I had a thought earlier about Hook. It’s a bit random and not my usual because I do try and stay away from anti-character posts. However…

It occurred to me that “revenge is a dish best served cold” – Hook spent several lifetimes searching for a way to make Rumple pay for Milah’s death. For most of that time this took the typical form of “I will kill you!!!” but then think about what he’s done lately?

Successfully romanced Emma – who not only did Rumple’s son love, but is also the mother of his grandchild. Emma and Rumple used to have sort of a frenemies thing going on. Rumple had respect for Emma in season 1-2 (pre-Hook) and Emma was never 100% sure that she could trust Rumple, but she was willing to work with him/give him the benefit of the doubt sometimes. Since Hook has been on the scene, it’s everybody hate Rumple all the time. Hook has successfully poisoned not just Emma, but also Henry and her entire family against Rumple. I mean admittedly Snow and David were kinda fair weather about him before, happy to use him when they needed something but would jump at the chance to imprison/control him if possible. Emma wasn’t like that though, not back then.

Formed a friendship with Belle – or at least made Belle consider him a friend, to the point where Belle lived on his ship and looked to him for protection. Now it was only ever strictly platonic but still it must have been eerily familiar, having another wife leave Rumple to live on the same ship. That must have really hit Rumple where it hurt.

So I’m thinking Hook got his revenge after all. He could only kill Rumple once and then dead is dead (well sometimes) but stripping away everything and everyone that Rumple cares about? That’s going to cause years of suffering for Rumple, with Hook smugly knowing that he won in the end.