hands down the most painful part of this episode to me was emma's face after snow shouts at her outside the station when she hurts david. 

jmo's acting was in top form and you could see everything crashing down in that one short look. she's undoubtedly been in countless verbally abusive foster homes, so not only did that tone of voice immediately snap her back to that, but it was what she's been afraid of since the curse broke. since she got her parents back.

every time emma got adopted by a foster family, something was "wrong" with her, and they sent her back. over and over again. she constantly worries about people leaving her because they constantly DID. they saw something they didn't like, and they bailed. it's what makes it so hard for her to get close to people, and it's why she tries to push them away first. 

she finally stopped expecting it, stopped working this self-fulfilling prophecy of alienating people, and THAT'S when it comes from snow. when emma's guard is down, and she feels safe with her family, that's when she sees them turning away from her.

so you can watch a part of her in that moment say, "this is it." this is the moment when they see something they don't like, like countless foster families have, and they give her back. this is when the swans have their own kid and send her home at age three. this is when her behavior issues and acting out for attention become too much for the family to handle and they have to slap the return to sender label on her. this is her real family, the ones she dreamt about for so long, rejecting her because they saw something that they didn't like.

and it kills her.

and if your heart didn't break for emma the moment you saw that in her eyes i just cAN'T EVEN.