Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26392556-20150414073627/@comment-4839682-20150415160458

Hmcooper4 wrote:

I think that's true to a point. And I won't bring up Henry and Emma from the Pilot. However, between "Broken" and "Dark Hollow" (or "Heart of the Truest Believer, depending if you are following episodes or just timeline), it appears that the border was open.  Yes, there were consequences for people that were brought by the curse if they crossed the line without adequate preparation, but others were able to cross back and forth with no problem.  Hook leaves and comes back, Neal is able to enter without problems (though admittedly he was with Emma on the Jolly Roger when he came back), Greg and Tamara are able to easily cross the border. John and Michael have no problems. Gold, with his talisman, was able to leave and return, and the talisman only prevented his loss of memory while in the LWM.

And the second curse, Emma and Hook do not have any problems finding and entering Storybrooke.

'''Snow's Curse is now in the same Broken State as Regina's was in Season 2, so it would stand to reason that the border SHOULD be crossable both ways. Of course, it is magic, and it can be manipulated, so who know what rules are in effect at the moment.'' I think you've summed it up well. Plus, they did show us Belle being given a protection spell for the town, so it definitely seems the border was "open" for a time.

I'd wager that the town's current hidden state is the same kind of "unpredictable magic" thing we heard about in 201, or someone has protected the town again.