Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-6207588-20130209135913/@comment-6207588-20130211235713

If Neal was meant to be Emma's end game romance at the end of the series I think they would have hired MRJ as a regular...right now he's just a recurring guest star with an option of returning next season. I hate to say that because I really liked their romance. It is one of the reasons I don't want him to have a girlfriend. We have no guarantees he'll be back next season and I would  like to see them together again as a couple before he's gone.

I suppose it's possible that they may have made him a regular and kept it under wraps thinking that revealing that would say too much about where they were going with his character but I don't know if they would really do something like that.