So, on the one hand, I’m excited Robbie Kay is back — Pan was a great villain. On the other hand, I am somewhat less excited about where I think this whole thing is going. I have a very strong suspicion that, as the show is seemingly working very hard to redeem Zelena, they are going to once again use Rumple as the foil — the entrenched villainous-villain — the same way they did when they were trying to make Hook look better. And while I understand why the show runners might outsource this role to Robert Carlyle: he’s an amazing actor, and can probably pull off being interesting to the audience despite his character’s utter lack of development. But only up to a point. Anyway, I hope they pull off something more original than what they’ve done with Rumple (and Rumbelle) for the last 2 seasons, but it looks like they’re already backtracking to the tried and true version of that same damn story.
I think you’re right. I can’t imagine Belle–as she is written right now on the show–waking up and upon hearing what Rumple did (strike a deal with Pan–who threatened to kill Belle and Bae in 3A–and captured Zelena–who only recently gave aid to Belle herself) be overjoyed. And if she is then it is going to strike me as pretty darn OOC given her recent demands she is making on Rumple with no gray area in between.