It's All Over For This 'OUAT' Witch

The end is finally near. On Sunday night's new episode of Once Upon A Time , "Kansas," the residents of Storybrooke finally defeated the Wicked Witch. And, in a precious moment, Henry, who's recently gotten all of his memories back, managed to turn Regina into the "hero" she was apparently born to be. For all of "Kansas"s sweet and emotional moments (yay, Charming baby), the standout was Rumpelstiltskin's final showdown with Zelena — which left us wondering, is Rumpel Storybrooke's new evil and did he just condemn the town?

Let me repeat this great news: On Sunday night, OUAT finally took down Zelena. And I was really appreciating them doing this in a timely fashion, unlike when we suffered through the wrath of Pan for way too long. And as agitating as it was that Zelena didn't melt when Regina took her pendant (I guess zapping away her powers was an even trade — not), it was nice to see Regina take the noble high road. It's about time she quit her petty, evil bullshit. But as great as it was for Regina to finally grow into her good side, her mercy was in vain. Why? Because Rumpel had a bone to pick with his former rejected-protégé and he went to Zelena's cell in the town jail and just stabbed her with his knife. Nice one, Rumpel — we get that you wanted to avenge your son and all of Zelena's torment, but who knows what type of hell you just unleashed. And we're not entirely convinced that we trust you anymore.

This was obviously a concern when Rumpel was taken hostage by Zelena and manipulated, by way of The Dark One's dagger, to do her bidding. But I was so certain that being released from her control, given his brain back, and returning to Belle would turn him right back to the man he was. Clearly, that was wishful thinking, because nothing's that easy in Storybrooke. I'm not saying that Rumpel is definitely evil now because he really did love his recently departed son, Neal, and was just getting him back when he was killed. But there are other things at play here — like lying to the love of his life.

Rumpel straight up lied to Belle while proposing to her at the same time. And why? So he could easily run off to kill Zelena. The couple's reunion was lovely and it was an emotional moment when Belle showed Rumpel that she was given his dagger, but because she believed in him, she was giving it back to him and granting him his freedom. Now that's not only a declaration of love, but that's a sign of good faith that Rumpel's actually capable of being a good man. And he ruined it. He would've been better off breaking things off with Belle and I would've hated him a little less.

I'm actually taking this personally because I previously vouched for Rumpel when it came to his relationship with Belle. When he revealed to Zelena that he'd made a copy of the dagger and that's actually what Belle had in her possession instead of the real thing, it was shocking and disappointing. Considering the veiled marriage proposal he spewed out when he told her that she could keep it because he wanted to belong to her forever. We don't lie to the people we love, Rumpel — especially if the people we love are way too good for us to begin with that disrespecting their faith in us is more or less a crime against humanity. Get it together, seriously.

So here we are, with a "free man" Rumpelstiltskin that just stabbed Zelena to death (granted, the magic of the dagger did most of the work) and who's lied to his one true love. Is OUAT setting us up for Rumpel to become the new evil? And now that Zelena's power has escaped Regina's vault and is hurling towards the town will everyone lose their memories again and will Rumpel revert back to his evil self from way-back-when?

Honestly, I'm too disappointed about his epic lie to Belle to even be concerned about what that magic's going to do — and that's saying something.

Image: ABC