Parent/Child Relationships in Once

What you don’t want Zombie Milah?  (previously thought deceased indeed!).  Now that would be a father/son bonding moment.

I think a lot of the family drama has not been given enough screen time.  Rumpel killed Bae’s mother, and they have yet to acknowledge this.   I do think Bae and Rumpel both are being written as the type to bottle up feelings a bit.  Bae’s lines “I didn’t exactly have a fairy-tale child hood” and “there’s not a ton I remember that doesn’t suck” barely paint the picture that he wasn’t just abandoned, but he was isolated as the Dark One’s son as people were afraid to associate with him.  Bae probably is not used to having people around to listen to his real feelings on things, just like Rumpel.

After Rumple’s phone call to Belle, I think Bae was willing to give Rumple another chance since he saw how much Rumple could care for someone other than himself. However, Rumple screwed up. Rumple didn’t seek out Bae after he didn’t die, possibly because he wasn’t sure how the land lay with his son now he wasn’t dying, obviously the prophesy was playing on Rumple’s mind and the whole Lacey fiasco kicked up.

I get why Nealfire was angry in that scene where Rumple had his shoe in Victor’s face, (brought back all sorts of horrible memories), but at the same time…it takes two…and after the stuff with Cora and Regina went down, Neal was preparing to take Henry back to NYC instead of staying to work on his relationship with dear old dad. If Rumple had got wind of that, then no wonder he’d taken a step back. He went to see Belle in hospital because he felt he needed her support before he was able to face his son. And then Lacey showed up, so that wasn’t terribly helpful.

One thing I’m hoping for the coming season is Neal making his way back to Storybrooke and getting to know Belle. He’s never met the real Belle and I don’t thing its really been explained to him what has actually happened to her.

This is so vital! Think of all the stuff Neal overheard Rumple say during that phone call, about how she inspired him to be the best version of himself. Neal thinks Rumple was heaping all that praise on Lacey. His perspective is totally backwards, so he needs to meet Belle ASAP!

Belle has always seen through to the good that’s buried inside Rumple. Blue said to Bae, “You are the part of him that keeps him human. That little light inside of him that still glows. It’s his love for you.” Seriously, someone get Nealfire and Belle in the same room to have a chat!

Nealfires’s been through a whole lotta hell in his time. He was rejected by his mother. His father turned evil and then chose power over him. Lived on London’s streets for 6 months. Had a couple of lovely weeks with the Darlings, finally feeling like he belonged, then he sacrificed himself to save the family. Then he started to trust Hook, but found out he was being used. We dunno yet what he went through in NL, or his years in our world before Emma, but safe to say it wasn’t fun and games. Then he met Emma, and he found happiness again, and then it was revealed to him who she was and that the only way for her to get back to her family, was if he gave her up. Now he’s been used all over again by Tamara. And it seems like his father hasn’t changed, even though it’s been a couple hundred years. Frankly, I don’t blame him if he’s feeling like he’s not worthy of a happy ending. Poor guy has been kicked down so many times. So if he’s quick to believe that his relationship with his father is hopeless and unfixable, that’s really not surprising.

Hopefully whatever goes down in NL with saving Henry will prove that Rumple is redeemable, so they can start to truly turn things around.

For sure! I’d thought that he didn’t already know about that, because I’d have expected it to come up in conversation, so it was a bit of a surprise when we saw Hook telling him. There had better be a scene where Neal brings that up with Rumple.

And poor Pinocchio can’t tell Neal how sincere the man was about thinking he’d found his son again.  Of course, Rumple threatened to kill him immediately, but that’s a go-to action for the man.  It’d be nice if we could tell Neal…”Hey, go back and watch ‘The Return’.  Your dad was real sincere there and that would have been a much better speech than what you got.”