[MysteryKat25]

@CaptainEala

Agree completely!

I’m waiting to see how things play out because I agree, I think it *may* have been foreshadowed that Neal *could* go dark. I had a lot of “like father, like son” vibes in this episode. It was interesting to see him banish the Baelfire thing as well because I agree, that is the BEST part of him! That’s the part I come back to and say I don’t want to see you hurt but…” and he’s banishing that away! But I think his arc is like the others, he’ll need to embrace who he is and confront the past and hopefully he won’t slide too far down if he does at all. I’m afraid it could happen, but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt for now. I want him to be a good father for Henry if nothing else.

That said, I was a little struck by how much more of young Bae SHOULD have learned from HIS past and not project that on to others, especially since he himself did not like having choices taken away from him. This is a HUGE thing because we saw him tell Rumple that he WOULD have gone home with him if he had just asked if that’s what he wanted. All he wanted was to be given CHOICES and he would choose family every time. It was HEARTBREAKING. But…then I remember all the times that he didn’t give Emma a choice. He tried to TELL HER he was leaving her because it was better for her if he went alone. SHE had to say no, here’s what we do so that we can stay together. He agreed, she stuck her neck out, and she was the one that ended up in jail. Those were all because of HIS choices. He made it not once but twice for her (and the first one she outright rejected because it meant them being apart and he was TOUCHED by that and then August showing up made him make a SECOND choice for her and this time it happened.

I feel like time and time again we see Neal being hypocritical which I think is one of the main things that bugged me and you pointed out one inparticular that I was thinking of: that he is focused on his 2nd chance with Emma after doing so many hurtful things that would surely have broken trust on a massive scale, but then couldn’t give the same to Rumple. I only hope that he continues to realize that Emma may not take him back and be understanding of it since he’s doing the same thing himself.

The trust was broken on completely different levels but it was broken nonetheless. I want Neal and Rumple to eventually patch things up but I think it can only happen to a point. It’ll always be the elephant in the room. Neal doesn’t want bad things to happen to Rumple but he just can’t risk believing him today when he could switch at any moment because it suits him. Neal is absolutely right that right now, when he thinks he has to die to save Henry, he’ll do it but that when they get home and if the choice comes to Henry or Belle, he could choose Belle. Ideally no such choices would have to be made, but all Neal has ever seen is a man who refuses to give up his power for his family and it’s happened over and over again.

Darn right Emma has a lot of anger and she’s entitled to! This episode was great for her growth as a person because it showed us that she DOES have emotions about what has happened and they’ve been pent up for some time now. She got a tiny bit of closure (not nearly enough) when Neal fell through the portal but she at least learned that she could trust HERSELF since that’s really what he broke all those years ago, and that she IS lovable. Those are massively important things but it doesn’t erase the pain caused by growing up feeling that way, especially when you find out your entire life is a lie and was manipulated by everybody else. Emma likes to make CHOICES, not listen to ORDERS.

I really think that PP has manipulated this entire thing and that will NOT sit well with either Neal or Emma. Neal touched on it a bit in Manhattan saying maybe it was supposed to happen for a reason and that something good came out of it, but certainly wasn’t acting like they were meant to be forever and life didn’t work out that way. He even told her then that HE made the choice to let her go so that she could go home (which wasn’t with him). He didn’t consult her on it and that didn’t sit well with her and neither did the idea that somebody out there was manipulating things.

If PP is pulling the strings and needed Baelfire to meet Emma so that Henry would exist, what if they were meant to be with someone else and weren’t really given the option? Who knows just how much detail went into this plan. Neal would have been in our world for awhile before he met Emma but what if their actual meeting was influenced by something or someone under the orders of PP and they just didn’t know? What if someone influenced the choices they made so that they’d end up in the right place at the right time? Think about it: had the shadow not interfered and be intent on getting Bae eventually – since we saw PP try to get him tonight earlier than that – Bae would have stayed with his “real family” the Darlings. He would never have met Emma at all. She would never have existed at the same time he did except for the manipulation, so wouldn’t he have found love elsewhere? Perhaps Wendy even which is pretty much impossible now but at one point they were quite fond of each other? (To the point where it was said that Emma reminds him of Wendy in an interview or something). What if Emma, not being potentially influenced to find him would have found someone else along the way too? Her happy ending was taken because of the curse and because August needed to set things in motion so that she would go back and undo the curse. Her happy ending was taken away a second time by PP setting her up to be the mother of the truest believer by affecting when Neal was in our world.

Emma really hates all the fate and destiny stuff already. I don’t think she’ll take too kindly to the idea that it was all set up, especially since she confronted Neal about that very idea in the bar in Manhattan. It doesn’t change the very real feelings that they shared just because it was started off in a set up way, but it doesn’t HELP matters for them either.

I’ve seen so many people say that scene made SF 100% endgame after Emma’s speech that I want to scream. NOTHING has been set in stone yet. Emma is learning that she knows next to nothing about a very big part of Neal’s life and she’s also addressing how she feels about everything. I was CHEERING when she told Snow that she hadn’t just lost him. She lost him a LONG time ago which is what we’ve been saying all along. The only difference now is that she had him back around for a short time and still didn’t get all that hurt and anger off her chest and now she never can. The portal scene was closure in a tiny tiny way but she still has a lot of anger inside her over all of it and I can’t blame her AT ALL.

Of course she still had feelings for him on seeing him again! It was like a high school sweetheart that she never actually broke up with he just disappeared on her and made her question her instincts since he was the only one in her life she ever trusted and he promised her the world & vanished! ALL of those feelings were stirred back up again and she realized she had just been blocking it all out but not letting herself really move on either – that really bugged me though, hello, Graham anyone? Ugh. But besides that, it was very real and made sense that those feelings didn’t disappear cause the relationship didn’t “end,” it just became non-existant in her world, even after spending two years looking for him. Poor thing!

I really really hate that people think she’s going to kiss Hook for comfort or to say thank you or to block out her feelings for Neal. He knows they’re there. He’s been the one taking care of her! They’ve mentioned Neal a TON. But that doesn’t stop them from being drawn to one another. Emma saying she lost Neal a long time ago was extremely important. She still had her walls WAY up on the beanstalk and punished Hook for Neal-esque mistakes that he didn’t even make, but that’s because her past was affecting her judgement. Now she’s coming to terms with that past, as much as she can while she thinks Neal is “dead” and she doesn’t want to waste forever.

Look at the people around her who have spiraled out of control upon losing someone they love, or people who have spent centuries trying to get revenge only to still feel nothing. She sees a real change in Hook and knows that he’s been there just like he said he would be the whole time and he is SHOWING her that she CAN trust him like she always wanted to. Make no mistake, she was always drawn to him and fighting it. That doesn’t go away just because everybody else thinks you should be grieving a loss that you dealt with over a decade ago. She’s been through it once before so she’s sad for Henry’s sake and she’s upset she didn’t get a chance to tell him just how much it hurt her that he came back after so much time and that he loved her that whole time but didn’t do anything about it. And here’s this captain who she’s been drawn to from the start who is doing all the right things so of course it’s getting to her. And it’s NOT a fling and it’s NOT a rebound. I could totally see her saying something next week that shows this (please show this) that she just doesn’t want to waste any more of her life NOT acting on things because she’s afraid to. She doesn’t want to look back 10 years from now and know that Hook loved her this whole time and that she felt something too but was too afraid to do anything about it. I fully expect her to say SOMETHING though because even Hook will likely be shocked since she’s been bittersweet at every mention of Neal and he reads her pretty well, but something in this seems real to him too based on his reaction from the promo. They BOTH lost someone they cared about deeply at a stage of their lives ages ago and no matter how much time has passed, it always hurts when you think someone is dead and you idealize it and try to block out the bad stuff and remember the good. But for once, it’s not stopping them from LIVING and trying to be happy. To choose love over anger.

Charming. Oh Charming! Father daughter moments I’ve been begging for but that was not it! However…I adore the man and he is quite sick and he’s worried about his little girl and she so did not help matters by getting all that off her chest to Snowing and then turning around and being a little too flirty and kissing the pirate, no matter how helpful he’s been. That said, people are picking up on the dynamic between them and we’ve never seen Charming be worried with regards to Neal. Granted Neal WAS engaged so he probably didn’t pay him too much mind. I definitely want a punch thrown at some point though because he caused Emma way more pain than Hook ever did, so if he’s threatening his new best buddy, there better be plenty to go around. Nobody will ever be good enough for his baby.

Charming telling Hook to stay away from Emma is a nice callback to Tallahassee though! In Emma’s episode we’re shown that Neal is told to stay away from Emma and he ends up choosing to and all she ever gets from him after that is keys to their car. No note. (She would have gotten money but August!!) The rest of the episode, heavy on Emma’s backstory, set up CaptainSwan moments. Why is this significant? In Good Form, a Hook-centric episode, we are getting not only THE KISS, aka the biggest CaptainSwan moment yet, but we’re also seeing Charming tell Hook to stay away from Emma. What are the odds he listens? Um, I’m sorry have you met him? “A man unwilling to fight for what he wants deserves what he gets.” Emma KNOWS that Pinocchio told August to leave her and he did. So I’m really hoping that she hears Charming threaten Hook or that Hook says something about “your father told me to stay away from you” or something like that. HUGE CONTRAST started in Tallahassee!

Back to the “they are drawn together” thing. Emma and Hook have always been that way. Watching each other ALL THE TIME. That didn’t stop anything from happening and it won’t now either. They have been BUILDING toward something huge.  THE KISS. Hook won’t stay away from Emma just because Charming told him to. Nor will Emma suddenly stop being drawn to the pirate just because Neal came back into her life which brought up a lot of old PAINFUL feelings. Nor will it stop it just because people around her think it hasn’t been long enough since Neal “died” or that Hook isn’t good enough for her in some way. Emma has and will always be drawn to Hook. That’s how they interact. Tonight she was so not subtle about how good of a team they are and how they rely on each other. She didn’t even have to turn around to ask him something because she knew he’d be there and have answers for her. When Tink asked about an escape plan, Emma immediately turned to Hook expectantly, like he would have already made the plan and she trusted his judgment. When she found out it didn’t exist yet, she followed his lead to the viney rock in the middle of the jungle. Even when she questions things at first, she still backs him up just like he does for her!

I’m so afraid Hook knowing Charming’s secret is going to bite everywhere. He looked so conflicted about it because he doesn’t want Emma to hurt but he also wants to win over her father. He could totally just wait for Charming to die since he thinks it will happen but he keeps trying to find ways around that and get Charming to tell his family what’s going on because he knows what suddenly losing someone you love feels like and he doesn’t want them (mostly Emma, but them) to know that feeling. Their scenes are HEARTBREAKING but also amusing at times. Love the budding bromance! I think deep down Charming will find a way to like Hook and learn to trust him for Emma’s sake even if nobody will be good enough for his baby girl which he totally still thinks of Emma as!

Titles. Titles tell me a lot and once I calmed down after this episode I really thought about them. This episode was Nasty Habits. There were a lot of them in here, including a lot of father/son issues that I’m not sure can ever be FULLY resolved but at least to the point of being in each others lives and genuinely caring. Neal has a LOT of things he falls back on (it’s totally where Henry gets it) and while some moments were wonderful and triumphant, he still has a lot of things to deal with where he reverts, big time. For the most part, it was Rumple’s nasty habits that are getting in the way and he does need to get rid of them but even if he does, that trust will still be broken to a point. It’s going to be a long road and he’s got a lot more past and dark past at that, than most to sort through. Neal has his own issues for sure and it was mostly those two that this episode focused on but there were a few other things as well: namely, Emma and her past. She made it clear that she was not ok with what happened. That it took THAT long to find out that he cared about her the entire time and did nothing about it. That she let that control her for so long because she hadn’t had closure, hadn’t heard that her instincts were right. She has essentially been living in the past by now allowing herself to move forward with anyone since she was still affected by her past with Neal. That is a nasty habit that needs to be broken for sure!

We were reminded in this episode what has happened to everyone we’ve seen lose the one they love. Emma hasn’t reacted that way. We know from the preview and the spoiler stuff that she will KISS Hook and that it will be a real kiss. This is a woman who doesn’t let her walls down, who we haven’t seen had a fling even when Graham died just to get comfort or anything like that. Yet she is KISSING HOOK very soon. Regina is STILL struggling over Daniel’s death, Snow can’t even IMAGINE losing Charming, and Emma’s out there saying she’s angry with what Neal did but she lost him a long time ago and it’s time to move on with her life. I really really feel like kissing Hook will be her accepting the fact that she’s been drawn to him from the start, he is proving to her day in and day out that he’s there for her, and that she doesn’t want to lose more years on regret and wasted opportunity. This kiss will change EVERYTHING because it will become real that there is something between them and it will ratchet up the triangle even more when Neal comes back because of this.

They both care about Neal. That’s not remotely in question. It’s what will make it very awkward and what will make her take a step back and need to figure things out. There was always meant to be a real pull between them. But I think in the end Emma won’t want to go back and be that girl she used to be. She has a real chance at a future with Hook that isn’t scarred by mistakes of the past and there will be NO denying they’re drawn to each other now. I find it interesting that it’s similar to Snowing because even though they didn’t kiss until she was under the memory potion, they were drawn to each other from the start. In fact I’d love it if Emma had a line when Hook says something and she basically says “I almost believe that” because it would tie back in nicely to Snowing. (Basically it would need to be him being very hopeful and confident that everything will turn out fine and I could see him comforting her in that way)

Actions vs Words. I *think* Colin tweeted that picture of the Hook+Hand=Heart thing with that caption around the time they were filming Good Form. Why is this significant? In Heart of Darkness, when Snow is under the influence of the memory potion, she tells Charming that it’s all “words, words, words” and they mean nothing to her but action does. He even tries to kiss her and it doesn’t break the spell, but when he gets shot trying to save her, she SEES that he risked his life for her and therefore must really mean it when he says he loves her and THEN they have their first “real” kiss that’s romantic and on both sides. Emma is very much like Snow when it comes to actions vs words and so far, Neal’s actions have told her he made choices for her and then didn’t believe in them enough to come find her and ask for a chance. She doesn’t know that he’s doing that right now or that he’s finally going to stand up for her. THAT’S where the triangle comes in. HOOK in the meantime is not only SAYING he fancies her, but he is giving up absolutely everything and doing whatever he can to help her AND her family and he is SHOWING her through his actions that he genuinely cares for her. THIS IS HUGE to someone who has never had anybody in her life put her first – even Snowing giving her up was to save EVERYONE and she flat out said well if we were all cursed, at least we would have been together. She HATES people choosing for her. One could argue that Neal tried to put her first but again, he did not consult her so for over a decade, she’s felt alone and miserable but here’s Hook who hasn’t done any of that and is showing her how much he cares and that’s a big thing for her!

So I totally see how they’re ratcheting up the triangle and trying to help us all see why she’ll be torn between them. I would hazard a guess that the big group reunion is coming up since we just had a Neal heavy ep and next week is Hook/CS. I’m not sure when Neal will rejoin them since Ariel is the focus of the one after that, but Emma needs to get some of this out so that people aren’t so confused when she can’t figure out what to do. Personally I think it’s an obvious choice *cough* Hook *cough* but they are reminding us what we guessed at already, that her past with Neal IS from a long time ago but that she still needs answers and needs to tell him things that right now she doesn’t think she’ll get the chance to. I fully expect their “big scenes” coming up to be them hashing a lot of this out but eventually coming to the same conclusion that we have here. At least we’re seeing what’s going on in her head (a little bit) so that we’re hearing the “I lost him a long time ago” and not just Snow’s “she JUST lost Neal” because no. It’s been a long time coming for her. It needs to make sense that she kisses Hook and is trying to move forward with her life. I’m sure we’ll get enough Emma-hate for kissing him so soon after saying those things and so soon after the portal, but once we see everything within context it’ll be a lot more clear – especially once Neal shows up.

THE PROMO WAS AMAZING. I don’t think I can say that enough, and not just because of the kiss! I have been begging for Killian backstory ever since the Crocodile and I was SO was not expecting a flying ship and navy! Adorable uniform…and a ponytail! I can only begin to imagine what else is in store for us but yay for a Hook episode that gives CS a lot of good stuff like the Emma episode did! Bae has had a lot of background but not as Neal, and this is the first we’ve seen of Hook, and Tallahassee was all we’ve seen of Emma’s, but I’m so happy that Emma’s and Hooks are mirroring each other on the “what they set up in PRESENT day” thing! SO EXCITING!

So regardless of what you hear about this episode, which was in fact very good and will likely fit into a lot more stuff later regardless of ships, there’s a lot of character stuff and I’ve definitely interested in seeing more about Rumple, Neal and PP. Especially since I’m not sure which path Neal is heading toward right now,there’s actually a lot of good stuff and of course, it concludes with THE PROMO.

Neal did a lot of things right in this episode but made a lot of stupid mistakes too. I’m bordering on good dad side but then because he couldn’t get past his trust issues with Rumple, he also got Henry captured again. I really hope that Emma and company do a better job of it. Neal had the best of intentions and was doing a fabulous job but let his relationship with Rumple and PP’s mindgames get in the way. I really hope PP doesn’t mess with Hook next. A little worried since the promo was a bit too positive for Hook but holding out for context. I really need a good Killian episode and I don’t want anything to take me away from my CS kiss buzz! PP is very manipulative though and it looks like he could have ammo to taunt Hook with as well. (of course).

They have definitely made a point this season of mentioning things being “too late” especially with regards to Neal and Emma. All the “may be too late” and the “it was too late” they keep throwing in. They made a point of having Neal fully acknowledge out loud to Mulan and Robin Hood that he would do what he cold but that it very well may be too late. Snow even said something about the minute she beings to doubt is the minute she loses. And of course we have Hook pointing out that reality and hope may be worlds apart but “there’s always hope” – and let me tell you something, that PROMO is what brought my hope back after I watched the episode since it WAS a good episode but felt the need to end by reminding us that she did care about Neal. I was fully expecting WAY more CS moments even though subtle to bring it up to next week’s episode but it’s almost like they took a week off. Every conversation they had tonight went back to Neal which was frustrating. Now all I’m seeing anywhere is that she must be kissing him and clinging to him because he’s literally the only reminder she has of Neal left right now. I refuse to believe that.

Wow I had a lot more to say about this episode than I thought! In fact for the first time I thought I wouldn’t really pour over this episode right now because too many feelings (it’s been such an emotional season already!) and I’m gearing up for next week (which should be AMAZING and give us TONS to talk about) but I guess there was more positive stuff in it for us than I originally thought!

Can’t wait for next week when our ship not only sails but flies too! Or at least, Killian USED to be on a flying ship! And what does that make me think of? THE JOLLY ROGER, COVERED IN PIXIE DUST, SAILING THEM HOME! And Emma better talk about home at some point and look at Killian cause I need this. Her use of “home” has meant a lot of different things over time and I fully believe she means it now as Henry and her parents but I want her to specifically look at Killian sometime after the kiss and use it too.

So lots of feelings. Can it be next week yet? Where’s a sneak peek cause I need one badly. I am a Good Form / Hook / CaptainSwan junkee this week for sure! I don’t remember the last time I was THIS excited for an episode and I’ve been excited for pretty much every episode ever cause it’s new stuff and they always surprise. With how many new things I wasn’t expecting already in just the promo, I can only begin to imagine what might be waiting for us on Sunday!

[MysteryKat25]

I’m inclined to think that Tink HAD to be the fairy told that August whatever PP wanted her to tell him, be it about Baelfire (VERY likely) and possibly Henry as well.

They’ve confirmed that Blue didn’t have her memories and August was looking for Emma for 2 years by the events of Tallahassee and then told Neal to let her go. The problem comes in with where was August after Emma went to jail because it seems like he was in Thailand that entire time so I’m not sure he could have been the one to actually deal with Henry.

So current headcanon goes as follows:

• Tink loses her wings
• Tink goes to NL (tries saying “I believe” on the off chance that she could get her wings back and instead the shadow comes)
• The shadow takes Baelfire to NL
• PP lets Baelfire LEAVE NL thinking he got out himself at just the right time so that he would be on a path to meet Emma
• Tink gets in good with PP (even though she knows Hook and he believes she’ll be helpful, she IS in good with PP, good enough that she can help them as long as she feels safe doing so – there must be a reason)
• PP or the Shadow possibly controlling things )he can apparently talk? so goodness only knows sends her on an errand to our world to hunt down August (she’s a less threatening person to send and she’s from the EF as well so would know how to talk to him)
• Tink is transported to our world 13 years ago (approx – 2 years of hunting before Tallahassee)
• August has been off doing goodness knows what for years
• August gets a visit from Tink who tells him that if he wants to fix the past, he needs to make sure that Emma gets back on track and the only way to do that is to make sure she’s unhappy and break up her and Baelfire (PP KNOWS he’s Baelfire, and all about the dagger, because he arranged the whole thing so that they would meet)
• Neal panics when he realizes August knows who he is
• Emma ends up in jail but is supposedly NOT setup by Neal (which leaves likely August who feels bad but it has to be done, and likewise steals her money so she’s broken and broke)
• August goes off to Thailand until Emma arrives in Storybrooke
• Tink returns to NL and reports back to PP who lets her live in NL where she becomes a very bitter ex-fairy with lots of pent up rage

Which leaves Tink as the fairy that August would likely trust since she too is not of this world but isn’t a scary shadow or something that freaks him out and makes HIM run. So that’s 1 mystery down since we know the Shadow could transport to our world and carry a person so I really think that much had to be Tink. The question then becomes who did PP send to deal with Henry? Could it have been Tink again or someone else?

I like the idea of the Darling children. I really don’t think we’ve seen the last of them and it would make sense if they’re involved somehow.

Gold knew nothing about it. That much we know. August should have been in Thailand by then. Blue was under the curse and in Storybrooke at the time.

Based on the idea that the EF is the only place hit (and that characters from other lands happened to be in it at the time of the curse), that leaves NL unaffected so that PP could “release” Baelfire when he needed to and/or send Tink (since August mentioned a fairy) to do his bidding. I think he’s mostly left her alone as of late, but she still thinks she might be in good with him and this would certainly cement that.

Who else might he have been likely to send on an errand to help get Henry to SB and who would have had the power to enter the town? Emma was able to come in because Henry brought her there. August came in on his own but only after Emma came to town and time started up again (which didn’t happen until she STAYED in town), but he didn’t have anyone leading him in (though he didn’t try until after the Thailand incident so not sure if it would have affected it or not). Somebody had to know how to get in there with Henry.

So it wasn’t Gold. Regina could have left maybe but could she have gotten back in once she did so? Would her leaving have broken the spell in any way? So many questions! Plus Gold did say that HE procured Henry for her but if she was able to leave and come back at will then she would have been able to go outside it just fine (in which case, after a gazillion ground hog days, why didn’t she? Especially to go somewhere to adopt her own kid instead of having Gold figure it all out for her. Not like she could cross the invisible barrier and say “Meet me at this road in the middle of nowhere and bring the kid”, cause that would be majorly weird.)

I like the idea that the Darlings might somehow be involved. I could see them having ended up in NL but being kept from Baelfire and then told they could help him out by making sure his son got from here to there. He is a manipulative little monster.

Either that or they became friendly with him and we’ve got an actual Peter & Wendy situation playing house with the lost boys, two of which are her brothers and they’re occasionally sent out to do their dirty work. I’d love to see more of Baelfire with the Darlings though I’m afraid of them having actually sided with Pan in which case it would just be another betrayal ugh – but Wendy usually sides with Peter so it’s at least a possibility, especially if they wanted to turn that on its head like everything else, who knows.

(Pretty sure we’re supposed to see Wendy and her brothers again but they’re older and she’s the same age – could they have all gone to NL at the same time and then John and Michael were sent off on various missions and aged while in the outside world? Or did they all age first and then Freya just gets to act her age?)

I…have officially confused myself now trying to figure out how Henry may have gotten there. I’m 99% certain that Tink was the fairy that told August to separate Neal and Emma but somebody else was making sure Henry got to Storybrooke so that he could become the truest believer which couldn’t have happened anywhere else. PP has been planning this from the beginning though, I’m certain of it.

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

[MysteryKat25]

I am so excited about this promo I can’t even begin to explain (but it’s me so of course I’ll try!)! I’ve been wanting Hook backstory since the Crocodile and we’ve had next to nothing about pre-Hook much less pre-PIRATE Hook so yay!!! Finally some KILLIAN stuff!

I…totally missed the ponytail the first couple of times I watched it (I’ve completely lost track at this point) but have decided that men far older than their age would suggest that are taken out of their time period (or live in NL long enough) and put in the modern world and dress like that and have/had ponytails are taking over my life (see: Sleepy Hollow’s Ichabod Crane – I know at least some of you will appreciate this!)

Seriously though, flying ship? Totally did NOT see that coming! (Ok, I DID expect a flying ship but just the pixie dust on the Jolly Roger to get them home from Neverland, not this!)

Interested to see who the other officer is with him (and the rest of that uniform cause just when you think he couldn’t be any more swoon-worthy he goes and does something like this). Is it a father-figure? Is it his actual dad? Commanding officer? Some combination? Will we be seeing just a certain point in his life, like maybe when he became a pirate or will we see him even younger than that? (I want Baby!Killian backstory toooo!). SO MANY FEELINGS but I have been waiting for over a year now to get anything on pre-Hook Killian so this is amazing!

Flying ship…I have, no frame of reference on this but am intrigued for sure! Just what kind of adventures has Killian been on that we know nothing about? SO EXCITED!

DEFINITELY curious about the connection with Pan though. Pan is becoming the Rumple of S1 (that should feed the brothers theorists :P). He’s connected to with so many characters now and people are making deals with him too (why do people DO that?!?). So we should be getting some more Pan history as well as Hook (but heavy on the Hook so yay, it’s about time! – I know some feel like he’s “taking over the show” but he was ALWAYS intended to be a part of it (they couldn’t get the rights for season 1) and this is into his 2nd season and we’re only now finding out about him. This will be for him what Desperate Souls was for Rumple (8 episodes into the entire series) and Stable Boy did for Regina (18 episodes in). It has now been 23? episodes since we first met Captain Hook? No wonder people don’t trust anything he says even when he’s being sincere!)

I’m expecting a lot of Killian heartstrings to be pulled FOR SURE on many levels. I really want to give him a pre-emptive hug.

TOTALLY looking forward to the kiss (obviously) but I’m also loving the idea that Charming gets into protective dad mode! I adore the Captain Charming bromance and this might just put a little wrinkle in it but SHE kissed HIM so should be interesting. I left the rest of my flailing and gushing over that in the CS thread so don’t worry (unless you’re RG in which case I spoilered most of it out and left extra cookies – hate that you have to read both sides of everything! You’re a saint, have I mentioned that?)

So yes, amazing promo and I can’t wait for next week! S3 has been amazing so far and looks to only be getting better! And just think, this time next week we’ll have the Ariel promo to dissect too! THANK GOODNESS for 11 straight episodes! I couldn’t handle any breaks right now, especially with what just happened AND THIS promo? No, just…no. SUCH an emotional season!

Time to uh, rewatch the promo again and stop flailing long enough to see if there are any other details I missed. How could I have missed that ponytail??

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

[MysteryKat25]

I have a lot of feelings, like…a lot a lot. It was a great episode show-wise and I love the SHOW first and foremost but not so much for us. I think most of us were already looking more forward to the next ep anyways so we knew that going in. We really need to see all the episodes together for full context of everything and we’re still getting snippets for now. Things have not played out yet. I personally have so many conflicting headcanons right now on a variety of things I can’t see straight but for now, here’s my thoughts:  (trying to keep everything under spoilers as much as possible!)

They are ratcheting up the triangle. Emma’s emotions are totally legit and plausible. We have said all along that she still loves him but that doesn’t mean that she is IN love with him. They are both idealizing the past and it at least *seems* like Neal is *likely* to want to pick up where they left off which is exactly what he’s reacting to with his father right now, as well as what Emma is already reacting to against Snow. Saying “I’m sorry” and “I always loved you” doesn’t quite cut it when there is SO much pain. I’m still curious as to what Neal’s ultimate arc this season will be. At times he’s young Bae again and at others it goes back to “like father, like son” which happens with Neal and Henry a bunch too. They’re in NL though so he has to confront being Bae just as much as anyone else in confronting who they are too.

Showing THAT promo after this ep made things so much better though. It’s going to be a long week so we’ll have to stay tough and remember: There’s always hope!

Brief thoughts on promo which is being discussed elsewhere as well (and was the highlight of my night):

• Hook is in a uniform and has a ponytail
• Hook was on a ship that flies! Was NOT expecting that unless it was to get out of NL but this is clearly in the past and with a fellow officer!
• Snow toasts “To Hook”! YAY. She likes him more!
• Charming in protective dad mode. Yay for protective Charming even though I’m really loving the bromance right now. That said, I also want to see Emma stand up for Hook, since SHE was the one who kissed HIM.
• THE KISS. We’ve been waiting ages for it and knew it existed days ago but now we got to see more than just gifs! LOVE the look of determination on her face. I know after tonight’s episode it will be hard for people to see it being plausible she may move on especially now but let’s keep a couple of things in mind: she’s acknowledged that she lost Neal a long time ago; she’s ANGRY that he loved her that whole time and didn’t tell her and let her think she was unloved; she met Hook BEFORE Neal came back into her life which is when confusion really started to set in, before it was just her walls and trust issues; Hook is there for her NOW and has been proving himself; she doesn’t want to waste any more time after ranting about wasted time. It is highly likely that she says “You know what, I don’t want to live through that again. When you care about somebody you show it and this is my 2nd chance at something real” or is at least thinking something along those lines. This is the first time we’ll see ANYBODY kiss Hook ever; we never even saw it with Milah, and this is in a huge Hook ep where he apparently does something really great and TRULY HELPFUL since even Snow is toasting to him. It’ll be rough emotionally for everyone, especially since Snowing will NOT understand based on what Emma said in this episode which is only a short time before the kiss happens (relatively speaking) but I want Emma to give us some more of her inner dialogue and thinking. She has to know how hurt Hook would be if she were just using him and that did not look like a comfort kiss. That looked like a calculated “I’m taking a chance and going after what I want instead of wasting more time because finding out later about it sucks and if you feel it you should do something about it” kiss. And man is it passionate looking!

Basically I am looking majorly forward to figuring out Hook’s backstory and how that all ties in with what’s going on in present day. We know that this episode is supposed to help explain to us why he and Emma are such kindred spirits and it clearly leads to a moment of passion that will likely be very hard for Emma to forget and walk away from, especially after everything he’s done for her recently, including above all BE THERE and not promise her the world and walk away.

Emotions will run high for quite some time, especially once Neal rejoins the group I’m sure. Again this week I feel like conversations were had that really need to happen between Emma and Neal but I feel like once they do get some of these things addressed it will be ok. Neal knows what it feels like to have major trust issues with someone and there’s a difference between loving them/not wanting them to die, and truly trusting. To be IN love with them, trusting is rather important in the grand scheme of things. We’ve seen time and time again that Neal refuses to trust Rumple 100% because he’s just been burned TOO BADLY and no amount of “I’m sorry” is going to fix that.

But we also saw him not want Rumple to die when it was a very real possibility before – now is a tiny bit questionable since he seems intent on leaving Rumple in NL as well as left him paralyzed in the jungle all by himself), but he was able to say “I’m still angry” without it stopping him from loving Rumple and not wanting him to die when he was dealing with the concentrated dreamshade. They’re very similar situations between that and his relationship with Emma as far as trust vs loving someone goes, but I think ultimately he may understand and acknowledge that he played a huge part in making these things happen. Especially since he made choices FOR her that affected her life, when we just saw him blame Rumple for the same things. Different type of relationship for sure, but it’s still a trust fully/want around in your life all the time vs don’t trust and not have a “real” relationship with but still not wanting to see them die.

He has that relationship with Rumple, and I think Emma has that relationship with Neal except that while she can’t trust him IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH HER, I think she DOES trust him to take care of Henry. After all when Regina was a threat she was willing to send him back to NY with Neal. I fully expect him to be able to be a father and in their lives, but I still see Emma as remembering her past and how painful it was back then, and not yet embracing who she is now and what that means for her lovelife which is why things are about to get verrrry interesting.

This is a season about embracing who you really are, addressing the past, and moving forward. Emma is already FEELING like the little orphan girl she once was instead of the awesome, brave, independent woman she is now, but she is tapping into that and embracing it ALL as who she is. Every character will likely have to face parts of their past before it’s said and done with. We saw tonight Neal refusing to answer to Baelfire. He doesn’t want to deal with that pain and hurt and be that kid again but it’s still affecting who he is now , just like Emma may FEEL like she did the last time she saw him before her stint in jail and it makes total sense that those feelings would wash back up on her, but she’s not that girl anymore. It’ll just take her a little while to see that.

Here is an excellent break-down of a positive CS version of her speech tonight  that actually makes a LOT of sense going forward into next week. http://hooks-and-hero-ness.tumblr.com/post/64636336694/emmas-speech-a-breakdown

THE KISS – We’re going to have to endure people saying it doesn’t matter and she’s lonely, missing Neal, somehow equate still loving him to still being IN love with him, treating Hook HORRIBLY since she KNOWS he’s into her and knows how much the memory of Milah means to him, and I refuse to believe that Emma of all people is treating Hook like a rebound or using him for comfort etc etc this week, but I REALLY love that analysis I linked to. Like with everything on this show, there are multiple ways to view it and until we’re given proof like with RegalHood, I’m not giving up yet – especially since there’s THE KISS NEXT WEEK!

Emma made a point of saying she lost Neal a long time ago and they had her say that for a reason. This isn’t new for her. She lost him ages ago, then when she saw him again it flustered her but he was engaged and she got a tiny tiny bit of closure even though she’s clearly still angry and has every right to be that she never got to show him how much it hurt her. There are people that come to mind I would love to yell at from the past and make them understand that, and it would certainly look like I still had feelings for them but it wouldn’t be those kinds of feelings. It would, however, be closure and THAT is what Emma needed most of it. She’ll get it, eventually, when she DOES get to address all of this stuff with him, but for now, it is a tiny bit and she’s letting her walls down a little and admitting she felt that way and that’s a start for emotional growth for her to MOVE ON with Hook which is a good thing.

Like I said, they’re ratcheting up the triangle and showing us more insight into Emma’s line of thinking so that it makes actual sense for her to be conflicted when both men are in her life and wanting her. They just…keep doing it in a way that gives both side massive hope which is frustrating. I still believe though, even after tonight, that next week is the start of something beautiful actually coming true and that the past, as always, is Emma’s biggest obstacle between herself and her loved ones (and most especially her lovelife with a certain captain). 😉

VIVA LA CAPTAINSWAN

*cookies* (It’s gonna be a long week – already was but now doubly so after this ep and THAT promo so *extra cookies* for good measure)

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

[MysteryKat25]

This is TINK’s interpretation. We don’t know enough of her back story but she seems to be really big on true love so to HER, choosing to not go to someone when you have proof they’re your soul mate IS ruining their life as well as yours.

I stand by my “they’re meant for each other but not until later and Tink is just overly ambitious and wants everything to happen NOW NOW NOW” theory. Robin was happy with Marian and he has Roland now. I don’t think he’s going to say it was ruined, albeit with a tragic point with Marian’s death. Regina will completely understand that because she lost Daniel which again, was before she knew anything about being soul mates with Robin Hood.

So I don’t see it as his life being screwed up by her choice. He has Roland, he seems alright, and NOW they will have something to legitimately bond over with their pasts, something he may not have understood back then with love and loss.

I totally get why people are upset that it’s set in stone now because they feel like it takes away the choice but I really think that WE THE AUDIENCE know but they don’t. It’s like watching early Snowing eps where we know they have to get together but we’re seeing it play out anyway. I don’t think Regina will see the tattoo right away and when she does it will either be a pleasant surprise or freak her out but it will still be her CHOICE as to whether she wants to pursue it and find out. After all, 40ish years ago she made the choice not to go in, even though Tink was promising her happiness and love.

It’s all about the choices we make along the way. Just because somebody can prove who a soul mate is doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to play out in a real way. Walking up and saying “pixie dust says we’re meant to be together” isn’t going to work. They’ll have their issues like everyone else does but it’ll be about them coming together in the first place, and then their fight to stay together. MOST of the couples on the show we’ve known going in who they were meant to be with and it’s fun watching it play out. I expect nothing less now that we know who Regina is meant to be with, except that we’ll mostly get to watch it play out in real time since they haven’t met yet!

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

[MysteryKat25]

Obisgirl – can’t believe you have to wait til Thursday, I’d go crazy! Will you get to watch the next week’s on time or have to wait for that too? Also – link to the CS clips? I’d love to watch. 😀

So many random thoughts my but brain is fried and it’s Once Day! so I need to keep something for tonight. Instead I will leave you with a couple of wonderful ideas/links

1) Somebody made a gifset of the parallels for Manhattan of Rumple/Milah and Neal/Emma. Everything I’ve been trying to say but shorter & with gifs! The fact that the parallels (the first 3 things on that gifset anyway) are within the same episode and using the same type of language was done FOR A REASON. (Also note: Neal told Emma that he was trying to help her get home – as in, not with him, as in home: with her parents was better than the home that he once promised her so he stayed away – that and his dad but whole other issue. To me, this negates their dream of Tallahassee being home because that dream they worked on together and instead, HE CHOSE which home she would go to and he DID NOT CHOOSE HIS. I need EMMA to choose her life, she’s been manipulated enough as she found out in this episode and is finding out more with the PP situation. But in this particular instance, Neal was NOT naming himself as home, and he took the decision away from her once again.)

http://holdinghaldavidstarlight.tumblr.com/post/64592167330/whimsylea-honestly-of-all-the-various

2) Han and Leia. We’ve always known that OUAT is basically a mash-up fanfiction for Eddy & Adam and it’s beautiful! So what did they say a few weeks ago about Hook and his journey? He “Han Solo’d back” at the end of the season. Perfect description. Then just a couple days ago, at a short interview found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4aCaRub9Fc&feature=youtu.be, Eddy had a couple of interesting things to say about Star Wars being the greatest fairy tale of all time in their minds  (followed of course by PETER PAN which we know they love) but not to expect actual star wars on the show (but they did do a nod with Greg’s ringtone) but his FIRST REACTION to the Star Wars question was to point to JMO and say “Well we have our Princess Leia right here” *Eddy grin*

Perfect gifset can be found here: http://captainswan4life.tumblr.com/post/64603548859/well-weve-already-got-our-princess-leia-right

So to recap:

• Favorite “fairy tale” of all time for Eddy & Adam? STAR WARS
• Emma has been called “our Princess Leia“
• Hook has been described as “He Han Solo’d back“
• 2nd favorite fairy tale for Eddy & Adam? PETER PAN
• Who’s one of Emma’s suitors that has a good chance of being the one that they always wanted but couldn’t get the rights to at the beginning of the show? CAPTAIN HOOK

Keep in mind: writers, actors, etc tend to use the same kind of language to describe things over and over again. It’s a sales pitch of sorts, typically neutral or alluding to something recognizable, not giving tons of info but still, it’s how they describe it to themselves or are pitched it to from someone higher up that they feel it’s a safe, comfortable way to describe it because that’s what they’re used to. So it interests me greatly that Eddy has, within 3 weeks or so, made Star Wars references and described both of them now as part of the romantic couple of those movies! (Ironically the background for Adam’s twitter right now is from the prequels which we know he prefers the originals – somebody has Star Wars on the brain either way though!).

Only a few more hours to go until 3×04! Can’t wait to see what the context is for Rumple & Neal’s journies, what they’re up to, what conversations they have, etc. I want father/son bonding on a joint mission to not get them killed and to save Henry. I think some very interesting conversations could come up as well as history that will show JUST HOW ORCHESTRATED this has all been, especially if PP really did plot the whole thing to keep Bae captive until the right time so that he would meet Emma for “something good” to come out of it aka: Henry. What if Bae was meant to be with someone else and got steered in the wrong direction because PP needed Henry? BOTH their lives have been manipulated in so many ways (and sometimes by one of them) so it stands to reason that if somebody IS pulling the strings, perhaps Neal will come around to the idea that this wasn’t the life he was supposed to have anymore than she thinks it is for her.

In just under 5 hours the promo for 3×05 will be out! SERIOUSLY CANNOT WAIT. I need Hook backstory. I need to see if they promo THE KISS. I need to see glimpses of Killian and his real story. I LOVE almost every episode we’re given and try not to look too far ahead because I want to see the whole story play out but I have never been this excited for an episode and it’s not JUST THE KISS but that definitely does NOT hurt. Can’t wait to see JMO’s interviews this week too!

AH so much exciting stuff! Not sure how I’m going to sleep this week much less get anything productive done but we’ll see! This is our time (or at least the beginning of it!) so let’s enjoy what we have and see where it goes!

So this JUST happened so I’ll add it but context: Christine Boylan wrote Tallahassee as well as Good Form, 3×05! and then 3×09 Save Henry but she just found out that we know what to expect in 3×05 and had the following to say on twitter:

https://twitter.com/KitMoxie/statuses/392014379085869057

Love how enthusiastic she’s always been about Hook and it’s nice seeing #YouShouldBeExcited but what I realllly love about it is she NOT address it to CaptainSwan fans. She addressed it to OUAT fans. Most outlets are saying if you’re into CS you’ll love this! Not…hey fans of the show in general, “you should be excited” about THIS development. LOVE IT!

Something to keep in mind: Tallahassee was an EMMA episode with forward progress (albeit slight but definitely a foundation) for CaptainSwan. Now we’re getting a HOOK episode with a CaptainSwan kiss!

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

[MysteryKat25]

AllThatGlitters – I completely agree and I bet the kiss! will definitely bring in more, as well as the Hook backstory in 3×05  – it’s about time!. It’ll do for him what Desperate Souls did for Rumple, and The Stable Boy did for Regina. I think some may *want* to believe him but are having a hard time looking past the innuendos. He’s far more serious this season and embracing his Killian side to help Emma and we’re seeing that more and more, but still don’t have the actual backstory which usually helps us warm up to characters we might otherwise question liking.

Tumblr can be fun… It’s a nice way to avoid the hate and just love what you love and there are some very talented people! I love seeing the pics and gifsets as well as reading the thoughts. If I go there I just hide out in the Captain Swan tag for the most part but it’s nice to not feel so alone!

Still love our group here too and hope we see more and more join us in the near future! It’s a very exciting time to be a CaptainSwan fan!

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

[MysteryKat25]

RG:

*leaves cookies for RG* (Seriously you are a saint and thanks for all you do, even if it means having to read some of our stuff even though I know you don’t agree. Seriously – saint!!! And I know I’m super long-winded. You poor thing for putting up with my long metas! I try to be good though about the spoiler stuff though…emphasis on try.)

I have…no idea how to black out a lot of this. General spoiler tags don’t seem to do much when using a quote to respond to somebody (and likewise, twitter coding gets screwed up too and all we end up with is gibberish). I only JUST learned yesterday how to post the twitter quotes to begin with!

Pictures I haven’t tried messing with at all yet, I usually just link to whatever but yes, THAT picture will be hard to erase from the internet much less discussion all over this forum, especially in our own little corner where we can be whatever we want to be and now I’m quoting Cinderella so time to end that thought or I’ll have to be afraid I’ve finally cracked (not entirely out of the realm of possibility).

ON TO CS:

YES! It is IMPOSSIBLE not to appreciate that beautiful jawline! CAN NOT WAIT! (We love Hook for many many reasons but it would be pointless to refute that he is in fact, very good looking!)

It is impossible to completely ignore half of the triangle when it DOES have some baring on our half. It sucks cause I’d much prefer to have tunnel vision but it would be pointless to act like he didn’t directly affect who Emma is now, or the fact that he will likely, eventually join back up with the group might affect things for a bit.

That said, I do not have time to keep talking in circles trying to remind myself why this is going to be good for us so I am going to try to focus on the wonderful points going for CS instead:

• They’ve been hyping it all season (and even before – lots of Hook and Emma pictures)
• SHOW, not TELL (they keep showing us Hook is doing the right things; he backs up what he says and is “TRULY HELPFUL” according to JMO (yay! We knew he had it in him!)
• In that same vein, we are seeing Hook and Emma play out including their first kiss which we didn’t see for Hook/Milah OR Emma/Neal
• This is very important because Hook has loved Milah and been trying to avenge her death for 300 years so this is HUGE and MEANINGFUL to him
• Emma is finally trusting HERSELF and embracing who she really is, even if that’s sometimes painful to those around her
• Precedence has already been set this season that thinking it’s the last time you’ll get a chance to say something (aka: what you do for closure before they or are all of you are gone) doesn’t always jive with what you’d want to say if you had more time
• We’re seeing Emma move FORWARD and move ON now that she has had some of those questions answered and has a little bit of closure and knows she can trust her instincts because they were right
• Seeing Emma move on (again) is HUGE. They keep drilling into us that it is almost impossible to move on when you think the other person is out there but it is equally tough when the person you love is dead – yet days later we are seeing a real and genuine connection forming between Hook and Emma. For her, she’s lost Neal twice: once over a decade ago, and again very recently, but she is not spiraling like everyone else who has lost love is. Similarly, we’ve been SHOWN & TOLD that Neal had moved on, even though he still deep down loved Emma, and she has been shown that as well
• Emma is the product of true love and naturally drawn to it – just like the camera is naturally drawn to showing us Hook, Emma, or both when true love is mentioned
• Hook’s happy ending – cue Emma shot; Emma being the product of true love – go to Hook
• “We want the same thing”
• “We understand each other”
• “What we need is right in front of us” – Hook walks right in front of Emma
• This has been established FROM THE BEGINNING
• Neal’s first onscreen appearance as a romantic option for Emma showed him in the PAST and only showed us enough of their story to explain why she was reacting the way she was to HOOK
• Milah & Hook’s relationship was shown in the past too, and only to show us what makes him the man he is today as well
• For all Hook’s flirting, we’ve never seen him kiss ANYONE but we will and it will be Emma!

I actually saw an interesting point earlier that made me think maybe we’ve been going about this all the wrong way. We’re assuming the worst: a full-blown love triangle which is what the MEDIA hypes and we’re reminded that Neal is “dead” and all that jazz, but what if there really isn’t much of one? The WRITERS haven’t been hyping it. They say what they always say, have hope and keep watching. Wait for it to play out. #nospoilers.

The way it’s been marketed so far this year (to me) is that Emma and Hook have a real chance (and to me, are the real thing). That doesn’t mean it will be easy (and with this show of course it won’t! The battle only begins when you find the person you’re supposed to be with! The rest is in finding a way to stay together!

As has been pointed out, Neal was brought in as an obstacle and in order to move forward with ANYONE 100% Emma has major PERSONAL issues that she needs to deal with. This is coming in a season where she is having to embrace who she is deep down in order to get her son back. This is a GOOD THING. Emma and Neal having big scenes is a GOOD THING. They need to talk. Emma needs her answers.

She may be pulled between them a bit and that’s understandable. Her past that she thought she was finally done with and finally moving on from will be staring her in the face and finally saying everything she ever wanted to hear!

But that doesn’t mean that she’ll forget Hook or what she’s seen in him or how perfectly he fits with her and understands her and what a great team they are. It might take a little while for her to be able to process it because THE  MISSION AT HAND IS TO SAVE HENRY so even if she’s 100% sure never wants to give Neal a second chance, I don’t see her standing in the middle of the jungle screaming at him about having made a choice and that’s it. It’s far from over *sniff*

The interesting thing I saw was about how Neal would ultimately take it. He may very well pick up on the Emma/Hook dynamic even if she’s trying to stay neutral and can’t currently process her lovelife during to #OperationHenry.

Neal is already very aware of his mistakes. He knows that there is a very REAL chance that Emma won’t take him back and that’s without adding Hook into the picture at all. We don’t know the full extent of their relationship but it did not end on good terms and Neal could very well be extremely angry with him (and I’m sure he will be) but ultimately he will be more angry with HIMSELF because he knows that his actions ALONE could stop Emma from being with him again, not just because Hook has stepped into the picture without him knowing about it (and the Emma/Hook thing started before either had him back in their lives – it was set up that way all along, Neal just hasn’t been aware of it and it really starts now which he still isn’t aware of).

So I could see a couple of things happening:

1) Neal flips out like Rumple (only not in such an extreme manner) and blames Hook for everything and brings up a lot of dirty laundry (which Emma needs to know and process but again, that’s an obstacle so makes perfect sense) and not take into account anything he’s done himself

OR, more likely:

2) Neal accepts some of the blame for it and finds a way to deal with it. He did care about both of them at one point and I really think that regardless of the Emma situation, Hook will reach out to him and try to mend things. After all, Bae was the reason he gave up revenge the first time and I think it’s something that HOOK has regretted every day since. It would parallel nicely because Neal would be coming to tell Emma what he regretted and show remorse, and Hook would be doing the same with Neal.

Neal may or may not accept it. He may tolerate Hook but they might never be the best of friends again. We just don’t know.

I think seeing Emma happy would lessen it a bit once he lets it go. He told August “If I knew she was ok then I could move on” so I’d like to think the man who was hurting so much back then over what he did would still feel that way. I think they are ALL learning from the past and Neal doesn’t want to make Rumple’s mistakes. They don’t have to be best friends but they did all mean something to each other once and I think they’ll all feel and accept that there’s a LOT of remorse going around, for all of them.

We have already seen what a great team of co-parents Emma and Neal can be (those were my favorite scenes of them ever) and we know that when Bae was younger, before he learned why Hook took care of him, that Hook was actually really good with Bae. He’s bound to have some fond memories of that too, especially since he drew the P  S compass thing on his cave wall like Hook taught him on the ship. The other things drawn were sentimental as well, like the Darling Family sketches.

There’s more than enough pain to go around and we’ve all been dreading this huge blowout from the triangle and especially thinking of Bae as the little kid who couldn’t let it go that he thought Hook was just like Rumple, but where else have we seen/heard that? Henry flipped out on Emma and said she was just like Regina but he came back too. Now, from what Peter has said, Henry may have some well-deserved issues with Emma (and likewise Neal but he won’t blame Neal because he didn’t know – probably won’t blame him for leaving Emma in jail either because he believes in her destiny and knows it wouldn’t have happened otherwise), but I feel that Henry will come around eventually.

If Neal is supportive and backs Emma up and explains to Henry that she has to do what’s right by her and he doesn’t know the whole story and she had a good reason for him not knowing (aka: she couldn’t find him) and that she’s happy with Hook, Henry will eventually come around. The kid was totally fine with Tamara until Emma made a good point about her being evil. He won’t LOVE it but I think ultimately they can convince him he should be happy to have his whole dysfunctional family around. After all they keep saving Regina and she’s tried to kill them multiple times! (But is reforming and eventually Henry will learn to love RH and Roland as well!)

I really think it will take awhile, Henry may want to go stay with Neal or Regina for a bit which will devastate Emma of course.  And when Regina starts dating it’ll be interesting to see Henry’s reaction, but I think Neal finding love will be the key to Henry full accepting that this is the way life is now and he’s got a huge family of people that love him. That’s a “real world” fairy tale and is realistic for someone from our world, or someone who grew up here like Emma. Plus Henry’s always had a crazy family and tried to balance Regina and Emma, why not add Neal too?

I think it’s been impossible for ANYBODY on other side to imagine their favorite guy getting hurt but most especially because we can’t think of a backup that’s “good enough” or right for them (especially since there’s a good argument to made against any single women on the show right now that aren’t Emma – none of them are “right”) BUT, we did not see this happen either:

• Belle – nowhere to be seen when Rumple was with Milah or Cora
• Robin Hood – not in the picture when Regina was with Daniel

In going with the parallel between Rumple/Milah and Neal/Emma courtesy of Manhattan, yes it was tragic that Rumple got hurt so badly, and all for trying to do the right thing, but he is SO MUCH BETTER with Belle. She gets him. She sees his goodness and fights for it and supports it and doesn’t put up with the garbage, but we did NOT see her sitting on the sidelines waiting for him to notice her while he got his feelings out of the way for someone else.

Robin Hood had his own life and tragedy going on separate from Regina but once she allows herself to move on from Daniel fully and embrace it, they’re free to start something else.

Emma and Hook both brought baggage in from their previous relationships. Emma with both Neal and Graham, and Hook with Milah. One of the first things they ever discussed was that baggage. The looks in their eyes. Figuring out what makes each other tick. But Hook didn’t watch her with Neal or Graham, and she never saw him with Milah. They weren’t waiting in the wings.

I’m really starting to think this triangle won’t be so blown out of proportion. It won’t be as easy as Neal seeing them together and then never saying anything about it (I seriously doubt it would be that easy!) but they are promoting CS a LOT which implies that this is the couple for S3. The one to watch out for. They keep putting them close together, side by side, working as a team and forming an intense bond. This is the couple people are talking about.

It would be COMPLETELY UNFAIR to whoever is sitting on the sidelines right now to watch either of these guys pine over Emma and then once she breaks their heart, turn around and fall for them.

It’s one of the main things that bugs me about the Tamara situation because if I were her, I’d feel like I was sitting on the sidelines, watching all of it, playing 2nd fiddle, and was only good enough once the other option wasn’t available. It doesn’t matter that Tamara was evil, all that matters is that Neal genuinely loved her and their relationship was right in front of Emma.

This gets kinda hazy within the triangle with both guys seeing her spend time with the other one, but ultimately whoever is left needs to meet and fall in love with someone else (I refuse to believe that the 3rd wheel doesn’t ultimately get his happy ending someday too, it’s just not the one he expected) and that means they need to be with someone NEW (like Regina and Robin Hood) and therefore WE HAVE NOT SEEN THEM YET and probably won’t see them for some time.

I know many are hopping on board with the CaptainFairy stuff and I think they probably flirted in the past a bit and Tink is always portrayed as a jealous fairy, but we know Hook’s flirtatious! Pretty sure that Colin has said before that Hook was been loyal to Milah’s memory until now and again, we haven’t seen him kiss ANYBODY, even Milah but he will be kissing Emma soon! Also – he knew Tink in the past and she wasn’t enough to get him to change his ways so if ANYTHING were to have happened between them, it wasn’t enough and it would lousy to fall back into that with Tink watching from the sidelines, KNOWING she wasn’t enough to turn him around the first time.

It would be our equivalent to the history for Rumple & Cora compared to RumBelle. We know RB is TL and therefore, Cora is meaningless and did nothing to change him for the better. Having Tink on the sidelines would be going back to Emma knowing she wasn’t enough to get him to come back and/or walk away from Tamara and choose at least trying for a chance with Emma like Charming did with Snow. (Seriously, if you’re not in love with the person you’re going to marry or you love someone else more? Don’t marry them. Charming walked away from his betrothal. Neal was forced out of his because she tried to kill him. That’s not a choice and it certainly doesn’t prove love.)

So lots of good things for us really. I have faith that CaptainSwan will be here to stay in the hopefully not too distant future, and that everyone will end up with who they are meant to be with, even if it seems tragic in the meantime, because TL is better than that, and that’s what they’ll have.

And with that I leave you with cookies and dash off to watch a football game.

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

[MysteryKat25]

I’ll agree on the point about Neal being an obstacle for himself and his own happiness. Not everything has happened TO him but he has made some choices which led him that way as well.

I’m not entirely convinced about the rest until we see it within the episode. He IS trying to get to Emma but he met up with Rumple along the way, had to have a moment to react to that and talk with him, and told him there was a way to save Henry (which is where Emma would be headed) that didn’t involve Rumple having to die. Just because he hasn’t waved and said “cya later, gotta find Emma”, doesn’t mean that he’s not trying to get to her. His priority SHOULD be to find Henry and logically, since he assumes that’s why Emma is in NL which is right, he should be moving toward accomplishing that. We don’t yet know what the spearing of the creepy water creature has to do with anything, but presumably it is to HELP get to where HENRY is which is of the utmost importance. It’s actually refreshing to see him working toward keeping his father alive while actively trying to save Henry. Plus, he has to know that’s where Emma will end up too. HENRY is the priority here and it looks like he knows that.

I completely agree that he has been presented in such a way as an obstacle not only to himself but to CaptainSwan as well. It’s how he was introduced as a romantic interest to Emma, specifically IN an episode showing her present day relationship to Hook. That is extremely significant. We haven’t seen them have a love story episode on their own, only comparing them to Emma/Hook (showing the DIFFERENCES) or Milah/Rumple (showing the SIMILARITIES), whereas we have watched CaptainSwan both play out in real time as well as being directed compared to Snowing and showing the similarities there too.

I’m not worried about Neal spending time with Rumple right now, as long as he doesn’t slide down the slippery slope and end up embracing dark magic. Right now it’s not likely to happen but we don’t know what else these two will go through while trying to get to where Henry and the others are. We’ve only seen them meet up and that Neal doesn’t want to kill the lost boys unnecessarily but is willing to do what it takes, just like everyone else in the group. We just don’t know anything else yet.

So I think he is still trying to get to her but hopefully doing it the right way in focusing on getting to Henry. Sure way to NOT get her back is to ignore the kid and there’s no way he’s gonna do that right now. I really want to root for him becoming not only a good son but a good father. He’s already told Emma he’s not gonna do to Henry what his dad did to him and I believe he was sincere about that.

He knows he’s screwed up and he’s definitely made some cowardly choices and he’s being very realistic that even when he gets to Emma and Henry, even if he helps save them, he may not get her back. But I don’t think that RIGHT NOW he is being a coward. He’s finally stepping up and doing something and trying to get to them.

We’ll see how his behavior holds in the future and what he does to get there. This season has been all about doing things the right way and I’m still leery about little Roland because that was the easy but highly dangerous plan, especially since he did have other ways he listed of travelling there if he could just find them. He has GOOD reason to want to get to NL ASAP and nobody is questioning that at all. But Rumple had good intention of protecting the children from the Ogre Wars and look what he turned into. Just because we want Neal to be a bit more like the Bae we used to love doesn’t mean that actions and choices don’t have consequences so I’m still a little worried about that.

Neal is definitely an obstacle here. He’s brought up every time in relation to Emma & Hook but it also gives them a common bond. It won’t be easy. There’s still a lot of things that Emma doesn’t know about both guys and she could be thrown for a loop and back again with every new piece of information. They won’t make it easy. She’ll feel pulled in two different directions but the main obstacle isn’t Neal, it’s Emma. It’s trusting herself. This directly stems BACK to Neal among others, but it’s going to be doing the safe/easy thing that people expect her to do, or following her heart.

I’m really hoping that we see some great father/daughter scenes with this because if anybody would understand, it’s Charming. He was engaged to Abigail but KNEW it wasn’t right, that he DIDN’T love her and he needed to be with Snow. Even cursed David got that much right, he knew he wasn’t the man who chose Kathryn and that he loved MM. He still tried to play by society’s rules and do the “right thing” but even then he couldn’t stay away from MM and ended up alone.

Ideally, Emma will see some of herself in her father, have embraced who she is and be the strong independent woman she is and not revert to a place where she feels like a kid with no control. I LOVED her speech to Ashley about not listening to what people want you to do and stand up for who you really are and say “No, this is who I am.” I need Emma to be that person. No matter her choice she needs to back it up.

We’ll know for sure based on how she’s treating people. Even when David chose Kathryn and MM walked off in tears saying he chose her, David still had the longing looks and was drawn to her and eventually sneaking around with her. Keep in mind, this was CURSED Snowing. Emma won’t take it that far (to the sneaking around part) but that doesn’t mean that she’ll automatically be 100% happy.

If she does give Neal a try (and she may even call it that and tell Hook she needs to figure stuff out with him and give it a chance for Henry’s sake which I could see her feeling like, regardless of what advice her parents or anyone else may give her), we may still see longing looks between her and Hook, even if she doesn’t act on them.

Every time Hook’s been injured, even when she should be paying attention to something else, she always looks over at him. And as we know, Hook can’t keep his eyes off her. Whether she tries with Neal or just backs off with both of them until she can figure everything out, I really don’t expect those longing looks to go away, or their closeness or their kindred  spiritness. If Regina’s already picking up on it, and that’s BEFORE what comes in a couple of episodes, you KNOW somebody will later on (I vote Charming so they can have a heart-to-heart).

I’m hoping she’s learned enough and has been hurt enough to where she’ll figure it out as quickly as she can process it in and around everything else (which may be awhile) but that she won’t give either of them false hope. Neal is being realistic about the possibility of not getting her back (I struggle with whether it’s being realistic or having a defeatist attitude like he must have when he didn’t bother to try the first time – his words – but I’d like to think he’s learned something so I’ll take realistic for now) and Hook will be very understanding because he knows Emma and he cared for Bae too. It doesn’t mean he won’t fight, it means that he’ll know better than to push her and he’ll understand what she’s going through and be mindful of that, whether he likes it or not. He’s not going to leave town or take off because he thinks he’s lost just because the other guy is alive. He’s in this. For her. He spent 300 years trying to avenge Milah’s death, I don’t think a guy like that could just take off and spend the rest of his life wondering if she was alright. In fact he’d be the guy that’s off to the side, taking care of her, being there for her in any way possible if it meant knowing for sure that she was happy and safe.

Thankfully I don’t think he’ll have to be that guy for long. I think once Emma knows all the facts, comes to some terms with them, and reconciles who SHE is deep down and what she wants, she won’t leave them dangling. I really think her main obstacle is going to be trusting her instincts and letting herself have what she wants. For once, she’s being put first no matter what and she’s going to be the one causing the massive pain and she’s not going to want to do that. She may put it off for awhile, like she did with the orphan thing because she knew it would hurt Snow, but since this season seems to be all about coming to grips with who you are, once she realizes it, she’ll let the other guy down gently.

It’s be a really big emotional scene when she does because she won’t want to hurt him, especially with the history there. These guys, like her, have been through enough already, but Neal is already on his way to accepting that reality and I think he will find closure in getting to talk it through, much like Emma found closure with the portal (only this will give her even more closure being able to get more questions answered because I’m inclined to think that Neal will open up more about everything because he won’t have much choice not to.

I’m thinking they may have saved any of the Tamara discussion for when Neal is back with the rest of the group. It’s something that Neal has to hash out to and with Emma. It would have been nice to hear it acknowledged before now, but I think it also would have been a waste if he had that conversation with Mulan instead.

Emma and Neal already proved they can be friends and co-parents and Neal is on his way to accepting his fate with her. That doesn’t mean they don’t need to hash things out though because they do: big time. Emma deserves answers, and as a huge Emma fan, I need to see her get those, whether she forgives and sweeps it under the rug or not. (I do think she’ll forgive and they’ll come to terms on it, but I think they have both moved on and just haven’t accepted that yet).

Neal knew she was out there in the world. He had JUST been reminded of the fact that soon he would be able to go after her and tell her why he let it all happen. To beg for forgiveness, and he chose not to. Not only that, he chose to build a life with someone else, someone that he loved. Likewise Emma, after years of not trusting herself because of her relationship with Neal, was able to let herself start to genuinely care about Graham and then he was ripped away from her which threw her walls back up when they were finally starting to come down. He would have made a lot more progress on them had Regina not killed him when she did. Emma didn’t know she would ever see Neal again when she spent time with Hook on the beanstalk and wanted to trust him, but she did he existed somewhere in the world. She spent TWO YEARS looking for him and then gave up and moved on with her life, eventually caring about Graham and now Hook (which started BEFORE Neal “died.”

Seeing the others who have lost their true loves, or thought they would have to learn to exist in a world where the other was alive but not theirs, they spiraled. They COULD NOT HANDLE IT. It’s bad enough to know they’re dead (look at Regina) but to know they exist in the world and aren’t with you? Is unthinkable. Yet BOTH Emma and Neal have had instances where we’ve been shown that they COULD and DID move on, knowing the other one was out there somewhere. That’s been set up for a reason, especially when these are writers that focus on TL and have made a point of showing us what it can make you do when you lose it and then show us that these guys? Aren’t reacting that way.

So far, Neal has been a lot of talk. We know he wants to get back to them and that he hopes to be reconciled with them but he’s always SAID things. He said he regretted leaving her every day, yet moved on without her. Milah said she regretted leaving him every day (according to Hook) but never went back for him. In this instance, he is very much like his mother.

Emma back in Season 1 told MM about David: “It’s one thing to say he wants to but it’s another thing to actually make the choice.” She wasn’t supportive of the idea of MM & David when David was just saying he wanted to be with MM, but when she found out he was actually leaving Kathryn, Emma was all for it.

BOTH Emma and Snow are actions speak louder than words type of girls. Hearing it isn’t enough. Think of Snow in Heart of Darkness when she didn’t know Charming and he was telling her about the potion she took to forget him but that he was her true love and they were meant to be. “Words, words, words. That’s all that love is. And unfortunately for you, love means nothing to me. You know what does mean something to me? Taking action.” Charming kisses her anyway, trying to convince her but she pushes him back because she doesn’t know or love him (she is technically “cursed Snow” at that moment but not cursed as in MM, since she doesn’t have her memories). It’s not until Charming saves her from an arrow which he takes himself instead that she realizes that he must REALLY love her and he’s not just saying it. He’s SHOWING it.

In a medium like television, you SHOW, you don’t just TELL. You can talk about things til you’re blue in the face but until you show it, it’s not 100% and won’t be taken as such. They have shown us what we needed to see in parallels and callbacks to other moments. They’ve shown us how Emma is at times like Snow, and at times like Charming. We’ve seen Hook/Emma be paralled to Snowing, we’ve seen Emma/Neal be paralleled to Rumple/Milah and we were introduced to Neal TO EXPLAIN why Emma reacts that way to Hook.

I have faith that this was all done for a reason because the way they’ve set it up heavily implies that this is all foreshadowing the outcome. Otherwise what’s the point of bothering with the parallels? They show us flashbacks that relate to and further explain the mindset, or what is going on in present day. They’re letting us know that Emma is afraid to trust Hook, not because he’s a pirate, but because she can’t be sure of her OWN instincts since the last time she let somebody get to her in a similar situation, she was the one left locked up and she can’t risk the chance because she has to get back to Henry. We see REAL EMOTION on her face about having to leave him behind and how much it is killing her because she DOES believe him but she doesn’t believe HERSELF.

We saw them first meet. We saw how they first connected to each other. There were tons of parallels with the tying up and the forced adventure and the compass and the talk of true love so early on but we also got to see the big moments for Emma and Hook and how their love story will unravel. All we’ve seen of Emma/Neal is a highlight reel of the PAST and how it affecting HER future. It is something to be gotten OVER and LEARNED FROM. It is the definition of an obstacle.

We had none of that from Neal. Soon we are getting an episode revolving around Hook and in present day for THAT episode, EMMA kisses him – and quite passionate swan indeed!. What we don’t yet have is an episode that shows Emma and Neal with their past and their present. We will probably see one at some point but again, the PAST is shown in order to further explain the conflicts of the PRESENT and it will all depend on what they are going through now and what is relevant but it will be VERY interesting to see HOW that unfolds. I expect it to be more an Emma backstory ep like Tallahassee was where it overlaps with Neal because he is the one person that has history with her. But what they choose to show, again, will be very significant.

The fact that we are seeing Hook and Emma’s FIRST kiss and that it was marketed as such makes me think it won’t be the last and it’s just a matter of time.. I call the marketing dept inept all the time but I can’t believe they are that entirely idiotic to hype it up like it’s something we should believe in only to rip it away because “Neal is alive.” That’s called drama, and rich story-telling with layers that will allow Emma to learn more about herself, fill in some gaps from the past, and get closure. If they really wanted to hype the triangle, I would THINK they would be playing up how heavily Neal is fighting to get back to her right now. Trying to make him out to be heroic and brave and doing things the right way this time too and then watching it play out and see if Emma thought it was too little too late. I haven’t seen that yet.

Once he is close to reuniting with the group (unless they totally surprise us and throw a curveball and he’s already back or coming back at the end of 3×05 or something) what the promotional material will be like at that point. I still don’t trust promos are far as I can throw them and people have been asking questions in interviews about what will happen at that point all the time which hasn’t stopped, but I am still curious as to what way they approach it since a lot of their marketing this year has featured Hook and Emma heavily.

This went on WAY longer than I had planned (as per usual). It’s therapeutic to get it out though but if anybody actually enjoys these I salute you. I’m always shocked.

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

[MysteryKat25]

Captain Eala – thanks so much! I’m sure I do sound like I argue with myself a bunch haha! I see the potential they’ve set up for both sides and know why so many want the other side too and it makes me panic from time to time about whether I might be wrong. And then I go through all the wonderful stuff we’ve been saying and I feel so much better and more sure of myself and my initial instincts.

LOVE that triangle analysis. Reminds me of my NealFire Pan days *sniff* but it still totally applies since we know that Emma isn’t actually Wendy. I completely agree with the thought behind it. Neal is definitely her young love that promises one kind of world that she grows up and realizes she doesn’t need or want. I think one of the things that people will realize is that as screwed up as their childhoods were, they don’t want to change the past and there’s no going back to the way things were. Neal was given the option to be 14 again (nice sales pitch Rumple, 300 years and you offer MAGIC? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?) and even though his life has sucked overall, he refused it and I don’t think he’d be the only one.

I had completely forgotten that Hook and Neal were referred to as two sides of the same coin! They’re similar *enough* for that to be true, but Hook is definitely the more adult option in the sense of an all-consuming and respectful love that acknowledges it’s time for move forward rather than try to stay young forever, especially in this version. When H&K talked about making PP the villain instead of what we’re used to they said: “To want to be [14] for the rest of your life is dark.” and “What happens to somebody who wants to cling to youth at any cost? For us that is a villain.”

Side note just to clarify: Neal isn’t clinging to youth in wanting to be 14 forever at all (he was 14 for long enough!) but in a sense he is clinging to youth in clinging to that young love they once shared and I fully expect them both to realize at some point that it’s not what it was. That was the idea of it, the memory. I can daydream and remember all day long and then actually run into somebody and wonder what the heck I was thinking of and they’re nothing like I thought they were because too much time had passed. Emma will undoubtably be drawn to the idea of it, like Wendy, only to discover that what suits HER better is being offered in the here and now, by someone who understands and appreciates her and can offer her that more adult relationship that isn’t living in the past but in the present and the future, and it is an all-consuming passionate love, not a teenage dream of what love is or can be. It’s not just saying ILY, it’s showing it (among many other things).

I love that you brought in the pretend mother vs mother thing! It fits so well.

Hook is absolutely showing her that a different kind of love is possible and that when he loves, he loves deeply and loyally. It’s taken him so long to give up everything including the desire to avenge (which he almost gave up once before early on too – it takes something major to fill the void that is left in that situation which is why Emma = major for him). He’s showing her respect and admiration and compliments her. All good things.

I know many are offended by his innuendos (I always found him amusing and eyeroll worthy at times like Emma and Snow) but it has always been clear to me that it’s a facade. We get real human moments with him and even though many always seem to doubt whatever he says, I can’t wait for it to be proven. We’ve already had glimpses of that with his comments about the lost boys on the beanstalk and I expect us to get lots more in 3×05 in his backstory to show that he wasn’t lying to Bae on the ship about his past, and that he is a good guy – which he has been showing us every since he came back at the end of last season. Like he told Emma when she said she thought he couldn’t care about anyone but himself “Maybe I just needed reminding that I could” and that was after showing us the last time he let himself care which was about someone that broke him, the same someone that broke Emma. They have more common bonds than they realize in both having cared for him. (And by broke, I mean Hook was SO close to giving it all up and everything was fine for a time – and apparently quite awhile though we don’t know how long) and then Bae sent him over the edge. Just as Emma was floundering for awhile – she was an orphan with issues long before she met Neal – and then he broke her completely and like Hook, she shut down. She became someone who didn’t mind a fling but anything serious, she was out of there. Same with Hook and his flirting but underneath it all being loyal to the memory of Milah. The way he shut down when Emma noticed his tattoo and asked about it *sniff* They are broken but they will mend each other and make each other whole someday! (And possibly Emma could reattach his hand if he wanted her to, thus literally and figuratively – and symbolically – restoring Killian).

I’ve always seen Hook as the facade. In fact in his first appearance, even though he was still *technically* Killian Jones, I was immediately struck with a Dread Pirate Roberts vibe. Can’t wait til we see more of Killian in the past and we’re definitely seeing hints of him now. Personally I’d of course love it if he had any farm-type past as it would be a nice parallel to Charming as well as fulil the whole Westley thing for me but I could see him being  a blacksmith as well (or his father was) which is why it came to mind to use when the girls found him. (Plus it would have total Willabeth undertones from POTC which just gives me FEELS!) Hook’s becoming more and more vulnerable to Emma! My Killian heartstrings will be pulled so much until this triangle is over! (And Colin is amazing at showing emotion. You can FEEL how much it means to him in those pictures!)

As for the promotion of that episode, I could see where you’re coming from sweetgrass. I still think if they were going to have anyone promote it though it would make more sense for him and it would be the safer option because it does have to deal with huge stuff for his character that we haven’t gotten to see yet. Everyone else we have a considerable amount of background info on. It seems odd they’d have JMO, the one at the center of the triangle, promoting an ep devoted to not only Hook’s backstory, but has been specifically mentioned that we will be learning just why he and Emma are such kindred spirits if I remember correctly. Especially since she’s bound to be asked about the kiss so it could come across as if she’s promoting CaptainSwan in a way which won’t sit well even though EVERYONE wants JMO quotes so we can latch on and believe in what she says even though she’ll say the same thing as always about having hope and thinking Neal is dead etc etc. We won’t get anything really until Neal is back in the picture and then she can focus more on talking about how Emma feels about the past. She’s hinted at it but until we see him back, we can’t know for sure).

So it could easily come across as her promoting one side of the triangle, whereas Colin would just be promoting the [spoiler]much-needed backstory and finally being able to talk about what Hook’s life has really been like and how exciting it is to finally learn about it.

I think that teases like that from the men in the triangle come across better because we know they’re just in their characters headspace and they would obviously choose their character cause that’s the one they identify with the best (and they HAVE to and it helps to not judge your own character too harshly. Even villains must be played as if they are the heroes of the story). So I totally get whey people might think it odd that Colin gets to do more promotion but I really hate that people seem to think he’s “taking over the show” – he’s not.

He was ALWAYS intended to be there (couldn’t get the rights in S1), and they’re IN NEVERLAND. I’m sorry but people who do not think Hook is remotely important in a Neverland story baffle me. On top of that he’s part of the love triangle (that we all want to be over for our own sanity) but since he’s battling it out for the lead character’s love, we’ve seen him more than we used to maybe but I don’t consider him to be taking over. (Perhaps that’s because we had to wait agesss last season to see him again – boo to broken legs – but even now, he’s around but not usually the primary focus).

There’s so much more to the show than this character or that one so it saddens me that anybody would think that but I’m sure you’re right and many wouldn’t understand him getting to do promotion even if it is the FIRST time we’re finally getting pre-pirate backstory on him *headdesk*. This fandom, I swear sometimes *shakes them*

This season is focusing and going DEEP DOWN EMOTIONALLY on all the characters and we have already in the first 3 episodes had some great, deep moments between characters that have nothing to do with Hook. (Personally of course I love the Hook moments, especially this season, but it hasn’t taken away from Emma and Snow, or Snowing, or Regina, and we’re about to get a LOT of Rumple and Neal. Emma is moving through the jungle with a small group of people and talking to EVERYONE. Whatever it takes to get her son back. It makes sense to dive into stuff on all the people in the story arc of this Neverland journey.

Already this season I’m seeing more and more people torn and others that weren’t shippers hopping over to CaptainSwan so I hope, especially with 3×05 and the kiss!!! that more at least see it as a viable option and that maybe more is there than they were willing to credit before. I’ve said it before but this was NOT set up as a fling like many predicted. Emma isn’t just getting him out of her system and should she pick Neal, Hook will be JUST AS DEVASTATED as Neal would be if it were reversed. I want everyone to be happy as do many people, but I am definitely seeing more people at least open to CaptainSwan after seeing this season so far (and we’re only 3 episodes in!).

Sometimes people don’t even ship (I envy their sanity) until it is blatantly obvious that it is really happening so I bet the kiss in 3×05 – I will never get tired of saying that! may bring in some reluctant shippers who were waiting for it to be a canon option. Can’t wait to see what my friend who didn’t like Hook last season has to say about that ep! Especially with more context around that scene and the fact that it’s a Hook-centric episode where he should come off in a much better light. I really want people to trust him after this! It bugs me that he can’t have a genuine moment about anything without people doubting him. He KNOWS Emma has a thing with lies and he BELIEVES it. This can only be good  for us if people see he is genuine and I fully believe that Desperate Souls and The Stable Boy helped Rumple & Regina immensely, it’s about time we got something real on Hook!

Side note: I totally get the not believing yet thing because we’re hearing not seeing and I don’t trust hardly anybody when that happens (see my Cora / Lancelot issues *whispers he’s gotta be alive*). But with Hook, everything in him changes when Emma gets to him with certain questions. He talks about things differently, there is real emotion on his face, in his voice, and again, he believes in her superpower. I’ve just always felt there was way more under it all and I can’t wait to be proven right about that. Especially since his poster says “Believe a pirate can be a hero” and Emma singled him out in her speech, refusing to lump him in with either side but still saying he has skills that are useful.

LOVE LOVE LOVE CaptainSwan and we are getting only good things right now (which worries me a little yes, because I don’t want them to give us this for awhile and then switch it up and find out Emma’s true endgame at the last second, already lived through that with another show and don’t care to do it again. That being said…they’ve said repeatedly that with most of these couples, it’s not about will they get together, it’s how. It’s throwing obstacles in their way like with Snowing and RumBelle. We know they’re meant to be and they’re TL. The story is in seeing how they fight to stay together. And Captain Hook is a man who will fight, even if that fighting means letting Emma know he’s there and he supports her and is definitely in this thing 100% but giving her space to figure out what she needs to and just being jealous off to the side for a bit but understanding. Think Han Solo or Will Turner. Plus Jealous!Killian and Emotional!Killian will be wonderful and it will have a huge payoff for us when she does choose him! (I just hope they don’t drag it out too long. I don’t think ANY shipper heart can take much more after last season and that was before we saw how much Hook had reformed after making the right decision!)

Can’t wait for the promo tomorrow night! Almost as excited for that as I am for the episode itself tomorrow which rarely happens (and I love the SHOW and not just for shipper stuff!). There should be tons of great stuff to dissect in tomorrow’s too (though not sure what if any CS we’ll get. Probably something small to keep building it so that 3×05 doesn’t shock too many people. Something sweet and subtle would be nice even if we’re mostly focusing on Rumple/NealFire which is important too. They can’t just totally ignore CS if they’re trying to build it up for next week! and then we get THE PROMO!

THE episode still seems forever away but we survived the summer on faith and belief in our pirate the hero so we can get through this week without fainting…I hope. *stares at pictures*

 

Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.

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