I’m as much of a romantic as the next person, and a Rum/Belle shipper to boot, but I feel like Rumplestiltskin’s agenda goes beyond just reuniting with his lost love. Mr. Gold honestly believes Belle is gone forever, “she’s not coming back.” And when he told Grumpy that love was the most powerful magic that exists, it was in the same conversation that he said that no magic can bring back true love. “If you can bottle love, you can do anything.” I get the feeling that Rumple has his sights set higher than just his own lost romance.
What that is??? No clue. Possibly something to do with breaking the dark curse? Possibly ridding the world of the dark magic? Maybe nothing so benevolent as that. Maybe just putting the world out of its misery.
A couple of other themes that jumped out from tonight’s episode that may be related to Rumple’s agenda: 1) it was mentioned a couple of times that “evil is made, not born,” and 2) that losing love can drive you do do unspeakable things. We know both Rumple and EQ have lost loves in FTL. Neither one of them has a happy ever after in FTL.