No, you are most definitely not alone in this. That’s the reason why I’m so upset. His death didn’t belong in this episode, because it was just a tack on to it. The death felt very rushed, and Hook was already acting like Neal was dead before he’d even died. I feel as though they ended Bae as if he could have never existed at all, when that isn’t true. There are four plot making characters in his show:
Rumpelstiltskin: The man who created the curse, to save the child he abandoned.
Regina: The woman who cast the curse to avenge her lover.
Baelfire/Neal Cassidy: The child who was the cause for the curse. Who travelled through dimensions to save himself, to save his family, and escape making his father’s mistake.
Emma: the child destined to break the curse, and free a town of people from enslavement.
Even if the show didn’t promote Nealfire as much, his death was still insultingly played down, and ignored any of the significance he had. It’s been revealed that MRJ didn’t have other arrangements, and it was just plot that killed him. So, now I feel that there was no excuse to give Neal a better goodbye. I guess that the only way they can fix this now is through the impact of his death on everyone else.