Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-25926288-20160713182420/@comment-25375217-20161001235312

So Belle didn't actually go straight to Hook to find a place to hide. It makes a lot more sense that he would step in to try and help her, particularly since it was in front of Emma and he tends to like to look like a good guy for Emma.

I know everyone's fond of pointing out how terrible everyone treats Belle, but my favorite part of that scene is that even though no one really tried to help Belle and are overall not particularly happy to see her (not that they're unhappy, but it's just "oh. hi belle."), Belle is still perfectly civil about it. She still considers them her friends, even though she has no choice but to be aware of how little they care about her. If Regina or Zelena were greeted like that, the would have killed Sneezy and probably Doc too. Even Emma, Snow, David, Henry, etc. - they wouldn't have hurt anyone or looked for payback, but they would have had some mopey scenes of complaining about it (Emma would probably think that no one accepts her for who she is, Snow and David would worry that their days of glory and heroicness have come to an end, Henry would have teenagered about not being considered a hero...)

It's also nice to know a bit of the Count's backstory, at least with the EQ. Was he a bounty hunter for hire in the original story at any point?