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If it’s something as simple as they used the water from Lake Nostos to bring back his lost soul, they could cover that in a couple of lines of dialogue if they intend to use the same water to heal Nealfire.

It’d be nice to see a scene of Phillip actually waking up though, because it would be a nice mirror to the scene where he was the one waking up Aurora, (especially if it’s shown in the season premiere).

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KFC, I know I’m already marrying another one of your posts, but I’ll be having torrid affairs on the side with this latest batch. 😉

I guess I’m mostly disappointed because he learned from Rumple’s mistakes but not Milah’s. He wants to be a better father to Henry because his wasn’t good, but he knew centuries ago that Milah regretted leaving him and never did anything about it. The fact that he did that to someone and chose not to do anything about it when he knows exactly how much it hurts grates me.

I see it differently. What hurt Bae was that they left—not that they didn’t come back. He didn’t ask them to come back, he wasn’t waiting for them to come, and with Rumpel, he was avoiding him because he had too much anger to ever want to speak to him again. He thought Milah was dead until Hook told him, so that was more complicated. I’ll have to rewatch that scene, but I took out of it that Bae was more angry that Hook lied to him and “stole” his mother and wanted to kill his father, than he was hurt that Milah had never come back for him.

Just went for a rewatch of that scene, (a few times, so I could get the dialogue right…and now I’m emo…how is it that I can care so little for Milah, and yet my heart breaks when I hear Hook talk about loving her…well played, Mr O’Donoghue)…

Bae: Face me, villain!
Hook: What’s this about, Bae?
Bae: I found this, on your desk. It’s – it’s my mother. How did you get it?
Hook: Bae –
Bae: HOW?! You’re the pirate that killed her!
Hook: I didn’t kill your mother. We fell in love. We ran off together. Your father lied to you, he was too much of a coward to tell you the truth. He tore her heart out, and crushed it in front of me, and I’ve spent every moment since then wanting revenge.
Bae: She abandoned me.
Hook: Not a single day went past when your mother didn’t regret leaving you, Baelfire. We talked about going back for you when you were old enough. Perhaps fate brought us together so I could make good on those plans. We can live the life that Milah wanted for us, as a family.
Bae: NO! Stay back! You used me! You wanted to kill my father!
Hook: Yes, I did.
Bae: You tore apart my family, as sure as if you’d ripped her heart out yourself.
Hook: Bae, don’t –
Bae: Take me back to my real family, the Darlings.
Hook: I – I – I can’t, it’s not possible to leave Neverland. But you could stay here, under my protection –
Bae: I’d rather fend for myself than be with you. I want off this ship, pirate.

Bae didn’t really seem to care that Hook wanted to live out Milah’s happy family on the high seas dream. Even in the later scene, when it was nighttime, (meaning he’d had some time to think about it) and their conversation started out without all the screaming of the daytime scene, when Hook offered again, Bae still wanted no part of it.

Here on the forums, we the audience get pretty upset at her, but I’m not sure Bae was feeling additional pain that she had apparently had the option to come get him and chosen not to do it.

Bae was really young when she’d left, and as such, probably didn’t have a whole lot of clear memories of her. The stuff with his father had more of a lasting impact on him because he was old enough to process and remember it all.

When Gold and Henry talk, Henry thinks all that matters is that the person who left you returns to you—but that is NOT how Neal feels about it, and Gold suspected as much. All that mattered to Neal was that he had been abandoned and betrayed—and as he was not willing to forgive, he really did not believe Emma would either.

Such a great point! He wasn’t even ready to forgive and forget a couple 100 years after the fact, so how could Emma possibly be ready to forgive and forget after only 10 years? From Nealfire’s perspective, he was the Rumple in the situation with Emma – he was the one who let go and left someone alone. Considering how strongly he feels about what his father did, of course he’s gonna project that same hate onto himself in the situation with Emma.

So there’s that moment of hope on his face when he sees her in Manhattan, then it crashes down when he realizes—she doesn’t know! It’s interesting to see their conversation again, with the knowledge that August has not talked to either of them since the curse broke. He is confused why she tackled him on the street. He doesn’t know who Gold is. He’s angry she brought his father, as if he expected her to understand he has issues with Rumpel. He’s trying to process all of that, in the bar scene, and at the same time, Emma keeps making it clear she did not seek him out to renew their relationship. So he has to explain why he left, see the pain and hurt on her face, knowing there’s nothing he can do or say to get her to forgive.

This is what I’ve been sayin’, HOT MESS for real inside his head in that scene. SO much to process in the space of only about, let’s say 10mins, because they’d had enough time to walk down the street and have drinks poured.

I’m still puzzling through what Neal knew, what August knew, and how much of what they knew was actually true, and when they knew it. The timeline of the curse being broken, versus when Neal got into a romantic serious relationship with Tamara. Was the serious part after he thought the curse was broken but Emma did not come find him? Remember, the curse breaks and several weeks go by while Snow and Emma are trapped in FTL. So we don’t know what Neal was doing in that period—perhaps he got the postcard and waited, and then just before Manhattan, he and Tamara get engaged.

Oh, good question! Even if she had have known the whole truth, she wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it, on account of being back in FTL. That’s a good guess that perhaps when she didn’t come to find him, he took it as the final sign that she was over it, and then he proposed to Tamara. It’s really not unreasonable for him to have assumed that August had explained things to her, (he was going there with the purpose of making her believe the truth, after all), August could have even given her his address in NYC, and if so, why hadn’t she come? It’s funny, because looking back, we were all, “Why didn’t he go to SB as soon as he got that postcard?!” But looking at it now, it makes perfect sense that he didn’t.

If you go and look at the other couples, you will notice that if you stopped the story in the middle, these couples show lack of faith at times too, until things change and something inspires them to go find the other. Belle meets Grumpy and Mulan, and decides to go fight for Rumpel. Snow drinks a potion to forget Charming—and he has a tough time getting her back. Charming decides to help Abigail and Fredrick or die trying in the Siren’s lake, because he lost hope. So just because Neal and Emma are not playing their story out in one season, does it mean he’s taking too long to show faith? I don’t think so. I think its just that the writers want to drag this out longer.

Excellent point. Even the destined, EPIC, truest love of all, Snowing, had times when their relationship looked pretty much dead in the water.

They can’t resolve either Emma’s or Nealfire’s love lives by this early point in the show’s run. Never mind their love lives even, they can’t have either character have all of their own, personal issues sorted out yet, and those two have a whole bunch of issues that relate to each other, therefore their relationship is currently, understandably, a mess, but that doesn’t rule out the possibility for it to work out in the end. Neither one of them can be allowed to be emotionally well adjusted at this point. In TV land, things have to look dire or the payoff won’t be worth it. Things are currently incredibly dire for them both as individuals, as well as as a couple.

There’s sacrifice in her parents story too—and she has seen Neal’s willingness to put his life on the line for her at the portal, as well as to give up his own happiness for her. So while I see what you’re saying about wanting someone to fight for her—it’s not like Neal has done the opposite at all. He faced his father for her. He grabbed her, while shot, to prevent her falling in the portal. Now that he knows she does still love him, now he can begin to fight to be with her.

Yes! There are multiple facets to these relationships, multiple things Emma has witnessed, and as you say later in your post, at the end of the day, Emma’s own love story will be unique to her, not a mirror of anyone else’s relationship. We do look to our parents’ relationship for signs of what to do, or what not to do, but as with anything in life, we take from it what resonates with us personally, and make our own decisions. Emma has lots of stuff to consider.

Yes, Emma says the choice is important—but up until the portal she was adamant she was not a choice he could have. So I think we have to wait and see how the rest of it is written. You can’t stop the story in the middle and compare it to a story that finished that romance arc with the wedding.

Indeed, how many times did she say she had no interest? It was obvious that the lady doth protest too much, saying one thing to try and cover up another, but what was he supposed to do with the mixed messages? As to your last sentence in that paragraph: AMEN!

Emma is tough, but she has at times expressed doubt and wanted to quit various things—perhaps tied into her moving around so much too. I think she does understand those who feel forced to walk away—since she had to do it too and she has now seen what caused Snow and Charming to leave her. She also knows that some fights are too stacked to win or that too many people get hurt if you keep fighting.

Her parents gave her away to give her her best chance. She gave Henry away to give him his best chance. So yes, I think it’s safe to say that she’s well positioned to be able to understand that Nealfire had to give her away for a very good reason too. That doesn’t mean she has to like it, or deny that it hurt her like hell and messed with her head for years, but she does have the perspective to be able to understand the situation for what it is, and not hold it against him at the end of the day.

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Maybe if Eddy tweeted he’d be more accustomed to how to choose his words more carefully coz he’d be practiced in trying to get an accurate point across in 140 characters or less. 😛 Sometimes I wonder if those two did a coin toss and Adam lost, which is why he’s the one who has to tweet the masses. 😆

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@Betsypaige24 wrote:

I don’t think he has to be mortal to repair his relationship with Bae. Bae got a real glimpse of the man his father can be with the phone call to Belle, but really he only knows his father as a boy knows his father. As a boy, what could he have possibly understood about how damaged his papa was and the complexities of life? All he saw was that his papa chose power over him. Yes that was true, but Rumple regretted it the moment he let go.

This is sort of what I’m getting at when I say he’ll have to be mortal for the reconciliation to happen. It’s that the gesture of finally giving up that power in an effort to protect Henry is the exact opposite of what happened when he chose his power over being with Bae. It’s the ultimate way for him to prove that he’s changed. Nealfire overhearing the phonecall was wonderful, FEELS galore, but since then he’s seen nothing to back that impression up, in fact, he’s seen the opposite, so it’s gonna take a massive effort from Rumple to prove himself, and giving up the Dark One is the most emphatic proof.

I will be very upset if Belle does not play a huge part in helping bridge the gap as they really have played up the Belle/Bae angle and how devoted she is to him. Belle was an adult when she met Rumple, a very perceptive and kind adult, who could understand how damaged he was, how he hated himself. She knows his father as he does not know him……

I’d love it if Belle plays a role in reuniting them physically as well as emotionally. There’s so much potential for Nealfire to learn about his father from Belle.

It’s actually not a huge deal to me as I think about it because I don’t need any proof of their true love; IMO, what Belle has done for him as a man is far more important than breaking the curse. She has loved him so much, for so long; she has believed in him, fought for him, supported him, had faith in him. As a result, he’s changed, is changing and wants to change. He’s always felt a tremendous amount of guilt for his past, but until Belle, Gold thought that good man had died; he didn’t think he could ever be that. Now she makes him want to be his best self and even as he might struggle, it’s stil a beautiful thing to see. He knows she loves him absolutely, doesn’t ever question that any more (see phone call scene), has made him believe that he is a good man, that he can be better. So for me, curse or not, what Belle has done for him already has been pretty wonderful, lol.

Agreed with all of that. There’s no question as to the depth of their true love. Most people have been expecting for ages that the TLK will be what cures him, because it’s the standard method of curse breaking for couples. Many people have questioned why her kissing him in SB didn’t strip him of his curse, like it started to back in FTL. That’s why I mentioned that maybe the TLK was a one shot deal that’s now not an option as his cure. I agree that they don’t need a TLK to prove anything about their compatibility.

LOL like matter and anti-matter colliding, all that’s necessary is for one extra particle of matter to survive (as opposed to one extra particle of anti-matter, which would mean the end of the universe, lol). So yeah, I definitely see Pan and Gold going at it. Gold thinks he’s going to die, which means he doesn’t have a lot to lose, which means an all out war….and PP will be on the losing end.

Exactly! Would be sort of poetic, given that Rumple’s downward spiral began when he ran away from a battle, and here we see him walking directly into one as his ultimate act of redemption.

Robert would OWN every single scene of Rumple having to come to terms with being mortal again. It would be beautiful to watch.

Yes he would.. I actually think he’d want to be mortal again. I mean, he’s got to have been exhausted living this long – and being immortal is complicated. He couldn’t ever bear to watch Belle age and die; I think he’d find a way to kill himself to be with her rather than live an eternity without her.

I kind of think that if he becomes mortal, he might appreciate aging normally and living a life with Belle. What sucks is that since physically he’s 20 years older, how much time would they have together? Sigh

It’s sorta sad to think about with their age difference. Though on the plus side, if she ends up being welcomed properly into the whole family, she’ll still be surrounded by people who love her, even after he’s gone.

This talk of being mortal makes me think of how I’m (currently) thinking that PP needs Henry because he wants to become mortal himself, and be able to age and die. Rumple would go into the battle expecting not to come out at all, but that’s what he’d end up with, the same thing PP was striving for, to be able to age like a normal human. I’m really looking forward to Rumple seeing Rumple willingly go to give up his life…and then the look on his face when he realises he’s still there, just without his curse. “Whaaaat theeeee….oh, so THAT’S what “undoing” meant?!” 😕 😮

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@Betsypaige24 wrote:

I posted this in another thread, but here goes. Mostly it’s the same of what we’ve heard, except more of Eddy that I hate. God, the Dark One is NOT Gold’s core character……. Gold’s core character is Rumple, the man in Manhattan……. he’s cursed and yes he’s been the DO, but that is not who he is. Ugh, Eddy…..

It was pretty poorly worded on his part. I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that what he actually means is, “their persona that is capable of kicking the most butt”, because he also mentions Bandit Snow, and yeah, that’s one of her dominant traits, but if I were asked to sum up Snow in one word, it wouldn’t be “bandit”. And he mentions Emma having to be the Savior, which, granted, is her core role, but she’s not “all Saviour all the time” and invincible, it’s something she’s still coming to terms with, so I don’t consider it her core trait. Considering the situation they’re in, they’ll all need to tap into side of themselves that will be most proactive and effective, and in Rumple’s case, that will be his Dark One side.

@slurpeez108 wrote:

Eddy: “Even in beginning, it said the curse will cross all lands.”

Interesting! I wonder if that means the curse affected more than just the lands contained in FTL (like Aurora’s kingdom and Mulan’s homeland, which could be reached from the EF by a horse or on foot). Or does that also mean that the curse also affected distinctly separate worlds like Neverland and Wonderland, which could only be reached via a magic portal?

This is the quote from Eddy that’s more perplexing to me.

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She looks gawgeous! 😀 Hopefully there’ll be somewhere I can download this from to check it out.

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@MysteryKat25 wrote:

The point I was trying to make about Emma’s quote to MM in 1×06 about wanting someone vs making a choice to do something about it still reads to me as Neal said he wanted her all that time but didn’t show her that. He chose not to wait for her and come back to say it (and never had any intention of doing so).

I do think he waited. He waited for 11 years. He anticipated for 11 years. And I think it’s very telling that it was only when the moment of truth was upon him that that’s when he committed to someone else. To me, that doesn’t say that he genuinely fell in love with Tamara. The timing of it says to me that the relationship with Tamara was a result of him being scared.

Also, let’s not discount Tamara’s role in all of this. I’m sure she was VERY persuasive and manipulative when she dug her claws into him. The success of her mission relied completely on her being attached to him. So I’ll bet she was the most sweet, lovely, understanding, attentive, loved up girlfriend a boy could ever hope for, to ensure that he couldn’t let her go. From the instant they met she was playing up being vulnerable by being all clutsy and spilling her drink.

Nealfire believes in things being destined. He was standing there in the street thinking, “Much as I’d kill to see Emma again, I’ll bet she hates me. She’s with her family now, that’s what she wanted, so maybe I shouldn’t go, because it would upset her to see me.” Then in that instant, along comes a sweet girl, literally running into him. For someone who believes in fate, that could have very well looked like, “this is a sign from the universe that my gut feeling about Emma hating me and it being best for me to stay away is right, and this nice Tamara girl is who I’m supposed to be with instead.” (For the record, I’m one of those types who doesn’t believe that coincidence is actually random coincidence, I believe it’s some force out there conspiring to show us things we need to see, sort of how our subconscious forces us to address things by bringing them up in dreams. The meaning isn’t always obvious, but these coincidental things in life happen for a reason.)

And I’m also thinking that she would have been the one to bring up the possibility of marriage. Once she had that ring, she had some insurance that he’d be keeping her around, so she could get to SB. She even said to Greg that as soon as the job was done, the ring was coming off. That ring was just the hook that she had Nealfire snagged on, but in order to get it, she’d had to be incredibly convincing.

I don’t believe that Nealfire ever honestly, deeply loved Tamara. I think he tried to convince himself that he should, and I think that he had a great amount of affection for her and believed her to be such a genuinely sweet, honest, loving person that he couldn’t find anything to put in the “con list” that was major enough to convince him that she wasn’t worth sticking with. Until she went and shot him and stuff.

That’s why I don’t see it as a big deal bad thing that he only professed his love for Emma once Tamara had shown her true colours, and that it happened immediately after. He instantly felt the weight of obligation towards Tamara lift off him, and that left him free to finally be honest. Him losing Tamara wasn’t the end of a real relationship, he won’t mourn losing her the way a person would typically mourn the end of an engagement. It’ll hurt him like hell that he fell for her lies, and had been doing so from the instant they’d met. It’ll hurt him like hell that she used him. But all those things considered, it’d actually be a relief for him to be rid of her.

Neal says he regretted it every day and wanted to be with her, but he’s only in her life now because she found him

Don’t forget though that Emma didn’t go to NYC with the intention of finding her long lost love. As far as we know, she stopped looking for him after the two years in Tallahassee. Then she decided he was a bad guy and a lost cause, and she moved on with her life. Maybe she was always keeping an eye and an ear out for leads to him through the years, I wouldn’t blame her if she did, but judging by what she told Henry about him, and even when she told Regina that there was no father, she’d managed to convince herself that she wasn’t eager for a reunion to ever happen. The fact that she found him in NYC was complete coincidence, (and I’ve already explained how I feel about “coincidence”).

So I’m not sure that that would read as a positive choice to her – his past choice makes sense because of the greater good. Choosing not to come to her after that, even if he thought it would hurt both of them more, was still a choice to not give her the benefit of the doubt and have faith in them. Emma doesn’t like being controlled and once again, she wasn’t left to make up her own mind about things because he made it up for her by not giving her the chance.

I really think it’s more himself that Nealfire doesn’t have faith in. If you don’t feel that you’re worthy of something, you’re beaten before you even start. He didn’t believe he was good enough for her. He didn’t believe he had anything but misery and dredging up old hurt to offer her. And he loved her, so he didn’t want to put her through that, especially now when she’d finally been reunited with the family she’d always longed for. Her chance had finally come to be happy, and if he was there, he’d just screw it up.

Granted, Emma should have been able to make that choice for herself, but what’s done is done, and when Nealfire comes back again, Emma will have the opportunity to make her own decisions about their future.

Neal knows what it’s like to hear that someone regretted leaving him but never tried to do anything to fix that. Emma tried to fix it when he HE left HER and he never did which is what bugs me.

Brand new thought that just popped into my head…I’d love it if some day we get a flashback to Emma’s time in Tallahassee, and it turns out he was there, maybe he even saw her, but he kept out of her sight. This would no doubt infuriate people who already have issues with him even more. But my perspective would be that it would show that he was tempted, show that he wanted desperately to be near her, and really struggled with staying away, especially now that she’d come to look for him, even though he knew that leaving her is what he had to do for the sake of her getting back to her family and saving everyone from FTL. And then if one day he watched her leave Tallahassee, that would have been his sign that she was over it, over him, over their dream, and was moving on, which is why he now firmly believes that she wouldn’t want to forgive him. (Dammit, sometimes I really wish I knew how to write fanfic.)

I honestly think it would have better for everyone if he was just honest with himself and had broken up with Tamara

Well obviously, but that wouldn’t have made for lots of angsty TV. 😉

The point I was making about him almost leaving but coming back when he got his memories – yes, it was exceptional circumstances so I get why it may not be considered a direct parallel, but he still knew he had done horrible things even though they were out of his control and immediately went back to her (not knowing at the time that she too had done things and they were fine) but the point was that he knew he hadn’t been the kindest to MM and hurt her deeply but still went back and believed in them.

Again though, I just see that situation as being too exceptional to be compared to anything else. Charming had had the revelation that the lives they’d been living were fake because they were in a cursed town inside a magical bubble. Everyone in that town has lived with magic before, and understands how it can influence life. SF spent their entire time together in our world without magic, and while Nealfire may be aware of how magic can influence the course of life, Emma had no clue, and he was well aware of that. All Emma had to judge their situation by were real world rules, and if you’re just judging Nealfire’s actions using real world rules, he comes off looking pretty crappy, so going back for her was an incredibly daunting prospect.

He’s spent enough time in this world to know that people here think that fairytales and magic are fiction. He knows Emma well enough to know that she’s jaded and cynical and not inclined to believe in magical rubbish being real, (“Like where, Neverland? 🙄 “). So he couldn’t just rock up and expect her to believe him. He had no insight into what had been happening to her in SB, and how her opinions may have changed. He only knew that she wasn’t the type to instantly believe in magical explanations and solutions, so it would be an impossible battle to have a positive reunion with her if he was trying to use magic to explain his actions to someone he was convinced already hated him.

All Emma knows is what she sees and the people she loves that fight to be together even when they’re forced apart for a bit, and the *belief* and *faith* that they can overcome anything and that their love is strength and nobody can keep them apart. The moment they could be back together, Snowing made it happen. The moment that Neal could run back to Emma and explain everything, he didn’t.

Despite what I just said above, you are right in that he did still have the option to try. I may be able to completely understand why he didn’t, but yes, the option was there. So let’s say he made a bad decision in not instantly going back for her. He made a huge mistake that he regrets. Who hasn’t made a mistake in life that they regret? Does that mean he doesn’t get a chance to now do the right thing? We’re not at the end of Nealfire’s story yet, not by a long shot, so give the guy a chance and see what his next move is. I believe that he’ll learn from the regret of not having gone back to her and won’t want to make the same mistake again. The odds are stacked even more against him now, given that they’re in separate worlds, so it will be a huge deal if he manages to cross worlds to get back to her this time.

I would really hate for her to get Neal’s hopes up (and Henry’s and Rumple’s etc etc) and then come to the realization that it’s just not what it once was and they’re different people now.

Something that was no doubt playing on her mind when she was constantly trying to tell everyone that she didn’t still have feelings for him. If she said it enough times, maybe she’d believe it herself and they could avoid any potential fallout that would hurt them both, as well as Henry. Nealfire may have been evasive with his true feelings in SB because he was completely unsure of their situation, but Emma was totally doing the same thing.

I certainly don’t want a mirror situation to what happened with Milah/Hook because I’m already dreading Neal’s reaction to seeing Emma & Hook be close, even if it’s just as friends. He blames Hook for “taking” Milah away from him (I blame Milah for this, really hate her), but he already thinks of Hook as the pirate who broke up his family and I don’t see him reacting well at all to Hook being in Emma’s life in any capacity, much less Henry’s (even though his last choice of love interest tried to kill everyone and kidnapped Henry who Hook is doing his best to save right now, even putting aside his vendetta with Rumple which is on Bae’s mother’s behalf for crying out loud). Nobody is perfect, I’m just seriously dreading a confrontation that isn’t even about Emma or her ability to choose but rather the implication that Hook is once again destroying Neal’s hopes of a happy family/life.

This is something I actually am looking forward to because I love how angst ridden the CaptainFire relationship is. 😈

My ideal scenario has Nealfire initially being hurt and angry over Hook infiltrating his family again, and Emma telling him to suck it up because like it or not, Hook is her friend, and he’s played a vital role in saving Henry. Nealfire will insist that he’s known Hook longer, and he can never change. Emma will insist that she knows him better and he’s actually a decent guy.

Hook is already proving that he’s willing to make a serious attempt at change by turning that boat around. It was remembering his interactions with Bae, and the kid’s belief that he couldn’t change, that made him decide to honour Bae’s memory by proving him wrong in that statement. So Hook will be changing for the better, and then Nealfire will show up and not believe he’s genuine, and Emma will insist he is. Hook will then have to fight to prove himself to Nealfire, (we all know that Hook believes in a man fighting for what he wants, and this is his new goal to fight towards), and I believe (hope) that in the end, Nealfire will see that and they’ll truly make amends and end up as friends.

In the midst of all of that, when Hook sees how passionate Nealfire is about protecting Emma from the lying pirate, it will also be evident that Emma is still incredibly emotionally invested in their relationship as well. So even if Hook has been pursuing Emma up until that point, I think he’d take a step back.

I’m really quite torn on how the triangle has to play out just because I feel like if they wanted us to root for Neal they wouldn’t have setup awesome potential for Hook, and likewise if they wanted to show the difference between Neal and Hook they wouldn’t set up Neal as the fall guy who just keeps getting stomped on by life. He can’t seem to catch a break and I feel for him I do, I just don’t care for his relationship with Emma and I see loads of potential in why Hook would be good for her. I won’t go into all of that here as we’re discussing an actual former couple and most don’t want to hear it anyway, but just as SF fans see a much more complex situation with Neal, I see more in Hook than just good looks and innuendos.

Personally, I see potential for CS to ultimately be BFFs. I’m not ruling out a brief, romantic entanglement in there somewhere before she gets back with Neal, but if that does happen, I envision it ending on amicable terms where they both realise that while they do share a genuine understanding of each other, they’re not meant to be a couple.

Much of what CS shippers unearth as similarities that form a bond between them, I don’t disagree with. They do have similar issues, they do get each other on a personal level, they don’t have to explain themselves because in some ways they share a brain, and so they’ll be able to accept and understand each other, warts and all. You need friends like that in life. That’s why I said in my previous paragraph that Emma will tell Nealfire to suck it up if he wants her to break off all contact with Hook. I could see Emma insisting that Hook has been there for her, and she for him, (in the most delicious irony, I think that both of them grieving the loss of Nealfire will be what brings them closer together), so she’s gonna fight for their friendship just as much as Nealfire will be fighting for his relationship with her. And in the end, after much angst, all three of them will end up friends.

That’s a slice of my current headcanon.

I think once they’re all reunited, Emma will push all emotional problems to the side and focus on ____ (insert whatever bigger picture problem here). That’s what she did with Snowing, and I fully expect her to need more time to come to grips with Neal being alive and what that means in her world right now than just seeing him.

I think that their relationships will inevitably develop in the process of whatever action is going on storywise. Emma’s quest for true love may not be the primary focus of the show, (I hope it’s not), but how they all relate to each other will be a constant undercurrent.

They haven’t been together in a long time but she now knows her instincts weren’t wrong back then when she felt that connection with him. This may lead her closer to Hook in some capacity because we know she initially wanted to trust him but was too afraid to because of her past with Neal. That all started before Neal came back into the picture so it’s not her finding a rebound and she’s got more important things to focus on anyway. It does however help with her instinct of trust and may let her open back up again with Hook around as she was already drawn to him earlier but afraid to trust herself.

This is why I think that CS developing a close friendship is ultimately a vital step in Emma being fully prepared to reunite with Nealfire. Lessons she learns through her involvement with Hook would give her the confidence boost to be able to move forward with Nealfire again. And on the flipside, their closeness will allow Hook to be able to be vulnerable with a woman again, something he’s been resisting for a looooonnng time, so he can’t just snap is fingers and be emotionally healed and ready for lurve again, he’s gotta learn that it’s safe for him to open his heart up again, and Emma can help him with that, because she already understands him. I don’t wanna classify CS as a “stepping stone” relationship in that regard though, because I think that implies that it would be a short lived thing, and my hope is that they have an ongoing involvement with each other, just not in the romantic sense.

One of her last moments with him before that is seeing him be hurt that Tamara, the woman he loved and needed so badly he asked her to come to SB to be with him (in front of Emma) break his heart, shoot him, then send him through a portal and it took all of that to get him to tell her what she told him ages ago? She opened the door wide open in Manhattan and he even could have clarified it with something along the lines of “I loved you too but I was doing what was best for everyone and it gave you what you wanted: your family back” and even gone so far as to say “but that was a long time ago and I’ve moved on and am engaged now” but he obviously didn’t want to have to mention that part. He could have easily acknowledged that he did love her *back then* just like she had just done without stepping on Tamara’s toes in the slightest.

First of all, I totally understand wishing Nealfire had phrased things differently because, “This world wasn’t my first stop,” could have so easily been “This world wasn’t my only stop,” and it would have saved so many of us so much *headdesk*ing and OMG I wanna slap whoever wrote that line. Ahem, sorry for the detour, back to the topic at hand…

In the case of him not including the word “love” in any capacity in that bar scene though, it really doesn’t bother me, because at that immediate point in time, if he uttered that word in her presence, even if it was used in past tense, that would have been like uncorking a shook up champagne bottle and ALL HIS FEELS would have instantly come rushing back. And with Tamara in the picture now, and his commitment to her, he simply couldn’t afford to risk going there with Emma.

As for his true feelings about Tamara, I covered that at the start of my post.

I’m not sure if closure was the right word on my part because I didn’t mean that it was necessarily the end of all things but rather that it was closure on a chapter of the past where she was doubting that he ever cared about her even though she felt so certain that he did. It was nice to actually hear him say it and when things have affected you for so long and made you doubt yourself over the years, it’s nice to get confirmation that you weren’t imagining things back then and more importantly that your instincts are right – that’s a huge thing for Emma as she relies on those and we have seen her go against them because she wants to believe in something / is afraid to believe because of prior experiences. Whether it moves them forward or helps her as a person more forward because she finally got that confirmation, it needed to happen.

Confirmation is a good word, yes. He’d recently snarked about not having believed in her instinct, and she was all, “Oh plz, you so did believe it.” His feelings for her were something that she needed to have had the correct instinct about, and now she knows for sure that she was right. Faith in superpower officially restored. I think that proves that they have something very real to use as a basis to build the future of their relationship on.

Looking at it from Emma’s point of view, I’m sure she feels like she’s been slapped in the face a few times because she never doubted them. She fought for them back then (and again after jail in waiting in Tallahassee for 2 years)

From the time she was in jail, through the years in Tallahassee, and everything since then, right up to current events, she’s been coming at their relationship from the opposite point of view to what he has. She is the one who was wronged, she is the one who was hurt, she was the victim and he was the perpetrator (for want of two better words, because those feel a bit harsh, but I’m trying to illustrate the starkly opposite perspectives of the situation).

She is the one who is in a position to decide whether forgiveness is warranted or not, that’s not up to him, and in his own mind, he’s convinced himself that the way he hurt her will be perceived by her as something utterly unforgiveable. So is it any wonder that he was choc full of doubts and afraid to face her, even if those fears weren’t really necessary?

He couldn’t read her mind, he could only imagine what he’d feel in her position, and he concluded that she’d hate him. He confessed to her on the beach that he was too afraid to look for her and she actually had to ask, “Of what?” His fear hadn’t occurred to her before then, but now he’s spelled it out for her and straight up told her, “That you would never forgive me, because I never forgave myself.” So now she knows his mindset, which she hadn’t during all of their previous interactions since Manhattan that had been all awkward and weird and confusing. When you realise the other person’s side of an argument and you’re able to consider it, it gives you a new understanding of the overall situation, (this is true of any situation in life). Now that she knows his mindset, that in turn will inevitably change her understanding of what’s gone on between them since Manhattan.

She’s a tough person and deserves an epic romance (and I think she’ll get it for sure), I’m just not sure backtracking is the answer.

Well, like I’ve said previously, I wouldn’t see it as “backtracking”, I’d see it as a continuation of a relationship that had to inevitably be put on pause.

Phee I LOVE your comment about Colin & MRJ. It is SO refreshing to hear somebody say that argument can be thrown out the window!

😆 Feel free to use me as an example if anyone tries to pick that fight with you again. #Mythbusters

Egad, when I previewed this post I saw KFC’s contributions to the discussion. Guess that’s my reading sorted for this evening. 😆

[Phee]

@MysteryKat25 wrote:

I agree with all of these and would like to add: FrankenWolf!

Yes, I was gonna add FrankenWolf! Sort of a bummer to know that they were apparently gonna elaborate on that before their overall plans changed and Red got downgraded. In The Name Of The Brother finally aired here last night, and I had it on in the background, half watching, but I had to watch the FrankenWolf stuff properly…and lament what could have been. *sigh*

[Phee]

@RumplesGirl wrote:

2) Because the Duke is a sick sick person? Or because you need adults to stay home and do the productive things like grow the food. Kids are..expendable.

Who knows how much longer this war will go on for. Gotta have some adults back home to keep on reproducing so they they have a fresh supply of “soldiers” to send out into the field if this thing goes for 14 more years.

4)Because PP is HE. You have to listen to the quote again.
Random Lost One: “Will we ever find the boy HE is looking for?”
Felix: “It may take some time, but PETER PAN always gets what he wants.”

He is the antecedent of PP, they are grammatically linked.

THIS.

[Phee]

@Jasminegirl84 wrote:

*repeats mantra and massages temple: he’s taken he’s taken he’s taken* 😆

Ah, all the best ones are taken or gay. Another celeb at the top of my pretend boyfriend list happens to be both, coz I’m a masochist like that. 😛 😆 Life ruiners indeed! 😉

@obisgirl wrote:

First interview with Colin at Monte Carlo 😀

He’s so lovely and softly spoken. And the accent! <3 😀

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