The part that really made me cringe was when Rumple told Belle he expected her to do as he asked and go lock herself in the library. I understand his need to protect her both from becoming a casualty of his battles and from seeing him at his worst, but the extreme sexism there really surprised me coming from him. Had it been Bae he would have said the same because he always will see Bae as a child. But I doubt that would have come out to a male lover. Of course that goes to my personal belief that his love for Belle is largely paternal (and messed up! Hooray!).

I had just as hard a time with Belle watching him beat Hook. But they are more interesting as a couple to me where she accepts that he can't go back to being "good" but still makes an effort to keep him from becoming worse. I don't think it would ever be that settled, so the back and forth is getting bothersome because it really just makes Belle look less awesome than she is. But I think there's no way that Rumple can change because he's the real villain. We know Cora probably won't be around forever, and Regina is trying to change. So to avoid a villain of the week, the show needs Rumple.

Honestly, I have huge issues with Regina's sole motivation as a baddie being that her mom killed her boyfriend and it was Snow's fault. I liked her better when she was just power hungry and evil and pissed at Snow for getting in the way for reasons unspecified. I thought she was a stronger character without the Daniel part of her backstory. But I love an irredeemable villainess. I'll take a redeamae one too, but I don't want one that's bad because some dude spurned her or some dude died. *sigh* But I digress...

I think we all agree that the show needs more Mulan right now, though!

(Apologies for typos. Wrote this one my phone.)