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"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
Regina: “I moved on.”
Emma: “Moving on and being over someone are two very different things. Maybe that’s what is holding you back. That you did move on. When we were on our way to the Underworld, I saw Neal.”
Regina: “What?”
Emma: “When I passed out, it was a vision or…a visitor…I don’t know what it was. But I saw him. My first love and I suddenly felt this immense guilt that I was coming down here to save my new love.”
Regina: “What did he do?”
Emma: “He gave me the greatest gift I could ask for….he said it was okay. Maybe being this close to Daniel is what is blocking you.”
The “okay” is NOT about going to the Underworld. It’s about loving again. It’s reassurance not permission. There is a lot of context around the scene. AGAIN…this anger is not about one scene. It’s the principle.
So I finally watched this deleted scene between Emma & Regina. I like that Emma clarified that there’s a difference between moving on and being over someone since, clearly, Emma isn’t over Neal. She’s just had to move on from him just to cope. On the one hand, I do partially agree with RG’s interpretation: Neal has given Emma his blessing to move on in a general sense… just not to pursue Hook in the UW. That is what Neal meant in 3×15 when he told Emma to find Tallahassee and that he just wanted her to be happy, even if it wasn’t with him. Yet, Emma isn’t over Neal; she said she would have tried to come for him too if she had known she could do this. Emma feels guilty that she still has feelings for Neal, even though she also has developed feelings for Hook. I think she just transferred her real feelings for Neal onto Hook when she lost Neal, but she has never gotten over Neal nor will she ever. She said she would always love him. She just clung to the last man standing (i.e. Hook) out of fear of being alone, but she’ll always really love Neal. She clearly wanted to kiss Neal in the vision in 5×12.
Where I think Emma is really confused and mistaken is exactly what Neal meant when he appeared to her in the vision in 5×12. Clearly, he never gave Emma his blessing to get Hook from the UW nor even to be with Hook in particular. Neal wants Emma to be happy even without him, but I doubt he would ever wish her to end up with the pirate who helped ruin Neal’s life. In fact, Neal directly warned her at least twice not to pursue Hook in the UW. He said he knew she wouldn’t listen but that he had to at least try since he somehow knew it wouldn’t end as she thought it would (namely the death of his friend Robin). Neal also somehow knew that Emma was going to the UW to get Hook, but Neal never offered to help Emma find him when Emma asked. Neal just said he himself wasn’t in the UW; ergo, he couldn’t be saved nor haved helped her find Hook, even if had wanted to (which Neal wouldn’t want. He wouldn’t ever help Emma get back the man who sold him into slavery and ran off with his mother).
Given that Neal tried to STOP Emma from going to the UW to resurrect Hook, I think Emma was just misremembering what Neal actually said to try and assuage herself of her own sense of guilt. We, the audience, are meant to be questioning her sanity at this point. She isn’t in her right mind, remember? She tarnished her soul (Merlin’s words) when she chose to make Hook another dark one and pursued the darkest possible path. I think Emma is acting under a delusion; despite all the evidence to the contrary (e.g. anti-TL kisses, Hook’s failure to break her dark-one curse, and the failure to share her heart with Hook), Emma still is operating under the false belief that she has to make it work with Hook at all costs. Emma has become an unreliable narrator where Hook is concerned (kind of like Sansa Stark’s fake memory about the Hound and the ‘UnKiss’ from SOIAF).
I don’t think it’s just the writers’ failure to remember what they wrote just a few episodes before in 5×12. I think maybe we’re supposed to question Emma’s sanity, memory and wonder about her grip on reality. Who in her right mind would try and save the man who nearly sent her entire family to the UW? No one. Is Emma losing her grip on reality the longer she’s with Hook? Also, she hasn’t been herself in a really long time. Her issues were mentioned clarly in S5b. We were also shown that her friends and family are concerned about her mental health as indicated by the glances they shared Emma claimed she didn’t have any issues. Based on the looks that Emma’s parents, Regina, and ven Hook shared, they think Emma has issues she hasn’t even admitted to herself yet.
Emma’s family also shared looks of doubt when Emma claimed in 5×11 that she would share her heart with Hook:
They all share looks of doubt again, despite Regina saying otherwise. They all doubt Emma yet go with her anyway to the UW for Emma’s sake (rather than for Hook’s sake). Of course, the heart-sharing thing was a total bust:
Emma has a near heart attack, and Regina is the one who has to put the pieces of Emma’s heart back together. (As many SQ fans have pointed out, that could be highly metaphorical and full of meaning). Despite how much Regina supported Emma in her quest to go to the UW to get Hook, Regina was only doing it for Emma’s sake. But she doesn’t think Hook is worthy of Emma. I think Regina just wants Emma to be happy the way Neal did. Regina remains in the UW for Emma though, even though she tells Emma that she’s too good for Hook.
Regina doesn’t think the pirate is good enough for Emma, even though Regina hated to admit there were similarities between herself and Hook. The difference is that Regina has had a clear redemption arc whereas Hook really hasn’t. I’ve talked about Hook and Rumple being a foil for one another, but now I’m thinking Regina and Hook are more foils for one another. Regina has clearly undergone major inner transformation, as she revaled to Emma in Only You, and as the Charmings have accepted and realized.
So how deluded must Emma be? She knows that both Ruby/Dorothy and Hades/Zelena have shared TLK despite knowing so little about each other, and yet she and Hook have had what, 5 or 6 failed attempts at TLK? She witnessed the Zades TLK in the same episode that she failed to share her heart with Hook and also doubted openly whether she and Hook shared TL. I think that the only thing the CS “true love shove” showed in Firebird is that Emma’s heart is full of true love because she is the product of true love.
We also know Gwen did things she wouldn’t have otherwise done when was operating under the influence of Arthur’s Sands-of-Avalon mind-control. Just saying. Maybe Emma is to? Neal never gave his blessing for her to try and save Hook from the UW. That isn’t what happened. Neal actively tried to thwart Emma’s plan, warning her that it would come with a big cost. I think only now has Emma started to realize just what her own selfishness has cost others she cares about (i.e. Regina). Regina may be the one Emma chooses in the end, but Emma still is operating under false pretenses where Hook is concerned. I think the story about Gwen and Lancelot was set up but left unresolved for a reason. Maybe there is something to the idea that their story was left untold on purpose and will come back into play towards the latter half of season six as more untold stories gets told. Maybe there’s a reason why…I know people will probably say I’m giving the writers too much credit, and maybe I am. Still, we’ve seen certain things that we thought were dangling threads or plot holes come back into play in later seasons (e.g. Emma not finding out that Hook had been involved romantically with Neal’s mom until season 5 when Emma actually met Milha).
We already know her being the savior and its cost is going to be explored a lot in season 6, what with the parallels to her and Aladdin and her therapy session with Archie Hopper….
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
To clarify, I don’t think A&E are good writers–far from it. I think they’re below-average writers (at best) who struggle with inconstancy, character redactions, and major plot holes. A&E were just super lucky to catch a big break when Damon Lindelof from Lost basically planned out the first season for them. Source They do sometimes come up with ideas that catch my attention. When I block out silly PR and social-media fails by Adam and only focus on the script, I see how they actually portray Hook in the story versus how they claim they’re portraying him in the media. They’re like politicians; they say one thing but then actually do another. That they pretend otherwise is highly subject to scrutiny and something I don’t agree with. Neither do I applaud it when politicians lie, but I accept that they do. It’s the same way in media and Hollywood. Sadly, many lies get told in that industry, too.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
*sigh* It was such a nice, quiet hiatus (for me anyway). Then all that deleted scene stuff happened.
At least we got one good one with Head!Rumple remarking to the Dark Swan how painful her date with Hook was and how he never could stand Hook.
HeadRumple: That date was excruciating. Can’t stand him.
Emma: Go away.
HeadRumple: Well, I’m more like a virus than a pet, dearie.This scene is golden! It probably came from 5×3 since I think it would have followed this scene aboard Hook’s ship when Emma asks Hook if he loves her and he replies that he loved her (past tense). Hook rejected Emma when she was the dark one whereas her family accepted her and said the real Emma was still there.
I’m choosing to believe that Head!Rumple represents Emma’s own darkness and the hard truths that Emma has a difficult time admitting to herself. Namely, she realizes her attempt to soften herself by wearing that pink Sandra Dee dress for him totally failed, that even she really cannot stand him and that Emma never really could make it work with Hook because he outright rejected her when she was the dark one. Also, as Emma told Merlin (you know, before Hook murdered him): From 5×7
Emma: When I was seeing Rumplestiltskin in my head, he said he would only be with me until I embraced my dark powers. So recently, I’ve been thinking maybe not seeing him, maybe that’s a bad thing.
She only stopped seeing or hearing HeadRumple when the lure of darkness was at its strongest (i.e. when she was with Hook in the field full of pink flowers of DOOM). In other words, Hook making HeadRumple leave Emma for a time when Emma was in Camelot actually meant Emma was giving into darkness when she was with Hook. Then Merlin said Emma choosing to save Hook would be the “darkest path” he had forseen her taking.
Merlin: If I die, it means that you lost your battle and the darkness stained your soul. Everything and everyone that you know will be at the mercy of the most powerful dark one ever… Yourself. No pressure.
He said she would stain her soul if she saved Hook. She then indeed embraced the darkness when she saved him instead of getting rid of the dark one curse when she had the chance. Emma embraced the darkness to save Hook and then he thanked her by trying to send her family to hell in retribution.
All the side-eyes from me.
The deleted scene also confirms that the writers aren’t totally oblivious about how wrong Hook is for Emma. I think I understand how to intrepret text. What the text tells me is that Hook is intentionally being written as the man who is wrong for Emma. I think we’re supposed to see Hook as Emma’s Mr. Wrong, but she, like the hard-core CS fans, just doesn’t want to admit it. That’s why she was so desperate to split her heart in half and share it with Hook. That is why she repeated her father’s line “I’ll always find you” regarding Hook. Emma is looking for true love, but Hook has been revealed as Emma’s anti-true love. Hence, the failed-heart split in S5b and the anti-TLK in S3b.
The fact that so many young women (like Emma) fail to see him that way isn’t really down to the writing in the scripts; it’s just down to their own misinterpretation and attraction to Hook’s (Colin’s) good looks. I think the writers are catering to the the ardent fans of Hook for the eyeballs they bring in every week. (Though whether the writers see how many eyeballs Hook and CS drive away is another matter altogether. So A&E are oblivious in that regard). Yes, that scene was deleted, and yes the writers are terrible at PR. They have little-to-no consistency when it comes to knowing whether deleted scenes are ‘canon’ or not, but I see that more as a sign of just wanting to keep ratings up long enough to get that elusive seventh season. The writers rely on these hormone-driven worshipers of Hook, so they cater to them in a misguided attempt to keep up ratings. But, that doesn’t mean the writers are portraying Hook in a positive light. In fact, I’d say just about the only consistent thing on this show is how poorly they keep portraying Hook (which I think is their intention). I think they cut that scene with HeadRumple and Emma because it was too obvert. It revealed too much since I think HeadRumple speaks for Emma’s dark truths and for the writers.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
Anyway, I suspect that Rumple will end up poorly, however the season renewal gets sliced, because if trickery is irredeemably evil, and a trickster can’t change his stripes, then this is going to be another retribution narrative. *sigh* Either way, I still mourn the loss of a really interesting character.
I also think Rumple is destined to die, no matter what. Whether he redeems himself (again) like he did in Going Home by sacrificing himself for Belle and/or his child or goes out in an evil blaze of glory, I think Bobby Carlyle is officially done with OUAT after season 6, even if the show survives for another season. While I will always mourn the loss of Rumple’s original character from seasons 1-3a, I won’t really miss this resurrected, altered black-hatted villain alter ego who lost the little thing that kept him human when Baelfire died. I wish Bobby Carlyle good fortune away from the shambles that has become this character and show that I originally loved but now no longer care for much. In conclusion, I think Rumple is the major death we can expect for season 6, but not until the end of the season.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
Emma learns a life-altering secret that could have serious consequences for her family and loved ones.
Let me guess. Saviors don’t get happy endings? Or do they?
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
Aladdin and Emma are both saviors, so that makes the most sense to have it be an Emma centric episode along with Aladdin. Also, just recently the writers said they would love to explore more of Neal and Emma’s past in flashbacks. It makes me wonder if Neal and Emma are the ‘street rats’ in question.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
One word: Olympics!
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
Crickets! This place has been quiet lately.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
