Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24892318-20140523071906/@comment-24938134-20140526143347

It didn't work at first, Snow clocked him when he tried it. It was only after he jumped in front of that arrow, thereby saving her soul, did she decide to give it a go and hey presto - it worked. But the first time he tried it Charming failed.

And Regina did not say that true love can be one sided. In order for it to have worked then Rumpel must have fallen in love with Belle in return. That was the whole point of why he let her go - he loved her enough to free her from their deal and allow her to return home. You can argue that he doesn't fully trust her, you can argue that he doesn't respect her and doesn't truly love her anymore. You can make an ironclad case for why she should leave him after switching daggers and killing Zelena - but you can't argue that he didn't fall in love with her in Skin Deep