[rapunzel_is_a_ginger]

Hi! I’m new to the forum! After Manhattan aired, I just couldn’t help getting started on all the spoiler boards and forums — it’s just too good! I’ve been impressed with some of the intelligent discussions here and I really like what’s going on. Once seems like one massive puzzle game to watch each week!

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about the Emma/Neal thing, and here are my thoughts, although granted, they were a lot more detailed before I actually started typing. haha.

In Manhattan, Neal tells her, “I was just trying to get you home…” In the season opener, Henry asks “Why is everyone still here?” Neal, like everyone else, may have thought that when the curse was broken, that everyone would return to FTL, without realizing that Rumple’s endgame on the curse was actually to find him. I think this makes Bae/Neal’s decision to walk away a bit more heroic and self-sacrificing. He could have been selfish and clung to her, but there’s no way she could have broken the curse WITH Neal at her side… Think about it… He goes back to Storybrooke with her, and catches sight of Mr. Gold — whether Gold recognized him or not, Bae/Neal would have run. This might also come back to some intervention on the part of August, because if he knew about Bae, then he knew Rumple’s ultimate goal, and would have made sure Neal stayed away without telling Neal the whole story. If Neal had known breaking the curse was to find him, he WOULD have taken Emma and run. (And if Neal actually knew Rump’s goal was to find him and he still let Emma go, then that’s even worse because it means sacrificing her would lead to the one thing he feared most, seeing his father again.)

I’ve seen a couple of comments on his expression when he receives the post card — how he didn’t seem to be happy, presumably because he’s now “moved on.” Not necessarily. He could have been thinking “she’s gone now” which would also explain the flicker of a smile when she runs into him in Manhattan. That whole, “What are you doing here?” could have been him assuming that she hadn’t broken the curse after all, until she puts it together and flips out on him.

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