I forgot to say I loved when Hook was talking about Neverland and the lost boys :love:

It's possible Neal's own self-doubt and insecurities played a role in letting Emma go. He knew he wasn't a very "good" person and was not the best influence on her. August didn't have to be too forceful about pointing that out. It wasn't hard to tell Neal that Emma would be better off without him, once she got out of jail and all, and August promised to "look after" her.

I still do wonder what discussion he had with August and what August showed him to convince him to "betray" Emma. How was he so easily persuade by "magic"? Who is he in FTL?

I think Neal encountering August does lend credence to theory that Neal is Bae. This is definitely one way August could have learned about Rumple and his lost son, explaining how he knew about the dagger and such, and how he was able to impersonate Bae and fool Mr. Gold in that episode last season.

I wonder if August and Bae met again before the postcard was sent.

Maybe August was telling the truth when he said last year to Gold that "a little fairy told me". I never believed it at the time, but he had to have shown Neal something magical, literally. At first I thought it was a sketch of the dagger, but they didn't know each other and August would have no idea at that point the story of Rumple, the dagger, and his son. Maybe he literally had a little fairy in the box.

Really good episode :D liked everything about it :woot:

I love how sweet Snow is to Aurora! :sigh: and they hug between Snow & Emma :yay:

Hook is awesome :D

The dream that Aurora & Henry was really weird :eek: I want to know more about that..

I understand Mulan, she was just doing what she was told ..

Wonder if Neal is really Bae, it wasn't really confirmed :look:

Love when Snow talked about Charming :sigh: and that he did the same thing for Henry when he had a the bad dream :)

They DO realize that they are blowing holes left and right into their own premisse that Regina is the one who made Emma into this messed up woman who doesn't trust anyone, do they? Because YoungEmma trusted the baby-daddy just fine when she met him - until August intervened and messed with her life to make her ready for her destiny: being the saviour. Also, does this sounds familiar to anyone? I really hope, hope, hope that they will go somewhere with all the parallels between Regina and Emma.

That said, the writing this season just doesn't work for me. I know that three storylines (present SB, present FTL and flashbacks) aren't easy to handle but their have to start to follow up the emotional fall-out from the last episodes. It doesn't makes any sense for Henry not to ask questions about Daniel or Regina at this point. It doesn't makes sense not to see at least some small glances about how Belle is coping on her own. The good thing about season 1 was that it was the perfect mix between serial (what is going on in SB) and episodic (backstories of a character) storytelling. Now they are turning it more and more into the episodic narration where they are leaving too many things unconnected or shoved away until the next "main" episode about the character comes along. This makes you disconnect with the characters because what is the point in having some highly emotional scenes in one episode when it's not followed up in the next.

So, I hope that Emma and Snow get back soon so we can leave out this present FTL-"adventure".

Emma's backstory! This is what I've been waiting for! Last season, she had been sporadically teasing me by mentioning her time behind the bars and Henry's father who, in her white lie, "was a hero and died young", and here I've finally got it! :yay: Regina's evil wasn't made overnight, neither was Emma's cynicism. She was once a hipster in her shady youth, naive, immature, giddy, running out of the foster care system, making a livelihood of theft. She didn't look as young as a 17-year-old juvenile delinquent, but she, with the help of a cute outfit from Jen's own closet, ACTED like a maiden, deep in love with Neal with no second thought, even dreaming of her happy life with him in Tallahassee, which was no unlike the brutally realistic Emma who ignored all of Hook's charm and focused on her task. Whatever you Captain Swan shippers think, I've got no chemistry between those two! This ship sinks. :lol:

A few thoughts:

- Mulan was such a tough cookie. Not a slightest part within her looks for romance. :lol: She followed order without any doubt, any hesitation or any personal emotion. As we know, both Regina, Rumple and Emma had a traumatic experience in the first love, which made me wonder if Mulan had been through the same pain that let her choose her duty and honor before all.

- I'm a little disappointed at Neal whose background was yet in the dark. Is he Bae or an ordinary thief in Portland? No one's got the answer. Personally, I wish him to be nobody but Henry's father and Bae Peter Pan in Neverland. Hey, Hook did give a hint! In the centuries he spent in Neverland, he met an awful lot of abandoned children and read the same sorrow in their eyes, by which he pointed out that Emma was used to be an orphan. What if Bae was one of those never-grow-up kids?

- I understand how everyone hates August who was responsible for all of Emma's misfortune. Neal and Emma were supposed to live together, steal together, even die together in justice like Bonnie and Clyde! This couple was so adorable, but with a simple glance into that box on August's motorcycle, Neal immediately and dramatically changed his mind and believed in Emma's "guardian angel". Jeez, what the hxll did he see? My guess was Henry's book, opened on the page with a picture of a wounded Charming putting baby Emma into the wardrobe. Whatever secret August showed to Neal, he had his reasons. He saw the bigger picture wherein Emma was the savior to break the curse, so he can't see her going onto a wrong path and drifting farther and farther from her destiny, even with the cost of leaving her alone --- in jail. What I condemn him is the money. With the 20k dirty money, Emma could've started a new life and kept Henry, but what she received was nothing but the yellow bug. August must've saved the money for his trip to Thailand where he spent the last 11 years. :(

- There was a clip in this episode's promo, in which Emma was gently soothing her gigantic baby bump, her blue eyes staring into Neal's through the glasses with glee of being a mother. Obviously, that was completely misleading. Beneath her top was a bag to carry her loot in the shoplifting, a trick to bamboozle the cashier. What Emma said to Regina about Henry's father was true. Neal didn't know that his gal had brought him a son.

- Hook was an opportunist who'll pledge his allegiance to whomever can provide him a ride to SB, but as Emma shackled his wrist in the Giant's treasure room and went alone with the compass, she made a horrible enemy for herself, her family and her companions waiting on the ground. Of course, she was in the opposite position of this situation 11 years ago, but such a dramatic betrayal to Hook was a really bad move. She just completely threw him to Cora's side. She underestimated what the captain was capable of. :(

- One vital mystery was solved --- August was the one who sent the postcard from Storybrooke! That was how he promised Neal to notify the end of Emma's duty. Remember his blink on the bed in "We Are Both"? He might be petrified, but surely not immobilized. Neither the location nor the name of SB did August mention, but now Neal knows. It's time for him to go there and give Emma a proper explanation of his scheme with August!

- Henry and Aurora shared the same intrigued nightmare! It made sense, as both of them were victims of the sleeping curse, which derived origin from Maleficent who traded it with Regina for the big curse. According to their descriptions, they found themselves trapped and SEALED in a red room with burning curtains. Snuggling at a corner, a pair creepy eyes gazed through the flame. I have no idea what kind of prophecy it is, but it surely will come true like Belle's and Regina's. A noteworthy difference in Aurora's and Henry's versions of this nightmare was the eyes they saw --- through the flame, a "she" glaring at Henry whereas a "he" staring at Aurora. What if they were looking at each other from opposite corners of the same red room in the same dreamland? ;) Based on Snow's reaction, she, another victim who suffered from eternal sleep before, was unfamiliar with it, so I believe in this theory for now.

Who the hxll would pay attention Belle except for Regina and Gold? She, popping in from nowhere, was just a stranger to everyone else, including Red who quickly befriended with her. Whatever between Regina and Daniel was their private relationship issues, out of Henry's business. That boy is only ten-year-old, not even in his adolescence yet. His knowledge of love is limited in the fairytales in his book. Besides, there is no problem to omit these trivial details. No one except you cares.

On the contrary, they're probably gonna stay at there until the end of this season. They aim to go back to Storybrooke , but they will have no story to tell if they really reunite with Charming and Henry -- continue to fight with Regina? Or Gold? Obviously, neither is possible. Before they come back, they gotta fight with Cora and Hook, the new villains this season. You don't like the pattern of three storylines, but actually, each episode only focuses on two of them. :shrug:

Which is exactly my problem with it because it always leaves one storyline hanging and therefore doesn't follow up on what happened in the last episode. It creates emotional gaps because we don't get to see the characters deal with what happened to them.

Before seeing the episode, I did not care which one I liked to see with Emma, would be Hook or Neal?
But after that
I have concluded that Hook may even have chemistry with Emma. Being very hot and attractive. But it is very unfair to pair with Emma. He is a pirate, a womanizer, a handler and has killed a lot of people.

Neal is just a thief. I think he was able to overcome this with the years he was away from Emma. And mainly because Neal loves Emma.
I dont want to see Hook dating Emma.
It would be horrible to see Hook being Henry's stepfather too...
It is preferable to have a father a thief than a stepfather murderer and bad...
However for to much Hook is hot and sexy, he is a villain by nature. Redeeming or not. He sucks.

So I'm rooting fervently for Neal and Emma...

Gah okay so I had no idea what to expect going into the 'Tallahassee' episode and it's a good thing I didn't because...just...wow. Totally blew me away!

Emma: Now any episode that has Emma scenes or in this case becomes an Emma-centric episode, I become more than happy. She was half of the reason that drew me to the show in the first place (the other half being her relationship with Mary Margaret but in this review that is TBC down the line)

She was seriously badass both in FTL and in the flashbacks.

- Flashback Emma: I am so glad we finally got what we've desired since season 1. We've always had flashback moments of other characters to FTL so it was great to finally see a flashback to our savior. I know that what Emma was doing was wrong, the stealing and all that, but in some odd way I found it so fun because this version of Emma, even though we knew she got into some trouble, at the same time seeing it was completely different so to see her as a version of Emma that we weren't familiar with added a great dynamic to the savior that we've come to know.

It was so cool to see some of the valuables she kept. The car. The swan trinket.

-Present Day(FTL) Emma: She can totally add another creature to her belt. I loved her being the one to face the giant. I was so glad some rubble fell on Hook because this truly became one of Emma's defining moments in FTL. She may not have defeated that ogre on her own but seeing her go against that giant was badass.

The thing I loved most was how she spared him. She may have killed a dragon in season 1 but here what she saw was someone who, though a giant, still had human features and despite her ordeal she felt some sense of compassion.

Moving away from the Giant situtation, I liked how some of her talks with Hook brought back those memories that triggered the flashbacks.

Emma has a hard exterior but seeing her flashbacks we got to see why. She was kind of a free spirit and then she fell in love, he broke her heart for reasons unbenown to her. It brings back so many conversations from past episodes that now we truly understand part of why Emma became the way she did.

We knew she had a rough past but to actually see it other than just hear it gave her more depth which I think was extra special because you can't help but love a person more when you know the story as to what got them there.

Emma/Snow: Freakin' loved their moments even the moments when they were apart and all Snow could do was watch and hope that her daughter was safe.

I liked how at the begininning when Emma decided she would be the one to go up the beanstalk how she talked to Snow and said something along the lines of 'you're not going to argue with me' and Snow asked back if it really would've made a difference. She knows her daughter well.

Emma talking to Mulan about getting Snow back home if she didn't make it out on time, talk about a daughter's sacrifice!

Oh man and that near end when Mulan was going to follow with Emma's wishes, totally loved that fight between her and Snow. No one gets between her and Emma!

So glad Emma did make it back and her reunion with her mom totally killed me. I just lost it with tears of happiness and that hug cemented the water works and had more flowing.

~*~*~*~

Neal: Gah damn it, the only expectation I really had was that I was kind of expecting to hate him. Instead I actually loved him despite his criminalistic tendencies.

I so didn't want to trust him or his feelings for Emma but then when he met a certain someone you saw that he was willing to put her destiny first before them.

When we found out his wanted poster and Emma agreed to help him my first thought was 'You SOB, you're gonna turn her in aren't you?!' and while he did the reasons for it were not what I was expecting at all.

August: No freakin' way! When I had heard he was going to appear I was thinking it would be a moment in Storybrooke and not till the near end so to see him actually meet up with Neal was a huge shocker. My head was just reeling with this.

And the fact that it was August who sent Neal the postcard again something or someone I wasn't expecting. I had thought of all people to send the PC it would've been Rumple- just sending out a card using magic to find who it needed to. The last person I ever thought would send it was August.

I so want to know what it was that he showed Neal which made him become a believer. My first thought was that it was the OUAT book that Henry had but then I thought no that wouldn't be it, someone (other than it seems Henry, minus August) would believe in just a book so it had to be something else, something more.

~*~*~*~

Henry/Charming: Aw I loved this moment! And to see Charming protect Henry the way he used to when Snow had nightmares was great.

Henry's nightmare though- I'm curious as to what it means if Aurora saw him and Henry saw her. WTH?

~*~*~*~

Side Notes:

-Always love the look of amuzement on the FTLC's faces whenever Emma makes a comment like her telling the story of Jack & the Beanstalk.

-Speaking of Jack, he got killed by the Giants. Is it me or does anyone find that to be the most awesome twist ever? Guess Jack was no David (David and Goliath reference).

~*~*~*~

Final Thoughts:

-Easily the best episode of season 2 for me. Maybe it has a little bias to it because Emma's one of my favorite characters but that aside I thought the storylines were brilliant and it had some twists stories that I wasn't even expecting at all. To say I'm satisfied would be an understatement. It goes beyond that!

~*~*~*~

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So, August finally shows his face again (even if it's just in flashbacks) but the way it does .. sorry, not the way to go boy.
And why did he search for her for 2 years and then disappeared again till she was 28 and went to SB? Did he follow her all the time like some creepy guy in the shadows?
For Neal - to me he appeared like some lost puppy himself. I'm not that fond of the actor (sadly) but his chara has some light and shadows. I could see him being Bae but would find that a bit too obvious. Maybe he actually is Peter Pan, like others have suggested (or some other FT chara).
Hook&Emma - liked their scenes in this ep. Especially the talk about love and the lost boys ;) But right now it's way too early for Hook to consider a serious love rl - I think all of this (not just the possibility of Hook&Emma) needs time and development. I couldn't take it serious if Emma was to jump right back into the arms of Neil nor dive head first into something with Hook at this point in the show.

I liked this episode. Probably one of my faves from this season, apart from the premiere which still remains as my fave.

I'm glad they took this long with Emma's flashbacks, it took a while, but we got there, and it was right timing IMO. If it were to be too soon then it would've been too rushed.

Now we just need to see Neal's backstory and we're going to get it all figured out. I believe we may not get it for a while.

My theory is that Neal is either a fairytale character, and Bae, or he's just Bae. He could also be a lost boy from Neverland, because with the way Emma brought up neverland to him, I don't think that it was put in there for no reason.

He is definitely Henry's father, we know that now for a fact.

With him being Bae, it ties everything in the story together, which is what I think the writers want. Going along with my theory, I think that Emma/Hook will start to happen, or at least have some feelings that are amicable between the both of them, and no title given with their relationship, or there will be, I'm not sure :lol: but I don't think so early in the game there will be, and then once Hook tries to kill Rump/Mr. Gold, Bae comes in sometime before, or after that, and it becomes revealed that he's the son. Emma probably will be there, at least in my mind with this scenario, and she'll put a stop to it. Henry won't know that Neal/Bae is his father, as well as Rump/Mr. Gold as his grandfather until later, I believe, and that will cause a drift between Emma and him, for sure. It could even drive him to having a relationship with Regina :lol: Neal/Bae will right away know that that's his kid, and he'll confront Emma directly about it after.

I've watched too much TV...LOL. But I love it.

Anyway, I think I'm getting sick of present FTL, and I want them to get out of it already. Emma and Snow not being in SB is just not the same, and it feels very nostalgic and empty with it being that way. It's time for them to get back.

I think he felt like he really was no good for her, and that he would only bring her down.

There is always a part called "previously, on Once Upon a Time" to remind you what happened before. This show is on its second season with a bloc of loyal fans who watch it on time at every weekend. Aside from flashbacks that are usually individual stories, you won't feel any emotional gap if present FTL part or SB part is attractive enough for you.

I know a lot of people are angry at August with how he manipulated things. I'm probably one of few, of only, that am actually pleased what he did. Maybe it's because my reasoning comes from reading too many books and too many comic books.

Take Superman as the ultimate one: How many times has he been manipulated, had other people pull the strings in order to get Clark Kent to be the hero he needed to be? And for this purpose I base it off the Smallville mythology. Tess Mercer, Jor-El, Lex Luthor, Lionel, even Chloe and Lana- they all manipulated Clark- tore away the things he loved in order to guide him toward his destiny.

Were those methods wrong? Depends who you ask because in the Smallville universe ultimately it was the love and faith that Lois had for him that guided him to step into the light and take that one final leap toward becoming Superman.

My point here is that August wasn't in the wrong at all. He saw a situation that needed saving. He saw that if Emma went down the path she was going on it would prevent her from becoming the savior she needed to be and so with Neal's cooperation he was able to guide her on a different path, one he hoped would be the right one toward her destiny.

:back_hug: Let me love you, person who doesn't make me feel alone and worried for her own safety in this fandom right now!

I wouldn't say he didn't do anything wrong, but what he did was what he had to do given the situation that he found her in. And I think the reason Neal called the cops on Emma was to stop her trying to look for him.

Still raises the question, what the heck was in that box??!!

Could you please stop with the condescending tone here? I am not an idiot who has problems to remember what happened some weeks before on the show. Reminding the audience of the cliffnotes of what happened some time ago is still not the same as following up the emotional fall out from one episode to the next. Koda called it "fragmented writing" in another thread and I think this describes it really good for what I'm feeling is happening with the show right now. It's like they have a bunch of writers and each one or two of them are writing one storyline - but they don't talk to each other, they don't cross the storylines at all and this, for me, is creating a emotional gap. It has nothing to do with the question if I find each storyline interesting, I'm invested in the characters but right now I don't hear their voices beyond the plot, there is no emotional connection between the episodes.

Is there a thread where I could give some examples of what is not working right now with the writing? The General thread maybe?

It's just my opinion but it seems like I'm not the only one feeling this way.