Rumple knew Regina would be the one to cast the curse. He also doesn’t seem to be the type of guy to be a) sociable and B) the type to teach someone magic unless doing so benefitted Rumple in return. Teaching Regina magic definitely benefitted Rumple. Also Rumple has been burned before by teaching someone magic (Cora), he’s not stupid enough to teach a load of random people magic, especially as they might try and use that magic against him.
No I agree that I’m stretching here. It just seems like the Frankie/Daniel thing was really only a day or two. Regina met Frankie and Jefferson at night, took them to Cora’s to get a heart, Frankie did his thing very late at night, Regina was devastated, Frankie and Jefferson go back to LWC the next morning, Regina puts on the black as the EQ for the first time.
I guess this episode could fall in between pushing Cora through the mirror and learning from Rumple. Once she starts learning from Rumple her clothes become more brownish, signaling her transition into darkness. But she’s in pure white here. Which we’ve only seen once before. *rubs head* This episode hurts the Tword already.