But why them? Why not just some random peasant. Take his heart, make him do it.
I’ve only seen the episode once and only saw the first 5minutes of last week’s episode so I can’t verify if they touched up on this (someone can correct me if I’m wrong) but I think she used them specifically because she knew Rumple had the dagger and he wasn’t going to give it up unless it was to protect the one who used the key. It didn’t matter if it was Belle or Neal just as long as one of them used it. Which begs the question, how did she even know that Rumple was dead, with the dagger, and in that vault? She wasn’t even in SB when he sacrificed his life and “killed” his father.
She knew bc Regina told her on 313, but she didnt told her how. So the thing is how didn she knew that Belle and Neal were looking to bring Rumple back? How did she knew that he was inside the vault and not really death? how did she knew he could come to live? how did she knew about the key? i think she was the one that put it there, as well with Lumiere, there are many questions about this, that probably will never be explained.
I forgot about that part in 313. But yes to the questions you asked. There are a lot that needed to be fleshed out before they murdered Neal.