Heh heh, so I’m not the only one who cringed when she clipped the stem! xDD
I think Gaston is dead. I don’t see any reason why Rumple would teleport him rather than kill him. But maybe he did spare him, like the Queen spared the kids. However, I like your theory that it was the sword that turned into the rose and not Gaston himself. Or even though it seemed like something was transformed into the rose maybe it wasn’t Gaston or his sword–maybe Rumple just conjured up the rose. Who knows, they didn’t explain.
But I do agree now that Gaston is not the rose and that’s a small relief, even if he is dead.