Re: Rumple is really the Dark One. That’s not what they said, but we do need to acknolwedge that being the Dark One is an integral part of who Rumple is. It’s not everything that defines him, but it is part. And in order to return to the man we met in A Desparate Soul, he must first confront himself as the Dark One knowing what he does now. He cannot go from point C (Dark One Gold) to point A (humble Rumple) without first passing through point B (the Dark One). Rumple’s arc for the first half is going to be is journey back to who he was, and to do that he must confront who he has become.
Re: Doll. HappyEndings proposed something similar to what Kranen is saying, that the doll is Bae that was made by someone in NL and somehow Rumple knows this. I don’t know how Rumple would know this but I really need to see that freaking doll.