Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26159109-20160201202653/@comment-4453062-20160208193910

Farerb wrote: Eskaver wrote: Well, let me dissect it:

1. They could easily set Zelena to die as the price of ressurection making Zelena's uppcomeance be due to herself. Or they could have had some other plot device take place. If Zleena would have died, well, that could have assited in the 5b plot arc (maybe XD)

2. Not really, have Hook keep that secret to himself as he didn't know Neal sent it and Neal wouldn't know because of the memory spell. I think it still works.

3. Comatose Neal, lol. What we already had amnesia?

4. Neal doesn't go back with them and is in a coma or somewhere unknown. Journey is still Hook and Emma.

Just alter a little bit and it could still work. But you need to understand why some of those choices were made. The lips curse and 321/322 was mainly to sell Hook and Emma's relationship, nothing more. If Neal had stayed none of these would have happened because the audience already knew Emma and Neal as a couple from S2-3A. If anything, I would have expected to see the resolution to Emma and Neal's history, August connection to everything, the missing money, what happened to them after Emma gave birth to Henry. Those things you can't do without Neal and with Hook. I know that for you they are basically the same, but they really aren't. They have different dynamic with other characters, they have different history, those things affect the story. If you're talking about the money that Neal gave to August, August ended up using that money for himself instead of getting it to Emma. That was what was implied on screen, and Adam and Eddy clarified it on the official OUAT podcast that existed back in Season 2. That was how August was able to afford wasting away in Phuket. August's weakness was that he was easily persuaded by temptation, and he took free money when it was handed to him. He said it himself that money was not what Emma needed, and that was his excuse for not getting it to her.