Firstly, I think season 5 will be the last. They could possibly push it out to a 6th season but Robert Carlyle was only signed up for 5 seasons and A&E said they had enough material for 5 seasons. If Once lost RC or Lana Parilla, the show would start sinking quite rapidly. Losing JMo or EdR would damage it badly too.
Assuming that the info about Bobby’s contract is true (I have no idea where it came from but seems to be a generally accepted fact?), I doubt he’d sign on for more beyond that. But Disney may not care, they may want to keep this show going for as long as possible, even if it ends up getting run into the ground. Killing Rumple at the end of Bobby’s contract could be a way for them to bring Neal back in a “life for a life” trade situation where Rumple concedes that Neal never should have given his own life to bring him back, so he sets things right. It’d be a nice redemptive way to wrap up Rumple’s story, and frankly he’s gone so off the rails I think it’d take something massive like that type of sacrifice for him to even be redeemed. He may not get to spend his life with his son like he’d always wanted, but he’d have given his son’s life back.
You know the sad thing is I would love to have hope because there will always be a part of me that wishes to see that lost boy get his family and home and happy ending. But its hard to hope because it hurts too much too have your hope dash to pieces.
I don’t really have much hope left for the show, but there’s still that super annoying little voice in my head insisting that there’s a way they can fix it. Super annoying little voice can be really super annoying.