Where is neal once upon a time

I did this for my family. I may not get to be his father and be with him and watch him grow up but I am protecting him the best way I can. Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day. March 31, pm. Logo text. Related Stories. We knew this was coming — a few months ago, Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz revealed that they'd be killing off a series regular "for real" during the second half of Season 3.

But who really thought it'd be Neal? He'd come so far and he was Henry's real father so he at least seemed kind of safe — especially under the cover of Henri Lubatti's premiere as Lumiere on Sunday night — right?

We definitely won't be underestimating OUAT 's ability to be ruthless in the future. Where's my box of tissues? We're heartbroken — because, duh — but we can't deny that OUAT did this in the right way. Neal passed on nobly and with Emma by his side, both of which were fitting. While en route, Emma telephones David and Mary Margaret , to fill them in on what has happened. David explains to them Cora and Regina have possession of the dagger which can be used to control Mr.

They arrive at the pawnshop , and once inside, Mr. Gold gives a piece of magic invisible chalk to Emma and tells her to draw a magic barrier across the door with the chalk. Neal jokes that he did not know she could use magic, and Emma chides at him for not telling her about Tamara or who his father is. Regina ejects David by throwing him out of the shop. After distracting Cora and Regina, Emma proceeds to draw another barrier outside the shop's back room to protect herself, Neal and Mr.

Gold for a little longer. After hearing Mr. Gold's emotional phone conversation with his girlfriend Belle , Neal realizes that his father has changed. As father and son share a close moment, Cora breaks through the barrier. Though Neal and Emma rise to defend Mr.

Gold, she teleports the them to the town forest. After Cora's death, Mr. Henry is horrified about his family's possible intent to kill Regina to end the feud. Emma takes an upset Henry to the diner where Neal hangs out with him. He orders him a nice dessert, but Henry knows Neal is in on trying to sweeten him up so he does not try to get involved with Regina.

Neal asks Henry to move to New York with him where he will be safer. Henry agrees, and then goes to the bathroom. Emma comes back to check up on them, and is incredulous that Neal fell for the "I'm going to the bathroom" trick; especially since Henry took his backpack with him. They try to catch up with him, and get to the mines with help from Ruby and realize Henry took dynamite to blow up the wishing well to get rid of magic.

They hurry off to the well, and nearly have a heated battle with Regina, but Henry manages to get everyone to stop. Henry convinces Regina to not use the spell on him, and she willingly burns the paper. Deciding he wants to stay in town for Henry's sake, Neal phones Tamara and asks her to come as well. At some point, he returns to New York alone and discovers Hook missing from the storeroom. While he is staying at Storybrooke's inn, Emma and Henry visit him.

Sending Henry to grab three hot cocoas from the diner , Neal tells Emma about Hook's disappearance, and then reveals Tamara will be arriving shortly. She dislikes the idea of another outsider in town, and pushes Neal to tell Tamara about his true identity.

The foursome have an awkward breakfast in silence, but the conversation picks up when Henry asks how the two of them met, to which Tamara briefly relates the story.

Once Henry and Emma head out, Neal shows Tamara the book and tells her about his life in the Enchanted Forest; stating all the fairytales in the book are real. Perceiving this is a ploy to drive her away so he can be with Emma, Tamara angrily berates his story, and storms out. Later, in front of the sheriff department building, he witnesses a wooden August die with his last words warning Emma about "her". After Mother Superior arrives and transforms August back into Pinocchio , Tamara arrives to see the workings of magic.

Unknown to Neal and the others, moments earlier, she was the one who killed August since he was trying to expose her to Emma. Feigning surprise at witnessing actual magic, Tamara decides to stay in Storybooke for Neal. In the park, Neal and Henry have fun playing with wooden swords. At the end of the day, he brings home a worn out and asleep Henry. Emma tucks him into bed and then the two sit down to talk. She casually asks him if he would go back to the Enchanted Forest if there was a way, but Neal states he spent his whole life running from it.

On a rainy day, he and Tamara huddle under an umbrella as they are leaving the bed and breakfast. He returns to the guest room to find Henry waiting outside. As Henry struggles for a reason for his appearance, Neal notices that he is kicking the door. Recognizing the door tactic as his own, he bursts into the room to find Emma prying open a loose floorboard.

Emma explains her suspicion of Tamara as possibly being the person August was warning them about. Neal goes out on a limb and allows Emma to open the floorboard, but nothing incriminating is found in it. He asks Emma whether her reluctant behavior is due to Tamara being in Storybrooke.

She strongly denies it and leaves with Henry. Awakening in bed, Neal sees Tamara is preparing to go out on a marathon training run. Later, Emma informs him Regina is missing, and she strongly believes Tamara is responsible. While he continues to be skeptical, Emma notices sand on the floor left by Tamara's shoes, which indicates his girlfriend has not recently been running in the woods as she claimed, but near the beach.

As they comb the beach, Tamara casually jogs up, explaining her reasons for changing her jogging spot, before heading off again. Believing Emma's behavior is influenced by Tamara's presence, he expresses sympathy for her difficulty, but she denies being jealous.

When Emma tries to walk away, he admits wanting to go back for her when she went to jail in his place. Neal admits he truly wanted to, but was too scared to face Emma; thinking she might never forgive him as he never forgave himself for leaving her. After learning Regina is trapped in the cannery, the pair head inside the building.

David, who rushed ahead to find Regina, warn Emma via phone to be on the lookout for Greg as he is trying to escape the building. Overhearing the exchange, Neal is relieved to hear Tamara is not involved, but his ease turns to horror when Emma is knocked out unconscious by her. To his shock, Tamara confesses to lying about everything since the day they met, and though she thinks he is a good man, her job is more important. Tamara then shoots him in the abdomen and apologizes before Emma kicks the pistol of her hands.

To distract them further, Tamara opens a portal, almost causing Emma to fall in until Neal grabs hold of her, while she herself flees the cannery. After Emma is pulled up, he ends up clinging to her to keep from falling into the portal. Neal urges her to let him go, but Emma fears he'll die from the gun shot wound no matter what world he lands in. Terrified of losing him, she confesses her genuine love for Neal. He reciprocates his love for her and then disappears into the portal.

Through the portal, Neal focuses his thoughts on the Enchanted Forest, to which he is transported there. Unconscious, he washes ashore at a beach where three strangers, Aurora , Mulan and Prince Phillip , tend to his injuries at a palace. He wakes up to the watchful stare of Mulan as Aurora and Phillip rush to check on him.

Aurora thinks he as a native of this land, but Mulan dutifully notices his clothes are foreign and similar to Emma and Mary Margaret's. At the mention of Emma's name, Neal urgently mentions he must save her and Henry.

Aurora, having previously met Henry in the Netherworld , promises to look for him there again. Aurora's attempt at contacting Henry is unsuccessful, so Neal goes to his father's old castle to find an item for locating Emma and Henry. Mulan, accompanying Neal there, asks about his relationship with Emma as the blonde never mentioned him.

He confesses to breaking Emma's heart by letting her go so she could break the curse, and after this, fear of rejection kept him from going back to her.

At their destination, a man, Robin Hood , has already claimed the fortress for himself. However, when Neal explains that the castle once belonged to the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin, and he is his son, Baelfire. Robin Hood decides to trust Neal's words and mentions being indebted to Rumplestiltskin for sparing his life in the past. After looking around for a bit, Neal picks up his father's old walking stick, which is enchanted with blood magic, and swings it around to activate a hidden door.

From within, Neal discovers a crystal ball and attempts to activate it by touch, which causes no change. Mulan suggests thinking about how he feels about Emma as a guide. Neal follows her instructions, and the crystal ball shows him an image of Emma in Neverland. Panicking over finding another pathway to Neverland, Neal searches all over for something that could be of use, but to no avail.

Just then, four of Robin Hood's allies from their group, the Merry Men, enter into the castle. From beneath the leading man, Little John , a four-year old boy, Roland , crawls out and runs into Robin Hood's arms.

He finds out the child is Robin Hood's son, to which he suddenly comes up with the idea of how to traverse worlds. Neal suggests Roland can use a summoning incantation to call the Shadow so he himself can gain a pathway to Neverland. Neal dislikes the idea of his father coming to look for him when the curse is broken.

Even though he and Emma can possibly reunite then, Neal doesn't think she would want to see him. Neal watches August ride off on his motorcycle and upon turning to leave, he accidentally bumps into a woman, Tamara , holding a cup of coffee, causing it to spill all over her, to which offers her his scarf to cover up the stains.

They exchange numbers, start dating, and later become engaged. By the time Emma breaks the Dark Curse , Neal is still living in New York City , where he receives a postcard from August which is delivered to him by a dove. One side of the postcard reads, "Broken", and the other is a photo of the Storybrooke clock tower with the phrase "Greetings from Storybrooke". One day, Neal receives a call buzz from someone trying to gain access to his apartment.

The person on the intercom states he has a UPS delivery for him, but for reasons unknown, this makes Neal afraid and he flees out of the window before jumping down the ladder to run away. He flees from his pursuer until they both careen into each other in an alleyway. As Neal looks up to see who was chasing him, he is shocked to see Emma. She, equally stunned to see him, accuses him and his father, Mr. Gold , of deceiving her.

Not wanting a confrontation out in the open, Neal succeeds in getting Emma to a nearby bar where he reveals that he is, in fact, Mr. Gold's son Baelfire, and then they discuss their past. Neal makes note of the fact she is still wearing the necklace he gave her, but Emma takes it off just then and hands it back to him. He suggests that they go their separate ways and insists she tells Mr.

Gold she lost him. Although Emma agrees, Neal decides to go back to his apartment as he knows what his father does to people who break deals with him. He stops Mr. Gold from threatening Emma and commands him to leave, but feels confused when he sees Henry, who he does not recognize. When Emma states Henry is her son, Neal adamantly demands to know how old he is.

Henry shouts back he is eleven years old, which is the exact amount of years since he and Emma were together. He realizes the boy is his son. Gold blackmails Neal into talking with him as that is the only way to fulfill Emma's bargain. Neal tells Mr. Gold that since he himself as an abandoned boy never got closure, neither will his father. Emma allows Neal to get to know Henry but warns him not to break his heart. While getting to know Henry, Neal swears him to secrecy about his past quest to find a way to destroy magic and mentions a journal he kept that contains all his research.

During one day in New York, he introduces his son to New York-style pizza and promises to take him to a museum. Neal tries to tell Emma about Tamara , but he is unable to after their conversation is interrupted.

In preparation for the museum trip, Neal and Henry head up to the apartment to grab a camera. They rush back down after hearing a commotion and see Mr. Gold has been stabbed by Hook , who Emma has knocked out. To everyone's surprise, Neal admits he and Hook met in the past. Since only magic can cure Mr. Gold's wound, Neal offers to steer Hook's ship back to Storybrooke, and he arranges to borrow someone else's car so they can reach the harbor.

Emma curiously asks how he knows Hook and how to pilot a pirate ship, though he evasively says the land without magic is not the first world he arrived in, because if it had been, he would be over three-hundred years old by now.

When they arrive next to a large car, Neal prepares to use the keys when the owner of the vehicle, Tamara walks up to greet him, and he introduces Emma to his future wife. While en route, Emma telephones David and Mary Margaret , to fill them in on what has happened. David explains to them Cora and Regina have possession of the dagger which can be used to control Mr.

They arrive at the pawnshop , and once inside, Mr. Gold gives a piece of magic invisible chalk to Emma and tells her to draw a magic barrier across the door with the chalk. Neal jokes that he did not know she could use magic, and Emma chides at him for not telling her about Tamara or who his father is.

Regina ejects David by throwing him out of the shop. After distracting Cora and Regina, Emma proceeds to draw another barrier outside the shop's back room to protect herself, Neal and Mr. Gold for a little longer. After hearing Mr. Gold's emotional phone conversation with his girlfriend Belle , Neal realizes that his father has changed. As father and son share a close moment, Cora breaks through the barrier.

Though Neal and Emma rise to defend Mr. Gold, she teleports them to the town forest. After Cora's death, Mr. Henry is horrified about his family's possible intent to kill Regina to end the feud.

Emma takes an upset Henry to the diner where Neal hangs out with him. He orders him a nice dessert, but Henry knows Neal is in on trying to sweeten him up so he does not try to get involved with Regina. Neal asks him to move to New York with him where he will be safer, and Henry agrees and then goes to the bathroom. Emma comes back to check up on them and is incredulous that Neal fell for the "I'm going to the bathroom" trick, especially since Henry took his backpack with him.

They try to catch up with him, and get to the mines with help from Ruby and realize Henry took dynamite to blow up the wishing well to get rid of magic. They hurry off to the well and nearly have a heated battle with Regina, but Henry manages to get everyone to stop.

Henry convinces Regina to not use the spell on him, and she willingly burns the paper. Deciding he wants to stay in town for Henry's sake, Neal phones Tamara and asks her to come as well. At some point, he returns to New York alone and discovers Hook missing from the storeroom. While he is staying at Storybrooke's inn, Emma and Henry visit him. Sending Henry to grab three hot cocoas from the diner , Neal tells Emma about Hook's disappearance and then reveals Tamara will be arriving shortly.

She dislikes the idea of another outsider in town and pushes Neal to tell Tamara about his true identity. The foursome have an awkward breakfast in silence, but the conversation picks up when Henry asks how the two of them met, to which Tamara briefly relates the story. Once Henry and Emma head out, Neal shows Tamara the book and tells her about his life in the Enchanted Forest; stating all the fairytales in the book are real. Perceiving this is a ploy to drive her away so he can be with Emma, Tamara angrily berates his story, and storms out.

Later, in front of the sheriff department building, he witnesses a wooden August die with his last words warning Emma about "her". After Mother Superior arrives and transforms August back into Pinocchio , Tamara arrives to see the workings of magic.

Unknown to Neal and the others, moments earlier, she was the one who killed August since he was trying to expose her to Emma. Feigning surprise at witnessing actual magic, Tamara decides to stay in Storybrooke for Neal's sake.

In the park, Neal and Henry have fun playing with wooden swords. At the end of the day, Neal carries an asleep Henry home. Emma tucks him into bed and then the two sit down to talk. She casually asks him if he would go back to the Enchanted Forest if there was a way, but Neal states he spent his whole life running from it.

On a rainy day, he and Tamara huddle under an umbrella as they are leaving the bed and breakfast. He returns to the guest room to find Henry waiting outside. As Henry struggles for a reason for his appearance, Neal notices that he is kicking the door. Recognizing the door tactic as his own, he bursts into the room to find Emma prying open a loose floorboard. Emma explains her suspicion of Tamara as possibly being the person August was warning them about. Neal goes out on a limb and allows Emma to open the floorboard, but nothing incriminating is found in it.

He asks Emma whether her reluctant behavior is due to Tamara being in Storybrooke. She strongly denies it and leaves with Henry. Awakening in bed, Neal sees Tamara is preparing to go out on a marathon training run.

Later, Emma informs him Regina is missing, and she strongly believes Tamara is responsible. While he continues to be skeptical, Emma notices sand on the floor left by Tamara's shoes, which indicates his girlfriend has not recently been running in the woods as she claimed but near the beach. As they comb the beach, Tamara casually jogs up, explaining her reasons for changing her jogging spot, before heading off again. Believing Emma's behavior is influenced by Tamara's presence, he expresses sympathy for her difficulty, but she denies being jealous.

When Emma tries to walk away, he admits wanting to go back for her when she went to jail in his place. Neal admits he truly wanted to but was too scared to face Emma; thinking she might never forgive him as he never forgave himself for leaving her. After learning Regina is trapped in the cannery, the pair head inside the building. David, who rushed ahead to find Regina, warn Emma via phone to be on the lookout for Greg as he is trying to escape the building.

Overhearing the exchange, Neal is relieved to hear Tamara is not involved, but his ease turns to horror when Emma is knocked out unconscious by her.

To his shock, Tamara confesses to lying about everything since the day they met, and though she thinks he is a good man, her job is more important.

Tamara then shoots him in the abdomen and apologizes before Emma kicks the pistol out of her hands. To distract them further, Tamara opens a portal, almost causing Emma to fall in until Neal grabs hold of her, while she herself flees the cannery. After Emma is pulled up, he ends up clinging to her to keep from falling into the portal. Neal urges her to let him go, but Emma fears he'll die from the gunshot wound no matter what world he lands in. Terrified of losing him, she confesses her genuine love for Neal.

He reciprocates his love for her and then disappears into the portal. As he travels through the portal, Neal focuses his thoughts on the Enchanted Forest, which is where ends up unconscious after washing up on a beach. Three strangers, Aurora , Mulan and Prince Phillip , rescue him and tend to his injuries at a palace.

He wakes up to the watchful stare of Mulan as Aurora and Phillip rush to check on him. Aurora thinks he as a native of this land, but Mulan dutifully notices his clothes are foreign and similar to Emma and Mary Margaret's. At the mention of Emma's name, Neal urgently mentions he must save her and Henry. Aurora, having previously met Henry in the Netherworld , promises to look for him there again. Aurora's attempt at contacting Henry is unsuccessful, so Neal goes to his father's old castle to find an item for locating Emma and Henry.

Mulan, accompanying Neal there, asks about his relationship with Emma as the blonde never mentioned him. He confesses to breaking Emma's heart by letting her go so she could break the curse, and after this, fear of rejection kept him from going back to her. At their destination, a man, Robin Hood , has already claimed the fortress for himself. However, when Neal explains that the castle once belonged to the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin, and he is his son, Baelfire. Robin decides to trust Neal's words and mentions being indebted to Rumplestiltskin for sparing his life in the past.

After looking around for a bit, Neal picks up his father's old walking stick, which is enchanted with blood magic and swings it around to activate a hidden door. From within, Neal discovers a crystal ball and attempts to activate it by touch, which causes no change. Mulan suggests thinking about how he feels about Emma as a guide. Neal follows her instructions, and the crystal ball shows him an image of Emma in Neverland. Panicking over finding another pathway to Neverland, Neal searches all over for something that could be of use, but to no avail.

Just then, four of Robin's allies from their group, the Merry Men, enter the castle. From beneath the leading man, Little John , a four-year-old boy, Roland , crawls out and runs into Robin's arms. He finds out the child is Robin's son, to which he suddenly comes up with the idea of how to traverse worlds.

Neal suggests Roland can use a summoning incantation to call the Shadow so he himself can gain a pathway to Neverland. Once Robin learns the Shadow is notorious for snatching away young boys and whisking them away, he is extremely resistant to the idea.

However, Neal reminds him how his father saved Robin's wife , which allowed her to give birth to Roland, and as such, this makes him in Rumplestiltskin's debt.

Robin finally relents in his decision. Roland summons the Shadow, who attempts to pull him away, but Mulan severs one of its arms. Neal quickly latches onto the Shadow and is flown back to Neverland. After a rough landing, he is greeted by Felix , who welcomes him home and promises Pan will be very happy to see him. With his wrists bound, Neal walks behind Felix through the jungle but undoes his restraints without the Lost Boy noticing.

At the right time, he knocks Felix unconscious and then flees. Neal runs straight into Mr. Gold, who thinks he is an illusion to remind him of his failures and attempting to sway his decision to save Henry. Gold then tries killing Neal, who pleads by calling him Papa, which makes the latter realize his son is not dead. As they talk, Neal learns his father is serious about giving up his own life for Henry, however, he decides to kill a squid so Mr. Gold can extract squid ink , which they will use to paralyze Pan.