Board Thread:Show-Related Questions and Answers/@comment-25974054-20150105192131/@comment-25926288-20150919012641

Stovers wrote: If being outside Storybrook is the answer, then Neal never would have left Emma and Henry. He would just go with them to New York. Regina would have given them a memory potion to accomadate that.

It's a plot hole. Neal wouldn't have to go back and then the story would stop with them living cursedly ever after.