Rumplestiltskin (Once Upon a Time)

"All magic comes at a price"

- Rumplestiltskin's catch phrase

"Evil isn't born dearie, it's made"

- Rumplestiltskin

Rumplestiltskin is a major character on Once Upon A Time. He débuts in the first episode of the first season. He is played by starring cast member Robert Carlyle, and is the fairytale identity of Mr. Gold. Rumplestiltskin is one of the most feared beings in Fairytale Land and is notorious for his deals. He is the supporting protagonist/anti-hero in the first three seasons (he becomes the secondary antagonist in the second half of season three while under Zelena's control), but gradually becomes the true main antagonist in the first half of the fourth season after reverting to his dark and power-hungry nature, and the main antagonist in the second half, along with Maleficent, Ursula, and Cruella De Vil, although it's probable that he and Maleficent are the true villains.

In fact, Rumple could very well be the true main antagonist of the entire series, since he's the one who set the story's events in motion by having Regina enact the curse. He is essentially The Heavy because his plans (in)directly affect everyone else.

Rumplestiltskin is based on the titular character from the fairytale Rumpelstiltskin and takes the place of the Beast from Beauty and the Beast and the Crocodile from Peter Pan.

Season One
Rumplestiltskin was once a normal, spinner with a son named Baelfire, whom he loved with all his heart and who was his most treasured possession in the world. At some point before Baelfire was born, Rumplestiltskin ran from a war that he was meant to fight in, and was forever labeled as a coward and caused his wife Milah to leave him (though he always told Baelfire that she died).

When the kingdom finally has to resort to using children as soldiers when they turn fourteen in the Ogre Wars, Rumplestiltskin and Baelfire flee into the forest, only to be found and bullied by royal knights. After the knights leave, Rumplestiltskin and Baelfire are approached by a mysterious old man who offers them help in exchange for a small amount of food and company.

After listening to Rumplestiltskin's story, the old man tries to inspire him to find another way to save his son, but Rumplestiltskin is adamant that the only real choice was to run away. Knowing that Rumplestiltskin cannot run forever, the old man offers him a more complete solution to his problems.

He informs him that the Duke of the kingdom has a magical dagger in his possession. The Duke, in turn, uses this magical dagger to control the Dark One a terrifying entity with unmatched magical powers who is the most feared being in all the land.

As such, if Rumplestiltskin could steal the dagger, he, rather than the Duke, would have control over the Dark One. Thus, he could protect Baelfire and turn the Dark One into a force of good. Of course, Rumplestiltskin realizes that he would never be able to truly hold the Dark One as a slave because he will be terrified of him. The old man sympathizes with Rumplestiltskin, but reiterates that obtaining the dagger is the only way to protect Baelfire from being taken away.

Convinced that he has no other choice, Rumplestiltskin plots to steal the dagger by setting fire to the Duke's castle during the night. After stealing the blade, Rumplestiltskin runs back into the forest to meet Baelfire, whom he told to go wait at home while he summoned the Dark One.

Upon calling the name on the dagger, " Zoso, the Dark One appears. Though he attempts to act bravely, Rumplestiltskin cowers in the Dark One's presence, and when he implies that Baelfire isn't truly Rumplestiltskin's son, Rumplestiltskin stabs the entity in a fit of blind rage.

Upon getting a better look at the dying entity's face, Rumplestiltskin discovers the Dark One was in fact the old man who had told him about the dagger in the first place. Shocked, Rumplestiltskin asks him why he would do such a thing as plot his own murder. The man tells him that all the horrible deeds he was forced to carry out as the Dark One has made his life a burden, and that he welcomes death as a release.

Cackling at Rumplestiltskin's blind faith and desperation, the old man spits his last words: "Magic always comes with a price," knowing that now that price was Rumplestiltskin's to bear forever, sealed with his own name replacing Zoso's on the dagger and his skin begins to turn a gold colour.

Rumplestiltskin, now with more power than he ever dreamed, returns to his hamlet to humiliate and kill the knights who had harassed him the other day, all while Baelfire watches in horror as his father relished in their deaths. When Baelfire asks his father the cause for his actions, Rumplestiltskin states that he had simply protected what belonged to him, and that he was no longer afraid, thus beginning his reign of terror.

Eager to fulfill his promise, Rumplestiltskin put his newfound powers to use by bringing about an end to the Ogre Wars, walking into the middle of battlefields and brokering a truce between the warring parties. However, while this good deed brought Rumplestiltskin reverence and respect, the powers of the Dark One had corrupted him, causing him to continually hurt people and seek more power for fear that he wouldn't be able to protect Baelfire from his enemies otherwise.

As such, reverence turned into fear, allowing Rumplestiltskin to become a wealthy and powerful individual who terrified those around him, much to the distaste of Baelfire, who believed that his father wouldn't need so much power to protect him if he simply didn't have any. Rumplestiltskin knew this was not an option, as the only way he knew he could be rid of the Dark One's abilities would be if someone killed him with his magic dagger.

Wanting things to return to the way they were before, Baelfire offers his own deal to Rumplestiltskin: if Baelfire is able to find a way for Rumplestiltskin to give up his powers without killing him or hurting Baelfire in the process, Rumplestiltskin must do so. With this goal in mind, Baelfire seeks out the Blue Fairy, who offered him a magic bean, which can produce a portal to transport him and his father to a "land without magic," where Rumplestiltskin would be powerless--but alive and with his son.

However, when it came time to follow through with Baelfire's plan, Rumplestiltskin reverted to his former personality. Not wanting to give up the influence he had garnered as the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin clung to the edge of the bean's magic portal with his dagger, abandoning Baelfire in the process. In their last moments together in Fairytale Land, Baelfire called his father a coward and Rumplestiltskin broke the only deal he ever really cared about: sacrificing power for his son's happiness.

Immediately regretting his decision, Rumplestiltskin summoned the Blue Fairy and begged her to send him to be with Baelfire. When she said that it was impossible to do so by any magical means, Rumplestiltskin tricked her into revealing that a powerful curse, could allow him to be with his son. From that point on, Rumplestiltskin swore that he would stop at nothing and would sacrifice an entire world if it meant seeing Baelfire again, acknowledging that he had "all the time in the world" to figure out how.

Some time later, Rumplestiltskin had amassed considerable wealth and a castle of his own, but grew lonely and sought someone to take care of his estate. Summoned by King Maurice, to protect his town from a horde of ogres, Rumplestiltskin made a deal to protect the kingdom in exchange for the king's daughter, Belle, to live in his castle as a caretaker.

After holding her captive for several months, Rumplestiltskin grew fond of Belle, and allowed her to go into town on the pretext of fetching him straw for spinning gold (really a test of her affection for him, since he wagered she might not return). While traveling on the road, Belle encountered the Evil Queen Regina, who encouraged her to kiss Rumplestiltskin, as "true love's kiss" would cure him of his evil.

Against Rumplestiltskin's assumptions (as well as her own) Belle returns to the castle and kisses him, causing Rumplestiltskin to begin to revert to his human form. Shocked by her actions, he incorrectly believed that Belle was working with Regina when she stutters that she learned from a woman that kissing him would break his curse.

In a fit of anger, Rumplestiltskin locks her in his dungeon and later casts her out of his castle, saying that he valued his power more then the love Belle was willing to give him. However, Belle challenges Rumplestiltskin, saying that despite all his efforts to be seen as powerful and feared, he is still a coward at heart for not being able to accept that someone could actually love him, and that all that his power would bring him in the end would be "an empty heart and a chipped cup." Little did she realize the true motivation behind his incessant quest for magic and power is an all-consuming drive to reunite with his son.

After Belle leaves, Regina visits Rumplestiltskin and goads him about her fate, telling him that after Belle had returned to her own kingdom, her father had locked her in a tower and sought priests to cleanse her, believing that she had succumbed to Rumpelstiltskin's evil ways. According to the Queen, after being tortured and disavowed, Belle killed herself by jumping off the tower. This is, of course, a lie, as she is still alive years later in Storybrooke.

Visibly shaken by this knowledge, Rumplestiltskin calls Regina a liar and tells her to leave. Left alone in his grief, an emotional Rumplestiltskin replaces a golden chalice in his trophy room with the teacup that Belle had chipped on her first day as his caretaker, the only memento he still has of his lost love.

Some time later, he is summoned to King George's, court, where King George begs him to bring his son, who has been killed in a tournament, back from the dead. Rumplestiltskin admits that not even magic can bring back the dead, but tells the King that his dead son had a twin. Apparently, years before, the King and his wife could not bear children and so had made a deal with Rumpelstilskin to bring them a child. Rumpelstiltskin, for his part, made a deal with a poor couple that had given birth to twins but were about to lose their farm, whereby they might give one of their sons to the King in exchange for clearance of all their debts.

He demands the location of King George's family fairy godmother in return for getting the other twin, information which King George reluctantly gives. He goes back to the farm to collect the other twin, who turns out to be Prince Charming. He convinces Charming to go to King George's court and become a prince.

Some time later, he met with Snow White who wanted him to give her something that would make her forget about an unforgettable love. Rumplestiltskin plucks two hairs from her head, using one to create a forgetfulness potion for her, keeping the other as payment. Prince Charming, however, was still in love with Snow and just as determined not to marry Abigail.

After helping Abigail free her true love from a curse, he goes to Rumplestiltskin to ask for help in locating Snow. He tells Prince Charming that he would help him in return for the cloak that the prince is wearing. Prince Charming agrees and leaves with information leading to Snow. After Prince Charming leaves, Rumplestiltskin takes a strand of hair off the cloak and puts it in a bottle with the hair he took from Snow White.

As he places it on his shelf with his other potions, it begins to glow. In this manner, Rumplestiltskin succeeds in bottling the last and strongest magic, which he has heretofore been unable to capture. With it, he can do "anything."

Rumplestiltskin then goes to Cinderella's step-family's manor, where the fairy godmother is in the process of granting Cinderella a chance to go to Prince Thomas ball. He destroys the fairy godmother and takes her wand, much to Cinderella's shock. However, despite her angry protests, he convinces her to make a new deal with him instead - she could go to the ball, but she would owe him something "precious".

Cinderella agrees, signs the contract, and hurries off to the ball. Later, at a second ball celebrating her wedding to Prince Thomas, Rumplestiltskin shows up, just long enough to claim his "precious" price as her firstborn child. Many months later, he meets with Cinderella again, whereupon she tells him that she was having twins and wants to make a new deal. (This is just a ploy to get Rumplestiltskin to handle a cursed quill and trap him somewhere where he could not take her child.) At first he does not believe her but, after warning Cinderella about the consequences of using magic against him, he eventually signs the contract with a magical quill, which paralyzes him.

Thomas, Grumpy and James load him up into a cart to take him away to prison, but Thomas mysteriously disappears. Cinderella confronts Rumpelstiltskin, who says that Thomas would never return unless he received her baby: all magic comes with a price, and this was it. Then he was carted away to his prison in the dwarves' mine.

During Snow White's wedding, Regina appears and announces her plans to destroy the happiness of Snow White—and everyone else in the Fairytale Land as well. When she attempts to fulfill her plans using the Dark Curse, she finds that it does not work. She approaches Rumplestiltskin to find out why, and his price for the information is that he receives riches, comfort, and influence during his life in Storybrooke—and that if he comes to her for any reason, she must give him anything he asks for, as long as he says "please." After Regina agrees to this, Rumplestiltskin tells her that she must sacrifice the heart of the thing she loves most for the Curse to work.

Some time after Regina's declaration at their wedding, Snow White and James go to him, seeking help because of Regina's Dark Curse. Their escort warns them not to tell him their names, because it would give him power over them, but Rumplestiltskin already knows who they are—he greets them by name and tells them to take down their hooded robes.

Rumplestiltskin agrees to give them information in exchange for their unborn baby's name, to which Snow White agrees, in spite of the guard's earlier warning. He tells Snow White and James that the only thing that can save all the people in the land from the curse is "that thing growing in her belly" and that the final battle will not begin until her 28th birthday. As they turn to leave, Rumpelstiltskin asks for "her" (the child's) name, seeing through Prince Charming's lie that it's a boy. After a moment of hesitation, Snow White agrees, and so Rumpelstiltskin finds out that the savior's name will be Emma.

He, along with every other character, is consumed by the Dark Curse the night of Emma Swan's birth.

During the Curse
Mr. Gold is first seen as Emma Swan is checking into Granny's Bed and Breakfast. He is collecting rent money from Granny and Ruby, and wishes Emma an enjoyable stay. When he leaves, Ruby introduces him to Emma as the man that "owns" Storybrooke.

Mr. Gold is in the mayor's backyard the night after Emma decides to stay in Storybrooke. He congratulates her for being in high spirits for banishing Emma, to which Regina replies that she has triumphed, while Gold tells her not to get ahead of herself because he saw Emma and Henry together. He then says that he would have been able to help her ... for a price.

He and Regina quickly get into an argument over Emma Swan, but Mr. Gold asks her to let him go by saying "please"—this invokes a deal that was made between them in the Enchanted Forest, which he isn't supposed to remember. Regina lets him go, stunned.

A few nights later, Mr. Gold is locking up his shop. After he's gone, Ashley Boyd breaks in to steal a document. Mr. Gold catches her in the act and confronts her, but she pepper sprays him, knocking him out, and leaves. He then asks Emma Swan to help him find her. She agrees feeling guilty about her role in the incident, having earlier advised Ashley to take her fate into her own hands.

She later finds Ashley's car on the side of the road and sees the girl ready to give birth. She is rushed to the hospital and delivers a healthy baby girl. Mr. Gold comes and asks to see Ashley because he wants Alexandra (the baby) for himself, having earlier made a deal with Ashley for the baby. Emma intervenes and, after a brief discussion, Gold agrees to leave Ashley in peace. In return, Emma would owe him a favor.

Mr. Gold gives David Nolan directions to the Toll Bridge after he gets lost, thanks to Regina's intervention. David goes over to Emma's mobile from the Enchanted Forest, but then takes notice to a windmill. David stares at it, transfixed, and seems to gain some recollection of the windmill having belonged to him in the past. Mr. Gold smirks when David remembers his previous life pre-coma in the hospital as opposed to being Prince Charming.

Sheriff Graham finds Mr. Gold in the forest as he is searching for the wolf that haunts his dreams. When asked what he is doing in the forest, Mr. Gold claims that he is gardening. Mr Gold then asks the same of Graham and is told about the wolf and the sheriff's dreams. Mr. Gold smiles and tells Graham that some believed that dreams were memories of a former life, which does nothing to calm the sheriff's nerves.

After the sheriff's death, he offers Emma some of Graham's old things, which Emma declines. After Mr. Gold learns that the mayor fired her from her position as deputy, he comes into Mary Margaret's apartment and shows Emma the town charter. This helps her realize that she could contest Regina's decision to fire her by running against her nomination for Storybrooke's new Sheriff: Sidney Glass. Mr. Gold offers his assistance to Emma by becoming her benefactor.

Emma confronts Regina the next night about a slanderous article published in the Daily Mirror about her. During this encounter the office mysteriously catches on fire. Emma saves them both with a fire extinguisher, and they both are able to exit the building safely. However, it is revealed that Mr. Gold set up the whole thing. Later at the debate which would determine the winner for the public office, Emma publicly exposes him. Mr. Gold gets up and leaves the town hall. Despite her misgivings, she wins and is elected sheriff.

Mr. Gold visits the station the next day and congratulates her on the victory he planned. He had to give her a higher form of bravery: the townspeople needed to see her stand up to him, so that they would believe that Emma could not only stand up to the mayor, but to Mr. Gold, too. Emma is shocked to learn that he had somehow managed to plan the whole event.

When Emma is trying to help out two orphans, Ava and Nicholas Zimmer, from becoming a part of the foster system in Boston, she goes to his pawnshop in hopes that he would know who bought one of the orphans' belongings. Mr. Gold, although able to remember the item, needs to looks up the name of the purchaser - their father - in order to tell Emma. However, the paper he pretends to reads is blank. ("True North")

Later, Mr. Gold collects the rent of Moe French and, when he fails to pay the money, takes Moe's flower shop truck. He is confronted by Regina, but he dodges her attempts at a conversation with a well-placed "please." Later in the day, he returns home to see that his house has been robbed.

Emma appears at Mr. Gold's house since the robbery had been reported earlier. Mr. Gold tells Emma who he suspects the thief was (Moe French) given the day's earlier events. She attempts to allay him saying that she will find him. Mr. Gold replies begins to say "not if I find him first" but stops himself thinking better of it. She manages to recover nearly everything that was stolen, but Mr. Gold remains agitated insisting that something was missing. Emma reassures him that she will retrieve the item when she finds Moe French. Mr. Gold leaves the station after unreservedly saying "not if I find him first" this time, which worries Emma. He buys duct tape and rope, has a brief chat with David Nolan, in which he tells him that "love is like a delicate flame. Once it's gone, it's gone forever", and then leaves the store. He then kidnaps Moe French and takes him to an abandoned wooden cabin, where he proceeds to interrogate him about the missing item - a chipped tea cup. He becomes emotional, beating Moe French while yelling about Moe being "her" father, having "her" love and how "she's gone forever". Emma intervenes before Mr. Gold "breaks anything he needs", and promptly arrests him.

While in jail, Regina arrives with Henry as a bribe for Emma leaving her alone with Mr. Gold for thirty minutes. Emma and Henry go off to the ice cream parlor and Regina sits down in front of Mr. Gold at his request. She reveals that she convinced Moe to rob him and that she has the item he had been searching for so desperately. He asks her what she wants in return for his lost item, and she tells him that she wants his name.

At first, he answers that his name is Mr. Gold. He tries to dodge the question by saying that he doesn't know what she's talking about (when she asks him for his real name) and that his name has always been Mr. Gold. After being further pressed, he gives in saying, "Rumplestiltskin". This is proof that he remembers everything about the Enchanted Forest, its' inhabitants, and the Dark Curse. In return, Regina gives him the chipped teacup and walks away.

A few days later, he manages to get out of jail. Shortly after, Mr. Gold is led out onto the docks by Leroy in an attempt to sell his boat in exchange for $5000 or the waiving of one month's rent for the nun of Storybrooke. Mr. Gold is first unimpressed by Leroy's insistence of $5000 claiming $3000 is more reasonable. When Leroy requests the waiving of rental payment for the nuns, Mr Gold becomes angry. Once he realizes that the money will go to the nuns, he says that he finds them distasteful tenants and that he'd be glad to be rid of them and refuses to make any deal to Leroy's disappointment.

When Mary Margaret is arrested for the suspected murder of Kathryn Nolan, Mr. Gold offers to be her attorney. Emma is skeptical of his motives and advises Mary Margaret not to trust him. Mary Margaret knows that she will need all the help that she can get and accepts his help regardless. When she tells him that she wouldn't be able to pay him, Mr. Gold says that he doesn't want her money and simply claims that he is "invested in her future".

Later, Emma goes to Mr. Gold for help, because she believes that Regina is framing Mary Margaret for Kathryn's murder. When Emma claims that she is not only willing to do anything but also go further, Mr. Gold agrees to help her and concedes that fighting Regina and winning will be tough—but he also adds that he believes Emma is more powerful than she realizes.

The morning of Mary Margaret's arraignment, Regina goes to the Sheriff's station and, to her astonishment, finds her still in her jail cell. She pulls aside Mr. Gold and asks him why Mary Margaret still there to which he states it was all thanks to Emma's resourcefulness.

Regina says that the only reason she made a deal with Gold was to "get results" - he assures her that she will, as Mary Margaret is still a murder suspect. It is later revealed that the deal they made consisted of Regina getting the District Attorney to drop all charges against Mr. Gold (for abducting and beating Moe French) in exchange for him organizing something horrible happening to Kathryn which could be blamed on Mary Margaret. He make this deal as he didn't "relish the thought of spending anymore time in a cage".

In order to make the deal, Mr. Gold convincing Regina that Mary Margaret need never be placed on trial. In such a case there would always be a chance that she was found innocent. Instead they plot to have her to escape her cell using one of Regina's skeleton keys (placed under the bed of her jail cell). Once she fled and tried to leave Storybrooke, she would inevitably suffer something terrible (it is a condition of the curse that anyone who attempts to leave Storybrooke suffers something terrible but what exactly has not been revealed).

Later on, after a failed attempt at gaining the District Attorney's sympathy, Mary Margaret is carried away to the trial and Emma blames Gold of not trying harder to defend her, to which he replies to not lose faith as it was time for him to "work a little magic." Immediately afterwards Kathryn is found unconscious behind Granny's Diner by a terrified Ruby.

August (using Henry as a distraction) tries to infiltrate Gold’s office in the pawn shop looking for something. Once he’s caught he feigns innocence but Gold gets suspicious. Later, a panicked Regina visits him and, seeing that all evidence points to her as the cause of the mess around Kathryn’s disappearance, she blames Gold for not keeping his end of the deal.

He replies that he only broke one single deal in his life and that “it sadly wasn’t this one”. As the terms of their deal, it only mentions that something “tragic” was to happen to Kathryn, not necessarily death as Regina meant by such a euphemism, abduction qualified just as well.

During Mary Margaret’s "Welcome Home" party, Emma asks Gold if he had anything to do with Kathryn’s abduction and he asks her if she thinks that he’s working with or against Regina. He asks about August to which she doesn’t say much, other than him being a writer.

After leaving the party, Mr. Gold proceeds to break into August's room at Granny’s Bed and Breakfast to find an accurate drawing of the magic dagger, which shocks him. Later he finds the Mother Superior talking with August, and once he leaves he threatens her into telling him what they spoke of. She says he sought advice and counsel on how to approach his estranged father, whom he hadn’t seen or spoken to in years.

Afterwards, it is Gold himself who seeks advice with Dr. Hopper and asks how to approach the man he now believes to be his son Baelfire. The doctor replies that, despite everything that may have happened between them, honesty was his best solution. Gold resignedly agrees.

Later August and Gold meet in the woods; Gold apologizes, August forgives him, and they both embrace each other. August asks about the dagger, the only proof he had that his father hadn’t changed. Gold tells him he buried it in the woods shortly after Emma arrived to avoid Regina finding it, as “things were changing.” That was what the spot of gardening had been.

Once they dig it out, August tries to control him with it, but fails. Gold immediately realizes he cannot be Baelfire, as his son would never try to control him and much less with a dagger that he knew to be useless in a world where it could not harness magic. Gold threatens August and finds out he was trying to control him so that Rumplestiltskin's magic could cure him from an unmentioned disease which he is dying from.

A "little fairy" told him that getting Rumplestiltskin's magic was one of his two hopes for survival – his only other option was to get the savior (Emma) to believe in the fairytales behind Storybrooke but he didn’t think he was going to live long enough to see that happen. Gold lets him go, as he’s going to die either way and as such, if August succeeds in making Emma believe, Gold will “get something out of it."

Later, Regina goes to Mr. Gold for advice on how to get rid of Emma. He doesn't tell her anything, but she decides to use the Sleeping Curse on her to get rid of her permanently without breaking the Dark Curse. Mr. Gold is surprised to hear it and wonders where she got it. Regina smirks and leaves. However, the plan backfires, and Henry Mills eats the poisoned apple instead.

Emma believes in the curse after this and decides to team up with Regina. They go to Mr. Gold for help, and he says that he had a bottle of true love stored in the belly of a beast. Emma eventually winds up fighting Maleficent's dragon form.

When Emma defeats the dragon, Mr. Gold tricks her into giving him the true love potion. He goes back to his shop to hide it, and a customer stumbles inside. He tells her that the shop is closed, but stops when he sees who the customer is. She is Belle, whom Gold believed to have died in the Enchanted Forest. She tells him that Regina locked her up, and Gold promises to protect her.

He takes Belle to Storybrooke's wishing well, where on the way she remembers her old life. She tells him "I remember... I love you" and to which he says he also loves her but that "there would be time for that later" and that he had something to do first. They proceed to the wishing well and he pours the true love potion down it. Suddenly, purple clouds start erupting from the well, and when she asks him what he's doing, he replies that he is bringing magic to Storybrooke. When Belle asks him why, he replies "Because magic is power."

Season Two
After the breaking of the curse, Belle pressures Gold to renounce vengeance on Regina and others who have wronged him. He promises, "I will not kill Regina." His animosity, however, cannot be contained, and he marks Regina with a medallion and uses it to summon a wraith to hunt her down. When confronted by Belle, he insists that this keeps his promise, since he will not kill Regina, but the wraith will. Angered at his word games, Belle leaves, insisting she never wants to see him again. The wraith fails to suck out Regina's soul after a portal is opened with Jefferson's hat in which the creature is sucked into another world. Afterwards, Belle returns later, insisting that she needs to be a civilizing influence in his life.

Afterwards, Mr. Gold is seen in his shop when Regina storms in, looking through books and papers in the room. Regina tells him she needs "the book" and Gold chuckles, stating "You need your Mommy 's help." Gold refuses at first, stating that for Regina to regain her magic is "not in his best interest," but when Regina threatens to tell the truth of what happened to the Enchanted Forest, Gold uses magic, making the book appear and gives it to her, saying that the spells could be "rough on the system." As Regina storms out, he says that the way Regina is, holding the book, he can now see the resemblance to her mother. Later, David Nolan enters the shop, causing Mr. Gold to bemoan the wasted money of a closed sign. David asks for help using the hat to find its owner, which Gold agrees to, providing that he will be left alone. He agrees, asking for the same courtesy. Gold inquires about the commotion outside and David reveals that to leave Storybrooke will remove all memories of their true selves. Gold reacts in a fit of anger, smashing the glass of his counters and displays. Gold then drives to the edge of Storybooke and stares out at the border that binds him to Storybrooke.

Gold has not given up his goal to find his son and continues to practice magic. Belle discovers this and she asks him to explain what he is seeking to do. Gold only restates that "Magic is Power." Belle leaves the room and later leaves the house. Gold enlists the help of David Nolan to find Belle, however the people of Storybrooke are less than willing to help the man who has caused such misery. With the help of Ruby's skills in tracking, they follow Belle's trail to the flower shop owned by Moe French. Moe has kidnapped his daughter and arranged to have her cross the barrier so that she will forget about her true love and be safe from Gold's power. Gold uses magic to pull Belle back from the town border, but Belle has not changed her mind about his cowardice and tells Gold she doesn't ever want to see him again. Later, Gold sends Belle the key to the library and tells her she is welcome to stay in the caretaker's apartment upstairs. Belle says this will not cause her to change her mind, but Gold only says that he wants her to know the truth and explains the story of the loss of his son and that power has become a crutch that he can't live without. He admits that he is a coward and has always been so. He says that he has lost so much that he loved, he couldn't bear to lose Belle without her knowing the truth. After saying goodbye to Belle, he turns to leave. Belle stops him, suggesting that they have a hamburger sometime. Later, Gold enters his basement where he has tied Smee up and asks him where his captain is. He learns that Jones escaped the curse and asks again where he is.

Mr. Gold is in his shop, polishing his items when Whale enters, carrying a cooler, which contains his severed arm. Placing the container in front of Gold, Gold quips that "charging an arm and a leg" is only a figure of speech. Whale asks Gold to restore his arm. Before Gold does, he questions Whale's purpose in bringing Daniel back. Whale comments only that he hoped if he brought Daniel back, perhaps she would be able to return Whale to his home. Gold shrugs at the futility of Whale's plan. Whale again asks Gold to fix his arm, but Gold first tells him to "Say it", meaning he wants Whale to admit that he needs magic. Once Whale has done so, Gold restores his arm.

Regina calls Gold to Mary Margaret apartment to help Henry as he is tortured by dreams where he is a room on fire. Gold chastises Regina for knowing so very little about a curse she cast. Fiddling with various bottles in his case, he pours one bottle into a pendant. Handing it to Henry, he explains that the Sleeping Curse puts the sleeper in a place between life and death until they are woken. However, the potion will allow Henry some control over the dream and he will be able to come and go at will. As he hands it to Henry, Regina asks the price. Gold smiles wryly and says that she could never afford such a housecall; however, he is doing this for Henry on his own.

Mr.Gold and Belle are enjoying a hamburger at Granny's Diner. Granny begins to insult him but he doesn't seem to mind very much so she walks away. They continue talking when Regina walks in. Granny gets worried about the two of them, but Regina assures her that they will be civil. Mr. Gold doesn't wish to speak to her, but she tells him that Cora is coming back to town and he tenses up. Belle asks who Cora is and Mr. Gold replies she will never have to meet her. Mr. Gold states to Regina that he can handle Cora, and Regina tells him that Cora tells it otherwise. She then tells Mr. Gold that the last time Cora and him went at it, Mr. Gold had nothing to protect. Now, she indicates that he has Belle.

Mr. Gold joins David, Regina, and Henry in the back of his pawn shop. He tells the group that there is a way to stop Cora, and that Henry will have to communicate this in the dream world to Aurora. He then sits next to Henry and tells him that the power that sealed the Dark One was not within the Quill that Cinderella used to trick him, but in the ink that comes from a squid that can only be found at the depths of the ocean, only reachable either by a mermaid or the Dark One. He tells Henry that in order to stop Cora, Emma and Mary Margaret must return to the palace ruins, go to his old cell, and retrieve the jar of ink. With that, Henry falls asleep.

Henry wakes up and reveals to the adults that he has been burned on his arm. A distraught Regina and David round on Mr. Gold, who informs them that the longer and deeper a person is in the dream world, the more effect it will have on that person in the real world. David and Regina refuse to let Henry go back into the dream world, and Mr. Gold asks then what their plan is to get the information across the dream world to Emma and Mary Margaret. David then volunteers to be placed under a Sleeping Curse. Mr. Gold rebukes him, saying that there is no way of knowing if he will ever wake up if he does this. David states he has faith in Mary Margaret, and that he knows a way will be found. Regina then brews up a Sleeping Curse and per Mr. Gold's instructions dips a spinning needle into the curse, causing the needle to become enchanted. Mr. Gold then puts it on his spinning wheel, and wishes David good luck before David pricks his finger on it, causing him to fall asleep. ("Into the Deep")

During the time David is asleep, Gold speaks with Regina as to what may happen if Cora should come through the portal. Not believing that Emma and Mary Margaret will defeat Cora, he convinces Regina that they should take steps to ensure Cora will not be able to make it through. They travel to the dwarf mines where the magic diamonds have been found. Gold uses the wand of the Fairy Godmother to siphon off the magic within the diamonds. Then, he and Regina travel to the well in Storybrooke, certain that the portal will open from here. Using magic, the well is magically protected to kill whoever enters through it. However, Regina proceeds to undo the magic when Henry convinces her to trust in Mary Margaret, Emma and him.

Emma and Mary Margaret make it through and return to Gold's shop where Mary Margaret awakens David. Emma speaks to Gold about his writing her name within the cell he'd been imprisoned in, stating that he had been pulling the strings from the beginning. Gold, however, states that he did not create her, he only made use of who and what Emma was: the product of True Love. When Emma reveals that Cora could not remove her heart, Gold states that it was because of magic that is within her, not because of his involvement.

In this series Rumplestiltskin's wife Milah is seen and it is shown that she had fell out of love with her husband after he deserted war. One day Rumplestiltskin comes home to find Baelfire on his own and discovers that Milah is at a tavern with pirates and refuses to go home when Rumplestiltskin arrives but only when Baelfire appears she leaves with them. The next day Rumplestiltskin is told by one of the women in his village that Milah had been kidnapped by the pirates so he goes to the pirates ship to get her back but their leader Captain Hook (back then known as Killian Jones) will only give her back if they duel for her. Rumplestiltskin refuses so is forced to leave without her and tells Baelfire that she has died. Many years later Rumplestiltskin now as The Dark One meets Jones again and asks him about Milah but Jones claims that she has died, after hearing this Rumplestiltskin says that he wishes to finish their duel and says that they shall do it the next day at dawn. The next day the two start their duel but just as Rumplestiltskin is about to rip out Jones's heart Milah appears and tells him to stop. She reveals that she was not kidnapped but had left to join the pirates at her own will as she and Jones had fallen in love. When Rumplestiltskin asks her how she could leave Baelfire behind she says that she does regret leaving her son and says that she allowed her misery to cloud her judgement because she never loved Rumplestiltskin. Outraged Rumplestiltskin rips out her heart and crushes it before chopping off Jones left hand thinking it was holding a magic bean (that he could use to find Baelfire) and then leaves. He returns home and opens up the hand and is angered when he sees that the bean is not there and that he has been tricked.

Powers and Abilities

 * Immortality: As the Dark One, Rumple does not age, and can only be killed by the Dark One's Dagger.
 * Knowledge of Magic: Rumpelstiltskin has been shown to be more knowledgeable on the topic of magic than any other known character.
 * Magic: Due to his status as the Dark One, Rumpelstiltskin is the most powerful wizard in any known realm, wielding powers including but not limited to teleporting(himself, others, and object to and from locations), shape-shifting, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, transmutation of straw into gold, and the casting of many spells.
 * Resurrection: If a Dark One kills himself, there is no successor, so the power has nowhere to go. To avoid dissipating, the magic transports the Dark One to the Vault of the Dark One, where he can be resurrected with the sacrifice of another life.

Weaknesses

 * The Dark One's Dagger: The Dark One is magically bound to obey the commands of whosoever holds the Dark One's Dagger, and, it is the only weapon capable of killing them, however, whosoever kills the Dark One, becomes the new Dark One, with all the immortality, magic, and being bound to the Dagger that that entails.
 * Lack of Magic: Both the Dagger's and the Dark One's powers are useless in an area with no magic in it, rendering the Dagger a worthless knife, and the most powerful wizard a mortal man. During the first half of season four, Rumple attempted to cast a spell that would allow him to keep his powers and immortality, and lose the weakness of the Dagger in such a place, but his plan was stopped by Belle.
 * Magic: Despite being the most powerful wizard in any known world, if he's caught off guard, the magic of others can be used upon Rumpelstiltskin to, among other things, stop him from using his powers, however, it cannot kill him.
 * The Price of Magic: Even the Dark One is subject to the Price of Magic, one of its most fundamental laws.
 * Limits of Magic: Rumple cannot change the past, revive the dead, or make someone fall in True Love.
 * Limited Power: Despite being the most powerful wizard in the world, even the Dark One has a limited amount of power, though it is a god-like amount.

Trivia

 * His true love is Belle and he takes the place of the Beast from the fairy tale, "Beauty and the Beast" and the Crocodile from "Peter Pan".
 * He is the second known (and most prominent) Dark One.
 * Both he and his counterpart have been captured and locked in prison cells.
 * Rumplestiltskin is given a deadline of three days to save his son from becoming a soldier in the Duke's army. In the original fairy tale, Rumplestiltskin gives a girl a deadline of three days to guess his true name, or else she must forfeit her firstborn child.
 * He is seen spinning gold out of straw in various episodes. However, gold is worthless to him; he does it to forget what he has lost.
 * Like most curses, Rumplestiltskin's can be broken with a kiss of true love.
 * He is a potion-maker, and once claimed to have a potion for every magic in existence, except for true love--a potion that he later crafted from intertwined strands of hair from Snow White and Prince Charming.
 * While still human Rumplestiltskin looked normal. During his time making deals, his voice become higher-pitched and his skin became more gray and reptilian-like.
 * In the traditional fairytale, Rumplestiltskin was an imp, who spun straw into gold for a girl in return for her firstborn child. The girl was told she could keep her child if she could guess his name. When she finally did, Rumplestiltskin destroyed himself.
 * He has the habit of calling people Dearie.
 * In the Season Three episode It's Not Easy Being Green it is revealed that Rumplestiltskin has the ability to shapeshift as in one scene he took the form of Regina to test her half-sister Zelena. In the Season 4 episode Enter the Dragon, he takes the form of Hook.
 * Being under Zelena's control in season 3b spurred his goals for season 4a.
 * In the overall story of Season 4, Rumplestiltskin is the main antagonist, which would make Ingrid the secondary antagonist in the 1st half, Cruella, Maleficent and Ursula the secondary antagonists in the 2nd half (although Maleficent is probably the main antagonist alongside him), and Zelena the tertiary antagonist in the 2nd half. Rumple is the main villain of the entirety of Season 4 because he had bigger plans than anyone else, although Maleficent becomes his partner in the 2nd half.
 * Rumple's goals in season 4 are similar to those of Prince Charming: They both want their happy endings and enlist a group of fairy tale villains to get it.
 * Replica of the Dark One's dagger can be bought here.
 * According to his portrayer Robert Carlyle, Rumplestiltskin was 300 years old by the time the Dark Curse was cast.