I wrote this before together with the Hook post but my post disappeared so I have to write it all over again. The thing that convinced me the most that this is NOT what the writers will stay with and that Bae cannot be dead and still have a happy show is the funeral scene.
First of all, the tune they used was the Papa/Bae tune as the casket was lowered. The writers made a point of it that Rumple was NOT there, and not just that, but every shovel-full of dirt that was thrown on the casket sounded like a thunderous assault that knocked Rumple to the ground crying in pain. I don’t know what the writers were implying that Zelena was doing to him while they were burying his son, but with the tune usually reserved for the Rumple/Bae moments and the beating he was getting alone in his cage while Zelena was laughing at him and asking if Bae was worth all that trouble, the writers confirmed what I was saying all along: that this character was inconsolable, and it cannot be possible for him to ever be happy without his child.
This is why it cannot be real. It is an AU that must be fixed if any of the characters will get any kind of happiness.