Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4962906-20151007080647/@comment-1894786-20151023142644

GirlMeetsWorldFan123 wrote: +Hmcooper4:Or maybe if he was with young Emma physically and he just left really fast it could of happened before he was trapped into a tree,just like he could of communicated with the apprentice before he was trapped in a tree. Both things could of easily happened before he was trapped in a tree. But I guess maybe Deamcatcher and Nimue might reveal more on those two things. But we can not count out the possiblity that if he was physically present with Emma in the dark swan and with the apprentice in season 4 that it could have been before he was a tree. I do not think he was turned into a tree right away. But I guess we will have to wait until epsoides 5 and 7 air to see if maybe the reveal anything else about him,like when he was turned into a tree,whether he was with anyone before he was physically with someone before he ended up as a tree...etc... This is just a theory but we can not completely count it out. The Broken Kingdom's main flashbacks take place three years before Regina's Curse. So two years before Snow is pregnant. And the first flashback is from Arthur's childhood, where Merlin is already trapped in the tree.

So yeah, Lily and The Dark Swan's flashbacks take place after his inprisonment.