Who is driving the car that hits Hook at the end of “The Outsider”?

Car hitting Hook at the end of 2×11 “”The Outsider”

On an earlier post, we’ve been talking about the possible meaning of 2KFL138, the Pennsylvania license plate that the camera focuses on at the very end of the episode. Here’s a related question (that some people have already started discussing on the earlier post):

Who is the driver of the car?

Why is he or she entering Storybrooke? Did the driver deliberately try to hit Rumpelstilskin and/or Belle? Is it someone we have seen before, or at least heard of?

Let’s look at some of the clues. (After the jump) (possible spoilers)

1. In ABC’s official episode description for next week’s episode (2×12 In the Name of the Brother), it says, “Dr. Whale is tasked with mending Hook’s wounds and performing surgery on the stranger whose car crashed upon entering Storybrooke.” So we know that Dr. Whale/Victor Frankenstein cannot be the stranger. (Thanks to Anonymous at 11:43 am and Lars Davis for pointing this out in the license plate post comments.) This also, by the way, tells us that Hook is still alive.

2. In the official description for episode 2×11 The Outsider, the role of “outsider” — written just like that, with the “o” uncapitalized — is credited to guest star Ethan Embry. According to TV Line, this is a “recurring role.”

Ethan Embry is listed again as a guest star in the official description for next week’s 2×12 In the Name of the Brother. But in that listing, instead of being credited as “outsider,” he is credited as “stranger” — again, oddly, with a lower-case initial cap (perhaps to indicate that it is not his actual name?).

Actor Eion Bailey was also credited as “stranger” (with a lower-case “s”!) when he first appeared in Season One’s True North, before we knew his character’s names were August W. Booth and Pinocchio.

Do you think there is any signficance in Embry’s role being called “outsider” in one episode and “stranger” in the next? Or is that reading too much into an unimportant thing?

Do you think the episode title — The Outsider — refers only to the driver of the car?

3. This screenshot from the preview for next week’s episode shows (I think) what the outsider/stranger looks like:

The stranger/outsider (I think) as seen in the preview for 2×12 In the Name of the Brother

Here’s the whole preview:

4. Do you think there is any significance to next week’s episode title, In the Name of the Brother? Could the outsider/stranger be someone’s brother?

5. In case it helps to look at it again, here’s a snip of The Outsider‘s ending: