back.

I agree wholeheartedly that I want to see that dreamcatcher again, although it has a lot to do with the fact that I think we will ONLY see it if we get MO322 and it is whole again. (Actually, that could be kind of a cool scene, if Emma takes Henry to his Dad’s place to clean it out or whatever, goes in, finds it whole, wonders to herself “wasn’t it broken when I was here last?” and then he walks into the living room. Ah, fanfic, writing itself in my head again…) If we get DO322, I expect it to be forgotten, forever. But if we get MO322, I expect to see it play a role.

Cause this story needs some mending & a better happy ending...

[dontstopbelievin]

Did my 3×20 rewatch today. I didn’t think there was much, mostly continued analysis of why CS is not and won’t be, but then I found some other stuff and… yeah. I hope I can organize this coherently; I wrote it chronologically and I don’t think it makes much sense. I want to get the random out of the way and will have more connected stuff towards the end… and the SF-y stuff towards the end, because, save the best for last, hey?

RANDOM THOUGHTS

To start at the beginning of the episode, and to back Slurpeez up on what she says – the wheel imagery. Between the cuts back and forth between Rumple and Snow’s chair, and the frentic music, it definitely creates a heightened sense of urgency. “Round and round the circle of time, racing towards the finish line.” Yes, yes we are. I also think it’s interesting that both of those wheels were fine, but back in Dorothy’s crashed house scene, the wheel (prominently focused on at the beginning of the shot) is broken. It makes me think of the broken dreamcatcher; both the wheel and the dreamcatcher symbolize time in WoT and having both broken indicates something is off and not right with this timeline. Perhaps it’s that OUATiW concept of “not her time” but this time with Bae and not Ana?

A random, but as Regina conjures fire in the flashback, Zelena says it’s not that hard. Might there be something with the fireballs and our fire-namesake character? Not sure but usually is A Thing.

Roomies pointed out, why on EARTH did no one call Mary Margaret once they had that babe in arms after Zelena was taken down?? Even a text. “Got d bby on d weigh bck 2 hosp” would have done wonders for her poor broken heart.

I am not a Rumbelle shipper – no ill will, they just haven’t captured my heart like SF has – and this is not a Rumbelle thread, but the ending was LOW. So much sympathy for that ship 🙁 I have adored Belle this half (her whole three scenes, I know, but each and every one has been awesome,) and I just wanted to spit nails and throw things at the TV for all of the shippers. Man, A&E are just trying to hack off all of the fan groups, aren’t they?

As aside, but I have loved, LOVED having realHenry back the last couple of episodes. I know he’s my ship’s kid, so I’m kinda biased – but I adore him, so much… have since before I shipped his parents. The grin and bounding into the room to meet his uncle was freaking adorable.

Hook/Emma

Walking through this episode and watching the Hook/Emma intereactions continues to be telling. When Hook arrives at the hospital Emma literally backs away. Literally. backs. away.

“At the very least, he can draw fire.” “What, now I’m cannon fodder?” I’m gonna go ahead and call that foreshadowing for BO322 on finale. Perhaps no, but, I like it so we’re gonna roll with it. And yes, as others have mentioned, can(n)on fodder, it’s likely a double entendre – much like, “You killed a man for your ship,” now he becomes fodder as he’s sacrificed for the SF canon. Yep, I do have rose-colored glasses on, what of it? 😉

After Emma hugs Henry, and Hook announces, “You ready, Swan?” the look of annoyance was enough to make roommates and I laugh. Emma is. not. a. fan!! and then continues stalking past him in annoyance. Her annoyance towards Hook is at an all-time high in this episode.

The Hook-Emma conversation in the woods is actually a really interesting reversal of viewpoints. Emma is arguing that despite the fact that it was based on a lie, the events in NYC were real “for me, for him. Everything that happened, happened.” Hook, for his part, argues that it was based on falsehoods – “It wasn’t real.” It’s funny to hear Hook pointing this out. If he has such a problem with Emma building her future on anything apart from the absolute honest truth, real, true memories – perhaps he should start by telling her everything about who he REALLY is. The only reason he even has a ghost of a shot (which is really no shot at all) is because she doesn’t know about Ariel, Blackbeard, Milah, etc, etc. Anyways, it’s interesting that she views her return to SB as a manipulation by Hook. Wish she’d grab ahold of the rest of his manipulations, too. But it’s a start.

“We were happy in New York. I’d like us to be happy again.” Interesting choice of phrasiology. It reminds me of another walk in the woods that included the phrase, “we were happy, once.” Is that the last time we heard her reference having been happy? So… once, with Neal, in their tiny home-on-wheels, and once, in his city, with his child. Right. They totally shouldn’t be endgame, it’s just Neal who benefits from them being together. *rolling eyes to ends of earth*

Back to the conversation at hand, the disdain in her voice when she says, “Let me guess, with you?” is epic. Seriously, whomever suggested giving Hook (the book version of) “(S)he’s just not that into you” is brilliant. See paragraph above. A happy ending with Hook is not what the girl is looking for. There is (apparently somewhere in time, still is, lol,) a guy out there who aligns perfectly with what STILL CURRENTLY IS her idea of a happy ending. It was her idea of a happy ending a dozen years ago, still is now. Hint: it doesn’t involve swashbuckling on adventures. Hey Hook? Emma is not Milah 2.0. Get it through your thick thick head!

And still we continue smacking down the concept of a relationship. “Next time you try to take my power away, why don’t you try enchanting the lips that someone I’ll actually kiss.” OUCH! Most of me says, “Go Emma!” but there is a tiny part that – no. Actually, there’s not. Hook has turned into a pathetic puppy dog who can’t take a hint, can’t take a blantant hint, and can’t even take clear statements. So perhaps some cruelty will get it through his head. Emma. does. not. want. you!! I am less than ten minutes into this episode and she has turned him down or expressed annoyance at least a half-dozen times. She is CLEARLY not interested. There is NO reciprocity in this relationship, and he’s pushed it to the point where he’s no longer friend-zoned (as he was in, say, 3×18 where they hung out in the diner) but rather an annoyance to have around. Annoyance seeps out of every pore and she hasn’t had a kind word to say to him. If the writers seriously plan on turning this around in 3×21/22 it will be pure and simple idiocy.

Yep, Emma panicked when Hook almost died. As Slurpeez says – she is a decent human being! She is also someone who in the last week to ten days had someone die in her lap. Even if we remove any romantic or triangle connotations, just make both guys acquantainces, mild friends – you better bet you’re going to react when someone *else* tries to die right in front of you. Incidentally, with Neal she dissolved into immediate tears (which is kind of what she does around him… her walls may as well be made of styrofoam,) with Hook she gets pissed. There is such a difference in reaction here, with her in complete savior mode – as opposed to complete emotional wreck mode – part of me is tempted to watch the scenes side-by-side and diagram them.

I will consent, with RG, that after she gives mouth-to-mouth there is “a look” and I did not like it. What’s interesting is that the first time, I took it quite the same way RG did. But upon rewatch, after considering the fact that she was sitting there watching ANOTHER person in her life die in front of her, I think that’s all there was to the look. “Oh, no, it’s happening again.” And after she’d just been so mean to him! But then he coughed up the water and can you blame her for being relieved? Dang, I would not have wanted to attend another WWW-induced funeral, either.

“It’s okay, I won’t need it in NY.” Yes, Hook – despite winning against the WWW, and despite your appreciation, and your near-death, girl STILL does not want to get with you. You know what else Emma didn’t ask for, as a thank you for saving someone’s life? A kiss. She did it because it was the RIGHT thing, not to gain favor.

Oh, the contrast…

Random SF stuff

“But Emma – she can’t sleep in her car.” “Well, not comfortably.” “Maybe a place by the water, with a view…” “What’s to talk about? We’re home?” So… essentially Henry is trying to put them in “Tallahassee,” with an apartment, not sleeping out of the car, near a “beach?” Because they’re home. Okay kid. 🙂

Seriously, this one is not as blatant as last week’s car thieving but – yeah. Mentioned it to roomie, and she said she can only think of two possibilities, 1) he is on his way back, or 2) they are trying to show that Neal lives on through Henry. These references are so obscure and buried that they’re not GA things, and honestly those of us who are aware that they are SF shout-outs are already plenty aware that he lives on through Henry. Of all three parents, it’s his Dad he’s the most like – IMO, that’s why he and Emma are so close. So, unless they are “secret SF shout-outs to keep the SFers pacified,” which I don’t buy for a minute, then yet again they are continuing to stoke the flames on the SF story.

The really interesting thing to me is this. Last week, when Henry wanted to steal the car, it turned into Hook taking him to the docks, being attacked by monkeys, and Emma telling Hook off. The scenes were an important shout-out, but they also served a greater purpose in the episode. This week? No such thing. At most, they told us Henry wanted to stay in SB. That fact could have been established in a million ways, without devoting an entire scene to it. The *only* purpose of this scene being included was the dialogue, the parental-history shout-outs. Although it was less iconic (and I hold it less dear, personally,) than the car-thieving scene, it in a way almost holds more weight, because it was only there as its own thing… if that makes any sense.

Additionally, the flashing lights upon the Snowflake’s arrival. I think we’ve sufficiently dissected that, but yeah. The Snowflake – confirmed TL baby – flashing lights. Henry – non-canon but implied TL baby – flashing lights. Coincidence? No.

Glinda said to Zelena, about the pendant, “Guard it with your life, because in many ways, it now is your life.” Got it. Pendants are important. Ok. Well this is definitely the first important pendant necklace we’ve ever seen. Wait, it’s not? Oh there is ANOTHER important necklace in this show? Well, it’s a good thing they never draw parallel lines, because that would imply the thing contained in THAT necklace is, in many ways, the wearer’s life…

It’s interesting that Rumple gives Emma the instruction to get the dagger. He knows she is magic-less, but she’s the one he chooses to entrust with that instruction. Guess she is family, after all.

Compasses

Zelena has a compass to use the portal? Isn’t that interesting. Previous compass episodes = Tallahassee, True North – both SF episodes.

Going to the round table bit with the witches, there is so much imagery in the scene. The circles on the back of the chairs are also compasses, as is the table itself. Makes sense – N, S, E, W – but hm. There we are back at the compasses again. It’s quieter in this episode, but still. We’ve only seen it the two other times… Add it to the fire-symbol imagery (it looks like Oz uses the same symbol for Zelena’s “innocence” as the vault used for “fire?”) and it sure is interesting.

The time portal, also, is not a clock as we had thought pre-episode – but a compass. The courage, hearts, brain and innocence (baby) mirror the table in the flashbacks; and again it is a compass.

I guess the compass is this week’s pizza; it took until the third watch to catch it. Nice job, DSB :/

Looking forward to 3×21 & 22

“A sorceress from another land will make Oz her home until she fulfills her destiny, and unseats the greatest evil the realm has ever seen.” Prophecy is a funny thing, and I think those who have speculated Emma will be Dorothy 2.0 is correct. So Oz will be home for a while? Until Zelena is defeated again. And then back home to our world? That introduces questions of world-hopping; I am guessing that we are going to get the trip to the EF, fixing Snow Falls, then hopping to Oz and defeating Zelena before finding “there’s no place like home.” Toto will tag along on all of these, and just like in the original Oz story, I suspect Toto will be a liability that causes Dorothy to miss her original trip home. Because Hook, I mean Toto, is a liability. Just a thought…

Plus, too, there is the well featured prominently – with the book of records, and then the melting. After Emma’s last trip to the EF, where she used the compass to point her way home, she came up through the well. That seems important, given all of the compasses again. And in the last scene, Glinda makes a vow, “Then I will find someone else to fulfil the prophecy. As long as I am in Oz, I will not stop searching, until I find someone to stop you.” Yes, I know she was banished to the EF – but she was still searching. And man, Emma needs a win this season!

Cracktheory: What if she returns this time like she did last time, through the water/well, but this time instead of having the compass to guide her she uses the necklace? That would be a really nice full-circle from the Tallhassee episode, where both halves of the triangle were introduced.

Glinda says about Zelena, “Now gone, her magic will be undone.” This is a CLEAR reference to the concept of balefire, where once you burn someone back, things that they’ve done (in particular people they’ve killed) are back – those things never happened. We saw it exhibited with the shadow and the Blue Fairy in S1; we saw it with the monkey and Little John later this episode. Once Glinda is “undone,” that which she had wrought SHOULD be fixed.

We follow this up with Zelena’s comment, “Once I change the past, you and I shall meet under different circumstances.” Rumple’s promise, then, is, “No matter where you go in time, I will find a way to kill you.” This is a promise, a vow, and we know how Rumple takes those. It is also significant foreshadowing. Once past-Rumple finds out that future-Zelena caused Bae’s death, she’s toast. In the past, balefire-style… thereby undoing the death of Baelfire.

Interesting note: Dorothy’s slippers were gold. Implication: silver slippers are still with Glinda. Available for future use?

Regina’s commentary is of course important – “Had I killed Snow White, I wouldn’t be in this world. I wouldn’t be with these people, and I wouldn’t have my son, Henry.” That is, of course, foreshadowing to finale, and it’s that last part that’s important. ALL things are crucial to ensure the existance of Henry. It might be our SF saving grace – can’t erase Baelfire, need him for Henry. Have to cast the dark curse – need it for Henry. Emma must grow up in our world – necessary for Henry. Rumple can’t go pluck Bae out of Neverland at the time of Snow Falls – he needs to hang there for a while longer to lead to Henry.

A last thought – I think I talked about this last night but I wanted to articulate it again. The end of the episode, when Rumple did whatever he did to Zelena – I guess (I am not sure) the implication was that he killed Zelena, but once she was gone, she reinvgorated her magic and used it to open the portal. Not sure?? But I am wondering if the “how” of what Rumple did to her was not so much kill her, but to spell her somehow, causing the portal to open. There are only two people who had the motivation to open the portal – Zelena herself, and Rumple, who could well have been putting a fake front in the farmhouse kitchen after she introduced the idea he could go back and retrieve Bae. It would be totally IN character for Rumple to make that happen. Also interesting is that she didn’t so much “die” as she was derezzed – disintegrated in pixelated form – which was foreshadowed when Henry was in the diner with Mary Margaret playing his gameboy (cradle cap scene.) So he derezzed her, and caused her pendant to go all smokey green and re-open the portal? Perhaps. I guess if the portal was programmed to go back to just before the traveler’s birth, it would explain why it went back to SF and not the time of Cora and Leo – who knows.

If I wasn’t so emotionally attached to this story, I would be very calm, and very confident, because based on all of the clues that have been laid out, the events seem obvious. Neal Cassidy may be dead, but he will be back, at least in his Baelfire persona. Because Zelena did not interact with him until the events of 3×12, his life up through that portion should stay the same. The only effect she’s had on our characters are Rumple’s tutillege of her – so her death should not alter anything before 3B. Much like Slurpeez has talked about with Ana/Red Queen, I’ve long felt we would be shedding Neal Cassidy and going with Baelfire. It makes perfect sense – he became Neal to run from his identity of Bae, son-of-Rumplestiltskin. He has reconciled that relationship, so “Neal Cassidy” no longer needs to remain. Ironically, the hardest person I think to reconcile that is Emma, to whom he has ever only been Neal. I had a passing thought a long time ago that her using Bae as his name would be important at some point. It seems likely that next week will be that point. Perhaps the events of 321/2 will make it easier for her to think of him merely as Bae, and not as Neal. Unfortunately, though, I am emotionally attached… so I am nervous. It “seems” like it all fits perfectly, but then, when do things go as they “seem” with A&E? I don’t know. I am not as far into the tent of doom as I would like to be at the moment, but I think I am okay. I am emotionally checked out – I see the logic of it but I cannot allow myself to believe it, not for more than a moment here or there anyways. So we will see. Five more days, right? We have made it this far, it’s just five more days.

*shakes head* Of Compasses and Pizza, of Compasses and Pizza.

Cause this story needs some mending & a better happy ending...

[dontstopbelievin]

ALSO GUYS!!!

Happy one year anniversary to the thread!! Not sure if 1300 pages in a year is more impressive, or the part where the 400 pages have been in the last month. Thanks Slurpeez for starting this thread, I am quite certain it has saved me a few times!!

Cause this story needs some mending & a better happy ending...

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