Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11058666-20141228031222/@comment-24674051-20150119185855

I would say that the Neverland arc showed that Gold has the capacity to become a respectable character. For a brief, fleeting, moment, Gold was actually driven by his desire to actually save his Grandson, and had nothing to do with his usual power hungriness.

You're right, though. There is an underlying honesty, but in his case, he uses that to his advantage, very rarely telling a lie (though he did lie to Belle about the Dagger), but only revealing as much of the truth as necessary to manipulate others into doing his bidding. Prime example is the conversation with Emma in "Smash the Mirror". When Emma asked Rumple what he would do, his answer was essentially the truth.

I think that it is going to involve a reconcilliation of the 2 sides of Rumple (Rumple the Dark One vs. Rumple the "Good Father and Husband"), that will have to occur before Belle will consider taking him back.