Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-26830263-20170710210232/@comment-5899967-20170911110333

It's really good to see her again in these pictures. So I continue to speculate, it's definitely like a check mate in my opinion, looking objectively at the situation, besides my personal belief:

1. If Emma is staying behind in Storybrooke or wherever she is, not only it's out of character, but it would leave the door open for more appearances, and the writers "confirmed" (although they could be lying?) that she won't be back again.

2. If Emma is trapped/separated into another realm, they will have to rescue her and it's gonna tease more appearances, which, again, can't happen.

So they pretty much have their hands tied, there's not much they can do, I'm not saying she is 100% dead, but I predict there will be a permanent solution to explain her absence. And if that doesn't happen, people (me included) WILL demand to see her in more episodes, especially if this is the last season.