304 Episode Stills

Why would Peter have bothered tricking Rumple into becoming Dark One though if PP could’ve just gotten Bae using his pipe? Something doesn’t quite add up since giving Rumple untold power doesn’t exactly make it any easier for PP to isolate Bae from his dad. If PP is the one who planted the seer, then PP would’ve known about the prophesy of the dark curse. He would’ve known that Rumple would lose Bae. Was it just a matter of PP figuring out how Rumple would lose Bae by trial and error? Did the BF then have to step in and give Bae the magic bean to send him to A Land Without Magic after PP failed to capture Bae using the pipe?

If PP is truly behind the transformation of Rumple into the Dark One, it’d likely be because it’s not Bae that he needs, Henry is, and at that time a key element for Peter to be able to get Henry was missing: Emma. Kidnapping, Bae, thus, would never be enough; he needed to a) make sure that Emma gets conceived and b)that Emma and Bae/Neal meet and conceive Henry. Turning Rumple into the Dark One, as we know, accomplished all of this nicely almost completely without further efforts needed from Peter. Talk about impressive mastermind skills, huh?