Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27885419-20160715192556/@comment-24674051-20160719171452

Exactly. Rumple had the vision from the Seer, so knew that he would be reunited with Bae at some point.

I always wondered, though, whether Rumple knew that Bae was in Neverland for the long period of time leading up his escape back to the LWM. Here's my thought on that topic.

Rumple was aware of Bae's presence in Neverland with his Dad. He never went to him though, for 2 reasons. First, Rumple had a bit of fear of his father, and would choose not to cross him. and second, even if he did go and get Bae from Neverland (and managed to avoid his father in the process), Rumple knew he'd be right back to where he started with Bae, plus having the broken deal to compound it. Rumple knew that the only way he'd stand any chance of reconciling with his son was to meet him in a LWM. (even if magic happened to be close at hand, as in Storybrooke).