Kelaine

I'm hoping we get some answers in the next episode. It isn't just the secrecy. As everyone's said, we haven't been getting Gold's POV. We know it's OOC. It's not that Gold can't do some pretty awful stuff--maybe he could do all the stuff we've seen, given the right motives. It's just that the motives that are being hinted at are ones that don't suit him. Currently, we have three possible scenarios:

1. Gold doesn't just want to be free of the dagger while keeping his power, he wants to rule the world. This is important enough to him that the restraints he's always had in the past--telling the truth (even if it's a really bent up version), keeping his promises, and allowing people a choice (no matter how coerced they may feel)--isn't there anymore.

2. Gold is spiraling down in PTSD and addiction, to the point that he no longer cares about his rules or about how his actions may impact the people he loves.

3. Somebody (or multiple somebodies) is/are manipulating Gold. These may be passengers in his head, possibly picked up from the hat or the vault.

My vote is for a combination of 2 and 3, with an emphasis on 3. But, we've seen no real evidence supporting 3 other than the complete change in Gold, the knowledge that three characters from the magical world who don't seem to have been in SB are about to show up, and Rumple's occasional, not characteristic way of talking about himself in the third person--he refers to himself as the Dark One, not Rumplestiltskin, not something he's done before.

It's subtle enough that it may not mean anything. Maybe "the Dark One" thing is a way Dark Ones talk when they're, well, going dark. While travel between worlds used to be hard, it seems that, once you've made a connection between them, it becomes like any major traffic center. Gold should probably put up a toll booth. Or maybe a security check at the world border (anyone who, under purpose of visit, checks off "Take over the world" or "slaughter large numbers of innocents" should be moved to the back of the line).