Mr. Gold’s threat

[timespacer]

Like a lot of people, I was surprised at the threat Mr. Gold made at the end of “In the Name of the Brother.” However, I think there are several reasons why we will never see him try to carry out his threat to the Charming family, regardless of what happens to Belle.

First, I agree with those who have said that it was a comment resulting from his pain at what happened to Belle. The “kinder and gentler” Rumpel that we have seen Belle trying to produce would have asked “Please look after Belle while I’m gone” but Gold was feeling so powerless and weak at what had happened that he couldn’t bring himself to show anything that might seem like weakness, so he reverted to his Dark One ways. Like the breaking of the chipped cup, this scene showed us how broken Rumple is by what happened to Belle.

Second, it would break the mutual non-interference deal he made with Charming and we know Rumple only broke one deal in his life. I can only see him carrying out his threat if the Charmings intentionally tried to harm Belle. While we know Rumple can be merciless to his enemies (I second Emma’s nomination of Hook for “Dead Guy of the Year”) and even to innocent people whom he thinks might pose a threat (like the cart driver and housekeeper in “The Return”), those are reactions to a perceived threat, not a response to to something that someone tried, but failed, to prevent. He knows both Emma and David tried to help Belle, not hurt her and I think that knowledge will temper his attitude once he cools down from the events of the night.

Please note that I am explaining Gold’s threat, not excusing it. We get to analyse his state of mind from the omnipotent view of audience members. But the view of his actions by the other characters must be very different and that is the final, and most important reason why Gold will never try to carry out his threat: Emma won’t let him. I’m hoping we get a scene in the next episode which picks up just seconds after this one ended. I envision Emma sending Henry upstairs to get dressed and then turning to her parents, picking up her gun, and announcing quietly but firmly “Gold isn’t coming back from this trip.”

Since we haven’t heard any reports of the rest of the world being engulfed by mysterious purple smoke, it’s reasonable to assume that Gold just brought magic to Storybrooke, not the entire world. So while he’s outside of Storybrooke he won’t have his magical powers and will be as vulnerable as any other human. Emma, as Sheriff, will have her gun since most police officers carry a sidearm even when outside their own local jurisdiction. Even if Gold were to force her to hand over her weapon before they leave Storybrooke, I forsee Emma doing an impression of Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon – “Don’t worry about the gun. I’ve had plenty of practice taking guns away from guys like this.” Yes, we know Emma is a good person who generally shows mercy even to her enemies (saving Regina from the fire, sparing the giant, etc…) but this is a case where The Dark One (who has probably piled up a bigger body count than any villain on the show) has directly threatened the lives of her family. Can anyone doubt she would take advantage of her one chance while he is without his powers to prevent him from ever getting near Henry again? Emma will have to react to this threat and it seems to me there are only three possible outcomes:

1. Emma kills Gold.

2. Gold kills Emma.

3. Gold convinces Emma that his threat is not real.

Since the first two aren’t going to happen, we must see number three. If Emma is to believe Gold, it can’t be just a casual denial and apology for what he said. He will have to prove to her that he is not a threat. Obviously, if Neal turns out to be Bae, that could do it since we know enough about Rumple to know that he would not try to kill his own grandson. Even if Bae is not Neal, the writers could concoct some events that will give Emma the assurance she needs. But it will have to be a powerful assurance. It would be poor writing indeed if such a powerful scene as the one we saw at the end of this episode were ignored or glossed over in the next. These are not poor writers. I believe they will follow Anton Chekhov’s famous dictum that a gun shown in Act I must be fired in Act II.

[Josephine]

He can’t kill the Charmings. We’d have no show, otherwise. The opposite’s true also. Emma can’t kill Gold, other than the obvious reasons, the show would have a big gapping hole and fangirls everywhere would riot. He’s one of the six main characters, counting Henry, so I can’t see any of them coming to any harm.

If something did happen to Belle, I don’t doubt he’d retaliate and wouldn’t care what deal he made with Charming, but nothing is going to happen. He’s hurting and heartbroken and not used to people doing things without an ulterior motive. He has no real friends. His threat is the only way he knows to ask, “Hey, will you look after Belle and make sure she’s fine while I’m away.”

Snowing and Rumple have an odd relationship. One minute Rumple was helping them, for his own reasons but still helping them, get together and the next they’re fighting. It does some that Dark One Rumple had a soft spot for Snow, and she for him. She looks at him life he’s this mystery she’ll never solve. She knows he’s evil, but there is some small part of her that can’t help but like him.

I can’t wait to see how he reacts once he finds out Henry is his grandson, that is if Neal if Bae 😆 . Henry thought he had problems at school before when his mom was the Mayor. What will they think when they realize that not only is his adoptive mom the Evil Queen, his grandparents the ruling benevolent monarchs, and his mother the curse’s savior, but his other grandfather is the Dark One. 😉

Keeper of Rumplestiltskin's and Neal's spears and war paint and crystal ball.

[elle]

1. Emma kills Gold.

2. Gold kills Emma.

I doubt that will happen. None of the core characters are going to get killed–at least not so early in the series. Maybe a bit later in the series, or even in the last season. But it is a bit too early to kill off a main character.

To be honest, I really don’t care how he was suffering–I get that he was in pain from Belle, and I felt for him at first. It was the way he just crashed into their family moment and threaten them with murder that got me. To threaten a whole family (especially a child) that has done nothing but actually help you a bit is just horrible.

What I see Emma doing is keeping Rumpelstiltskin away from her family, especially Henry. After his threat, she gonna be wary of him. Even if Neal is Baelfire, I don’t think that would change her mind.

[Phee]

@TimeSpacer wrote:

Since the first two aren’t going to happen, we must see number three. If Emma is to believe Gold, it can’t be just a casual denial and apology for what he said. He will have to prove to her that he is not a threat. Obviously, if Neal turns out to be Bae, that could do it since we know enough about Rumple to know that he would not try to kill his own grandson. Even if Bae is not Neal, the writers could concoct some events that will give Emma the assurance she needs. But it will have to be a powerful assurance.

I think that Emma’s gonna have a very unique experience out in the real world with Rumple. She’s gonna see him as a scared, desperate, mortal man, which is something no other SBer (except Hook) has ever witnessed. In the promo for the next ep there's that bit where they're at airport security, and he looks unsure and unsteady on his feet, and she's behind him, looking concerned, with her arms out as if to catch him if he stumbles. He's a far cry from the menacing Mr Gold and Rumple in that scene.

I think that seeing him in this light and in this environment that’s so strange to him, will give her a whole new understanding of him. She’ll also be able to appreciate and relate to the emotions he’s going through over going to find his long lost son. There’s plenty for them to bond over, and I think that ultimately she’ll realise this…

@Josephine wrote:

He’s hurting and heartbroken and not used to people doing things without an ulterior motive. He has no real friends. His threat is the only way he knows to ask, “Hey, will you look after Belle and make sure she’s fine while I’m away.”

Exactly!

Of course, if Neal ends up being Bae then there’s also the familial connection which would stop him from hurting the Charmings, but even without that added element, I think it’s entirely possible for Emma to come to an understanding that his threat was essentially empty, and just something said out of fear.

[Slurpeez]

@Phee wrote:

@TimeSpacer wrote:

Since the first two aren’t going to happen, we must see number three. If Emma is to believe Gold, it can’t be just a casual denial and apology for what he said. He will have to prove to her that he is not a threat. Obviously, if Neal turns out to be Bae, that could do it since we know enough about Rumple to know that he would not try to kill his own grandson. Even if Bae is not Neal, the writers could concoct some events that will give Emma the assurance she needs. But it will have to be a powerful assurance.

I think that Emma’s gonna have a very unique experience out in the real world with Rumple. She’s gonna see him as a scared, desperate, mortal man, which is something no other SBer (except Hook) has ever witnessed. In the promo for the next ep there's that bit where they're at airport security, and he looks unsure and unsteady on his feet, and she's behind him, looking concerned, with her arms out as if to catch him if he stumbles. He's a far cry from the menacing Mr Gold and Rumple in that scene.

I think that seeing him in this light and in this environment that’s so strange to him, will give her a whole new understanding of him. She’ll also be able to appreciate and relate to the emotions he’s going through over going to find his long lost son. There’s plenty for them to bond over, and I think that ultimately she’ll realise this…

@Josephine wrote:

He’s hurting and heartbroken and not used to people doing things without an ulterior motive. He has no real friends. His threat is the only way he knows to ask, “Hey, will you look after Belle and make sure she’s fine while I’m away.”

Exactly!

Of course, if Neal ends up being Bae then there’s also the familial connection which would stop him from hurting the Charmings, but even without that added element, I think it’s entirely possible for Emma to come to an understanding that his threat was essentially empty, and just something said out of fear.

Agreed with everything contained here! Any threats or thoughts of retaliation are pretty much dead in the water. Emma was able to see past Captain Hook’s bravado as a cover for his pain in losing Milha. Emma, who also used a wall to keep out pain, will certainly understand that Mr. Gold does the same thing she used to do before MM and Henry made a dent on her heart; Rumple uses a hard exterior to cover up his weaknesses. Just when Mr. Gold was opening his heart again to Belle after being alone, he has just recenlty suffered losing her again. He was absolutely beside himself when he made that hollow, empty threat. Emma isn’t used to seeing Mr. Gold without his game face, but she will soon find out how weak he can be.

Also, without even realizing it, Emma and Rumplestiltksin love the same man, Baelfire, and have both been searching for him. Now they’re going on a quest together to find their beloved Bae. Something tells me Emma and Mr. Gold will discover how much they share in common and bond a lot in this trip. Also, if Nealfire and Emma were ever to get married, then Emma’s father-in-law would be Rumplestiltskin. Mr. Gold is most likely already the grandfather of her child, Henry. If Emma can learn to trust Regina with Henry, something tells me she’ll learn to let Rumple into his life, too.

"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy

[timespacer]

@Phee wrote:

I think that seeing him in this light and in this environment that’s so strange to him, will give her a whole new understanding of him.

I think Phee and Josephine have it exactly right and I love Slurpeez108’s analogy to Emma’s wall. The writers gave us the threat scene not only to show how far Rumple fell in this episode but to set up a contrast with making him more vulnerable in the next. It also parallels Cora’s speed bump in Regina’s Rushed Road to Redemption. Now both villains have encountered obstacles to reform. Short of him actually trying to harm any of our sympathetic “good guys”, nothing could have made us recoil more from Gold than the way he made that threat, especially while looking straight at Henry. He will have to endure a lot to make up for that and I think, in the end, Emma will be convinced by what he endures (although she may still give him that “punch in the face” that she threatened to in “Broken”, just for frightening Henry.)

I generally avoid spoilers, except for the promos at the end of the episode, so here are my thoughts on that preview:
I agree. It looked like he was trying to walk through a metal detector without his cane. That does make him look much more vulnerable. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see Emma go from planning to kill Gold at the beginning of the episode to trying to help him by the end of the episode. But if they do that they are going to have to show us some good reasons for it, not just an expression of “Oh, don’t worry about what I said.”

[elle]

Emma was able to see past Captain Hook’s bravado as a cover for his pain in losing Milha.

Captain Hook never threatend her family, though. And just because she has shown sympathy for him, does not mean that she trusts him or even likes him. The way she treated him during the interrogation shows that. Or the way she chained him up and later fought him for the compass show that.

And Emma and Rumpelstiltskin have never been close–she has never been a fan of his and has done her best to stay away from him as much as possible.

Also, this is Emma’s family–the family that she has been looking for, the family that she has always wanted. She finally has them in her life and someone comes up to them and threatens to kill them all. Even if he was just broken, Emma will not take kindly to that, nor should she. I see her being more protective oof henry during the trip.

And she and Neal are not going to be all lovely and reunited that quickly (at least I hope not). She is still going to feel betrayed, and even more manipulated that the father of her child is the son of Rumpelstiltskin.

[antbee]

@Elle wrote:

Emma was able to see past Captain Hook’s bravado as a cover for his pain in losing Milha.

Captain Hook never threatend her family, though. And just because she has shown sympathy for him, does not mean that she trusts him or even likes him. The way she treated him during the interrogation shows that. Or the way she chained him up and later fought him for the compass show that.

And Emma and Rumpelstiltskin have never been close–she has never been a fan of his and has done her best to stay away from him as much as possible.

Also, this is Emma’s family–the family that she has been looking for, the family that she has always wanted. She finally has them in her life and someone comes up to them and threatens to kill them all. Even if he was just broken, Emma will not take kindly to that, nor should she. I see her being more protective oof henry during the trip.

And she and Neal are not going to be all lovely and reunited that quickly (at least I hope not). She is still going to feel betrayed, and even more manipulated that the father of her child is the son of Rumpelstiltskin.

You make excellent points, but I think they will bond on their road trip together. They won’t become buddy-buddy, but my feeling from spoilers and photos is that when Nealfire runs away, before she finds out that it's him, she feels sorry for Rumple that his son is actually running away from him and that helps soften her feelings toward him along with seeing him being very vulnerable due to never being in the real world before and not being able to do magic to make himself feel powerful.

As for the threat, while i do think it was very wrong of him to make it, I think it was mostly just there, so Rumple would have another thing to loath himself for if Neal is Baelfire, and Emma and/or her parents fill him in on everything his dad has done that he doesn't know about, and on top of the Curse, bringing Henry to Regina, almost beating Maurice to death, etc., they tell him “we thought Belle was helping him become a better man, but then he threatens to kill us all even Henry”. That's just going to make Nealfire even angrier with his father, and also feel like that there's no good left him in at all if he can threaten a child when he was supposed to becoming a better man.

Then, I expect every time that there is some kind of forward movement with their relationship, Nealfire will start learning things about his father that the Charmings don't know like how he murdered Milha or his part in helping turn Regina to the Dark Side (not that it excuses her actions), but I'm sure those things will be set up as stumbling blocks along the way to them reconciling if they ever do.

[elle]

@AntBee

I think Emma will at first feel bad for him. But when/if she learns that Rumpelstiltskin was the one to let Baelfire go, her sympathy might decrease a bit. Neal himself will be furious when he learns how his father endangered his son’s life and manipulated the woman he loves.

Also, I see Emma not willing to leave Henry alone with Rumpelstiltskin during the trip–Emma is not someone that forgives or forgets easily. The only reason why she was being more open with Regina is because they both love Henry. Rumpelstiltskin has just threatend his life–a parent’s love for their child is powerful. It has been shown numerous times in the show.

The only way that Emma may be more open to him is Nealfire. I think with tiemt they will bond, and as they bond, Emma may be more open to Rumpelstiltskin.

I do agree that this is just another thing for Rumpelstiltskin to feel guilty of…again. I might sound cold, but I am a bit tired of the sympahty being built for him. After a while he becomes less sympathetic.

The relationship with the Charming Family and Rumpelstiltskin is interesting–they will probably be a bit on shaky ground for a while, but they will eventually become closer.

[mich7]

I don’t know…I kind of think that Emma sees a little of her own desperation in Gold, afterall it wasn’t long ago she was fighting to get her own son back and then fighting to get back to him from FTL when she and MM went through the hat.

I think this trip may bring a kind of understanding on Emma’s part of where Gold is coming from…I mean she could ask herself just how far she could be willing to go to find Henry if she had lost him in the same way as Gold lost Bae. Not saying they are going to be BFF’s by any means but I think she’s going to see him in a different light.

And I may be in the minority here but I think because she understands how important it is for a parent to have their kid in their life she might even help Neal/Bae to at least talk to Gold (unless I’m completely wrong and she springs Gold on him by “turning him in” like the Charlie’s Girl song said in Broken.)

[Author]

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