Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-25926288-20160713182420/@comment-25926288-20160729020619

Which is exactly why Emma at the townline could be prior to everything or something completely different. Perhaps a new enemy or occurence. It would seem that the townline stuff might have disappeared and perhaps it'll just establish that "they can't leave" or something like that.

Chances are Emma won't encounter the Evil Queen yet. Thus she's spotting this weird occurence, while Evil is going on.