Rumplestiltskin's son's name is Baelfire. At one point he speaks to his friend, a young woman in blue named "Morraine." These are possibly connections to Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series of novels. "Balefire" is a powerful magic weapon, and one of the first users of the weapon is a young woman "Moiraine," who is known for wearing blue.
The ball Baelfire is playing with when he falls in front of the cart is the same ball Mr. Gold is putting on a shelf in his shop in the previous scene.
For the scene where the Blue Fairy meets up with Baelfire, Keegan Connor Tracy was crouching in the bushes and saying her lines off-screen.
Rumplestiltskin talks about how he walked into the field of battle and ended the Ogre War. This event is shown in Ill-Boding Patterns (2017).
Rumplestiltskin acquires the Dark Curse in "Darkness on the Edge of Town."