Oh sweet merlin. I’m writing the final chapter of Fall All Over Again so I have the transcript of 2.15 The Queen is Dead open and wow, seeing this in black and white really hits home.

Emma: Here’s the thing. You’re dying. And right now, we are your best hope. Time’s come for you to start trusting someone. And, if I were you, I’d start with family.

So Rumple tells her where he’s hidden the dagger. I’m doing something different in the fic because I always thought that was stupid. Cora would never have found it, if they hadn’t led her to it, and Rumple is smart enough to know that Snow and David would fold if Cora threatened people’s lives. However, that’s beside the point. The point is that Rumple trusted Emma exactly how she asked. She said that they were family, which they were through the newly discovered relationship with Henry. So Rumple took a chance and trusted her with his very soul.

David: It’s here! A clever hiding place for a very clever man.

Snow: We did it.

David: The Dark One finally can be controlled.

What really hurts me actually is that it’s David that says it. I’ve always thought better of him, and perhaps my memories are skewed because black and white doesn’t lie. The very first thought they have upon laying hands on the dagger, isn’t that they have saved the dagger from Cora. It’s not that they have the dagger now, and they can give it to Rumple when he gets back because it belongs to him.

No, their very first thought is that they can now control him, like he’s not even human. They’ve just learned he’s their co-grandparent for crying out loud. They accept Regina as family and she tried to kill them countless times (and I say that as a Regina fan). Really what has Rumple done to them at this point? Helped them at least a dozen times, but had the audacity not to do it for free? Honestly I’m sickened. Well I was driven to write this post. My jaw dropped reading that in the transcript. I guess I’d forgotten, I haven’t seen the episode in getting on for two years probably.

Rumple reached out, he trusted them and look what they did! I’m appalled.