Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-35568687-20180512232820/@comment-25375217-20180601155740

Ratmaninoff wrote: I think his argument was that Rumple was just pretending to Snow and Charming and, in reality, had no intention of putting himself under the curse. And that he never had been under the curse to start with. Rumple is, of course, perfectly capable of deceiving others to suit himself.

I agree that the script writers appeared to have different ideas - I guess these details don't get discussed with the cast! Knowing Robert, he probably disagreed with the writers and elected to ignore their direction. He tends to do whatever he wants. I don't really disagree with his logic, though -- it does seem strange that Rumple could implement a failsafe that would wake him up, but wouldn't just make himself constantly be awake.