How do Dearies view Milah's death? Does it matter?

I don’t think it was justified. I understand why he did it, he was angry, filled with rage, and so he did to her what she did to him. He ripped out her heart and crushed it. Did Mila deserve it? Maybe >> Was it the right or good thing to do? Not at all. But it did make for a really good scene 🙂

I think if Milah and Hook had given the bean to Rumple, he may have killed them anyway. Rumple never agreed to the deal, the bean in exchange for their lives. Once Rumple brought up Bae, things rapidly went downhill from there. Milah should have been careful with what she said, but at that point I don’t think there was anything she could have done to calm the situation. A deleted scene showed little Bae sobbing his heart out at Milah’s “death”, so for Rumple, to see her waltzing around happy with Hook was really a red rag to a bull. Rumple is still one of my favourite characters though.

Also, perhaps we should be thanking Milah for not giving Rumple the bean straightaway. We don’t know how long the boat scene happened after Bae left. It could have been about six months or more later. What if Milah did give Rumple the bean and he followed Bae to the land without magic? Bae was with the Darlings then taken to NEVERLAND. If Rumple went to the land without magic then, he would have ended up poor, homeless and with a limp. He wouldn’t have been able to follow Bae to Neverland and chances are he would’ve ended up in the Workhouse. Workhouses were considered to be so bad, it was actually preferable to live on the street. Rumple would have ended up in a land without magic, in the Workhouse, without hope of ever seeing Bae again, dying of old age provided the workhouse didn’t kill him sooner.

I like Rumple, but I make no excuses for what he did or in any way excuse what he did.  It doesn’t matter to me that he was angry.  You don’t kill someone you loved or once loved.   The fact that he killed Milah doesn’t hamper my enjoyment of the character.  Robbie is a great actor.  Rumple is very complex and interesting.  I can even root for Rumple on occasion but I think he doesn’t done enough to deserve true love until he makes all the bad to all his victims not just Hook.  I don’t think he should get everything he wants (Belle and Bae).  He’s always been a selfish man; otherwise he would have given up his power for Belle.

His killing Milah is one of a few things Rumple’s done that crossed the moral line. It’s hard to watch because I adore him, feel for him, and want him to find his happy ending, but that murder (and the snail and the murder of Honora) were all unjustified, horrific, and make me think that Bobby’s right when he says that New Dark One is the most difficult (so far) of the roles that make up Rumple. New Dark One is scary–he’s got powers he barely comprehends, is still dealing directly with the people who hurt him most when he was powerless, and so he’s in full on vengeance mode, unable to acknowledge his continual fears because he believed that power would free him from cowardice. Yet he IS afraid–afraid of losing Bae (the snail), afraid of losing his power/being killed (Honora), and afraid of what he’s become–which is part of why he unleashed his wrath so completely on Milah.

He’s punishing her for what he did–abandoning Bae–as much as what she did and said, as we’ve already noted. But it touches on his inherent cowardice, too: He’s afraid he’s unlovable. Even Bae was rejecting him after he became the Dark One.

And I think it’s because his anger at himself and his fear is so heartbreaking, so real, and obviously so well portrayed by Bobby, that we’re willing to forgive him–so long as he becomes worthy of that forgiveness. (He hasn’t. Not yet. The swing scene shows that he’s still giving in to the same weaknesses that led to Milah’s murder, which means he hasn’t earned his redemption.) No matter how much you dislike Milah, you can’t excuse Rumple’s decision to kill her. And you don’t have to in order to understand his reasons or sympathize with him regardless.

Loving Rumple is kind of frustrating, because every time you want to root for him, he goes and does something horrible and you want to shake some sense into him. Yet the potential is there–the good heart that Belle sees is so clearly there–and that gives us a reason to root for him. When he finds his good self, he’s going to have to answer for a lot of pain he’s caused (which is not to say he hasn’t paid for it, at least in part…his crueler actions have had direct consequences that have harmed him and the people he does care about).