After rewatching the scene again, the more I think about it, the more I think there’s a slim chance they might have been considering this as far back as season 3. Maybe they just introduced the Black Fairy’s wand back then just to solve the current problem – but it DID appear in both arc finales, and correct me if I’m wrong, but season 3 ended with the initial Rumbelle marriage, right?
Plus, does anyone else remember A&E’s strange insistence post-3A that we’d learn how Pan got the picture of Henry “someday”? Could it have come from the Black Fairy, somehow?
Though, to be honest, I’m also still not entirely convinced BF’s name isn’t Morgana and I’ll forever be haunted by the fact that prior to 5A, A&E’s answer re:Morgana was a “Can’t say” which changed to a definite “No” mid-arc. I can’t help but assume that implies a change in plans, so either they were deciding between her and Nimue for First Dark One, or she had another proposed role that they either chose to cut entirely or delay until a later point.
While we know the writers change their plans and/or make up a lot as they go along, when they got around to deciding on who Rumple’s father was, and especially over the process of writing an entire arc highlighting it, I find it frankly impossible to believe the discussion of who, then, was Rumple’s mother didn’t come up in the writer’s room.
Keeper of Zelena's witch hat and the Black Fairy's wand.