[Slurpeez]

Besides the blatant disregard for the “dead is dead” rule, it makes ZERO sense why Emma has to go to the Underworld to get Hook back. Her plan is to split her heart and share half of it with Hook. Yet, as we saw with Snow and Charming, Regina shoved half of Snow’s heart into Charming’s lifeless body; there was no need to retrieve Charming’s soul from the Underworld in order to resurrect him. Aside from plot-driven reasons, why does Emma need to descend to the Underworld to retrieve Hook’s soul when all she had to do was split her heart in half and shove it into Hook’s corpse, which she had right there in SB? Moreover, getting back Hook’s immaterial soul (or whatever) makes NO sense either, because her heart is a physical substance which needs to be put into a physical vessel; putting a physical heart into a non-physical spirit makes no sense. *head desk*

[Slurpeez]

I don’t know that I have ever been more glad for three months from this show than I am after tonight.

Thank goodness for the winter hiatus. I think I’m going to take a loooong break from this show and the forums. I may pop in over at the ranch, but this show is just so not worth it anymore.

"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

[Slurpeez]

Everything about this episode is everything I hate about this show now. Just when I thought the level of idiocy of  this show couldn’t get any greater, it does. Remember when dead was dead? Remember when Neal couldn’t come back, according to the apprentice, because he died in the real world. Well Hook died in the real world! Remember when Emma let Neal stay dead, because she couldn’t take away being a hero from him, but she’s happy to take that away from Hook because of love? I cannot even begin to describe my loathing that Emma cannot let Hook die a hero because of Rumple, but she will gladly let Neal (her son’s father) stay dead. *twitch* And Emma doesn’t second guess her choice to endanger her 13-year-old son’s life by taking him to the Underworld with her? Does anyone even in SB have a brain? Why the crap is Regina letting Henry go? And why the heck are Robin, Regina, Snow and David going to the Underworld too? They’re all parents of INFANTS and YOUNG CHILDREN! What they heck do they care if Hook stays dead? And Rumple is EVIL for reasons that make no sense. Oh, and Rumple probably got a child on Belle after her tricked her AGAIN and then concealed from her the truth that he’s the dark one…again! And no one thought to tell Belle even though they knew the truth, so Belle is going to spend another half season being duped and used by Rumple.

"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

[Slurpeez]

Supposing Teenage Baelfire is currently in SB along with Milha, I suppose they could like apparitions that are haunting Rumple? It could be Rumple’s memories of Bae and Milha brought to life (so to speak). If Emma and/or Henry were to come across adolescent Baelfire, imagine how cringe-worthy that’d be! Bae and Henry would be peers, and Emma would be looking at the father of her son now more as a son figure than as a former lover. How twisted is this “family” show? *twitch* If that were to happen, I’d have to have something a lot stronger than tea to drink.

"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

[Slurpeez]

Dylan’s back? I suppose it could still be a flashback (though Dylan is probably going to look like a young man now). Well, I really liked him as Baelfire, so I’m conflicted. I’m still hoping Bae isn’t back from the Underworld as a  teenager though. How awkward would that be for Henry and Emma? *twitch*

"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

[Slurpeez]

I’m guessing this is for a Rumple, Milah and Young Baelfire flashback? Unless Neal reverted back into Young Baelfire in the Underworld, due to MRJ’s lack of availability. This would further indicate that this is a Rumple centric.

I’m thinking it’s a flashback and/or it’s an apparition of young Bae who haunts Rumple. I doubt that the writers actually ressurect Neal only to de-age him again into Teenage Baelfire. (Then again, I’ve been burned by this show before). MRJ is soon to be available again now that Game of Silence finishes filming this week, but I’m still not expecting him to return after the way he was treated by the show.

"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

[Slurpeez]

I woke up confused and then I read the latest spoiler.

Is it possible we’re only going to see Young Baelfire in a flashback? I’m thinking we may be getting flashbacks from The Crocodile when Bae would’ve been around 6-years-old. If it’s just a flashback, then I’d actually be in support of that, since it’s been forever since we had a Daddy Rumple/Baelfire stoyline. However, if it’s really the case that Neal was resurrected as a little boy, I’ll have some venting to do.

"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

[Slurpeez]

I was delighted to get to explore more of who Hook is and where he came from because that’s something that we haven’t really done before. I know that we saw a little bit with Liam, but it was nice because we’re going to meet Hook’s father. That was a very important thing for me to get to explore because he, obviously, was such an important part of forming who Killian Jones came to be as a person. It’s interesting, but I can’t really tease too much about it because it’s quite spoilery, but the fans should expect to see some very interesting stuff between Hook and his father.

Is Hook’s father Hades? I mean Rumplestiltskin’s father was Peter Pan, so stranger things have happened.

"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

[Slurpeez]

@nevermore – Bravo on that assessment of the dark one curse. I agree in that I think it does operate by bringing out the tendencies that exist in the host prior to being cursed. Your observation that Nimue and Hook seem to be the perfect hosts for the darkness when compared to Rumple and Emma was especially keen.

The fact that Colin describes Hook as a sociopath is very telling.

Yes, and that is how he plays Hook. He has said it on more than one occasion. He first said it in 2012  And he said it again in 2015 when it was revealed his character had become Captain Dark One.

"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

[Slurpeez]

Feel free to skip this post, since it contains analysis of why CS is deliberately being shown not to have true love. To start, Snow and Charming had this conversation about Emma and Hook’s relationship:

David: Emma was seconds away from destroying the darkness and ending this.
Snow: And Hook would have been dead. She chose love, David. And we would have done the same thing. We’d share one heart because we took the same kind of risk that Emma took. We save each other. That is what our family does. So have some faith in her.
David: I do. I just hope her faith in Hook is justified.

Snow held up her own relationship with Charming as standard by which to measure the relationship Emma and Hook have. Even though Emma was  trying to save Hook when she tethered him to Excalibur, Hook doesn’t see it that way. He sees it as an act of betrayal by the woman he loved. Hook said, “After spending centuries quelling my bloodlust, you threw me right back into that darkness! Job well-done, Emma!”

At first, it seemed like Emma was getting through to Hook in a field of the flowers of doom, but then he betrayed her. It was shown just why Emma’s faith in Hook was unjustified. Their relationship was first compared and then contrasted with Snow and David’s true love, and it failed that test. Emma tried to save Hook, but he didn’t even try to save the shred of hope that remained for a future with Emma. When Emma pleaded with Hook to chose her and their future together, he said,

Hook: “Of course I still have feelings for you… Anger. Hatred. Disappointment…. When you tethered me to Excalibur, you opened my eyes. And I now see you for what you really are… an anchor. Ha! And I see clearly now that you were nothing more than a pretty blonde distraction. But guess what, Swan? I am a free man now. And you will never hold me back from getting what I want again.”

It’s not just the dark one curse that is making Hook act like this, because we’ve seen him act like this before when he wasn’t cursed. It’s like in S2 when Emma and Hook betrayed each other. First, Emma left him at the top of the beanstalk (understandably to get back to her son). Then Hook double crossed Emma by leaving her and her mother for dead in that magically fortified jail cell. Only this most recent betrayal is worse than being left for dead, because Hook embraced his hated and revenge over any love he had for Emma. Emma keeping him alive against his will is the ultimate betrayal of love for him. Yes, he wants to get back at Rumple for a centuries-old feud, but also at Emma, since he blames her for cursing him as the thing he hates most.

Emma: The darkness is using you. It doesn’t care what you want. It only cares what it wants.
Hook: Well, you’re only a pawn if you don’t know you’re being used. As long as I get what I want, I don’t give a damn about the rest. And you of all people should understand that.
Emma: Everything I did, I did for you.
Hook: Well, you see, that’s your problem, Swan. You’re so afraid of losing the people that you love that you push them away. And that’s why you’ll always be an orphan. You don’t need some villain swooping in to destroy your happiness. You do that quite well all on your own.
Emma: Why are you doing this?
Hook: Because… I want to hurt you… like you hurt me.

Colin has said that Hook is a sociopath, which means he doesn’t care about the feelings of others; the darkness just brings out those darker impulses that already existed since S2 in Hook’s nature. He actually wants to hurt Emma the way she hurt him. He doesn’t care if Emma was tying to save him. To him, she just started the cycle or revenge again. Emma may have selfishly tethered Hook to the sword because she’s afraid of losing him after she lost so many people, but at least she acted out of feelings of love. By contrast, Hook is acting out of feelings of loathing for Emma. It’s sometimes a fine line between feelings of love and hate and Hook oh so easily turned on Emma to embrace his feelings of hate for her.

All in all, this episode just showed how unhealthy and toxic CS is, and the only thing separating it from the “romance” that the writers like to pretend it is and the emotional abuse it actually is, is whether or not Hook is playing “nice”. Because if he isn’t, you see CS for what it really is without the mask of pretence, an abusive and unhealthy relationship that will only destroy Emma and Hook.

I’m still in the minority of viewers who thinks all of this toxicity is being written intentionally. Despite the ABC-made promo which declared Emma to be fighting for her “one true love” what we got is Hook breaking her heart. Instead of Hook showing that that Emma’s faith in him was justified, he showed exactly why it wasn’t by double crossing her and opening a portal to hell and putting the entire town at risk. Also, there was that little-yet-oh-so-important event when Hook crushed Merlin’s heart after Emma said doing so would mean the destruction of his happy ending with her.

Emma: Your revenge is not your happy ending. I am. You told me that. If you destroy this heart, you will destroy your happy ending along with it.
Hook: No, Killian Jones told you that. Your lovesick puppy dog. But that man died the moment you turned him into a Dark One. [crushes Merlin’s heart]

While one might argue that Emma will forgive and forget, a straightforward reading is that Emma meant Hook would loose her permanently if he crosses that line of killing Merlin. Hook crushing that heart to cast the dark curse was the point of no return. It wasn’t just the murder of Merlin that destroyed that happiness; it was Hook putting his desire for revenge over love by betraying Emma that was the last straw. I don’t see how CS can come back from this.

With the revelation that Milha is returning in 5×14, I’m anticipating some juicy revelations for Emma. How many times was Milha name dropped in this episode? Emma still has to find out exactly how Milha was related to Rumple and Baelfire.

In regards to RumBelle, considering the very high probability that the writers will whitewash Hook’s actions as the dark one claiming “the darkness made him do it”, this creates a double standard. Belle is holding Rumple responsible for his DO actions yet if Hook is given a free pass, Rumple should be given one too. Likewise, if Rumple is held responsible, Hook should be too. The writers are in very real danger of making Belle look hypocritical if she’s willing to forgive Hook but not Rumple.

As Rumple pointed out, he is now the purest hero who ever lived and he doesn’t get a free pass with Belle for things he did when consumed by darkness. Hook immediately succumbed to darkness, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have any free will; Emma showed that she was able to do good despite the darkness in her. Hook gave in right away, but it was still his choice not to fight it at all. Hook said those horrible things to Emma because he is so full of hatred towards Emma for what he perceived as the worst betrayal she could have done against him. Look how Nimue murdered her “true love” Merlin. Hook just opened a portal to the Underworld. He seems like he’s fully given over to the darkness, and there’s almost nothing he wouldn’t do to get revenge, even putting Emma’s family in danger.

"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

[Author]

Posts