Board Thread:Show-Related Questions and Answers/@comment-24243167-20131224102233/@comment-27213286-20160117080226

In my opinion Pan killing Rumple was similar to how in the Harry Potter books it was Malfoy that caused Dumbledore's death, it does not matter who it was that actually commited the dead that killed Rumple but more that Pan is the reason Rumple died. I think this is why Pan turned into the dark one in order for him to be able to be killed. Similar to how Dumledore's wand belonged to Malfoy instead of Snape even though it as Snape that killed him. Because the ony reason Rumple stabbed himself with the dagger was to stab and kill Pan as well made Pan the cause of his death and caused him to be the next dark one but because Pan was stabbed as well he died before being tetherd to the dagger meaning Rumple was the dark one that was brought back from the dark one's vault. But this is just my opinion of the events that played out so it is possible for it to be explained better on the show, but I doubt they would revisit this story line