I forgot to put this in my review. I’ve seen a few posts floating around saying that Bae using the dagger against Rumple is a retcon, because Rumple told August that Bae would never control him. I don’t believe it’s a retcon for one simple reason.

Rose-tinted glasses.

Rumple had a couple of hundred years with just the memory of Bae, and how he felt that he’d let his son down – how he’d failed him. I mean Rumple already had Bae as the center of his universe – “without him I’d truly be dust” – and he thought that Bae made him stronger, was the best part of him etc. So I’m sure after two hundred years, in Rumple’s mind Bae was the most perfect son ever who could never do anything wrong.

The sheer depth of Rumple’s self-loathing would probably make him twist everything so that Bae was right. In Rumple’s mind everything would be his fault, never Bae’s. So while he might remember what Bae did, Rumple would put it down to circumstance, it never happened again, it was just a one-time thing, and it was a mistake, and Bae doesn’t even remember so it’s like it never happened. Rumple would never want to remind Bae of something he’s trying to protect him from.

So yeah in my opinion it wasn’t a retcon.