Season 3’s Rumpel is back and the plot thickens as with the rest of the characters. He was on a quest to find his son and redeem himself after abandoning Baelfire, a promise he made himself never to break after experiencing his own father leaving him. After he finally reunited with his son, he felt another chance at life was offered and wanted to redeem the lost time between them. Rumple found Bealfire with the help of Henry, his newly discovered nephew. He however remembers a witch’s prediction that this boy will help him reunite with his son but he will simultaneously be his own demise.
Baelfire is not happy to reunite with his father, having been through his fair share of hardship. He is angry, after all it is a devastating event to presence your own father leaving you in exchange for something else. As a child this is traumatizing and it leaves marks. Baelfire was not open to reconciliation and he was angry. He did not want his father to have closure and reunite with him after apologizing for his mistakes and lost time because he was left for years without closure, alone, wondering why he was abandoned. Why was magic more important than his own son and family?
These are deep wounds that take decades to process and understand.
Abandonment reaches deep into us, what is our worth, do we belong? Why would a parent do this? Are we loved?
At the end of season 2 Baelfire dies and at that point Rumpel descends in anger once again, having nothing else to live for. His nephew is kidnapped and brought to a new land called Neverland where resides the infamous Peter Pan who wants the boy. Rumple decides that since he has nothing to live for, he at least has something to die for, save the boy and pay the price with his life.
Trust is the main theme between these two characters. Rumple has to regain Baelfire’s trust after abandoning him.
Rumple is on the verge of changing, going from desiring to kill his nephew as he will be his own undoing as per the witch’s prophecy to taking the decision to die in order to save him. That is his quest and redemption hope.
Rumple finds himself once again dancing on the narrow path between good and evil, to use magic in his quest to save his nephew or not. This time he is choosing to use darkness for a nobler and less selfish purpose, he is sacrificing his own life to save Henry’s.
Suddenly, in Neverland, Rumple is stunned at the prospect that his son is alive and on this island!
His life is again turned upside down.
He has to face new decisions.
The reason he decided to give away his own life was because there was no more chances at starting anew living with his own son.
Now that he is alive again, he desires to live once again.
Baelfire is on the same quest to save Henry, his son. He mistrusts Rumple because of his fickleness, constantly going from the dark side to doing the right thing then back again. For that reason, he asks his father to give him his Pandora’s box which he planned to use to defeat Peter Pan as proof that he can now trust him more.
That was a very powerful symbol as Rumple is very proprietary with his magic and power, trusting solely himself for doing a good job. In giving his son this power he is acknowledging how deeply he wants to gain his son’s favor and win his trust in hopes to get close to him again.
There is a big internal struggle inside Rumple, constantly striving to choose between good and evil and that struggle is also impacting his outer relationships, namely his relationship with his son and Belle.
In the next article we’ll explore the roots of this generational thread from Rumple’s father to him and then to Baelfire.
SimplyLadyEvergreen 