[Keb]

Also, Regina didn’t want it to be obvious that she & Cora were behind the Charmings’ deaths, because she knows Henry will reject her if he knows she killed off the people he loves. I think that they agreed to use restraint until they had Rumple’s power.

[Keb]

I’m amused by the idea of David punching Gold in the face and kinda want to see it now.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

I do think that Rumple knew he was lying to his son; it’s in his hesitancy when 14yo Bae asks about her (again?). He’d seen Milah laughing with Hook at the tavern and he knew she was unhappy with him. He was always a smart man, if a little gullible. He might have preferred to believe that she was dead instead of happily pirating with Hook, but on some level he knew better.

So yes, I hold that he did lie to Bae, just as Emma lied to Henry about his father–to protect him, and to protect himself.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

Not only is there the whole “you killed my mother” aspect, but Rumple lied to Bae about where Milah went when Bae was a child, before he was even the Dark One. He told Bae that Milah was dead, though Bae apparently had some doubts even then.

Actually, I think the lie may hurt more than the killing; Bae knows full well what his father was capable of as the Dark One, and since he had already believed his mother dead (and his mother had abandoned him at a fairly young age–5-8 from the kid’s appearance at the time) he may not have been quite as attached to her as he was to his father. It would draw a nice parallel to Henry, too, who was hurt more by the lying that both his mothers did than just about everything else they could have done to him.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

Well, who’s to say that Hook knew who Baelfire was? Bae may well have kept that secret, even if Hook revealed that he knew Rumple or Milah at some point.

But if Hook does find out, oh, he’ll tell Bae. Won’t be quite as sexy as when he told Belle, but it’ll be just as emotional and just as intended to poison any relationship between the hearer and Rumple.

The way I see the Hook-Henry possibilities is that Hook would only endanger Henry if he knew it would hurt Rumple. However, he could easily (as already happened in Manhattan) put Henry in danger from Rumple due to timing or circumstances of another attack. If Rumple thinks that Henry is endangering his life again, he might lash out and do something to Henry. I still think the chance is remote, but Rumple was perfectly willing to exchange Cora’s life for his and he’s still a coward.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

I’d prefer nobody else does…but while Cora already beat out Hook for the award, I think there is a short list of people in imminent danger after what just happened. I doubt any/many of them will actually perish, but…

Gold — Hook still wants him dead, though as long as he’s in Storybrooke now he’s probably immortal save for the dagger killing him. Also, Regina may still yet blame him for her mother’s death.

Henry — Still prophecied to be Gold’s undoing. And while even Gold probably wants to protect the kid (Cora was likely the only real threat to him, barring Gold getting really scared again), he’s gotten caught in the crossfire between his parents before. Turnover anyone?

Snow — Yeah, Regina hated you and wanted you dead before. Times ten million now after that manipulation and betrayal.

Regina — David would kill Regina to protect his family (He pretty much did as Charming, but Snow negated it, and he only protected her from the town because Emma and Henry wanted her to live). Emma might. Gold only didn’t kill Regina because Belle made him promise not to, though I think that witnessing Cora’s death might actually soften Gold towards Regina a bit. Still, if she threatened Belle or Bae, he wouldn’t hesitate.

Hook — Emma did say dead MAN of the year award, and Gold’s got little reason to spare him at this point. Emma will protect him as she has been doing, but if Hook doesn’t make peace with Gold somehow, I think his life expectancy is still low. As with anyone, threatening Belle, Bae, or Henry would be fatal moves, but he’s crazy enough he might do it depending on his angle. Regina might also give him a share of blame in Cora’s death because if he hadn’t wounded Gold, her mother could simply have used the dagger to control him as she believed was the original plan (don’t trust Cora for an instant).

Bae — Regina and Hook both could see him as a way to hurt Gold. Also, we don’t yet know what the history between him and Hook actually is, but Bae did not look as if it were friendly when he recognized Hook. Also, Emma still has some unresolved anger towards him, and she’s learning magic that’s based on emotion. I don’t think she would intentionally hurt him with her magic, cuz she clearly still loves him on some level, but an accident during an argument? It’s a remote possibility.

I am overthinking this show entirely too much.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

After seeing the differences in how Rumple trained Cora and Regina in magic and how Gold coaches Emma, I find myself going back to his fascination with bottling True Love. While intellectually he might have known (and probably did) about the reputed power of True Love, I don’t think he was especially interested in it until Belle. He mocks it even on the day he takes her home with him. But after having experienced its power for the first time himself, he gets on the Snowing wagon quickly–in part for the power of it, but I think he’s actually sincere when he tells people at that point that he’s a fan of True Love (as well as what it creates).

So perhaps, having been exposed to that power, he’s realized that anger and hatred aren’t the only ways to invoke magic. I think there’s reason to believe that he couldn’t comprehend that until he fell in love with Belle.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

See, I love Rumple to death and I was seriously conflicted by what he did here, too. I’m still desperately trying to work out the tangled emotions behind that cold look as he stands over Regina and Cora’s body. I’m not entirely sure what to make of his “I did nothing” or “Your mother did you no favors.”

I do think he feels very conflicted about the situation–that was not the smug look of a man pleased that his enemy is dead or happy that Regina is suffering. A moment before he fully expected either the dagger or the poison WOULD get him; I think at the point that he called Belle, he didn’t think that Snow would actually manage to use the candle. He was downright shocked when he realized he was no longer in pain.

And Cora WOULD have killed him in that moment if Regina hadn’t shoved her heart back in. At that point, it was him or her. She would have been a worse dark one than him, and that’s saying something–the Dark One is evil, but Rumple was actually able to use his powers for good on occasion (ending the ogre wars for example) and while he’s killed plenty and for petty reasons, especially pre-Storybrooke, I don’t think it’s ever reached the levels of random cruelty we’ve seen Cora achieve without being the Dark One (like when she killed the entire island encampment or when she killed Johanna despite having gotten what she wanted). (Post-Storybrooke, I think that Cora’s is the only life he’s successfully taken, though he has made good efforts against Regina, Hook, and Moe; we could add the potential collateral damage of Emma and Snow at the well, though he was aiming at stopping Cora, and the fact he wasn’t willing to heal Greg to the list if you like.) Rumple’s feelings about killing have changed somewhat; he’s pragmatic (better them than me) and still given to violent emotional outbursts to protect (in his mind this includes vengeance) Belle/Bae, but he also told Regina that he didn’t kill Kathryn because it seemed messier here somehow. I suspect this is partly due to the Mr. Gold personality balancing out the Dark One in him; the whole We Are Both thing just adds another layer to him.

He wasn’t wrong that Cora had done Regina no favors; he may well have pushed Regina into ever-darker places to get her to cast his curse, but Cora’s the one who killed Daniel right in front of her, forced her to marry King Leopold, and put her into a place where she was willing to call Rumplestiltskin for help in the first place. Young, innocent Regina was willing to push Cora into the looking glass with little idea of what might happen to her afterward, just so long as Cora was out of her life. Regina hired Hook to kill her mother despite still loving her…and until she heard that Regina still loved her, Cora was totally planning to kill Regina then, too. (Cora’s not nice.) Regina was happy to go along with blocking the well in a way that would kill Cora to prevent Cora’s arrival in Storybrooke, too, and before Cora tempted her with exclusive Henry rights, she was perfectly content to turn Cora over to the Charmings’ Police Force for murder.

So as cruel as this outcome is for Regina, especially with her involvement and with that brief shining moment of real love that she’d missed out on her entire life…she’d already attempted to make it happen herself at least twice in the past. Complicates the heck out of things. She wasn’t as keen on Cora’s becoming the Dark One, either, though she was willing to help her mother because she was so desperate for that love.

I think Gold’s also a little torn because of his history with Cora. It’s a hollow victory for him, just as knowing that she did actually love him when she ripped out her own heart is probably not a great solace for the way that she crushed and cheated him when they were together. It can’t make up for how that hardened him, how it contributed to his later casting happiness away when Belle came into his life, or the years of hatred and battle between Cora and Rumple that evidently followed. Like Regina, he just wants to know if he’s lovable at all, something that Milah, Cora, and even Bae have all given him reasons to doubt. Can he even trust Cora, even as she’s about to kill him, though? (Yes, we know that she DID love him in her way, creepily, but how can he know whether or not to trust her? She’s not exactly got a great track record for honesty–frankness, yes, but not honesty.)

And even if he does have conflicted feelings about Cora’s death and Regina’s pain–both of which he probably feels are highly deserved on various levels, yet which compare so much with the reunion he spent a couple hundred years seeking with Bae, and here with women that at some point in his life he did care about, even love–he’s also got this second chance that he had given up hope for, to live, to be truly reconciled with his son, to perhaps find a way to bring Belle back, to maybe even live his dream of having a family. He’s escaped death and he’s still got his powers. He knows the price that had to be paid for that, and it’s a heavy one, yet I don’t think he can bring himself to feel completely sorry for it.

Gah, so many feels. I’m not sure what to think about Rumple’s role in this right now. Perhaps the coldness and his statements are an attempt to create some emotional distance because he fears the guilt he might feel over living a stolen life. I don’t think that he says “I did nothing,” to cast the blame onto Snow, though her arrival immediately after has that effect, but I do think he’s not ready to take full responsibility for what happened.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

The way my heart was racing at the end the SECOND time I watched it. What a powerful episode.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

Cora did talk about the deals she had to make–she may mean more than just this one. I expect there’s a LOT more history between Rumple and Cora, which shows him just how dangerous she is and leads to his “I won in the end” comment on Belle’s first date.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

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